Red Iron Nights (23 page)

Sounded like the antechamber to heaven. I maintained a neutral expression. “And?”

“So I’ve heard about you. You recall a Rosie Tate?”

I gasped, choked. Should I be outraged or should I laugh? “Good old Rose. Sure, I know Rose. I did her out of a fortune by making sure the lady her brother named in his will got what she had coming. I didn’t let her get her way by wagging her tail at me. Yes, I know Rose. She’s got a real boner for me. I didn’t know they let her out on her own.” Rose Tate running loose could be a disaster worse than a platoon of serial killers. The woman was nasty. As gorgeous as they come, but nasty.

“You think she’s a joke?”

“Not hardly. Not Rose. Rose is a joke like a starving saber-tooth is a joke. Make that a starving saber-tooth with a toothache.” I faked a laugh. “So she still holds a grudge.”

“That woman wants your head. She didn’t say anything about any money.”

“Rose was never one to let little things like truth and accuracy get in the way when she was creating a mood in her audience.”

“Tell me about it. Didn’t take two weeks before every girl in the place was ready to strangle her.”

“Way it goes. It’s hard to be a crowd pleaser in my racket. So what about Crask and Sadler?”

“Garrett, I don’t really know. I can remember when either one of them would have died to protect me or the family name. They would have done anything to shield me from a breath of scandal. That’s the way those people do things. They have this elaborate code of honor.”

“I know. And part of it is that women and children are exempt. But. The last thing your father ever said to me was, look out for his baby.” I don’t know why I told her. It wasn’t a smart move. She didn’t need to know. I didn’t need to hoist up a sign saying here’s a way to manipulate me. “I said I would. I didn’t think I’d need to. Crask and Sadler said you’d be taken care of. Maybe they had their fingers crossed.”

“That sounds like them. Him and them too. My father had a thing about you, Garrett. He used to go on about honorable men. About how there were none left, except for you, and you were going to get yourself killed for your trouble.”

“He didn’t know me the way he thought. I have my bad moments like anybody else.”

“He was funny some ways, Garrett. Besides having crotchets about you, he was always honest with his daughter.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I was never in doubt what he did. Unlike most females near his kind. As far back as I can remember, he told me all the hows and whys and wheres and dirt that makes the business go. I never thought anything was strange till he sent me off to school. Then I got embarrassed. I lay awake nights. I prayed my little heart out. Then I found out all the other girls were embarrassed by their fathers too, and half of them made up the most outrageous stories to explain why . . . I realized that no matter what my father did, he did love me. And that was more than most of my classmates could say.”

Cue the violins, Bunky. The kingpin was a loving dad. When they were totting up the score at the gates to hell, he could tell them, “I done it all for my little girl.”

Chodo was the next thing to dead, and still he kept surprising me. “Belinda, I have to admit I admired your father—even when I hated what he was and what he did to people. But all that’s something we can go into later. Right now every minute brings me nearer to the time the girl killer will have to do what he’s got to do to stay happy.”

“What?”

“Bottom line. Some people need rougher stimulation than others. That’s what the Tenderloin is all about. Providing junk for the weird-stuff junkies.”

My sweet Belinda surprised me by responding in an accent neither of the street nor of the Hill. “My daddy woulda been proud a you, Garrett. Some people . . . Some people is just sick and cain’t get it off.”

“That’s the heart of it, isn’t it? Where’s the line between what’s unusual and what’s unacceptable? When does weird become dangerously perverted?”

She looked me straight in the eye. “I’ll let you know.”

“Hey . . . ”

Garrett.

Of course the Dead Man would yank my chain right then.

43

“He wants to see you.”

Belinda looked puzzled. “Who does?”

“My sidekick. Watch him. He’s not fast on his feet, but he’s sly.”

“The Dead Man?”

“You’ve heard of him. That’ll puff his ego.”

Garrett, do get on with it.

“I thought I was getting on with it as good as I could, under the circumstances.”

Belinda gave me a strange look. The Dead Man sent,
Your love life was not my concern. Get her in here.

