Tanya dropped my hand and shrugged. “Maybe it was easy for you, but it’s not for me. My dad didn’t have very good health insurance when he took ill. There was some life insurance, but the hospital bills sucked up a bunch of the equity in the bar and the house. Besides, I’ve got a college degree in English, there’s not a whole lot you can do with that unless you want to teach. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself, it’s that I don’t have the slightest desire to babysit a classroom full of kids.”
“You could always go back to your dream and give writing a chance,” I said, remembering her comment about the Hemmingway house.
“I gave it some serious thought before Dad died, but all the research I’ve done suggests it’s not an easy way to make a living. Most writers make less than ten thousand dollars a year.”
We’d reached the bar and I stood at the door for a moment, staring at her. “No one said life was supposed to be easy.”
Tanya opened the door and I followed her inside. “I’ll think about it,” she said. Her tone lightened and she added, “Of course I have to remind myself that this advice comes from a man who tends bar for a living.”
“Ouch,” I said. “You’ve got to remember that I worked for my mother from the time I was fourteen and could help out around the office. Now that I’ve quit, I still haven’t decided what I want to be when I grow up.”
“Like that’s ever going to happen.” She gave me a wistful smile. “Like I said, I’ll think about it. In the meantime, let’s get you a drink.”
Most of the locals had not gotten off work yet and the bar was almost empty. There was a young couple sitting at a table, holding hands and whispering back and forth and an old gent I’d seen there before. He kept his long, thin gray hair tied back in a ponytail, his beard was wild and bushy, and he walked with the help of a cane, which he leaned against the bar.
The woman behind the bar, Eve, was in her forties and had a puckered face and thick stubby hands. Her naturally white hair flowed down past her shoulders, and she wore tight fitting jeans and an Alvin’s tee shirt that tugged at her middle.
I’d met Eve a couple of times, but she was usually gone by the time I came on duty. The daytime crowd was far different from the night crowd, and Eve was the antithesis of the women who worked the bar at night.
When we approached the bar she nodded.
“Eve, would you fix Wes up with whatever he wants? It’s on me." Tanya nodded in my direction and headed toward the back room. “I’m going to get changed, and then I’ll be out to relieve you.”
I took the end seat at the bar while Eve gave me the evil eye. “What’ll it be?” she asked.
“I’ll take a Miller Lite.”
Eve walked over to the cooler, made a show of drawing out a dripping bottle, wiped the sweat with her apron, and twisted the cap off with her bare hand before moving back to stand in front of me. She set it down, a little harder than necessary. “Tanya’s like a daughter to me.”
I picked up my beer and took a long sip. It was cold and it tasted good. I set the bottle down and looked across the bar at Eve. I figured she’d get around to what was bothering her when she was ready.
“Tanya has always made it a habit not to date her employees,” she said.
“Who said we’re dating.”
“I can see it in both your eyes.”
“We’re good friends,” I said. Her stare made me feel uncomfortable and I began to swivel my stool back and forth. “If you have any questions about our relationship, you should ask Tanya.”
“I’ve worked here for ten years and I’ve grown pretty fond of that girl. I don’t want to see her hurt.”
I figured it was Tanya’s business how much, if anything, she wanted to tell the other employees about what was going on between us. I was never one to kiss and tell, but I was glad Eve was concerned about Tanya. I might have even blushed as I gave her my most sincere look. “I have no intentions of hurting Tanya. Do you give everyone she brings around the third degree?”
“No.” She reached out, slid my beer bottle out of the way, and leaned across the bar. “Just the ones who have assholes looking for them.”
My heart sped up and I swung around and scanned the room. There was no doubt in my mind her visitor had been Willie. After all, how many assholes did I know? I gave her his description to be sure.
“That’s him,” she said.
“How do you know he was looking for me?”
“He gave me your name and asked if you were working tonight. When I told him I didn’t know, he threatened to twist my nipples off if I didn’t find out for him.”
