Body on Pine

by DeMarco, Joseph R. G.

  “Hey, I don’t want to interfere. You two looked like you were discussing things and…”

  “Don’t be silly, Marco,” Anton said. “I’d like you to join us.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “We were just having coffee before the show,” Jean-Claude said innocently.

  “Tell you the truth I could use the company.”

  I told them about Brad and Max and my encounter with the guy in Brewerytown. Jean-Claude listened with an intensity that surprised me. Maybe he would be a big help. Anton, though, was all compassion and wondered what kind of life the poor guy at the house was living.

  After a while, they both had to start prepping for the show. I decided I needed an early night.

  As we walked out, something on the TV above the café’s counter caught my attention. I stopped and stared.

  “…police have not released the name of the victim, pending notification of next of kin. The Police Department spokesman said the body dredged from the Schuylkill River early Sunday morning was that of a Caucasian male in his late twenties or early thirties. Police were notified by a passerby who called 911 to report the body floating in the river. According to police this is the third body found in the river this year.”

  “If this city doesn’t get a grip on things, people will start calling it Killadelphia again,” Anton said. “Great publicity.”

  “I’ve got a strange feeling about this one, though, Anton,” I said as we left.

  Chapter 12

  Olga opened my office door, looked in at me, and grinned.

  “Young detective waits in outer office for boss. I am letting him in or you are not wanting him?”

  “Sure, Olga, let him in.”

  I quickly spread folders and papers on my desk so it’d look like I was swamped. Never hurts.

  The door opened and Olga waved the Detective into the room. Shim entered as if he’d been in my office a zillion times before. Comfortable in his own skin, he wasn’t tentative in his movements, making him even more attractive.

  “Have a seat, Detective.”

  Shim gave a curt nod and sat in the leather club chair, my one office extravagance. I got a more thorough look at the man as he sat waiting. Neat, well-cut, charcoal-gray suit, white shirt, red tie, and shoes polished to a high gloss. He looked younger than his years. If I had to guess I’d put him around twenty-nine or thirty. His face was angular with a strong jaw and no nonsense eyes. Slender but muscular, he sat ramrod straight and stared directly at me. There wasn’t a hint of innocence or vulnerability about him, but I knew there had to be soft spots.

  “Thanks for meeting me before we go to Emily’s,” I said.

  “No problem. She insisted you be there. She probably told you that.”

  “And more. She doesn’t trust you guys.”

  “Why is that, Fontana? It’s not just that stalker thing she mentioned. I can tell.”

  “You’re unfortunately right. Seems the police didn’t help her brother a long time ago when Brad needed protection from an abusive boyfriend. She’s never forgiven them.”

  “She’d better start trusting someone because we’ve got nothing so far.”

  “CSU didn’t come up with anything?”

  “The spa was a motherlode of fingerprints and DNA. It’ll take weeks to sort it all out. It’s a spa. There’s bound to be all sorts of trace there. It’s like walking into a bar and trying to catalog all the prints and every bit of DNA you can find.”

  “Nothing helps narrow it down?”

  “No weapon, if that’s what you mean. No blood other than the victims.”

  “Any clue about who the other guy was and why he was there?”

  “Got a name. Well known businessman and developer. He wasn’t the shooter, that’s about all I can say. Probably just a client.”

  “Who was he?” This might be nothing but I could check it against Brad’s lists, not that I would tell Shim I already had those lists.

  “Hold on,” Shim flipped through his notebook and nodded his head. “Guy’s name is… was Wheeler. Smithson Wheeler. Recognize it?”

  “Should I?”

  “Well, he was…”

  “Oh I get it. You think he was a client. And I was a client. All us clients know each other, right? We get together to choose Mr. Gay Masseur every year in Vegas.”

  “Not what I meant, smartass. I see what Giuliani means now…” Shim let that comment float on the air. Then, “I thought maybe he was someone you’ve heard of for some reason.”

  “No, never heard of the guy.”

