Decaffeinated Corpse cm-5

by Клео Коул

  The debate right now was with residents who saw themselves being priced out of their homes. It was the same old song that had been sung so many times on Manhattan Island. Low rent immigrant and industrial areas, plagued with cracked sidewalks, graffiti, and crime, became havens for struggling artists who turned them trendy, making them gold mines for developers, who boosted rents, squeezing longtime residents and poor artists out.

  “Uh-oh,” I mumbled.

  “What?” Madame asked.

  “This is the neighborhood where Matt’s renting a warehouse. Do you think Ellie’s on her way there for some reason?”

  “For what reason?”

  “I don’t know... Matt’s storing Ric’s decaffeinated green beans right now. They’re extremely valuable, and I have to tell you, at the moment, I don’t trust Ellie...”

  “They’re not turning or stopping,” Madame noted. “Where is Matt’s warehouse exactly?”

  “Just a few blocks away, I’m surprised he never took you to see it.”

  “What’s to see? Bags of green coffee in a big building. I’ve seen them all my life, dear. Matt’s handling all that now.”

  The buildings around us began to change again, from industrial to residential. The streets became cleaner, the graffiti disappeared, and well maintained brownstones now lined the blocks.

  “We’ve entered Carroll Gardens,” I informed Madame.

  But my focus was momentarily off the vehicles we were following. Mike Quinn’s brownstone was around here somewhere, and I was searching for a glimpse of it.

  During my previous trips to Matt’s warehouse, my ex-husband had been driving, and I wasn’t about to sound like a teenager asking her father to “please drive by Mike’s house. I want to see where he lives...” At the moment, Madame and I were still on Union. We passed the intersection with Hoyt, then Smith (ten blocks down was the famous Smith and Ninth subway station, the highest elevated platform in New York’s entire subway system). Suddenly, a woman in another SUV, a cherry red one, pulled out of her parking space, and jumped right in front of me, cutting me off.

  I hit the brakes. “Damn!”

  Now there were two SUVs between me and Ellie’s car. Court Street was just ahead, and the line of traffic had stopped for a red light. I found it interesting that the Asian man in the black SUV was still following Ellie.

  Coincidence? I wondered. Mike Quinn always said that in his line of work there were no coincidences.

  The reminder of Mike and coincidences together had me back checking the street addresses. His old home had to be on this block. I peered down the row of connected brownstones, and noticed a FOR SALE sign in front of one of them. Like the others on this quiet, tree-lined street, the house was set back from the sidewalk, giving it a nice little front yard, delineated by a wrought iron garden gate.

  I counted three floors and knew, on sight, that it was a valuable building. An owner could comfortably live on one or two floors and rent out the third. Buildings like this one, in this quiet, lovely neighborhood, a close commute to Manhattan, easily sold for one million dollars or more.

  I tried to remember some of the funny things Mike had said about living here... how the area was named after the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence (Charles Carroll), but the area was more famous for a more modern Brooklyn native, Al Capone. The gangster had ended up in Chicago, but he’d begun his criminal career near here and was married at St. Mary’s Star of the Sea church just around the corner.

  I wondered in passing if Mike’s wife and two kids had moved out yet, and I automatically scanned the street for any sign of them (Mike had shown me photos). But the narrow block was empty, save for a young woman with short dark hair and trendy glasses, talking on a cell phone as she pushed along a baby carriage. She was clearly one of the newer transplants to what had once been a neighborhood of working class Italian immigrants.

  “Clare!” Madame suddenly cried.

  I jumped in my seat. “What?”

  “The light’s changed! Look, the cars are turning onto Court.”

  I didn’t have to ask what direction. It would have to be south, because down here Court was one way. I was about to make the turn when the tightly timed stoplight changed again. The woman in the cherry SUV in front of me hesitated on the yellow. She stopped, as if considering whether to go through it, then started up again, making the turn.

  “Damn!”

  The woman had left me stuck on a full blown red light, and traffic was starting to come through the intersection.

