Deadfall nd-15

by Bill Pronzini

  From there I drove over to Highway 1 and headed up the coast over Devil’s Slide; there wasn’t anything more for me to do in Moss Beach today. I picked up the 180 freeway beyond Pacifica and followed it all the way downtown to the Fourth Street exit, where I got off and looped back around to Mission Creek. But that was a waste of time, too: if Dessault and/or Melanie were inside their houseboat, they were not opening the door for the likes of me.

  I drove up Fifth, put the car briefly into the Fifth and Mission garage, and went across the street to the Chronicle building to collect the package on Margaret Prine. DeFalco had left it with the lobby guard, so I didn’t have to go upstairs; I was back in the car in three minutes, and on my way to the office three minutes after that.

  Eberhardt was there when I came in, polluting the air with one of his smelly pipes. I don’t know where he gets his tobacco, but the stuff is as black as tar and smells like tar. It must be contraband, made in somebody’s basement; no reputable tobacco manufacturer would inflict crap like that on the public. Or was “reputable tobacco manufacturer” a contradiction in terms? I thought. They kept right on putting cigarettes on the market, didn’t they? Pre-fab cancer, all wrapped in nice bright packages, with sexy ads to entice teen-agers into the carcinoma fold. I wondered how many tobacco company executives had quit smoking, or never started in the first place, because they themselves were afraid the health warnings the government forced them to put on their product might be true.

  I asked Eb, “What are you mulling over? Something profound, I trust.”

  “I was thinking about getting laid,” he said.

  “A very deep philosophical subject. You got any prospects?”

  “Might have.”

  “Yeah? Anybody I know?”

  “Not yet. Maybe you will, though, if things work out.”

  “What’s her name?”

  “Barbara Jean. She’s from the South.”

  Uh-oh, I thought, here we go again.

  “South Carolina,” he said. “Charleston.”

  “Where’d you meet her?”

  “She works in Henderson’s office in San Rafael.”

  “Whose office?”

  “Henderson. The guy who wants the double-indemnity policy with Great Western. She’s a secretary.”

  “And you’ve got a date with her, huh?”

  “Might have. She gave me her number.”

  “I’ll bet she did.”

  “No wisecracks. She’s a lady.”

  “Sure. That’s why you’re already thinking about getting laid.”

  “Men always think about getting laid,” he said. “We’re just a bunch of animals.”

  “Ain’t we though. She have a big chest?”

  He gave me an injured look. “No. She’s no Wanda, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  That was exactly what I was thinking. Wanda was his most recent passion, an unlovely lady with an enormous chest, three brain cells, and an irritating personality (or lack of one). They had been engaged for a while, until Kerry-leave it to Kerry-had got sloshed on wine during a dinner foursome at a place called Il Roccaforte, the worst Italian restaurant in the world, and dumped a bowl of spaghetti over Wanda’s dyed blond head. The convoluted repercussions of that had opened Eberhardt’s eyes, or at least had removed them from their blind fastenings on Wanda’s chest, and allowed him to see her for what she was. He had been down-in-the-mouth ever since the break-up, bemoaning the fact that he was getting old and women didn’t find him attractive anymore-all of which I took to be sexual frustration. A woman was just what he needed, as long as she was a good woman who was good for him. But ever since his wife Dana had left him a few years ago, he had had a knack for picking losers. Barbara Jean, from Charleston, South Carolina. Oh boy.

  I said, “Well, good luck. I hope it works out.”

  “Me too. I’ll let you know.”

  “I can hardly wait. So did you wrap up the insurance thing?”

  “Everything except the paperwork. I already called Barney.”

  “Why aren’t you doing the paperwork now?”

  “I hate that crap.”

  “Who doesn’t? Hop to it. We don’t get paid until the report is delivered, remember?”

  I went over and sat at my desk. There was a piece of paper on the blotter with a name scrawled on it-Ruth something-and a telephone number. I held it up. “What’s this, Eb?”

