There Will Be Fire

by Mark Von Kyling

  Parminter shook his head. “I just don’t understand how this can be so complicated.”

  “I didn’t either!” Howie exclaimed. “Apparently dear stepbrother Raoul’s finances were anything but straightforward. I don’t know if anyone really knows how much money he had or even where it’s invested. That’s the problem.”

  They sat there in silence for a second and then ordered a couple of more pints.

  “I don’t think you should worry so much, Howie. I don’t think Nicole is out to screw you. Remember her husband just died under horrific circumstances. She is probably just going through the motions. I think you’re making more of this than what there is.”

  Howie sighed. “I hope you’re right. I just need that money. I mean, I’m in trouble. I’ve lost so much over the past couple of years.”

  Parminter nodded. “Just relax and it’ll work out. You should also not be so hard on Nicole. I know you didn’t like Raoul but you have to remember that she’s been through a lot lately.

  “Okay,” Howie said, calming down. “But that bitch had better not try to pull anything.” He laughed and looked to Parmintner to laugh too.

  Parminter didn’t.

  11

  Everywhere he turned, Parminter began to realize things were not really as they should be with Goldman’s estate. Sure, his death had been relatively straightforward, or rather as straightforward as something like that went, but it was the aftermath that was so puzzling. He knew that this was usually the case when it came to people with lots of money, but that normally happened whenever there were lots of heirs. However, in Raoul’s case, there had been only two obvious ones. Sure, he would want his company to continue on after he died, but how could this many problems surface as a result of it? Maybe there really was something to what Garrity had told him and these problems were on the point of surfacing anyway.

  It was hard to say, but even though there had nothing written about it in the papers, Raoul Goldman was not quite what he seemed. If it hadn’t been for Howie, he just really wasn’t sure that he would even care. And he wasn’t sure he cared even then. It was just as someone who spent most of his day in his house behind a computer monitor, any sort of intrigue was interesting. His days were usually quite boring and anything to break the monotony was a pleasant diversion. Besides, there was still enough of the writer left in him to want to see just exactly how this was going to all shake out. Whether or not it was in Howie’s favor or not.

  These were the thoughts that went through his head as Parminter readied himself to go to the doctor. He was ready for a checkup and to see if he had healed enough to return to full mobility. He was still sore but felt much better. He wasn’t ready to dancercize, but he was eager to get a clean bill of health and get off his pain medication.

  * * * * *

  A couple of hours later, Parminter sat in the doctor’s office with a big smile on his face. The checkup had gone well and he was pleased to hear that, aside from continuing to take it easy, he had no limitations on his movement.

  “You just don’t want to do something stupid like run a marathon or anything, but just keep doing what you’re doing and you should be okay,” his doctor said.

  He was relieved. He hurried home and then got ready for the evening. He was going over to his ex-wife’s. Tallulah and Margaret were going to cook dinner. They were doing it as a combined school project which Parminter thought was pretty clever of them. Both girls would participate in the work, document it and then split it into two projects. It was the kind of economical and practical thinking that he had done all his life. Sure, it was skirting the rules slightly, but what did it really matter? He knew from personal experience that it is sometimes better to break the rules than be crushed by them. Even though he didn’t really enjoy Freddy’s company, he knew that it was a really big deal for the girls to do this. Maybe Freddy would be working and wouldn’t be there. He only hoped.

  He drove over to his ex-wife’s house and walked in. The trip only took a few minutes because she lived only about two developments away. He could have walked there in about ten minutes if his leg wasn’t sore. The walking trail that ran near his house spanned all the nearby neighborhoods.

  “You’re here!” Tallulah said and gave him a hug.

  Margaret joined in. They looked very cute with their aprons.

  “Come on in, John and have some wine,” Freddy said graciously and shook his hand.

  Robin gave him a hug too. “We’re so glad you could make it, John.”

  They talked a while and then ate. The girls had prepared a meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans. For dessert they had made a banana pudding. All in all it was delicious and everyone had seconds. Afterwards, as the girls cleaned up—this was also part of their project—the adults sat around talking. He had had a couple of glasses of wine and when Robin asked him about what had been going on with Howie. He told her.

  She was a little shocked.

  “That is a little weird. But is he sure that they’re doing something to cut him out?”

  Parminter shook his head. “No. He’s just thinks they are. He’s especially got something against Raoul’s wife. You know how he is.”

  Robin nodded. “I know he’s always had a problem with women.”

  As they talked, Parminter couldn’t help but remember how much he had loved Robin. She was a very beautiful woman with just enough toughness to give her an edge that was irrestistible. It had hurt him so much when she had left him and he still had a hard time thinking about it. However, as time passed, he was able to deal with his feelings and appreciate her for what she was, a smart and beautiful woman rather than the one that got away.

  “Oh, he’s not that bad surely,” Freddy said. He had met Howie once before at a charity event.

