by Marja McGraw
“Was he called Slim?” I asked.
She was quiet for a moment. “Yes, I think that’s what they called that twerp. He still lives down the street, and he still drinks beer.”
“And you say he was crying?” I prompted her. “Any idea why?”
“Well, I’m not really a nosey person, but that made me curious. So after he passed by, I walked down toward Nick’s house. Thought maybe I’d better see what was going on.”
“And did you see anything?”
“You bet I did. I didn’t understand it, but I knew that little girl was in a lotta trouble.”
Forty-one
Nick was screaming at Opal, his words angry and slurred.
“If Matthew Bremmer invited you inta his house, then you was askin’ for it, li’l girl. You’re nothin’ but a whore, jus’ like you mama!
Opal took a step backward. She’d never seen her father so angry or so drunk.
“I’m gonna take care o’ thet ol’ man, too. You jus’ watsh and see if I don’t.”
Opal was scared, but she didn’t want to see her father hurt the old man.
“Daddy, he didn’t do anything. I swear. I made it all up.”
“Yeah, sure ya did. I seen him watshin’ you. That ol’ man wants a li’l girl for his funnin’. Well I ain’t gonna let him get away with it, and I’m makin’ sure… Sure you don’t end up like your mama.”
Nick pulled something out from under his shirt.
“Oh, Daddy, no! Please, Daddy, put those gloves away.” Opal knew her father could hurt someone when he put on the gloves with no fingers. She’d seen him use them in the ring when he practiced. She’d seen him box, and when he did he showed no mercy.
“Shuddup you li’l brat!” Nick grabbed Opal’s arm and slapped her. Hard.
The little girl pulled away from her father and ran out of the room.
Esther was standing outside and she heard a door slam toward the back of the house. She was afraid to confront the man and hurried home.
~ * ~
“Anything else?” I asked.
“Now you have to understand, I really wasn’t spying on those people. I just needed to know if Opal needed help.”
“And did you help her? It sounds like she may have needed someone to stick up for her.”
“Well, no. I walked on home. I figured that since I’d heard a door slam, she’d locked herself in another room and she’d be okay.” Esther sounded defensive.
“Uh huh.”
“I have to hang up now. I can’t talk about this anymore. It’s too upsetting.”
And she did just that. Click.
I thought she was upset about feeling guilty, not about little Opal. I guess some things never change. It sounded like no one wanted to become involved in Opal’s problems. Except maybe Prudy, and it didn’t sound like she knew the extent of Opal’s woes.
I picked up the phone again and called Opal’s house. She answered on the second ring.
“Opal, this is Sandi Webster. I’d like to meet with you again. There are a few more questions I’d like to ask.”
“Miss Webster, I’m sorry, but I’m a busy woman.”
“It won’t take long,” I said. “And I won’t take up too much of your time.”
Opal sighed. It seemed like I was always sighing or making someone else sigh. It’s a gift.
“I can’t see you tonight. Can you be here tomorrow night? At say, around nine o’clock?”
“I’ll be there. And thank you for your time, Opal. See you then.”
Hanging up before she could change her mind, I stopped and thought. Tomorrow would be Thursday. I didn’t really have anything planned for the day. I’d talked to Slim, Stretch and Hector. I’d also spoken to Esther and Opal. But the real coup had been asking Junior about the night of the murder. It was all coming together. I still had a feeling of triumph.
I walked back over to Dolly’s house. Pete was ready to leave, but he’d waited for me to return.
“Did you find out anything?” he asked.
“Yeah. That whole neighborhood was full of snoops, fortunately for me.”
Prudy started to say something, but I cut her off.
“I don’t mean you, Prudy. Remember Slim telling us how he listened outside the window at the Stanton house?”
“Yeees,” she said slowly, dragging the word out.
“Well, when he left, Esther replaced him at the window. And she saw things.”
“What things?” she asked.
“She heard Nick yelling at his daughter, calling her names and telling her she’d asked for it if Matthew did anything to her. She saw Nick pull out a pair of workout gloves, and when Opal asked him to put them away, she saw Nick hit the child. Apparently Opal ran out and locked herself in another room. Esther heard a door slam before she went home.”
“Esther didn’t help Opal?” Prudy looked disgusted, but only for a moment. “Well, knowing Esther, she was probably afraid to confront Nicky. But you can bet I would have. I would have gone right in that house and taken Opal home with me. Nick would have probably hit me too, but I’d still have taken her out of that house.”
“I’m sure you would have,” I said. Prudy was gutsy for a woman in her eighties. I could only imagine what she’d been like as a young woman.
I glanced around the room. “Okay, Pete, you’re heading back to the office. And Stanley, you and Felicity are staying with Dolly and Prudy? I’m… Hmm. I’m not sure what I’m going to do. Guess I’ll head over to the office, too. Maybe I can use this time to catch up on a few things.”
“That’s a good idea,” Pete said. “At least return some phone calls. Business is booming.”
“It is?” That was music to my ears, but it also told me how much I’d been away from the office.
“Not really, but it has been picking up.”
I left Bubba with the gang at Dolly’s house and rode to the office with Pete.
