Cooper By The Gross (All 144 Cooper Stories In One Volume)

by Bill Bernico

  Matt was there at five minutes before eight the next morning to open the office. He was sure Leo was the prompt type and would no doubt be here at any minute. He also wondered if Elliott would sleep in this morning or if he’d make an effort to be here when Leo came in. He stopped wondering when he heard Elliott’s distinct footsteps coming from the elevator. After years of working with his father, Matt could even recognize his footsteps.

  “Morning, Dad,” Matt said, even before Elliott came into the office.

  “How’d you know it was me?” Elliott said, obviously puzzled.

  “I got so I could even distinguish your footsteps from everyone else’s,” Matt explained. “Let’s see how you look this morning. I want Leo’s first impression of you to be a good one.”

  “You’re not going to spit on a handkerchief and wipe my face with it, are you?” Elliott said.

  “Come on, Dad. He’ll be here any minute now. Don’t embarrass me, please.”

  The two of them stopped talking when they heard footsteps coming from the elevator. They both took their seats behind their desks and tried to look busy and professional. They both looked up when the door opened. Matt and Elliott exchanged glances when Lieutenant Cole stepped in, a somber look on his face.

  Matt let out his breath. “We thought you were Leo. He’s starting this morning.”

  “Yeah,” Kevin said. “About that. I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.”

  “Leo got arrested for speeding?” Matt said.

  Kevin’s face remained somber. “I’m afraid it now that trivial. I got a call from one of my patrolmen who was cruising near the outskirts of Glendale just a few miles east of here late last night. He came upon a single car accident and found a Chevy sedan wrapped around a light pole on Colorado Boulevard. My man found the driver still behind the wheel but couldn’t feel any pulse when he checked. He called for an ambulance and then checked for a driver’s license. The license said Leo Cooper and that’s when he called me. He knew I was friends with the two of you and figured this had to be a relative. Was this the uncle you were expecting?”

  Matt and Elliott both let out a deep breath and shook their heads. “He was no relation to us,” Matt said. “It was just a coincidence that he had the same last name. He was supposed to start working with us this morning. Do you know what happened yet?”

  “Can’t be sure,” Kevin said, “but it looks like he may have fallen asleep behind the wheel. There were no skid marks before the light pole. I’m sorry.” Kevin turned his attentions to Elliott. “Did you want to come down and identify the body?”

  Elliott looked at Matt and then back at Kevin. He shook his head. “I’ve never even met the man,” he said. “I couldn’t identify him even if I wanted to.”

  Kevin turned to Matt. “What about you?”

  “I spent an hour with him more than ten days ago,” Matt explained. “I guess I could take a look, but if he’s been messed up in a car accident, I might not be able to tell if it’s him.”

  “Just take a quick look, if you don’t mind,” Kevin said. “You’re all we have at this point until we can notify anyone back in Arizona to come here.”

  Matt turned to Elliott. “Would you keep an eye on things until I get back, Dad?”

  Elliott shooed him away with the wave of his hand. “Go on, I got it here.”

  Matt followed Kevin back to the twelfth precinct, which also housed the coroner’s office at the far end of the hall. The medical examiner was out on a call but two of his assistants showed Kevin and Matt to a back room where a body lay stretched out on a gurney, a sheet covering it. Matt stepped up alongside the gurney and nodded to one of the attendants, who pulled the sheet back, revealing the man’s shattered, bloody face. Matt took the briefest of looks and then turned away. He was feeling lightheaded and had to steady himself on the edge of the gurney.

  “Well?” Kevin said. “Is that him? Is that the Leo Cooper you met?”

  Matt swallowed hard and then shook his head. “I can’t tell by looking at that face.”

  As if on cue, the gurney moved slightly and the victim’s right arm came out from under the sheet, bounced once and stuck straight out, perpendicular to the body. Matt instinctively looked at the arm and followed it down to the hand. That’s when he noticed the bulky class ring with F.H.S. in black letters across the top. Matt looked at Kevin and nodded once before stepping back, away from the gurney. “That’s him,” he told Kevin. “I recognize the class ring he wore the day I met him.”

