Black Shadows

by Simon Swift

  "I think our business is complete, Mr. Black," he said through gritted teeth and once again reached out his arms. "I'll take the… blue stone and be on my way."

  "Come, come, have another drink. It's early," laughed Timmy clearly enjoying himself, despite not knowing why.

  "That's right. Maggie, get Phil here and Audrey another drink will you? And don't forget Miss Marlow..." I saw it all click in Timmy's face. She was the broad from the Height's, he was saying, that's why I've got two sets of bracelets.

  "After all, how can you leave just yet? As we were all discussing, Tim's sure to want us all down at the station, aren't I right Timmy?"

  "Yeah, sure," he stuttered, trying his best to be convincing. The Coward looked at Audrey. Audrey looked at the Coward. His hand inside his jacket wavered. An ever so slight shake of the phantom's head halted this. They instead both beamed out wide smiles, masking their confusion.

  "To give our statements."

  There was a silence. Nobody was quite sure if it was their turn to speak up.

  "About the murder of Woo Wang, and how we can all categorically state that it was this man here." I pointed at the still unconscious nameless, shaking my head. A dumb look painted on my face, I said, "Funny how people forget things. But now we all remember. This is the man who shot Wang, no doubt about it. Isn't that right?"

  "Absolutely!" said Audrey, eager for an input. "The son of a bitch!"

  I nodded approvingly.

  Timmy Matthews nodded his head in absolute disbelief. He looked directly at the Coward, then at Audrey. "Is that so?" he uttered rhetorically. "And you are all willing to come down the station and make statements to this effect?"

  I looked at the Coward plainly. In one movement, I pushed the Flegenheimer towards him. It now rested next to him, brushing his left leg as he shuffled in his chair. A look of sheer ecstasy now filled his chubby chops.

  "I say again, you are all willing to make a statement that this man killed Woo Wang?"

  "Oh yes, Lieutenant," exclaimed the Coward. "We realize that it is our duty as American citizens. We must not shrink the responsibility of the honest man, who simply wants to live in a better world. You do a grand job sir, if I may say so, a job we are all extremely proud of. And if we can be of any assistance then we must offer our humble services." He licked his lips, rubbing his toes over the diamond.

  "As Mr. Black has said, it is this man that is responsible for the Dragon Bar murders. Both of them, in fact. He killed both Wang and Spanner."

  So off we went to the police station. Maggie Spanner was thanked and I promised her I would soon be in touch. Hermeez was not required, and so promised to meet me later at Joe's, for a debriefing. I hoped he would be there, but my uneasy feeling would not shift. The rest of us squeezed into Timmy Matthew's patrol car. Myself and Tim in the front seats, and an eminently more uncomfortable Coward, Audrey and Marlow in the back. The nameless, hands cuffed together, was clumsily squashed into the trunk. There was no chance of fitting four in the rear seat, three was a push with the fat man in the middle. Beaming like a king with the Flegenheimer Diamond hidden away inside his jacket.

  "Which one is the other set for?" whispered Timmy as he drove through the evening traffic. "I could arrest the broad for illegal activity, the fat guy for procuring young boys, and the kid... well, take your pick from twenty shootings last night."

  "Patience," is all I replied. Tim gave me one of his flabbergasted looks, but this time he was willingly leaving it up to me.

  It didn't take long to wrap up the statements. Timmy had telephoned ahead and true to the Coward's word, the killer's apartment held all the necessary evidence. To make matters smoother he confessed to everything, once he got round to being interviewed. Twenty minutes later, we were all stood in the police station reception area. For the first time that evening, the Coward had let go of the blue rock, allowing Marlow a proper look at the priceless gem. Her excitement was almost at the level of his. Her eyes all glazed over as she rolled it over her soft, dainty hands. Inspecting its every detail, marveling at its truly beautiful finish. I slipped away to make a quick telephone call, but was back before anyone noticed I had left.

