There Will Be Fire

by Mark Von Kyling

  “Look at that view, John. Isn’t it beautiful?”

  He had to admit that it was. They were looking down at the bridges and the boats on the river. It looked like something on a postcard. In fact, it probably was the subject of thousands of postcards.

  “You know the weird thing about it is that even though Raoul donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the museum, he never took me there once.”

  “Really? I thought that you society types were always going to benefits and functions there.”

  She shook her head. “No, John, us society types as you so eloquently put it, usually give lots of money and then stay out of town most of the time. We keep the wheel spinning, but we never actually get on.”

  “So, you’re saying that Raoul sort of played a God that keeps things going but didn’t want to get involved.”

  “That’s one way of putting it. He put so much money into this town and, in reality, he hated the place. Does that sound weird?”

  “No, not if he was getting something out it.”

  She laughed. “Believe me, he didn’t do anything if he wasn’t getting something out of it.”

  They walked over to one of the restaurants and were about to be seated.

  “John, we can’t go in here. Let’s go somewhere else.”

  “Why can’t we go here? It’s good.”

  “Morris Fox is over there. I can’t let him see me with you. At least not yet.”

  Parminter looked over. Sure enough, Morris Fox was sitting on the deck drinking a glass of wine and chatting with another man.

  “I thought we weren’t going to care about what people said about us being together.”

  “I know. I don’t. I just can’t let him see me. He was Raoul’s best friend. It would just be too awkward. Believe me, I will tell him about us. But just not yet. I still have too much contact with him. It will just be uncomfortable.

  Parminter wondered if there wasn’t more going on that what she was saying. He remembered Fox’s meeting with Ratledge. That was probably some sort of business thing since Ratledge was in the same line as Raoul except on a much smaller scale. He was probably only throwing a bone his way to help diversify things, still he didn’t know. All he had to base any sort of suspicion on was the fact that Ratledge was a sneaky son of a bitch and that was not really enough to go on. Yet.

  “Okay, let’s walk back down the hill and go somewhere next to the aquarium.”

  “Thanks, John,” she said and smiled.

  As they walked away from the restaurant and back up the street, Nicole began talking about the time that she had vacationed with a girlfriend in Provence. Parminter agreed that this sounded wonderful and then glanced over at the river. He was looking at a barge that was slowly making its way up the river. However, as he watched the lumbering boat filled with grain make its way up river, his eye then caught something else. He saw the Mercedes. It was parked almost on the curb, jam-packed in with all the other cars in the art district.

  “Stop here!” he said excitedly to Nicole. He ran over to it. It was unoccupied. He quickly ran behind it. This time he was able to get the tag.

  Nicole was aghast as he ran to the car. “What are you doing, John? What’s going on?”

  “Just trying to get a little information.”

  But then he had a thought. “Hold on a second.”

  He raced back to the restaurant and took a look at the man who was sitting with Morris Fox. He quickly took a picture with his camera phone.

  He wondered if he had finally found the driver.

  20

  Parminter and Nicole spent the rest of the evening together and while their time together was enjoyable, his mind was elsewhere. He was close to finding out who the Mercedes belonged to. This car had been following him around ever since Howie had gotten into town and he was glad that he was finally going to get to the bottom of why. The screenwriter in him couldn’t help but see the Hitchcockian overtones. However, he also was conscious of the fact that if he had written a script like this, it would most likely not have been bought.

  The next day, after he awoke and got ready, he immediately drove over to his ex-wife’s house. They were still having breakfast when he arrived.

  “Daddy!” the girls both yelled when they saw that it was him at the door.

  “Early morning for you, isn’t it, John?” Robin said as she took a sip of coffee.

  “He’s probably up getting a line on the market, right?” Freddy said eagerly while eating an Eggo with his hands. He was already in full SWAT uniform so Parminter couldn’t help but note the absurdity of the situation.

