The hunt, p.25
The Hunt, page 25
They threaded their way up to the bartender. She had short blue hair to match her blue eyes and a body inked with tats. Gauges sat in her ears and a ring in her nose. She noticed Quay first. “Hey, Sarge. What can I get you?”
“Beer is fine.” He looked up at the chalkboard. “And an order of baby backs.”
“Got it.” She turned her eyes to Decker and McAdams, who said, “Baby backs sound good for me.”
“They go fast. And to drink?”
“Give him a beer also,” Decker said. “I’ll take a Diet Coke.”
“Been there.” Meaning she thought he was an ex-alcoholic. “Anything to eat?”
“I’ll take a giant pretzel.”
“Hot mustard?”
“Live dangerously,” he said.
She smiled as she poured two beers from the tap. Then she handed Decker his Diet Coke, picked up two empty beer glasses from prior patrons, and wiped the counter. “I’ll put this in to the kitchen.”
“Hey, Maddy,” someone shouted.
“Be right with you.” She put in the order and was off serving others. Five minutes later, she handed them their food. “Refills?”
Decker nodded. “Thanks.”
She looked at Quay, who nodded, and at McAdams, who said he was still nursing the first.
Quay picked up a rib. “Maddy, these two are detectives. When you get a moment, they’d like to ask you a couple of questions.”
Maddy took away his dirty glass and gave him a fresh mug. “About what?”
Out came the picture of Brock Baer. Decker said, “Ever see this man before?”
She turned the snapshot so she could see it better. “Looks familiar. What did he do?”
“We’re not sure,” Decker said. “How about this woman?”
“That’s Pauline.” Maddy paused. “Oh yeah. Now I remember.” Her eyes rolled. “They were here together.” Another eye roll.
Quay looked perplexed. “Did you tell me this before?”
“Nope. But right after these two idiots went at it, I went on a monthlong trip to Thailand. You probably talked to Aaron.”
“That’s right,” Quay said.
“What do you mean ‘went at it’?” Decker asked.
“It was on the late side when they came in. Around eleven, but that’s not crazy. We’re open until twelve on weekdays, two on weekends.” A pause. “It must have been a weekday. Thursday, I think, because I left on Saturday. They started off okay—a little loud, but par for the course. About fifteen minutes before closing, I made a last call. Five minutes before I locked the door, the guy wanted another. I told him no. He started getting belligerent with me. She started yelling at him not to yell at me. Then he started yelling back at her. There was some name-calling. Luckily, there were several customers still here, including Big Eric. Helped me escort them outside. They were both skunk drunk.”
“Eric is a big guy.” Quay took a bite of his ribs. “Good stuff.”
“We try.”
Decker said, “Do you know what happened to them after they left?”
“No, I do not,” Maddy said. “But I didn’t hear yelling anymore. I cleaned up, left about an hour later. No one was in the parking lot. I went home. The guy was a psycho.”
“Why do you say that?” McAdams asked.
“The eyes … flat, dead, just empty. Then again, it could be he was drunk. No one looks sweet when they’re shit-faced.” Maddy heard her name. “That’s all I remember. I’ve got to get back to work.”
“Did you ever see these two together after that one time?”
“Nope,” Maddy said. “But like I told you, I was gone for a month on vacation. Wish I was back there now.”
“I’m sure.” Quay wiped his face. “Thanks for your help, Maddy.”
“No worries.” Maddy licked her lips. “You know about Occam’s razor?”
“We do,” McAdams said. “Simplest is best.”
Maddy said, “If you guys think that he did something to Pauline, then he probably did.”
AFTER RIBS AND libations, they left the bar. Quay said, “I think we’re pretty much done for the night. No other places are as big as the two bars we just went to. And it sounds like they ended their evening here.”
“I think you’re right,” Decker said.
“Looks like they took the fight over to Elsie’s,” Quay said. “We’ll put out a BOLO on Baer’s car tomorrow morning, see if we can find the son of a bitch.”
