Jo smiled as she reached over and took Heather’s hand.
“Look at that ring, and I hope you know you’ve made my partner a very happy man.”
“We make each other happy.”
“So, when’s the wedding?” Matt said.
“We’re not sure yet,” Parker said, “We have to plan it around Heather’s schedule, but once she gets a spot on the research project, we’ll be able to set a date.”
“You mean if I get a spot; it’s not a sure thing.”
Jo shook her head.
“Your student loans must be the size of Texas,”
“Don’t remind me, it’ll take me years to pay them off.”
Parker kissed Heather.
“We’ll pay them off, as soon as I finish with the mortgage next year, I’ll just aim that money at the student loans.”
Heather sighed. “I’m bringing so much debt to the marriage; it’s really not fair to you.”
“You have to put up with my crazy ex. I think we’re even.”
True to her word, Jo showed up at Nico’s motel room the next day. She parked in front of an empty unit so that he wouldn’t be alerted. She didn’t realize that the beat-up Chevy she parked next to belonged to Nico. He bought it at a gas station for eight hundred dollars cash, but since he didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance, he parked the car away from his door and mostly drove it at night.
Jo fastened her jacket, although it was late May, the night had grown chilly, and the temperature was in the fifties.
Nico answered her knocking and squinted at the bright daylight.
“I’m beginning to think you like me, Detective,”
“I do. I like you for the murder of Charles Woolley.”
Nico feigned shocked.
“Are you here to arrest me?”
“Just talk, may I come in?”
“I never say no to a beautiful woman.”
Jo entered and looked around; she had been standing on Nico’s left while outside, but now she saw the bruising over his right cheek.
“What happened there?”
“Timothy Hearn happened, we had a disagreement.”
“About what?”
“He owes me money, but won’t pay,”
“And so he assaulted you?”
“I won’t be pressing charges.”
“You don’t strike me as the type of man who would forgive so easily.”
Nico sighed and sat on the side of the bed.
“As you can see, I’m not the man I was.”
“On the outside maybe, but you’re still what you always were, which is the reason I’m here. Have you been harassing Hearn or his wife?”
“Of course not, why, was there a complaint?”
“No, but I’ve become aware of their uneasiness, and I think you’re the cause of it.”
“Despite our disagreement, Tim and I are still friends.”
“I’ll be keeping an eye on you, Umbria,”
As Jo opened the door to leave, Nico called to her.
“What?”
Nico smiled and patted the bed.
“Why not stay a while, you might like it.”
“You have got to be kidding.”
Nico laughed, and Jo slammed the door as she left.
At that very moment across town, Rachel was waking up. She was still rubbing the sleep from her eyes when the odor hit her.
“Oh God, what is that smell? Tim, Tim wake up,”
“Hmm? What?”
“There’s a bad smell in the house. Oh God, it smells like something died.”
Hearn sat up and yawned, but then gagged.
“Jesus, what the hell is that?”
They both threw on robes and slippers and left the room, searching for the source of the stench.
The smell was slightly more tolerable downstairs, but still they had to fight to keep from gagging.
They searched every room but found nothing.
Rachel’s eyes were watering as she spoke.
“When I was a kid, a mouse died behind the wall. This smells like that, only much worse.”
Hearn nodded in agreement.
“Something is definitely dead,”
They had finished their search in the kitchen, and had opened all the cabinet doors searching for a dead mouse, but found nothing.
“Let’s search the basement,” Rachel said.
Hearn opened the basement door and the smell intensified. Unable to stand it anymore, Rachel rushed to the kitchen sink and vomited.
“Oooh, there must be a dead body down there.”
“I was just down there last night.” Hearn said. “Remember? I brought up a new case of wine.”
“Go take a look.”
“All right,”
Hearn put on the light and went down. He saw nothing, and was trying to listen for movement above the sound of the furnace, which had come on because of the chill in the air,
It was in the furnace room that he finally found the source of the odor. Someone had moved one of the vent tubes aside and placed it back, but the grit and soot beneath it gave evidence to the act, and it was no longer sitting flush.
For a moment, he wondered if the alarm guy, Matt Hooper, had done it, but then remembered that he had been with Matt as he replaced the lock on the basement door, and that the man never went near the furnace room.
He whispered, “Nico,” and then grabbed at the tube to search it.
As the object bounced off his chest he cried out in surprise, but then stared in horror at the thing on the floor, a thing he recognized as having once been the neighbor’s cat, Dunkin. It was now a scorched and decaying corpse, and it took him a few seconds to fight back the bile in his throat.
“Tim! Are you all right?”
“Stay up there! I’ll be right up!”
He looked around and saw a beach towel. The towel still held grains of sand from a trip to the beach the year before. As he fought the impulse to vomit, he picked up the cat with the towel and saw that its head fell loosely. Nico must have broken its neck. He wrapped the dead cat in the towel, and then placed the towel, cat and all, inside a lawn & leaf bag.