  Kevin laid one hand on Matt’s shoulder and led him toward the door. “Thanks, Matt,” Kevin said. “I know that couldn’t have been easy for you.”

  From over his shoulder, Matt could hear the coroner’s two assistants talking. He heard one of them say, “Poor devil. I heard he fell asleep at the wheel and wrapped his car around a light pole.”

  The second attendant tucked Leo Cooper’s arm back under the sheet and remarked, “Like they say, you snooze, you lose.” They wheeled the body back into the autopsy room and waited for the medical examiner to return.

  140 - The Merchants of Venice

  Matt sat behind his desk in the office of Cooper Investigations, his feet up on the edge. He leaned back in his swivel chair and flipped the page over on his newspaper, looking for the rest of the page one story he’d started when he first came in. It was a story about the ongoing problems of the two resident gangs that had taken up residence in the seaside community of Venice, which was nestled between Santa Monica on the north and Marina Del Rey on the south.

  One of the gangs, The Devils, had occupied this community since the 1950s, while their main rivals, El Duro, had roots that went back to the 1970s. According to the article in The Los Angeles Times, three members of El Duro had been found in a dumpster behind the business district. All three had had their throats cut. The article went on to say that four members of The Devils were also found dead, but from gunshot wounds. Police speculated that the deaths of the four Devils gang members were an obvious retaliation by El Duro enforcers.

  Matt read the entire article, folded the paper in half and laid it on Elliott’s desk. He was sure his father would also want to read this story of senseless neighborhood violence. Matt glanced up at the wall clock above the office door. It was coming up on eight-thirty and Matt knew that it could be another hour or more before Elliott came in to work. He and Matt had come to an agreement five years earlier when Elliott came back to work with his son after a short retirement. They agreed that Elliott could sleep in mornings and join Matt at the office mid-morning. He reasoned that starting later five days a week was better than coming in at the same time as Matt, but working only two or three days each week. Either way, they both knew that Elliott had considered this arrangement to be the equivalent of semi-retirement.

  Matt stood, padded over to the window that looked down onto Hollywood Boulevard and wondered just how much longer Elliott would be able to keep coming in to the office. After all, he had recently turned seventy and had slowed down noticeably. Matt, on the other hand was only thirty-five and couldn’t even consider retirement for at least another thirty years. He had a family to consider.

  His wife, Chris, had found herself restless after their twins, Nicholas and Veronica, had reached school age. Once they’d left for class, Chris realized that her day could become unbearably long unless she did something about it. And she did. She had found a job four years earlier working as a volunteer at the local hospital. That part-time volunteer job eventually turned into a full-time paying position and Chris loved her work.

  Matt’s ten-year-old son, Nicholas, had shown an eager interest in music at an early age and now in the fifth grade, Nick Cooper was an accomplished musician in the school band, playing the drums. His twin sister, Veronica found her calling in another direction. Teachers realized early on that Veronica had a natural eye for the arts and encouraged her to pursue painting and sketching. Several of her recent creations had been featured in the Sunday suppleme
nt of the Los Angeles Times entertainment section.

  It seemed to Matt that the other three members of his family had found their callings and he was happy for them. Matt knew his own calling lay right here in the office. He was, after all, the fourth generation of Coopers to make a living as a private eye and he loved his job.

  As he stared down onto the boulevard, Matt’s thoughts again turned to the prospect of who he could get to take Elliott’s place when the day came for his father to retire for good. Years ago, Matt had found another private investigator in Flagstaff, Arizona by the name of Leo Cooper. He found it fascinating that they both ran businesses called Cooper Investigations and eventually contacted Leo about meeting to talk with him about the possibility of relocating to Hollywood and joining him and Elliott in their established business. Things didn’t work out as planned after Leo had died in a single car accident on his way into Hollywood and Matt and Elliott went back to business as usual.

