The Scent of Murder (5 page)

I took a step towards her.

“Why? What are you afraid of?”

I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. Instead of answering, Amy whirled around and ran for the copse of trees beyond the parking lot. I ran after her, but the ground was uneven. I tripped over a rock and fell. By the time I got up, she had disappeared.

Great. I was dealing with a punk Houdini. I blew on my scraped palm to ease the pain. Amy's taking off was the perfect end to the perfect day. I started walking back towards my car. My headache was worse. No big surprise there. All I wanted to do was to go home, have a drink, and go to sleep. Unfortunately, I still had to phone Richmond's death in to the cops.

I took my cell phone out of my glove compartment. Then I put it back. It just wasn't worth the risk of putting this call through on an unsecured line. A minute later, I found a pay phone at the corner of Rainbow Boulevard and West Street, dropped my quarter in the slot, and dialed. As I drove back to my house, I kept on thinking about Amy and Murphy and Dennis Richmond.

I was still thinking about them, when I pulled into my driveway and walked across the lawn to my front door.

Which is probably why I didn't see the man standing by the spruce tree until he stepped out in front of me.

T
he guy startled me. He was about five foot eleven, a little was five a on the plump side, but maybe that was because of the bulky down parka he was wearing. His hair was dark and he had a long, full beard that made him look as if he'd been up in the mountains too long. I instinctively reached for my box cutter as he came towards me. He stopped when he was about five feet away and I stayed my hand.

“I'm looking for Amy,” he told me. His breath made clouds of smoke in the air. He smelled as if he'd taken a bath in pine-scented air freshner.

I should have known. “You and everyone else.” I could feel my jaw beginning to tighten.

“I heard she might be here.”

“Who told you that?”

“She did.”

“Well you heard wrong. Now how about leaving.” Annoyed was too mild a word for what I was feeling. Enough was enough. This guy could have been the Prince of Fucking Darkness, for all I cared. I just wanted him off my property.

“Are you sure she's not here?”

“Positive. Who the hell are you anyway?”

He grinned. “Her boyfriend. Toon Town.”

I couldn't help it. I had to ask. “Toon Town?”

“Yeah. I watch a lot of cartoons.”

Well, that was certainly reassuring. I took a second look at him. “You're a little old for Amy, aren't you?” It was hard to judge by the light of the street lamp, but the guy seemed as if he were in his early twenties, although that could have been the effect of the beard.

He shuffled his feet. His grin grew wider. “Girls used to be married by the time they were thirteen.”

“That was a long time ago.”

“She's old enough to know what she likes.”

“No, she's not.”

He stared at me. His eyes were a light, bleached-out greyish blue. His pupils were dilated. I realized he was on something. Great. Not only did Amy have bad taste in hair: she had bad taste in men, as well. Someone should really talk to her.

Toon Town made a wet noise with his mouth. “So you're not gonna tell me where she is? I got something real important to discuss with her.”

“And I already told you: I don't know where she is. Now if you'll excuse me.” Zsa Zsa had begun to bark and scratch at the other side of the door. Our conversation must have woken her up.

He nodded towards the door. “You got a dog in there?”

I nodded.

“I like dogs.” He grinned again. Everytime I saw his smile, I liked it less. “Now you remember,” and he pointed a finger at me, “you see Amy, you tell her Toon Town is lookin' for her.” Then he mumbled something to himself and walked away.

The man had an odd gait. He'd take six or seven steps forward and a small one to the side, then continue on. Everytime he stepped to the side, he'd make a fist and raise it into the air and shake his head, as if he were violently disagreeing with what someone standing next to him was saying. Obviously whatever Toon Town had taken hadn't agreed with him. Finally he reached his car, a lime green Geo Tracker. I hadn't seen it when I'd pulled in, because it was parked behind my neighbor's conversion van.

Just for the hell of it, I made a note of the license number, as he drove away. Then I went inside my house. “A fine watchdog you are,” I told Zsa Zsa as she clawed my legs with her front paws.