  “No, I got the plate number and a picture. I’m not sure, but I think that it’s him.” Parminter handed her his camera phone.

  Robin’s eyes widened. “The Mercedes? I thought you were just being paranoid. Let me see it.”

  Parminter handed over the info. “I’ve already emailed you the pic.”

  “Good,” she said.

  “Let us see,” the girls said and ran over and looked over at the crumpled piece of paper and grainy cellphone picture. They were immediately disappointed by the undramatic display and went back to eating their breakfasts.

  Freddy looked over Robin’s shoulder at the number and the cell phone. “Mmmm...out of state plates. From the way this guy is dressed, he looks off somehow. It’s like you say I am whenever I’m not in uniform.”

  “Yeah, I see what you mean,” Robin agreed. “You need to get a new phone, John. This picture looks like shit. Surely you can afford it with all that money you’re making.”

  “That’s putting it bluntly,” Parminter said.

  Robin looked over the picture again. “Just saying. Anyway, I see what you’re saying about the guy. He does look sort of like he used to be a cop or something. Maybe the military. It’s the way he’s sitting. It’s also his clothes. They look good but not exactly right. It’s like he’s used to being in uniform and he doesn’t quite know how to dress. He probably was a cop and is now a detective or something.”

  “Really? A detective?” Parminter said. “That would make sense.”

  They went over the possibilities for a few minutes longer until everybody had to go to work and school. Everybody except for Parminter that is. He kissed the girls goodbye and thanked Robin for looking into it.

  “I don’t mind doing it, John. I mean, it’s sort of more interesting than the usual stuff I do. I mean how many gang murders and drug deals can you see before they begin to run together.

  “I know what you’re talking about,” Freddy added. “This stuff seems exciting but after a while it gets routine. I mean, if I had a nickle for every crazy husband with a gun I’ve had to get out of some crappy apartment, I would be a rich man.

  Parminter shook his head. Indeed, boredom could run in many forms.

  They parted ways and Parminter drove back towards home. On his way, he decided to make a side trip to the McDonalds for breakfast. At first, he was going to use the drive thru, but after seeing how backed up the line was, he decided to go in. He parked and went in and ordered. While he was waiting, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

  “John?”

  It was Ratledge. He was standing behind him completely besuited in his best business attire. He was also holding a newspaper, a bag of food and a cup of coffee.

  “Good morning, Ken.”

  “So what gets you up so early?” Ratledge said nervously.

  Parminter sometimes wondered if was he was always so nervous when he talked to everybody or just him. Regardless, it gave the appearance that he had just done something sneaky and was afraid of getting found out. It was always a little unsettling.

  “Just felt like getting some breakfast.” Parminter had no intention of telling him why he was really out.

  “That’s nice,” Ratledge said uncomfortably. They looked at each other for a second without anything to say. “Still driving the XJ6, I see,” he said for lack of anything else. For people who were supposed to b
e old friends, they never had anything to say to each other.

  “Yep.”

  They paused again.

  “Jaguar,” Ratledge said, smugly. “I just never saw you driving a car like that.”

  Parminter didn’t know whether to feel insulted or complimented. He decided on the latter since it was coming from Ratledge. Then on a whim, he decided to go for it and ask him about what had been truly puzzling him.

  “I hear you’ve been hanging out with Morris Fox quite a lot lately,” Parminter said.

  Ratledge was taking a sip of coffee when Parminter asked this. He almost choked on it.

  “How do you know that? Are people talking...?” Ratledge lowered his voice to a whisper. “Are people talking about…me?”

  Parminter nodded, lying.

  Ratledge looked around him. “Well, don’t say anything, but we’re working on something that could be really big.”

  “Does it have anything to do with Raoul being out of the way?”

  Ratledge rolled his eyes smugly. “Raoul was a good friend and I’m sorry he’s dead. But this is business. Morris is much more practical than Raoul ever was.”

  “So, what is it?”