  Robin took another sip of wine. “He’s pretty awful. That’s why he’s never been married. No woman can stand him. He’s unbearable. I mean he was always going on about Raoul being terrible but he was just as horrible. I suppose that it was fate playing a trick on him that his mother married a man whose kid was even worse than him.”

  “I don’t think Raoul ever had a problem with women though,” Parminter said. “I mean, he was married and always had a lot of girlfriends before that.”

  “I know,” Robin said. “You just get a sense that Howie’s not quite right sometimes. I mean I haven’t seen him in a long time, but I can’t imagine that he’s changed that much.”

  “He hasn’t.”

  “You know, he hated Raoul so much that if that fire hadn’t been so obviously accidental, I would think that he had set it just to get the money.”

  Freddy nodded and Parminter didn’t say anythinng. He knew she was right.

  Freddy left the room to get another bottle of wine.

  Parminter turned to Robin. “So do you think that something is going on? From what I’ve told you?”

  Robin exhaled. “I really don’t know. I mean the Mercedes is suspicious but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything. And without a plate number, I really don’t have anything to go on. And as far as I can tell, even though Howie is a complete asshole, it’s pretty obvious that he’s not doing anything illegal. And as for this conspiracy against him, without there actually being a crime committed, there’s really nothing I can do.”

  Parminter nodded. “Well, I’ll keep you posted.

  “Okay,” Robin said. “As I said, I don’t really know what I can do.”

  After Freddy came in with the wine, the girls came in.

  “So what did you think? Wasn’t it delicious?” Tallullah asked.

  “It sure was. I give it an A-plus,” Parminter said and gave them a hug.

  They talked some more and Parminter took another sip. He kissed the girls goodnight and left.

  “Call me if anything else weird happens,” Robin said.

  Since he was still a little tipsy, Parminter decided to walk home. Besides the physical activity would probably be good for his leg. At least he hope
d it would. As he was walking towards his house, he happened to notice a car driving slowly down one of the adjacent streets. This time, however, it wasn’t the black mercedes. It was a silver Lexus. However, that’s not what made it suspicious. It was the fact that it was being driving by Morris Fox. It was a fairly well-known that he lived on the other side of town, up on the mountain. Since that was the case, what was he doing in this neighborhood?

  12

  Parminter sobered up quickly.

  Fox’s car drove along the new residential roads at quite a pace. However, due their winding circular design, even on foot, Parminter was able to easily keep up with him. Whenever Fox advanced past him by three streets, all it took was conveniently cutting through a neighbor’s back yard or through a common area to see where he was going. This also helped Parminter follow unnoticed. To the outside observer such a chase would have seemed ludicrous, an expensive luxury sedan versus a hobbling man on foot, but a densely congested residential area made such things very possible. It reminded him of that movie, the one with the kid who knew everything and could do everything who was trying to get home ahead of his parents. Except, in this case, there was a lot more than a grounding at stake.

  Fox kept going and going and Parminter wondered if his leg was going to hold up. Sure, he could keep track of where Fox was going, but if he suddenly collapsed on the sidewalk, his efforts would have been for nothing. He vowed not to let that happen.

  After a while of driving, Fox entered the newer, more sparsely populated area of the development. This was the ultra-luxury part that was situated slightly higher on the side of the hill. Parminter was no architect but he could see that this area was most likely designed to simulate the old money luxury houses that were perched atop the brows of the nearby mountains. This was an area for new money that did not want to bother with the inconveniences of old houses or treacherous commutes. The neighborhood association’s building codes seemed to be a little more relaxed in this section due to the fact that the houses weren’t quite as uniform as the other ones in the development. They were more suited to people who wanted to live like everybody else, but didn’t want to look exactly like everybody else. Up here there were Mediterraneanss and colonials side by side with rustic log mansions. The large homes would look down upon the other houses in the development like a pantheon of patron saints of newfound affluence and ostentatious consumption. It would be easy to keep up with Fox up here because there were so few houses.

  Parminter continued to huff up the slightly mountainous incline. He could faintly see the tailights of Fox’s Lexus pull into the very last house on the road. It was the latest one that had been finished. Parminter never had any reason to ever go into this area of the development so it was largely unknown to him. However, the Cape Cod was easily the largest and most visible of the houses. It had also only recently started being inhabited. The landscaping had not even been installed.

  Parminter walked over to a nearby lot where another house was being constructed. He stood in the shadows and watched the Cape Cod. Fox had already gone inside. There was no obvious movement in the house and after an hour had gone by, Parminter wished that he had brought a glass of wine with him. He began to suspect that this hike had been a waste of time, but he figured that he had made the effort of coming all the way up here so he might as well stay and see if anything happened. Besides, he didn’t have anything pressing to do the next day.

