part0030

Evan told him the story, most of which Crow already knew. Crow gave an admiring dip of the head as he finished, you’re a quiet one.

‘You never said a word about this little beauty before.’ He closed the case, put it on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. ‘So now his sister wants it back. Don’t worry, I’ll find somewhere safe for it later. Come on.’

Neither of them knew it, but later would be too late.

They went into the back room as usual. Crow closed the door as he always did, concerned about drafts and the spiraling cost of heating the big old Victorian property. He kicked an old-fashioned draft stopper into place that looked as if his grandmother had knitted it to celebrate the end of the Civil War.

Had Evan ever looked to buy one of them, he’d have seen that they were advertised not only as draft stoppers, but as sound stoppers too.

‘So. How are things between you and Kate?’ Crow said, once they’d gotten settled. ‘Managing to act like a couple of grown-ups yet?’

Evan stared at him a long time before speaking. Not that Crow even noticed, concentrating instead on his pet crow Plenty which had landed on his knee and was pulling at a loose thread in his cardigan sweater. Crow pulled back the other way in a mini tug of war.

‘I thought you said last time that you were going to keep your nose out of it.’

Crow conceded the match to the pet bird, sucked air in through his teeth as if he’d touched a hot stove. He held up his hands.

‘Sorry. Didn’t realize it was such a sensitive matter.’

He changed the subject in an attempt to appease Evan. From Evan’s point of view it was more of the same.

‘Did you make use of the information I gave you?’

Because it was Crow who had given Evan Robert Garfield’s address and unwittingly set in motion the events that left Evan in the position he was now in.

Crow studied him. Evan got that laboratory rat feeling again. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The bird Plenty hopped victoriously onto his knee as if it wanted to be close to the action, to get the tastiest morsels, when Crow opened Evan up for inspection, started poking around in his innards.

‘What happened?’

‘There’s not much left, is there? Can’t talk about Kate. Can’t ask what happened when you broke into Garfield’s house. It’s not like you to be so close mouthed. Generally you just open it and let the wind blow your tongue around. Besides, I’m interested to know what you did in that house. I don’t want anything coming back to bite me on the ass.’

Evan didn’t say that anyone or thing that tried biting Crow’s skinny ass would only get a mouthful of old bones, would break their teeth, figuratively. Because nothing Crow did ever linked back to him. Instead he was getting the first vague suspicion that Crow was talking for the sake of it, was doing his best to put off what they should be talking about—the results or otherwise of his latest trip to Florida.

So he didn’t volunteer the information for the moment, knowing that there was something at work in the background. He tried a different tack instead.

‘Did you find out who owns the other half of George Winter’s boat?’

Now it was Crow’s turn to be close mouthed. He looked uncomfortable too as far as Crow ever looked uncomfortable. He pulled the thread on his sweater that the bird had unraveled.

Evan cleared his throat noisily as if preparing himself for an important announcement.

Crow nodded his acknowledgement of the point, gave him a wrinkly grin.

‘No flies on you, eh?’

‘So who is it? The President? The Pope? Someone important anyway.’

‘Vaughan Lockhart.’

Evan’s face compacted in confusion.

‘Should that mean something to me?’

‘No reason why it should.’

‘Then why the face as if your dog just died? Why—’ He stopped abruptly, nodded to himself. ‘It means something to you.’

It struck Evan then what a difference one little word can make. If Crow had simply said yes , he’d have paid it no particular heed, waited for him to elucidate. But the addition of the exclamatory Oh made him think that everything he’d discovered in Florida paled into insignificance compared to Crow’s one small discovery, a name on a boat’s ownership documents.

Something else he knew—he wasn’t going to find out the significance of the name until Crow was ready to divulge it. Crow confirmed it for him.

‘Tell me what happened in Florida. Did you find out anything interesting?’

‘Not as interesting as whatever it is that you’re not telling me about Vaughan Lockhart.’

Crow shrugged amiably, that’s the way it goes.

There was no point arguing. Evan told him about his discussion with Mower Man, how the homeless man was found dead after snatching the phone and being chased by the bodyguard of the unknown man caught on video.

‘That’s four people dead now,’ Crow said. ‘We’ve got a fight between two bums, an accidental house fire and a suicide.’

‘Anything else?’

Evan didn’t answer quickly enough to stop Crow from leaning back in his chair, spreading his fingers across his stomach, a knowing gleam in his eye.

‘What else? And why don’t you want to tell me?’

‘Gum,’ Evan said.

‘Gun?’ Crow’s eyebrows gave a startled leap. Suddenly he wasn’t leaning back anymore. ‘You found a gun?’

