by Mike Faricy
Chapter Twenty-Four
A little after six the following morning I was parked down the street from Heidi’s house. Morton was in the backseat happily gnawing away on the rawhide chew toy I’d given him. Heidi hurried out her front door around nine, looking like a million bucks, jumped in her little red BMW and took off down the street. I decided to wait for a bit on the odd chance she’d forgotten something and decided to return.
After ten minutes, we got out of the car and walked up the block to her place. I had Morton on a leash, pretending to be a local just out walking his dog. He carried the rawhide in his mouth, not about to let go. More than once after I’d spent the night, she’d kissed me good-bye and told me to let myself out as she dashed off to work. So on the odd chance that scum bucket Austin was lingering inside, I rang the doorbell.
Morton tugged at his leash, but I was focused on the far side of Heidi’s front door, straining my ears to hear any movement. I rang the doorbell a couple more times. Morton continued to tug on the leash and barked, and I continued to ignore him. She’d given me a spare key to her house some years back when she’d spent the better part of a winter down in Florida. I’d found the key in a desk drawer last night around two in the morning after searching through my entire house. I stepped back, tied Morton’s leash to the railing on the front steps, then unlocked the door.
“Heidi,” I called as I stepped into her entryway. “Heidi, it’s Dev.” No one answered. Heidi’s entryway had a marble floor, some special Italian marble she just loved. Creamy-colored wall to wall carpeting that was wonderfully plush and “cost a small fortune” covered the living room floor and continued down the hallway to her bedroom. I carefully walked through the living room, ears perked for the slightest noise. I stopped at her bedroom door and slowly peeked around the corner, just in case that dipshit Austin was in bed. He wasn’t. The room was empty. I hurried over to her triple chest of drawers, opened the top middle drawer, and pulled out the box she kept her special jewelry in. The box was some sort of family heirloom, antique, and made of dark walnut with a lid that was inlaid with mother of pearl. Heidi once told me it had been in her family for something like five generations.
I’d always suggested to her that maybe she should hide the damn thing so some low-life wouldn’t come in and take it. But what would I know? She never seemed to listen, and so now that was exactly what was happening.
I set the box on top of the chest of drawers and slowly opened the lid. There it was, close to two dozen stones in the shape of an inverted triangle. The stones grew larger in each row with a nicely sized stone at the bottom and an even larger stone dangling from that. They may have been fakes, but even I had to admit, it was beautiful. The fake setting looked like silver.
I placed the necklace in my pocket, returned the box to the drawer, then turned to hurry out of the room. That’s when I saw my foot prints, or rather foot print. Not the whole foot, thank God, but enough of a trail. I quickly slipped my shoes off and looked at the sole of the right foot. Thanks, Morton. I’d tracked just enough from the front door across the living room, down the hallway and into the bedroom leaving a direct trail. Shit. Literally.
I didn’t have time to worry about it just now. I carried my shoes out to the front stoop where Morton had left his signature pile. I remembered him pulling at his leash, and the bark. I must have been so focused on the front door, hoping Austin Hackett wouldn’t appear, that I wasn’t paying attention. I’d just have to deal with it later and hurried off to the jewelers.
* * *
“Nice, very nice”, the jeweler said then set the glass he was looking through on the counter and smiled. He wore a grey suit, a starched white shirt, and a navy blue tie. The lights from the ceiling fixture glistened off his bald head giving the sense of a halo. “I can have a value estimate for you in forty-eight hours.”
“Forty-eight hours? I was hoping for maybe like noon, today. See, we’ve got to catch a flight for a funeral and she wanted to wear this.”
“Oh, sorry, my condolences. Noon? Gee, we couldn’t do that, but, well if we put a rush on it, I could probably have that for you, oh, say by three. What time’s your flight?”
“Five, that’s cutting it short, but yeah, let’s do that. I just want to call the insurance folks, get it covered before we travel, you know.” Besides, once you realize it was a fake…
“Now, there’d be a modest rush fee, just fifty dollars and I can give you a credit toward your next purchase.”
