“Don’t know yet. Gotta check every name I come across. I’ll give him a call.”
“He’s out of town. At least he was, which is why Brad couldn’t use him while he was on jury duty. Charlie has family troubles somewhere out of state, I think.”
“Worth a shot calling.”
“I’ll go pour the tea. Coming?” Emily left the room as if it were too painful for her to be there. It was easy to see how lost she felt.
I removed the flash drive, powered down the computer, then stood and peered around the room in case I’d missed anything. I’d done things like this a million times and never felt the way I did at that moment. Maybe Emily’s presence had an effect on me. Maybe Brad’s death had shaken me and I needed to get some distance on this if I was going to find his killer. I walked out of the room and down the stairs unable to shake the mood. The only way to get rid of the feeling was to find the guy who killed Brad.
“Hey,” I said as I stepped into the living room. Emily held a photograph of her brother. A tray with teapot and cups sat on the coffee table.
“Find anything helpful?”
“Bits and pieces. You never know what’s going to help. If I can put things together, who knows? It’s a start.”
We sat quietly having tea, or rather, I had tea, Emily let hers grow cold. Once or twice she looked at me and I could see Brad in her eyes. It was haunting.
“I should get going on this. Call me. Any time you need to. You hear?”
She nodded without much feeling and saw me to the door. I turned as I left and caught her looking off into the distance. No one felt Brad’s loss more than she did and I wanted to do something to ease the pain she felt.
Outside in the sunshine, I felt alone. The sensation was enhanced by the dull gray church dominating the neighborhood. Nothing felt right and I resolved to do something. Giuliani had a humongous case load, the Department wouldn’t move fast enough. Brad’s case would take its place in line. I wasn’t about to sit and wait for results. If this was going to get solved before everything went cold, I’d have to investigate. Giuliani wouldn’t be happy but I wasn’t born to make her smile.
The walk back to my office gave me time to plan a course of action. Brad’s contacts would be the logical place to start. If I could get a line on the other victim, that would present leads, too.
Some days the world gets a little smaller. You see it happening right in front of you and feel powerless to do anything about it. I could at least find out what had happened to Brad and why.
I had a lot to work with. More than I could handle alone. I decided to call Luke and Anton to help. The faster we moved on this the better. I palmed my cell phone and dialed their numbers.
Chapter 5
My feet took me to my office more or less automatically. As I walked through the gayborhood, I was reminded of one of the last times I’d seen Brad. It was outside the Village Brew where he’d stood chatting with a friend. Cafés and shops had been busy then, too. In the presence of loss all the hustle and bustle was surreal. I’ve been down that path before, especially when Galen went missing. Everything around me rushed on as if nothing were wrong. That’s how it is, the world keeps moving no matter who’s gone. You either keep up or you don’t.
I was glad Luke and Anton had agreed to help research the names I’d gathered. The unknowns were piling up and they’d help sort things out more quickly. Both Luke and Anton were detail oriented. What’s more, I trusted them to do the job.
Aside from the lists there was that ghost of a name: Johnny. No last name, no nothing. Maybe we’d find him tucked away in Brad’s notations. If we were really lucky, there’d be some other lead. It’s no good going into a case with the feeling that you’ve got too much mountain to climb and not enough rope. You’ve gotta believe you’ll find a lead or you’re dead in the water. Whoever did the crime had left a trail whether he knew it or not. You’ve got to know how to read the signs.
But something felt just out of reach about these murders. I had a feeling it’d take more than extra sets of eyes to figure it out.
I looked forward to shutting myself in my office for a while before the others arrived. The new digs were miles better than the other building but I missed the old place. The new building was a tidy, newly-renovated five story structure on Spruce. Everything about the interior was sleek and modern. The stairs didn’t creak, the doors didn’t squeak, and there were no apartments with blaring TVs a floor below. This building, housing only offices, was empty and lifeless on weekends. I missed Drew and his video store in the old place and made a mental note to stop in to see him.
Sitting at my desk, I ran a hand over its rough surface. The desk felt like an old friend. It was good to have my furniture here even if the rickety pieces looked drab in the new setting. Olga complained about my hanging onto the old stuff, but I’d gotten her a new desk and she’d stopped grumbling for a while.
Before anything else, I picked up the phone and called Charlie, the person who sometimes subbed for Brad. As Emily predicted, the call went straight to voicemail. I left a message and told him I was a friend of Brad.
There were files on my desk reminding me I had other cases needing attention but Brad’s face floated up in memory and my thoughts turned dark and angry again. I wanted to find whoever did this more than I needed to work other cases. The silence in the office amplified my anger keeping me from sinking into the abject helplessness that people feel when someone close is murdered. I told myself I wasn’t helpless, that I had the tools to solve Brad’s murder and had no intention of doing nothing.
Before I had another thought, Luke swept into the office, his beautiful, classically Chinese face set in a sad expression.
“You all right?” Luke placed his warm, gentle hand to my face.
“I’ll feel better once we get going.” I squeezed his hand then pulled him down for a brief kiss. “Sitting around, doing nothing drives me nuts.”