  “Figures. That’s the way everything’s been going. Can’t catch a break.”

  “Giuliani on your back about the case?”

  “On my back, in my ears, and slowly getting into my head. She wanted it solved last night.”

  “Good old Gina.”

  Shim took out his cell phone and checked something.

  “Guess we’d better go. You ready, Fontana?”

  “I can’t keep calling you Detective and you can’t keep calling me Fontana,” I said as I stood. “The name’s Marco.”

  “You can call me Detective.” Shim laughed. “Kidding. Just kidding. You can call me Dae. My name’s Jung Dae but my friends call me Dae.” He flashed a rare smile.

  That smile cracked the hard contours of his face revealing a boyish, mischievous quality. Something about his manner had the needle on my gaydar dial vibrating.

  “So, Gina’s really on your ass?”

  “In a manner of speaking. She’s a demanding boss.”

  “If I can give you any pointers, lemme know. Gina and I go way back.”

  “So I’ve heard. Like I said Saturday, she doesn’t exactly like you.”

  “Nahhh, it’s all an act. She loves me.”

  Dae looked confused.

  “It’s not me she has a problem with. It’s my brother.”

  “Then why…?”

  “My brother and I look alike. We share the same genes. I must give off a pheromone that annoys her.”

  Dae laughed. “She never says anything bad about your investigative skills, if that means anything. She sends plenty of other signals about you. None of them good. She warned me not to get too cozy.”

  “Yeah, I’d watch out if I were you. Wouldn’t wanna make Gina angry. But what she doesn’t know won’t hurt either of us.” I wondered about her warning to Shim. What did she mean by “cozy”? What did that mean about Shim? Curiouser and curiouser.

  “See, now that’s just the kind of thing she said you’d say.”

  “Busted.” I laughed and Shim chimed in.

  We walked in silence for a while, Shim periodically checking his notebook and cell phone.

  “You guys canvass the neighborhood for witnesses?”

  “Sure, whaddayou take us for, some kind of rube hick deputies? We blanketed the whole area.”

  “And? You gonna make me beg for it?”

  “Good thing I’m a nice guy, Marco. You don’t have to beg. We got nothing out of anyone. No one heard a shot. No one heard yelling or arguing. No one heard anything.” He turned to look at me. “Remember all those people on the street when we left the building Saturday morning?”

  I nodded.

  “How is it they didn’t hear gunshots, didn’t notice a damned thing during the night?” He shook his head. “They want police protection. But we’re supposed to pull answers outta the air.”

  “Witnesses are never reliable anyway, especially in cases like this.”

  “Woulda been nice to have something, you know?”

  “What’re you hoping to find at Emily’s?” I asked, hoping to change his mood.

  “Nothing of hers.”

  “I figured that, wiseass. They teach smartass responses at the Academy now?”

  “Maybe there’s something in Brad’s stuff that’ll help make sense out of this.”

  “Nothing about the murder makes sense.”

  “You know… knew him well?”

&n
bsp; “Brad and I became good friends over the past few years. He’s not the kind of guy who makes enemies.”

  “A guy with no enemies. That’s good. Even my father has enemies and he’s a popular realtor in the Korean community.”

  “I didn’t say there were no bad people in Brad’s life, just that he wasn’t the kind of guy who made enemies.”

  “Sounds like you know something.”

  “Brad had a boyfriend way before I knew him. The guy abused Brad mentally and physically.” Since I’d already mentioned the ex-boyfriend I had to tell Shim the rest.

  “You think this old boyfriend might…”

  “Don’t know. His name is Max Gibson.” I watched Shim jot that down in his notebook. Now he owed me one.

  “This pans out, I owe you, Marco.”

  Bingo, I thought.

  We were still a few blocks from Emily’s place and had some time to talk. Shim puzzled me and I wanted to know more. Nothing about him said “police” except that he was so serious most of the time. That demeanor could have developed when he decided to move up in the ranks. Want to be a bigger shot, you need to look like you’re serious about the job. Even better if you actually are serious about the job.

