With that thought, Dan rolled out of bed. He stretched as he always did before going into the shower. An as he was doing to toe touches, he eyes noticed the open drawer of his dresser where he usually stored his collections of rings.
I must have left it open, he thought but instantly doubted that he had. Jenifer had a habit of leaving things open, whether dresser drawers, kitchen cabinet or jar lids. He was constantly going after her and closing doors, drawers and putting lids back onto jars. No, I didn’t leave the drawer open.
The thought propelled his legs to carry him the few steps to the dresser. He glanced into the opened drawer. His rings! They were gone! Suddenly feeling light headed he back up and set on the edge of the bed.
“No, no. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t have. Oh God, don’t make it so. Gerry couldn’t have robbed me. Not after last night! Last night had been magical for him. Surely it had also been for Gerry! Suddenly doubting himself, Dan rushed back to the dresser and glanced in the drawer. It was still empty.
As he stared at the empty drawer, he suddenly found it hard to breathe. He grabbed his head as he paced back and forth in front of the dresser stopping several times to glance in the empty drawer. Yet each time he looked inside his rings were missing.
It doesn’t make sense! He would know that I would suspect him. But he’s the only one except me that was in the house last night. And I put the star sapphire ring and the diamond ring in the drawer before I went to bed. And it is gone along with all the rest of my rings. Oh, God. It had have been him!
Dan hurried over to his slacks that were still lying in a pile on the floor where he had left them when he had hurriedly undress. He reached into his front left pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed the cell number that Gerry had given him at the restaurant when they exchanged phone numbers.
“Hello, handsome. Are you just getting out of bed,” Gerry greeted him as though nothing had happened?
“Actually, yes. I just woke up.”
“I loved last night. It was wonderful.”
“Ah . . . Gerry.”
“Yeah, what’s wrong you sound . . . I don’t know different all the sudden.”
“I’m missing my rings! I had them last night when we went to bed but they are gone!”
The silence was like a black abyss sucking the wonderful glowing feeling that Dan had woke up with out of his body.
“Dan, what are you saying?”
“I’m . . . I’m saying the rings were there when we went to bed and now they are gone.”
Another silence.
“Are you still there?” Dan asked.
“Yeah.”
“Gerry, why would you take them. I would have given them to you. I would have given you anything you wanted that I own.”
“Dan . . . you think I stole them?”
“What else. They were in the draw last night. You and I were alone. Now they are gone!”
“I didn’t take them. I would never do something like that?”
“But you have? For god sakes, you did prison time for doing things like this!” Dan said raising his voice. “I will not press charges. But I want my rings back by tonight! You have until then to return them. . . and I never want to see you again!”
“Dan, you have to listen to me. I didn’t steal your rings. That would be stupid. Please you have to believe me.”
“I believe that you couldn’t help yourself. Are you the one that has been robbing the homes of rich gays in La Jolla? Oh, God, you are the Crayon Boy Cat Burglar. You were in Jack’s house. You saw his painting. Oh my god! you robbed him too!”
“No. No. I don’t do that anymore. I am not the Crayon Boy Cat Burglar. Dan, please believe me. I haven’t robbed anyone! I need you to believe me!”
“My fucking rings by tonight or I call the police,” Dan said and ended the call. He turned his phone off. I can’t talk to him anymore. I’m too upset.
Chapter 9
Paul Becker glanced up as Gerry rapped lightly on his partially opened door. He pulled off his glasses and waved them around. “This can’t be good. You are not due until Friday,” he said as Gerry peeped into his office. The parole officer unconsciously chewed on the temple tips of his glasses.
“Yes, it’s not good! I might be arrested!” Gerry said as he entered the small office. “For something I did not do.”
“Yes, yes, people are always arrested for things they didn’t do,” Paul said sarcastically.
Gerry glanced at the chubby bald man in his forties. He took a deep breath before he spoke again. “Paul, I swear I didn’t steal the man’s rings!”