“You looked so intense just now, I wondered if something else was wrong.” His movement around to the front of the desk was smooth and sexy. He sat facing me, his black eyes filled with concern.
“How’d you get here so fast?”
“I was in the neighborhood when you called. One of my guys had trouble on a job and I stopped by to help him. He was working in that new condo building on Chestnut and the apartment owner… let’s just say he went a little too far.”
Luke owned a wildly successful house cleaning business and we’d been friends for what seemed like forever. Even better, we were friends with benefits and, though Luke occasionally flirted with settling down, he was holding out for the right man and the right time.
“One of those days, huh?” I smiled remembering some of the odd problems he’d encountered. Running the business meant running interference for his guys who sometimes dealt with some overly frisky clients.
“The client claimed he ordered a nude cleaning session. He didn’t. I took the call myself and that’s not what he asked for. I’m almost sorry we offer nude cleaning.”
“That’s what got you where you are today.” I said placing my flash drive on the desk.
“It’s the part of the business that brings the most problems.” He resettled himself in the soft chair.
“Too bad,” I said. “I was going to order a week’s worth of nude housecleaning.”
“Yeah, and I was going to ask Uncle Han if he’d clean your placed dressed only in a thong.” Luke winked and leered.
“He’s not exactly what I had in mind. Still hard to believe you and your uncle are related.”
“I made a list of Brad’s friends I know about in case you need that,” Luke said, waving a sheet of paper. “You probably have all the names already.”
“Never hurts to have another list to check against. I found more at Brad’s place. We’ll combine the lists and go from there.”
“How did you get…?”
“Believe it or not, Giuliani let me help one of her detectives break
the news to Emily. I stayed after the newbie detective left. Emily’s a wreck. She needed someone familiar with her and she asked me to investigate. I wasn’t about to say no.”
“Seems it’s always been just Brad and Em. They didn’t have other family, did they?”
“No. Now it’s just Em. Which is why I wanted to be there for her.”
“I’m sure she was glad. I’ve got to call her.”
“She insisted I investigate. Something about not trusting the police. You know what that’s about?”
“Nope. Brad worked for me part-time a while back. Never heard anything about police problems.”
“There must’ve been something. Anyway, she let me go through Brad’s stuff which is how I found all this.” I held up the flash drive. “It’s a start. I’ll have to do a lot more digging before this is finished.”
“Wow. You downloaded everything?” Luke’s face lit up.
“There wasn’t much.” I paused. “Emily said a name I’d never heard Brad mention.”
“A boyfriend?”
“A stalker. That’s what she thought.”
“Somebody was stalking Brad? A client? Or someone else? He never mentioned that to me.”
“Emily didn’t know who it was. She only had a first name. Johnny. That’s all we’ve got to go on. Maybe we’ll catch a break and he’ll appear on Brad’s client list.”
“Just tell me what to do.”
“First thing is getting through the names. Clients, friends, all of them. That’s priority one. We’ll divide them up and call them all. I’ll take a close look at his schedule, too. He could’ve left a notation or something that might give us a lead.”
“You think three of us is enough to get through the stuff?”
“You two are the only ones I trust completely. But we could use more eyes.”
“When’s the Hungarian hunk getting here?”
The sound of soft, low laughter floated into the room and we both looked up to see Anton and Jean-Claude moving through the reception area toward my office. There was something cozy about the way they walked, shoulders bumping softly now and again. Anton listened, head bent toward Jean-Claude, as if they shared some secret. Jean-Claude laughed looking over at Anton with a shyness that never appeared when he stripped onstage.
For some reason, I was rattled at the sight of them together. I felt a pinprick way back at the edge of consciousness when I noticed how comfortable they appeared with each other. Had I been so oblivious that I never saw this coming? I’d been taking Anton for granted. Letting my work come before almost everything else. I’d been an absentee friend. I observed the two of them, feeling as if I’d misplaced something and had no idea where to search or even how.
“Hey. I brought reinforcements.” Anton said and flopped into the club chair next to Luke. Jean-Claude hung back near the door.
“Who’s this?” Luke sized up Jean-Claude.
“Jean-Claude is one of my dancers,” I said and frowned at Anton. I hadn’t asked him to bring anyone along. “Anton. Can we have a word?” I stood at my desk and indicated with my chin that he move back into the reception area.
Taken aback, Anton studied my face, then stood and walked out of the office.
I closed the door behind me and stood face to face with Anton. His eyes, golden and clear, betrayed his confusion. I couldn’t be angry if I tried.
“What’s going on?” Anton said, all innocence.
“What’s he doing here?” I whispered.
“He’s… helping. I thought you said you could use all the eyes you could get on this.”
“I can but… Jean-Claude? Since when…”
“Isn’t finding Brad’s killer more important than your feelings about Jean-Claude not being up to the job?”
“Of course, it’s impor… what are you talking about? I have no feelings about Jean-Claude’s competence.” Or, did I? Of course, maybe I had other reasons.
“Then why not let him help? Do you feel threatened by him?” Anton teased.
