Cast An Evil Eye (10 page)

Around the corner from a men’s restroom, Zack found one phone all by itself. Most people wouldn’t even know it was there, he figured. As he searched around for some kind of clue, he lifted the phone off the hook and turned it over. Dried spots of red stared up at him. The cleaning people must have missed it! As he stood there holding it, he had an uncanny feeling that the red spots were Gus’ blood! Chills crept up his spine.

Not wanting to disturb any evidence—fingerprints or blood—Zack pulled his cellular phone out of his pocket and asked the operator to connect him with the Paris police station that was nearest the airport.

A woman answered.

“I’d like to speak to someone in charge,” Zack told her. “This is Sergeant Detective Renee Aumont. How may I help you?”

“My name is Zack Davis,” Zack told her. “I’m calling from Orly Airport. I used to own a detective agency in Los Angeles. I wish to report the disappearance of a man named Gus Johnson who was my former partner. He was talking to me this morning from the phone here and was cut off abruptly. He was due to fly to Spain, but he never arrived. I just flew in from Los Angeles to try and find out what happened. I’ve found what I believe is the phone he was using. There are traces of blood on the phone, and I’m sure there are fingerprints. Would you please send someone to take these specimens? I need them analyzed ASAP. We’ve got to find him. He may be in great danger. He was here at my request to investigate something, and whoever did this may have been trying to stop him from telling me what he found out.”

“I’ll come over right away,” Renee assured him. “What part of the airport are you in?”

Zack described the location. “I’ll wait here for you,” he said. “I’m wearing a brown sweater and slacks, and a beige trench coat.”

Zack hung up and went to the bench just outside the area to wait for the gendarme. In fifteen minutes Sergeant Renee Aumont arrived in plain clothes.

Zack wasn’t prepared for this chic, attractive woman who glided gracefully across the airport floor. She was a slight woman, probably five feet six, and couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred fifteen pounds. Her dark brown hair was short and sleek, complementing her clearly defined features and beautiful bone structure. Her hazel eyes, although soft and kind, had a determined expression that defied defeat. She was dressed in black slacks with an amber colored blazer over a beige blouse. Typically feminine, she wore earrings of gold in the shape of small buttons, and in her lapel a simple gold, leaf-shaped pin with eighteen tiny diamonds. She looked as though she had been a fashion model at one time.

Zack figured she must be in her late fifties, although she didn’t look it. She’d be the envy of most women her age, he mused.

For a moment he was speechless and his heart beat a little faster as she introduced herself. Never before had any woman had this effect on him. He was sixty-five now, but he felt like a school boy. At this stage in his life he had given up hope of finding anyone he could be seriously interested in, and this took him completely off guard. He couldn’t help wondering just how much help she could be. She seemed so delicate. But he didn’t wonder very long.

She was very efficient, and in just minutes she had taken the necessary samples of blood and the fingerprints. “Do you know your friend’s blood type?” she asked in a delightful, soft French accent. “You think about it while I get some Danish and coffee.” In no time she was back with the food and coffee. “Let’s sit here and plan how to go about this,” she suggested.

Zack bit into the Danish and took a sip of the hot coffee. It was soothing to his frazzled nerves, and he was hungry. The last food he ate was last night on the plane, and he was so worried about Gus that he just picked at the meal.

“Where do you suggest we start?” Zack asked.

“Right here at the airport,” Renee replied. “We should cover every nook and cranny. There are also some alleys outside.”

By this time Zack’s intuition was hard at work. “I think we should look in the alleys first.”

Renee looked surprised. “You read my mind,” she said.

Zack took a quick look around. “Where are they?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll find them.”

They hurriedly finished their Danish and coffee and placed the empty containers in the receptacle just outside the men’s room.

As Zack looked up he saw a door around the corner. “Maybe there’s an alley here,” he suggested. “No one would have seen Gus being dragged anywhere. It’s too secluded.”

“Let’s see.” Renee pushed the door open.

There was a long alley filled with dumpsters, some of them overflowing with trash.

On a hunch Zack walked briskly to one of them and removed the cover, but it contained only smelly garbage.

This didn’t discourage him. He felt strongly that Gus was here.

He uncovered every dumpster as he walked along.

The garbage trucks were there for their weekly pickup, and had one of the dumpsters high in the air in the grips of the hydraulically operated arms, about to dump the contents into the truck.

Renee ran up to the driver and spoke to him in French. “Just a minute!” she commanded. “Lower that trash can, sil vous plait!”

When the driver saw her badge he immediately lowered the dumpster.

Zack removed the cover. He and Renee stood rooted to the spot.

There was Gus curled up in a fetal position. One moment later he would have been hauled off in the garbage truck and never been found. His clothes were covered with blood. There was a long gash on his forehead, and a large bump on the back of his head. The bump must have come from the severe blow, Zack figured, and his forehead probably hit a sharp corner of the garbage can when he was pushed into it.

“Mon Dieu!” the driver exclaimed. “I didn’t know—”

“It’s all right,” Renee assured him. “We’ve found what we were looking for.”

Zack reached in and pulled Gus out, careful to place him gently on the ground. He felt for a pulse. It was faint but it was definitely there. “Whoever did this stashed him in here and left him to die!” Zack muttered. “The bastard! Call the paramedics!” he ordered.

“Do you know his blood type?” Renee again asked him. “This would speed up the process.”

“It’s AB negative—a very rare type.”

“Good. That’s a big help. Where can I reach you, Monsieur?” she asked Zack.

“I’ll be at La Grande Veue Hotel. I don’t know the room number yet, but you can find out from the clerk. How long do you think these tests will take?”

“We’ll rush them through,” Renee Aumont told him. “I realize the urgency. We should have the results by early tomorrow morning. We’ll call you as soon as we get the report from the lab.”

