I eased my car onto the shoulder near somebody’s driveway, crossed the road, and stepped onto the ramp that led out to the slips. The wind was strong enough here to numb my cheeks and make my eyes water; above the sound of it you could hear the boats rubbing and banging against the floats. They all seemed deserted at first, but when I reached the ramp’s end I noticed movement on one off to my right, in a slip two-thirds of the way along the nearest float. I peered over there. The lettering on the stern read Kingfisher, and below that, Bodega Bay.
I climbed down a short metal ladder onto the swaying float and made my way carefully along the boards. A stocky well-muscled guy dressed in denim trousers and a thin sweatshirt, no coat, was kneeling on deck; long copper-colored hair fanned out in the wind behind him like a horse’s mane at full gallop. He had the engine housing up, and there was an open tool box and an assortment of wrenches and things laid out on a strip of canvas beside him. I had a glimpse of the engine—a GMC 6-71 diesel—but I could not see what he was doing to it.
I stepped up close to the stern gunwale. “Ahoy!” I shouted over the wind. “Ahoy there!”
He came around quickly, a box wrench he had been using upraised in one hand. There were smudges of grease and oil over the front of his sweatshirt, on his hands and arms as well. He owned one of those dark brooding faces, with an aggressive jaw and deep-sunk eyes under heavy brows, that some women seem to find attractive; but now it was pinched-up with annoyance. The cold had turned his lips the color of raw liver: I wondered what he was trying to prove by not wearing a coat of some kind.
He said, “What the hell do you want?”
“Are you Andy Greene?”
“Who wants to know?”
I told him. “Can I come aboard?”
“What for?”
“I’d like to talk to you—”
“I haven’t got time to talk now.”
“It won’t take long.”
“I’m busy, friend.”
“It’s important. I’m here about—”
“Some other time,” he said. “Blow away, friend.”
Pleasant bastard, aren’t you? I thought. I said, “Look, friend, all I want is a few minutes of your time—a few answers to some questions about Jerry Carding. Then you can get back to whatever you’re doing and I’ll be on my way.”
Some of the aggressiveness went out of his expression, but not all of it. He got onto his feet, balancing himself on the pitching deck with his feet spread. “The private eye from Frisco, right?” he said.
“That’s right.”
The deep-sunk eyes studied me; they did not seem very impressed by what they saw. “So what’s your interest in the kid?”
“Professional interest. He’s part of a case I’m working on.”
“What case?”
“You’ve heard about it. The murders of Jerry’s fiance and father.”
“They got the guy who killed his old man,” Greene said.
“Did they? I’m not so sure.”
“Yeah? You think the kid did it?”
“No,” I said. “Can I come aboard or not? I don’t like shouting this way.”
“Waste of time for both of us,” he said. “I can’t help you, friend. I already told the cops all I know.”
“Which is what?”
“Which is nothing. Last time I saw the kid was two weeks ago, when he went out fishing with me. He didn’t say a word about going away and I don’t have any idea where he went. Okay? Now I got work to do.”
He turned away from me and knelt again in front of the Jimmy diesel. I stayed where I was for ten or fifteen seconds, watching him. Irritation was sharp in me—but there was nothing I could do. The boat was his property; if he did not want me aboard, or to do any more talking to me, those were his privileges.
“Maybe I’ll see you again, Greene,” I said, just to find out if he had anything else to say. But I could have saved my breath. He bent forward, inside the engine compartment, and the only answer I got was the faint clank of the box wrench against metal.
Most of the gray daylight was gone by the time I got back to The Tides; it was almost four thirty. Shadows covered the rolling hills to the east, and the scattered lights up there had a wet glistening look through the fog. Cold rainy night coming up—and there was nothing for me to do now except wait it out and hope that tomorrow turned out to be a more productive day.