“We’re a little hasty today, are we?”

“What the hell are you doing, Garrett? Talking to the walls?”

I wish to speak with you, Miss Contague.

“What the hell is this, Garrett? Get the hell out of my head!”

“It ain’t me, babe. I thought you knew about the Dead Man.” She wasn’t heading for the door, she was pressing closer to me, a development I didn’t discourage. I eased her across the hall. “I know. I know. You didn’t think you’d have to deal with him. You thought the stories were exaggerated. They are, mostly. Except about how ugly he is.”

Garrett!

“And testy. He’s real testy. Like a badger with bad teeth.”

“My God! Look at that nose!” She clutched my arm. I melted. I tried to slide the arm around her, to comfort her, but she wouldn’t let go. I’d have bruises in the morning.

Garrett, take your gloating, less-than-winning personality into the kitchen. Indulge your true nature guzzling beer while the lady and I exchange reminiscences.

“Hey! Let’s not get personal.”

I went to the kitchen and sulked, indulged in my favorite food, Weider’s pale lager.

Garrett!

Hell. Here I was barely through my fourth pint and he was rattling my chain. What did a guy have to do to relax? I stamped in there, past Belinda. She asked brightly, “Where can I find Dean?”

“Kitchen. What do you want, Chuckles?”

The girl is exactly what she appears to be.
He was astonished, obviously.
Iam amazed that she is so honest and forthright.

“So it isn’t hereditary?”

That is not what I meant.

“What you really mean is, she didn’t know a damned thing we could use. And you’re thrilled about it.”

After a fashion. I convinced her that it would be in her best interest to remain here, out of sight, in our guest room, till we do something about the killer.

“Say what?” He doesn’t like women, of any species. He doesn’t want them in the house to visit, let alone to hide out indefinitely. “You going through some change? Actually recommending that a female stay here?” He sure wasn’t trying to do me any favors.

It would not be the first time.

“That depends on how you add things up.”

I would love to match wits with you, but that game has lost its savor. I want you to go see if you cannot charm either the Candy woman or the Dixie woman into spending the night here.

“Why?” He had more faith in me than I did.

I despair of teaching you to employ your reason. Because once you lure the potential victim close enough, I can make sure she is not out there when the killer goes hunting tomorrow night. Because then I would have two of the three most likely targets under my protection, freeing you and Captain Block to concentrate on the remaining woman.

“Right. I’ve watched those two women in action, Smiley. Candy don’t play and Dixie is out of my price range. Snowball-in-hell time.”

I have faith. You will find a way.

“Right.”

This defeatism amazes me in a man who so regularly disturbs my naps with the gales of whooping and snorting emanating from his room.

“Regularly? I can just about count on the fingers of one finger the number of times—”

Garrett, I am dead, not stupid.

“Yeah. Well. So maybe I underexaggerated. But I do wish I was doing half as good as you think.”

I wish you were too. You are more easily endured when
—

“Stow that. How’re we going to move a bunch of women in here? We don’t have—”

Dean can see to their wants. I will see to their safety. You go to the Tenderloin, bring us back one.

“If they’re even working. You have to remember, they don’t do this stuff for a living. It’s part-time, for kicks. Anyway, why should we bother? Did Block catch up on his payments?”

We came to an agreement. There are no financial obstacles.

“Really? Nice of you to keep me posted. I hope you took him so bad he won’t come around here ever again.”

I suggest you adjourn to the Tenderloin and lay groundwork.

Is that what you call it? “But I have to—”

Let everything else ride. Mr. Hullar will not expire if he misses his regular report on the adventures of Barking Dog Amato. I want to be right on top of this killer if he has survived. I insist.

I was willing to arrange that, only I didn’t know how to get him out there—unless maybe I hired a wagon and a dozen sturdy moving men. I could just see him dashing gallantly about town, bringing his special style of derring-do, to the dismay of the wicked and cheer of the downtrodden.

Your brain has become a snake pit.

