The Cluttered Corpse Page 21

  I grinned at her turquoise tips and facial piercings. “Less noticeable than what?”

  “You. I don’t know how to break this to you, but on a noticeability scale of one to ten, you’re eleven.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know: skirt, high heels, makeup, hairdo. People notice you. City girl. And then there’s that air of determination.”

  I held up my hand. “Never mind.”

  “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  I handed over the printed photos of Bryony Stevens, and since I had a bit of time until Sally’s kids would be tucked in and dreaming, I drove to the edge of town to browse in the building supply store. To each her own. I like to see what kind of new materials they have. Especially shelving.

  On my way to Sally’s that evening, my cell phone began to trill. I pulled over to take it, in case it was Lilith with a question about her undercover assignment. Rose’s voice shrilled, high and hysterical. As long as I’ve known her Rose has been unflappable no matter what.

  “What are you saying, Rose?” I said soothingly. “What happened?”

  “Lilith’s been hit by a…” Rose choked up.

  “What?”

  “A hit-and-run driver. Left her lying in the road.”

  My mouth went dry with shock. How could this be?

  “They took her to Woodbridge General.”

  “I’ll go over.”

  Rose said with a quaver, “Take me with you, please. This girl is closer to me than my own family. What will I do if…?”

  “Don’t think the worst, Rose,” I said. “We’ll go together.”

  Five minutes later I picked up Rose on North Elm, which was as usual deserted. Rose had a little bit of trouble bending into the Miata, but we had no choice. Lilith had taken Rose’s old LeMans. I figured it was parked wherever she’d been hit.

  “I’m sorry I was out of control, Charlotte,” Rose said as I gunned it down the street.

  “No worries, Rose.”

  We squealed into the emergency room parking lot. “She has me listed as family,” Rose said. “I don’t know if she has anyone else.”

  Lilith had lived on the streets before finding an assortment of personal-care and bicycle-courier jobs in Woodbridge. She was a damaged but caring person who’d seemed alone in the world until she moved in with Rose. Come to think of it, Rose fit the same description, except for very occasional, halfhearted efforts from the daughter in L.A.

  “Hard to be more real than you, Rose.” I reached over and squeezed her hand.

  Rose glowered. “Whoever did this terrible thing, I’d like to kick his butt.”

  “And I’d like to help,” I said. “His or hers.”

  Lilith was in surgery to reduce pressure on her brain. I alternated between pacing in the waiting room and squirming on the hard plastic seat. Rose slumped in a chair, exhausted and drawn. The purple jogging suit wasn’t enough to lift the grey from her face. She’d been hauled into Emergency so many times because of her breathing and heart problems that the hospital itself probably spelled stress for her. Add to that our joint panic over Lilith and it was taking a toll. I got her a cup of what they called coffee and waited until she relaxed a bit. Then I excused myself and stepped outside the hospital to phone Sally. Benjamin worked in that hospital and I thought if I could reach him, he could help me wade through the information guardians.

  As I walked past the emergency desk, a uniformed police officer was leaning over the desk, flirting with the nursing staff. He turned to ogle me. I scurried through the doors and outside as fast as I could.

  Not fast enough though.

  I heard his boots behind me. I turned and sighed.

  “Hey, Charlie,” he said, grinning.

  Nick Monahan smoothed his dirty blond hair and continued to flash his smile. That smile had been the undoing of many a girl at St. Jude’s when we were growing up. There used to be a rumor that Nick had the largest collection of girls’ panties in New York State. Needless to say, mine were not in that collection. Nor were Pepper’s, I am absolutely certain. Nick always preferred a challenge.

  As much as I disliked running into him, he did present an opportunity. And I figured Nick’s tiny reptile brain would never give him the slightest hint about that.

  I smiled falsely. “Do you know anything about a hit-and-run? A young woman? She was brought in here maybe an hour ago.”

  “Oh yeah,” he said. “I was first on the scene. I was checking up on her.”

  “She’s my friend. Lilith Carisse. What happened to her?”

