by Sue Grafton
Chapter 13
*
The basement stairs were intact. The fire had apparently been contained before it reached this far. The damage to the rooms above seemed to be the result of some accelerant that had ensured at least a superficial combustion throughout the house. The beam from my flashlight cut through the dark, illuminating a narrow, moving path filled with things I didn’t want to touch. I reached the bottom of the stairs. There wasn’t a lot of headroom. The house was more than forty years old and the foundation was dank and spider-pocked. The air felt dense, like the atmosphere in a greenhouse, except that everything down here was dead, exuding that fenny perfume of old fire and old damp, abandonment and rot.
I angled the light along the joists, tracing the beams to the hole where daylight spilled down. Had the floor burned through and the body tumbled into the basement? I moved closer, craning to see better. The edges of the hole looked cut to me. Maybe the fire inspector had taken samples of the boards for lab tests. To my left, I could see the furnace, a silent squat bulge of gray, with sooty ducting extending in all directions. The floor was hard-packed dirt and cracked concrete, the entire space filled with junk. Paint cans and old window screens were stacked up under the stairs and there was an ancient galvanized sink in the corner, the pipes corroded away.
I toured the perimeter, poking the light into spaces where eight-legged creatures skittered away from me, horrified. Later I was glad I’d been such a conscientious little bun, but at the time, I only wanted to get out of there as quickly as I could. An empty house always seems to make those noises that have you wondering it an ax murderer is creeping through the premises in search of prey. I shone the flashlight over to the far wall where the stairs jutted up a short distance to the bolted double doors leading out to the side yard. Daylight slanted through the cracks but the smell of fresh air didn’t sift down this far. I knew the double doors were padlocked on the outside, but the wood was old and crumbly and didn’t seem that secure. From what Lily Howe had said, the burglar hadn’t even bothered with breaking and entering. He’d marched right up to the front door and rung the bell. Had they struggled? Had he panicked when she opened the door and killed her instantly? The intruder might have been a woman, of course, especially if the weapon had actually been a baseball bat. Ever since Title IX, women have become more adept at the sportier side arms; death by discus, javelin, shot put, bow and arrow, hockey puck… the possibilities are endless, one would think.
I moved back toward the stairs shivering involuntarily with the darkness at my back. I took the steps two at a time, nearly knocking myself out when I banged into a crossbeam. I cursed soundly to myself, bursting out of the basement and into the hall again as though pursued. Something feathery caught my eye and when I realized it was a delicate centipede whiffling down my front, I did this erratic quick dance step, brushing my shirt like I’d suddenly burst into flames. God, the things I do for money, I thought savagely. I went out the back door, locking it behind me, and sat down on the porch steps. My breathing finally slowed, but it took me a few more minutes to regain my composure.
In the meantime, I had a chance to check the backyard. I don’t know what I was looking for or what I thought I might find after six months. There were only overgrown bushes and weeds, a little orange tree crippled by the lack of water and covered with hard fruit turning brown because it hadn’t been picked. The shed was one of those prefabricated metal jobs you can order through the Sears catalogue and put up anywhere. It was secured by a nice big fat padlock that looked sturdy enough. I cross the yard and inspected it. It was actually a simple warded lock I thought I could open in a few minutes, but I didn’t have my little double-headed pick key with me and I wasn’t crazy about the idea of standing out there fiddling with a padlock in broad daylight. Better I should come back when the sun went down and find out what Grice or his nephew kept in there. Old lawn furniture was my guess, but one can never be sure.
I took the house key back to Mr. Snyder and then got in my car and headed over to the office. I let myself in and made a pot of coffee. The mail wasn’t in yet and there were no messages on my machine. I opened the French doors and stood out on the balcony. Where the fuck was Elaine Boldt? And where was Elaine Boldt’s pussycat? I was running out of things to do and places to look. I typed up a contract for Julia Ochsner to sign and stuck that in my out box. When the coffee was ready, I poured myself some and sat down in my swivel chair and swiveled. When in doubt, I thought, it’s best to fall back on routine.
