Catching Water in a Net

by J. L. Abramo

  Twenty minutes later we were pulling into the underground garage at the head-quarters of Richman International.

  “I’ll wait down here, Jake,” said Joey, “I’ll check in with Myron and call Sonny up in San Francisco.”

  “Ask Myron to search the name Alster to see if anything comes up.”

  As I found my way from the garage to the lobby entrance I reminded myself why I had come. I was there to get information, not to give it up. If Jimmy had stumbled upon something within these walls that cost him his life, I wanted to find it before it got away from me. I had a strong feeling that the answer to Jimmy’s murder was somewhere in this building, and hoped to keep it here and not scare it off.

  I wanted to confirm that Richman knew little or nothing about Ex-Con.com and discover if Alster had told Richman anything about my lunch meeting with him at the Beverly Hills Hotel and his allusion to an inside investigation into one of Richman’s employees. At the same time I wanted to avoid alarming Richman to the point where he might call in outside authorities or start asking questions that might cause Jimmy’s killer to disappear.

  I wanted to learn how someone at Richman International might personally gain from offering much more for Ex-Con.com than it was worth. At the same time, I didn’t want to alert Richman to the possibility that someone may have been trying it.

  I took the elevator up to Richman’s suite of offices. When I walked into the reception area Ms. Fairbanks looked almost pleased to see me. It was a refreshing change since lately everyone but Joey had been treating me like a contagious disease.

  “That’s a very handsome suit, Mr. Diamond,” she said.

  “Thank you. Christmas in July. Can I see Mr. Richman?”

  “Go right in,” she said, indicating the huge oak double doors behind her, “can I bring you coffee or a drink?”

  “No, thank you,” I said and entered Richman’s office.

  “Please sit down, Mr. Diamond. Can I offer you a drink?”

  “With all due respect, Mr. Richman, I want to get straight to the point. I know your time is valuable, and I’m in a bit of a rush myself. It would be helpful if you would just try to answer my questions with answers and not more questions.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “What was your interest in Ex-Con dot com?”

  “Ex-Con dot com? I wasn’t aware that I had any.”

  “Mr. Richman, your company recently made an offer of a million for a take-over.”

  “Mr. Diamond, I must have signed checks for thirty million dollars in the past few months alone and we have taken in perhaps twice that much,” Richman said. “I have people all over the world making deals, buying up companies and selling them, sometimes in the same day. Are you sure I can’t interest you in some kind of refreshment?”

  I doubted that any kind of refreshment was in my horoscope.

  “Positive, Mr. Richman, please go on.”

  “Aside from my film interests, I don’t pay much attention anymore. I trust my people, and when something comes across my desk I usually just sign it. If I have a few minutes to spare I might even read it.”

  I was way out of my element. I thought about sneaking a requisition for a case of Mylanta past him.

  But it was pretty much the way Alster had run it by me.

  “That’s very interesting, Mr. Richman, but not particularly helpful.”

  “You say we made an offer for this company.”

  “Yes.”

  “Is an offer still pending?”

  “No, it was withdrawn.”

  “Who did the research for us?”

  “Mr. Alster,” I said, for lack of any other name.

  “Ted Alster is one of my best corporate lawyers, Mr. Diamond. Alster does his homework. I’m sure that Ted could determine if it was a good investment or not.”

  Everyone I had spoken to claimed that it was a poor investment from the get-go, including Alster. It was sounding as if Ted Alster hadn’t gotten around to bothering Mr. Richman with the so-called in-house investigation.

  I cautiously dropped in a line.

  “Are you aware that Alster had a meeting with me last week?”

  “No. What was it about?”

  I guess that settled it.

  What I really needed to know was the name of the other associate, the man who had initiated the offer to begin with. Something was telling me to tiptoe around the issue. It seemed as if Richman wasn’t going to be able to help me, that I would have to try to coax it out of Alster somehow. I’d never been game hunting, but from what I knew it was best not to sneeze when you neared the target. I tried sneaking in the back door.

  “Mr. Richman, would anyone in your company offer to buy a small business for a lot more than it was obviously worth?” I asked. “For a tax write-off perhaps, or on intuitive speculation?”

  “We don’t work on intuitive speculation at Richman International. We work with hard numbers and factual knowledge. As far as tax write-offs are concerned, that’s one area where I make decisions exclusively. Are you driving at something, Mr. Diamond?”

  “You were going to let me ask the questions. Do the names Jimmy Pigeon or Harry Harding mean anything to you?”

  “No, should they?”

  “No, I suppose not,” I said, more to myself.

  The phone on Richman’s desk rang.

  “Certainly, Susan, you can leave now. I won’t be needing you any longer today,” Richman said to Ms. Fairbanks after a short pause, “please switch to the answering service before you go.”

  “I guess I’ll be leaving also,” I said.

  “If you have information about any of my associates that might question his or her integrity I would appreciate knowing about it Mr. Diamond. I give my people a great deal of freedom with our finances.”

  “I really don’t know anything of the sort, Mr. Richman,” I said, throwing it away, “but generally speaking, you might want to pay more attention to what comes across your desk from now on.”

  I could see I wasn’t going to get much further talking with Richman.

