Chance

by Robert B. Parker

  The rain on my windshield made the colors of the fall trees look. like an impressionist painting. I ate a donut and drank some coffee. I could see the house okay. The rain had little effect on the side windows. I ate my second donut and finished my decaf. There was no sign of life in the Becker house. I got out of the car and walked to the front door. They had kids in school. The parents worked. They'd hide a key somewhere. I looked around for the best spot as I went up the walk. There was a doormat, but that was so obvious they probably wouldn't use it. On the front step I paused, glanced around, and opened the mailbox. No. There were windows on either side of the front door, and there were shutters on either side of the windows. I ran a hand behind the shutter to the right of the door. No. I tried the other one, and the key was there hanging on a loop of string from a thumbtack in the back side of the shutter frame. I rang the bell and waited. Nothing. I opened the front door and went in. The house was empty. I could feel the emptiness immediately. The living room was to the right, the dining room to the left. They were both furnished in cheap Danish modern. Five piece living room set now only $1100. The dining room was walnut. The living room was blond. In the living room, on the mantel over the clean fireplace, were pictures of three young girls, elementary-school age, maybe twelve, ten, and eight. I went down the short center hall to the kitchen. Cereal bowls and plates with toast crumbs on them, coffee cups and juice glasses and cutlery were stacked in the sink. An empty milk carton sat on the kitchen table, and a jar of grape jelly with the cap still off stood on the table beside it.

  Across the hall was a family room with a day bed in it, one of those kind on wheels which you can rent. It didn't look like it belonged there. Furniture had been pushed out of the way to make room for it. The bed was unmade. There was a small lavatory off the family room. There was a lip liner on the sink, and in the wastebasket several tissues with the kiss imprint that women leave when they blot their lipstick. There was no sign of clothing.

  Upstairs there were four bedrooms, the beds unmade, clothing scattered on the floor. There were damp towels wadded on the floor of the bathroom, and a cap less tube of toothpaste oozed some of its contents onto the sink top. Three of the bedrooms obviously belonged to the girls. The fourth was larger and appeared to be the master bedroom. There was a king-sized bed, unmade, and two closets. One was full of women's clothes, the other full of men's. A pair of white panty hose was draped over the foot of the bed. Some boxer shorts had been tossed toward the laundry basket in one of the closets and fallen considerably short. The house was a mess.

  I'd been in enough houses on short notice, or none, to know that houses were often a mess. There were three kids to get dressed and fed and off to school before their parents got ready for work.

  They'd pick up a little when they got home. They might clean on the weekend. They'd put everything in order before they had company. They were not expecting a burglar. I had broken and entered often enough in my life to be used to it. But I never liked it. I always felt sort of voyeuristic, peeping in on the personal clutter of people's privacy.

  I went back downstairs and looked around in the family room again. There was a pale green plastic hair roller on the floor under the rollaway bed. There was an empty bottle of nail polish remover on top of the television set and a highball glass with a little water in the bottom. I smelled it. It smelled like bourbon. The water was probably melted ice. Someone, presumably a woman, had been staying in the room. But there were no clothes, no luggage. I went back up to the master bedroom and looked more carefully through the closet and the bureau. All the woman's clothes were size 12.

  They all seemed consistent in style. Susan would have been helpful here, but she had always had some kind of hang-up on breaking into people's homes and snooping in their closets.

  I walked around the house again and saw nothing else that would help me so I went back out the front door, hung the key up behind the shutter, and walked toward my car. The rain was still coming down, making the still suburban street shine a glossy black. I turned up my collar as I walked.

  In my car I started the motor and turned on the wipers, set the heater on low, and sat some more, looking at the house across the street. The houseguest could have been Bibi and she could have scooted when Abbey's mother told her a detective was looking for her. Perfect. Trying to find her may have made her harder to find.

  The universe was a recalcitrant bastard.