  Matt’s great-grandfather and namesake, Matt Cooper, had always run this business by himself, until his son, Clay grew up and joined him. Matt eventually retired and made room for his own son, Elliott. The two of them ran the business until Clay’s heart attack had sidelined him, forcing Elliott to hire a temporary agent until his father could return. The agent Elliott had selected turned out to be the most qualified. She also happened to be a woman by the name of Gloria Campbell, who eventually became Elliott’s wife and Matt’s mother. Gloria stepped down when Matt came of age and joined his father in the business.

  And now here Matt was all those years later contemplating who might take Elliott’s place alongside him. Matt figured he could probably do something similar to what Elliott had done when Gloria announced that she wanted to stay home and raise their two children, Matt and Olivia, herself. During those five years, Elliott had hired retired Burbank policeman Bud Burke, who left again after Olivia was old enough to attend school and Gloria returned. Gloria stayed with the business that second time until Matt came of age and asked to join Elliott in the business. That was nearly fifteen years ago and now it would be Elliott’s turn to step down.

  Matt’s son, Nicky wouldn’t even be old enough to join him in the business for at least ten or twelve years, assuming that’s the direction he wanted to take his life. Matt wasn’t even going to worry about some eventuality that was that many years in the future. For now he’d have to make due with a temporary partner to fill the void Elliott was sure to leave.

  It was after ten-thirty when the office door opened and Elliott Cooper unlocked the door and stepped in. He hung up his coat and stepped over to his desk to find a note Matt had left telling him that he was off to meet with a potential client and that he should be back by noon. Elliott folded the note twice and dropped it in his trash can. He also found the morning edition of the L.A. Times that Matt had left for him. The headline for the article about the gang deaths in Venice was circled in pen with a handwritten note in the margin telling Elliott that Matt had gone to Venice.

  Elliott read the entire article and then laid the paper back on his desk. He wondered if the client Matt had gone to see earlier was connected in any way with that article. He decided to call Matt’s cell phone.

  “What’s up, Dad?” Matt said when he answered.

  “Where are you, Matt?”

  “I’m in West L.A. heading down to Venice. Didn’t you see my notes?”

  “I read ‘em both,” Elliott said. “Neither one said what you were going down there for.”

  “I don’t know myself yet,” Matt told him. “The client didn’t want to talk about it on the phone. You’ll know when I know. So how are you feeling today, Dad?”

  “All right, I guess,” Elliott said with almost no enthusiasm. “You know.”

  “And Mom?”

  “She’s doing better than I am,” Elliott explained. “She wants to know when you and Chris and the kids are going to come over. She hasn’t seen any of you for a couple of weeks now. She said she doesn’t want to wait until Nicky’s old enough to drive over and pick her up.”

  Matt sighed. “You tell Mom we’ll see her this weekend, I promise.” Matt said. “Look, can I call you back after my meeting with this guy? I have to watch for my street. I don’t want to miss it.”

  “Catch you later,” Elliott said.

  Matt closed his phone and laid it on the center console. He scanned the street signs to get his bearings and then pressed the power button on his GPS system just to be sure. Chris had bought him one ten years ago but he told her that he already knew L.A. like the back of his hand and asked her to return it. Lately, though, the more he traveled out of his comfort zone, the more he knew he’d eventually have to knuckle under and get with the latest technology. He didn’t buy another portable GPS unit, but the last time he traded in his car on a new model, it came with a GPS screen built into the dash so he decided to make the effort to learn how to use this one.

  Matt followed his GPS direction to the corner of Windward and Speedway and found a place to park in the lot behind a building that had had a giant mural painted on one side. He got out and walked several doors down before he found the store his client had told him about. It was a small shop that sold tourist items; sunglasses, flip-flops, towels, suntan oil, candy, cameras and bottled water. The sign on the sidewalk also let tourists know that they could rent a bicycle here. What caught Matt’s attention was the name of the store on a colorful sign above the entrance. It said, A Merchant of Venice, each letter of the sign painted a different color. Clever, Matt thought, remembering his college literature course and the Shakespeare play that he had to read.