  Weeny Jung Ping had been released. The charges of murder had been dropped in light of new, definitive information. He was to remain under investigation for illegal activity with a criminal organization and was urged to reside at his usual address. Tim Matthews had slipped him a one-way airline ticket on the way out.

  The nameless hit man, a Mr. Flute, was now the sure thing murderer. Three statements said as much and the amount of damning evidence was overwhelming. Professor Coward and his young student Audrey had been going over a dissertation in an alcove. They had both seen the shooting clearly, but had been too frightened to do anything. Until now, that was, when their sense of duty and obligation to the good had surfaced. Miss Marlow had been shopping outside. She had seen Flute running out of the Dragon Bar, a smoking gun in his hand. She had heard the shot and watched as he sped off in a car, which was later found blood-stained and abandoned.

  The weapon had been found, and the man's prints matched up. All three witnesses marveled at how quickly NYPD justice kicked in. The right man was in the cells, I knew that for sure, but the method was unique. Everything was completed quickly and without question. My three friends now assured that I was simply ensuring my half of the bargain. They would the walk free with their dream accomplished.

  Dyke Spanner had been notably ignored from each of the three signed statements. I had intimated to Tim that to adjoin the admission would only cause problems. Naive as it was, NYPD law would not be able to pass a double identity so smoothly. The sergeant informed the Coward and his entourage that they would be required to re-attend to discuss that murder. We all knew they would not.

  "It is truly magnificent," mumbled Marlow to nobody in particular.

  "Yes, it most certainly is Miss Marlow, by god it is!" agreed the Coward, watching her closely. "Now if that is all sir, we will be..."

  "Of course Professor you may leave. And thank you very much," said Timmy, looking nervously over to me.

  The Coward and Audrey smiled at each other. I shook both of their hands, even enduring a sort of bear hug from the fat man.

  "And so we must leave sir," he began. "It has been most superb to have done business with you. I do hope that we will meet again, by god I do."

  I simply nodded, a smile plastered on my face.

  "Okay." He looked around the room. "Miss Marlow are we ready?"

  Marlow looked up and handed him the diamond back. All three then headed towards the exit. The Coward and Audrey were out of the door when I stepped across, in front of Marlow. She looked at me in fearful surprise as the door slammed shut. Before she could respond, there was a set of bracelets attached to her wrist and she was being led through into another room. Timmy stopped short, leaving us together.

  "Errol, what is going on?" she asked helplessly, tugging at the handcuffs.

  "Don't do that sweetheart, you'll hurt your precious wrists."

  She looked at me mournfully. Her beauty shone out from her petrified face. Big brown eyes welling up with tears.

  "I did what you asked, I signed the statement," she pleaded. "Why have you let the other two free and kept me here? I do not understand."

  "I'm sorry darling. I didn't want you to feel left out, so I invented a story for you as well. The statement is probably going through the shredder right now..."

  The dam burst, tears now streaming down her high cheekbones. She was definitely distressed. Was this one more game? Would I frighten her to death and then release her; a final warning. Or was I to be true to my word. That way she would not get out of this room alive.

  She edged towards me. She didn't believe that I would kill her. Despite my influence with the police, I would not go that far. To kill her under their noses, with no witnesses to lie. Even Errol Black would not do that. She would appeal to my better nature. The nature that had ta
ken her to bed not two days ago.

  I stepped aside, avoiding her advances. "You see a statement from a murderer would be no good. For one killer to finger another holds no water in this town. I believe you honey, and so does Timmy, but there's enough to convict Flute already."

  She stopped. "But I'm no killer, Errol, I'm..."

  "Sure you are angel, you killed Dyke. You filled him full of lead and left him for dead right? To confuse matters more you even used two different firearms. Don't worry, the police won't need them."

  She put her handcuffed hands to her forehead. Clearly shocked by what she heard, there was no rehearsed response. "Errol, how can you say such a thing? I could not have killed Dyke. You were there when it happened! You were watching me in the restaurant."

  "That's true baby, I certainly was. And that is exactly why I know that you killed Dyke. You planted me there as your alibi, only to kill him anyway. You had the opportunity and the willing."

