by Wayne Purdy
“Fuck off.” So much for hospitality.
I knocked again and then tried the door. It was unlocked and I let myself in. Once I was inside, I was overwhelmed by the stench. There was old food takeout everywhere, licked clean by Major. It looked like the dog hadn’t been taken out as often as he should either. There was some newspaper in a corner that had been soiled with dog piss. Major looked up at me as I entered. He was laying on the floor and cocked his head. He recognised me, and his tail started rising happily up and down. He let out a pitiful whine.
Cutler sat on a sofa. He was wearing his dress uniform, resplendent with his medals. On the table stood a bottle of Crown Royal and a handgun. I paused when I saw the gun. He was muttering to himself, but I couldn’t pick up what he was saying. I was suddenly nervous. What was he intending to do? I needed to keep him talking. Stop him from hurting me or himself.
“Collins,” he slurred. His eyes were red and watery. He was clearly drunk. “Yer a fuck’n pain in th’ ass.”
“Sir,” I said, and silently cursed myself. After all these years I still defaulted to my position as his subordinate. “I need to ask some questions.”
Cutler leaned forward unsteadily towards the table. I tensed, fearful that he was reaching for the gun. He grabbed the whisky instead.
“Ask away,” he said, taking a long pull from the bottle. He wiped his chin with his sleeve.
“Where were you on May eighteenth?”
He looked at me, his head bobbed as if it was too heavy for his neck to support. “Don’ know. Here?”
“Were you alone?”
He giggled. It sounded horrible. Like a wounded animal crying for help. His cheeks were streaked with tears. “’m always ‘lone.”
This was getting me nowhere. I decided to take a more direct route. “Cutler. Colonel, did you kill Gracie Telford and Sandra Mack?” He laughed again.
“’m a monster…Seen so much bad... Done so much…”
“Did you kill them?”
“No. I din’ kill anyone.”
“Did you kill Gracie Telford?”
He stared blankly. “Who?”
“Telford. Did you kill Mark Telford?”
“The queer? No. I din’ kill him. It all comes back t’that. You can’t let it go?”
“No, sir. I can’t let a murder go.”
“Telford was a fuckup. Couldn’ handle the army. Wasn’ tough enough. I made it my mission to toughen ‘im up. But it didn’ work. He wasn’ cut out for it.”
“Why not discharge her? You gave me the boot quick enough.”
He took another long pull from the bottle. “Was goin’ to. Then I found out that the little queer was leakin’ intelligence. Classified intelligence.”
“Gracie Telford was a spy?” This was the bit that Nowak couldn’t tell me. The reason so much of Gracie’s file was classified.
“The little shitstain wasn’ a spy. Didn’ have the stones for it. He sent classified documents to Wikileaks, troop movements, mission statements, that sort o’ thing, and none of it current, just to piss me off.”
“Gracie sent old information to Wikileaks to embarrass you?”
“He knew that he wasn’t cutting it, but wanted an honourable discharge, so his pension wouldn’t be affected. I wouldn’ give him one. He thought he could leverage me.”
“So, you sent out the order to have him assaulted.”
“You’re goddamn right.” He hiccupped and took another drink straight from the bottle. “Mark Telford didn’t earn anything from the military. He sure as hell wasn’t getting a pension. Not if I had anything to say about it.”
“Who else knew about this? Frank Bello? Nowak?”
“Nowak knew. We fought about it. Bob didn’ want him in the army, but he din’ want him beaten either. Said it wasn’ the right way.” Cutler shrugged. “Lookin’ back, he was right. I made my mind to ship ‘im out, after I saw Bello kick the shit out of him.”
“You watched Frank Bello assault Gracie.”
Cutler nodded his head. His eyes were wet, and his nose was running. “It was terrible. Savage. I made a mistake setting that animal loose.”
“What happened?”