After thanking her, Zack went immediately to the taxi area and hailed a cab. “La Grande Veue Hotel, please,” he told the driver.

As they drove through the streets of Paris, the night lights twinkled gaily. City Of Lights. But Zack paid no attention. He was too worried about Gus Johnson.

As soon as he registered at the hotel he went to his room and to bed. Being rested, he knew, would be very important to keep him alert and able to help Gus.

He tossed and turned until two in the morning, but finally he fell asleep. He was awakened by the phone at six-thirty.

He picked it up quickly. “Yes!” he said. “This is Zack Davis.”

“This is Renee Aumont at the police station, Monsieur. We have a report on the specimens I took last night. Your friend’s fingerprints were faxed to us from Los Angeles. They match the ones we found on the telephone last night, and the blood type was AB Negative.”

“Thank you!” Zack exclaimed. “Now we have something to go on. I’ll go back to the airport and start looking around.”

“Tell me where I can meet you,” Renee said. “I will join you in the search.”

“How about the same place where we met last night?” Zack suggested.

“Fine!” Renee agreed. “How soon can you be there?”

“As soon as I get dressed I’ll take a cab. Have you had anything to eat this morning?”

“Not yet. I wanted to call you immediately as soon as I got this report.”

“There’s a food counter where we met last night,” Zack reminded her. “We can pick up some Danish pastries and coffee and plan our strategy. This isn’t something we should do on an empty stomach. I’ll be there in an hour, give or take a few minutes. See you then.”

In ten minutes he was showered and dressed. He picked up the phone and ordered a cab, and was on his way out the door and down to the lobby. The cab was waiting. He was eager to get to the airport—not only because of Gus, but he was strangely anxious to see Renee again. This was a new emotion for him, and he wasn’t sure exactly how to handle it.

He felt encouraged now that the first steps to finding Gus had been taken. The rest would be up to him and Sergeant Renee Aumont.

Zack arrived at the meeting spot in fifty-five minutes from the time Renee called him. She was already there waiting. When she saw him approaching she went to the food counter and bought some Danish and coffee, and brought them over to Zack on a tray. “Let’s sit here on the bench while we eat and plan how to go about this,” she suggested.

They were silent as they ate, each with their own thoughts, trying to plan what to do next.

Suddenly Renee rose from her seat. “I think we should look in the allies first,” she told Zack.

He looked at in surprise. “You read my mind,” he said. Let’s go!”

Renee instructed the driver of the garbage truck to leave and make room for the paramedics to enter the alley. They were there in ten minutes, and lifted Gus on to the stretcher, placing an oxygen mask over his face.

Zack and Renee accompanied Gus in the ambulance with sirens screeching as they rode through the streets toward the nearest hospital.

“Hang in there, Gus,” Zack murmured.

After calling headquarters and requesting that someone pick up her squad car, Renee turned to Zack. “How did you know we’d find Gus there?” she asked him.

Zack managed a wry smile. “I’ve had a gift of very strong intuition all my life,” he replied.

“So have I!” she said in awe. “I know just what you mean.”

“That’s what makes me such a good detective,” they said in chorus.

This brought a laugh to both of them—the first time Zack had laughed since he received that desperate call from Gus.

“I thank God for it,” Zack told Renee. “Without it we never would have found Gus.”

She stared at him intently. “Too bad you don’t live in France. We could use you on our force.”

In ten minutes the ambulance drove in by the emergency entrance. The orderlies rushed Gus into the emergency room while Zack and Renee waited outside.

Five minutes went by—ten—fifteen—twenty.

Zack rose to his feet and began to pace. “What’s taking them so long?” he fumed.

Renee tried to soothe him. “These things take a while. He’s still alive. We must trust that we found him in time.”

Zack nodded and stopped pacing.

In another few minutes one of the doctors came out.

“How is he?” Zack asked him.

“He has a very strong constitution,” the doctor told him. “Thank God you found him when you did. He’s still unconscious, but I have every reason to believe he’ll make it. He received a vicious blow to the head. We have to keep him for a while. We’ll put him in a private room and wait to see what happens. Do you have any idea who did this to him?”

Renee showed the doctor her badge. Her lips were tightly pursed. “We don’t know yet but we intend to find out,” she replied. “How soon do you think he’ll be able to answer some questions?”

“Perhaps in another twenty-four hours. He needs to regain consciousness and get some rest. He’s been through a grim ordeal. Most people wouldn’t have survived it.”

Zack spoke up. “Doctor, do you think you can find me a room here in the hospital? I feel I should stay near him in case he needs me. He used to be my business partner, and I feel responsible for him.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” the doctor promised, and left.

Renee put a comforting hand on Zack’s arm. “You should be proud of yourself,” she told him. “You’ve done an excellent job. Call me as soon as your friend comes to. I need to talk to him. This is a case of attempted murder, and we need clues to catch the person who tried to kill him.”

By this time the doctor had returned. “We have a vacant room right next to your friend. I’ve made arrangements for you to stay there until he regains consciousness.”

“Thank you, doctor,” a grateful Zack told him. He turned to Renee. “I’ll call you as soon as Gus comes to,” he promised.

CHAPTER XV
 

C
ammie had been working diligently with Courtney every day and evening for a week at Stuart Manor.

Courtney was tired, and becoming cranky.

But Cammie was prepared for this. “I know you don’t believe me at this point,” she told Courtney, “but it’s going to pay off, and when you walk out on that stage for your debut, you’ll be thrilled!”

Courtney gave her a dubious look that said she had to be out of her mind.

“Just remember,” Cammie continued, “you’re saving ‘Déjà Vu’ from being closed. That should keep you going!”

Soon the time came when both Cammie and Glen felt they should be rehearsing at the theatre so Courtney would get a real feel for the stage she’d be working on.