“No, it isn’t.”
“Well, it could be a dec setup if you would, like, decorate or, even better, clean.”
“But that would be so out of character.”
“Two words, V. Merry Maids. They come in, do a quality job, when you come home the place is good to go.”
“How do you know so much about Merry Maids?”
“That was one of the primary employment opportunities I was looking at for after college.”
“At the vice presidential level?”
“More like entry level.”
“And then Eddie Dean came along.”
“Yes,” she said. “I don’t know if you noticed, but we’ve been away.”
“You and Eddie?”
“And Colfax, too. San Fran. The city of lights.”
“I thought that was Paris.”
“I don’t know, San Fran was pretty bright. Mr. Dean had business out there he had to handle.”
“And he took you along?”
“I think he likes having me around.” She looked around nervously, bit into one of her cuticles. “Anything new on Tommy Greeley?”
“Just that he was sleeping with the wife of one of the guys he was selling drugs with.”
“Who?”
“A guy named Lonnie Chambers.”
“Did this Lonnie know Tommy was hooking up with his wife?”
“Yes.”
“You think he was the one who set Tommy Greeley up?”
“I don’t know.”
“Pretty good reason, don’t you think?”
“Maybe. You know I am always glad to see you, Kimberly-”
“Really?”
“Sure. But I’m a little tired right now. Why don’t we meet up tomorrow afternoon at my office and we can go over everything then.”
“I know where your office is, V. I could have gone there if I wanted to. I wanted to talk to you someplace not at the office.”
“Oh?”
“Someplace private.”
“Oh.”
“I overheard something.”
“Oh. I see.” And I did. Kimberly was troubled, and there was something else I noticed now in her eyes that I hadn’t noticed before. She was scared. I stood, went to the fridge, pulled out a Rolling Rock long neck, popped the top with an opener.
“How are you doing, Kimberly?” I said as I handed her the bottle.
“I’m not sleeping with him,” said Kimberly.
“I believe you.”
“He’s yucky, you know what I mean? That face.”
“I was wrong to even bring that up. I was a jerk to think it. And even so, it’s none of my business. Whatever you do is none of my business, and I was wrong to imply what I was implying. But you should be careful around him, and especially around that creep Colfax.”
“Oh, Colfax is all right. He’s a sweetie.”
“No he’s not. Deep down I’m a sweetie, you just haven’t seen it yet. But Colfax, deep down, is Jack the Ripper.”
“What’s really going on here, V? Do you have any idea?”
“Some, but not much. Why don’t you tell me what you heard.”
“It’s nothing, really. Mr. Dean had a meeting with a couple of men and it got a little heated. I was in the other room so I couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like one of the other men was pressuring Mr. Dean for some money and he was telling them to calm down, that he was on it, and that he’d have what he owed in a short time.”
“So our Eddie Dean is not as rich as he lets on.”
“He sounded scared, V. You know how he always has this droll, laconic thing going on? Well, here he sounded scared. And there was something else. He said he had a big deal going down in Philly and it was only a matter of time before he had the money. But V, all he does here is sit in the house building some wooden model of that ship of his, the one rusting down in the harbor? There is no big deal going down. The only place I can figure where he might be trying to get some money is from Derek Manley, but it sounded like he needed a brutal piece of change. Does Derek Manley have anything like that?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought. Poodles. I’m going to lose my job, aren’t I?”
“Is that all you’re worried about, Kimberly? Your job?”
“Ayeah. Helloo. Remember Merry Maids? What do you think that would do to my nails? But that’s not all. Am I, like, in trouble? Should I be scared?”
“Why ask me?”
“Because you know more than you let on. See, V, I know how much I don’t know, I know how much I don’t do. I’m the vice president of what? Of getting coffee and keeping the help in line? The job’s a joke. But it pays. And I hope maybe it will lead to something better. I have skills, I could be good at something. Something. But this is where I’m at now and I am asking you, should I be scared? Am I going to get in trouble? Should I stick it out and see where it goes or should I maybe hop a plane to Cancun.”
“Tell me about how you got this job?” I said.
“The position was just posted on the job board, like hundreds of others.”
“So why’d you apply to this one?”
“Well, it was, like, made for me, you know? They wanted a marketing major, which I was. They wanted someone who could speak Spanish, which I can.”
“Really?”
“My dad was at the store all day, but he paid this nice old Mexican woman to look after me. I sort of picked it up.”
“Does Spanish come in handy working for Jacopo?”
“Not yet.”
“What else?”
“They wanted someone with experience designing ad campaigns for clothing lines.”
“Let me guess. You happened to have had some experience in that very same field.”
“My senior marketing project.”
“But Jacopo doesn’t sell clothes.”
“No.”
“Did you ever find out how many campuses they were recruiting on?”
“I think just Penn.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t require someone with red hair.”
“Excuse me?”
“Just a story I read a long time ago. For some reason, Kimberly, Eddie Dean wanted you. Not someone like you, but you. The other interviews were a sham. They were just saying next, next, until you came in the door. But why, that’s the question, isn’t it?”
“Why do you think?”
“No idea. But they must need something you have, or something you know, or someone. There’s a reason, and my guess is, Kimberly, when we figure that out we’ll be ten steps closer to finding the truth behind this whole stinking mess.”
“So what should I do, V?”
“Cancun is supposed to be nice this time of year, and if I thought you were in any real danger I’d tell you to stock up on Lomotil, lather on the sunscreen, and go. But Eddie Dean needs you. He’s not going to hurt you. He’s going to keep paying you an absurd sum to get his coffee until he decides it’s time to tell you what he wants. And when he does Kimberly, do yourself a favor and give me a call.”
After she left, I dropped back into my bed, turned my gaze upon the pictures on the wall, and tried to make some sense out of the night.
First there was Lonnie. I had been looking for someone with a motive to do Tommy Greeley harm and Chelsea had given him to me. Lonnie, who had found out about the continuing relations between his wife and Tommy Greeley. Lonnie had been watching over Tommy the night he was killed. It wouldn’t take much for Lonnie to take himself out of the scene and leave Derek and Joey free to do their dark deed. He better than anyone knew what was in the suitcase, he surely would have known a place to hide it while he was in prison. And, best of all, if he had it, from the look of him he hadn’t spent its contents, he had kept it hidden, where it waited still for someone sharp and resourceful enough to unearth it and make it his own. Lonnie Chambers, my oh my.
And then there was Eddie Dean. I had wondered what his angle was from the start, the childhood oath was too much to believe, and now I knew. He was seriously broke and in deep trouble. And how did he know about the suitcase? Chelsea had clued me into that, I believed, at the Continental. Tommy Greeley said he had a friend from out of state who would launder and then stash the money for him, an old friend, from out of state. Eddie Dean, I’d bet. He had probably been there that night twenty years ago, on a boat in the river, waiting, waiting for Tommy Greeley and the suitcase full of cash. In fact he might even have been close enough to hear Manley say, “Get him, Cheaps.” That explained how he knew Joey was involved, how he got Derek Manley’s name, and how he got mine. Now, desperate to pay back an impatient loan shark, he had used me to find a murderer hiding a suitcase full of money that could maybe save his life. Eddie Dean, that son of a bitch.