Huge (11 page)

“So what are those two up to?” Bryan grinned.

“Livia says something is missing from her room,” Kathy whispered, looking down.

“It’s more like there’s something missing from somewhere else.” He dragged an index finger very subtly down the side of his temple.

Kathy frowned at him. “That’s not nice, Bryan, even if it is true. And Cuth says he can verify it, so don’t you think we should go check it out?”

“Oh, Jesus, here we go,” Bryan huffed. “All right, lead the way.”

As Kathy turned, I saw Bryan palm one of the twenties I’d just brought and pocket it. I can’t say I was completely surprised. I’d always wondered how he afforded that souped-up IROC of his, and
maybe now I was finding out. Kathy led Bryan over to the other two, and since nobody was paying attention to me, I hung back a few steps and followed.

Livia’s room was in one of the back corners of the building, like grandma’s, only it was in the other prong of the U. It took a long time to get there because Livia took the tiniest steps and drag-shuffled her feet when she walked, as if she were making sure the bottom of her shoes touched every square inch of flooring on the way there. She had Cuthbert on one arm and Kathy on the other, and she kept telling them, “It’s gone,” “Someone broke in,” and “They steal from me” over and over again. Cuthbert tried to commiserate, saying how awful it was and that he knew it to be true because he was a witness, while Kathy reassured her that they were going to get to the bottom of it. Bryan seemed in a hurry, because he’d gone up ahead and was out of sight. As for me, well, whatever was gone from Livia’s room or whether anything was missing at all, it didn’t really matter. The whole thing just made me feel sorry for her.

Once the others caught up, Bryan pulled a key chain out of his pocket, opened the door, and they all went in, while I waited down the hall for about a minute or so before creeping to the threshold to have a peek. Inside there was a small dresser, a sitting chair with a matching footrest, a single bed, a nightstand, and a couple of lamps. Pretty much standard issue at the home, only Livia’s furniture looked about thirty or forty years more out of date than everyone else’s and gave off that dull sheen of too much wear and tear. There was a framed photograph on the dresser of a man, a woman, and a little girl who must’ve been her family, although it was anybody’s guess because she wasn’t in the picture with them. Everything else was old tabloids and gossip magazines, dust and doilies, and metallic centrally cooled air.

Cuthbert was pointing at the nightstand under the window, with Bryan standing right behind him. Kathy and Livia were on the other side of the bed, closest to the door.

“There, right there,” Cuthbert said. “I escorted Livia from the television room last night, after our program had ended, and I noticed it resting on the corner as I bid her good evening from the doorway.”

“But it’s not there now?” Bryan asked.

“Apparently not. Nor, however, was it there when Livia awoke this morning.” Cuthbert put his hands on his hips when he’d finished, as if to say,
Deal with that, sonny
.

“Is that true, Livia?” Bryan asked.

“Yes, Bernie.” She nodded sadly. “It’s gone. Someone broke in and stole it.”

Bryan winced but didn’t correct her. “All right, all right. Let’s not jump to any conclusions. Let’s all just look around and see if we can find it first. Cuthbert, will you please check around the dresser? Kathy Livia, will you two please look on the floor around the bed where you are?”

Everyone started searching, and Bryan knelt down in front of the nightstand, sliding his hand in his pants pocket as he did so. There were twenty good reasons for my eyes to be on him, so I saw him do it. Then he ducked down under the nightstand, like he was reaching back to the corner behind it, and as the others started calling out that they’d come up empty, Bryan said, “Aha! Found it.” Livia, Kathy, and Cuthbert crowded around him and he held up the loot. Then he told them that everything was fine, no one had broken in and nothing had been stolen, the money had just fallen behind the nightstand where Cuthbert and Livia couldn’t see it.

I didn’t know whether to applaud him or to scream out that he was a liar, a fake, and a thief and sound the alarm. I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there and that my opinion wouldn’t be welcomed, but I couldn’t let some bullshit like that pass without comment. “Wow, it’s really lucky you found the money, Bryan,” I said, sneering.

He looked across the room at my shoulder and said, “We’re having grown-up talk in here, if you don’t mind. Why don’t you run along and play?”

“I do mind. My grandmother lives here, too, and I just want to make sure the place is secure.”