Heidi was worth fifty bucks. “That’s fine, I’ll see you at three.”
* * *
I hosed off her front stoop then hurried inside to attack the damage I’d done to her carpet. I started in the bedroom, which seemed to go okay, sort of. By the time I reached the hall the offending material had been removed, but there was a larger stain beginning to appear where I’d scrubbed. It all seemed to look worse the closer I got to the front door. There was no ‘sort of’ about it, by the time I’d worked my way into the living room. I went over my trail three different times. Each time, working with a bucket and a sponge I just seemed to make the stain a little larger. I’d have to shampoo the carpet which meant it wouldn’t be dry before she came home. God, what the hell else could go wrong?
* * *
“I have to tell you, Mr. Haskell, this piece is quite exquisite.”
That wasn’t exactly what I’d expected to hear. He had the necklace sitting on top of a piece of black velvet next to a very formal looking appraisal sheet.
“You estimated the value at twenty-four thousand dollars?” I looked up into his smiling face and the halo shining off his head.
“Yes, and to be honest,” he lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “That’s a tad on the conservative side.”
“I don’t believe it. They’re real? I was thinking cubic zirconium, you gotta be kidding me. You’re sure about this? You double checked?”
He couldn’t hide the stunned look on his face. “Cubic? Oh no, you’ve three carats in those bottom two stones alone. Very high quality, the cut, the color, certainly one of the better pieces we’ve seen over the past few years. If you were thinking of selling, I can tell you we’d be very interested. Of course, we couldn’t match the estimated value, but still, it might be worth your while.” He nodded in a way that seemed to suggest my St. Paul Saints t-shirt and the jeans with the wet knees might be interested in an offer.
“You’re sure about this?”
“Quite, sir.”
I shook my head, stuffed the necklace into my pocket, and stood there stunned.
“Now there is the matter of the rushed appraisal, sir. That will be fifty dollars,” he said, then followed up with a quick smile.
“Oh, yeah, sorry it’s just that, God, I can’t believe it.”
“Always a bit of intrigue in this business, sir.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
I needed to buy some time. I’d returned the piece to Heidi’s jewelry box, shampooed her carpet, and set up a couple of fans turned on as fast as they’d go to hopefully speed up the drying process. Just now I was sitting on her front stoop with the sun beating down on me. I was sweating, but it had nothing to do with the temperature when I phoned her.
“Dev?” she answered.
“Hi, Heidi, do you have a moment to chat?”
“I suppose,” she said then waited for me to talk. I envisioned her crossing her arms with a look on her face that suggested go ahead, idiot.
“Look, I’m sorry about our earlier conversation, I…”
“Conversation? Is that what it was, a conversation?”
“No, that’s not what it was. It was me getting upset because I feel like I’m losing you. I know I drive you crazy, but, well I guess I’d always hoped it would be me. As happy as I am for you, and I’m happy,” I lied, “at the same time I’m sad. You have to admit, we’ve had a lot of fun together.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Huh?”
“You ac
tually have a heart, you creep. Thank you.”
“Look, could we just meet and chat, maybe an early dinner tonight?”
“Early dinner?”
“Yeah, how about near your office, before you head home? Just the two of us. Afterwards, you can take off and I won’t goof up whatever plans you have for the rest of the night.”
“I should probably check with Austin, first.”
This was not the Heidi I knew. “If you think you should. I mean you could be home by seven at the latest.” I was praying her carpet would be dry by then.
“Tell you what, you know Mario’s?”
“That little restaurant in your building?”
“Yes, just meet me there at five. I’ll phone Austin and let him know.”
“I was hoping it would just be the two of us.”
“It will be. I just need to touch base is all. I’ll see you then,” she said and hung up.