  “Go through it,” Madame demanded.

  “I can’t! There’s no ‘left on red’ allowed in New York State. I don’t think ‘left on red’ is allowed in any state!”

  “Go through it anyway,” Madame demanded. “This is an emergency.”

  “We don’t know that.”

  “We’ll lose both Ellie and the man in the black SUV following her—and you said someone is after Ric. You said they could have killed him the night he was mugged, and he looks so much like Matt that you’re afraid someone might make a mistake. Am I wrong, dear?”

  “No.”

  “Then do as I say. Put your foot on the gas, sneak out carefully into the intersection, and go through that red light, tout de suite!”

  I did. Pretending I was simply entering another traffic circle, I waited for the oncoming flow of cars to lighten up just enough for me to nose out there, then I burned rubber, made a screeching turn and headed down the street. Within three blocks, I spotted that cherry red SUV.

  “Where’s the black SUV?!” I cried. “It should be in front of her!”

  “It’s up ahead. Look!” Madame replied.

  “But there are two of them now!”

  A pair of the same model black SUVs were rolling side by side down Court. Each of the large, boxy vehicles had a dark-haired man driving, and I couldn’t tell which of them was the Asian man who’d been following Ellie.

  “Oh, damn,” I murmured. “Why didn’t we get the license plate?!”

  “Where’s the Town Car?” Madame asked.

  “I don’t see it!” I cried.

  Just then, the black SUV on the left, put on his left-turn signal. He was planning to turn soon, while the one on the right was obviously going to continue driving straight.

  “Which way should I go?” I asked. “Should I turn with the guy on the left, or go straight with the guy on the right?!”

  “I don’t know, dear!”

  The burst of siren nearly sent me through the car roof. I checked my rear view mirror. A half a block back, a police cruiser was threading through the heavy traffic. “You in the red vehicle,” a loud voice suddenly boomed over a loudspeaker, “pull over.”

  Crap!

  An NYPD traffic cop had obviously witnessed my little lapse in judgment back at the intersection of Union and Court.

  “But officer,” (I could say) “right on red is legal on Long Island.”

  “You’re not on Long Island!” (The cop would probably bark.) “And you made a left. License and registration, and get out of the car, we’ll want to search the vehicle and give you a sobriety test.”

  “Don’t, Clare! Don’t pull over!” Madame cried.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “I’m very serious. I bought a little something in the Garden.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “There was this nice Jamaican man. He and I hit it off— you know, I’ve been to his native island many times—and he offered to sell me some clove cigarettes. But I suspect they might have a little something more than cloves in them.”

  “A little something more? What are you telling me? What something more?!”

  “You know, something of that famous native crop from the man’s island home.”

  “Coffee?”

  “No.”

  “Ganja?”

  Madame nodded.

  “You made a drug deal at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens!”

  “I have the cigarett
es in my bag, and I’ll gladly throw them out the window, but you have to evade the police car well enough for me to get rid of them without those two nice-looking officers seeing me dispose of the evidence.”

  “For the love of... !”

  The burst of siren was louder now and longer. “Lady in Red! Pull over!”

  Clearly, the cop had a case of agita, and I wasn’t helping. But I couldn’t pull over if Madame was carrying marijuana. I had no idea how much she had, or how much was enough to land her in Rikers Island Correctional Facility for the night.

  “Look, the Town Car!” Madame cried.

  I’d sped up enough to catch sight of it near the end of Court Street. We were also out of Carroll Gardens by now and entering Red Hook, a neck of land that jutted out into Upper New York Bay. Years ago, Red Hook had been a bustling working class enclave for dock workers, then it fell on hard times.

  A little over a decade ago it was discovered by artists, who were inspired by (as a visual artist put it to me one day in the Blend) “stunning harbor views clashing with urban decay.” And now, the same old song was playing again: the area was on its way to gentrification, with waterfront development plans that included the largest Ikea in the world replacing a nineteenth-century dry dock.