  Matt walked in and found a clerk standing behind the counter near the door. Matt looked at the man and said, “Are you Tony?”

  The clerk shook his head. “I’m Sal Lorenz.” He hiked a thumb to his right. “Tony’s in the back. Just go back and push that curtain aside.”

  “Thanks,” Matt said, walking toward the rear of the building. He stopped on this side of the curtain and knocked on the wall instead of just walking in, as the clerk had suggested.

  “Come on back,” a man’s voice said.

  Matt pulled the curtain aside and stepped into a back room that looked like it may have once been a store room that had been turned into a makeshift office. A man sat behind a small desk, pouring over a list of figures on a sheet attached to a clipboard. He looked up when Matt entered. “Are you Tony?” Matt said.

  The man stood and offered Matt his hand. “It’s Antonio, actually, but everybody calls me Tony.”

  “Well, Tony, my name is Matt Cooper. We spoke on the phone earlier this morning.” Matt handed Tony one of his business cards.

  Tony glanced at the card and then gestured toward a folding chair that was leaning up against the far wall. “Please,” he said. “Pull up a chair and let’s talk. Can I get you something, a soda or maybe a bottle of water?”

  “No thanks,” Matt said. “I’m good.” Matt unfolded the chair and placed it across from the small desk where Tony sat. “You said this was urgent when you called.”

  Tony opened his desk drawer, dropped the clipboard into it and slid it closed again before turning his attention back to Matt. “It is, Mr. Cooper. I’m being shaken down by those thugs on the street. They come into my shop telling me they can protect my store from damage, but we both know what that means.”

  “Sounds like extortion,” Matt said. “Why don’t you just go to the police?”

  “There were two of them in here just yesterday,” Tony said. “The one who came back here, I think his name was Leonard, said he had contacts in the police department and that he’d know if I went to them. I can’t afford what they’re asking, but I don’t want to see my store vandalized, either. I didn’t know what to do. That’s why I called you.”

  “This guy told you his name was Leonard?” Matt said.

  “Not in so many words,” Tony said. “I heard his partner call him that before they left. I didn’t get the partner’s
name. Why, is it important?”

  “It could be if I take the case,” Matt explained. “I’d have to know who I was looking for.”

  “Did you happen to walk by the surf board shop three doors down when you came here?” Tony said.

  Matt shook his head. “I didn’t see one. I must have come from the other direction. Why?”

  “Stephen’s front window is all boarded up with plywood,” Tony explained. “I asked him about it and he told me that two guys had been in his store the day before offering their protection services.”

  “Let me guess,” Matt said. “He turned them down.”

  “He told them to get out of his store or he’d call the police. I think you know what happened after that.” Tony sighed. “And it’s not just Stephen and me. We both talked to some of the other merchants in this neighborhood. They’ve all been approached at one time or another by these same thugs. After what they did to Stephen’s store, we all decided to do something about it. We had a meeting last night in my back room and I guess I got elected to make the call to you.”

  “Do you think you could arrange another meeting with those same merchants?” Matt said. “It would help if I could talk to all of them so we could formulate a plan.”

  “I’ll call all of them this afternoon. After we close our shops for the day, maybe you could meet us all back here again tonight.”

  “I can do that,” Matt said. “This is beginning to look like it could turn into a bigger job than I thought, but I can always bring my dad into it with me. He’s also my partner at Cooper Investigations.”

  “We’d appreciate anything you could do for us, Mr. Cooper,” Tony said.

  The curtain parted at that moment and a young woman stepped into the room. She looked at Matt and then at Tony.

  “Jessica,” Tony said. “What is it?”

  “Those two men from yesterday are back,” Jessica said. “They want to talk to you.”

  Tony shot a quick glance at Matt. Matt stood and stepped closer to Tony and whispered in his ear, “I’ll be watching from here. Just act normal and go along with whatever they say.”