  At this Ratledge leaned back and smiled. “When it’s done, you can read about it in the papers just like everybody else.” Then he winked. “I don’t want to get you in trouble for any sort of insider trading.”

  Parminter didn’t know what to say.

  At that Ratledge tapped him on the shoulder with his paper. “Gotta go, John. Let’s do lunch.” Then he left.

  Parminter was still puzzling over what Ratledge had said after he got his breakfast and went home. So it was a business deal after all. But what sort and why all the secrecy? It didn’t really make a lot of sense, but then again neither did Ratledge. It was also possible that Ratledge was just pulling his leg.

  Parminter went home spent the rest of the morning rather uneventfully until around noon when Robin called.

  “I ran the tags.”

  “Really what happened? Did you find out who the car belongs to?” Parminter couldn’t conceal his excitement.

  “Well, it’s not really clear. As you already know the tags are out of New Jersey. And the owner is a Miss Betty Fortunato.”

  “So, what does that mean?”

  Robin sighed. “Well, I did some more digging and made a couple of calls. Miss Fortunato is in a nursing home. She’s also in her eighties. So someone else is using the car.”

  Parminter was disappointed. He was hoping that the registration would come back to a guy who they could establish as a detective or something. That way they could figure out what he was investigating. However, this didn’t really help them that much at all.

  “But you’re in luck though,” Robin said. “Even though your picture looked like shit, I had a hunch and sent it to the guy I was talking to at the police station and he recognized him.”

  “And?”

  “He used to be a cop. He had to quit because of some improprieties regarding some evidence. Betty Fortunato is his aunt.”

  “So, he’s a crook?”

  “I don’t know. It was never really investigated. He was questioned and he quit. He was well-liked at the station, but you know that doesn’t really mean anything.”

  “So how does that help us?”

  “After he quit, he set up a detective agency.”

  “So he is a PI.”

  “Yes.”

  She then gave him the address to the guy’s website. And his name.

  21

  Paul Ramos. That was the guy’s name. He was a private investigator and other than that, Parminter wasn’t able to get much from the website. He specialized in most of the usual stuff that private detectives specialize in like divorce, embezzlement, etc...

  On the surface, there was nothing spectacular about what he did. There had to be something more though. After all, why would someone from New Jersey come all the way down here to investigate someone? Also, who would want to pay those expenses? The travel alone would have been outrageous. Especially when there were local detectives all over the phone book.

  It had to be Howie.

  He was the most obvious choice, but that just didn’t make sense. He was living up in New York now, but still.

  It was possible that Howie was involved in some shady dealings but what would they have to do with the Raoul Goldman mess? And why would this detective also be talking to Morris Fox? He had asked Robin to help him find out more out on it, but she had told him that she had already gone out on a limb just reaching out to another department for the information. Unless it was a life and death matter, which she knew it wasn’t, he was on his own from there on out. He didn’t blame her but at least he had tried.

  Regardless of who hired the guy, the subject of the investigation had to be Howie. He was the key to all of this and it made Parminter’s head hurt to think about it.

  * * * * *

  Time flew by over the next few weeks and it seemed that Raoul Goldman’s estate was in no danger of ever being settled. At least not any time soon. It was so complicated that they were still figuring it out. Nicole said that she really didn’t know what was going on with it, but that Morris Fox had run into some snags that needed to be sorted out.

  From what he could gather, there was a lot of potential for the Goldman’s company to suffer a lot of financial damage if the proper precautions weren’t taken. Fox was afraid that some of their clients would begin suing them and ordering audits. He wanted to make sure that the company continued to flourish even without Goldman to head it. Nicole was in agreement. Even though Goldman had not treated her in the best way that he could have, she knew that a lot of people got their livelihood from the firm and didn’t want to jeopardize anyone’s job or her financial wellbeing.

