Katz looked at Gowder and finally nodded. “Yes.”
I shook my head. “Is there anything else in this little partnership of ours that you’re not telling me?”
Gowder looked at Katz. “Devon Conliffe was about to turn state’s evidence and implicate Oz, which will take us a little further than the current indictment and suspension.”
I stood there for a while, allowing all the lines to connect. “Then it’s Osgood.”
Gowder shook his head. “Not possible.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Because I was with him at the fund-raiser the night Conliffe was killed.”
I was fully irritated now. “Then he had it done.”
Katz was watching me. “By whom?”
I was yelling now. “Toy Diaz by way of Shankar DuVall, I’d imagine!”
“You don’t have to raise your voice.” We stood there, looking at each other. “They don’t owe him any favors, and they’re not on the best of terms anymore.”
I stepped toward all of them. The ache in my ribs had receded with the increase of my anger. “Then how about William Carlisle White Eyes?”
Katz adjusted his glasses again. “It occurred to us.”
I wondered if I was up to throwing the two of them out the open window. “Partnership’s over.”
I started lumbering toward the stairwell, with Vic coming up behind me as Katz spoke. “What about the third note?”
Vic called over her shoulder. “If we find it, I’ll stop by and personally shove it up your ass.”
I only lasted two flights. Vic sat beside me on the flaking gray paint of the tread’s metal surface. After catching my breath, I spoke in a low voice. “That was stupid.”
She nodded and smiled. “I bet you feel better.”
“Not really.”
“Look, I know both these guys and, if it means anything, I don’t think they took it to heart. Anyway, they’re going to want to know about the third note, so I bet you’re forgiven by the time we get to the sidewalk.”
She was right.
Katz was waiting at the truck dock with his hands in his pockets and the ledgers under one arm. “We need that third note.”
I leaned against the concrete shelf with my good side. “Yep, and people in hell need ice water.”
He closed his eyes and gave the sun his face. “Nice day for it.”
“Where’s your playmate?”
“Caught a ride with Meifert; he’s decided you don’t like him.” Katz smiled. “On account of you getting in his face and yelling at him. He’s not used to that.”
“I’m sorry.”
He opened one eye and looked at Vic, who was standing beside me. “Yelling one of those law enforcement techniques you learned out in Wyoming?”
She was now sunbathing as well. “Yeah, that and lunch.”
Katz nodded. “Terminal?”
“Yeah.”
I hoped it was a location and not a result.
The Reading Terminal Market on 12th and Arch was created in 1892 when the Reading Railroad opened markets below the elevated tracks of the new train shed. It had consistently housed an undetermined amount of aromas since then by creating a gastronomic bazaar conveniently located at street level.
We walked past the Amish baked goods, farm produce, and fresh flowers to a little diner and sat on red leatherette stools at a stainless steel counter. I was in the middle and noticed that neither Vic nor Katz had picked up a menu. A heavyset woman of uncertain age and in oversized overalls set rolled flatware, glasses of ice water, and three cups of coffee in front of us. “What’ll it be, hon?”
The wave of nostalgia for the Busy Bee overtook me, and I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “The usual.”
She nodded. Evidently, it was a universal.
Katz slid one of the ledgers onto the counter, opened it, and glanced at the incomprehensible text. “So, you know where we can find an expert on Native American languages?”
I sipped my steaming coffee. “It just so happens…” I set it down to cool and took a closer look at the book. “He should be at the Academy; said he had to put the final touches on the exhibit.”
“Isn’t the reception tonight?”
“Yep.” I glanced at Vic. “But don’t you have to go to the opera?”
She rolled her eyes. “Puh-lease…”
I looked back at Katz. “Henry can translate.” I looked at the ledger to give him a little room. “Why didn’t you tell me William White Eyes is Billy Carlisle?”
“It’s IAD, special prosecutor for the DA’s office, and we really weren’t able to come forth with any of the information connecting the two.”
“Fair enough.” I lined up the suspects and started supposing. “Vince Osgood and Toy Diaz are in business.”
“It’s possible.” I looked at him, and he shrugged. “It’s likely.”
“Devon Conliffe, my daughter’s almost-fiance, was a hophead and a friend of Osgood.”
“Yes. And Devon was the money launderer.”
I nodded and stared at my coffee. “That makes sense. So, Osgood goes to bat for Shankar DuVall in his official capacity, leaving Carlisle/White Eyes to linger in Graterford.”
“Yes.”
“I have a question.” I placed my hands on the edge of the counter, bumped my finger guard, and felt the vibration all the way up to my elbow. “Who was Shankar DuVall’s lawyer?”
Katz thought for a moment. “Not your daughter.”
I smiled at him. “I figured there were other lawyers in Philadelphia; I was just wondering who it was?”
“Why?”
I thought about an itch I’d had in my head for the last few days. “I think there are more connections among all these people.” Katz scribbled in his pad. “So Carlisle/White Eyes did the cook, DuVall the muscle, Diaz the distribution, and Devon laundered the money while Osgood looked the other way.”
