Shadow Of Misgivings

by Nora Kane

  “Whoever was here must have been hurting.”

  Marv shrugged. “Shit happens. If you’re staying here and we didn’t just have a party, most likely you got yourself in some kind of trouble. Either way, I know this dude was gone when Mal got here.”

  “Are you sure these aren’t Mal’s?”

  “He wasn’t wearing any bandages when he arrived and this room was locked.”

  “How long was Mal here?”

  “A couple of days.”

  “What did he eat? I’m guessing UberEATS doesn’t get out this far.”

  “We have a full kitchen behind the bar area. Freezers full of steaks. If he’d wanted to, he could have eaten like a king.”

  “You let him eat your steaks?”

  “He was my guest. I’m an O.G. around here, so he had the run of the place.”

  “Did you check the kitchen and see if he’d been eating?”

  “I assumed he was eating.”

  “If he was here, he would be.”

  “Somebody slept in his bed.”

  “Yeah, but for how many nights? One or three?”

  “You think he could have gone before the meeting?”

  “It’s possible. Nothing here says he wasn’t.”

  “You know, he never was much for putting away his dishes when he was a kid.”

  “That didn’t change.”

  They made their way back to the kitchen. There was one plate sitting on the counter. It looked like someone had eaten off of it recently, but it could have been an hour ago or it could have been a couple of days.

  “I only see the one plate,” Marv said as he looked around the kitchen.

  “Mal would only use one plate,” Margot told him. “He’d wash it off after he ate and then use the same one.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like Mal. That doesn’t help us much then.”

  “How tight do you keep the inventory?”

  “Not tight, We ain’t a restaurant. When we start to run out, we go get more.”

  “Yeah? It’s not like there’s a store around the corner.”

  “If we’re having an event, we make sure we have plenty of everything, but otherwise we play it by ear.”

  “You said it was fully stocked when Mal came three days ago?”

  “Yeah.”

  Margot went to the freezer. She wasn’t sure if she could tell the difference between Mal eating here one day or three, but it was worth a look. She opened it up and let out a short sharp scream as she jumped back, reaching instinctively for the gun in her purse.

  She moved her hand away as she realized the blue eyes of the man in the freezer matched the color of his skin. Stuffed in amongst the rib eyes and the T-bones was a dead man.

  Her first thought was it was Mal, but even in his frozen state, it was clear the body was someone else. He was too short and his hair too long. Plus Mal never wore a Devil’s Racers motorcycle jacket.

  Marv saw her initial reaction and asked, “What’s up? You got a fear of red meat or something?”

  “Did you have a dead body on ice before you put up Mal?”

  Margot stepped aside as Marv went to look.

  “What the hell?” Marv yelled as he stared at the blue dead man in his clubhouse freezer.

  “Do you know him?”

  “Yeah, club member, newer guy but not that new. His name was Chester, but everybody called him Cheese.”

  “At my place, when you were talking about the outlaw side of your outlaw biker gang, you said some people were more in it than others. Where did Cheese land on that scale?”

  “The deep end. You think Mal killed him?”

  “I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it past him. He wouldn’t do it for no reason though.”

  “I can’t think of a single reason. None of this makes sense.”

  “Is this the only freezer?”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t think you could get Mal’s body in this one with Cheese in there too.”

  “Before I answer that question, there are some things we need to be clear on. This here, this body—this is club business. This happened at our place and we don’t call the police, ever.”

  “You want me to pretend I didn’t see this?”

  “No, I want you to keep the law out of it. No good will come of it if you call it in and we both know it. Cheese will still be dead and the odds the cops will bring his killer to justice before we do are astronomically high.”

  “Even if that killer is your brother?”

  “Some shit is out of my hands. If he had a good reason, I can guarantee we’ll listen.”

  Margot didn’t like it, but she didn’t see a lot of choices. If she said no, there was a chance that Marv would be looking to put her in a freezer.

  “Okay, I’ll respect that as long no citizens end up in the crossfire.”

  Marv nodded. “Killing citizens is bad for business.”

  “So, back to the question. Are there any other freezers?”

  Marv pointed to another door and said, “I’ll check the others. The workshop is off limits to everybody but the O.G.s.”

  Margot thought this over for a second and then asked, “The workshop? Did somebody put a body in the wrong freezer?”

  “Just stay here.”

  Margot did as he said. It was bad enough she had just pledged to be quiet about one murder. If there were more and they didn’t involve Mal, she didn’t want to know about it. She closed the freezer door and left the kitchen area. Margot didn’t want to hang around with Cheese’s frozen corpse.

  She went back to the bar area where she found a tumbler and a bottle of Maker’s Mark. Technically, she was working, but stumbling on a body when there's a full bar just a thin wall away seemed to be a good reason to make an exception to her usual rule. She poured herself two fingers and then went around to the other side of the bar and found a stool.

  Margot had reached the bottom of her glass when Marv came back in. She didn’t figure the length of time he had spent back there was a good sign. He went around the bar and poured himself a shot of Jack Black.

  He knocked it down and poured another. He stared at this one for a while before Margot asked him, “Mal?”

  Marv shook his head.

  “But you found something.”

  “Two more bodies, Racers like Cheese. The reason Cheese was in the kitchen freezer was the one back in the workshop was full. Found the steaks too. The killer dumped them out back. They’re spoiled, if that makes a difference.”

  “It means they didn’t commit the crime this morning.”

  “Yeah, but it doesn’t narrow it down much, does it?”

  “No, the desert sun would have made quick work of them.”

  Marv downed the shot. He poured himself another and then held the bottle out towards Margot.

  She shook her head and told him, “I’m good.”

  “You know what this is going to mean? Mal gone and those boys dead?”