The first thing I did was check messages. Stanley had written down the messages that had been left on the answering machine earlier. There were five, and my little heart did a dance. Lots of business. But if I didn’t take care of that business, it would go away. It was time to live up to my reputation.
After returning all five calls and starting files on various cases, I turned to check the answering machine. There were three new messages that had come in over the past hour.
The first two were from an insurance company and a man looking for a lost relative. It was surprising how many missing persons or missing heir cases I took on. I wrote down the names and phone numbers along with why there were calling. One more message and I’d finish up for the day.
I listened to the third message and that dancing heart of mine almost stopped.
It was Ugly Voice. “Say goodbye to Prudy. Her time just run out. You might want to tell your boyfriend goodbye, too. You’re right after Prudy.”
Click.
What this person didn’t realize was that they were alerting me. I’d be watching for anything suspicious. I’d take precautions. I might die. A thread of fear wormed itself into my mind before I could stop it.
Pete had stomped over to my desk as soon as he heard the now familiar voice.
“What does the Caller I.D. say?” He was frowning while he checked the incoming telephone numbers. “Looks like it’s probably from a pay phone. I’m calling Rick. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.”
“But Rick is a homicide detective. He can’t help with threats. Can he?”
“He’s a cop. And he has connections that I don’t have any more. Maybe we can take a fingerprint off the payphone.” Pete made a sound of frustration. “They won’t be able to pick one set of prints out of a hundred. The phone’s probably been used several times since that call was made.”
“Pete, I don’t think – ”
“Okay, the dead rat was no big deal. But someone tried to poison your dog. That’s not a small deal. You and Prudy are in deep, deep trouble.”
“I
know that, Pete. I’m not stupid!” But I was angry. Not at Pete, but at the Ugly Voice. I wasn’t going to take any more. “There has to be some way to flush this person out.”
“It would help if we could be sure whether it was a man or a woman,” Pete said. “We don’t know who to be careful around right now. Guess it doesn’t matter. Be careful no matter who’s around. And after that fiasco on our way home from the restaurant, watch traffic, too. In fact, let me do the driving.”
“I’m thinking we need to watch for a man,” I said. “Remember, it was a man who bought that hamburger at the butcher shop. I’ve also been thinking about the voice. My guess is that he, or she, recorded the message and fooled around with the speed of the replay. Something like that.”
“You could be right, but there was that one time when the caller responded to our comments. We can’t take anything for granted. Sandi, you need to let me drive you around today.”
“I love that you want to take care of me, but you can’t be with me every minute of every day.”
“Well, I can for the rest of today. Everything except you and Prudy is being put on hold until we settle this. Let’s go back to Dolly’s house.”
I didn’t argue with him. I knew it would be useless until he cooled down.
We drove back to Dolly’s without much conversation. Pete was too busy watching traffic, looking and waiting for someone to make a wrong move. But I didn’t believe that anything would happen on the streets of L.A. during daylight. The other events had happened at night. I saw a pattern.
When we arrived at Dolly’s, Pete called Stanley outside. I knew he was going to tell our friend the latest development. And I knew Stanley would start to worry about Felicity’s involvement.
Pete walked back into the house by himself and turned to Felicity. “Stan would like to see you outside.”
Felicity had questions in her eyes, but she walked out without saying a word.
“What’s up?” Prudy asked. “You two look awfully serious.”
I knew it was time to be honest with her. “Prudy, there’s been another threat. Actually, there was one this morning, but I didn’t want to tell you about it.”
Her face became taut. “What didn’t you tell me?”
“There was a note left for you on the front porch this morning.”
“May I see it?” She sat erect, holding out her hand. I could see the tension in her shoulders, probably a side effect of both the note and the fact that I’d kept it from her.
“I was trying to protect you,” I said, handing her the note.
“I don’t need protecting.” She read the threatening words and didn’t change expressions.
“Well,” she said. “I guess we really have stepped on someone’s toes. I wish I’d kept my old pistol. Now would be a good time to start carrying it again.”
Pete glanced at me. “Maybe she’s right. Maybe you’d better take your gun out of mothballs, Sandi.”
Forty-two
I hated carrying my gun, although I was a good shot. It made me very uncomfortable. “It won’t do me any good if someone runs me into a center divider.”
“And if you have a face to face confrontation?” Pete asked.
“Then I’ll hope they try to choke me and I’ll use Dolly’s self-defense move.”
Pete had no idea what I was talking about, and he didn’t find my comment in the least amusing. “This isn’t funny.”
“I know it’s not. But I need to lighten the moment. My imagination has been working overtime for the last hour or so, coming up with all kinds of horrible scenarios.”
“That’s good,” Dolly said. “The more terrible the scenario, the more careful you’ll be. I’m not ready to lose you or my new friend Prudy.”
“Yeah, watchful is a good thing,” Prudy said, smiling. “You and I will take care of this together. We’ll – ”
“Listen up, you two. This isn’t a game.” Pete was angry now. “Someone is out there just waiting for the opportunity to kill you – to take your lives. Don’t you get it?”