  I lit up a Lucky and for the first time offered one to Marlow. She accepted, sucking on it desperately.

  "You see honey, Mr. Flute was an amateur. A no good punk. It's only the NYPD's incompetence that's kept him on the streets until now. There's no way he could have killed Dyke because he wasn't good enough. Dyke Spanner was a lot of things, but an amateur was not one of them. He would never get killed by a punk. He couldn't let one get close enough. He was far too good."

  "Then how was I supposed to get near him?"

  It was supposed to be a question of defense. But it was exactly the response I had wanted.

  "Because you weren't a threat, sweetheart. You and Dyke were lovers, just like you and me. Hell, I nearly made the same mistake." I thought of the empty gun, taking it from my jacket pocket and holding it up. "Guess what? It matches up. Yes, this is the same little baby that killed Dyke."

  There was a short silence. Marlow was truly lost for words.

  "Maybe he was close to figuring out you weren't who you said you were. You couldn't risk him staying alive to uncover you. That would ruin your plans to get the diamond. And nothing stands in the way of that. You probably arranged to meet him for a last drink. Maybe your intention was to call it all off and never see him again. Only he'd already figured it out and you had to kill him. On the other hand, maybe you'd planned to kill him all along. Hell, I can't blame you. He was an arrogant, know it all son of a bitch. I thought of shooting him a few times myself.

  "Once he was dead, you would wait for me to arrive on your doorstep and snare the stone. It was a great plan, a truly great one. The only drawback being Dyke had it all along. So you killed the guy too early."

  "What are you going to do, Errol? You can't hand me over to the police. I'll hang for this."

  "Oh I don't know precious. If you're on form, I'm sure you'll bargain it down to twenty years, maybe fifteen."

  "But Errol, you can't. What about us? I love you."

  I studied her face. Sighing at just how pretty she was.

  "Maybe you do, sweetheart, maybe you do. If you get the years, I'll be here to buy you dinner when you get out. If you hang, I'll remember the good times."

  I left the room. Timmy rushed over as I made my way out of the police station.

  "I heard all that, Errol. We'll take care of her now."

  "I'm sure you will, Lieutenant," I answered.

  "And Errol... Thanks."

  I nodded at Timmy and hailed a cab.

  When I made it to Joe's Diner it was gone ten. Marlow and Flute would be locked up in a cell and Weeny Wang would be on his way to Rio. I felt relieved that the whole business was finally wrapped up. Dyke Spanner could now rest in peace, and I could get back to being a good for nothing son of a bitch.

  There was a loud cheer as I entered the watering hole. Joe hugged me, a bottle of champagne in one hand, a bottle of bourbon in the other.

  "I wasn't sure which..." he explained.

  Ava Jamieson and Jake Wiseman were deep in conversation. They both looked up and smiled. Ava nodded and mouthed 'I knew you'd do it, Errol'. I winked back at her. Jake took his hand from her knee and headed over.

  "Well done Errol," he said. "Come here..."

  Before I could say anything, he too was hugging me. "You did it."

  Joe handed me the bottle of champagne and nodded to the stairs. "Hermeez is up there. Said he wants to talk in private."

  I nodded, patted my buddy on the shoulder and ambled up the stairs.

  Hermeez was stood in the doorway with two empty glasses in his hand. He took the champagne from me and poured us a both a glass, raising his in the air. "Congratulations Rolly, you solved the case."

  I tasted the bubbly. It tasted sour.

  "Joe said you wanted to talk."

  Hermeez nodded and looked at his feet. "I'm leaving town, Eezy."

  I said nothing.

  "Tonight. We're on the night train."

  He looked up and our eyes met.

  "We're gonna start a new life together. Marcie and me, we're leaving it all behind. All the history, the bright lights, the grime, the celebrity lifestyle and the mobsters. All of it."

  "Hermeez, I know. You don't have to go."

  He looked rueful and nodded his head. "Yes I do. I've danced with the devil too many times. The Agency is all yours, Errol."