“Threatened…? You’re kidding, right?” Good question, though. Was I feeling threatened? By what? The comfortable way they interacted or by the idea Jean-Claude wanted to horn in on my business when he became a private investigator? I’d go with the P.I. threat. The other possibility could only lead to no good. “I don’t feel threatened. It’s… Jean-Claude doesn’t have much experience.”
“Excuses. This is the kind of work he wants to do, he’s perfect for it. Besides, Jean-Claude idolizes you. Or didn’t you notice that, either?”
“He’ll get over it. I can’t have an inexperienced kid possibly missing something important.”
“Then let him work with me. I’ll help him gain some of that precious experience you think he needs.”
“Keep an eye on him. A lot depends on this.”
“You’re a real beast today.” Anton leaned in to peck me on the cheek. “Brad was important to me, too. I want to find whoever did this.” He mussed my hair and drew one hand down the side of my face sending an electric tingle through me.
Back in the office, I took out a sheaf of papers.
“So this is where you do it.” Jean-Claude whistled, his eyes wide.
“Do… it?” I felt the edge to my tone. “What do you think goes on in here?” I laughed but I know it didn’t sound genuine.
“You know what I mean, Mr. Fontana. This is…”
“Didn’t I warn you about that?” I feigned mild anger. Actually I didn’t have to do much feigning. I was mildly angry and didn’t want to think about why.
“What?! Did I do something?” Jean-Claude looked worried.
“You keep calling me Mr. Fontana. Every time someone says that I think my father walked into the room.”
“Oh… oh, oui, yes. Désolé. I forgot.” The color returned to Jean-Claude’s face. His broad chest expanded and contracted rapidly as his breathing returned to normal. Poor kid.
“What do you need us to do, Marco?” Anton looked at me. It wasn’t exactly a sweet glance.
I fumbled with the papers on my desk. “We’ve got a list of names. Friends, clients, who knows? We need to see if any of them has any idea what might’ve happened. Or, if Brad had any trouble they were aware of.”
“How do we do this?” Jean-Claude asked.
“I’ll divide up the list. You all have your cell phones?”
Everyone nodded.
I divided the papers I had. “Okay, I’ll take the first third. Luke you take the next group. Anton and Jean-Claude can share the rest.” I distributed the lists. “Some guys are Brad’s clients. They’re not gonna be happy about being called.”
“So be discreet, right? I know the drill.” Anton said.
“I don’t know what Brad’s arrangements were with different clients, if you know what I mean. Assume this is not something the client wants widely known.”
“Anything else,” Jean-Claude asked, already scanning the lists.
“There’s one thing. Look out for the name ‘Johnny’ whether it’s on a client sheet or any other list.”
“Johnny? Just Johnny?” Anton asked, glancing at the papers in his hand. “We have a last name to go with that or is he one of those one-name people?”
“He might’ve been stalking Brad. We don’t know his last name. Any Johnny on your list will have to be considered. Just bring me the information. I’ll handle the Johnnys.”
Luke chuckled as he looked over his list.
“What’s funny?”
“One of the names on this list, Ricky Sorba, the radio talk show host. A big-mouth bigot and a homophobe. Kinda nice to see his name here. Can’t wait until I get him on the phone.”
“Not today. Save it for another time. Today we do what we can for Brad.”
“Gotcha.” Luke said, his smile dissolving.
“Look at this,” Anton commented. “Brad must have been one hell of a masseur.”
“He was.” I said.
“There are a couple of names on th
is list… like Hank Musto. Isn’t he a state senator?”
“Was a senator. Resigned last year. Took bribes or something. My company used to clean his place.” Luke commented.
“Here’s another name that sounds familiar. Denny Shuster.”
“He’s the campaign manager for Pat Kelley, the State Rep who wants to be a Senator.” Luke said. “Another piece of work.”
“Brad was good at his job,” I said. “And he was discreet. I’m not surprised he had high profile clients. Word gets around.”
“Last night you told me Brad was good. He must’ve been really good to get these clients,” Anton said.
“No idea what Brad did or didn’t do with his other clients. With me he was always legit.”
“For you, oui. For others, he could offer the extra services, no?” Jean-Claude said. “I have friends who do the massage here and back home. They do more than you may think, eh?”
“All the more reason to be discreet,” I said. “They might have information and we don’t want to scare them off.”
We talked about how they should approach clients. I told them to keep it nonthreatening. Ask if they saw or heard anything unusual during a session. Ask if they remembered anything out of the ordinary. The important thing was keeping them from feeling threatened, from worrying about exposure. That was a problem in an investigation like this.
“Whatever you do, take notes. Especially if someone sounds suspicious or evasive. We’ll split up so we won’t hear each other talk. Luke you take the outer office. Anton, why don’t you and Jean-Claude use the conference room at the back?”
“Whatever you say, boss.” Anton winked at me.
“Try to get to everyone. Especially any big names like Sorba.”
“You suspect him?” Anton asked.
“Not yet. I want the big players to understand what we know about them. You never know what’ll fall out of the tree when you shake it.”
Anton looked at me then, with Jean-Claude, walked into the conference room and shut the door.
Once everyone was settled, I called the first person on my list. Voicemail. I left a message for Jack Adams and moved to the next name.
Body on Pine Page 6