On his way up the stairs, he stopped on the landing and, after grabbing a key that was hanging off a nearby nail, he unlocked the new deadbolt and went out the basement door, where he then shoved the bag in the trashcan.
After he explained to Rachel what he found, she turned white.
“Nico must have killed poor Duncan and stuffed him up there when he broke in.”
“Yeah, he must have thought it was our cat.”
“Tim, this is serious, maybe... maybe we should call Rick.”
“Parker? Screw Parker, I’ll handle this,”
“How?”
“The next time he comes by, I’ll give Nico his two grand, but then I’ll follow him and see where he lives.”
“And then what?”
Hearn stared at her.
“You don’t need to know what happens after that.”
Rachel hugged him.
“No. You’ll go to prison for murder.”
“I won’t kill him, but I’ll beat him badly.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
Hearn shrugged.
“I don’t know. Now get dressed while I air out the place, also, I need to call someone to get rid of this stink.”
Rachel followed him back to the bedroom, and despite what he said, she still feared that things could escalate. She dressed quickly, and after telling Hearn that she was going to have her hair done, she left home and went in search of Rick Parker.
Chapter 29
Rachel arrived just as Parker was stepping out his front door. He was alone, as Heather had stayed at her mother’s house the night before.
She ran up to him and Parker let out a loud sigh.
“Why are you here, Rachel?”
“I need your help.”
He studied her, looking for signs of deception, and instead saw g
enuine fear.
“Have you eaten breakfast?”
“No, and I don’t want to.”
“Get back in your car and follow me, I’m going to the diner, but not the one near my job, the other one.”
“Why can’t we talk here?”
“Because you’re not welcome inside anymore, that’s why?”
“I’m not up to anything; I really do need help.”
“I believe you; now follow me to the diner.”
Parker called Jo and told her that he would be a little late, and then he called Heather. The diner he picked was near her house and he asked her to join them there.
“Is she up to more tricks?”
“I don’t think so, she looks scared.”
“I’m already dressed, so I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you,”
A few minutes after making the calls, Parker pulled into the diner, and as Rachel joined him, she saw Heather walking towards them.
“Why is she here?”
“Because I asked her to meet us, that’s why.”
“I don’t need everyone knowing my business, Rick.”
Heather held up her hand as she joined them.
“I’m not just anyone, we’re getting married,”
Rachel actually took a step backwards, as if the engagement ring were an evil talisman.
“Married?”
“Yes,” Parker said, “Now let’s get settled inside and then you can tell me what this is all about.”
Once all three had ordered coffee, Rachel told them about Nico’s demands, about the confrontation between him and Hearn, and all that had happened since. When she was done, Parker had a few questions.
“Why would Nico assume that Hearn would give him money?”
Rachel hesitated, if she told the truth, she would have to confess to being part of a conspiracy, a conspiracy that was linked to a murder.
“He’s not rational. Perhaps the injury to his brain has affected him.”
“Did he threaten you when he was at your car?”
“He implied that he was interested in me; I was afraid he might try and rape me.”
Parker tensed at those words, but then asked another question.
“Are you certain you or Hearn didn’t place that photo in your car for some reason?”
“Of course, why would we? And we sure as hell didn’t shove the neighbor’s cat in our furnace.”
“Do you want to file a report?”
“Can I?”
“Yes, but at this point I think all you could claim is harassment.”
“But what about the break-in?”
“You have no proof that there was a break-in, and a clever lawyer could claim the cat climbed into the furnace on its own. Cats are known to do weird things.”
Rachel wiped away a tear.
“Are you saying you won’t help me?”
“Hey, we had this conversation last year, remember? I told you then to come forward and tell what you knew, if you had, none of this would be happening right now, and still you sit here and lie to me, don’t think I don’t know that.”
“I didn’t come forward because you just wanted to put Tim in jail. You hate him for stealing me away.”
“Wrong. What I wanted was for you to help yourself, but instead you got in deeper.”
Rachel nibbled at her bottom lip as she wrung her hands together. She wanted to tell him everything, but feared the legal consequences to Hearn. She also knew Parker well enough to know that he would never help her to hide involvement in a crime.
“I shouldn’t have come to you. You care more about the law than you do me.”
He reached over and took Rachel’s hand. Heather’s lips came together in a tight line as she witnessed this bit of intimacy take place, but she said nothing.
“Listen to me, Rachel; I do care what happens to you. We’ll never be together again but that doesn’t mean that I want to see you hurt in any way. Do the right thing and tell Joanna Knight everything you know about the Charles Woolley case.”
Rachel shook her head. “I can’t.”
Parker released her hand.
“If Nico comes near you again when you’re alone, call me.”
“I’m afraid for Tim too.”
“I have the same advice for him, talk to Joanna, if he recants his alibi, then she’ll be able to arrest Nico.”
“And will Tim be charged too?”