Evan thought about playing along for a while, decided against it. It would be bad enough when he admitted to what he’d done. No need to make things worse by getting Crow overexcited. He leaned forward himself, put his mouth to Crow’s ear.

‘Gum. G. U. M for mother.’

Crow jerked his head away.

‘No need to shout. You should speak up a bit. I assume you meaning chewing gum.’

The emphasis he put on the words, the way his bottom lip turned almost inside out, suggested he’d rather chew on a mouthful of the detritus at the bottom of his pet bird’s cage.

Then Evan told him about the gum he’d found on the boat and at the rental house in Key West where the fire had occurred. Crow’s face, still bearing the signs of his disapproval of gum in general, turned sourer still as he listened to Evan describe how he’d found the gum stuck to the underside of the table and chair. If it hadn’t been for the admission that he was going to have to make any minute, Evan would have laughed. Crow looked like a vulture who’d pecked too hard and too deeply, had split open an organ normally left for the flies, letting loose the dead animal’s waste all over its beak. He only had one thing to say after Evan had finished.

‘But useful. It could place the same person at two of the scenes. Surely the police can’t ignore that.’

Evan let his silence answer for him. Crow got hold of the wrong end of the stick to begin with. His eyebrows went up into his wrinkly forehead.

‘You haven’t told them? Why not?’

‘I told them. But I—’

Crow extended his arm, elbow locked, his palm towards Evan. As if he were trying to stop a brick wall from falling on him.

‘I don’t want to know.’

‘I threw the gum from Winter’s boat overboard.’

Crow dropped his arm, the danger gone, let out a relieved sigh.

‘Thank God for that. I thought you were going to say you ate it.’

Evan wasn’t sure if he was being serious or just being deliberately provocative, suggesting that nothing would surprise him from the kind of person who chews gum in the first place. Crow didn’t give him time to think about it.

‘It was very stupid, nonetheless.’

Evan suddenly cocked his head.

‘What was that?’

A self-satisfied smile appeared on Crow’s face. As if to say, at least I’m old and have an excuse for being hard of hearing.

‘No.’ He strained his ear towards the door. ‘I thought I heard something.’

Crow shook his head, don’t worry about it.

‘It’s an old house. It creaks and groans all the time. As I said—’

‘I heard you the first time. I hadn’t found the gum at the house by then.’

Crow shook his head again, no excuses please.

‘And you told the police all this. What was their reaction?’

‘The guy in Key West, Deutsch, virtually laughed in my face. At least Cortez—’

‘Ah! The problem is revealed.’

Evan was tempted to ask him was he interested in who killed his old friend George Winter, or did he just want to give him a hard time over Guillory? But Crow wasn’t finished.

‘Don’t let Kate see your face go all gooey like that when you mention Cortez’s name. Try to keep it more professional.’

Evan counted slowly to ten in his head until all thoughts about giving him a professional poke in the eye had subsided. Trouble was, Crow’s irritating refusal to stop linking everything he did or said to his relationship with Guillory made all thoughts about the noise he thought he’d heard go out the window. At least later, when they discovered what had happened, he could justifiably say it was Crow’s fault.

‘Thanks for the advice, I’ll try to remember that. Cortez’—he twisted his mouth as if he’d just drunk sour milk—‘has more of an open mind, but the case is closed.’

‘What? Already?’

‘Her boss called her in while I was with her.’

‘That’s better.’

‘Your face. You almost scowled then. Keep it like that when you’re telling Kate.’

Not for the first time Evan wondered if Crow was playing with him. If he’d had a wager with himself over how much he could say before Evan leapt out of his chair and throttled him.

‘The reason I was scowling was because it seemed that the Captain who closed the case from under Cortez’s feet also knew who I was, told her to throw me out.’

‘Four people dead and strings being pulled. Interesting.’

Evan asked him if he was spelling that w-o-r-r-y-i-n-g. Crow’s expression told him not to be such a big baby.

‘Nothing to worry about.’

‘Unless you’re the one getting sent back to Florida.’

‘No. That comes after you tell me about Vaughan Lockhart. You think I don’t know how your mind works?’

Crow smiled at him like his slow-witted but favorite grandson had just produced a correct answer.

‘It’ll give you another crack at getting Kate to go with you. Put this silliness with Cortez behind you.’

Evan was on his feet by the time Crow’s words were out, looking around for something suitable to stuff down his throat. The pet bird looked the best bet if it would just sit still for two seconds. Crow held his hands in front of his face as if the Grim Reaper had just come knocking.