In the trunk of my car I keep a small overnight bag for unplanned layovers such as this one. I got it out, carried it into the motel office to register, and then took it up to the room I was given. The cold seemed to have seeped into my bones; my feet felt as if I had been walking barefoot in six inches of snow. So I took a quick shower and afterward made a cup of instant coffee with one of those hot-water dispensers motels put in for guests these days. Then I propped myself up on the bed to do some thinking.
Jerry Carding. He was a central figure, all right. And I was becoming convinced that if I could find him, or discover what had happened to him, I could begin to piece together an explanation for everything.
Go over the facts again, I thought. What did I know and what could I surmise from that knowledge? Well, I knew that he had disappeared sometime after nine o’clock last Sunday night, after leaving the Darden house with a couple of manila envelopes presumably containing an article he’d written. Had he mailed the stamped and addressed envelope? No way of knowing yet. If he had, to whom? Newspaper, maybe, or a news magazine: Jerry had seemed to think the article was important, which meant its subject matter had to be of some news value. But then why hadn’t the article surfaced by now, been turned over to the police? Blank. Why had Jerry taken the unaddressed envelope with him? Planning to show it to somebody, possibly—but that seemed inconsistent with the cloak of secrecy he had wrapped around this project of his. Unless—Blackmail?
No, I didn’t like that. From all I had found out about Jerry Carding, a blackmail scheme would be foreign to his nature; what he seemed to care most of all about was establishing a career for himself as an investigative reporter. And if blackmail was what he’d been up to, why take the trouble to write the article at all? Whatever he’d found out, the knowledge alone, would have been enough.
Try it another way, then. Suppose he had uncovered something not only newsworthy but damaging to somebody; and suppose this somebody, call him X, found out in turn that Jerry was writing his article and was afraid of public exposure. X could have waylaid him at the post office, before the stamped envelope could be mailed. That would explain Jerry’s sudden disappearance—why he failed to ask Kellenbeck for his salary, why he left all his belongings behind—and it would provide a grim probable answer to the question of whether or not he was still alive.
Better theory, that one, but not much better. How could X have known Jerry was on his way to the post office? From watching the Darden house? Farfetched. And if X knew about the article, why wait until Jerry had finished it before going after him? And how could X have found out in the first place, with Jerry being as close-mouthed as he was?
Questions.
And more questions: How could a discovery in Bodega Bay, or an article written about it, tie up with a shooting in San Francisco two days later and a shooting in Brisbane two days after that? Where did the Talbot/Nichols family fit in? Where did Bobbie Reid fit in? What was the significance of the threatening letters and telephone calls to Christine Webster? Why had my office been vandalized? Did the torn corner from the label or decal I had found in Jerry’s room mean anything? Did Andy Greene’s surly reticence mean anything?
It was like trying to make your way through a labyrinth: you kept moving around, taking this path and that, and all you seemed to find were new and more confusing twists and turns. Unless you figured out the right turns before too much time had passed, or blundered into them, you could become hopelessly lost.
And right now I felt about as lost as you could get.
Hunger pangs drove me out of there at six, down to the
Wharf Bar and Restaurant. Where I ate a Crab Louie, drank two bottles of Schlitz, and brooded out at the dark waters of the bay. No rain yet, but the fog had dissipated somewhat and the sky was thick with swollen clouds; the wind made angry moaning sounds and rattled the window glass from time to time. The weather and the nonproductive brooding combined to make me feel frustrated and a little depressed.
I went back to my room and put in a long distance call to Eberhardt’s home in San Francisco to see if he had any news. No answer. Out somewhere with his wife for dinner, probably. I tried Dennis Litchak’s number; he was in, as he almost always was, and he assured me that everything was fine with my flat. I told him I would be spending the night in Bodega Bay. He told me not to worry, he’d keep on checking until I got home. So much for that.
The first drops of rain began to splatter against the window.
I debated calling Laura Nichols, decided what the hell, she was paying my wages, and had the motel operator dial her number. It was Karen Nichols who answered. I told her who was calling and asked if her mother was home.