  He blinked. “You know. A vehicle hit her. And then took off.”

  Even with all the previous generations of Monahans on the Woodbridge police force it was hard to imagine how Nick had passed any of the entrance exams. Sometimes I wondered if Pepper had taken them for him. “I know what a hit-and-run is. I was wondering about the circumstances of this one.”

  “Like what?” he said, confirming my most unflattering suspicions.

  I sighed. “Like where did it happen?”

  “Here in town.”

  “What street?” You can’t give up with Nick, even if you’re fighting the urge to bang your head on the cement walkway.

  “River Road, at the corner of Bell Street.”

  I inhaled sharply.

  “What’s wrong?” he said.

  “And do you know anything about the vehicle that hit her? Aside from the fact that it hit her and drove off, I mean.”

  He frowned in concentration.

  I clarified. “Car? Truck? Snowmobile?”

  “Gee, Charlie. I know what a vehicle is. I told you it—”

  “Was a hit-and-run. Yes, I know. But this was in daylight on a street that has lots of coming and going. So were there any witnesses?”

  “Yeah. There were.”

  Now we were getting somewhere. “What did they say?”

  “Come on, Charlie, I know you think I’m dumb, but I can’t tell you that. Pepper doesn’t want you involved in investigations.”

  “I’m not sure what that’s about, Nick. I simply want to find out what kind of vehicle slammed into my friend. What harm can that do? It’s not like I can track them down or anything. Ha, ha. That’s your job.”

  His noble brow creased as he thought hard.

  While he was thinking, I chipped away. “So did the witnesses see a car?”

  “I guess it can’t hurt. But don’t you let on I told you anything.”

  “Cross my heart,” I said, crossing my fingers.

  “A couple of people saw a white delivery van, but there’s a million of ’em out there.”

  “No license plates?”

  He shook his handsome head. “Nope.”

  “But if it struck Lilith enough to put her in the hospital, there’d be some damage to the van too, wouldn’t there? A garage might be able to…”

  He went white.

  “What?” I said.

  “Don’t go asking around about this, Charlie, promise me. Pepper will murder me if she finds out I told you anything.”

  “Frankly, any one could figure out that a garage or body shop might have repaired a white van.”

  “They haven’t released that information. Nobody knows it was a white van. So she’d put two and two together.”

  “Maybe a witness told me. Anyway, she can’t read minds.”

  “You’re wrong about that. And she’s in a real bad mood today.”

  I shrugged. Pepper had been in a bad mood every time I’d seen her for the last twelve years.

  He said, “Most likely she’s not pregnant again, but I didn’t stick my neck out to ask. She wants a baby more than anything and it doesn’t seem to be happening. We’re working hard at it. We’ve been trying everything, even—”

  I held up my hand. “Too much information.”

  “Huh? Oh yeah. Whenever she finds out she’s not pregnant, she’s meaner than a snake for a week.”

  I felt a rush of sympath
y for Pepper. Not only because she was married to Nick, but also because I remembered the expression on her face when she saw Sally’s children. Absolute agonized longing. And what was ahead for her? Either frustration and heartbreak if she wasn’t successful. Or the dubious blessing of raising a brood with Nick. While I searched for the right words, Nick said, “Do you ever wonder how it would be if you and me had stayed together, Charlie?”

  I didn’t have to wonder. I knew darn well it would have been a slice of hell on earth. “Don’t go there, Nick.”

  He looked down at his feet. Big, sad pistol-packing cop. Pathetic.

  “Let the past go, Nick. Think about Pepper. Think about this baby that you’ll succeed in having one of these days. Think about your future together.”

  “That’s the trouble, Charlie. I am thinking about it. Pepper and me, we had a good thing going. Parties and cars and trips and great sex. A baby’s going to ruin all that stuff. I’m not the one who wants kids. She’s a crazy lady on the subject. Like out of her mind. It’s real scary.”

  “We’ve all got to grow up sometime.”

  I left him standing there, moping over the prospect of growing up, not that there was much chance of that happening soon.

