To my great horror, Chandra giggled. She opened that smart-ass mouth of hers and giggled like a schoolgirl.
“What?” I asked.
She jumped a little because she had been staring at Riley, who had gone back to eating her burger. She reached for a fry and had the audacity to dip it twice into my ranch dressing before biting into it.
“Can you check to see if a missing persons was filed on Stein?”
“It’s in the file.” She and Riley were making eye contact.
“I talked to Marcus about a bunch of files Smitty had taken out,” I said, wanting to send a signal that this wasn’t a social event. “There were pages missing. Looked like someone had torn some stuff out. Can you get me those files, too?”
Chandra helped herself to another fry. “Okay.”
Was she sick? She hadn’t said one smart-ass thing to me the whole time we’d been sitting here. She suddenly pulled out a phone similar to Riley’s and looked at the display.
“Shit, I got to get going. Do Riley and you need anything else?”
Do Riley and I need…What the hell is this “Do Riley and you need anything else” shit? Since when had she been so polite? She could remember Riley’s name after meeting her once and yet she conveniently forgot mine.
I slid out of the booth and Chandra said good-bye, escaping with another one of my fries.
Riley pointed with her pinky at the documents. “Anything interesting?”
I sat down again and picked up my burger. “Yeah, Chandra has a little crush on you.” I expected Riley to deny it, but she didn’t.
I harrumphed and told myself that I wasn’t jealous. “It’s about like Caroline Stein said, as far as the child abuse charges are concerned. Stein was apparently the pastor of a religious group called the North Star Family. The kid was supposed to do some chore or something, and decided to play instead. Stein spanked her, and afterward she went to the police. According to her, some of the women and children in the group were forced to perform sexual acts with the male members of the group. The arrest was based on the kid’s word and no other evidence was ever found, so after she recanted the case was dropped.”
I rifled through the other papers Chandra had supplied, before picking up my burger again. “The missing persons report is pretty black and white. Stein never came home from work June third of this year. Caroline Stein reported him missing a few days later, and that’s about all. They haven’t found any evidence to suggest foul play.” I flipped the top page out of curiosity more than anything else, and stared in disbelief. “Son of a bitch,” I said, reading the names of the detectives assigned to the case. “Alvin Wilson and Daniel McClowski again.”
“You’re kidding.”
I wiped mustard off my mouth. “I’m thinking those two detectives are popping up a little too often for my taste.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence?”
“No,” I said. “Twice is a coincidence. More than twice is a common denominator.”
She stopped chewing. “What are you planning to do?”
“I don’t know. I thought we could follow them, see what they’re up to?”
“Is that wise?”
“No,” I said honestly, “but do we have much choice?”
“I don’t know. But it seems to me there must be something else we could do besides following the two cops who tried to drag you in.”
“They won’t know we’re following them, Riley.”
“I think you should come up with something else.” Riley’s frigid blue eyes melted as I smothered a protest. “I had a nightmare last night.”
I had to lean closer to decipher what she was saying. “You did?” She hadn’t told me that, but I remembered waking up during the night and hearing her in the other room, exercising. It had been in my head to get up and make sure she was okay, but I had fallen back to sleep. “What was it about?”
“You were hurt, shot.”
“Oh, baby…” There was something to be said for not remembering your nightmares.
“Foster, I think we should go home.”
I knew she meant back to the Bay Area, back to the cabin. Even though it wasn’t really our home, I think we both thought of it that way because it was the first place that we gave in to our feelings for each other.
“Please, I want to spend time with you.”
“Riley, I can’t. We’re making progress.”
She nodded as if she had expected as much, and I sat waiting for her to say something else to try to convince me that we should leave. Her fear was starting to rub off on me. What if something happened to her? I could never forgive myself.
“Riley, I want you to go back and wait for me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“No, I am not leaving you.”
I bit the inside of my cheek hard to keep from grabbing her and hugging her. “Just give me a few more days, okay? If we can’t figure this out by next week, we’ll go home.”
“You promise, Foster?”
“I promise, baby. I won’t let this tear you up. I want to spend time with you, too. I feel like I owe this to Marcus, but not at your expense.” I looked around the restaurant, my mind spinning. I had promised her that we would leave in less than a week if we didn’t find anything. That did not leave me much time. I’m sorry, Marcus, but I just found her; I’d like to keep her for a while.
“Okay,” I said, clearing my throat. “We’ll talk to the Steins’ neighbors before we deal with Wilson and McClowski. See if they can shed some light on the subject.”
We got to our feet. Riley’s dream weighed heavily on me. I didn’t want to give up, but at the same time I wanted to make her happy, and I could tell that this was starting to get to her. She was afraid I would be careless. In the past I had been, but that was in the past. Now I felt like I had too much to lose. Hell, maybe I should just take Riley home and let the LAPD handle it. Even as I thought it, I knew I wasn’t ready to let go. I owed myself something, too.