I made a long-distance telephone call to a newspaper in Boca Raton, and another call to a paper in Sarasota, placing classified ads in the personals columns of each. “Anybody knowing the whereabouts of Elaine Boldt, female, Caucasian, age 43…” etc. “Please contact…” with my name, address, and phone number and an invitation to call collect.
That felt productive. What else? I swiveled some more and then put a call through to Mrs. Ochsner. She was on my mind anyway.
“Hello?” she said, picking up at long last. Her voice was tremulous, but held a note of anticipation, as though despite the fact she was eighty-eight, anyone might be calling and anything might come to pass. I hoped I’d always feel that way myself. At the moment, I wasn’t so optimistic.
“Hi, Julia. This is Kinsey out in California.”
“Just a minute, dear, and I’ll turn the television down. I’m watching my program.”
“You want me to call you back in a bit? I hate to interrupt.”
“No, no. I’d prefer talking to you. Hold on.”
Some moments passed and I heard the volume of the background noise reduced to silence. Julia was apparently creeping back to the phone as fast as she could. I waited. Finally she picked up the receiver again. “I kept the picture on,” she said, out of breath, “though it just looks like one big blur from across the room. How are you?”
“Frustrated at the moment,” I said. “I’m running out of things to do, but I wanted to ask you about Elaine’s cat. I don’t suppose you’ve seen Mingus in the last six months, have you?”
“Oh goodness, no. I hadn’t even thought about him. If she’s gone, he’d have to be missing too, I suppose.”
“Well, it looks that way. The building manager here says she left that night with what looked like a cat carrier, so if she actually got to Florida, I’m assuming she’d have had him with her.”
“I’d be willing to swear he never got here any more than she did, but I could check with vets and kennels in the area,” Julia said. “Maybe she boarded him out for some reason.”
“Could you do that? It would really save me some time. I don’t know that you’ll turn up anything, but at least we’ll know we tried. I’m going to see if I can trace the taxicab she took and find out if she had the cat with her when she went to the airport. Did Pat Usher ever mention him?”
“Not that I recall. She’s gone, you know. Moved out lock, stock, and barrel.”
“Oh, really? Well, I’m not surprised, but I would like to know where she is. Could you get her forwarding address from the Makowskis? I’ll call you back in a day or two, but don’t you dare call Pat yourself. I don’t want her to know you’re involved. I may need you to do some more snooping later and I don’t want your cover blown.” I added, “How are things with you otherwise?”
“Oh, I’m fine, Kinsey. You needn’t worry about me. I don’t suppose you’d consider a partnership after we wrap this one up.”
“I’ve had worse offers in my day,” I said.
Julia laughed. “I’m going to start reading Mickey Spillane just to get in shape. I don’t know a lot of rude words, you know.”
“I think I’ve got us covered on that score. I’ll talk to you later. Let me know if you come up with anything startling in the meantime. Oh ��� and I’m shipping you a contract for your signature. We might as well do this right.”
“Roger. Over and out,” she said and hung up.
I left my vintage VW in the parking lot beh
ind the office and walked over to the Tip Top Cab Company on Delgado. The business office is located in a narrow strip of stores best noted for their liquidation sales: a constant round of discount shoes, car stereos, lunch counters, and motorcycle shops with an occasional beauty salon or a “fast-foto” establishment. It is not a desirable location. The one-way street runs the wrong way.
The parking lot is too small and apparently the owner of the building, while not exacting outrageous rents, is also content to let the premises languish under worn paint and tatty carpeting.