“That’s the way it’s headed.”
I thought about the things that weren’t adding up. “If Osgood sent Diaz’s brother Ramon up the river, why would Toy go into business with him?”
“It was not a happy family; if Oz hadn’t gotten rid of Ramon, Toy probably would have.”
“How did you find out about the money laundering?”
“We checked the files at Hunt and Driscoll; Devon was channeling large sums of money through clients’ accounts, but we’re having trouble finding all the numbers. You want to hear the kicker?” I continued looking at him. “They hired him on Osgood’s recommendation.”
“There’s got to be more.”
Katz studied me for a moment. “You’re thinking that more of these lawyers might be involved?”
“I don’t know.” I took a sip of my coffee since it had finally cooled enough to drink. “I’m just saying that part of this puzzle is still missing. Some connection is out there; somebody.” I thought about it, and it all made sense.
“Didn’t Meifert say Carlisle’s mother was killed when he was a kid?”
“Yes, it was a well-publicized case.” Katz gestured toward Vic. “Her father had that one.”
“Can you get me a psychological workup on Carlisle?”
“Absolutely, but why?”
“I think he was the one at the Franklin Institute the night Cady was hurt, and I think he’s the one that’s been sending me love letters, but I don’t think he threw Devon Conliffe off the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.”
Katz made a face. “Then why was he following you this morning?”
“Protection.”
He made a show of looking at my battered body. “You sure about that?”
I shrugged. “I’m the one that pulled my gun and tried to arrest him.”
“So, who’s he protecting you from?”
“I don’t know; Osgood, maybe Diaz.” The food arrived, and the usual turned out to be chicken livers with onions, bacon, and fresh mozzarella. Dorothy would have been pleased. “Billy Carlisle is a Philadelphi
a drug chemist, but William White Eyes has a romance with the West, a west of which Cady and I may be emblematic.” I reached out with my broken finger and gently tapped the leather surface of the ledger. “I think this is going to be a very detailed record of William White Eyes’ business dealings with Toy Diaz.” I took another bite of the usual. “Anyway, we have to go see an Indian.”
Katz picked up his fork and cleaved off a section of his salmon salad. “We need that third note.”
I nodded and chewed. “That’s why we’re going to see the Indian.”
The swans and fish the Indians were throttling were still shooting water into the air of Logan Circle when we got there. Katz pulled the unmarked car into a no-parking zone in front of the Four Seasons and cut the engine. As we got out, I waved at the same doorman who had waited with me after I’d been ejected from the back bumper of the Expedition. “Hello, Sheriff.”
“Howdy, Lou.”
We’d gotten to know each other pretty well while I’d bled on his sidewalk. He came over from his official station and assisted me with the door. “How you feelin’?”
“Fit as a fiddle and ready for love.” I reached over the top of the car. “Asa, you still have that photo of Billy Carlisle?”
Katz pulled it from the file on the seat and handed it to me. “Lou, you strike me as a guy who doesn’t miss much.” I held up the photocopy. “You ever see this guy?” He glanced at the photo. “Some very bad people on both sides of the law are looking for this kid. I’m just trying to bring him in safe.”
Lou really looked at the photo this time. “Yeah, I seen him.” The old man tipped his hat back and looked over toward the fountain. “’Bout ’n hour ago.”
Vic was first. “Are you kidding me?”
“Crossed the street against traffic and sat over by the fountain for a while, then moved on.”
“An hour ago?” He smiled at Vic and nodded. She turned back to me. “Why the fuck would he do that?”
I looked at the Logan Circle noble savage in profile. “He changed the note.”
I thanked Lou, and Katz gave him a card and told him that if he saw the young man again to give the police a call immediately. We crossed with the traffic and pulled up in front of the Indian that represented the Delaware River. Vic walked a little past us and placed her hands on her hips. “Christ, it does look like Henry.”
I sat on the bench. Katz sat beside me, his suit looking better than it would have on a mannequin. “So?”
“I would imagine it’s taped to the underside of the seat. Why don’t you look?” He stooped down, reached beneath, and pulled something off.
Vic walked back. “Why this bench?”
“It was the one your mother and I sat on after I questioned the guard at the Institute.” She nodded and didn’t say anything, and I started wondering how far the competitive mother/ daughter thing went. “I think he’s been following me since I got here, the night Cady was hurt.” I looked at Katz. “Aren’t you going to dust that?”
He ignored me, thumbed a fingernail under the flap to break the seal, and opened it to reveal the same stock as the others.
I leaned over for a look, but Vic kicked my boot. “You and my mother come to the park a lot?” I raised an eyebrow and kicked her back.
Katz handed me the note. “I’d say your assessment that he changed it after we took the ledgers is correct.”
It was typewritten with the same dropout “O.” SEE PAGE 72. LOOK WEST, YOU CAN FIGHT CITY HALL.
12
Katz said he would catch up with Gowder and then meet me with the ledgers at the Academy later so that Henry could have a look at them. I wanted to get over to the hospital, but it was late in the afternoon and I had run out of time. I needed a shower and could get dressed at Cady’s for the reception, thereby killing two magpies with one stone. When Vic and I got there, Lena was gone and so was Dog. There was a note on the counter, along with a roasted chicken and a six-pack of beer in the refrigerator.
