I was right, Jared was the key. But I figured Colt knew more.
Colt had crumpled into his chair, all the fight gone out of him. The lizard flicking at his cheek seemed tired and unenthusiastic. But I had more questions.
"Do you know where Jared is?"
"No. Last time I saw him he was scared, man. Said Scanlan had beat him again. I wanted to knock Scanlan's fuckin' head off, but Jared said not to. Said he was gonna move out. I haven't seen him since. Can you find him?" He eyes welled up.
"I have to find him. He may be targeted. Like Little B. He knows too much. You have any idea who killed Little B?"
"No. I didn't even know for sure the dude was dead. You gotta find Jared."
"This Augie, what exactly did he tell you when he hired you?"
"He wanted to send a message. That's what he said, 'I want to send a message.' He wanted to scare that guy. Tell him to stop what he was doin' and leave town."
That was too vague. Lots of people wanted to send Brandt a message for different reasons. Scanlan, Quinn, Wren, Navarro, Galante. Any of them. Hell, even Hollister might've wanted to get Brandt to stop seeing Jared. Scanlan certainly wanted to keep Brandt away from Jared. The thought occurred to me that the tall stranger might have been Scanlan, heavily disguised, since people at Stella's knew him. He could have forced Jared to play along, just to be cruel knowing how much Jared loved Helmut.
"Did Augie give any information other than who to scare and how to find him?"
"No, just asked me to make sure the guy got a good scare. Rattle his cage."
"You're sure he didn't say anything else?"
"He said somethin' about books and papers and shit. But," he paused, swiped a hand over his face. "But, man, I can't remember this shit now."
I grabbed him by his collar and brought him close to my face. The veins on his neck popped. Even the lizard seemed more lively.
"Listen, asshole, this is no time to forget. You want me to help Jared? You gotta do better." I shoved him back in the chair.
"He... yeah... he said something about books. To tell the guy to stop writin' his shit and leave people alone."
That could still include any of them. Scanlan could be fronting for someone who wanted Brandt stopped. Quinn, Wren, and Galante would still be on the list.
"And Augie gave you money?"
"Ten big ones. Half up front."
"You met him again for the other half?"
"He never showed. Never paid the rest. The job went wrong. Guess he didn't wanna pay."
"He give you a way to contact him?"
"Naw, he said he'd contact me."
"All Jared did was hook the stranger up with you? He didn't know anything about the guy being targeted?"
"Yeah, he kne... well, no... he just hooked us up."
"He knew? Knew what?"
"He knew me and knew I had connections. He didn't know nothin' else."
"But he also knew Brandt. Jared knew him really well, right?"
"I don't know, man," Colt said. I knew he was lying it was in his voice.
"You said you love Jared. A guy who loves somebody knows if that somebody loves him back. Does Jared love you?"
Colt was silent.
"Forget it. I already know the answer. Jared was in love with Helmut. And you knew that, right?"
"He was confused. That Helmut dude was older. He confused Jared."
"Even if Jared only thought he loved Helmut, there was still no room for you, right?"
"I was hopin'..."
"That's why you wanted to help scare Helmut away. Maybe you even saw to it that Helmut got scared permanently. Dead permanently. Am I right?"
"No!" Colt tried to stand. I pushed him back into his seat. "No, that's not the way it went down."
"You just played your part and hired Little B to play a mugger? That's it? You did nothing else?"
"I..."
"I think you pushed Little B into killing Helmut."
"No. I wanted Helmut scared. That's true. But I knew Jared thought he was in love with the guy. So, I..."
"You what? What did you do?"
"I told Jared about the plan. In case he wanted to warn Helmut. I figured if he saw how nice I was bein' maybe he'd like me. If I helped him protect Helmut maybe Jared would see that I loved him and Helmut didn't really care."
I felt for Colt. Being in love makes you do crazy things. Makes you see the world differently. In his own way he was being noble about it. He loved Jared that much.
"Did Jared warn Helmut?"