Tip Top was jammed between a Humane Society Thrift Shop and a Big N’ Tall Men’s Shop with a suit in the window designed for the steroid enthusiast. The office itself was long and narrow, partitioned across the middle with a plywood wall with a door cut into it. The place was furnished like some kid’s hideout, complete with two broken-down couches and a table with one short leg. There were drawings and hand-lettered signs Scotch-taped to the walls, trash piled up in one corner, dog-eared copies of Road and Track magazine in an irregular tier by the front door. The bucket seat from a car was propped against the far wall, tan upholstery slashed in one spot and mended with old Band-Aids covered with stars. The dispatcher was perched on a stool, leaning one elbow on a counter as littered as a workbench. He was probably twenty-five with curly black hair and a small dark mustache. He wore chinos, a pale blue T-shirt with a faded decal of the Grateful Dead, and a visor that made his hair stick up on the sides. The shortwave radio squawked incomprehensibly and he took up the mike.
“Seven-oh,” eh said, his eyes immediately focusing on the map of the city affixed to the wall above the counter. I saw a butt-filled ashtray, an aspirin bottle, a cardboard calendar from Our Lady of Sorrows Church, a fan belt, plastic packets of ketchup, and a big penciled note that read “Has Anybody Seen My Red Flash Lite?” Tacked to the wall there was a list of addresses for customers who’d passed bad checks and those in the habit of calling more than one cab to see who could get there first.
There was a short burst of squawking and the dispatcher moved a round magnet from one part of the map to another. It looked like he was playing a board game all by himself.
He rotated toward me on the stool. “Yes ma’am.”
I held out my hand. “I’m Kinsey Millhone,” I said. He seemed slightly disconcerted at the notion of shaking hands, but he covered himself and gamely obliged.
“Ron Coachello.”
I took out my wallet and showed him my identification. “I wonder if you could check some records for me.”
His eyes were very dark and bright and his look said that he could check anything he wanted if it suited him. “What’s the skinny?”
I gave him the Reader’s Digest condensed version of the tale, complete with Elaine Boldt’s local address and the approximate time the taxi’d been there. “Can you go back to January ninth of this year and see if Tip Top picked up the fare? It might have been City Cab or Green Stripe. I’ve got some questions for the driver.”
He shrugged. “Sure. It might take a day. I got that stuff at home. I don’t keep it down here. Why don’t I give you a call, or better yet, you buzz me back? How’s that?”
The phone rang and he took a call, logging it in. Then he took up the mike and pressed the button. “Six-eight.” He cocked his head, listening idly. There was static, then a squawk.
“Four-oh-two-nine Orion,” he said and clicked off. I gave him my card. He glanced at it with curiosity as if he’d never known a woman with a business card before. The radio suddenly came to life again and he turned back, taking up the mike. I waved to him and he waved back over his shoulder at me.
I went through exactly the same procedure with the other two cab companies, which were fortunately within walking distance of one another. By the time I repeated the same story twice more I felt like I was suffering from a bad case of tongue flop.
When I got into the office, there was a message from Jonah Robb on my machine.
“Ah, yeah, Kinsey. This if Officer Robb on that… ah… issue we discussed. I wonder if you could give me a call sometime… ah… this afternoon and we’ll find a way to get together on it. It’s now Friday and it’s… ah… twelve-ten P.M. Talk to you soon. Okay. Thanks.” The number he left was for the police station, with the extension for Missing Persons.
I called him back, identifying myself as soon as he came on the line. “I understand you have some information for me.”
“Right,” he said. “You want to stop by my place later on?”
“I could do that,” I said. I took down his address and we settled on 8:15, bypassing dinner. I didn’t think we should get into any little domestic numbers at this point. I thanked him for his help and rang off.
I couldn’t for the life of me think of anything else to do on the case that afternoon so I locked the office and headed for home. It was only 1:20 and since I’d accomplished so little at work, I felt morally obliged to be useful at my place. I washed the cup and saucer and plate that were sitting in the sink and left them in the rack to dry until I needed them again. I put a load of towels in the washer and then scoured the bathroom and kitchen sinks, took out the trash, and vacuumed a path around the furniture. Now and then, I actually move things and suck up all the woofies underneath, but today it was sufficient to have a few vacuum-cleaner tracks here and there and the apartment smelling of that peculiar cross between hot machine oil and cooked dust. I do love tidiness. When you live by yourself, you can either get all piggy or pick up as you go, which is what I prefer. There’s nothing more depressing than coming home at the end of a long day to a place that looks like it’s just been tossed by the mob.