“Someone killed him before I could sign the order. You took on the case. I wanted to bury it all. Didn’ want my part in it found out, but you wouldn’ quit. When you got hurt, it was a blessing.”
I balled my fists. Did he really just say that my injury was a blessing? Cutler didn’t notice my slow boil and carried on.
“After, I called your partner into my office. Told him everything. He agreed to help me.”
A frisson of anger rose through my body. “Zaki? Zaki knew about all of this? The assault? The coverup? All of it?”
“Of course, he did. I couldn’t have done it without his help. Nowak too.”
I crossed the room and grabbed Cutler by his collar. “Everyone knew about Gracie’s murder and nobody said anything?”
The old man seemed to sober up. “Unhand me,” he said. His voice was icy cold. “Your partner didn’ know who killed Telford. Never tol’ him.”
I sneered at him then pushed him back down. He landed between the couch and table with a drunkard’s clumsy collapse. He eyed the gun sitting on the table, and for a moment I silently dared him to go for it. To give me an excuse to throttle him. Instead, he reached for the bottle.
“What’s this all about then?” I gestured to the squalor of his apartment, the empty booze bottles, the dog waste, and the rest of the mess. “Your guilty conscience getting the better of you?”
“Something like that,” he said. “It was all coming out. That Asian woman kept hounding me. Asking me questions. She knows. She knows all of it. It’s coming out.”
For the second time, Cutler had been able to punch me in the gut without raising his hand. Hazel? What did she have to do with all of this? She killed someone.
“What does she know? Did you kill Gracie?” Did she?
He shrugged. “’m no good…los’ my way.” He upended the bottle and drank the rest of it down and dropped the empty onto the floor. It rolled around, coming to a rest at Major’s feet. The dog whined. “Disgraced m’self.”
“Sir. I need to call the police.”
I reached into my pocket and removed my phone and dialed 911. He leaned forward and picked up the Glock. It slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor. He laughed again; flecks of spittle flew from his mouth. “Colonel! No!”
“911. What’s your emergency?”
“Make it right,” Cutler said, fumbling for the gun. He picked it up and studied it. It was like he suddenly realized how heavy a handgun was, or the power it held. He turned the barrel towards me.
“Colonel, don’t,” I said, trying to keep my voice firm and steady, not letting fear betray me.
He turned the gun again, placing the barrel under his chin. I dropped my phone and threw myself at him, hoping to have time to separate the man from the gun. “Tell Ellie ‘m sorry.”
21
Hector
Two uniformed officers arrived and secured the crime scene. I was already sitting in the hallway, my back against the door. After I got off the phone with the 911 operator, I did a quick search of Cutler’s condo, hoping to find a trove of evidence. I didn’t find anything. One of the cops took a statement from me while the other blocked the entrance off with yellow tape. Nosy neighbours had begun milling about, and the cops told them to keep their distance. Major sat at my heels, whimpering.
“Is that your dog?” The younger of the two cops asked.
“No. It was his,” I gestured with my head towards the closed door.
“Poor dog,” the officer said. “Wonder what will happen to him?”
I stared blankly ahead, reviewing the scene in my mind. What could I have done differently? I could have done as I was told and stayed away, but Cutler would still have killed himself. I could have called the police as soon as I saw the gun, but he probably would still have killed himsel
f, especially if there was any sort of armed standoff. I could have done more to talk him down. Reassure him that everything was going to be alright. I didn’t have to push him for answers. They would have come out anyway once he was in custody and sobered up. Damn. I didn’t like it when I made mistakes. If I could second guess myself so could anyone else. The elevator door pinged open and Zaki stormed out, looking furious. I had him beat. I was even angrier than he was.
“I told you he was off-limits,” Zaki yelled. I couldn’t stop looking at the throbbing vein on his temple. It looked like an earthworm, which made me think of Cutler’s corpse. He was food for worms now.
“I know,” I said.
“Look at this shitshow,” he said. “And it’s your fucking fault!”