  After about another thirty minutes had gone by, there was finally movement and the front door opened. Fox emerged and Parminter was surprised to see he was talking to Ratledge. They were both laughing. Parminter hadn’t known that Ratledge had even moved into the development. It would seem that he would have at least sent Parminter an invitation to the housewarming. But then again it didn’t.

  Regardless, the situation was very puzzling, Morris Fox coming all the way out here to visit Ratledge. But Ratledge was also in finance so it made some sense. But at this hour? It was a still a bit of coincidence. Or maybe Howie was right. Perhaps there was a plot.

  Parminter shook his head. That couldn’t be it. Howie was never right. There had to be another explanation.

  Fox got into his car and drove off. Parminter waited a few minutes and then started the long walk to his house.

  13

  The next day, Parminter didn’t have a lot of time to think about Raoul, Howie or any of it. It was the weekend and he had the girls. They had a big day planned and he was going to do his best to push all the recent events out of his mind and enjoy himself. The day was going to be filled with a trip to the art museum, aquarium and all the other touristy stuff that most people other than children have long stopped doing. Parminter was really looking forward to it. He knew the girls were too.

  He picked them up and went to the downtown area and then drove around for a while longer trying to find a parking spot. Since it was the weekend, the place was filled with daytrippers from all around the surrounding area. There were families and bikers and people, who from their appearance, hadn’t been out of the house in years, all congregating and walking in and out of traffic. To the outside observer, it was almost as if they were trying to see how far they could push the bounds of commonsense and safety before getting killed. It was very nervewracking to drive in these conditions, but after a while, he was finally able to park.

  “Are we going to get to ride the carousel, Daddy?” Margaret asked.

  Of course, she was referring to the carousel in the park across the bridge. Parminter hadn’t planned on walking all the way over there, but figured why not? It would be pretty good exercise for his leg and it was a nice day. After his trek the previous night and this one, he would be thoroughly worked out.

  Throughout their day’s activities, Parminter couldn’t help but look over at Nicole’s condo. The building loomed over the surrounding buildings. It was such an impressive structure that it was hard not to fixate on it. He wondered if the Mercedes was there. Every time, he found himself thinking like this, he would quickly put the thoughts out of his head though. He didn’t want anything to take away from his time with the girls. Today was to be about fun for them not about the secret dealings of the financial elite.

  * * * * *

  Later that day, after Parminter had dropped the girls back off with their mother’s he came home and was surprised to see a message on his machine. It was Nicole and she wanted him to call her back. This was odd, he thought. Why would she want to talk to him?

  He returned her call and they arranged to meet in an hour at a bar downtown near her building. She sounded nervous and said it was urgent. She didn’t want to talk about it on the phone though. He wondered why she had called him.

  He freshened up and drove back to the downtown area. Fortunately for him, the tourists had started thinning out and he was able to find a spot on the street near the bar.

  Nicole was already waiting for him when she arrived. She was sitting at a booth and drinking a seabreeze. It was hard not to see just how good she looked. He wondered if she had made the effort just for him or if she always looked like this when she went out.

  After he sat down and ordered a martini, she couldn’t wait to get started.

  “You have to talk to Howie. He’s really driving me crazy,” she said.

  Parminter was taken a little aback. “You know Howie is a little high strung and says things he doesn’t mean. He’s harmless,” he said, trying to calm her down.

  She took a sip of her drink. “I hope so because he’s said he was going to kill me. I know that you’re friends with him. I didn’t really want to get the police involved because I just can’t handle any more prying into my personal life.”

  Parminter’s martini arrived and he took a long sip. It was terrible. He realized that he should have ordered a beer. He had yet to find a bartender who could make a decent martini.

  “I’m sure he was just talking. He wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  “I hope so. Because he really sca
red me. He keeps calling and threatening me. He says that I had better stop what I’m doing and I need to stop harrassing him. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”

  Parminter shook his head. “Howie’s always been a little paranoid. I think it’s because of his past with Raoul. He’s always used to someone pulling the rug out from under him and he figures that you and Morris Fox are going to do the same thing to him now.”

  Nicole took a drink but didn’t say anything.

  “You aren’t trying to pull something over on him, are you?” Parminter asked.

  “Of course not. I know that Morris is still trying to sort though Raoul’s assets and figure out just what was going on. Raoul was very secretive about his personal finances and to say that he was diversifified is an understatement.”

  “Have you tried to explain this to Howie?

  “Yes. Morris has tried to explain that no one is trying to do anything or pull anything but he won’t listen. Everytime we have a meeting, he starts screaming that we’re trying to screw him over and then huffs off.”

  “That sounds like Howie.”

  “I really need support right now. And he’s the only family that Raoul has left. It seems like he wouldn’t be so awful.”

  “He’s not a bad guy. He’s just a little crazy. I think if push comes to shove you can count on him.”