“But I have only one snake pit.” I withdrew, danced lightly upstairs to see how my unexpected guest was settling in. Mostly I got to watch Dean help her settle. He interposed himself like he was her maiden aunt.

Dean had been having his rehab parties for weeks. My bedroom, which lies across the front of the house, and the guest bedroom have been done for a while, but till Dean and his pals went to work, the other two rooms had remained untouched, repositories for junk that should have gone to the basement or street long ago. The parties had gotten the room across the back set for Dean, partly. It wasn’t finished. But he no longer had to sleep on the daybed downstairs when we had company. Still, his room needed plenty of work to become really habitable. The more he got between me and Belinda, the more I considered leaving the gaps in the outside walls there for him to handle himself come winter.

“Look, what I really need to know is whatever you know about the girl called Candy. At Hullar’s. I have to come up with a way to make her stay away tomorrow night.”

“I didn’t work with her. I barely knew her to say hi.”

“Damn. Somehow I had the idea all you girls should know each other. I’m getting really tired of this whole thing. You can’t give me anything?”

Dean scowled, though even he realized I’d intended no double meaning. Belinda caught his scowl, raised an eyebrow—I fell in love all over again, because that’s one of my own great talents—then winked when Dean wouldn’t see her. “No.”

I went away wondering.

44

“Look,” I snapped when the Dead Man started in on me during my report, “I did my best. I let Barking Dog drive me crazy telling me about his day so I’d have something to tell Hullar. Then I spent two hours trying to get somewhere with a dame so dizzy she thought me trying to save her life was a new pickup routine. She finally told me to screw off and die. Not exactly a boost for the ego. But I did find out that she won’t be working tomorrow night. She has family obligations.”

Excellent. If we fail tomorrow, we will have her as bait next time.

“How come you’re so sure we’ll have more trouble with this killer?”

I am not sure. I am taking a page from your philosophy, looking on the dark side, expecting the worst. If nothing happens, I will have had a wonderfully pleasant surprise.

“Yeah? I hope you get your wonderfully pleasant surprise. I’m going to bed. It was a bitch of a day.”

All that beer, in the line of duty.

“There
are
limits. Stand watch. If that woman finds she can’t control her urges—”

Ha. She is sound asleep, without a thought of anyone named Garrett anywhere in her mind.

“What is she, then? A nun? Never mind. I don’t want to know. I want to sleep. Good night. Tight. Bedbugs. Bite. All that stuff.”

I made it upstairs before the summons came.
Garrett! Come down here.

Rather than prolong the pain by fighting, I went. “What?” This would have to be good.

You did not tell me about the other woman. Dixie. At Mama Sam’s. Remember?

“I remember. She didn’t show up for work. She was expected in but she didn’t make it. Nobody was surprised. That was the way she was. All right? She was time wasted. But she’s supposed to be there tomorrow for sure. She’ll be our bait. Good night.”

Whatever questions he had, he took answers directly, without forcing me to spend more time on one of our famous exchanges. I climbed the stairs again. This time I made it all the way to my room before he prodded me.
Garrett! There is someone at the door.

Hell with them. Let them come back at a civilized hour. I settled onto the edge of my bed, leaned forward to untie my shoes.

Garrett, Captain Block is at the door. I believe he has brought bad news but he is too excited to read reliably.

Great. For Block I’d make special arrangements. He could come back next week.

Nevertheless, I pried my carcass off my bed and trudged down the hall, downstairs, up the ground-floor hall to the door, peeped through the peephole. The Dead Man was right. That was Captain Block out there. I held another brief debate about whether or not to admit him. I finally gave in and unlocked the door.

I was a tad more frank than usual. “You look like death on a stick.”

“I’m considering suicide.”

“And you came here for help? That’s not one of our services.”

“Ha. Ha. He grabbed a march on us, Garrett.”

Bring him in here, Garrett.

“Say what? You can’t go talking around things tonight. I’m so tired I’m wasted.”

“Winchell. He snatched the Candy woman. Tonight. Because he knew we’d be set for him tomorrow night. Ripley was with him.”