“Does Baer have a car?”
“No idea, but if he does, I’ll find it,” Quay said. “You two hitting the road tomorrow?”
Decker said, “Unless something happens, we will be going back home.”
“What could happen?”
“Earthquake, fire, flood, pandemic,” Decker said. “Who the hell knows?”
Quay smiled. “In the meantime, have a good night.”
“You do the same.” Decker turned around to go back to the hotel and McAdams followed. When they were a block away, and Quay was clearly out of hearing range, Decker stopped walking. “Let’s go back to the bar.”
“Because …” McAdams said.
Decker said, “Like I said, we’re missing a crime scene.”
“You think he did something to her inside the bar?”
“No, not the bar. But maybe the parking lot.”
McAdams looked around. It was almost eight in the evening, but there was still lingering daylight. “Sure.”
They reversed directions and went back to Tobacco’s Road. Standing in the parking lot, they were a good fifty feet from the entrance.
Decker said, “Okay, they came out of there.” He pointed to the door. “Maddy said she didn’t hear anything like screaming outside once they left, but maybe it happened too far away for her to hear. Let’s look around.”
“Fine.”
“Careful, Tyler, cars are coming in and out.”
“Okay, Dad.” After a half hour of scouring the pavement for … something … McAdams said, “I don’t see anything nefarious.”
“Agreed.” Decker turned and looked at the road. Across the street were small one-story businesses. No CC cameras in view. To his immediate right and left, there were stores as well.
McAdams said, “No good place to do the deed. Everything’s in the open. What if Baer had a car? Could have done it there.”
“Certainly possible.” Decker organized his thoughts. “They left the bar, skunk drunk, continued the fight in the car, and then he stabbed her there, making the car the crime scene.”
“How do you stab someone when you’re driving?” McAdams said. “At some point, you have to pull over.”
“Maybe he stabbed her when the car was parked.” A pause. “Or maybe it happened in Pauline’s car. She was driving and he reached over and stabbed her.”
“Then she would have lost control of the car,” McAdams said. “There would have been an accident, don’t you think?”
“Okay …” Decker said. “Let’s say there was an accident. Someone lost control of the wheel. That means there should be swerving tire tracks somewhere.”
“It happened a long time ago, boss. Even if there had been tracks, with all the summer rain, they were probably erased.”
“Maybe not.” Decker thought and shrugged.
McAdams said, “If it happened in Pauline’s car, then that’s our crime scene. We have no idea where her vehicle is. If it happened in Brock Baer’s car, then the crime scene is there. We don’t know if he owned a car or if he rented one. Whatever the case, sticking around here won’t tell us anything.”
“I’d still like to come back in the morning and take a look.” Decker’s eyes scanned the area. “Which direction is Elsie’s place?”
“Let me get the map.” McAdams sighed. “Northeast, which is …” He took out his phone and opened a compass app. “That way.”
“Okay. Now which direction is Pauline’s old place?”
“Hold on …” Another look at the paper map. “Southeast, which is that way. Why are we interested in Pauline’s place when the blood was found at Elsie’s place?”
“Elsie’s was within walking distance. What if they were on foot and it happened while they were on their way home?” When McAdams sighed again, Decker said, “Yes, I realize it’s a long shot, but we’re here anyway. Let’s just check it out, okay?”
“When?” McAdams said. “Now?”
“No, it’ll keep until the morning,”
“Good idea. I’m tired and hungry, and it’s almost dark.”
Decker said, “Let’s find you some food.”
“What about yourself? At least I ate a couple of ribs.”
“I’m all right.”
McAdams said, “You can’t think clearly on a pretzel with mustard as your dinner. Let’s find a convenience store. We can pick up cereal and milk.” Out came the map. “There’s a gas station about three blocks from the hotel.”
“Sounds good, Harvard.” Decker smiled. “Thanks.”
“Rina’s not here.” McAdams shook his head. “Someone has to feed you.”