“Who are we talking about? Give me some facts.”
“His name is Dan Murphy. I spend the night with him last night. I got up about four and called a cab and went back to my apartment to work on my sketches.” Gerry stopped and shook his head. “He called me this morning and said all his rings had been stolen out of his bedroom.”
“What this man to you?”
“That’s just it. I think I’m in love with him or at least falling in love with him and he with me.” Gerry shook his head. “I wouldn’t do something so stupid as steal from a man I had just spend the night with. You have read my police file. I was damn careful. It took the police years to catch me. I would never do somethings so stupid! Never!”
“Calm down and sit,” Paul said as he took the tip of his glasses out of his mouth and put them back on. The lens was thick. They made his eyes look owlish. “Is he going to the police and filing a complaint?”
“He said I had until tonight to return his rings,” Gerry shrugged. “Last night I wouldn’t have believed he would. We sort of connected like I haven’t connected with anyone before. But after his call. Yeah, I think he will . . . ”
Paul played an imaginary fiddle. “I don’t care a hoot about your perverted sex life.”
“Yes, that’s real sensitive of you?” Gerry said and bit his lip to keep from saying more.
“I’m not your marriage counselor, Gerry, I’m your parole office that is here to oversee your probation and send you back to jail if you break your parole agreement.”
Gerry took a deep breath and nodded his head.
“Now, I’ve been seeing you for several months and I have never caught you in a lie. You have always keep your appointments and I have come to realize that you are indeed a bright, talented young man. I’ve visited the gallery and seen your sketches. They are perverted but damn good. What I am getting at is that I believe you. If you were going to rip the guy off he would never have had a clue it was you.”
“Thank you . . .”
“Hold off with your thanks. Now, I’m not so sure about these art burglaries in La Jolla. They have your fingerprints all over them, figuratively speaking of course since the cat burglar hasn’t left any evidence. Are you the Crayon Boy Cat Burglar?”
“Paul, I had nothing to do with those robberies.”
“Do you know any of the men that were robbed?”
Gerry sighed. “Yes, I have been in their homes at least once.”
“Please don’t tell me that you have had sex with the men whose homes have been robbed,” Paul said taking his glasses off and sticking the temple tips in his mouth again.
“Then, I won’t tell you.”
“Crap, Son. You are going to be the police’s lead suspect when they learn that you not only know these rich bastards but have had been inside their homes having sex with them.”
Paul’s words seem to deflate Gerry. He slumped in his chair with his chin dropping low.
“I just hope you have alibies for the nights the robberies took place,” Paul said waving his glasses in the air. “Do you?”
“Paul, you know I live alone. I never invite anyone to my apartment. It’s a dump and crammed with sketches. So no I don’t have alibies.”
Paul put his glasses back on. “Your ass is grass!”
“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know.”
“Does the guy that is accu
sing you of stealing his jewelry realize that the police will probably try to pin the art robberies on you when he makes a compliant?”
Gerry pressed his lips tightly together and shook his head. “I don’t think he has thought anything through. If he had he maybe he wouldn’t be accusing me.”
“Well, he is fixing to bring a heap of hurt down on you.”
“Am I going back to jail?” God, I can’t go back to that awful place and endure what I went through in the prison in Georgia. I just can’t!
“Not if I can help it. Call me a dumb ass sentimentalist but I believe you, Kid. I’ll speak on your behalf when the police bring you to the station. I said when not if,” Paul said.
“Yes, I picked up on that.”
“Now, get your perverted ass out of my office,” Paul said with a dismissal wave of his hand.
“Thanks, Paul,” Gerry called over his shoulder.
The rest of the day was like waiting for a tea kettle to whistle and never hearing it. His nerves were frayed by the time he finished his shift as guard at the gallery and headed for Daddy’s Boys. He had tried repeated to call Dan but all his calls had gone straight to voice mail. He had left messages after message but finally had given up.
When he got out of the cab at Daddy’s Boys he didn’t see Dan’s black Mercedes in the parking lot.