  “So why’d you join the force?”

  “The usual reasons,” Shim answered.

  “Didn’t know there were ‘usual’ reasons,” I said. “I joined because I thought I could do some good.”

  “Giuliani said you almost made it but you washed out after the Academy. What happened?”

  Nice deflection. Now he wanted to know all about me. That’d come after I got answers from him.

  “Long story and one I keep tryin’ to forget. So why did you join up? Gonna save the world?”

  “Family.”

  “Your family wanted you to join the force? Don’t hear that much.”

  “No, my family was opposed. My cousin was murdered when we were both in high school. The police never solved the case, and she never got justice. Not as far as I’m concerned.”

  “And you…?”

  “I don’t want that happening to anyone else, if I can help it. She and I were close and when she was killed…”

  “I understand. Believe me. I understand.”

  “That’s why I joined. Hei was family. She never got her day in court.”

  “Ever think about opening the case again?” I already knew he must think about that every time he stepped into the office, or the evidence lock up, or the case file room. Maybe Shim had an agenda: Work on the force, advance to detective, maybe higher. At some point he’d have enough juice to get the case reopened. It wasn’t ambition that drove him. It was justice. That could be more dangerous than ambition.

  “Been a lotta years, Marco. The case is too cold.” His voice was filled with a sad, even hopeless tone.

  “No case is too cold. You ever decide you wanna reopen the case and you need a private eye to do some legwork, say the word.” I meant it. Maybe it made me think about Galen and finding him. That case was cold, too. Colder, since Galen left nothing for anyone to go on. Except for a note, which didn’t help. At least I had hope he was still alive. Shim’s cousin was dead. That didn’t leave room for hope.

  “I hate having to bother Emily like this,” he said changing the subject. “If we’re going to find…”

  “No one wants this solved more than she does. Besides, I’d like a crack at some of the information, too.”

  “You can look, Marco. But Giuliani said that you weren’t to get any help from the department. She made sure I’d tell you, too. She’s not happy about you conducting your own investigation.”

  “She’ll be happy if I find the shooter and give you guys the collar. Right?”

  “She’s not a very happy lady in general. Maybe you noticed?” Shim said. Maybe he wasn’t as new at reading people as I figured.

  Shim took the lead once we got to Emily’s home and, though she glanced my way a few times, she didn’t give him any trouble.

  ***

  “Can’t say there was much to go on. Brad didn’t leave much of a trail. Appointment book, client list, address book,” Shim complained as we walked back to my office. “This case is going nowhere fast. Giuliani is gonna put my nuts in a vise.”

  “She’s not that bad. She’s probably got the brass pressuring her, so she shifts some of it your way. A double murder in center city is bound to make the mayor blow a fuse. Then he makes the Department unhappy and they lean on Giuliani. Wait’ll you get to where she is.”

  “I know the whole pressure-from-the-top thing. Doesn’t help when you’re the one down below catching all the grief,” Shim said.

  “Been there. Got over it. You will, too.”

  “Yeah.”

  “At least you’ve got some leads even if they’re weak. Like the dead client.”

  “The other db? Smithson Wheeler?” Shim took out his notebook again. “Sure, he’s on the list but he doesn’t come with much. No family. Lived alone in town. A developer with community ties. Had offices in center city. We’re working on it.”

  “Maybe there’s a different link between him and Brad. Something other than being a client.” I knew I’d be hunting down a connection as soon as I got back to the office.

  “We’re one step ahead of you on that. There’s no connection we can find. We’re short-handed, so it all falls to me and one other guy who’s even newer than I am.”

  “If I hear anything, I’ll give you a call.”