“Well, as you can see, it is. Thanks for your view, though.”

“It is? Really? Did you check to make sure that the window next to the nightstand was locked, or that the screen behind it hasn’t been moved or tampered with?”

Bryan froze.

“You know something,” Cuthbert said, reaching up to finger the top of the windowpane, “the young man does have a point. The window is not locked.”

Bryan spun around and locked the window, almost knocking Cuthbert over as he did. “Well, it’s locked now. Problem solved. Anything else?”

“No, you’re right. Problem solved. Except…”

“Except what?” The color was rising in Bryan’s cheeks again.

“Well, except for the corner of the nightstand.” I stepped into Livia’s room, toward the dresser on the left, and ran my finger along the top. “See how everything else is covered with dust? The corner of the nightstand isn’t. So how come the corner of the nightstand, the place where the money was, you know, right next to the unlocked window and all, has no dust on it? Why is that the
only
spot that looks like it’s been wiped clean?”

Kathy Cuthbert, and Livia all glanced around them and then turned their eyes on Bryan.

Bryan forced out a laugh. “Ha! That was a good one. Really. You almost had me. For a second I thought you were
serious
.”

“I am serious.”

“No, you’re not,” Bryan beamed. “Because you don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s where Livia
always
puts her money, isn’t it, Livia? So, naturally, there wouldn’t be any dust there. And since we already found the
money
that was
supposed
to be
stolen
, maybe you should admit that the case is closed. I’m sure we all appreciate your
concern
.”

Lying, patronizing asshole. Worse still, I was already losing the others, even Kathy and I knew it. The money in hand was too much for them to ignore, and as for how it actually got there, it would be his word against mine. But I wasn’t done just yet.

“Yeah, well, I
am
concerned. I’m concerned that money goes missing from Livia’s room only to miraculously reappear, and I’m concerned that the front sign was vandalized and you guys haven’t done anything about it. How about
that?
Have you even
tried
to figure out who did it? What if the one has something to do with the other? What if the vandal and the burglar are the same person, or working in cahoots? Why aren’t
you
concerned about
that
?”

“We are, honey—” Kathy started before Bryan interrupted.

“We
are
concerned, all of us.” He swung his arm outward, as if to include the others. “And we’ve already called the police, so we
are
doing something about it. But that still doesn’t make this any of
your
business.”

“Oh, yeah, Bryan? I got
twenty dollars
says it
is
my business.” I knew Kathy, Livia, and Cuth wouldn’t have the slightest idea what the hell that meant, but I wanted Bryan to know that I knew where things stood.

He faked a helpless shrug and asked Kathy to make sure everything was all right with the others before motioning me down the hall. We stopped about a dozen feet from the doorway and he whispered angrily, his beady eyes glaring at my chin.

“What are you trying to do, Buttinsky start a panic?”

“What are
you
trying to do,” I shot back, “cover up a crime?”

“Come off it, already. Nobody knows if that money was stolen or not. Jesus, this is the fourth time in the past month she’s pulled the
same
thing—somebody broke into her room and stole twenty dollars. But the sad truth of the matter is that her family doesn’t send her much extra cash, and at this point she isn’t sure if she ever
had twenty
dollars or not, and Cuthbert is blind as a bat, so
he
doesn’t know it either.”

“But that still doesn’t—”

Bryan cut me off, his temper kicking in. “Can’t you see all you’re doing is encouraging them to believe that someone broke in and stole from them? Do you know what that’ll do to them?
Do you?
Do you have any idea what it’s like to be old and alone, far from your family? There isn’t a lot for them to do but gossip and complain and worry themselves sick over the tiniest little things. And if they start thinking the home is under siege by criminals, well, Jesus, that’ll
really
set them off. This place will be a madhouse by morning. Is that what you
want?
For them to think they aren’t safe, that someone’s after them, just because
you
said so? Is that what you want
your grandmother
thinking when she tries to go to sleep at night? Well, let me tell you something, kid, it’s my job to keep the peace around here and that’s what I’m doing. You may not like it, but it
works
, so unless you have a smoking gun to hand over to the police, you should
keep your mouth shut.”