“Aw, you care.”
“Yeah, I care.” A pause. “I’m also a little afraid of your wife.”
“Buddy, that makes two of us.”
CHAPTER 18
I HAD TWENTY-FOUR HOURS to think about Donatti’s party and my new role as his fiancée. Chris was good at protecting things; Juleen and I needed protection. Even more important, he was paying an enormous ransom for my son. Whatever he wanted was my new motto, and tonight, he wanted dinner at a strip mall. I would have preferred to be alone and read, take myself to an alternative universe. What I did was slap some makeup on my face and fix my hair. I was all smiles when we went out the door. It put him in a good mood.
The sun sat low over the undulating crests. It was colder than I thought it would be. That was how it was in the mountains. Out here, as soon as daylight faded, the temperature dropped. As Chris brought out the Ducati from the garage, I rubbed my arms. He noticed. “You didn’t bring a jacket?”
“I forgot. I’m okay.”
He took off his leather bomber jacket. “I’m fine. It’s a five-minute ride.” He gave me a helmet. “I got you a smaller one. It might still be too big. Try it out and we’ll see if it works.”
I put on the jacket. It almost went down to my knees. The helmet was just a little too big. He tightened the straps. “Let’s roll. Are you hungry? I’m starved.”
“I could eat.”
I got on the back and wrapped my arms around him, hoping that the cast wasn’t too uncomfortable. He took off and I was transported back to the first time I had ever ridden on a motorcycle. I was sixteen. We had finished his tutoring session and he invited me out for a hamburger, assuring me it wasn’t a date. We picked up dinner at a fast-food place and started out in miserable traffic. As soon as he hit the freeway, he merged to the left and we flew. I was petrified, but it was a sense of freedom I had never felt before. He took me into the mountains near where we lived, and we ate, staring at the horizon until the sun vanished and it was dark. We didn’t talk much. We sat close, but he didn’t do anything physical to me. I knew he hated to be touched, but even so I believed back then that he just wasn’t attracted to me.
Night was falling now, but lights emerged a few minutes after we left. The place was located in a block of small shops. He pulled the bike around to the back entrance, killed the motor, and we both hopped off. Hanging the helmets on the handlebars, he walked the bike through a rear door. A bodyguard was there to meet him.
To me, he said, “I’ll take the jacket.”
“Of course.” I gave it to him.
We went through the kitchen and came out into the restaurant. It was a typical kind of Italian restaurant—no Chianti bottles hanging from the ceiling, but checkered tablecloths and posters of Italy. It was busy with townsfolk in casual clothing: T-shirts, jeans or khakis, and flip-flops or sandals. There were several tables of knockout women. Chris nodded to them and they nodded back. He chose a table near the kitchen with visibility to the front door. He pulled a chair out for me, then he sat down. A moment later, there were two glasses of red wine, two glasses of water, a basket of bread and butter, a salad for him, and a bowl of soup for myself.
He said, “I don’t know if you’re still on medication. Are you drinking wine?”
“I can have a glass.”
“You want white instead of red?”
“No, red is fine, thank you.” He offered me some bread and I took a slice. “Thank you.”
“Soup okay? I thought it might be easier than salad.”
“It’s great, Chris, thank you.”
“Third time you’ve thanked me.”
“I was taught well.”
We ate in silence for a few moments. Then he said, “You look a little stunned.”
“I haven’t been out very much.” Silence. “It’s disorienting.”
“I’m sure it is.” More silence. He said, “Can I help?”
“No, I’ll be fine.” I put down my soup spoon. “Just a lot has happened.”
His eyes focused on my face. He did that when he was in listening mode. It was part of why I had liked him. When I talked, I had his full attention.
“It’s like … I went to bed. Had this … eleven-year dream that turned into a nightmare. And I woke up and I’m right back where I started … except I’m older and I’m still missing a son. Like some kind of Einsteinian time warp.”