“Sorry you had to deal with him,” I said. “I hope he didn’t scare you too badly.”
Eve shrugged. “I’ve been working bars since I was a teenager. I’ve been threatened, spit on, pushed, sworn at and even hit with a broken beer bottle.” She pointed to a faded scar on her cheek. “Eight stitches.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That I’d been told you had a death in the family and were taking a couple of days off. As far as I knew you hadn’t been in since Thursday.”
“He believed you?”
She nodded. “Slipped me a twenty and gave me a number to call if you showed up.”
I slid off the stool. “He can’t know that Tanya and I are friends.”
She picked up on the concern in my voice and smiled for the first time. “I wouldn’t call the little weasel for a twenty,” she said. “Now if we were talking a hundred, it might be different story.”
“You can’t…” I began, but she lifted her hands and stopped me.
“It was a joke,” she said. “I wouldn’t do anything to put Tanya in danger. But it’s possible he could come back in.”
I looked toward the door Tanya had disappeared behind a few minutes earlier and considered going to her, but decided against it. “I think I’d better get going,” I said.
“I’ll explain what happened to Tanya. Are you sure this guy doesn’t know about you and her?”
“Not unless Gail told him.”
“Shit,” Eve slapped her hand on the counter top and I jumped.
“What?” I asked.
“I never did like that girl. She’s trouble and I don’t trust her.”
“Well she seems to be buddy-buddy with Tanya,” I said. “I’ll get going now. Tell Tanya I’ll see her at her place after work.”
Eve raised her eyebrows. “Her place.”
It was my turn to smile. “Like I said earlier, if you want to know about us you’re going to have to ask Tanya.”
“Don’t think I won’t,” Eve said.
I nodded, turned to leave, and hesitated. I shot a quick glance back at Eve and said, “Thanks. I owe you one.”
Eve nodded, and I walked away from the bar and out the door.
Chapter 21
I looked up and down the street and felt a rush of relief when I didn’t see Willie. I was concerned for Tanya’s safety. I didn’t know whether Destiny had told Frankie about her, but it didn’t matter. As long as he was looking for me, there was a chance he’d learn that I was staying at Tanya’s house. I was convinced Frankie would not hesitate to use her to get to me. I didn’t have what he wanted, and I was afraid he’d hurt Tanya in order to motivate me to find the diamonds.
I headed straight to Elvis’s house. I wanted to get there while it was still light and check out the place.
The way I figured it, if he had a phobia about going out in the dark, he hadn’t been the one to kill Bob or Billy. It didn’t mean he wasn’t involved. I was prepared to drag him out of his house once it got dark and scare the hell out of him. It wasn’t the way I would have liked to do things, but people were dying and I didn’t want to join the funeral crowd.
Although I was prepared to play on Elvis’s fears to persuade him to tell me the truth, I was also willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I no longer believed anything Destiny told me, but I wanted to make it damn hard for
Elvis to lie to me.
There was a small bar across the street and kitty-corner from Elvis’s house called Parrot Island. It was hokey even by Key West standards. The waiters wore pirate outfits, complete with eye patches and stuffed parrots attached to the shoulder of their jackets. I took a seat outside and watched while a whole lot of nothing happened. After what seemed like a long wait, a waiter scooted out of the door and stopped in front of me. He was chatty, couldn’t take his eyes off me, and touched my arm several times while he took my order. When I ignored his overtures, he left with a scowl.
By five o’clock I’d finished two bottles of Miller Lite and was about to head over to pay Elvis a visit when Destiny came strolling by. She wore a short white dress, but there was nothing virginal about the way she swung her hips when she walked. Even my gay waiter stopped what he was doing and watched her walk by. She paused almost in front of me, crossed the street without looking in my direction, and ran up the stairs to Elvis’s house. I couldn’t believe my luck.
