Chapter Nineteen

Raven called Willie Lee Speck on the way out of the BLPD parking lot. He told her to meet him on Watercress Street. The house was a brick job not far from where Clyde’s parents, the Darlings, lived, and just barely in better shape. At least the lawn was green, though full of cattails waving in the wind.

“Here?” Billy Ray asked as she parked the Mustang along the curb.

“That’s what the man said,” Raven grunted, putting the car in park.

She knew it was the right place because she could see Ozy in the driver’s seat of his prehistoric VW truck. One wrinkled elbow hung out of the open window. He must have been fiddling with the radio because every now and then loud static punctuated the air. Adding to the discordant sounds were the wind chimes hanging from the truck’s rails, silver bars clanking in the wind.

“What’s that all about?” Billy Ray asked, pointing to the truck with its bed full of junk.

“You don’t want to know.”

Speck must have heard car doors slamming because he was walking out of the open front door to meet them. Raven wondered what Floyd would think about someone like Speck. He’d probably call him raw-boned, loose-jointed and ham-handed. He’d also say that there was more oddness to Speck than met the eye.

“Hey,” Speck said, lifting one of his big hands in a wave. “What’s up, Ray Ray? You ready to tell me about that job now?”

Billy Ray eyed him with a face filled with so much distaste that Raven almost wished that she had left him at the station.

“What job?” Billy Ray asked.

“Nothing you have to be worried about,” Raven said.

“Hey, ain’t you that gimpy cop Lovelle fucked up? You own a restaurant now, don’t you? Chastain’s Creole Heaven. I read it in the paper. Where’s the gumbo? The catfish? I heard you guys do a lamb creole with homemade stock and butter beans that’d make you want to slap your mama for some more. You guys do DoorDash?”

“No, but tell me, is your ass jealous at the shit that’s coming out of your mouth right now?”

“I don’t hear that one a lot, but look, don’t get your feelings all hurt,” Speck said. “What’s up with ex-cops anyway, Ray Ray? Y’all must wear your nerves on the outside of your skin.”

“It’s Detective,” Raven corrected him.

Speck paused for a second while the wind blew his stringy black hair from his face. “Now you just confusing the shit out of me for the hell of it.”

“Man, why do you stink so much,” Billy Ray said while putting the back of his wrist over his nose.

Speck brought his branded polo shirt up to his nose. He sniffed it and then aired it out. Billy Ray was right. The smell coming from Speck was like….

“Death,” Speck said. He hooked his thumb over his shoulder toward the house. “That’s a decomp back there. Some old lady died in her sleep and her drug-addict granddaughter just found her. It’s been weeks. They had to scoop her up with a soup ladle. Smell gets everywhere. Sometimes the wife don’t even let me in the house until I hit the showers. Even makes me strip down to my uglies right there on the back porch before coming in.”

No one said anything for a moment or two. Chimes from Ozy’s traveling graveyard sideshow clanked again, this time loudly. Raven turned toward the sound to see Ozy now standing outside of the VW. He just stood there pushing the wind chimes hard as he glared at them, his chin jutting out. Speck looked in the direction of Raven’s gaze. He lifted a hand and said, “How you doing, Oz my man?” He turned back to Raven and Billy Ray. “He thinks you’re here for the old hag’s junk.”

“Do you always talk so much?” Billy Ray asked.

“Yes,” Speck and Raven answered him at the same time.

“Though I am enjoying the break from the stench in there, I ain’t got all day. Whatcha want?”

“Do you know a boy by the name of Clyde Darling?” Raven asked as she took out the small memo notebook and pencil from her inside jacket pocket.

“I do. He’s done some work for me now and again. Why?” He looked back and forth between Raven and Billy Ray.

“What can you tell us about Clyde?” Raven asked.

Speck planted both hands on his hips and shrugged. “Not much, except he don’t like gore, you know, cleaning the brains and bits of bone or flesh from the walls. You get that sometime with these jobs, but he don’t want nothing to do with it. Wants the easy ones, and wants to work mostly at night or on the weekends. Scared of his mama. Don’t say a lot.”

“How can he say anything when he probably can’t get a word in edgewise,” Billy Ray said.

Raven leaned back and grazed Billy Ray’s broad chest with her shoulder. It was her way of telling him to shut it. They didn’t need to alienate Speck. “Why would you say he’s scared of his mother?” Raven asked.

“Have you met his mother?” he asked. “Whew, Jesus. She spits so much fire she’d give a flamethrower a run for his money. Anyway, back to Clyde, he ain’t never stood me up. Reliable, you know. Never gave me mouth. He’s a good worker.”

“How well do you know him?” Billy Ray said.

Speck rocked back on his heels. “Oh, you want to know how well I know him. But see, there’s a problem with that. I only cared about what he did for me here. Me knowing him ain’t no good at helping me clean out a hoarder’s house or setting up the machines to get the smell out. I just need him to be on time and do what I tell him without whining about it. Why you asking me all these questions about Clyde?”

“When was the last time you saw him?” Raven asked.

Speck scratched his head, moved a chunk of black hair that was fighting with the wind behind his big ear. “Why, I don’t know. Two weeks ago, maybe longer. He helped me with a job up there on Lakeshore. Not too bad, that one. Guy’s heart gave out while he was taking a shit. Fell and banged his head. Didn’t do too much damage, but there was blood to clean up. Head wounds bleed like a mother—”

“You didn’t see him on Friday?” Raven broke in.