  The police siren wailed again, and I noticed in my mirror that cherry red SUV, driven by that lady who had stranded me back at the traffic light. She started pulling over, clearly misunderstanding that the cop was after me.

  I took the opportunity to push the envelope—along with the gas pedal.

  The cherry SUV moved between me and the police car to get to the side of the street, and I punched forward, just making the end of a yellow light at the bottom of Court. I didn’t know where the black SUV was, but I saw Ellie’s Town Car. It had swerved right, and was now heading for Hamilton Avenue and the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel Plaza.

  “Of course! They’re taking the tunnel!”

  I always took one of the three bridges to and from Brooklyn, so I hadn’t recognized this route to the tunnel.

  “Looks like Ellie’s going to Manhattan, after all,” Madame noted, turning in her seat. “And it also looks like you shook that traffic cop.”

  “Yes, it seems I did,” I said, checking my rear view, as well.

  Thank goodness, I thought with relief. For once, it appeared I’d dodged the bullet. It also appeared I was wrong about the Asian man in the silver-blue track suit. He and his black SUV were now nowhere in sight.

  Fourteen

  “She’s still sitting in that Town Car,” said Madame.

  I nodded. “I think she’s paying the driver.”

  We’d tailed Ellie’s car from Brooklyn, racing through the Battery Tunnel, and up Manhattan’s West Side Highway. After exiting on Canal, we drove north, snaked around some cross streets and came down Varick (the name for Seventh Avenue just south of the Village). Now we were sitting in my Honda, idling next to a curb in Soho. Ellie’s hired car had parked in front of a hotel half a block away.

  “There she goes,” Madame said.

  Showing a substantial amount of white leg, Ellie exited the parked Town Car. Her high-heeled sandals clicked their way into V. This chic Soho hotel was one my ex-husband had favored before his mother had offered him the rent free use of the duplex above the Blend.

  “V’s a lot like W on Union Square,” Matt used to say, “only it’s a different letter.”

  The V Hotel’s front lobby was on the ground floor. Its enormous plate glass windows easily allowed us to watch Ellie’s movements. After striding to the front desk, she began a conversation with one of the clerks.

  “Is she checking in, do you think?” Madame asked.

  “I doubt it. She has no luggage with her, and why would she change clothes in her van before coming here?”

  Ellie tossed her head of layered strawberry blond hair. Then she turned from the hotel counter, and moved into the large lobby. She settled herself into one of the many plush couches and crossed her long, bare legs. Her pink skirt was short enough to turn a passing gentleman’s head.

  “She must be waiting for someone,” I said.

  “I hear the V’s Mediterranean Grill is quite good. I’ll bet she’s meeting someone for lunch.”

  “But she already ate an entire Cornish hen with me, back at the Garden’s cafe.”

  Madame waved her hand. “Then she’ll just order salad, or coffee and dessert. Eating two lunches for business reasons is not uncommon.”

  I glanced in my rear view mirror. Taxis were pulling up behind me, and a sign nearby warned that this lane was for V Hotel drop off and pick up only.

  “If I stand here much longer, I could get a ticket,” I said.

  “Then you’d better park.”

  “But we don’t want to lose sight of Ellie. You’d better get out and keep an eye on her.”

  “Yes, of course.” With glee, Madame popped the door. “I’m on it!”

  “Wait!” I cried.

  “What?”

  “Ellie hasn’t seen you in years, but she might remember you, so be careful. Sneak in and hide behind something.”

  “Sneak in?” Madame frowned. “How?”

  “I don’t know.... Maybe—”

  Madame patted my arm. “Don’t worry, dear. Just park and join me—and be careful coming in yourself.” She exited the car, then bent down. “Come to think of it, your friend will recognize you if she spots you coming in, so you’d better watch what I do...”

  Madame shut the car door and walked behind the car toward the corner. She dug into the pocket of her burgundy wrap coat and fed coins to a New York Times vending machine. After retrieving a paper, she pretended to read it, keeping it to the side of her face as she passed V’s picture windows.