  When I finally got outside the hospital, I checked my cell phone. I found a message from Jack.

  “Just letting you know that a guy just called me about a shipment that went astray. High-end Italian parts. I’m driving up to Troy to get them. The guy said he’d wait up for me, which is beyond the call of duty for sure. I have to go, because I have an excellent customer who’s taking his bike on holiday and he’s counting on those brakes for tomorrow. Didn’t want you to worry. I should be back by two, two thirty latest. If you’re awake then, maybe we can share some Ben & Jerry’s. I’ll need to get my strength back.”

  “Don’t go to Troy,” I said out loud. “I really need you. Lilith’s been hit and she’s in bad shape.”

  You know you’re losing it when you start talking to people who aren’t there. But Jack had no way of knowing how much I needed his support. Luckily I had other friends.

  “Benjamin’s tied up in surgery,” Sally said when I reached her. “I’ll ask him when he gets out. Where was she when it happened?”

  I felt my throat constrict. “That’s it, Sally. She was doing something for me. Trying to find out if anyone on Bell Street had seen Bryony Stevens.”

  Sally gasped. “But this was an accident?”

  “The cops say it’s a hit-and-run. Seems like a pretty unlikely coincidence to me.”

  “I’ll track down Benjamin.”

  I choked out my thanks, hung up, and gasped.

  Pepper stood behind me, waiting, the way a lioness waits for a baby gazelle to stray from the pack.

  She said, “Seems like a pretty unlikely coincidence to me too.”

  With Pepper you have to fight the fear and simulate bravery. “Can you tell me where they found her?”

  “Where did you send her?”

  “What?”

  “Don’t dick around with me, Charlotte. Tell me what was going on and make it snappy.”

  I guess I’m not the type who could hold out under torture. I spilled my guts. “Bryony Stevens sings at Wet Paint. I think she’s involved with Dwayne Rheinbeck, my client’s husband.”

  “I know who Dwayne Rheinbeck is.”

  “I wondered if Bryony might have been on Bell Street on the day Tony died. That’s all. There might be a connection.”

  Pepper snorted. “That’s all? Let’s see if I understand this. Then Lilith went around snooping?”

  Uh-oh. Danger lurked. “Maybe.”

  “News flash: this is a police issue. There’s a murder investigation going on, and you have no business sticking your pointed little nose into it.”

  “I thought if I could prove to you that Dwayne was having an affair with a younger woman, that might change the way you looked at the case.”

  Pepper’s nostrils flared. “I don’t need you to show me how to do my job.”

  “Of course not, but you had no way to know this. It was based on a glimpse, the look on his face when he talked to this girl. There was so much emotion between them. Then I started to wonder why Emmy Lou confessed so easily. Why is she freaking out?”

  Pepper watched me the way I might regard a bug on my white sheets. I felt like freaking out a bit myself. Still, I continued. “So maybe she’s protecting him.”

  She slapped her forehead. “I was too dumb to think of that. Oh wait, maybe I wasn’t, being a police detective and all, rather than a busybody. Maybe that’s why we, that would be the police, thought that her confession was a touch too hysterical. Maybe that’s why we checked out Mr. Dwayne Rheinbeck. Too bad he had an ironclad alibi, Charlotte.”

  “I already knew that. But what if he convinced this girl to get involved somehow? I wanted to find out if she’d been seen on Bell Street that day.”

  “That’s great. Now Lilith Carisse has fifty-fifty odds of making it alive. If she does make it, there’s a good chance she’ll be a vegetable, to put it bluntly.”

  I felt tears well.

  Pepper knows my weaknesses. She was enjoying twisting the knife.

  “Congratulations,” she said. “That’s quite an accomplishment.”

  “I never thought she’d be in danger.”

  “You never thought, period.”

  “Someone tried to kill her because of this. It couldn’t have been Emmy Lou because you have her locked up.”

  I didn’t like the implication of that curled lip.

  I blundered on. “Maybe Bryony has a white van. Or the restaurant might.”

  “What?”