He picked up his wine and sipped. “Not easy.”
“Not easy at all.”
“Did you like India?”
The question threw me. “Yes. Especially at first. I’d never traveled anywhere, and Mumbai is a very exotic place. After a while, I found it exhausting. You couldn’t turn a corner without running into people. Mostly men. I mean, there were women on the streets, but it’s a little creepy being out there by yourself. I was a real alien, constantly looking over my shoulder.” He nodded. I sipped some wine and said, “Maybe I was looking for you.”
He smiled but said nothing. His eyes were constantly jumping between me and the door. Since I had been away for eleven years, I’d forgotten what it was like to sit with him in a public space. His vigilance: it bordered on paranoia, especially when he drank.
I filled in the silence. “Have you ever been there?”
“To Mumbai? Yes, I have.”
I was surprised, but kept it to myself. “What did you think of it?”
“Sensory overload.”
“Yeah, really. All the people, all the colors, the traffic, the noise, the smells … lots of smells. The good ones are the street food. The bad ones … well, no need to talk about them.” He smiled again. Enigmatic. I said, “When were you there?”
“Around five months after you left me.”
I grew quiet. Luckily some white-aproned server came to the table to hide my embarrassment. He was young—really young. Gabe’s age. He looked at my finger and said, “I hear congratulations are in order.”
Chris smiled, but it lacked warmth. “This is my fiancée, Dr. Terry McLaughlin.”
He looked at me and said, “Pleased to meet you, Doctor. I’m Scott. What can I get you?”
I didn’t have a menu. “Uh, what do you have?” I asked.
“Scott can get you anything you want,” Chris told me.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “My mind’s a blank.”
“How about ravioli?” Chris said. “It’s probably soft enough for you to eat.”
“Perfect.”
“Bring her some ravioli. Make sure it’s vegetarian. I’ll have my usual boring dinner. Refill on the wine.”
“Certainly, Mr. Donatti.” He scooted away.
I remained quiet. Then I said, “What brought you to Mumbai?”
“You. I knew you were there. I went to hunt you down.”
Weird choice of words. But maybe it was exactly what he was thinking. I said, “Did you find me?”
“Of course.” A long pause. “Took me a while because I was given a different name.”
“What name?” I asked.
“It was a while ago. Singh Rajut?”
“Peresh Singh Rajut?”
“Yeah, I think that’s it.”
“That’s Devek’s nephew, although they’re almost the same age. They were in New York at the same time.”
“Yes, I know that now. But for a while, I was confused. Didn’t matter. I found you.” A smile. “Nice house you lived in. How big was it?”
“Big … around five thousand square feet. We sold it.”
“How much did it sell for?”
“Thirty-six crores … about five million dollars. But Devek didn’t own it. His father did.”
“Ah.”
“It went to pay off his first set of debts. Afterward, we didn’t have any savings. I know he had to ask his father—well, actually it was his older brother—for spending money. He swore he’d never gamble again.”
“Never trust a dog. I should know.”
“Right you are.”
“Where’d you move to afterward?”
“A very nice apartment … which we didn’t own. It was his brother’s. I don’t know if we paid rent or not. Devek handled the money. A big mistake.”
“Devek has a money problem. He can’t seem to hold on to it.”
“I realize that now.” I paused. “So … you were at our house … our first house?”
“I was.”
“The inside?”
“No, just the back. The gardens were lovely. Lots of green and lots of places to hide.” I didn’t answer. He said, “First time I saw you, you were with Devek … strolling with him, hand in hand, in the garden. You looked happy. You were heavily pregnant.”
“I’m sure I looked like a cow.”
His voice dropped in volume. “You looked absolutely stunning. You’ve got to remember that I never saw you pregnant with Gabe. I found out after the fact.”
“I was wrong. I should have told you.”
“I was married. I had another life. It was a violent life, and I’m sure I scared the shit out of you. I don’t blame you for staying away. But at that moment, I realized what I had lost.”