  At the hotel’s front doors, she stopped and loitered for about a minute. When a group of trendy looking office workers ventured inside, Madame inserted herself among them. Holding the paper up again, to shield her face, she slipped into the front door, then quickly darted off to a far corner of the lobby and sat.

  I shook my head, astonished. “Who needs Mike Hammer when you’ve got a nosey mother-in-law?”

  I revved my Honda, pulled away from the curb, and circled the block twice. There was legal parking on the side streets, but all of the spots were taken—of course! I was just about to bite the bullet and start searching for an underground parking garage when I noticed an SUV (yes, another one, this time blue), pulling out of a legal space.

  “Bingo!”

  I parallel parked, cut the engine, locked the doors, then jogged to the corner. Mimicking Madame, I bought another Times, and snuck into V amid a newly arriving group of Yupsters. Shielding my face, I slunk across the lobby.

  The large, high-ceilinged space was done in muted tones of buff and clay. Glass tables, slender black gooseneck floor lamps, and exotic, somewhat frightening-looking plants gave the entire decor a sleek, modern, rather disturbing feel.

  “Did I miss anything?” I whispered, sinking into the corner couch’s goose down cushions.

  “No,” Madame replied beside me. “She’s just been reading magazines and checking her watch.”

  I didn’t want to take any chances, so I kept the newspaper in front of my face. Peeking around the headlines, I could see that Ellie was sitting far away, with her Pretty in Pink back to us.

  “Has she talked to anyone else besides the front desk clerk?” I asked.

  “No,” said Madame. “She tried to make a cell call, but it was so quick that I suspect she just left the other party a message.”

  We sat for a few more minutes, and I started glancing around the entire lobby. We weren’t far from the Village, and I was a little worried about someone recognizing me.

  I saw two young women talking in a corner, and an African-American man typing on his laptop. I didn’t recognize any of them. One other man was sitting at the far end of the room in a large leather armchair. But he was holding his magazine so high, I couldn’t see hi
s face.

  I tapped Madame’s shoulder.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “Look over there. See that man in the corner, reading a magazine?”

  Madame peeked around her newsprint. “Yes.”

  “Do you see what magazine it is?”

  “Girl... It’s hard to read the title from here. Girl... ?”

  “Girl Talk. Joy used to subscribe to it when she was a teenager. It’s filled with celebrity gossip—boy bands and young actresses, fashion, and sweet sixteen advice on dating.”

  “What’s a grown man doing reading Girl Talk?”

  “He’s either in the young adult magazine business or he’s not reading it and just picked up the first magazine he saw on one of these lobby coffee tables.”

  “So?”

  “So I need you to walk over there and get a look at the man.”

  “In heaven’s name, why? Ellie might see me.”

  “I need you to risk it. I want to make sure that guy’s not the middle-aged man we saw following Ellie.”

  “Oh, Clare, you’re being paranoid. We lost that man before we entered the tunnel. The man over there isn’t even dressed like the one we saw.”

  Madame was right about that. From this angle, I couldn’t see more than the man’s upper torso, but there was no sign of a silver-blue track suit. This man was wearing a tweedy brown sports jacket over a white T-shirt.

  “I just think something’s not right,” I whispered. “Look! He’s peeking around the magazine.”

  “I can’t see his face very clearly,” Madame said. “He’s got that Mets cap pulled too low.”

  “Well, I can’t walk up to him because, if he is that Asian guy, then he saw me talking to Ellie. But he didn’t see you.”

  “All right,” Madame said. “I’m going.”

  She rose slowly and took a leisurely spin of the room, moving around the perimeter. When she got to the man, she said a few words. He looked at his watch and, I assumed, told her the time. Then she moved casually back to me.

  I was careful to keep the newspaper up. “What did you see?”

  “It’s him! You were right! It’s the Asian man we saw in the Garden parking lot. He’s wearing a tweedy sport jacket over a white T-shirt on top, but his pants are obviously the bottom half of that silver-blue track suit.