  Parminter was patient about their relationship. He didn’t want to cause her any more difficulties than she already had. He understood that due to her money and presence in society that she did not live a simple life. However, he was beginning to get frustrated with the fact that they had to go to restaurants at off hours so as to avoid anyone she knew or duck and dodge if she did happen to come across someone who might know them. Regardless, even though they were seeing each other on the sly, their relationship continued to grow and it was just a matter of time before they could be open about their relationship.

  One thing that Nicole was having a problem with was the growing schadenfreude towards her husband from their neighbors up on the mountain. While it was common knowledge that they initially weren’t particularly pleased with the house that Goldman had built. But aside from Charles Abercrombie, most of them had seemed to come around to accepting it. However, now that it was gone, they were changing their tunes. In addition to voicing their renewed dislike of the house, it seemed that, now, they weren’t particularly pleased with Goldman either.

  Since the body and the house had gotten cold, any appearance of civility had vanished. The neighborhood association, with Charles Abercrombie leading the charge, was beginning to hound Nicole to do something about the ruins of the home. They were also pressuring her as to whether she was going to build again and if she did build again, they wanted to know what sort of structure she was going to put on the lot. They also made it clear that in no uncertain terms that any house she built would have to be in a style and scale consistent with the previously built structures in the development and that the fact that the original house that had even been built was a gross oversight. Also, it was implied that Goldman had bribed a lot of people to get it constructed and that those people were no longer in any position to repeat that sort of business. Parminter had provided a sympathetic ear but he knew there was nothing really he could do about it. He could also kinda see their point, but he didn’t voice this.

  “They’re just awful people, John,” she said. “Especially that Charles Abercrombie. I know he’s behind all this. I don’t even know why Raoul wanted to build there. I know he did it
to show off and to stick it to them for just acting like he was just an accountant or something, but was it really worth it? I mean, they hated him and now they hate me by association.”

  “People are like that, Nicole,” Parminter said. “They love you while you’re on top and when you’re in a spot of weakness, they won’t hesitate to attack you.”

  “I just wish this would all be over and we could be together publicly,” she said.

  “I’ll be glad about that, too.”

  “And I wish that Charles Abercrombie would stop gloating and stirring up trouble.”

  Parminter nodded. He was still a little disturbed from what brief interaction he had had with the man when he had viewed the burned out house.

  In the brief time that he had gotten to know her, he had come to the conclusion that Nicole was a pretty girl who had gotten involved with some real sharks. He hadn’t really known her in college but he had since found out that she was from a little town out in the middle of the state. They hadn’t really gone any deeper than that but Parminter had gleaned enough to know that she was from a modest rural background and had been thrust into a world where people do not necessarily view friendships and relationships the same way that she had been brought up to. Parminter could relate because he had been the same way when he had moved to the city when he was a teenager. Not everybody is friends with you simply because they like you. Sometimes, it’s because they can use you.

  He didn’t think that Nicole had learned very much in this regard except how to deal with the hurt caused by being in this kind of environment. But he also knew that when a person is naturally a nice person, it is very difficult for them to cope with people who are not nice. While he did see himself as basically a good person, he also knew that sometimes good people had to do bad things to survive.

  While Parminter’s life had seemed to revolve around Nicole since he had met her, it also seemed that it was revolving around her problems as well. While he could handle this, it was the fact that he could do nothing that bothered him. The Howie situation also bothered him. How could he have ever been friends with someone like that? And now because he wasn’t following him on his maniacal flight of fancy, he was considered a traitor. That guy had gone off the deep end and Parminter wondered just what could he be capable of. Parminter hadn’t seen or heard from him since the incident at the park and aside from the message from Ratledge, he had heard nothing about him. He might have gone back to New York for all he knew. Somehow he doubted it though. As far as Parminter also knew, he was also the only one who suspected that he and Nicole were having a relationship. That could cause some real problems for Nicole. Not so much for Parminter though because most of the society people didn’t even know he existed. However, a problem for Nicole could seriously cause problems with the relationship.