I picked her up, and she licked my face. I laughed and took her out for a quick pee. Then I went upstairs. George had left a note on my pillow, telling me he'd give me a call when he got back into town. I put it on my nightstand, threw my clothes on the floor, and crawled into bed. A few seconds later I was in La La Land. I thought I'd dream about Murphy. But I didn't. I dreamt about smoking a cigarette instead. I was sitting under a palm tree watching a boat bobbing out on the water. I had a rum and Coke in my left hand and a Camel in my right. I was just about to take a puff when the alarm rang.

Jesus. I leaned over and slammed the off button down with the side of my fist. Then I put my head back down on the pillow, closed my eyes, and tried to pick up where I'd left off. But it was too late. The dream was gone. I groaned. How long had it been? Four days. And I had to stay off of them for twenty-seven more days. My God. Why had I made the bet with George? What had I been thinking of? This torture was definitely not worth twenty-five dollars. What had I been looking to prove? That I had willpower? Who cared? But I knew I wouldn't give in. My pride wouldn't let me.

“I can do this,” I told Zsa Zsa.

She didn't bother lifting her head off the pillow to reply. I guess she wasn't that confident. Oh well. It was too late to brood about it now. I brooded about it anyway, while I took a shower and got dressed. Then because—as per usual I didn't have any food in the house—I stopped at Nice ‘N' Easy on the way to work and picked up coffee, three glazed doughnuts, and the
Post Standard
. A picture of Richmond stared back at me from the front page. He looked a lot better than he had when I saw him last. I scanned the article as I waited in line to pay. It didn't tell me much I didn't already know. “Police spokesperson, Millicent Rafferty,” it said, “reported an anonymous phone call which led officers to Mr. Richmond's apartment, where his body was found. Foul play is suspected.” No shit. “Several leads are currently being pursued.”

I just hoped that none of them led to me. Then the article recapped Richmond's life and gave some background info about the grieving family. That was it. Nothing else about the apartment. Or Amy. I gave the clerk five bucks and tried not to look at the packs of cigarettes, while I waited for my change. Then I went to work.

I got to the store a little before ten. I'd just opened up and was starting to clean out Amy's ferret's cage when a man strode in. He was wearing a wrinkled double-breasted charcoal grey suit, a red tie, and a light blue shirt. His hair was rumpled, and he had the kind of circles under his eyes you get from not sleeping for a couple of nights.

“I'm Charlie Richmond,” he announced, when he got up to the counter. “Dennis Richmond's son.”

My stomach clenched. I wondered if he knew about last night's expedition. I took a sip of coffee and waited to see what was coming.

He nodded at the copy of the
Post Standard
Mr. Bones was burrowing under. “So you've seen this morning's paper. You know about my father.”

I relaxed a little. At least Charlie didn't know I was the one who'd found his father's body. I nodded. “I'm sorry,” I murmured. The expression had always struck me as inadequate, but I'd never been able to come up with a better one.

“Me too.” Now that I had a chance to look at him, I realized Charlie Richmond had his father's mouth—red and fleshy—and his chin. His face was rounder, though, and his features were more symmetrical. He pointed to the ferret. “Is that Mr. Bones?”

I nodded. “Your mother doesn't seem to want him.” And I put out my hand to keep the ferret from falling off the counter. Depth perception doesn't seem to be one of their strengths.

“Stepmother,” Charlie corrected. “No. She doesn't like the ferret at all. She wanted Amy to get rid of it. They got into a huge argument over it.”

“Is that unusual?”

“No. Amy was always fighting with Gerri and my dad. It made things very unpleasant.”

“I can imagine,” I murmurmed, having come from a similiar household myself.

Charlie nodded in the ferret's direction. “So Amy just left him here?”

“She was in a hurry.” I picked Mr. Bones up and put him on my shoulder. He immediately ran down my arm and stuck his head up my sleeve. His nails scratched my skin as he worked his way in. They needed to be clipped.

Charlie Richmond leaned forward and fixed me with an earnest gaze. “I have to find her.”

I pulled the ferret out from my sleeve and returned him to his cage. “When she comes back, I'll tell her you asked for her.”

Richmond fidgeted with his tie. “You know the police are looking for her?”

“They were in here already.”

“Well, now they have an APB out on her. Gerri says they think she had something to do with my father's death.”

I thought about last night. “Maybe she does.”