"Said he was gonna call him and warn him. Later he told me he could never get past that old guy livin' with Helmut. The geezer told Jared they had all kinds of threats all the time and thank you and good-bye. That's just the way Jared said it."
"Tell me again about Augie. Tell me everything you remember."
"I don't..."
"You remember. Just think. Close your eyes and think back. He's near you at Stella's and talking to you."
"Okay, yeah..." Colt said, his eyes shut.
"What's he look like? Old, young, what?"
"Can't tell, his hat, the coat collar, and that scarf covered his face. His eyes though, they was shiny. Like, they was reflectin' all the light."
"Eye color?"
"It was dark at Stella's. All I saw was they were shinin' like, I don't know."
"What about his voice. Did he seem old or young?"
"He had like an accent or something' that's all I remember. Could'a been foreign. Used funny words sometimes, too."
"Like what?"
"It's no use, man. I can't remember. He was a soft kinda guy, though."
"Soft?"
"Yeah, nice. It didn't feel like he really wanted to be doin' what he was doin' if you know what I mean. He was gentle and nervous when he talked with me. If you ask me, he ain't never done anything like this before."
***
Colt agreed to stay put. He finally realized that he was in danger from whoever shot Little B. And Jared was in equally deep shit. I left Colt sitting alone and scared.
The cabbie who picked me up whistled when I got settled in his cab.
"Looks like you had a rough night, my man," he said and chuckled. "Your girlfriend throw you out?"
"Don't ask. You wouldn't believe me," I said, resting my head on the seat.
It'd been a long night. I smelled like wet chicken feathers and felt as if I'd run a marathon without any prep. At least I'd found Colt. It was more than I'd had before. One thing was certain, Jared was not only a key to things, he was in real danger.
I entered my building and Grace was on the desk. She looked at me and nodded. She probably thought I didn't see her eyes widen at the sight of me. But I was past caring what gossip she'd pass around to the rest of the staff.
The elevator couldn't get me to my floor quickly enough and the key just wouldn't unlock my door as fast as I wanted. But eventually I was inside, the door was locked, and the silent darkness enveloped me. I closed my eyes and stripped off my clothes one wet piece at a time. I felt clammy and shivered in the coolness.
The shower beckoned and I turned on the water full force, adjusted it to the hottest setting, and stepped in. The hot water pelting my skin soothed my jangled nerves swirling the tension away down the drain. I stood under the hot steady rush of water for a long while, steam building and drifting around me. Jared, Colt, Hollister, Quinn, Scanlan, Galante haunted my thoughts.
Jared knew he was in danger. He wasn't just running from Scanlan, he was also ducking whoever wanted to keep him quiet about what he knew.
It had to be connected to this stranger Colt remembered. Gleaming eyes and funny accent. It didn't ring any bells, didn't raise any alarms. But it did prove someone was behind Brandt's murder even if it hadn't been meant as a murder. It could be anyone.
The strangest thing was the accent. Might've been phony, just part of the disguise. Could have been real or just a mistake on the kid's part. Jared might be able to give me more infor
mation.
My mind was swimming in details, names, and faces. I needed sleep. I finished showering and tumbled into bed. I must have fallen asleep immediately. Next thing I knew it was light out and my phone was ringing.
Chapter 35
"Any breaks in the case?" Luke asked as we walked to Nina's.
"No but I have something Nina might be able to help with."
"Aside from the laptop?"
"Yes. Something entirely different." I explained the phone call Anton had gotten from Nando and what I thought Nina could do.
We arrived at the Fortress and I rang the bell.
"You guys again?" Hallie stared at us, neither hostile nor happy. "It's Sunday."
"And that means what?" Luke asked. "My guys work on Sundays. And I know Nina never takes a day off either."
"We're just here to pick up the laptop." I attempted to head off a battle. "Nina said she'd be here."
"Don't you guys like having business?" Luke said. "Whatever happened to good customer relations?"
Hallie glowered and grudgingly opened the door to let us pass.