I ordered another beer, but decided not to drink it while I waited. Three beers in one afternoon was way over my limit. I was having a hard time sitting still and hoped there wasn’t a rear entrance to Elvis’s place. I didn’t want to lose her now. An hour later Destiny came out onto the porch and then ran down the steps.
I laid a twenty on the table, and when Destiny strolled by I stood and followed her. If for any reason I later decided Elvis was involved, I always knew where to find him. Right now I wanted to know where Destiny was staying.
Destiny turned west onto Duval, unaware she was being followed. She seemed unconcerned about the time, wandering along the street in a carefree manner.
I crossed Duval, weaving between the traffic, and walked opposite her, using the crowd as a shield.
Destiny stopped at a clothing store and looked at several sundresses before she meandered along without buying anything. She stopped a block further on and bought an ice cream cone, then crossed the street and headed back in my direction. I ducked into a tee-shirt shop and pretended to examine the merchandise until she passed by. She didn’t look my way and didn’t appear to have a destination. I suspected she might be killing time, and I was curious as to why.
A half hour later we wandered into Mallory square. To the west, the cruise ship that had docked earlier dominated the skyline and hundreds of tourists milled about waiting for the coming sunset celebration. This was a unique Key West affair. Every night throughout the year residents, tourists, and various street performers gathered to pay homage to the end of the day. That night the crowd was large, which made keeping an eye on Destiny a little harder.
Destiny pushed her way into a group of people watching an acrobat. The man was in his late forties, wore his red hair in an out of date Mohawk cut, and was dressed in pink and purple tights. He was too old for the look, but entertaining enough to distract me. I came close to losing her.
When the sun was almost down and the sky filled with red and purple hues, she started drifting back toward Duval. Along the way the hordes of people began to thin and I was forced to pull back further and further from Destiny to keep her from spotting me.
By the time she turned off of Duval it was dark, but I didn’t dare get any closer. A few minutes later Destiny turned into the yard of a small duplex and headed toward the porch.
When Destiny started up the steps I ducked behind a pickup truck parked along the street and waited. I watched her take a key from her purse and insert it into the lock. When she pushed the door open I bolted out from behind the truck and took the steps in two leaps.
Destiny heard me and spun around, squealing when recognition set in. She slipped back into the house and tried to slam the door shut in my face. I brushed it aside with my shoulder and grabbed her wrist.
“Get the hell out of here.” Destiny kicked out and caught my leg with her foot.
“No, it’s okay. Why don’t you stick around for awhile Wes,” a voice called out from across the room as I rushed through the door chasing Destiny. “This way, I don’t have to send Willie back out looking for you.”
Destiny’s eyes turned cold, and she spun away from me. “I didn’t know he was following me, Frankie.” There was a hint of fear in her voice. “I would have called you if I’d seen him.”
I groaned, scanned the room, and considered my odds. I recognized Frankie from a picture I’d seen in one of the newspaper articles I’d read about him on the internet. He was seated on one of four wood chairs set out around a small colonial style table. He had swung his chair around enough to face the door.
Frankie had a thin cigar hanging from his lips. He was in his late sixties, and I fought to hold back a laugh when I saw the yellow shorts and pink flowered shirt he was wearing. They seemed a bit much, even by Key West standards.
Willie was seated across from him. He reached behind his back and drew out a revolver when he saw me.
“It’s okay hon.” Frankie stood and looked me up and down. “Me and Willie have been looking for Wes all day. Hell, I was beginning to think he’d been avoiding us. You ain’t been avoiding us, have you Wes?”
He took a step in my direction, and I started to back out of the open door. Frankie snapped his fingers, and Willie raised the gun and cocked the hammer.
“Close the door, Wes,” Frankie said.
“You aren’t going to shoot me, Frankie. The neighbors will hear.”
“What do you think, Willie? Do you care about the neighbors? I know I don’t give a fuck about no neighbors.”
“Not me, Frankie.” Willie cast a wicked grin in my direction. “You want me to kill him, or just wing him?”