  I had a west suburban directory in the car with me and I started calling banks on the car phone until I found one that employed Abigail Becker. She worked close to home, at a branch of DePaul Federal right here in Needham, downtown, maybe a mile from her house. I found her there, behind a desk on the customer side of the counter. The sign on the desk said she was Branch Manager. She was a biggish woman, but attractive enough with neat brown hair and blue eyes, and nice smile lines at the corner of her mouth. She didn't look like a lousy housekeeper. She had on a tan tweed suit which fit her well, and a dark brown blouse. That's why she hadn't worn the white panty hose. She would want tan to go with her outfit. She stood as I approached her desk. She would be about Bibi's age, which if they graduated '77, would make her thirty-six.

  "May I help you, sir?"

  "Ycu Mrs. Becker?" I said.

  "Yes, I'm the branch manager. How can I help."

  I took out my wallet and showed her my license.

  "My name is Spenser," I said.

  "I talked with your mother yesterday. I'm looking for Bibi Anaheim, formerly Bibi Costa."

  "Mother told me you'd called her. I didn't realize she'd told you how to reach me."

  "She didn't," I said.

  "Intentionally. But she mentioned your name and said you lived in Needham, and…" I shrugged modestly.

  "Elementary."

  "Yes, of course, won't you sit down."

  I sat.

  "You and Bibi were high school friends."

  "Yes, earlier than that. We were friends all through school."

  "Do you still hear from her?"

  "Not very much, I'm afraid. We exchange Christmas cards, really, very little more than that."

  "You know where she is now?"

  "Well, I gather she's not at home, in Medford?"

  "No, would you have any idea where she might be?"

  "No, I'm sorry. I don't."

  "You've not heard from her?"

  "No. Not in ages."

  She shifted in her chair and crossed her legs. I was right. The panty hose were dark tan. The legs were good, too.

  "And you have no thoughts where I might find her?"

  "No, I'm very sorry, but I really don't."

  "Names of any friends she might have contacted?"

  She shook her head slowly.

  I stood and took one of my business cards out and gave it to her.

  "Well, if you do hear from her, or you think of anything that might be useful in finding her, please give me a call."

  "Of course," she said and stood and shook hands with me.

  "I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful."

  "Me too," I said and went back out into the rain with the collar of my trench coat turned up. In uniform. Driving back to Boston I thought about how she had not once asked why I was looking for Bibi or if she might be in trouble, or any of the questions she might have asked if she really hadn't talked with Bibi. Maybe if I laid low in the weeds for a while and didn't bother Abigail any more, the houseguest, whoever she was, might assume the risk was over and come back.

  CHAPTER 34

  Hawk and I were in Bay Village, on the south end of Charles Street, approaching a couple of hookers. "This is a pretty long end run ain't it?" Hawk said.

  "You got a better idea?" I said.

  "Could talk with Julius again."

  "We can do that," I said.

  "But let's see if we can find out a little about what's going on down here in the trenches."

  "That where we are?" Hawk said.

  "Right here where
the cash is earned," I said.

  "Good evenin'," one of the hookers said.

  "I'm Wanda."

  "Aren't you cold?" I said.

  She had on a red sleeveless top and a white miniskirt and three inch white heels.

  "Got a sweater over in the doorway," she said.

  "You cops?"

  "You ever see a cop dressed as good as me?" Hawk said.

  "Some of the undercover Vice guys looking pretty fresh," Wanda said.

  "We're not cops," I said.

  "We're looking for a missing woman."

  "You think she hooking?" Wanda's friend asked. She had on black toreador pants and a huge blonde wig.

  "No, but it's a place to start," I said.

  "Who runs you?"

  "We got us a pimp," Wanda said.

  "Bet he don't think of it that way," Hawk said.

  "What's his name?" I said.

  "Chuckie. Either you gentlemen going to fuck one of us?"

  "I don't think so," I said.

  "

  "Cause if you ain't you best be moving along. Chuckie don't like us, you know, ah, wasting time with people ain't customers."

