A woman after my own heart. “Mrs. Hudson, I just have to say that this is the best apple pie I’ve ever tasted.” It was a perfect creation of apples and cinnamon and a flaky crust. It made me feel human again, if only for a moment.
“Oh, why thank you,” she said. “You have to know how to save the right kind of apples over the winter.”
“But go on,” I said. “He had all these people over. Was there one woman in particular who was staying with him?”
“Yes,” she said. “There was. I never found out what her name was. I didn’t see her much, but when I did… I don’t know. There was something about her. She always looked very sad and alone to me. Even when all those people were around.”
“The police were here on Friday night,” Leon said. “And then again on Saturday morning.”
“Friday night?” I said. “What time?”
“I called the police around two o’clock in the morning,” she said. “I heard all these noises back there. Woke up the whole neighborhood. Things crashing into the walls, glass breaking, like somebody was destroying the place.”
“Two o’clock,” I said. “The same night he… Okay, go on. Did you see who it was? Was it Bruckman?”
“I didn’t see anybody,” she said. “I was afraid to look out the window.”
“What happened when the police came?”
“Whoever was in the apartment was gone by the time the police got here. They just went up and looked around. The place was completely ruined. When I think about all the time Joe spent finishing that apartment-”
“Your husband?”
“Yes,” she said. “He’s been gone, my heavens, has it been seven years already?”
“You said the police were here again on Saturday morning?”
“Yes, they came back,” she said. “They were asking more questions, about the young woman who was with him.”
It made sense. He trashed the place Friday night, probably when he saw that she was gone. The next day, the police came back when they found out Dorothy had been kidnapped.
“Can I see the apartment, Mrs. Hudson?”
“I don’t see why not,” she said. “Let me just put my coat on here. Is it snowing yet?”
“It’s snowing,” I said.
“All my friends think I’m crazy,” she said as she wrapped herself up. “They’re all down in Florida now.”
“Ah, what’s in Florida?” Leon said as he put his coat on. “Besides sunshine and orange trees.”
“And old people waiting to the,” she said. “I’d rather live somewhere where you have to keep moving.”
She led us out through her back door, down a walkway with enough new snow to cover our ankles. The garage was bigger than the house, with enough room for three cars. There was an exterior stairway on the side, leading up to the apartment. “Careful on these stairs,” she said. “I didn’t get a chance to clean them off.” I wanted to hold on to her, help her up the stairs, but she went right up the snowbound treads before I could touch her. When we got to the top, she pushed open the door. The molding was splintered, like mine.
“Did this happen Friday night?” I asked her.
“Yes,” she said. “It looks like somebody kicked the door right in.”
“But if it was Bruckman-”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe he didn’t have his key that night. Maybe the young woman had it.”
“I suppose so.” I took a look inside. “This looks familiar,” I said. The place was destroyed. All of the contents of the kitchen drawers and cabinets on the floor, all of the furniture slashed. But there was one difference: I counted three broken hockey sticks here.
“The police asked me not to clean it up yet,” she said. “They also asked me not to let anybody inside.”
“I understand,” I said. “I just wanted to take a look.” Leon stood next to me in the doorway, looking the place over like he was memorizing it.
“It’s killing me, not being able to clean this mess up,” she said. “If Joe had ever seen the place like this…”
“Looks like it was a nice place,” I said.
“You know the funny thing?” she said. “With all the trouble these people caused, you think this place was ever a mess before this? I came up here a couple times when I knew they were gone, you know, just to make sure everything was okay…”
“Yes?”
“I swear to God, Mr. McKnight, this place was spotless. Every single inch of this apartment. The kitchen, the bathroom. It was immaculate. All the noise back here, all the carrying on they did, all those people tromping through here. Say what you want about them, they kept this place clean. And now this. Isn’t that strange?”
“That is strange,” I said. “Although I suppose if something set him off-”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand people at all,” she said.
“Mrs. Hudson, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to help us like this.”
“I hope they catch that man,” she said. She looked me in the eyes for a long moment. “But you’re just looking for the girl, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” I said. “We are.”
“Well, I hope you find her,” she said. “Like I said, she didn’t look like she belonged with those people…”
We both thanked her a few more times, for the help, for the coffee, for the apple pie. When we had seen her back into her house, I walked Leon to his car and took out my wallet. “How much did you say you spent at the hockey rink?”
“Forget it, Alex. We’re partners. It’s all part of the case.”
“Leon, there is no case.” The snow was coming down hard now. It had covered Leon’s red hair in just the few minutes we had been outside. “And we’re not really partners,” I said. “I’m sorry. I’m not a private investigator. I told you that”
“You sure are acting like one,” he said.
“No, you are,” I said. “You’re the one who found this house.”
“But it doesn’t tell you much, does it?” he said. “You need more.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t even know what to do next.”
“When we were looking at that apartment,” he said, “what did you mean when you said it looked familiar?”
“He trashed my place, too,” I said. “Sometime yesterday.”
“Yesterday? But he took Dorothy on Friday night. Why would he come back?”
“To make a point,” I said. “Or to look for his lucky hockey puck. I don’t know.”
“His lucky hockey puck?”
“Gordie Howe signed it,” I said. “Dorothy gave it to me.”
“Okay,” he said. “His lucky hockey puck. That’s good. What else can you tell me? Tell me everything else you know, Alex.”
“There’s nothing else,” I said. “Except…” I let out a long breath into the cold air while I decided how much I wanted to tell him.
“Except what, Alex?”
“Except the fact that two men have been following me.”
“A-ha! That’s something.” He was trying to act smooth, but I could hear the excitement in his voice. “Have you gotten a good look at them?”
“Yes,” I said. “I don’t recognize either one of them. I don’t think they were playing on Bruckman’s hockey team the other night.”
“Interesting,” he said. “So what now?”
“I pay you and you go home before the snow gets any worse.”
“I’m not taking your money, Alex.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Give me something else to do,” he said. “I want to work on this with you. What else am I going to do? Go back and try to sell snowmobiles? Talk to guys from Detroit all day, pretend I give a fuck what kind of trails they like riding on?”
“Leon…”
“This is the only thing I want to do,” he said. “Let me help you, Alex.”
“If I think of something,” I said, “then I’ll call you. Okay?”
He thought that over. “Good enough,” he said. “We’ll stay in touch. You have my number, right?”
“Yes,” I said, walking to my truck.
“And my pager number, right?”
“I have it,” I said.
“Call me when you need me, Alex. Day or night.”
“Okay,” I said. I climbed into the truck and closed the door. If he said anything else, I didn’t hear it.