Good, I need a couple of beers before confronting him. Gerry shudder thinking about the coming meeting. He would have walked through a bed of hot coals to avoid facing Dan tonight.
Terry was taking practice shots at the pool table when Gerry entered. It was early and the place was practically dead.
“It’s not going to do you any good practicing, Terry. You are always going to come in second,” Gerry called out.
‘’Scr. . . Scr. . . Screw you, Gerry.” Terry said then scratched knocking the eight ball in the side pocket. “Da . . . Da . . . Damn you,” he mumbled.
“Yeah, come Friday, I’m going to take your money again,” Gerry said trying to sound cheerful and failing.
“Well if it isn’t the two pool sharks,” Spike said as he walked through the door.
“No,” Gerry corrected. “There’s only one pool shark and it’s me. Terry is just one of the big fish in the school I feed on.”
“Yo. . . Yo. . . You are such a jerk!” Terry said tossing his pool cue onto the pool table.
“Hey, watch it, Terry, you rip the felt and you’ll be buying me another table,” Bucky called from behind the bar.
“I . . . I . . . I’m out of here! I . . . I . . . I don’t need this shit,” Terry said as he walked across the bar but instead of leaving he walked to the corner table where he had left his beer and flopped down in a chair.
“What wrong with you, Gerry. He’s supposed to be your friend,” Spike said as he took a stool beside Gerry. Burn enough bridges and you have to swim.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m just in a rotten mood and it’s only going to get worse,” Gerry said. He nodded at Bucky. “Give me a shot of vodka.”
“It must be bad to be doing shots this earlier,” Spike said. “Hey, didn’t you go out with the handsome retired pilot last night. I thought I saw you leaving the bar with him?”
“Yes. And it was a colossal mistake,” Gerry said picking up the shot glass Bucky had just put in front of him. He threw back his head slightly and tossed the vodka down his throat. “Hell yes!” he nodded at Bucky. “Hit me again Bean Man.”
“You call me Bean Man one more time and I hit you but it will be with the baseball bat I keep behind the bar,” Bucky said as he poured more vodka in Gerry’s shot glass.
“Your kind of touchy today, Bucky. What happened? You run out of your Côtes du Rhône wine.”
“Matter of fact I did thanks to your friend Dan. He drank it like water the other night when he was talking up Mathew.”
Gerry grimaced.
“Oh, did I touch on a sore spot?” Bucky said smiling.
“No, Mathew can have him. We are finished,” Gerry said tossing the second shot of vodka into his mouth. “Now a beer chaser.”
“I thought for sure the two of you were clicking,” Spike said.
“Not anymore?” Gerry said reaching for the Budweiser Bucky had sat in front of him. He took a swallow. “And don’t ask!”
“Okay, you want to shoot a game of eight ball with me and Terry? Of course I know I’m not going to win but playing you does make me a better player.”
“Yeah, it will relax me. I feel like my muscles are tied up in knots,” Gerry said. “Bucky, hand me my pool cue.”
“You know I should charge you guys for keeping you cue sticks behind the bar. You know like they charge for keeping your bowling balls behind the counter at the bowling alley,” Bucky said.
“Bucky, man, you have really lost it,” Spike said. “They don’t charge for storing bowling balls at bowling alleys.”
“If they don’t they should!” Bucky said as he handed Gerry his cue stick.
As Gerry walks to the pool table he looks over and saw Dan enter the bar. He can tell by the determined way he walks across the room that he had made up his mind that he, Gerry, was the thief. Gerry suddenly feels queasy. He had to force himself to concentrate on the shot.
“Yo . . .Yo . . . Your bf is here,” Terry says smiling at Gerry. “An . . . An . . . And he doesn’t look happy. Wha . . . Wha . . . What did you do to him last night?”
“Mind your own fucking business, Terry, And I thought you were running home to mommy.” Gerry snaps as he made the shot. “And concentrate on trying to learn how to play pool instead of my business. As much as you play you should be better!”