  Oops. “Nothing.”

  “Did you say ‘a white van’?”

  “Yeah I thought I heard something about that in the waiting room.”

  Pepper fixed me with her steely stare.

  “Really,” I squeaked.

  “Maybe you heard it from a certain cop. What’s his name now, Officer Shit-for-Brains?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “You stay away from my husband, Charlotte Adams. He’s one of the few people who knows about the white van. But he’d blab to you, wouldn’t he? Anything if he thought he could get a quick grope.”

  “Nobody gropes me,” I said. “Nick’s innocent. The main thing is to check and see if Dwayne Rheinbeck or Bryony Stevens had access to a white van. They’re the main suspects.”

  “Here’s the bad news about your so-called suspects. I have checked them out. They’re not having an affair. And your client? She’s a nutbar. Maybe Lilith Carisse got run over for nothing. Live with that while you learn to mind your own business.”

  “How do you know they’re not having an affair? You didn’t see how close they were to each other. Not a working relationship. More like—”

  Pepper curled her lip again. “How about like father and daughter?”

  Take digital photos of your home and valuables.

  Store this record on a CD off-site.

  If you have a fire or robbery, you’ll have an accurate

  inventory that’s much better than your memory.

  19

  By eleven o’clock, we learned that Lilith was out of danger but unconscious. When the news came to us in the waiting room, Rose and I clung to each other in relief. Afterward, Rose dozed from time to time, but I had too many things buzzing in my mind, not only intense guilt about Lilith but also the news that Dwayne was Bryony’s father. Where did that leave all my theories?

  At least the hospital staff gave us occasional updates about Lilith. I was pretty sure that knowing Benjamin had made a difference in the speed and quality of the information we received.

  Toward midnight, Rose said, “I’m spending the night here.”

  “You need your rest. And you shouldn’t be alone. Tell you what, I’ll go get Truffle and Sweet Marie, and you can have a houseful of guests tonight. Schopenhauer loves the girls. Tomorrow I’ll c
ome over and we’ll spell each other off.”

  Rose shook her head. “My heart’s not so good. I might as well stay here as go home and get hauled back in by ambulance. I never sleep anyway, and I can’t even think straight. I would appreciate it if you got Schopie and walked him, maybe take him home with you. Then in the morning, you can do a shift if you’d like.”

  It wasn’t easy squeezing Schopenhauer into the Mazda, but he was willing to cooperate. Fatigue washed over me as I drove from North Elm to my place. I hate to come home to a dark house. As I turned the corner and slowed, two small bright-eyed creatures raced across the street, barking.

  “I must be tired, because my eyes are playing tricks. If I didn’t know they were safe inside, I would have sworn that was Truffle and Sweet Marie,” I said to Schopenhauer. He licked my hand.

  I parked in the driveway and hurried toward the house. Although I’d lived happily by myself for seven years in New York City, now that I’d come back to Woodbridge, I hated when Jack wasn’t home.

  I stopped at the front door. It stood open. The hallway and staircase lay in darkness. Schopenhauer barked. “Jack? Did you get back early?” As I stepped inside, I realized Jack’s dung-colored Mini Minor was not in the driveway. I squinted up the long flight of stairs leading to my apartment. I knew even before my eyes adjusted that my door would be wide open too.

  “Burglary!” I shouted into my cell phone. “In progress!”

  “Your name and location, ma’am? Oh wait, is this Charlotte? Mona Pringle here.”

  “Mona. My door is open, my dogs are gone. I have to find them, but what if he’s inside my apartment? What if—”

  “Your place, Charlotte?”

  I hurried along the sidewalk frantically searching for Truffle and Sweet Marie. I huffed and puffed as I confirmed the address.

  “Unit’s on its way,” Mona said. “You’re having a lousy week.”

  I snuffled. “Craptacular.”

  “I heard about your friend, Lilith. That’s rough.”

  “I have to find my dogs. They ran away.”

  “Not such a good idea. You should get in your car, lock the doors, and start her up. Wait until the police arrive.”