“You mean the Friday just past?”

“Yes, the one that came after Thursday, genius,” Billy Ray clarified. This time Raven jabbed him in the ribs.

“No, why?” Speck asked.

“Were you expecting him to help you with this job today?” Raven asked.

Speck laughed and sighed. “Didn’t I just tell you that the boy was a pussy? He wouldn’t be wanting to work on no decomp. Why all these questions? Something happen to the little shit?”

“Yes,” Raven confirmed. “Did he usually work by himself? Or did he bring any friends along?”

“By himself,” Speck said. “I ain’t running no welfare to work program.”

“You sure about that?” Billy Ray asked.

“How would I not be sure? I need Clyde on standby when one of my regulars can’t make a job. You know these types of gigs. Most of my workers are jailbirds or drug addicts. Not the most reliable group. Clyde’s just the backup. Don’t need any more help than that.”

“So, you never met a boy by the name of Noe Cardova?” Billy Ray pressed.

“I told you, no. All these questions starting to piss me off, and Ray…I mean Detective Burns will tell you not a lot pisses me off, but once I get going….”

“I’m sorry,” Raven lied. “Clyde ever talk to you about being in trouble, or threatened, or anything like that?”

“Nope,” Speck said. “I told you he don’t say much.”

“Can you account for your whereabouts this weekend, Mr. Speck?” Billy Ray asked.

“If that’s a fancy way of asking me if I know where the hell I was, hell yeah, I do. I ain’t daft.”

“So, where were you?” Raven asked.

“At home. Relaxing. I try not to work weekends if I can help it, which ain’t often. I was soaking in the tub trying to get the smell of these animals off me.”

“You think of your clients as animals,” Billy Ray said before Raven could tell him not to bother.

“Why ain’t they?” Speck challenged. “Always blowing their heads off, or beating each other to death, or overdosing, or dying on the toilet like they ain’t got no home training, or leaving their grandma alone for so long that she turns into soup, calling me to clean up the ole gal’s leaving when she goes four paws up.”

“You really are a despicable human being, you know that, don’t you?” Billy Ray said.

“At least I ain’t like them.” Speck jerked his head toward the house. “I’m alive and I intend to stay that way.”

“So you were just relaxing at home with the wife and kids this past weekend, Willie Lee?” Raven asked in a gentle voice, hoping to get him off his soapbox.

Speck paused a beat too long. “No,” he said. “Suze took the kids on a shopping trip in NOLA. Stayed the weekend with her sister there.”

Raven waited. Billy Ray said, “You sure?”

Speck narrowed his eyes at him. The men were the same height, could probably touch forehead to forehead without moving an inch. And Speck did look angry to Raven, angrier than she had ever seen him. She thought for a minute that he was about to headbutt Billy Ray.

“Now, why wouldn’t I be sure?” Speck said. “What happened to Clyde?”

“He’s missing,” Raven said.

“Well, that’s not good,” Speck said.

“He’s dead,” Billy Ray clarified.

“That was quick,” Speck said, folding his arms across his chest.

“Can you come talk to us down at the station?” Raven asked.

“No, don’t have time for that.”

“Would you be willing to take a polygraph if we worked around your schedule?” Billy Ray asked.

“I’d be willing to do anything you want as long as I get paid. I make three hundred and thirty dollars an hour, plus mileage and per diem. That means you feed me dinner.”

“We can’t pay you to take a polygraph, Willie Lee,” Raven said.

“Well, that means we ain’t got nothing left to talk about.”

“You’ve got my number. If you think of anything, could you call me?” Raven asked.

“Any more questions you can ask my l-a-w-y-e-r.”

“Mr. Speck,” Billy Ray tried.

“I hope you can spell,” he said, turning away from them and moving up the walk to the front door of the house.

“Well, you did it,” Raven said, looking at Speck’s retreating back. “You actually succeeded in making Willie Lee Speck mad.”

“I don’t like him.”

“Nobody likes him. But when he’s happy he’s talking. Something could’ve slipped.”

“I think a helluva lot slipped,” Billy Ray said as they walked back to the car.

“Like what?”

“You notice how he didn’t ask how Clyde died?”

“I did. But this guy deals in death all day long. Maybe he just wasn’t interested.”

“And about where he was this weekend? His wife and kids away on the only weekend when he needed someone to vouch for his whereabouts?”

“Could just be a coincidence,” Raven said as she opened the door of the Mustang and slid behind the wheel.

Billy Ray folded into the passenger seat and pulled the seatbelt across his chest. “I don’t like coincidences, and last I checked you don’t either. That motherfucker’s hiding something.”

Raven looked back at the house. Speck and Ozy were wrestling a mattress with a large, black stain out of the front door. Speck hadn’t even bothered to wrap the mattress in biohazard materials. Ozy looked like he was trying to avoid the smell by filling both of his cheeks with air. In spite of his wrinkled face, he looked like a child trying to hold its breath.

She started the car and put it in gear. She did agree with Billy Ray about Speck. She didn’t know if what he was hiding was about Clyde or Noe, but he definitely wasn’t telling them everything.