“Yes,” she said, “but our lawyer’s here and they’re having a conference. I suppose I can interrupt them if you want to talk to her.”
“That’s not necessary. I’m just checking in.”
“Where are you? You sound far away.”
“In Bodega Bay. Trying to get a line on Jerry Carding.”
“Oh. Then you’re still investigating?”
“Still at it, yes. But I haven’t found out much so far.”
“How long will you be there?”
“Until tomorrow sometime. Let me give you the number here, just in case.” I did that, and then said, “While I’ve got you on the phone I’d like to ask you a couple of things.”
“What things?”
“Do you or your mother know anyone in Bodega Bay?”
“No.”
“Is the name Bobbie Reid familiar to you?”
“Who?”
“Bobbie Reid. R-e-i-d.”
“No. Who’s she?”
“Someone whose name came up. How about Steve Farmer?”
“No.”
“Dave Brodnax?”
“No.”
“Lainey Madden?”
“No.”
So much for that, too.
I could not think of anyone else to call except Donleavy, and I had already wasted enough long-distance money as it was. So I turned on the TV set and sat staring at it. Opiate of the masses—but not for me, not tonight. I got up again after ten minutes and shut if off.
Sheets of rain now, buffeting the window.
Mournful whistle-and-howl of the wind.
Saturday night, I thought. Not a good night for a man to be alone, especially not in a storm and place where he has no friends. A night for company, for good conversation, for a warm fire. For a woman. How long since I had last gotten laid? Too damned long. Crusty old bachelor with a beer belly, sloppy habits, and a collection of pulp magazines. No wonder I wasn’t getting laid; who would want to climb into the sack with somebody like that? Getting old, too. The last of San Francisco’s lone-wolf private eyes . . .
Nuts. San Francisco’s only private eye who sits around motel rooms feeling sorry for himself.
I went to the window, stood looking out for awhile and watching rain drool down the glass. Too early to go to bed . . . did I feel like reading? No, but it was better than thinking myself into a blue funk. I took out one of the pulps tucked into the overnight case with the rest of my stuff—a 1940 issue of Detective Fiction Weekly—and lay down under the covers with it.
One of the featured novelettes was called “Finger of Doom” and I started to read that first. But I must have been a lot more tired than I’d thought; halfway through the story my eyelids began to feel heavy, my attention wavered and dulled. And I dozed, woke up, tried to read some more, and promptly dropped off for good.
Which had to be one of the few times anybody ever fell asleep reading a story by Cornell Woolrich. . . .
SIXTEEN
I was up at eight o’clock on Sunday morning and in a better frame of mind: ten hours’ sleep and a new day. Most of the storm seemed to have blown inland during the night; the rain had slackened to an intermittent drizzle. The overcast was still thick and at a low ceiling, but it did not seem quite as oppressive as it had yesterday afternoon and evening.
When I finished shaving I went out to hunt up breakfast and a Sunday newspaper. No luck. The Wharf Bar and Restaurant was not open this early, nor was anything else in the immediate vicinity. I bought a copy of Saturday’s Santa Rosa Press-Democrat from a coin-operated machine in Bodega, took it back to the motel, settled for another cup of free instant coffee, and enlightened myself with day-old news.
At ten I gathered my things together and checked out. It was ten-thirty on the nose when I pulled up in front of the Darden house. If nothing else, I was at least punctual.
Mrs. Darden answered my knock and admitted me. She was wearing a tweed suit today, with a blue scarf at the throat, and her graying hair had been neatly brushed for church. Handsome woman, all right. The smile she let me have was warm, as if I were an old friend come to pay a social call.