So far so good. I took my shoes off on the front stoop then went back in her house and double checked the flowers I’d set out on her kitchen table. I positioned the congratulatory card I’d written against the vase, and then hauled the rug cleaning equipment I’d rented out to my car. If she questioned me, I’d tell her I just thought it would be a nice thing to do.
By the time I returned the rental equipment, I barely had thirty minutes before I had to meet Heidi. I hurried home, grabbed a shower, threw on some pants and a clean shirt and hurried down to Mario’s. The bartender was just sliding my beer across the bar when Heidi walked in.
“Hey, what can I get you?”
She just stared at me.
“What?”
“Your shirt, it’s inside out.”
“It is?” I said, then looked down. The embroidered patch on the left breast was just a white sort of tag with the letters running backwards. “Oh, sorry about that,” I said then pulled the shirt off and turned it right side out and slipped it back on. “There.”
“Incredible. Do you know what would happen if I did that?”
“You mean took your shirt off? Yeah, every guy in the building would line up to buy you a drink.”
“You’re still the same,” she said and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
We chatted for the better part of an hour, largely just reminiscing about things we’d done, places we’d been, people we’d known. She seemed happy enough, although we hadn’t really broached the subject of Austin Hackett yet. The chat was beginning to feel more and more like a funeral to me and after the disappointing news on the jewelry appraisal I wasn’t sure bringing up Austin was the best idea.
“Dev, remember the Christmas when you took me on the sleigh ride?”
“Remember? How could I forget? That cop was such a prick. Arresting me for driving a horse and sleigh in the city without a proper license.”
“I think that was because you scratched all those parked cars on that one street. That woman saw you and phoned the police.”
“A bit of an overreaction, if you ask me.”
She smiled, “It was the very first time I bailed you out.”
“Not the last,” I laughed.
“Probably best not to go there,” she said.
“So tell me, how did you meet Austin?”
“Well, since you ask, it was at a party… a reception actually. A number of investors I’d put together were celebrating a sale. I was there and, well, Austin just swept me off my feet, I guess.” She suddenly had a faraway look in her eyes and a wide smile on her face. “He’s been wonderful.”
At that moment the door to Mario’s opened, and a figure with hair spiked in a variety of directions took two steps in and stood there letting his eyes adjust. It felt like a wet blanket rolling across the room. I quickly grabbed Heidi’s purse off the back of her stool and dropped it on the oak floor.
“Dev, what the hell are you doing?” she asked, then hopped off her stool and bent down to pick her purse up.
I draped my legs over her shoulders and sort of held her below the bar. Austin looked around, but didn’t see her.
“Dev, Dev stop it,” she laughed just as Austin walked around the corner of the bar and toward the two of us. I removed my legs and Heidi stood up as Austin approached. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, are you crazy?” Heidi laughed. “I’m not going to give you a…”
“What’s going on here? Are you okay, honey?” Austin said, then physically pushed her behind him and glared at me.
“Austin, I, well we were just talking. You remember Dev Haskell? He saw us the other night at Desmond’s. He was the one who came over to congratulate us.”
“I remember him, are you all right?” he asked looking Heidi up and down. Then he brushed an imaginary something off her shoulder and turned toward me. “I’m not sure what your game is, but I’ll not have Heidi involved.”
“Relax, it was just a joke, I…”
“A joke? It certainly didn’t look funny from where I stood. Come on Heidi, we’re leaving.”
“Austin, I think…”
“You’re leaving now.”
“We were just talking, Dev and I are…”
“I know what the two of you were…now, move,” he said and roughly pushed her toward the door.
I lost it and flew off my stool. The next thing I knew Austin was on the floor, holding a bloody nose and Heidi was yelling, “Dev, don’t please, please.”
“You, get out of here,” the bartender yelled at me.
“Please, Dev just leave.”
Austin slowly got up off the floor, stepped behind Heidi then started to yell. “I’ve got witnesses; everyone here saw this maniac assault me. He tried to kill me. He…”
“Believe me, if I had tried you’d already be dead.”
