part0009

PUSHING OPEN THE DOOR to the Jerusalem Tavern, Lydia knew she had to be careful. She’d seen the guy from Todd’s apartment take a picture of her. So she’d put on a shoulder-length blond wig, stuck a baseball cap on top. Colored contact lenses stared out through several inches of plain glass in a heavy frame. Then she painted her lips bright red, made sure she went well over the limits of them. Got some on her teeth too. She looked like a freak but it would do.

As soon as she stepped inside, she got a good feeling about the place. Bob Dylan’s original 1965 version of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door was playing on the jukebox. It was an omen. Because somebody was going to be doing exactly that very soon if things panned out.

Nobody paid her any attention as she skipped across the room singing along softly to the words. She took one of the stools up at the bar. After she’d ordered a beer and the bartender had put it down in front of her, she got out an image she’d printed from the CCTV footage. One that didn’t show Todd’s apartment in the background. She pushed it across the bar towards him.

‘I’m looking for this guy. I know he comes in here.’

The bartender gave her a look, one that said he hoped nobody looking like she did ever came asking after him. Then he picked up the photograph. He recognized the guy immediately, didn’t try to disguise the fact. Instead he laughed.

‘What’s so funny?’

‘Nothing. Apart from the fact that it’s Evan and he spends most of his life doing what you’re doing. Looking for people. He’s a private investigator.’

Lydia laughed along with him, who’d have believed it. Then she took a calculated gamble.

‘I’m guessing he comes in with Kate Guillory.’

He smiled as she said the name, nodded.

‘Yep. In fact you’re sitting in her seat. And that one’s Evan’s.’

Lydia jumped off the stool as if he’d just pointed her out coming back from the ladies’ room, handbag swinging. He shook his head.

‘I didn’t mean now.’

Lydia worked an embarrassed smile onto her face, silly me. She rested one cheek of her skinny butt back on the stool.

He leaned forward, gave her a wink. It made her want to throw her drink in his face. What was it with men and winking? But she didn’t. Because today, in here, she had to behave herself.

‘Can’t be too careful. They get upset if anybody sits in them.’ Then he looked from side to side, like he was checking to make sure there was nobody close enough to overhear. ‘Word of advice.’

‘What’s that?’ Lydia said leaning in even closer, thankful that she didn’t get another wink or, worse, a patronizing touch of the hand on her body.

‘Don’t let Kate catch you coming in looking for Evan. She’s been acting a bit strange lately.’

‘Really? Why’s that?’

She was amazed at how keen he was to discuss the private lives of his regular customers with a perfect stranger. If she was a regular and she caught him doing it, she’d be waiting outside for him with a baseball bat. See how you get on pouring a beer with broken fingers.

She must have come across a little too eager. He suddenly got wary on her, maybe embarrassed at what he’d been about to divulge. He shrugged.

Then he walked away to serve another customer. He hadn’t even bothered to ask why she was looking for him. She had no doubt that the exchange would be reported back to Evan the Private Investigator, seeing as how he and Guillory seemed to be part of the furniture. She carried her beer over to the far side of the room, found a table the furthest away from the door and the restrooms.

The guy would be easy to find now. If he was John or Dave the Private Investigator it might take a little longer. With a name like Evan, a two-minute search on the internet would throw up his details. And seeing as it was such a nice place, even if it was full of old farts and dinosaurs and Bob Dylan freaks—they were playing Blowin’ in The Wind now—she decided to wait a little longer, see if he turned up, then play it by ear.

Over the next hour the bar steadily filled up with an after-work crowd. She amused herself by smiling at the men when their girlfriends weren’t looking, running the tip of her tongue along her lips in what she hoped was a provocative way but which just licked all the lipstick off. It made her glad she never wore it. It left a nasty sticky mess on the glass too.

At one point she had to move tables, take one nearer the door to make sure she didn’t miss him if he came in. The last thing she wanted was for him to slip in unnoticed and then suddenly appear at her table, I hear you were looking for me .

‘Looks like it.’

There must have been something in his voice that gave him away.

Evan shrugged, took a long mouthful of his beer, sucked at the foam on his top lip. Kieran grinned at him.

‘What are you grinning at?’

Kieran shook his head, doesn’t matter.

But Evan knew. Guillory always gave him a hard time for sucking the foam like that, said it made him look like a retard.

‘I had an argument with Kate at breakfast, then nearly had a fight with her partner in the street.’

He didn’t mention the fact that Guillory had said she was too busy to go to Florida and then Ryder had immediately contradicted her, told him they didn’t have a lot going on. Nor did he say anything about his wasted trip to Todd Strange’s apartment.

Kieran nodded like he knew how it was.

‘So you won’t be wanting the rest of that bottle of champagne I opened for her?’

‘It’ll be flat by now.’

Kieran placed his hands on the bar, fingers splayed. Like he was thinking of throwing Evan out for being so morose.

‘You want to tell me what the argument was about? She didn’t lose one of the earrings you bought her already, did she?’

Evan said he didn’t know, made it sound as if he didn’t care. Kieran gave up, started to move away. Then he came back, a smile on his face. As he had with Lydia, he leaned over the bar.

‘I don’t want to get you in any trouble with Kate—’

‘More trouble,’ Mr Morose corrected.

‘—but there was a woman in here looking for you earlier.’

He took a small step backwards at the violence of Evan’s reaction. It was as if he’d sat on a cattle prod. The long face of a moment ago was a distant memory. Suddenly he was all ears.

A small worm of excitement twisted in Evan’s guts, set his heart racing. In all the years he’d been coming to the Jerusalem, he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times somebody had come looking for him. He wasn’t complaining. Because it had ended badly every time. He had a feeling that this time was going to be no different. Because it was too much of a coincidence coming less than twelve hours since his visit to Todd Strange’s apartment.

‘What did she want?’

The smile slipped from Kieran’s face and with it some of Evan’s animation.

‘I forgot to ask. Sorry. But I haven’t seen her leave.’ He pointed over to the far side of the bar. ‘She was sitting at a table over there.’ He raised himself up onto his toes, moved his body from side to side. ‘I can’t see if she’s still there for all the people in the way.’

Evan left his beer on the bar, walked over to where Kieran had been pointing. All of the tables in that part of the room were occupied by noisy groups of people. There were no single women. He made a slow lap of the bar on his way back to his seat, a mental image of Todd Strange’s sister in his mind. There was nobody who looked remotely like her.

Kieran was still standing in the same spot when he got back to the bar, curiosity taking the place of the previous apologetic look on his face. Evan got out his phone, found the picture he’d taken of the sister. He showed it to Kieran.

Kieran shook his head, didn’t even need to take the phone to get a better look.

‘Nope. Nothing like her. This one was scary. And I mean scary. Long blond hair. Heavy glasses that looked like your granny should be wearing them. Lipstick smeared all over her face.’ He shuddered, tapped the screen of Evan’s phone with his finger. Then leaned away quickly in case Evan took a swipe at him. ‘I’d go for this one every time. If things don’t work out with Kate, I mean.’

Evan wasn’t listening. He put his phone away. It didn’t mean a thing that Kieran didn’t recognize her. It sounded like a very bad disguise anyway. For once he was glad Guillory wasn’t there to tell him to stop being so paranoid. His visit to Todd Strange’s apartment hadn’t been such a waste of time after all. He’d kicked something loose. Now that he thought about it, he realized that the police wouldn’t have left Guillory’s picture still tacked to the wall. It had been put there afterwards.