"It's not like we don't have lives, you know," she said.
"You..." Luke started and I poked him with my elbow.
"We'll just get the laptop and give Nina a check," I said.
"Hey guys!" Nina emerged from the interior of the Geek Cave. "We squeezed everything we could from the laptop. We cleaned it up for him. Operates faster now."
"He'll be grateful. Thanks for doing this so quick."
"No problem." Nina shrugged it off.
"Here's what we agreed on and a little something extra for getting it done so fast." I handed her an envelope.
"While I've got you here," I said. "Maybe you can help with a little problem?"
"Sure and I won't even charge." Nina smiled. She was actually stunning-looking.
"You can help, too, Luke, like I explained."
"Shoot," Luke said.
"It's about a phone call Anton got from Nando."
"Can't trace calls anymore. I got in trouble last time," Nina said.
"No call tracing. But maybe the three of us can figure out something that's nagging at me. When Nando called I heard sounds in the background. I was hoping we might take a stab at locating him based on that."
"Cool," Nina said.
"It all depends on what you heard." Luke said.
"Three things, gulls. Seagulls. Construction noises. Like jackhammers and things. The third I'm not exactly sure about, but it sounded like a boat or boats of some sort."
"We might be able to triangulate a general location. But I'm not sure about a specific spot." Nina said.
"General is good. If we get close I can do some old-fashioned legwork."
"You're assuming Nando is still in Philly?" Luke asked.
"We've gotta start with that assumption."
"Okay, let's pull up some maps." Nina worked with the surface computers. Maps of Philadelphia's rivers appeared on the huge screen. "Gotta be a building on one of the rivers."
"Why's that?" I asked.
"The gulls. They hang around the rivers."
"But I've encountered them in a lot of places," Luke added. "Like the parking lot at Home Depot. Gulls are all over there."
"It's near the Delaware," Nina said. "Nothing's far from rivers in Philly."
"Okay," I said. "Let's add the other details. What do we get then?"
"You're also assuming Nando was in a building when he called. Not out on the street at a pay phone," Luke said.
"Nando's hiding. He probably wouldn't be out on the street. There aren't many pay phones anymore, anyway."
"Okay, let's limit to places where there are seagulls and apartments or condos," Nina said, peering at the map. "It's gotta be one of the rivers."
"Most likely the Delaware," Luke said. He had to know where potential cleaning clients were for his business to thrive. "There's very little right on the Schuylkill, unless they're holed up in one of the boathouses."
"Unlikely," I said.
"There's a few residential buildings and a couple of new condo towers going up on the Delaware waterfront."
"That could be it." Nina pulled up the riverfront map on the computer. The Delaware spread out, blue and beautiful, across the surface of the huge table-like screen. "Waterfront and new construction. Let's see."
She made some deft moves with her hands over the surface, all of which looked mysterious and magical, and the map changed to include existing and future buildings along the waterfront.
"Look there," Luke said. "There's only one building located next to new construction. Pier Four."
"Yep, and Penn Place construction is bound to be noisy," Nina added.
"We'll center the search around Pier Four," I said. "Luke, any of your staff work there?"
"Several. I'll get on it now." He took out his phone and got to work.
"I owe you big time, Nina." I placed an arm around her shoulder. "What would I do without you?"
"You'd make a bigger profit." Nina laughed.
Once we were on the street, I called Anton to see if we had pictures of Nando and told him I'd be by to get whatever he had. I remembered we had Kent's picture, too. From his application. I always photocopied an applicant's driver's license, for legal purposes. It wouldn't be a great picture but it'd be better than nothing.
Hollister might not be happy about this detour I was taking from the case. But sometimes the living take precedence over the dead even in the work I do. Besides, Nando might know where Jared was. And that would get me back on track.
Chapter 36
"Marco!" Chip rushed over to me, face flushed, smiling broadly. I hoped he'd found some information at Lobster Plaza.
