Surest Poison, The (25 page)

“He was at the courthouse when I left a
short time ago. I think he’s working on a trial for one of my former law
partners, Lew Jonas. You may know Lew. Chances are he could tell us if Percy
is still around.”

“Do you think Pickslay would still have
records regarding a company he helped set up fifteen or twenty years ago?”

“The man saves anything that might have a
monetary value in the future.”

“Could you contact Jonas and find out if
he’s still around? If you can locate the guy, I’ll go corner him right now.”

“Give me a few minutes,” Bailey said.
“I’ll get back to you.”

They were almost to Jaz’s house. She
reached into her handbag for the remote to open the gate. “I hope you can
find Pickslay in Nashville,” she said.

“Yeah.
It would save a trip to Centerville tomorrow.”

“
Which would give us
a chance to go looking for Bobby.
”

Sid swung his truck into the entrance.
“Let’s see where things stand after we talk with Cran Quincy in the
morning.”

They drove through the gate and up to the
parking area in front of the house. John Wallace sat on the veranda with an
ancient-looking tool box repairing a white rocking chair.

“You had a call a little while ago, Miss
Jasmine,” he said. “I think it was that fellow who arranged to bring Bobby’s
family over here. I left the number on your desk.”

“The local Welcome Traveler Stores
manager,” she said to Sid. “Thanks, John.”

As they walked into her office, Sid’s
phone rang. It was Arnie Bailey.

“There’s a coffee shop down Second Avenue
called The Bottomless Cup,” Bailey said. “It’s near Lew Jonas’s office.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it,” Sid said.

“Get down there as fast as you can. Lew
will be sitting with Pickslay. He said he’d try to keep him occupied until
you got there.”

“Thanks, Arnie. I know Jonas when I see
him. I’m on my way.”

He shut off the phone and looked at Jaz.
“I have to get downtown to catch Percy Pickslay. I’ll let you know if I have
any luck.”

After Sid left
,
Jaz called her manager friend. Their special relationship stemmed from the
fact that she had helped him get his position a few years earlier. He was
assistant manager at a store where she participated in the grand opening. It
was a major affair that attracted a lot of publicity. He planned and
directed the activities all on his own. She was so impressed by his ability
to organize everything, plus his dedication to the job, that she recommended
him for promotion.

“Hello, Nick,” she said. “Is there
something I can help you with?”

“On the contrary, I have some information
I think you should know.”

“What’s that?”

“I happened to overhear a conversation by
one of the boys who drove that family out to your house last Saturday. He
was telling another employee what a neat place you had. I got after him. I
reminded him my instructions were to keep that trip in confidence. He said
he was sorry, but other people already knew about it anyway.”

“What other people?”

“Sunday morning a guy came into the store
and buttonholed him, asked if he was the one who drove the people to the big
house on Franklin Road the night before. He admitted he was. The fellow
wanted to know was the family staying in the mansion. He said he let them
out in front of the little house in back and figured they were staying
there. After what happened the other night, I thought you ought to know.”

39

Located on the
first floor of one of the Victorian Era commercial structures on Second
Avenue that had been renovated into a popular shopping district, the The
Bottomless Cup attracted a wide array of customers from professionals to
construction workers. Two young women stood at the counter ordering lattes
as Sid looked around the room. He spotted Lew Jonas at a table in back. The
lawyer was an Arnie Bailey clone except for a full head of hair where Arnie
had almost none. A skinny, weasel-faced man sat across from him, his arms
too long for the sleeves of his pin-striped coat.

Sid walked back and stopped beside the
table. “Mr. Pickslay?” he said.

The man looked up with questioning eyes.
“Yes?”

Lew Jonas smiled. “Hello, Sid. I
recognize you from Arnie’s description. Percy, this is Sidney Chance. Have a
seat, Sid. I’ll get you a cup of coffee. How do you like it?”

“Black.
Thanks.” He settled into a chair beside Pickslay as Jonas got up and moved
to the counter.

“You a friend of
Lew’s?”
Pickslay asked.

“A friend of a
friend.
All in the line of duty.”

“What kind of duty?”

“I’m a PI.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been on the lookout for you, Mr.
Pickslay.”

“What for?”

“A number of years ago, you were involved
in the organization of a corporation called First Patriots, Limited. The
company was chartered in Anguilla in the British West Indies.”

Pickslay shrugged. “I was involved in a
lot of companies, chartered in Anguilla and a dozen or so
other  places
.”

“Do you remember First Patriots? You used
a downtown post office box for the address.”

He laughed. “Do you know how many post
office boxes I had at one time? I used the same address for lots of
different entities.”

“Would you still have records that show
who was involved in First Patriots?”

“I don’t throw anything away.”

“So I was told.”

“By who?”

“As my dear mother would say, by whom?”

“What are you, some kind of teacher?”

“No, but she was. I need to know who the
stockholders were for First Patriots, Limited. I’d be willing to pay a
reasonable fee for the information.”

Pickslay grinned. “Now you’re talking my
language. I’m in the information business these days, you know.”

“Can you have it for me by tomorrow?” Sid
asked.

“Five hundred bucks.”

Sid gave a grunt of exasperation.
“Five hundred?
For a few
names?
That’s exhorbitant.”