I changed into my sweat pants and did three miles with energy to burn. This was one of those rare days when the run seemed inexplicably grand.
I came home, showered, washed my hair, napped, got dressed, sneaked in a little grocery shopping, and then I sat down at my desk and worked on note cards while I drank a glass of white wine and ate a warm, sliced-hard-boiled-egg sandwich with loads of Best Food’s mayo and salt, nearly swooning at the taste.
At eight, I snatched up a jacket, my handbag, and my key pick and hopped in my car, heading over to Cabana Boulevard, the wide avenue that parallels the beach. I turned right. Jonah lived in an odd little tract of houses off Primavera, maybe a mile away. I passed the marina, then Ludlow Beach, glancing to my left. Even in the gathering twilight, I could identify the big trash bin where death had almost caught up with me two weeks before. I wondered how long it would take before I could pass that area without unconsciously glancing left, without taking just that one peek at the place where I’d thought my life would end. The beach seemed to glow with the last light of day and the sky was a silver gray layered with pink and lavender, deepening to dark magenta where the near hills intersected the view. Out on the ocean, the islands retained a magical hot gold light where lingering rivulets of sunlight formed a shimmering pool.
I went up the hill, passing Sea Shore Park, turning right then into a tangle of streets across the boulevard. The proximity to the Pacific meant too much chill fog and corrosive salt air, but there was an elementary school close by. For Jonah, who had had a family to support on a cop’s salary, the neighborhood was affordable, but by no means grand.
I found the street number I was looking for and pulled into the driveway. The porch light was on and the yard looked well kept. The house was a ranch-style stucco painted slate blue with dark blue trim. I guessed there would be three bedrooms with maybe a patio in back. I rang the doorbell and Jonah came to the door. He wore jeans and an L. L. Bean Oxford-cloth dress shirt with a pink pinstripe. He carried a beer bottle loosely by the neck, motioning me in with a glance at his watch.
“God, you’re prompt,” he said.
“Well, you’re not far away. I just live at the bottom of the hill.”
“I know. You want me to take that?”
He was holding his hand up for the jacket, which I shed and handed to him
, along with my handbag. He tossed both unceremoniously into a chair.
For a minute neither of us could think of anything to say. He took a sip of beer. I put my hands in my back pockets. Why did this feel so awkward? It reminded me of those awful junior-high-school dates where you got driven to the movies by somebody’s mother and you never knew what to talk about.
I glanced around. “Nice house,” I remarked.
“Come on. I’ll show you around.”
I followed while he talked back over his shoulder at me.
“It was a shit heap when we first moved in. The guy’d been renting it out to these weirdos who kept a ferret in the closet and never flushed the toilet because it was against their religious beliefs. You’ve probably seen ‘em around town. Barefoot with these red and yellow rags around their heads and outfits like something out of the Old Testament. He said they hardly ever paid their rent, but every time he came to hassle them about it, they’d start humming and hold his hand, making significant eye contact. You want some wine? I bought you some high-class stuff ��� no twist-off cap.”
I smiled. “I’m flattered.”
We detoured into the kitchen and he opened a bottle of white wine for me, pouring it into a wineglass that still had the price tag on the bottom. He grinned sheepishly when he saw it.
“All I had was plastic glasses the kids used to use in the backyard,” he said. “This is the kitchen.”
“I kind of figured that.”
It was a nice house. I don’t know what I expected, but someone had made good choices. The whole place had a stripped-down feeling: bare, gleaming wood floors, furniture with simple lines, clean surfaces. Why had Camilla left this? What else was she looking for?
He showed me three bedrooms, two baths, a deck out back and a small yard enclosed by a vine-covered stucco wall.