The tone of Willie’s voice sent a chill up my spine. I realized that he would just as soon kill me as not. I considered my options and pushed the door closed behind me.
“What do you want with me, Frankie?”
He crossed the room, sat down on a sun-faded sofa, and put his feet on the table in front of him. “Now that’s a dumb question.” Frankie gave an exaggerated sigh. “I want my diamonds. Willie here, that’s another story. He wants to talk to you about who killed his brother.”
“It wasn’t me,” I said.
Frankie took a deep draw off his cigar, let out a cloud of smoke, and leaning forward he stubbed it out on the corner of the table.
“Frankie.” Destiny ran over and took the cigar butt from his fingers. “That was my mother’s table.”
Frankie threw her a look that sent her scurrying away.
“We don’t know you didn’t kill Bob, do we?” he said. “You left with him. He died, you didn’t. Even if I believe you it doesn’t tell me what I really want to know.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Where are my fucking diamonds?”
“You’re asking the wrong person,” I said. “Destiny has them.”
“That true, Destiny?”
“No, Frankie, he’s lying.” She looked at me, winked, and moved over next to Frankie. “The night when he beat up Bob outside of Alvin’s, he made me go with him and get the diamonds. I tried to tell him we needed to give them back to you. He wouldn’t listen.”
I groaned. This was not going well at all. I knew that if I were Frankie, I’d lean toward believing the tall redhead too. This lady was in the wrong line of work. She would have made a hell of an actress.
“She’s lying, Frankie,” I said.
He gave Destiny a wolfish grin. Reaching out, he began to stroke the side of her face. When she tried to move away he grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her face close to his.
“Are you lying to me Destiny?”
“No Frankie, I swear.” She started to cry. I suspected they were faux sobs.
He shook her head and this time her cries were real. “If you’re lying to me, Destiny, I’m going to have Willie cut off your titties and make you eat them. Do you understand?”
“I do, Frankie. I swear I’m telling the truth.”
“The truth is good
,” Frankie said. He gave Destiny’s head one more shake and released her hair. He gave her ass a gentle swipe, laughed, and turned his attention back to me.
“Willie, search him.”
“Look Frankie, I told you I don’t have them.”
He jumped up and pointed a finger at me. “Well someone’s lying to me. I’ll leave it to your imagination to figure out what I’m gonna do if it’s you. Now turn around and face the wall.”
“Look I…”
“Shut up,” Willie said. He came lumbering across the floor and stopped in front of me. “Frankie said turn around.” He poked the barrel of his gun into my chest. “Now.”
I didn’t have a choice. I turned to face the wall.
“Put your hands against the wall and spread ‘em.”
I followed his instructions and stood there while Willie frisked me. When he finished he grabbed my arm, spun me around, and poked the pistol into my stomach hard enough to play havoc with my lunch.
“Where ya hiding Frankie’s diamonds?”
“I told you I don’t have them.”
“Can I shoot him, Frankie?” Willie seemed way too excited when he asked the question.
“Not yet, Willie.” Frankie turned and pointed to a chair at the end of the table. “Tie him up. Destiny, go find Willie some clothesline.”
While Destiny ran off to get the rope, Willie jabbed me several more times in the gut. Using the pressure of the revolver he guided me over to the table. By the time he shoved me into the chair, Destiny had returned with the rope and a knife to cut it.
Willie tied my hands and feet while Frankie sat down to my right. He pointed to the chair across from me and told Destiny to sit down. She ran to the couch, picked up her purse, and when she was situated, she took out a nail file and began filing her nails.
Frankie watched until she sat down, then he seemed to lose interest in me. He picked up a deck of cards from the table and dealt out a hand of solitaire. Willie pulled out a handkerchief and began to wipe down his gun while I began to question my sanity. Either I’d just stepped through the looking glass into the 1940’s, or I was seated at a table with a bunch of wackos.
Key Lime Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery) Page 16