Vic sat on the stool. “You don’t think we’re looking for William White Eyes.”
I pulled two of the longnecks from the refrigerator. “No, at least not as a killer.”
“Osgood?” I opened both of them and handed one to her.
“I don’t think so, but I’ve been wrong before.”
“Diaz?”
I took a sip of my beer. “He’s a killer.”
“You don’t think that he and Osgood could have kissed and made up?”
“Toy Diaz does not strike me as the forgiving type.”
She took a sip of her own beer. “The assistant DA could be a pretty convenient partner in crime.”
I thought about it. “I think they’re in cahoots.”
She laughed. “Cahoots, Jesus…” She slugged down the rest of her beer. “It is pretty convenient that Toy Diaz appears to be flying around under the radar, and all the inconvenient people in Osgood’s life are meeting with the pavement.”
“Including Cady?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me it didn’t cross your mind.”
I shrugged. “Devon was very convincing.”
“I would be too if somebody was trying to tear off my head and flush it down a public toilet at Citizens Bank Park.”
“I was a little more civilized than that.”
She nodded and placed the tip of her tongue at the bottom of a particularly pointed canine tooth. “Yeah, I’ve seen you in those moods; I bet the meeting was very civilized.” She stood and stretched, her black T-shirt rising and exposing the flat, toned muscles of her midriff. I looked away, but I was pretty sure she’d seen me looking. “I need a shower.”
“Me too, but you go first.”
She had taken the second bedroom upstairs, so I collapsed on the sofa and noticed the blinking light on the answering machine. Vic had stopped on the landing and was looking through the glass of the cupola at the cables that rose from the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. “Cady’s not involved with this.”
Not for the first time, I studied her profile. “You mean in cahoots?”
She grinned. “Yeah.”
I took one of my shallow breaths. It didn’t hurt as much. “I think Osgood put the pressure on Devon, and Devon tried to put the pressure on Cady. I think Cady discovered Devon’s laundering scheme through William White Eyes and was going to drop a dime on them. I’m just trying to figure out why she didn’t do it.”
“You still think Devon hurt Cady.”
I nodded and watched her as she stood there looking at the flat light on the powder blue bridge. “I think if it’d been Toy Diaz, we’d have already been to a funeral.” I cleared my throat and voiced what had been on my mind since I had heard the message on her cell phone. “How could she let herself get involved in an abusive relationship like that?”
“You mean the daughter you raised?” I didn’t say anything. “It can happen to anyone, that’s the point.” She still looked up at the skyline, and her hands slid across the railing as if she were petting the city. She nodded a sad smile, looked down and watched me for a few moments more, and then disappeared.
I was left with the answering machine. There were people back in Wyoming who were desperate for information about Cady and me. I started to reach across and press the button, but the energy eluded me again. I slumped against the cushions and pulled my hat down, thinking that a short nap might do the trick.
The water began running through the pipes, and it was like rain. I could feel myself drifting off. I sat like that, with my back crooked and my finger guard lying on the back of the couch and thought about what I was going to do about Cady.
The water stopped after a while, and I heard Vic’s bare feet padding across the balcony above. I felt myself slipping away but woke a few minutes later because of pressure across both of my thighs. I started to push my hat up, but she took it from me and placed it on her head, an old western tradition. She straddled me with her strong legs and, since the hat was out of the way, I could
see that her bathrobe was untied. I could smell the still-wet of her skin, smooth and full.
I started to speak, but she put a finger to my lips and leaned in. “Just shut the fuck up.”
She pulled my face forward with the fingers of one hand twisted into the hair at the back of my head, and I buried my face into her breasts as she reached to unbutton my pants. I could feel her taking the majority of her weight up onto her knees as her fingers quickly undid my belt and began working me through the opening in my underwear and jeans. Her fingers felt cool encircled around me, and it was all I could do to restrain myself from climaxing right then.
I could feel her leveraging me, and I slid into her. She gasped and yanked my head back, locking her mouth over mine, her tongue sliding deep between my lips. I could feel her grinding her hips down onto me, the furious quality of hungry passion as if she might swallow me whole.
I thought I heard a noise from behind her, almost as if the door had opened, but ignored it and slipped my hands under the robe, feeling the heat of her body as my fingers slipped beneath her breasts and cupped them. She broke from my mouth and gasped, a guttural growl coming from the back of her throat as she looked down at me and began pulling my face forward again.
I stopped her. “No.”
I watched as her nostrils flared and the pebbled surface of her nipples rose and fell inches from my face. “No what?”
“I want to see your face.”
Her eyes softened, and she smiled. She pulled my head back, her face a little above mine, and we settled into a rhythm with our eyes locked. I slid myself to the edge of the sofa and for the first time was able to push myself all the way into her. Her eyes flashed again, and her breath caught in her throat as she stayed like that, her grip tightening.
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