  "Where is Chuckie?"

  "Around. Keeping an eye on things."

  "So if we stay here for a while, Chuckie will show up and tell us to move along."

  "That what he usually do," the blonde said.

  "But you two looking kind of big and quick."

  "You think we'd scare him off?"

  "Chuckie bad," the blonde said.

  "But there two of you…"

  I nodded.

  "Hawk," I said.

  "Why don't you sort of even the odds for Chuckie."

  Hawk nodded.

  "Ladies," he said, and started walking toward Park Square.

  "You want Chuckie to hassle you?" Wanda said.

  "I want to meet him," I said.

  "Chuckie's pretty mean," Wanda said.

  The blonde reached over and felt my bicep.

  "Oh!" she said.

  "Maybe this be something."

  Wanda felt my bicep too. The two women giggled.

  "You know who Chuckie works for?" I said.

  "Chuckie don't work," Wanda said.

  "We work."

  "You know who Chuckie pays off?"

  "Naw, man, don't know nothing 'bout that stuff."

  A dark Pontiac Bonneville drove slowly along Charles Street, and slid into the curb beside us. A tall high-shouldered black man got out and walked around behind the car and stopped beside me.

  He had on a black and red leather warm-up jacket and a red do rag on his head. First Deion, now the world. His arms were a little too long for the jacket and his wrists where they showed below the cuffs were thick.

  "You a police officer?" he said.

  "No."

  "Then you looking to have yourself some fun?"

  "Nope, just passing the time of night with these ladies," I said.

  "Well, sir, these ladies are mine, you know what I mean, and they working, so they don't really have no time to be passing."

  "You Chuckie?" I said.

  "You best move along," Chuckie said, " 'fore you get your white ass fucked up."

  "Now, see, that's the trouble with you pimps," I said.

  "You got no judgment. You always play the race card too early."

  The two hookers had moved back a little toward the doorway to watch. They were excited.

  Chuckie raised his voice and moved very close to me.

  "I don't want you bothering my whores," he said.

  "Who runs prostitution these days, now that Tony's in jail?" I said.

  "Don't know no Tony," Chuckie said.

  "Tony Marcus," I said.

  "Don't know nothing 'bout no Tony Marcus," Chuckie said.

  "Ain't gonna tell you again. Hit the road."

  Chuckie had a gun on the right side of his belt, forward of his hip. I could see the hint of it under his jacket. I was trying to figure out how to push him hard enough to talk without pushing him so hard he went for the gun. Chuckie helped me figure it out.

  He put his left hand on my chest and gave me a shove.

  "Move it," he said.

  He was grand-standing a little in front of his whores, it was to be expected. But I hate being pushed. I hit Chuckie a left hook and turned my shoulder in and stepped in under his left arm and hit him a right uppercut, under his chin, close to the neck, where I was less likely to hurt my hand. He fell over on his back and I stepped beside him with my gun out and pointing straight down at the bridge of his nose. The whores were giggling nervously.

  One of them said, "Whoa, Mister Chuckie."

  Chuckie lay there, his bell still ringing, trying to get his eyes to focus. I waited. When he could hear me, I spoke to him pleasantly.

  "There's a gun on your belt, right side. Take it out with the first two fingers of your right hand. Two fingers only. I see more than two and your brains will make a very small mess on the sidewalk."

  Chuckie hesitated. I thumbed the hammer back. He twitched slightly. Had he been standing it would probably have been a jump, then he took the gun out.

  "Slide it toward the gutter," I said.

  "Two fingers only."

  He did and I stepped away from him and picked it up, and put it in my coat pocket. I uncocked my own gun and put it away.

  "Now," I said, "what I was wondering was, who runs prostitution in town since Tony went to the house of blue lights?"

  From flat on the sidewalk, Chuckie gave me an expressionless I'll-get-you-for-this stare. I gave him a gentle kick in the ribs.

  "Tony still runs it," he said.