“Maybe,”
“He’s going to try and handle Nico himself.”
“Bad idea, Nico Umbria is from the streets, he doesn’t fight fair, which I assume is the reason that Charles Woolley is dead, despite the fact that he was twice Nico’s size.”
“Will you talk to Tim, maybe try and warn him off?”
“Me? I doubt he’ll take advice from me.”
“Probably not, but will you try?”
Parker nodded.
“I’ll stop by the bar this afternoon, okay?”
“Thank you, Rick,”
“Yeah,”
Rachel stood and gave Parker a kiss on the cheek, and then she looked over at the ring on Heather’s hand.
“The diamond he gave me was bigger than that.”
“Your point?” Heather said.
Rachel looked surprised by the question, and then left the diner without another word.
Later that day, Timothy Hearn closed his front door as the last of the cleaning crew left.
He took a deep breath, and was satisfied that the foul odor of death had been eradicated. All of the carpeting had been cleaned along with the drapes and the blinds, and he had kept the windows open to air things out.
As he prepared to leave for the bar, he went about locking every window, and after that was done, he retrieved his baseball bat from the hall closet.
After donning gloves, he wiped the bat free of prints and sat on the sofa with the bat across his knees. He then wrapped a towel around the bat’s fattest end and secured it in place by using duct tape.
Afterward, he stood up and gave the arm of the sofa a whack. The towel cushioned the blow significantly, but still sounded as if it would deliver enough force to do harm.
He didn’t want to kill Nico, in truth, he knew that he couldn’t kill Nico, he was not the type, but he wanted to beat him so badly that he would finally fear him. He was also going to supplement the literal stick with a metaphoric carrot, by giving him five-thousand in cash.
He nodded to himself. This will work,
Nico wasn’t dumb, he would see that there was no future in harassing him further and he would leave.
Hearn carried the bat outside and tossed it in his trunk along with the gloves, after slamming the lid shut, he looked up to see Rick Parker pulling to the curb across the street.
As Parker approached him, he spoke.
“If you’re here to see my wife, she’s at the bar.”
“I’ve already seen her; she’s the one who told me you were here.”
“You’ve come to see me, why?”
“Maybe we should go in the house, hmm?”
“Whatever you have to say, you can say it right here.”
“All right, I’ve come to tell you that if you’re looking to take on Nico Umbria it’s a bad idea. The man will eat you alive.”
Hearn laughed.
“You obviously haven’t seen him lately; he’s little more than an invalid. The man can barely walk.”
“How many fights have you been in?”
“I’ve had my share, mostly bar fights in college,”
“Bar fights in college, against other college kids? Nico has never been to college. As far as we can tell, he grew up in a gang. If Nico thinks you’re gunning for him he won’t put up his dukes, he’ll pull out a knife, maybe even the same knife he used on Charles Woolley.”
“Rachel sent you here to talk to me, didn’t she?”
“She’s worried about you.”
“Maybe so, but you sure as hell aren’t, you’ve jus
t come here to ask me to change my statement about the night Woolley died.”
“I know you were lying for Nico, that you were the one who hired him to harass the Taggarts into selling you the bar, well, now it looks as if you’re getting a taste of your own medicine.”
“Get out of here, Parker. I’ve got nothing to say to you.”
“I’ll leave, but stay away from Nico, Hearn. He’s more than you can handle.”
After Parker left, Hearn returned to the house to lock up. He was just about to set the alarm when he remembered something. He went back to the closet and grabbed a ski mask from the shelf, after locking up, he tossed the mask next to the bat in his trunk and drove to the bar.
As he motored along, he assured himself that he was ready for Nico, and tried his best to ignore the pit of fear in his stomach.
Chapter 30
Hearn parked his car by the stairs that led to Taggart’s office, as Nico gave his horn a little, Toot! in order to get his attention.
Hearn approached Nico’s beat-up Chevy with trepidation, while reminding himself to act beaten and scared. The scared part didn’t require much acting ability at all.
“That trick with the cat was nasty, even for you.”
“But it got the point across, didn’t it?”
Hearn sighed.
“Two-thousand a week and you’ll leave us alone, right?”
“Absolutely,”
Hearn reached into his jacket pocket and took out a white envelope, while taking care not to grab the other one he kept there. The other one contained the five-thousand dollar consolation prize he planned to give Nico later, after he had beaten him to a pulp.
Nico took his time and counted the money. When he was satisfied, he sent Hearn a little salute.
“See ya next week,”
Hearn nodded, appearing dejected, and then he turned and headed for the office. As he climbed the steps, Nico drove away, and when he left the parking lot and turned left onto the access road, Hearn rushed back to his car and began following him.
Five minutes later, Nico made a traffic light that Hearn caught red, and he thought that he would lose him, but then he saw that Nico had caught a red light farther up the road, and he was able to stay with him.
When Nico parked in the Highway Motel and went into room twelve, Hearn knew he had tracked him to his lair.
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