The riverfront was windy and cold but the sun was out and people strolled the plaza. Motorboats zipped by on the river, their rumbling propellers churning the water. A sizeable tug muscled through the water, its horn ripping apart the quiet. Those were some of the sounds I'd heard on the phone. I felt we were close.
"Anything?"
"No, sorry, Marco," Chip said. "But this beats housecleaning gigs."
"I like it better when there are results." We were taking a gamble on someone noticing something near the Pier Four Condos. Just north of the Penns Landing plaza, it wasn't a tall building. Couldn't be more than twenty or thirty apartments in the place.
Luke, Chip, and I had split up the businesses neighboring the condos. A couple of giant restaurant-bar complexes and two or three chain restaurants. We each had pictures of Nando and Kent.
I'd had no luck with the restaurants. None of their workers remembered Nando or Kent. Chip had also struck out. We waited for Luke. The only thing left was the Pier Four itself.
Everything depended on what had actually happened to Nando. I pinned my hopes on the idea Nando just wanted to get away from everything for a while. Anton was betting Kent had spirited Nando away against his will.
I refused to believe Kent would betray my trust. But he was crazy in love, as they say, and that can make you betray even yourself. If Kent had kidnapped Nando, my goose was cooked. I'd be dancing nearly bare sooner than I could say 'g-string.'
I hoped we'd find Nando all by his lonesome. After all, there was no proof Kent had done anything other than disappear at the same exact time as Nando. And there was plenty of proof that Santa Claus and The Easter Bunny were in charge of the World Bank. I reminded myself that I didn't believe in coincidences and saw a vision of myself dancing on the bar at Bubbles.
"I've got zip," Luke said sauntering over to us. "Now what?"
"We check out the Pier Four."
"Just remember, Marco," Luke said. "The Pier Four is a secure building. The residents like their privacy. My guys are bonded and it wasn't easy for me to get the Pier Four contract. Management won't give you carte blanche."
"All they can do is say no. I'll show them Nando's picture. If they say no, we go to Plan B."
"Plan B?" Chip asked.
&
nbsp; "Yeah, Marco, what's Plan B? You never mentioned it."
"I haven't put it together yet. Let me try the front desk first. Wait here."
I went through the wrought iron gates leading into the building. The developers had transformed an old pier into a palatial residence. These condos started at a million and a half. Now I saw why.
The lobby desk was green marble and mahogany. Muzak filled the air and huge vases spilling over with flower arrangements were placed strategically around.
The man at the front desk was an anachronism with silver hair, wire-framed glasses, waxed moustache, and a three piece pin-striped suit.
"May I help you, sir?" His voice was tight and controlled.
"Good afternoon. My name is Marco Fontana." I smiled and pulled out Nando's picture. "I'm investigating a missing persons case."
I didn't show a badge and he didn't ask. Too discreet for that here.
"Have you seen this man?" I handed him the picture.
He inspected it. Placing a hand to his chin, he tapped one finger just below his lower lip as he thought.
"I can't say I have but I'm not on the desk all the time. Have you reason to believe the young man is in this building?"
"I can't go into details, sir, as you might imagine," I said in deadpan fashion, which always made a good impression. "We were given to believe he might be here. It's urgent we move quickly, sir."
"Yes. Yes, I know. I watch television, you know. I understand the urgency in missing persons cases."
"What about other members of the staff?"
"Charles is in the back and is on duty much more often than I. There's also Jerome, the head of security. Wait here." He took Nando's picture with him.
As if I'd be going anywhere else in this locked down fortress. There were cameras everywhere, if you knew where to look.
A moment later, a small man with a pencil thin moustache and slicked back hair, emerged from a door behind the counter. He had Nando's picture in hand.
"Mr. Fontana?" He said, his dark suit lending him authority.
I nodded.
"This picture. It is recent?" He held it lightly.
"Yes, pretty recent." Nando had only been working a year. The photo was recent enough. "It's a photocopy of a photo from a flyer. It's grainy but should give you some idea."
Murder on Camac Page 36