  There was a long silence. Maybe five minutes of absolute silence. Sure there was noise going on downstairs but it was all blocked out. For the moment, there was just me and Hermeez. "I'm sorry I lied to you, Eezy."

  Hermeez went on to tell me about his double life, which had been consuming him for the last six months. He had always kept in touch with Marcia and they found themselves getting closer and closer. It was only the barrier that Hermeez had erected around himself that stopped them from falling back in love sooner. But it didn't stop them, not for long anyway. I could hear it in his voice, he was head over heels in love with her again. Maybe he always had been.

  When he finally drew up the courage to admit it to himself, and to Marcia, that is when his problems really began. Marcia's years in California had been a real roller coaster, but neither of us realized just how far she had sunk. She descended into a world of drug addiction and crime, perpetuated by each other and tried on two occasions to take her own life. She found herself seriously in debt and with no way of getting out of it.

  Hermeez helped her kick her addictions and gave her all the support and affection she needed. But he couldn't give her the money as he didn't have it. He should have asked me but he was afraid that I would talk him out of his reconciliation. He was wrong. I would have actively encouraged him, but even I would not have got my hands on the kind of money he needed.

  When Arnold Muchado took over the debts, Marcia and Hermeez's problems were really beginning. They had three options: Marcia joined Muchado's stable of high-class hookers, they both died nasty deaths, or Hermeez did a few chores for the gangster. The third option was the only one they would consider. So Hermeez became Muchado's lapdog, running errands for the gangster and not asking the questions he should have asked, or getting paid the money he should have been paid. He broke the code and he got nothing for it. Apart from Marcia.

  "She's trouble Herm. She always has been and she always will be. She'll hurt you again."

  "No. No she won't!" He said it as if he was more sure of that than anything else in the whole world.

  "And Muchado is now going to leave you alone?"

  "The debt is repaid so he's gonna have to. Anyways he won't know where to find us. Nobody will."

  I looked at my buddy. I could feel my eyes filling up but I just let them. He smiled at me and then looked away, his face a mask of embarrassment.

  "Just what did he have you doing for him? What does a loan shark and a pimp like Muchado need a private eye for?"

  Hermeez shrugged.

  A cold chill swept over me. A sinister thought formed in my mind, a thought that I dare not consider. Before I had chance to consider it I found myself saying: "You shot D
yke Spanner."

  His face said it all. I had picked the wrong killer.

  "I'm taking you in."

  Hermeez shook his head. "You're not going to do that," he said, before telling me just what happened.

  "I found out that he was in trouble. Serious trouble. It wasn't just this diamond thing with the Coward, he had enemies everywhere. Everywhere. Muchado let it slip one day that there was a contract out on him. It wasn't one of his and he didn't seem bothered either way whether he lived or died. I think he found the whole idea a little amusing.

  "What was I supposed to do? A man that I hated, who had been responsible for the worst chapter of my sorry life, a man that I knew cheated not only on his wife but on every friend or colleague he ever had, was going to be killed. Probably a couple of bullets in the back of the head. He wasn't big time, so I don't suppose he would even merit the honor of knowing who it was that was to kill him. No," he made a gun with his thumb and forefinger, "bang, bang to the back of the head and he would be dead. What should I have done, Eezy? Should I have let it just happen?"

  I said nothing.

  "No, I thought not. So I put all my personal feelings aside and decided I wouldn't just let it happen. I would do the right thing and go and see the son of a bitch. Guess what? He threw it right back at me. He told me to get out of his face and leave him alone. He was heading down the Dragon for a beer and didn't want to be bothered by a sorry, yellow kraut. I began to walk away. Hell if he was gonna get himself killed then fine, I owed the bastard nothing, except maybe a bullet or two of my own.

  "I nearly got away as well, only now he turned right around and started to follow me. He started on the insults again, you know more of the ancestry shit. I was Hitler's little descendant, I was a sausage eating slob. I was a fuckin' foreigner who should be repatriated to my fuckin' fatherland. I kept walking.