“My fault?” I rose up and squared my shoulders against his. “You should have been straight with me. You’ve been lying to me this whole time.”
“Lying to you? I don’t have to tell you shit. You aren’t even a cop. I never should have brought you in. That was a mistake.”
“You lied about Afghanistan. Cutler told me all about it.” Zaki’s face blanched and the two uniforms turned to see what the commotion was about.
Zaki lowered his gaze. “We can talk about this later.”
I felt the heat rising and my cheeks colouring. He wasn’t going to weasel out of it now. “You fucking knew.” I didn’t even realise my fist was balled up until after I dropped him with a right hook. He fell to the ground. The two uniformed officers tackled me. I knew I was in trouble and offered no resistance. The cuffed my hands behind my back. Zaki stood up, removed a tissue from his jacket pocket and dabbed away the blood from a split lip.
“You want us to book him?” The older cop asked.
Zaki took a few calming breaths. The earthworm in his head seemed to shrink a bit too. “It’s alright, constable. I’ll take it from here.”
Zaki looked at me. “Did you get it out of your system?”
“Yeah. Sorry about that.” Zaki leaned down and removed the cuffs and then held out a hand. I hesitated for a moment then took it and he pulled me up.
“What happened, Heck?” He asked, his voice cooler.
“He did it. He confessed. He was drunk and upset but he said that he did it.” I rubbed my wrists to take away the sting of the handcuffs. The uniforms had been zealous in my apprehension. Cops don’t like to see one of their own sucker punched.
“He confessed?”
“He said that he was a disgrace and that he lost his way. He said that it was all going to come out anyway. He said to say sorry to Ellie.”
“We did a preliminary search of his apartment. It didn’t turn up anything. I’ve got forensics on the way.”
“Did you search his car?”
“Not yet. We’re working on a warrant. Do you have reason to believe there’s anything in his car?”
I shrugged. I gave him my statement and caught him up on the investigation. I didn’t tell him about the knife. That would lead to more questions. The police would eventually search his Caddy and find it then.
“What else did Cutler say?”
“You want to do this now?”
“I should have done it years ago.”
He got no argument from me. “Cutler told me you knew about everything.”
“Not everything. I never knew who killed Gracie. I thought it was Bello.”
“But you knew that Gracie was leaking intelligence to Wikileaks.”
“Cutler called me and Bob Nowak into his office. Nowak was furious. He wanted Gracie discharged right then and there. Cutler didn’t want the embarrassment. Gracie should have washed out long before, but it was Cutler who kept her in the army. Wanted to make a man of her. He thought that anything that she did after would reflect poorly on him. He wanted to make it hard for her. Make her quit, but she was stubborn.”
“Did you know that she was being assaulted?”
“Everyone knew, Heck.”
“I didn’t.”
“What do you want from me. I fucked up.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Are you serious? You were Dudley Do-Right. Still are. What would you have done if you knew that our murder victim was leaking classified information?”
“I would have reported it up the chain.”
“So, when we were told to drop it-”
“You dropped it like a hot potato.” He couldn’t look me in the eye.
“Bello told me that you roughed him up when you arrested him.”
“When I heard about the explosion, I lost it. I saw you being brought in on a gurney. You were unconscious, but it looked like half your face was gone. We didn’t even know if you were going to pull through. You were in bad shape. When I caught up to Bello, he was limping away. He was caught in the explosion too, but you got the worst of it. I was so mad at him, but mostly at myself. I knew it was my fault. I started punching him over and over again. They had to pull me away from him. He was arrested after that, but never charged. Cutler said that Bello wasn’t the one who killed Gracie.”
“You thought it was Bello though.”
“He certainly seemed the type.”
“He’s a real peach. You were okay with him skating on a murder charge?”
Zaki’s nostrils flared and his expression darkened. “After my service, when I joined the police force, the first thing I did was pull his jacket. His rap sheet is longer than my arm. He was already in jail for the rape. I figured justice would catch up to him one way or the other.”