“Yeah, rub us out. Of course we do,” I said, also feeling angry again. “But what do you want us to do? Put an armed guard on the front door? We can’t do that, and we won’t.”
“But we can all spend the evening together,” Dolly suggested. “How about if we go out to dinner again? It doesn’t have to be to a fancy restaurant.”
“Good idea,” Pete said, agreeing with my neighbor. “There’s no reason Sandi and Prudy have to be alone tonight.”
“And, Dolly, you could be in trouble through association with us,” I said. “I don’t want to leave you alone either.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” she said. “Well, there’s safety in numbers, so we’ll include Stan and Felicity and make an evening out of it.”
I walked to the door and called to Stanley and Felicity. “Come on in. We’re making a plan.”
I noticed that Felicity didn’t look too happy. I had a feeling that Stanley had been trying to warn her off, and she wasn’t going for it. They were both very quiet when they came into the living room.
“We’re all going out to dinner again. Are you two up for it?” I asked.
“Count me in,” Felicity said. “I’m here to stay.”
Stanley stared at her for a moment. She wouldn’t return his gaze. “Count me in, too,” he said quietly.
I glanced from one to the other. “Hey, look you two. I didn’t mean to start anything between you.”
“Oh, you didn’t start anything.” Felicity had crossed her little arms across her chest. “Stan just doesn’t know me well enough yet to know when to let a thing go.”
I shrugged. There was nothing else I could say to either of them. I knew that from similar experiences with Pete.
“Why don’t Pete and I drive over to In-N-Out and bring back burgers. We’ll eat here.” I glanced at my watch, remembering that older folks usually like to eat relatively early. It was almost five o’clock. I knew we’d hit traffic at this time in the evening, but we should be able to eat by six.
Prudy perked up. “I could use another one of their burgers, with grilled onions this time. From what your mother tells me, you’re almost as big of an In-N-Out fan as I am. I sure wish they’d put one in Bullhead City or Laughlin. There’s a rumor that they’re going to.”
“I could live on those things,” I said.
Pete took everyone’s order and we headed out. “Did you hear Dolly?” he asked. “She thinks we should play a game to pass the time tonight. Monopoly or Hangman.” His mouth turned down at the corners.
“You hate games, don’t you?”
“Yeah. But I’ll do it this one time. To keep everyone busy.”
I knew he’d made plenty of concessions since meeting me. Playing games with two old women probably wasn’t what he’d had in mind for the evening. Uh huh. I should have left the word probably out of that thought.
We were home with the burgers and fries in less than an hour. Traffic had been lighter than normal.
We ate, and when we were done, Dolly dragged out a game I’d never heard of before. It was an odd game for Dolly to have. It pitted the men against the women. The object was to see who knew more about the opposite sex, with questions about cooking and cars, that type of thing. Since it was for couples, Dolly talked Prudy into pretending she was the man. She said with Prudy’s life, she probably knew more about manly things.
Stan and Felicity made up, Pete tried to act disgusted, even though I could see he was having a good time, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the threats. When would our mysterious caller strike? How would he strike? Which one of us would prevail?
Stan and Felicity decided to spend the night at Dolly’s house. Stan said he could sleep on the couch, and Dolly had a second guest room for Felicity. I knew the two seniors would sleep a little better that night. I left Bubba there, too.
Pete walked me home, glancing around every tree and bush for a dark figure. I have to admit th
at I did the same. Every shadow spooked me. Every noise made my heart skip a beat.
He spent the night. He wasn’t about to leave me home alone. And I was glad to have him there. We stayed up and talked until the early morning hours. Sleep was too far away to even try for it.
Pete finally slept on the couch. He wanted to be where he could hear every little noise.
Early the next morning, Stanley paid a visit. “Felicity is going to run home and clean up. She’ll be back to pick up Dolly and Prudy for their outing today.”
“Outing?” Pete asked.
“Felicity is taking the women to work with her today,” I explained. “She’s doing a cosmetics ad, and the ladies are going to meet Traci Marks from What’s in a Name?”
“Who?” Pete was clueless.
“She’s one of those women who holds up cards and points to prizes on a game show. This trip should keep the women out of trouble.”
“Good idea,” Pete said. “And what are you going to do? Why not come to the office with me?”
“Yes, Sandi. You shouldn’t be by yourself.” Stanley wasn’t helping.
“I’ll be okay. I’m going to run over to the mall and do some shopping. I’ll be surrounded by people. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a day to just fool around. I may even stop and pick up some doggie treats at the new pet store that just opened.”
“Speaking of dogs,” Stanley said, “what about Bubba? You can’t really leave him alone either. After all, there was an attempt made to harm him.” Stanley was so formal sometimes.
“Harm him? That was an attempt to kill him,” I said. “And you’re absolutely right. He can’t stay here alone. I’d feel better if he wasn’t anywhere near the house today. You and Pete will simply have to take him to the office with you.” I glared at the two men, waiting for an argument.
Pete must have really been worried. “Okay, I’ll take that mangy mutt in with me. Stan can help keep an eye on him.”
“Do you have any treats we can take with us to keep him happy?” Stanley and Bubba got along well, but he always liked to be sure the dog was content. He didn’t believe in taking chances.