  "From the place."

  "And who helps him on the outside?" I said.

  "Tarone."

  "Give me a full name."

  "Tarone Jessup."

  "Thank you."

  I turned to the whores giggling in the doorway.

  "Ladies," I said.

  They giggled some more. Nervously, trying not to. Chuckie would probably beat them up if he thought they were laughing at him. I smiled at them.

  Chuckie was sitting up now.

  "Hey, man," he said.

  "You going to gimme back my gun?"

  "No," I said.

  "Piece cost me five hundred dollars, man," Chuckie said.

  "Think of it as rent," I said, and kept on going.

  CHAPTER 35

  Hawk located Tarone Jessup the next day and we went to see him in the back room of a video arcade on Ruggles Street. The front room was full of black teenaged boys who stared at me as Hawk and I walked through the room. Tarone's door was open and we went in. There were three men in the room. One at the desk with his feet up, two sitting against the right-hand wall. "You Tarone Jessup?" Hawk said to the guy at the desk.

  "Un huh."

  He was a thin jittery-looking guy with a sharp nose and oval black eyes like a bull terrier.

  "I'm Hawk."

  "Knew you were," Tarone said.

  "Who that with you, Casper the friendly ghost?"

  The two guys against the wall laughed more loudly than the remark required.

  "He do look kind of pale," Hawk said.

  "He look like a honky motherfucker to me," Tarone said.

  "Just think of me as color challenged," I said.

  "Who you been paying off to run your whores in Bay Village?"

  Tarone was wearing a small brimless black cap and some sort of loose-fitting multicolored African tunic. Authentic.

  "The honky cut right to the fucking chase, don't he?" Tarone said.

  The two guys against the wall guffawed some more. One of them had the thickened features of a not too successful prize fighter.

  The other one, taller and younger, looked like a guy who might benefit from a few pops on the beezer.

  "We looking for a woman," Hawk said.

  "We starting at the other end, so to speak, working back. You understand? Got nothing to do with you.
"

  "You want a woman?" Tarone said.

  "I get you a woman, man.

  We got a lot of them."

  He looked at the two guys on the wall. They thought he was funnier than a bucket of bullfrogs. The younger one was stamping his foot as he laughed.

  Hawk looked at me. Then he leaned over Tarone's desk and spoke very softly to him.

  "Tarone, you don't know me," Hawk said.

  "But you know about me. Don't you."

  "Sure, I heard 'bout you."

  "Anybody mention I enjoy being fucked with?"

  Hawk's eyes were maybe six inches from Tarone's. Tarone looked quickly at his two pals. Then he looked back at Hawk. The two pals stood up, somewhat stiffly, against the wall. Hawk's eyes were steady on Tarone, barely breathing room between their faces.

  "Be cool, Hawk," Tarone said.

  "I ain't fucking with you."

  Hawk slowly straightened. He smiled pleasantly. But his eyes still held on Tarone's.

  "Well, good," Hawk said.

  "That's nice. Who you paying off to run your whores in Bay Village?"

  "Guy comes by, Anthony, collects a percentage every week."

  "Anthony Meeker?" I said.

  "Yeah."

  "Who's he deliver it to," Hawk said.

  "Mr. Ventura."

  Hawk looked at me.

  "How much?" I said.

  "We give him five grand a week," Tarone said.

  "Do any business with Gino Fish?" I said.

  Tarone shook his head.

  "Marty Anaheim?"

  Tarone shook his head again.

  "Pay off anybody else?"

  "Just some Vice graft," Tarone said.

  "Nickels and dimes."

  I nodded.

  "Anything unusual about your deal with Ventura?"

  "No. It's his turf. He got a right to tribute."

  "Tribute," I said.

  Tarone shrugged.

  "What he calls it," Tarone said.

  "And you don't deal with Gino Fish," I said.

  "Not direct. He may have some deal going with Mr. Ventura. If he do, I don't know nothing about it."