“Just go, Dev, please? You’re just making things worse.”
“Get out of here, pal, before I call the cops,” the bartender said.
“I’ve got your number, Haskell, do you hear? I’ve got your number. You’ll rue the day you…”
“And I’ve got yours, Hackett. The name Bunny Hutch ring any bells? What about your ex-wives, Connie Adams, Marcia Paxton or Nancy Reilly? One threatened to shoot you and the other two fled the state.”
“Come on, go, go, this man’s insane,” Hackett said then took Heidi by the arm and hurried her out the door.
“I always thought a Navy Seal would be a little tougher,” I called just as Heidi shot me a confused look.
“I’m calling the cops, buddy,” the bartender said and picked up the phone.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Gee, amazing the guy didn’t want to hang around and get to know you better,” Louie said then took a sip of his coffee. “Ugh.”
“I just snapped. He shouted at Heidi, pushed her and the next thing I knew, he was on the floor with a bloody nose and Heidi was in-between the two of us.”
“Well, I’d say you better prepare yourself for some sort of legal battle. He’s liable to come after you saying you did everything from pull a gun on him to threatening everyone in the place.”
“We were just talking. Why in the hell did he even show up?”
“Because he needs to maintain tight control, plus the fact that he might have an idea of the information you have about him. Of course, even if he didn’t going in, he sure as hell knows about it now.”
“So much for my casual, reasoned approach.”
“Oh that.”
“She didn’t go home last night, or if she did it was close to sunrise. I was parked near her place until after four this morning and she never turned up.”
“Probably a good thing. I think under the circumstances your actions could be construed as doing something other than attempting to be helpful.”
“I just wanted to give her some accurate information so I…”
“At four in the damn morning? Dev, it’s not a far leap to come to the conclusion you’re stalking the poor woman.”
“Me?”
“In the last twenty-four ho
urs you’ve broken into her home, shampooed her carpet, left flowers and a card on her kitchen table, forced her down on her knees between your legs in a bar, and assaulted her boy-friend. I’d say you’ll be lucky if she doesn’t file a restraining order against you.”
“Heidi’s not going to do that.”
“Not unless Austin Hackett thinks it would be a good idea, and believe me, he won’t stop there.”
“God help him if he does.”
“There, that’s the spirit. That sort of comment will get everyone on your side, not. That’s exactly the sort of attitude he’s hoping you’ll display.”
“But I…”
“No, I’m talking to you as your lawyer right now. You better tighten it up, pal, or you aren’t going to have a snowball’s chance in hell to help her. Oh, yeah, and even though he’s a slime ball, a jerk like Austin Hackett will have you skinned alive in court.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Nothing. At least nothing to that douche bag. What you can do is continue to find out everything possible about his activities, his business, his financial situation, and anyone dealing with him. Pending lawsuits, lawsuits already filed. You can…”
“Okay, I get it. It’s just that he’s such a putz.”
“A putz who can make your life extremely difficult. Obviously he’s now aware you’ve been checking him out. After yelling that shit at him he’s more than aware.”
“Good.”
“Well, if the goal is to help Heidi, you may have just cut the time in half to accomplish that task.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Duly chastised by Louie, Morton and I set out to learn what we could about Austin Hackett. Our first stop was the Beaumont building, named after some guy named Beaumont, I guessed. It was a white-stone, multi-storied structure in the middle of a block of three-story brick buildings and left the distinct impression of someone giving you the finger. White marble with little waves of grey made up the floor and walls in the lobby of the place. The grey pattern in the marble sort of gave me the impression of a hazardous chemical drifting across the water. The guard’s desk, set just in front of the elevators, was constructed from the same marble and inhabited by three individuals in short-sleeve, white shirts and blue trousers. The shirts had American flags stitched onto the right shoulders and shiny gold badges pinned onto the left breast pocket. The badges read Dustan Security.