“But Bello didn’t kill Gracie.”
“Did Cutler confess to that one too?”
“Not exactly. He was incoherent. Hard to understand.”
“Do you think it was him?”
“Had to be. Whoever killed Sandra Mack also killed Gracie Telford. Everything points to Cutler. He as much as said it himself.”
Zaki closed his notebook. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
I paused for a moment. “There’s something else. He said that an Asian woman had been hounding him, that she knew the truth and was threatening to expose him.”
Zaki took this information in quietly. “Blackmail?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Heck, your friend, Hazel, how much do you trust her?”
“I trust her,” I said, maybe a little too quickly.
“What do you know really about her?”
“A bit,” I said.
“Has she told you about her past?”
My back stiffened. I wasn’t sure I liked the way this conversation was headed. “She’s told me some things. She had a rough time as a teenager.”
“I asked around about her. Her record is sealed because she was a juvenile, but its on the internet if you know where to look.”
I thought shamefully about my own Google searches. They had come up empty, but maybe I didn’t know where to look. “If you have something to say, just say it.”
“Her real name is Haruna Abe. When she was younger, she got into some trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“She was responsible for someone’s death.”
I flinched.
She killed someone.
“I don’t know what her connection to Cutler is, but if she was blackmailing him, she’s going to be in trouble again. I won’t be able to protect her. Did she have any information that could incriminate him?”
“She knows everything I know.”
I finished giving Zaki my statement and headed home. I was dazed. If I had been paying attention, I would have seen a feminine figure watching the building from the shadows across the street, but the shock of watching a man kill himself was beginning to set in. It was nothing compared to the sense of betrayal I felt. I couldn’t believe Hazel had been going behind my back, acting against Cutler. I didn’t believe that she would blackmail him. She wasn’t the sort, but a niggling, contrarian voice in the back of my head piped in. She was short
on cash. Eddie had stolen all her savings. Plus, she had been in trouble before. Was it so hard to believe that she was in trouble now?
She killed someone.
She was a stripper after all. I regretted the thought as soon as it bubbled to the surface. I had never judged any of the girls for the choices that led them to dancing. To use it against Hazel now was reprehensible. I hated myself for even thinking it.
There was something else bothering me too. Cutler hadn’t actually confessed to anything. He was distraught and he might have been trying to confess, but he was vague. I was still missing something. When I got home, I didn’t climb the stairs to my apartment. Instead, I went into Pandora’s. It was time Hazel answered some hard questions.
22
Hazel
Hazel had just finished her third song in her final set and was slipping her bikini bottoms back on. The spotlight had veered away from her and onto the next dancer, Khaleesi, giving Hazel a modicum of privacy. All eyes were on Khaleesi who pranced onto the stage in leather and fur, scowling at the men as she moved her body to the deep, rumbling bass of Panic At The Disco! Once Hazel was dressed again, she made her way to the bar, and waved to get Alice’s attention.
“What can I get you, hon?”
“Sparkling water with a twist of lime”
Alice slid the drink over to Hazel. She put the straw into her mouth and took a long, refreshing draw. She checked her phone. One thirty. The club was still open for another half an hour. She wasn’t due back on stage tonight. She could just knock off early, but the crowd was stingy tonight. She could use a couple extra bucks.
“How are you making out tonight?” Alice asked. “There’s a table of Georges over in the corner. They’ve been throwing around money all night.”
Hazel’s eyes lit up. “Thanks, Alice.” Hazel pasted on a faux smile and sashayed over to their table, making sure they all got an eyeful. There were four older men wearing suits, laughing and catcalling. Their eyes homed in on her and she could tell that she had lured them in like a fisherman reeling in a giant marlin. She leaned towards the nearest man, giving him a view of the globes of her breasts. He didn’t maintain eye contact with her.