We watched the light hit the bubbles for a few seconds and I said,
“You leave Adele alone. And you keep her name out of what went on in your apartment.”
“What went on,” he repeated. “What are you talking about, Fonesca? What are the fucking police doing in my apartment? No, wait. She tried to kill herself.”
“No,” I said.
“Then…?”
“Spiltz,” I said.
“Spiltz what?”
“He’s dead. Big surprise, huh?”
Pirannes sat back.
“No,” he said. “Tony Spiltz had enemies but-”
“And you don’t know he was killed in your apartment?”
“No,” said Pirannes. “Give me a second here.”
He sat thinking, looked at Manny, whose head moved ever so slightly, indicating, I think, that he hadn’t shot Spiltz.
“Okay, Fonesca, here’s the way it is,” Pirannes said. “I know you’re not carrying a wire and I know who lives in every condo facing this dock. No one’s listening to us. I’m still taking a little chance, but you are definitely beginning to irk me.”
“I’m sorry about that, John.”
He shrugged.
“It happens in my business. I gave Dwight Handford, who is, by the way, a piece of diuretic mongrel shit, good money to get the girl. And don’t bother telling me you can’t buy and sell people. I do it. Lots of others do it. Now think about it. What’s her life like if she stays with Dwight or Tilly?”
“What’s it like with you?”
He laughed.
“Her life with me can be goddamn good. Listen, I give her a great apartment she shares with a couple of other girls, maid service, great food. Clothes. Walk to the beach. No one hits her. I don’t let her have drugs or drink anything stronger than a little wine. I keep her in shape till she gets too old.”
“Then you send her back to Tilly or Dwight,” I said.
“You don’t get it, Fonesca. It’s not that simple. Life’s not that simple. Where have you been living, aboard the Enterprise? When Adele retires, which I hope is a long time away, she’ll have more money than you’ll ever have and I’ll get her a straight job, hostess at a restaurant, something like that, far away from here. I have connections. If she wants to go to school while she’s with me, that can be worked out. My clients are top-drawer people, high level. No one is going to hurt her. Whatever crap she’s already been through with Dwight and Tilly, this will be heaven. I’ve got a doctor who checks out the girls, takes care of them. I guarantee my girls are disease free, guarantee.”
“You’re a saint, John,” I said.
“You are a stupid wiseass,” he said, shaking his head. “So you keep her. Then what? She goes to a foster home? She’ll run away. She goes back to Dwight, which is a distinct possibility because if I can’t get to her, I bankroll good old Dwight and get him the best lawyer in the state. The judge will not only give her back to her loving dad, but he’ll probably get a Father of the Year award. And then he’ll give her back to me, with the same visiting privileges he has now. You want another scenario? Fine, you can adopt her. You don’t like me. You don’t like Dwight. You adopt her, keep her from running away. You prepared to be pop to Adele, Lewis?”
“You killed Tony Spiltz,” I said.
“How?”
“Shot him in the head. Last night Tony and Dwight came to the apartment while you were in bed with Adele. You came out, argued. You shot Spiltz. Then you and Dwight ran off, leaving Adele with Tony’s body.”
“That’s a stupid story,” said Pirannes. “Look, I’m hungry and I’m starting to get a migraine. I have migraines. My mother had them. My two sisters have them. You’re giving me a migraine. I’ve got a lunch appointment and I have to call my lawyer about Tony getting killed in my place. The truth is, Lewis, I wasn’t home last night. I left Adele with Tony to watch her, maybe, you know, teach her a few things. Tony was a gentle guy with a lot of experience.”
“Adele says otherwise about what happened,” I said.
“Adele’s trying to protect her father, you simpleminded asshole. Handford probably came to my place last night looking for money, wanting to spend time with his kid, who knows. Tony said no. Dwight brought a gun or took Tony’s and… you know the rest. I’m getting hungry. Maybe that’s why I’m getting a migraine.”
He took out one of those plastic one-week pill containers, popped open one of the compartments, removed a large white pill and swallowed it with a Perrier chaser.
“You leave Adele alone,” I repeated.
“You are getting boring, Fonesca. And you don’t listen. Adele is a smart sixteen-year-old who knows the world better than you do.”
“She’s barely fourteen and she doesn’t know much of anything,” I said.
“Fourteen?” he said.
“Change things?” I asked.
“For the better, Lewis. For the better. I’ve got clients who’ll be very happy to get the news. They trust me, know I wouldn’t lie about something like that. You’ve brought me good news, Lewis. Walk away and I’ll forgive you your trespasses. As far as I’m concerned, when the cops find me, I’ve got an all-night alibi and I’ve never heard of Adele. As far as I know, Tony was in the apartment all alone last night. He must have let one of his friends in. They had a fight, and… You like that story?”
“Stay away from Adele,” I said again.
Pirannes got up, rubbed his forehead gently with the fingertips of his right hand and said,
“You like to swim?”
“No.”
“I do. There’s a drawer of swimming suits below. Pick one out that fits you and then come up. I’ll take the Fair Maiden out a few hundred yards. We’ll have something to eat and you’ll have a nice swim. You do swim, don’t you?”
“A little.”
“Good, because it would be very unfortunate if we were a few hundred yards out there,” he said, pointing beyond the rising waves, “and you couldn’t make it back to the boat or the shore. Manny, help Mr. Fonesca find a swimming suit. You’ll like it, Lewis. Water temperature is eighty-one degrees.”
Manny was on the deck now, reaching for the rope that had us moored to a pile on the dock. There was probably an anchor too. I’m not fast. I’m not slow, but I didn’t think I could get past Manny. Diving into the water wouldn’t do me much good either. I had lied to Pirannes. I really couldn’t swim at all.
I reached for the bottle of champagne. My plan was to whack Pirannes and take my chances, which were not very good, with Manny. I looked at Pirannes, who had figured out my plan and nodded his head to show me I was making a mistake.
I had already made my mistake. Pirannes’s plan was simple. He didn’t even have to be involved. He could put my clothes on the shore with a towel and let the police assume I had swum out too far and drowned. Ames wouldn’t believe it. Dave wouldn’t believe it. Flo wouldn’t believe it and I didn’t think Sally would believe it, but that didn’t do me much good. I had not underestimated John Pirannes. I had not estimated him at all. I was looking at a man who killed people who annoyed him.
“This doesn’t give me pleasure,” said Pirannes as Manny unwrapped the loose rope around a piece of metal shaped like a Y that was screwed into the deck.
I must admit it didn’t look as if Pirannes was particularly happy. He checked his watch as Manny moved to the rear of the boat toward the anchor. If I were going to run, this was the time. Pirannes stepped in front of me. Maybe I could take him. Maybe I couldn’t. He could certainly keep me busy till Manny made it across the few yards across the deck.
I think I was the first one to see the man coming. He was walking down the dock toward us, hands at his side. There was a little waddle and a little swagger to his step.
Pirannes spotted him and said, “Manny.”
Manny looked up from where he was turning a winch to pull up the anchor. He saw my guardian angel.
“Don’t do something very stupid,” whispered Pirannes. “He’s probably going to one of the other boats. If he’s here to talk to me, you stay seated and stay quiet. The best you can do is get you and our visitor killed.”