“No she doesn't.” Richmond's voice rose, indignantly.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I know her. Look,” Richmond said, “the girl's a goddamned vegetarian for Christ sake. She's practically a Buddhist. She wouldn't kill a fly. Literally. She used to take them out of the house. I'm sorry, but there is no way in hell that kid would kill my father.”

“Sometimes even Buddhists lose control,” I pointed out.

“Not like that.”

“Okay. Let's suppose for the moment that what you say is true.” I took out a stick of gum, put it in my mouth, and tried not to think about how much I wanted to hold a cigarette in my hand. Maybe if I just held it and didn't light it. “But why do you care?”

“I want to help her. She needs someone in her corner.”

“What about her mother?”

Charlie Richmond bit the inside of his cheek. “My stepmother and Amy don't get along too well. As you've probably noticed.” He was silent for a moment, as he watched Mr. Bones attack the fur mouse I'd hung up for him.

“It's kind of hard to miss, but what does all of this have to do with me?”

“Simple. I want to hire you to find her.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Me?”

“I've read about you. You've done this kind of work before, and you've seen Amy. You know what she's like.”

I chose my next words with care. “I've seen her briefly—twice—but we haven't had time for a heart-to-heart.”

“That's better than nothing.”

I drummed my fingers on the counter. “Maybe so, but you still haven't explained why you're so interested in all of this.”

“I guess from the outside it would seem kind of odd.”

“You could say that.”

Charlie Richmond frowned. A deep furrow bisected his forehead. “Amy and I... we grew up together. We weren't close... but we liked each other. We covered for each other when Gerri and my dad were on the warpath. They didn't do anything terrible,” he quickly explained, catching my look. “But they weren't very nice to us, either. You could say we were just your typical dysfunctional, blended American family.” He gave a bitter little smile and began fiddling with his tie again.

“And? ...” I prodded, when he didn't say anything else.

“She's like the family scapegoat. She always gets blamed for everything. It's not fair.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “Is she crazy?”

“No.”

“Then why does everyone say she is?”

“She had a bad acid trip and went into a depression, so my mother put her in Cedar View.”

“Expensive place,” I commented. Cedar View was where the upper and upper middle class kids went when they needed to detox.

“My family can afford it.” Charlie Richmond tugged on his collar to loosen it. “At least when she's there, you know where she is. She's not running around on the streets.”

“Okay. Now what happened when Amy came out?”

“Gerri told me she and my stepfather had a big fight, and Amy stormed out of the house.”

I interrupted. “According to the newspaper article I read, I thought Amy left after your father disappeared?”

Charlie frowned. “Gerri said she came back the day before Dad disappeared. She and Dad had another fight at breakfast.”

“What about?”

“I don't know. Gerri didn't hear. Dennis told her they'd discuss it over dinner, but he never came home.”

“And Amy took off the next day. I can see why the police would want to talk to her.” Charlie looked unhappy. “Did your stepmother report Amy's other disappearances?”

“No. There was no point. She's been doing this kind of stuff for the past year, year and a half. I think everyone has given up on her. It's just easier. There are only so many times you can go driving through the streets at three o'clock in the morning.” He ran his hand through his hair absentmindedly. It was thinner than his father's. “God, all of this has been so awful. I don't know what to think anymore. All I know is that Amy needs help. Will you look for her?”

I said yes. I'd been planning to do it anyway. Working for Charlie Richmond might make the task easier.

“Good.” He smiled his tight little smile. “How much do you charge?”

“Nothing. I don't have a license.” Even if I had, I wouldn't have taken money from him. Despite what he'd said, I wasn't sure enough of his motives to want to be beholden to him. “If things work out you can make a donation to the Humane Society.”

“No problem.”

“I didn't think it would be. But there is something else.”

Charlie Richmond cocked his head and waited.

“When I find Amy, I'm going to tell her that you want to meet with her. But if she doesn't want to, I'm not going to force her, and I'm not going to tell you where she is.”

Richmond's face flushed. “Don't you trust me?”

“I don't know you.”

He smacked the counter with the flat of his hand. The ferret squeaked in alarm. “What the hell do you think I'm going to do?” he demanded.

I gripped the edge of the counter and leaned forward. “Look, if you don't like my conditions, go find someone else.”

I watched Richmond make tiny opening and closing motions with his lips, while he decided what to do. “I guess I can live with them,” he finally conceded.