“Supply and demand,
Mr. Chance.
You must have
gone to a lot of trouble to track me down here. That tells me your client
wants those names with a passion. My advice is to take the offer before the
price goes up.”

Lew Jonas walked up with a coffee for Sid
and something foamy for himself.

“Thanks.” Sid took the cup and set it on
the table. “Excuse me for a moment while I make a phone call.”

He moved over beside the wall and punched
in Arnie Bailey’s number. The secretary put him through.

“I just wanted an okay on a proposition,”
Sid said.

He outlined what Percy Pickslay had
proposed for divulging the identity of the First Patriots, Ltd. owners.

“That’s the crux of our case, isn’t it?”
Arnie said. “We need those names to prove who was responsible for that
chemical dump. Tell him we’ll pay five hundred for documentary evidence.”

“Good enough. If Pickslay comes through,
we should be able to wrap up this thing tomorrow.”

“Have you found Decker?”

“No, but when we get these names, it
should lead us to his door.”

That wasn’t a given, but it satisfied
Arnie for the moment. Sid walked back to the table and took his seat. He
looked across at the disbarred lawyer. “It’s a go, Mr. Pickslay. But my
client wants documentary evidence. It could be an original or a copy
certified as true by you and a notary.”

Jonas chuckled. “Sounds like you two have
been doing some business.”

Sid held up his cup.
“How about a toast to the successful conclusion of our little commercial
endeavor.”
He took a sip of coffee. “When and where can I pick up the
document?”

Pickslay glanced around the room. “I need
to be back in Nashville tomorrow morning.
Why don’t we
meet right here at eight-thirty?”

“Deal.”
He reached out to shake Pickslay’s hand.

40

Back at his
office
in Madison, Sid found three
calls on his answering machine from people in Ashland City. The news story
had produced results after all. He started returning the calls. The first
was a woman who had once rented a room to a man employed by Auto Parts
Rehabbers.
His name—John Smith.
Sid tossed his
pencil on the desk and made a face. She couldn’t remember where he came from
or where he went after he moved out.

The second caller had once dated a man
who worked for the company. He went by the name Slick Lawhorn.

“He was slick, all right,” she said.
“When I got home that night, my billfold was missing, along with about
seventy dollars.”

“Do you remember where he lived, or what
happened to him?” Sid asked.

“If I did, I’d have gone after him with a
baseball bat.”

He recognized the voice of the third
caller before she gave her name, Vickie Thomas. When he got her on the
phone, she began to apologize.

“I intended to call you back after we
heard about Larry Irwin. That was such a shock. I didn’t know it when we
talked, but he worked under my husband at American Universal. I’m sorry. I
got so busy with other things that I forgot to call you.”

“I’m sure the police talked to your
husband.”

“A couple of times.
He didn’t have any idea who could have done it, though. They asked about
Auto Parts Rehabbers. Do they think his death could have been related to his
job there?”

“That’s a possibility, but they’re more
concerned that somebody had been threatening him.”

After a moment, she said, “Come to think
of it, at the funeral home I talked to a neighbor of his. She told me a man
asked about Larry’s house the day before he was killed. I wonder if it could
have had something to do with
this?
”

“Did she say what happened?”

“She had gone to the mailbox when this
car stopped beside her. The driver wanted to know which house was Larry’s.
She said he didn’t have a number on his house or on his mailbox. When she
pointed it out, the man just drove on.”

“Do you remember the woman’s name?”

“No, but she lived next door to Larry.”

Sid thanked her and put in a call to Bart
Masterson. He told Bart about Vickie Thomas’s funeral home chat.

“I think there was a neighbor we never
managed to interview,” the detective said. “We’ll check her out.”

“Anything new on the
case?”

“We haven’t had much luck tracking back
into Gillie Younger’s past. He did a lot of odd jobs before going to work
for Metro. We haven’t found any permanent employment. How are you doing with
the chemical spill folks?”

“We’re making some headway. An ex-lawyer
named Percy Pickslay is giving us the names of the First Patriots, Limited
stockholders. The corporation was one of the owners of Auto Parts
Rehabbers.”

“I’m familiar with Pickslay. I didn’t
know he ever gave anything away.”

“Matter of fact, he’s doing it for a
finder’s fee.”

Next he called Jaz to give her the good
news about the deal with Pickslay. She gave him the bad news regarding what
happened Sunday morning at the Welcome Traveler Store, where the employee
was asked about Bobby’s trip to her house.

Sid’s grip tightened on the phone “You
mean—”

“It sounds like they were gunning for
Bobby after all,” she said.

“First it was you, then Bobby, then you,
now Bobby . . . this is one convoluted mess.”

“Yes, and we need to find Bobby before
whoever it is gets to him.”

“Why don’t we make a run to Cheatham
County tonight and see if he’s at the friend’s?”

“I was going to suggest that, but I
didn’t want to interfere with your plans.”

“Plans?
The way things are going right now, I’m just reacting. I don’t have time for
plans.”

“Okay. I’ll get Marie to find somebody
who can give us directions. What time do you want to go?”

“How about I pick you up around seven?”

Sid turned to his computer and began
assembling all the information they had gleaned on Auto Parts Rehabbers. He
wanted to have a full report ready for Arnie Bailey after the meeting with
Percy Pickslay in the morning. As he put it together, he concentrated on the
holes in the case.