  “Oh, yeah, right. Woman called a little while ago, said she wanted to talk to you about Leonard Purcell.”

  “What’s her last name? You write like a monkey on LSD.”

  “Mitchell. Ruth Mitchell.”

  “I don’t know any Ruth Mitchell.”

  “She said she’s his ex-wife. Leonard’s.”

  “She tell you why she wants to talk to me?”

  “No. Just call her back.”

  Well, she could wait; I had other calls to make. The first one was to Tom Washburn. I told him what I’d found out about Danny Martinez, and it got him excited and I had to calm him down. The information was positive, apparently corroborating his theory, but we were still a long way from any conclusive answers.

  I asked him, “Does Martinez’s name mean anything to you?”

  “No. This is the first I’ve heard it.”

  “You’re sure Leonard never mentioned it?”

  “Positive. I’d remember a name like that.”

  “How about Richard or Richie Dessault? Did Leonard ever mention him?”

  “I don’t think so. Who’s he?”

  “The kid Melanie is living with. He calls himself a poet.”

  “No, I’m sure he never said anything about a poet.”

  “Are you up to going back to your house?”

  “I… suppose so. Why?”

  “You might check through Leonard’s papers, see if there’s anything on Martinez, Dessault, or Alex Ozimas.”

  “All right. If you feel it’s a good idea.”

  “Worth the effort, anyway. Call me if you find anything.”

  We rang off, and I dialed the Hall of Justice. Klein was in. And not a little surprised at what I had to tell him. “I don’t know how you do it,” he said. “We didn’t even get a smell of this guy Martinez.”

  “I get lucky sometimes. You’ll check him out, Ben?”

  “Right away.”

  “What have you got on Dessault?”

  “Not much. He’s got a record, but it’s small-time stuff; I’ll dig deeper, see if I can turn up a link to Martinez.” He paused. “By the way, I ran Ozimas through the computers. Nothing on him state or local. I’m still waiting for the FBI report.”

  “Thanks, Ben.”

  “I’m the one who should be thanking you,” he said. “Maybe apologizing, too. If this Martinez angle pans out, you and Washburn were right and we just blew it.”

  “It happens. No apologies necessary. I’ve blown a few in my time, too, God knows.”

  When I cradled the receiver Eberhardt’s piece of paper caught my eye again; I picked it up and squinted at it again. “What’s the last digit of Ruth Mitchell’s number?” I asked him. “A two or a three? I can’t read that, either.”

  He quit pecking at his old Smith-Corona, got up, and came over and looked at the paper. “That’s a three. Can’t you tell a three from a two?”

  “Not the way you write it.”

  I dialed the number. And a recorded voice came on and said it was sorry, that number was no longer in service. I disconnected and said to Eberhardt, who was back at his desk, “A three, huh? Damn number’s out of service, with a three.”

  “So maybe it’s a two. Try it with a two.”

  I said a couple of words under my breath and tried it with a two. This time the line buzzed emptily. I hung up on the tenth ring and got the directory out and looked up Ruth Mitchell. No listing. I said some more words under my breath and thought: The hell with it. Let her call me back, if it’s that important.

  I opened the envelope from Joe DeFal
co and read the Chronicle’s file on Margaret Prine. It told me nothing I didn’t already know, except that her husband, Leland Prine, had died of heart failure in 1974, that she was chairperson of a couple of local charity drives, and that she had been hit by a car and suffered a broken hip while crossing the street in front of her building in 1981. The only item of interest wasn’t part of the file at all; it was Mrs. Prine’s unlisted telephone number, which DeFalco had dug up somewhere. Newspaper people, for some reason, seem to have better resources than detectives when it comes to ferreting out unlisted numbers.

  Mrs. Prine could wait a while longer, though. There was somebody else I wanted to see first-more specific information I needed. I put the file away, got on my feet, asked Eberhardt to take care of locking up, and left him smoking his pipe and looking thoughtful while he pecked out the Henderson report.