  “It means Mal’s gone and those boys are dead.”

  “No, it’s going to mean Mal killed them. Even if that’s not what happened, that’s the way they’re going to see it. I’m going to have to choose between my brother and the club.”

  “Doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me.”

  Marv downed his third shot of whiskey before he said, “It shouldn’t be but it is.”

  Margot couldn’t really argue with him there. It wasn’t like he and Mal were close.

  “Honestly, it won’t matter. They’re going to see the bodies and blame me. I was the one who brought him and put him up here. It won’t matter how loudly I proclaim my loyalty to the club, they’re going to assume—when shit gets real—that I’m going to have my brother’s back.”

  “It’s not an unreasonable assumption.”

  “I know. Despite everything that happened between us, when he came around asking for my help, there were no questions asked. I guess I should have asked some questions.”

  “Speaking
of questions, what did Mal want with Manny?”

  “I already told you, I didn’t know. What does it matter now anyway?”

  “Mal had a lot of flaws but assuming he killed those guys in the freezers, he wouldn’t do it for no reason. Mal could be violent, but he was never violent for fun.”

  “You think whatever he wanted with Manny had something to do with this?”

  “It was why he was here.”

  “You think I’m lying when I say I don’t know?”

  “I think it’s possible.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Would Manny know? I assume he would want some information before seeing a guy like Mal.”

  “He might. Manny wouldn’t be where he was if he wasn’t cautious.”

  “Maybe we should ask him.”

  “What about all this?”

  “Did you tell anyone we were coming?”

  “No. They knew I went back to look for Mal though.”

  “Any reason for them to think you would have checked the freezer?”

  “No.”

  “Then we don’t tell them about Cheese and the other two. We wait until we have an idea what’s going on, if we tell them at all.”

  “I don’t know. That doesn’t sit right with me.”

  “Yeah, well keeping this shit to myself doesn’t sit right with me, either, but it’s still probably the right play. Call Manny, see if you can find out what Mal was up to.”

  “Manny won’t talk about that kind of thing on the phone.”

  “Go see him then.”

  “Only if you come with me.”

  “I have a feeling he’ll be hostile toward an ex-cop like myself.”

  “He will, but you might have a chance to get him to talk. I won’t.”

  “Why is that?”

  “We’ve got a hierarchy and he’s at the top. If he orders me to shut up, I’m supposed to shut up.”

  “So, if he tells me to shut up, I won’t have to?”

  “It would be advisable, but you aren’t bound by any rules other than self-preservation.”

  “Can we do it now?”

  “I don’t see why not.”

  “We need to clean up then. Did you mess with anything in the back?”

  “Nope. All I touched were the doors.”

  “Wipe them down. I’m not going to call the police, but that doesn’t mean someone else won’t.”

  “A Racer wouldn’t.”

  “You’re a hundred percent sure on everybody?”

  Marv thought about that for a second and then said, “I guess I’m not a hundred percent on everyone.”

  “Then wipe everything down.”

  “Should I wipe down the bottle?”

  “Only if it would be weird for your prints to be on it.”

  “This is my clubhouse and I’ve been known to bartend,” Marv said as he found a rag. He went to the back to clean up any fingerprints he might have left.

  While he was doing that, Margot cleaned off her glass and the bottle of Maker’s Mark and anywhere else she touched. Unlike Marv, this wasn’t her clubhouse.

  Chapter 5

  Marv pulled into a mini-mall parking lot and parked his bike.

  Margot rolled down her window. “Does Manny work at the iPhone repair shop or the sub sandwich place?”

  “Neither. You need to ride with me the rest of the way. Manny isn’t going to be happy talking to you and if he sees you pulling into his driveway in some Japanese car, he’s going to be even more obstinate than usual.”

  “You serious?”

  “Manny is what some would call set in his ways.”

  “Others would call him an asshole.”

  “Yeah, but not to his face. You want to do this or not?”

  Margot got and locked her car. Marv handed her the extra helmet he had strapped to his leather saddlebags.

  “This thing is at least two sizes too big,” Margot told him.

  “I’m not planning to wreck.”

  “No one ever does.”

  Marv smiled to acknowledge the truth in that and then said, “As far as Manny knows, you’re Mal’s woman and that’s why you want to know what’s up. You tell him you’re a private investigator working for me and he’ll toss us both out.”

  “Alright, but don’t expect any declarations of undying love. I’m not that good of an actress.”

  Marv nodded and motioned to the back of his bike. Margot sat down and held on. Marv drove on out to Manny’s trailer.

  “I would think the leader of a big-time outlaw motorcycle gang would have a nicer place,” Margot said as they stood outside of Manny’s double-wide. His place wasn’t as out of the way as the clubhouse, but it was close.

  “He can’t exactly declare the money he’s making and buying houses with cash attracts attention,” Marv told her.

  A bald man wearing a Devil Racers vest with a chrome revolver stuck in his belt stepped out of the front door. He gave them both a hard look as he rested his right hand on the pistol.

  “Hey, Clive,” Marv said to the man.

  “That don’t look like your brother,” Clive said.

  “This is Margot, Mal’s woman.”

  ‘I don’t think Manny had a sit-down scheduled with Mal’s woman.”

  “She’s looking for him too. We thought maybe she and Manny could help each other.”

  “Help each other do what?”

  “Find Mal.”

  “Wait here,” Clive said as he went into the house.

  A few minutes later he came back out and asked, “Either of you carrying?”

  “Not me,” Marv told him.

  Margot took the S&W out of her purse and showed it to Clive before dropping it back in.

  “Maybe you ought to let me hold that. Just to keep it safe.”

  “Alright, if you let me hang onto that hand cannon pointing out your balls. Just to keep it safe.”