Chapter Nineteen
The first house on the Steins’ street was a Victorian with a gaudy cherub fountain in the front. Riley looked so nervous as we strode up the driveway that I racked my brain for an anecdote that would put her at ease.
“Can I help you with something?” A petite, elderly woman emerged from some shrubs.
“Ma’am. I’m a police officer with the LAPD and this is my partner. We wanted to talk to you about your neighbors, the Steins.” I smoothly excluded our names from the introductions.
“My name is Zelda.” She gave me a cursory look, then studied Riley with interest. “I don’t know what I can tell you about the Steins, except that I ought to file a report on them for thievery.”
“They stole something from you?”
“Damn right they stole something from me.” Zelda gestured wildly with a pair of dangerous-looking pruning shears.
I put my arm in front of Riley, much like I did in the car whenever we came to a sudden stop. This time she didn’t give me the usual exasperated look. We both eyed the old woman warily.
She gestured that Riley and I should follow her. “When they first moved in there, I took them over some cookies—a welcome to the neighborhood. And do you know, that woman took my platter, thanked me, and shut the door in my face? Didn’t even have the manners to invite me in. I never saw that platter again, and it was a family heirloom.”
“That’s a great pity,” I said.
Zelda whipped off her gardening gloves and stared at Riley like I didn’t exist. “You look like you could use a drink, dear.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Riley said sweetly.
“Oh my, aren’t you the cute one.” Zelda beamed. “And so polite, too. That’s what I like to hear from you young folks. Come with me.” She led the way through a gate and around a pool that was equal in size to the Steins’. “Wait right there, I’m going to get you a nice glass of iced tea. Would you like some too, dear?”
“Yes. Thank you, ma’am,” I said, just as sweetly, but
all I got was a nod while Riley got another grin.
I narrowed my eyes as the woman walked into the house. “She’s probably into bondage and sadomasochism and she’s going to offer to buy you.” I nodded my head because Riley was shaking hers. A smile started to spread across her face as I went on. “Just wait. She’ll come out that sliding glass door holding a whip and wearing black lipstick, a rubber unitard, spiked heels, and a dildo the size of one of your biceps.” I leaned in close and intoned, “And it’s all going to be for you…the cute one.”
Riley pulled a face. Her body shook.
“Oh, you just went on sale, baby. Fifty percent off, no coupon required.” I couldn’t hide the fact that I was having a hard time catching my breath. Zelda was right; Riley was indeed cute with that mischievous little smile of hers. Hell, I might have to borrow that rubber unitard my damn self.
I clicked on the minuscule tape recorder just as Zelda returned with our drinks. She sat down heavily and frowned. “Now what was I saying, dear? Oh, yes. Those two are a strange couple. I don’t know much about them. They don’t want to speak half the time. And this mess about him missing, I don’t know what that’s all about, but you can bet it’s some scheme that he cooked up.”
“Why do you say that, ma’am?”
“The eyes. You know, he has those shifty eyes that people have when they’re up to no good. Mr. Dooley, the nice gentleman that lives next door to them. He says they killed his tree.”
I made sure to look suitably outraged. “Why would Mr. Stein do that?”
“The tree was blocking his view. Mr. Dooley said that the tree was older than he was, and that it stayed as long as he lived. Mr. Stein said that he could arrange for him to go sooner than he expected, and he would too, if he didn’t get rid of that damn tree.”
“He did not threaten that nice Mr. Dooley?” Okay, I’ll admit that I was pouring it on a bit thick here, but she was still talking and I wanted to keep it that way.
“No, I’m telling you the truth. About a month later, someone drove a copper nail into that old tree and killed it. Mr. Stein called the city, and they made Mr. Dooley cut it down.” Zelda smacked her lips in disgust. “It was a beautiful old tree, too. Mr. Dooley’s grandkids used to love to play in it. You can bet if those two had children they wouldn’t have been so callous.”
“I thought they had a baby.”
“I vaguely remember someone saying that they had lost a baby to crib death or something. I never believed it, though. Mr. Stein is barely ever there, and that woman doesn’t strike me as the motherly type. Lord knows why men like them so young. They don’t know the first thing about raising a family. Of course, us women like them young, too, when we can track them down.” She winked at me, and I opened my mouth to deny that I wanted any part of that statement. “Whew.” She fanned herself and her eyes got glassy. “You should see that pool boy of hers, Terry.”
“Terry is the pool boy?”
“Yes, well, that’s what she calls him.”
“So you don’t believe that Mr. Stein is really missing, then?”
She waved me off. “Of course not. That man is a mean one. Either he’s faking it, or someone has already done away with him. I wouldn’t be surprised either way.”
“Well, thank you for your time, ma’am. I appreciate it.” As we prepared to leave, I had another thought. “Zelda, do you know where Mr. and Mrs. Stein lived before they moved here?”
“They said they were from New York, but neither of them look or sound like they are. If you ask me, they probably lived right here in California and won some money or something. They strike me as that type. Nouveau riche.” She pronounced “riche” as if it were “reach.”