  Barbara Jean, from Charleston, South Carolina. Well, shut my mouth. Y’all want some pecan pie, Ebbie, dahlin?

  I couldn’t wait to see the expression on Kerry’s face when I told her.

  It was twenty of five when I walked into the Summerhayes Gallery. There weren’t any customers today, either-just Elisabeth Summerhayes standing behind one of the display counters, using a soft cloth to polish one of the patterned glass paperweights. She did not look very pleased to see me. Her mouth turned down at the corners and her back got stiff; she put the cloth and the paperweight down carefully and folded her hands together at her waist as I approached.

  “My husband is not here,” she said when I reached her.

  “Do you expect him back?”

  “No. I will be closing myself, very soon.”

  “When can I see him?”

  “On Monday, if he chooses to talk to you.”

  “Meaning you think he won’t?”

  “He does not like to be bothered by detectives.”

  “I’ll bet he doesn’t. Is that how you feel, too?”

  “Yes. Why don’t you leave us alone? We know nothing about what happened to Kenneth or Leonard Purcell.”

  “I think you do,” I said. “For instance, when I was here yesterday why didn’t you or your husband mention the purchase of Kenneth’s collection?”

  She blinked at me. “The… what?”

  “Kenneth’s collection of antique tobacco art. Mrs. Purcell told me you and your husband are buying it.”

  “But I don’t-” She broke off, and her downturned mouth got tight at the corners. Something hot showed in her eyes, something I took to be a combination of sudden understanding and sudden anger. “How much did Mrs. Purcell say we are paying for the collection?”

  “Three hundred thousand.”

  “How much?”

  “Three hundred-”

  “Yes, all right, I understand.”

  I thought: So that’s the way it is. But I said, “This the first time you’ve heard about it, Mrs. Summerhayes? I’m surprised your husband didn’t tell you.”

  She didn’t answer the question. “When are we to take possession, according to Mrs. Purcell?”

  “As soon as Kenneth’s will clears probate. Not too much longer now.”

  “And the money? Has any of it been paid as yet?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Why don’t you ask your husband?”

  Silence. But she was thinking of a confrontation with him; you could see it in those angry eyes, in the hard set of her jaw and the stiffness of her body. She was a bundle of thinly contained rage. And of hurt, too, maybe; she struck me as the kind of woman who would hide her pain more deeply than any other emotion.

  Just the same I thought: Go ahead, push her a little more. Be a bastard. That’s the kind of business you’re in, isn’t it? “Evidently your husband has a buyer or two lined up for some of the pieces,” I said. “I suppose it depends on whether or not he’s been paid.”

  “What does?”

  “Whether or not he’s paid Mrs. Purcell.”

  “Yes,” she said, “yes, I suppose so.”

  “I’d be interested to know who those buyers are. And which pieces they’re buying.”

  Silence again.

  I said, still pushing her, “I understand from Mrs. Purcell that she and your husband are close friends. Have they known each other long?”

  More silence.

  “Mrs. Summerhayes?”

  “Go away,” she said abruptly.

  “Ma’am?”

  “You heard me. I have nothing more to say to you.”

  “All right, we won’t discuss your husband. Suppose we talk about Danny Martinez instead.”

  Blank stare. “Who?”

  “Mexican fellow who delivers for one of the markets in Moss Beach. He was at the Purcell house the night Kenneth died.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said. “Go away. Will you please go away?”

  “Just a few more questions-”

  “Go away!”

  She half yelled it this time-and then, contrarily, she went away herself, without waiting to see what I would do. I watched her come out from behind the counter in a stiff, angry stride, cross to the office door, open it, and disappear inside. She didn’t slam it behind her; she was not the door-slamming type. But I had the feeling that if I went over there and tried the knob I would find she had locked herself in.

  I went out to the street instead, not liking myself too much at the moment. Hurting people is a thing you have to do sometimes, to get at the truth of something, to ease a greater hurt or right a serious wrong. But it’s never easy and never pleasant, no matter who the person happens to be. And I had nothing against Elisabeth Summerhayes; as far as I could tell, her only major flaw was that she allowed herself to remain married to an asshole.