We went into the parlor, where a girl about eighteen was standing near the fireplace. You could see right away that she was Mrs. Darden’s daughter: same short hair, hers being a tawny brown, same attractive features, same hazel eyes, same infectious smile. Besides age, the major differences between them were height and chest development; Sharon was about four inches taller and two bra sizes smaller, which gave her a somewhat willowy look. She was dressed in an ankle-length wool skirt and a bulky knitted sweater.
Her mother introduced us and then excused herself and left the room. Sharon and I sat down. She said, “Mom told me about your talk yesterday. I can’t tell you much more about Jerry than she did, I’m afraid.”
“This article of Jerry’s—he never gave you any clue as to what it was about?”
“No. The only thing he ever said was that it was something which would establish his career as a journalist.”
“He seemed positive about that?”
“Oh yes, very positive.”
“Can you think of any sort of unusual occurrence in this area recently?” I asked. “Anything that might inspire him?”
“No, there’s just nothing. Not much ever happens in Bodega.” She said that last sentence not as if she were unhappy about the fact, but as if she were rather proud of it.
Mrs. Darden came back in carrying a tray laden with a porcelain coffee service and a plate of homemade breakfast pastries. She put the tray down on the coffee table, poured a cup for me, and urged that I help myself to the pastries. I did that, not so much to be polite as because I was pretty hungry. And within five seconds, despite using a cake plate and a napkin, I managed to get powdered sugar all over my pants and on the carpet as well. The slob strikes again.
“Oh please, it’s all right,” Mrs. Darden said when I apologized. There was an almost wistful note in her voice, as though she had once been used to having things spilled on the carpet and was recalling other times it had happened. Maybe her husband had been messy, too; that would explain it.
I put the pastry down for the time being, before I dropped it and the plate too, and sipped some coffee. Then I said to Sharon, “You talked to Jerry before he left last Sunday night?”
“Yes. Only for a minute.”
“What did he say?”
“Just that he was going to the post office. I asked him if he had finished his article, if that was what was in the envelopes he had, and he said yes. The only other thing he said was to leave the key out for him.”
“Key?”
“To the front door.”
“It’s our policy not to give out keys to boarders,” Mrs. Darden said. “But we do put one under a flower pot on the porch whenever no one is home, or if we know a boarder is going to come in after we’re in bed.”
I thought th
at over. “Then you always lock the front door when you retire?”
“Yes.”
“What time do you usually go to bed on Sundays?”
“Around eleven.”
“And it was after nine when Jerry left?”
“Yes,” Sharon said. “Just after.”
“About how long would it take him to walk from here to the post office and back again?”
“Well—thirty minutes or so.”
“Which indicates he was headed somewhere else besides the post office,” I said. “Otherwise he would have expected to be back by ten, when you were both still up, and he wouldn’t have asked for the key to be left out. Is there any sort of taxi service in the village?”
“No. None.”
“Bus service on Sunday night?”
“No.”
“So Jerry either planned to walk to where he was going or he was being met by someone.” I did some more ruminating. “He was excited, intense, when he left here?”
Sharon nodded.
“Yet he’d just finished writing his article,” I said, “and was about to put at least one copy in the mail. And he’d spent all day at the typewriter. He should have been relieved, exhausted—but not still excited. It had to be whatever he was going to do after leaving the post office, or whoever he was going to see, that made him that way.”
“But it could still have something to do with the subject of his article, couldn’t it?” Mrs. Darden asked. “Even though he’d finished it?”
“Yes. It probably did. How many places in the village are open on Sunday night?”
“Just the tavern. Everything else closes by six.”
Sharon said, “Doesn’t Mr. Ingles stay open until ten, mom?”
“You’re right, I believe he does.”
“Mr. Ingles?” I said.
“He owns the Sonoma Cafe. It’s on the road just outside the village. You may have noticed it as you drove in.”
I hadn’t noticed it, but I nodded anyway. And then tackled the pastry again, this time without embarrassing myself, and drank the rest of my coffee. Immediately Mrs. Darden refilled the cup.
Labyrinth (The Nameless Detective) Page 12