I thanked her again and Riley praised the iced tea. We were walking toward the gate when Zelda yelled out, “Talk to Mr. Dooley. He can probably tell you more than I can. I can call him and tell him you’re coming, if you want?”
“That would be great, Zelda. Thank you,” I called back.
*
I was starting to think the rich really did live better. Mr. Dooley welcomed Riley and me with as much hospitality as Zelda, and he, too, seated us on patio furniture around his pool. It sort of made me sad, because I don’t think either of them got many visitors. Their outdoor furniture was almost identical, so I convinced myself that he and Zelda had gone shopping together to buy it. For some reason, it made me feel better that they had each other.
I bumped Riley with my shoulder to get her attention. Her eyes were already twinkling, as if she knew I was going to make some off-the-wall crack. I had to oblige her, of course. “If one more person gives me a glass of iced tea, I’m going to start pissing like a racehorse all over this nice furniture.”
Her body trembled and she shook her head as if to say, “What am I going to do with you?” I let her know with a wicked smile just what I thought she should do with me. Her slight flush and sharp intake of breath told me she got the picture.
Mr. Dooley returned with the iced tea, and I took a few polite sips before clicking on the tape recorder and asking my questions. “Mr. Dooley, what can you tell us about your neighbors, the Steins?”
“They aren’t worth the lot that house stands on.” Mr. Dooley pushed back a long lock of gray hair with a quick, unconscious sweep of his wrinkled hands.
“Why do you say that?”
He launched into the story about the tree, and I tendered my condolences.
“Anything else odd you’ve seen over there?”
“Well, there was that big black fellow that came over late at night sometimes. I can’t sleep, you see, and I would see them driving away in a big white delivery van. They wouldn’t come back for a few days.”
“Did the van say anything along the sides? Maybe the name of a business?”
“I don’t know if I paid much attention.”
“And the driver? Think you’d recognize him if you saw him again?”
“Maybe. My binoc…Well, my eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be.”
I nodded. As I’d suspected, Mr. Dooley was a watcher, one of those people who feel it’s their civic duty to observe what’s happening on their block. There were a few of them in my apartment complex. They’d never bothered me. I always felt safer knowing someone was watching.
I pulled out a blank card and wrote Riley’s cell number down. “If you should see or remember anything else, would you give my partner or me a call?”
“Of course, Officer. Anything I can do to help.”
*
We had to wait nearly two hours for McClowski and Wilson. I had instructed Riley to park across from the station. I concealed myself in the back of the Blazer screened by the tinted windows. I pulled the cap down low on my head and donned the cheap sunglasses.
“I guess the captain isn’t on their asses like she was on mine, or they would be out doing some work instead of sitting at their desks pushing papers.” Just as the words left my mouth, the two detectives in question came out of the building and walked toward their car.
“Okay, here we go,” I told Riley calmly. “Follow, but make sure you leave a few cars between us and them.”
McClowski and Wilson halted at a brand-new doughnut shop near Ninth, emerged from their car, talked briefly, and walked off in opposite directions. McClowski handed a flyer to a kid on Rollerblades, who promptly crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash can after the detective turned the corner. I waited five seconds.
“I’m going to go get that,” I said. I was already halfway out of the car when Riley dragged on my shirt.
“You promised no unnecessary risks, remember?” Riley jumped out of the car and scooped up the ball of paper. She handed it to me and closed the door behind her.
I stared down at the familiar mug shot. “What the hell?” I handed her the picture.
“You know this Pete ‘Pistol’ Armstrong?” Riley asked.
“Pistol Pete. Yeah, he’s a homeless guy who sometimes hangs out around here. Other tha
n the flashing thing, he’s harmless.” I stared in the direction McClowski had gone. “I wonder why they’re looking for him.”
He’d helped Smitty and me on a few occasions, so that could be it. These idiots didn’t do their homework, though. Pete wouldn’t be down this way for a few hours yet. He came for the food, and to flash the rich bitches that come out of Maverick’s. It doesn’t open until six on weeknights. I frowned when something else had occurred to me.
“Pete was the one who reported the snuff tapes that led us to Canniff’s store.”
“You think this is related?”
I thought about it for a minute. “I don’t know, but one thing’s for sure, we’d better find him before they do.”
*
Between talking to witnesses and tailing McClowski and Wilson, I think Riley had had all the excitement she could stand. She only put up a lukewarm protest when I asked her to stay in the car this time. I walked up to the check-in counter at the Motel 6, and the same clerk that had given Smitty and me the key to Pete’s room was on duty. I gave a silent cheer. I felt sure that I would be able to get Pete’s room number without hassle. That is, if I could tear the guy away from his video game for a few minutes. “Hi, I’m with the LAPD. I was wondering if you still have a Pete Armstrong staying here.” As with the first time I had come here with Smitty, the pock-faced clerk didn’t bother to look up from his video game. In fact, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me at all.
“Twenty bucks,” he said, still not looking up.
“Twenty bucks?” I repeated.
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