Terry glared at Gerry but doesn’t respond.
When Gerry walked around the pool table to get some powered chalk for his hands, Spike nods his head over at Gerry. “He’s just upset. Has something happened between him and the pilot,” he asked Terry in a low voice.
“Yea . . . Yea . . . Yeah and he deserves it. H . . . H . . . He thinks he is so superior. Ju . . . Jus . . . Just like my brother used to think he was better than me. Ju . . . jus . . . Just because I stutter they all thing I am a retard.”
“No, I don’t think you are retarded and neither does Mathew or Gerry for that matter,” Spike said. “Heck, you are smarter than any of use. You are the one every goes to when they have a problem with their computer or cell phones. You are a wiz at such things. Now, go and make your shot.”
Spike walked over to the table where all three had placed their bottles of beer. Gerry was standing beside the table with his bottle of bottle in his hand. “Hey, go easy on Terry. You might be upset but there is no reason to take it out on your friends.”
“Friends!” Gerry snorted. “I’m not so sure I have any friends.” He turned the bottle of beer up and drained it. “I’m not in this game. You and Terry finish the game without me. I’ve got to talk to Dan,” he said and waked toward the bar.
Dan glanced at him as he approached. The look was both angry and hurt.
“Where is my rings?” he said loud enough for Bucky to hear him.
“Dan, I didn’t take them. I swear!” Gerry said holding both hands up.
“I wish I could believe you but I don’t,” Dan shook his head. “I thought we had the beginning of something really special and then you pull this shit!”
“We did! I mean we do!” Gerry said.
“That’s what I thought then you stole my rings!”
“Dan I didn’t . . .”
“Please stop with the denials!” Dan said shaking his head. “I will not listen. Just give me back my rings and I’ll let it go.”
“Dan . . . I don’t have them.”
“Okay, play it that way. Tomorrow morning, I am going to Morena police station and file a complaint against you. Sorry, but I can’t abide by a thief and a liar!”
Before Gerry to respond Dan tossed a twenty dollar on the bar and walked away.
“Please tell me what he accused you of isn’t true?” Bucky
said as he picked up the money.
“Keep out of my business, Bucky,” Dan said as he folded his cue stick and placed it back in the soft carrying case. “Here put it away. I’m done playing pool for tonight.”
“No, you take it home with you. I’m not keeping it for you behind the bar until you learn some manners.”
“Whatever,” Gerry said as he grabbed the carrying case and walked away.
Chapter10
Gerry set staring at the wall in one of the back rooms of the gallery. Matilda had put a folding table and three chairs in the small windowless room so that Gerry and Bo, the other security guard could use it as their break room. He had been depressed ever since last night. He took only the second bite of his tuna salad sandwich and tossed it in the lidless white trash can. He glanced at his cell phone. He had another fifteen minutes before he was scheduled to return to the gallery floor.
How did I get in such a mess? By letting myself care for Dan. I should have just had sex with him on the first night and then dropped him like I did all the other guys that picked me up from the bar. I should never, never have allowed myself to have feelings for him.
Suddenly the door of the break room swung open. Gerry glanced around to see two men standing in the doorway. The tall and dark man was dressed smartly while the chubby one looked like picked his clothes out of a bin at Goodwill. An image of Laurel and Hardy from a black and white movie he had seen at the La Jolla film festival flashed through Gerry’s mind.
“Gerry Blunt?” the tall one asked.
“Yes.”
“Would you come with us please?” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Where to?” Gerry asked even though he knew they were detective and they were taking him to the Morena police station for questioning or maybe to book him for grand larceny.
“To the police station,” the chubby detective with the ill-fitting clothes spoke for the first time. His voice was high pitched just like Stan Laurel.
“Yeah, right. I’ve sort of been expecting someone to come. I just didn’t expect Laurel and Hardy?” Gerry said.
Heart Thief Page 5