  “Mr. Diamond, I’m beginning to feel very uncomfortable talking with you. I don’t really know who you are or why you are here,” Richman said. “Perhaps this is a matter for the police.”

  Richman was trying to make me sneeze.

  I decided it was time to back off.

  “I don’t see any reason for that, Mr. Richman. I came hoping to pick up some business acumen. I guess I came to the wrong person.”

  “I don’t understand?” he said, sounding as if he’d never used those three words together in a sentence before.

  “I’d go into more detail if I thought you were at all interested. Maybe I’ll tell you more about it when I’m ready to sell the movie rights,” I said. “Is Mr. Alster available? There were a few things I neglected to ask him when we met last week.”

  “I believe Ted is out of the office.”

  “Will he be back today?”

  “I don’t know. But he may be checking in by phone.”

  “If Alster does get in touch I’d appreciate a call from you,” I said, giving him Joey’s cell number, “and please don’t mention our chat to him.”

  I rose to leave but couldn’t resist picking up the statuette from his desk.

  “Is this what I think it is?”

  “We received it for Best Cinematography in 1974.”

  “Was that The Godfather II or Chinatown.”

  “The Towering Inferno.”

  “Oh,” I said, putting it back on the desk and leaving the office.

  When I passed back through the reception area Ms. Fairbanks was gone.

  I went down to the garage and got into the car beside Joey.

  “Think we should check in with Myron?” I asked.

  “Don’t worry about Myron; he’ll call if he gets something.”

  The cell phone rang.

  “Speak of the devil,” he said, and handed me the phone.

  “What did he mea
n by that?”

  “It’s just an expression, Myron. Tell me you found the password.”

  “No.”

  “Did you get any hits on Alster?” I asked.

  “No luck. Did you think it was the password? Because I could play around with it a little, if it’s an abbreviation or a company name.”

  “It’s just the name of a guy I’m interested in, Myron. I thought Jimmy might have referred to him. But play around all you want. We need something, and quick.”

  I handed the phone back to Joey and he pulled out of the parking garage.

  “Where to?” asked Joey.

  “Let’s find a drugstore; I need a bottle of Mylanta.”

  Joey found a convenience store. He handed me a fistful of cash and I hopped out. When I came back to the car he got right to it.

  “I’ve got some good news,” said Joey.

  “I could use some good news,” I said.

  “Grace Shipley is out at her friend Evelyn’s house.”

  I wasn’t sure how good the news really was.

  Twenty Three

  “Did Sonny find Grace?” I asked, as we drove out to Beverly Hills.

  “Actually it was your friend Vinnie Strings. He called Darlene and Darlene called me while you were shopping for antacid.”

  “I’ll be damned,” I said.

  “It is curious,” said Joey, “I wouldn’t think that Vinnie could find a coffee bean in a bowl of rice.”

  We pulled up in front of the Harding house.

  “I’ll sit this one out, Jake, if you don’t mind,” said Joey, “and Jake.”

  “Yes?”

  “Remember why you’re here,” Joey said, “don’t forget that it’s about Jimmy Pigeon.”

  I wasn’t sure that I would be able to remember anything once I saw Grace again.

  I envied Joey a bit as I timidly walked to the door.

  I braced myself and pushed the doorbell.

  Grace answered the chime.

  We stood looking at each other, as if both wondering who would be the first to speak. Grace was as beautiful as I remembered her to be, but at the same time I didn’t recognize her. I felt as if I was seeing her through a pair of eyes that didn’t belong to me. She looked somehow out of focus, almost distorted. I couldn’t decide how to say hello. All of the things I’d thought to ask her, to say to her for the past three years, suddenly seemed incidental. It was as if I was meeting a strange woman who might be able to tell me something about Jimmy Pigeon’s last days. The strangeness frightened me; I couldn’t remember how I had once believed that the woman standing before me could ever have really needed me, or anyone.

  I felt a strong urge to turn and walk away.

  She finally broke the silence.

  “Isn’t Joey coming in?” she asked, looking over to the car.

  “No.”

  “Want some coffee?”

  “Sure,” I said, and followed her into the house and back to the kitchen.

  I knew that the only way to keep my mind clear was to get straight to business.

  “Tell me about you and Jimmy,” I said when we were seated at the kitchen table.

  “What about me and Jimmy?”

  “How often did you see him?”

  “After I left San Francisco I came to LA for a while and I needed some help.”

  “What kind of help?”

  “It’s not important,” she said, “anyway I looked Jimmy up and he helped me out. After that we stayed in touch. We both agreed that it would be better for you if my name never came up. I was having lunch with Jimmy a few months ago and he mentioned his idea for the Internet company. I told him that I might know someone willing to invest.”

  “So you put him together with Harding?’

  “Yes. Evelyn and I go as far back as high school. Her husband was looking for something to get in to. It looked like a perfect match.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “I came down a few weeks ago for Evelyn’s daughter’s graduation. Evelyn was really upset. Harry was in big trouble over some debt and needed quick cash. Then the offer came from Richman International and it looked as if the day was saved. But Jimmy had other ideas, and before it could be worked out it was too late.”