Sheriff Shit for Brains keeping the peace. Now I’d seen everything. “No criminals around, you say?” I asked calm and slow because I wanted it to sink in. “Then what about the sign? And
what the hell are you doing with my twenty dollars
?”

“Christ,” he spat out, reaching in his back pocket. “Is
that
what you’re worried about?” He opened his wallet and pulled out a bill, shaking it at me.
“Here
. Here’s your twenty dollars. I just grabbed the one that was closest, because when Livia needs a new one, it
always
comes from me.”

Bryan’s hand was trembling, and for the first time ever he looked me dead in the eyes. I recognized that look, I knew it inside and out—he was shot through with rage. Kathy closed the door behind her and slipped into the hallway before we could go any further, though, so Bryan bottled it up fast, smiled, and played it as false and slimy and two-faced as he could be.

Kathy told him that Cuthbert and Livia were fine, and Bryan pretended to give a shit as the two of them started down the hall. I let
them walk up ahead, took the nearest side exit out into the soggy heat, and made a beeline for Livia’s window. If Bryan couldn’t be trusted to check it, then it was up to me.

There were small
, flowerless bushes bordering the wall beneath the windowsill and gray waterlogged wood chips on the ground, which had probably been, in the distant past, some kind of mulch. The decorative shrubbery had definitely seen better days, but it didn’t appear that its sorry state had been caused by human trampling. I checked the screen for fingerprints and signs of being moved up or down, but I didn’t see anything telling. What struck me, though, as I peered through the window, toward the nightstand, and further into the now-empty room, was that it would’ve been easy as pie to lift the screen and the unlocked window from where I was standing, slip a hand in, swipe whatever was on the nightstand, and break away fast, clean, and unseen in about ten seconds or less, even if someone was sleeping in the bed just beyond. It would’ve been so easy that almost anyone could’ve done it without getting caught.

What I couldn’t be sure of, though, was what was bothering me more—the very real possibility that the home had become the target of ongoing criminal activity, or that the guy who was supposed to be in charge was doing everything he could to make it look like it wasn’t. Maybe the sign had only been the tip of the iceberg. Maybe the case was a lot bigger than I’d thought.

As we approached the front sidewalk where the Cruiser was parked, Thrash started ragging on me, and I told him to shove it, but he was right. I hadn’t inspected the scene of the crime when I’d been here yesterday. That was the very first thing a detective was supposed to do, and I hadn’t done it. I didn’t know how I could’ve forgotten. But there was no time like the present, so we headed across the parking lot to check it out.

When we got to the island where the sign was, I could’ve slapped
myself. There were clumps of crabgrass, a few tattered dandelions, tangles of browning weeds clinging to the soil, and a tall hedge dividing the island from the shoulder of the highway. Otherwise there was only limp yellowed grass and dirt, dirt that had been rained on practically all night, which meant that it wasn’t dirt anymore, but mud. If there’d been any tracks or footprints in the area, they were long gone now, all washed away, and I’d missed my chance to inspect them. No, it was not the finest moment in the history of private detection. But at least Thrash was in my backpack, so I didn’t have to see that look on his face.

I stood there with my thumb up my ass for a few minutes, listening to the cars rush past on the highway, filling my lungs with exhaust fumes, trying to think redeeming thoughts. Then I looked up at the sign and noticed that they hadn’t repainted it yet. That burned me up. It still said
OAKSHADE RETARTED HOME,
same as yesterday, only now the smudge of paint over the “irement” was like a thick black tongue sticking out at me. I closed my eyes, inhaled deeply, and shifted my feet to calm down, thinking I’d probably have to paint the damn thing myself if I wanted it fixed, just like I’d had to rake the leaves off the tiny patch of lawn outside grandma’s window last fall.

After a few seconds, I opened my eyes again, and that’s when it hit me—an icy pinprick in the back of my brain that grew and widened like some Antarctic flower.
There were two perpetrators
. The height of the sign gave it away, which I hadn’t thought about yesterday, seeing it from the window in grandma’s room. The wood placard itself was about three feet tall and five feet wide, but it hung from the top of wood posts that had to be ten feet tall at their highest point. The bottom of the placard was a good seven feet off the ground, and the word
Retirement
, the one that was painted over, was more like eight and a half feet high, because it was right in the middle.