“You’re an educated, beautiful woman who will soon inherit well over two million dollars. Get control of yourself.”
Karen got up and walked to the glass slider and looked out toward the ocean.
“Why don’t you get Cliff to do it? You’ve had him wrapped around your finger for years.”
“I don’t love Cliff. I’m in love with you. I want us to be together.”
What that probably meant is she knew that Cliff couldn’t figure out how to do it with a solid chance of getting away with it. And that Fidge would tie Cliff in knots during interrogation until he gave her up, whether or not he meant to.
“You’re right, Matt. But I’m afraid. Without more money I just don’t know. I put on a good front about being self-reliant, but at night I just get scared about being alone. The general has always been the strong man protecting me. I need you for that now. Aren’t you ever afraid of being alone, of the dark?”
“The darkness is not frightening. Only the imagination of what might be there if the darkness was not. If I do as you ask, you’ll be there, every night in the darkness. And I’ll be wondering when I’ll become excess baggage.”
I got up and walked to the other side of the room. She followed.
“I know we haven’t spent a lot of time together yet, but I love you. You love me don’t you, Matt?”
“I’m in love with the idea of being in love with you.”
“Go along with me on this, Matt. You’ll never be sorry. We can be happy.”
“No. I won’t be your patsy.”
I opened the door and glared at her until she walked out into the hallway.
I shut the door.
Chapter 30
I hadn’t slept well last night, the pain in my cracked rib being the biggest hunk of the reason. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that Karen Whittaker’s offer had lingered, chewing on the edge of my resolve. I had pegged her wrong and started wondering what else I had wrong.
I didn’t like Eddie Whittaker, and frankly I didn’t think anyone did. Not Charles, not Karen, not even his grandfather who loved him, but I don’t think liked him. Not even the chauffeur Cliff cared much for him. Cliff had tried to be his friend, but Eddie had been born to eat filet while Cliff dined on canned ham. Eddie had hung out with Cliff only while he wanted to learn something Cliff could teach him. Then he tossed Cliff aside like a terminated tutor.
I remember having looked at the clock after two in the morning. That was the last time I had looked. I woke at nine-thirty to find hot coffee waiting with a note beside the pot: You didn’t mention having an early appointment so I let you sleep. Axel.
I did a few easy twists and deep knee bends. Well they were more like shallow knee bends, but it did take out some of the stiffness. I buttered a muffin and poured a mug of coffee then went out on the patio. I had to get going, but first I had to figure out where my going would take me.
*
Axel called at eleven to say Eddie had just teed off to play a round of golf with three other guys. Axel had checked with the pro shop to learn they paid to play eighteen holes. That would keep Eddie in one place for at least four hours. We decided to meet at Mackie’s for lunch. I wanted to hear more specifics about Eddie’s movements.
The lunch gave me the opportunity to meet Axel’s driver’s ed teacher, Buddha Grunsky. I immediately knew the appropriateness of his name. Buddha stood about six feet, but had a matching width, a bald head and stern face with a soft, almost feminine voice. We took the table for six at the back, one that let Buddha move the table to give him more room. Mackie waved off his waitress and came over to take our order. I chose a beef dip. Axel had his usual, a bacon, lettuce and tomato with chunky peanut butter. Buddha said that both sandwiches sounded good so he ordered one of each. I motioned to Mackie to bring me the check. He nodded.
They asked me about being abducted and how I was feeling. I raised my head in case they had never before seen an author with a purple and yellow face.
“You don’t look like you’re moving much better than last night,” Axel opined.
“And that’ll likely be the case for a good while yet. Doc Medford’s got me wrapped up like one of Mackie’s deli sandwiches to go. I see the doc again next week and we’ll go from there.”
Mackie brought our food over. He carried mine and Axel’s and had one of his nubile waitresses carry Buddha’s two plates. She looked familiar. She should have, she was Axel’s friend, Hillie. “Hello, Mr. Kile,” she said. Axel introduced her to Buddha. When she stepped around the back of the booth to leave she leaned in and kissed Axel on the side of his forehead. My self-appointed staff man beamed like he finally had what he thought he never would, a family, recent and adopted, well, sort of, but a family. Then she circled back and took Buddha’s soda glass to refill. Axel and I hadn’t touched ours.
“Okay,” I said, “tell me about Eddie’s movements.”
“Just what we’ve been reportin’ boss. He eats, plays, goes to see his broker, and dates some great looking dolls.” Axel and Buddha looked at each other and shook their grinning heads. If you can picture two high school boys talking about the lucky quarterback who gets all the cheerleaders, you have a good idea of the grins Axel and Buddha just shared. Buddha’s grin was the first indication he had teeth.
“What about the biker bar?”
“It’s down on Paseo Del Mar out near the point. But it weren’t nothing. He went in, came out a few minutes later and left.”
“Could he have stopped for a sandwich or a beer?”
“Wasn’t in there long enough to even order it and have it brought, let alone eat it.”
“Then what?”
“He left following the same route he had taken to get there.”
Axel did the talking while Buddha ate, although the big one nodded his head now and then to evidence his agreement with whatever Axel said. A reasonable practice given that Buddha had two lunches to eat to our one.
“What route did he take?”
“Can’t tell you exactly. We didn’t write it down. He drove past Angels Gate Park and then angled onto Old something Road, then through some industrial area.”
That’s the area where Podkin took me to hang while he beat on me. “Did he stop anywhere?”
“No,” Axel said.
Buddha spoke for the first time since his food arrived. He had finished his BL amp;T on toast and hadn’t yet started on his beef dip. “He did slow, Ax. No stop sign or nothing, he just slowed. You know, that one block where the buildings sat back off the road.”
This time Axel nodded his head. “That’s right. He did. Both on the way out to the point and on the way back. Same place, right?” Buddha went back to nodding as he dipped the first end of his beef sandwich in the au jus. This sandwich came with coleslaw; his BL amp;T had come with fries. He had fat fingers, like bratwurst with fingernails.
“Can you find your way back to that building?”
Axel looked at Buddha who said, “I think so,” while forking the last of his coleslaw out of a small bowl that disappeared inside his cupped hand. “Yeah. It might take a couple of minutes when we get over near there, but sure. We can find it.”
“What makes that building important, boss? Eddie didn’t even pull into the parking lot.”
“From what you said, it might be the building where I was held. But then that neighborhood has lots of industrial buildings so the odds aren’t good. Still, let’s eliminate the possibility.”
“Let’s go,” Axel said, rising from the chair. We had sat on one side and Buddha on the other. That seating arrangement seemed reasonable as that put two meals on each side of the table.
“Let Buddha finish eating.” I motioned Mackie over by holding up my credit card. Axel sat back down.
I followed them in my car. They made a few wrong turns as we kept coming around the block and back to Old Fort Road. Then they turned onto W 22nd Street and slowed. After a couple of blocks they pulled to the curb. I pulled in behind them, across from the building where I had spent more time with Ernest Podkin than anyone should ever have to spend with the man. The lot was empty. I got out and walked up to the driver’s door.