  “I was going to…” Shim hesitated then went silent

  We continued walking down Fifteenth Street toward Walnut. I wondered what he’d been about to say and whether or not to try and pry it out of him. I was feeling my way with him and wanted to make sure he stayed on my side, if he actually was on my side. If he wasn’t there yet, I didn’t want to push him further away. Having someone on the inside during an investigation was better than gold. Even more, I wanted Shim to pull me into the investigation with tacit permission to help. Of course, there was another, unspoken reason: he was attractive and I wanted a chance to see if my gaydar was still working at 110%.

  I decided to pry.

  “What were you about to ask, Dae?”

  “Hmmm?” He clutched his notebook and stared ahead as if he were trying to make up his mind.

  I could see he wasn’t ready to talk. “You’ve got a lot on your plate. When you remember, let me know.”

  Before he could say anything, his cell phone rang. A no nonsense, plain as concrete ringtone.

  “Detective Shim.” He listened for a moment. Then, “Mmm-hmm. Yep. That’s right…. Got what I could… No… Wasn’t much… Well, yeah, the new detective could help. I was planning on… What’s that? Oh. We caught that one, too? No… no, not surprised. Be back at the station soon.” He shoved the phone into his jacket pocket, swiped a hand over his face, and shut his eyes for a moment.

  “What’d they dump on you now?” The new guys catch a lot of work. If they come through in one piece, they climb the ladder faster.

  “Shit! Dammit!” Shim glanced at me, blushing. “Sorry about that.”

  I said nothing. Looked sympathetic.

  “That was Giuliani. We caught another case and she piled it on me. Like I don’t have enough with this case already.”

  “What’s the new one?”

  “The guy they dredged from the Schuylkill yesterday.”

  “Heard about that.”

  “Turns out he’s a journalist named Vega. Worked for a hot shot website called AllNewsAllNow.com. Giuliani’s making it a higher priority than Brad’s case.”

  “Shit!” Now it was my turn. Not that I’d have dropped my investigation anyway, but now… there was no reason for me to play nice. I’d investigate and let Giuliani bust a gut trying to stop me.

  “Don’t worry, Marco. I’m not giving up on this case. But… it could…” He wavered again.

  “What?”

  “I hesitate to ask but now we’ve got the Vega case,
I could use some help.”

  “You askin’ me in, Detective?”

  “I’m asking you to help but stay under the radar. See what you can find out. If Giuliani catches wind of it, I never said a thing to you. We never had this conversation. Got it?”

  “Gotcha, Dae.”

  “Keep me in the loop, Marco. That’s essential. I’ll be busy with the new case but I won’t give up on this one.”

  “You said his name was Vega? The dead journalist?”

  “Yep, Peter Vega. Did a lot of muckraking stories for the site. Heard he was good.”

  When we arrived at my office building, Shim took off for district headquarters and I headed into the lobby.

  The journalist’s name kept clanging in my head for some reason. Peter Vega. There was something about the name, but I’d never heard of him before he became a floater.

  Chapter 13

  Olga pounded away on her keyboard while squinting at her computer monitor when I arrived at the office.

  “That keyboard do something to deserve a beating?”

  “Yes. Keys are sticking. Board makes Olga crazy.”

  “I have more reasons for you to bruise your keyboard.”

  “You are having file?”

  “No. Just two names. I want as much as you can get on both of them.”

  I gave her a slip of paper with the names Smithson Wheeler and Peter Vega. She’d know what to do. When she was given a project, Olga usually went into silent search mode and wouldn’t look up unless some kind of nuclear device went off under her desk.

  She’d made coffee for me and on my desk sat a plate with a slice of almond cake and a few Russian tea cakes. Olga had obviously spent the weekend baking and was determined to make me fat. The almond cake was worth a few extra miles on the treadmill.

  Peter Vega. The journalist’s name rolled over and over in my mind as I poured coffee into a mug. I couldn’t figure what there was about the name that bothered me. It wasn’t familiar. I’d heard of AllNewsAllNow.com, everyone had. It wasn’t exactly a scandal sheet but its reporters loved digging for dirt. Peter Vega’s work for the site was totally unfamiliar to me, though.