  “When was the last time you saw Jimmy?” I asked.

  “At the graduation.”

  “Did he say anything? Talk about any trouble he was in? Anything that might have had to do with his death?”

  “Jimmy mentioned that he was seeing Tina Bella again. That could have been risky, considering who she married.”

  There it was. An explanation for everything. Neat as a pin. So why did I feel as if the pin was poking me in the forehead?

  “Did he mention Carlucci?”

  I thought I caught something in her eye at the mention of the name. Then again, I was looking pretty hard for anything.

  “No,” she said.

  I was out of questions. At least questions that I was not too afraid to ask. I finally had an opportunity to maybe settle in my mind what happened in San Francisco when Grace skipped out on me, but I couldn’t get my mouth to form the words.

  And then it hit me, and it hit me hard. I realized that it really didn’t matter to me anymore.

  I was beginning to feel as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. I had to get out. I thanked her for the coffee and ran back to the safety of Joey Russo. Joey was standing outside, leaning against the car. I could see the look of alarm on his face when he saw me. He moved to me quickly, as if he thought he might have to catch me from falling to the ground. I think that if he hadn’t grabbed my arm I would have.

  “Jesus, Jake. What the hell happened in there?”

  I was breathing deeply, trying to fill my lungs. My chest felt as if it was collapsing. I finally calmed myself down enough to speak.

  “I don’t know, Joey. I feel like I just woke up from a long sleep and got the shit scared out of me.”

  Joey asked only one question.

  “You want to get out of here, pal?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  We drove around the hills for twenty minutes in silence.

  The phone rang again.

  Darlene.

  “Jake, I just got a call from some guy named Vic Stritch. He said that for five hundred dollars he had a phone number to trade. He said he’d call back.”

  “Do you still have the five I gave you?”

  “Yes. But I have to pay the phone bill.”

  “When he calls back, buy the phone number. Don’t worry about the phone bill, just hope they don’t cut the service before he calls.”

  “Okay.”

  “Darlene, did Vinnie mention how he happened to locate Grace Shipley?”

  “He said he got a call from Evelyn Harding.”

  “Why would Evelyn Harding call Vinnie Strings to talk about Grace? How would she even know how to reach him?”

  “You got me, Jake. I’m just relating what Vinnie told me. Trying to figure out anything that has to do with that kid is way beyond me.”

  “Okay, Darlene. Call me the minute you make the deal with Stritch.”

  “Who is the guy. Is he dangerous?”

  “No, Darlene. He’s harmless. You could snap him like a twig. Call me.”

  “Can we go back to the Harding house?” I asked Joey.

  “Why not,” he said.

  Evelyn answered the door.

  “I just walked in, Mr. Diamond. Grace is not here. Don’t ask me where she is, I honestly have no idea.”

  “Actually, I was hoping that you could you help me out on a few questions, Mrs. Harding?”

  “I won’t know until you ask.”

  “What made you call Vinnie Stradivarius with the news that Grace was here?”

  “I don’t know what or who you are talking about, Mr. Diamond.”

  I hadn’t though she would.

  “You mentioned to Detective Boyle that your husband was in some trouble over outstanding monetary obl
igations.”

  “Very diplomatically put, Mr. Diamond. Yes, I did mention it.”

  “Do you know who at Richman International originally contacted your husband to express interest in buying the company?”

  “No. Only that a man named Ted Alster called to withdraw the offer.”

  “What happened when Alster pulled the offer?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Look, Evelyn. This isn’t easy for me, either. I’m feeling a little guilty about not doing more to help your husband. How was Harry planning to settle with Al Pazzo?”

  “When the offer was retracted, Harry appealed to Jimmy. He told Jimmy about the mess he was in and pleaded with Jimmy for help. Jimmy was a good guy, Mr. Diamond. As much as he wanted to hold on to Ex-Con dot com, he was willing to help us. Jimmy said that he would to speak with Richman personally, ask him to reconsider.”

  “Did he see Richman?”

  “I don’t know. What I do know is that Jimmy came back to us and said that he thought he had found a way to settle the debt with Pazzo and keep the company.”

  “But he didn’t say how?”

  “No, he didn’t specify; he just told us he had an idea. Then he asked Grace to take a ride with him, he didn’t say where, which I thought was curious.”

  Good word for it. I waited for her to continue.

  “When Jimmy brought Grace back he told Harry that it was going to work out, that was all that really mattered,” she said.

  “And?”

  “The next night Jimmy was killed, and Harry ran.”

  “Grace was here less than half-an-hour ago; do you think she will be back?” I asked.

  “I really don’t know.”

  “I’d like to talk with Grace again, Mrs. Harding. If you hear from her maybe you could ask her to give me a call.”

  I turned to leave.

  “Jake.”

  The use of my first name surprised me.

  “Yes, Mrs. Harding.”

  “As much as I would like to blame someone else for Harry’s troubles, he created them himself. I don’t really think that you or anyone else could have done anything to save him. Jimmy Pigeon tried, and I just hope that it didn’t get Jimmy killed. If there is anything I can do to help you find out what happened to Jimmy, trust me I will.”

  “Thank you, Evelyn,” I said.