  So I had hurt her for a purpose, and maybe it would help me get at the truth. Heating and stirring things up usually made something happen. If I was lucky, it wouldn’t all blow up in my face.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The telephone was ringing when I let myself into my flat. I thought it might be Kerry, even though she had a dinner date tonight with one of her lady friends, so I made a run for the bedroom and hauled up the receiver in the middle of another ring.

  But it wasn’t Kerry; surprisingly enough, the caller was Alicia Purcell. “I hope you don’t mind my calling you at home,” she said. “But I tried your office and I don’t particularly like talking to answering machines.”

  “Quite all right. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about this morning… the way our interview ended. I’ve decided I behaved rather badly.”

  “Maybe we both did,” I said.

  “Yes, maybe. But I don’t want you to have the wrong impression of me. If there’s any chance at all of a connection between Leonard’s murder and Kenneth’s death I really would like to help.”

  “I appreciate that, Mrs. Purcell.”

  “Won’t you call me Alicia? I don’t care for formality.”

  “If you like.”

  “I thought… well, I plan to be home this evening and I thought that if you have any more questions, and if you’re not busy, you might like to come by for another talk. I promise to be much more cooperative this time.”

  Uh-huh, I thought cynically, I’ll just bet. She might be sincere, of course, but more likely she was after something-and my flabby middle-aged body wasn’t it. Probably looking to find out what I’d found out so far, for whatever reason, and going about it in the way she knew best. What was it her stepdaughter had called her? A collector of men? Not this man, lady. Even if I was the type to play games, which I wasn’t, I was too old and too jungle-wise to become another hide in a female hunter’s trophy case. I also didn’t happen to believe in sex on the barter system-the old you-pump-me-for-information-and-then-I-pump-you tradeoff. And if all of that wasn’t enough, the woman did nothing whatsoever for me physically. The thought of spending an intimate evening with her, of her maybe biting my neck with that bloody red mouth of hers, gave me a
case of the shudders.

  I said, “Thanks for the offer, Mrs. Purcell, but I’ve made other plans for the evening.”

  “Alicia,” she said. “You’re sure you couldn’t break them?”

  “Positive. My fiancee wouldn’t like it.”

  “Oh, I see. Perhaps another time, then.”

  “If it becomes necessary. I do have a few questions I could ask you now, though, since you’re eager to help.”

  There was a pause. I imagined her gritting her teeth, holding herself in check-a nice little fantasy image, true or not. But she had left herself wide open for this and there wasn’t any way for her to refuse me without making herself look bad.

  When she came to the same conclusion she said, “Go right ahead.”

  “Do you know a man named Danny Martinez?”

  “Who?”

  “Danny Martinez. A former deliveryman for Cabrillo Market.”

  “Hardly. Lina takes care of deliveries. Why are you asking me about a deliveryman?”

  “He was at your house the night of the party. He made a delivery at about the time your husband disappeared.”

  “Yes?”

  “He’s the man who contacted Leonard two weeks ago. The man who claimed your husband was murdered.”

  “I see. Have you talked to him, then?”

  “Not yet. He disappeared a couple of weeks ago.”

  “Disappeared?”

  “Packed up his belongings and left the area-probably for Mexico. The authorities are looking for him now.”

  “You’ve told the police about him?”

  “Any reason I shouldn’t have?”

  “No, of course not. Have you uncovered any other proof Kenneth was murdered?”

  “I’m working on it,” I said.

  “I still find the idea incredible. If it’s true, I can’t imagine who could have done it.”

  “I’m working on that, too.”

  “Do you suspect someone?”

  “No one specifically. Not just yet.”

  “Do you think the same person murdered Leonard?”

  “That’s the way it looks.”

  “Will you let me know if you find out anything else? I’m very concerned about this, naturally.”

  “Naturally. You’ll be one of the first to know.”