After the incident in the park, I couldn’t sleep. Five hits of Wild Turkey didn’t help. I got up in the middle of the night. For some strange reason, I wanted to watch those tapes again. I knew they’d heat me up enough to do something to make up for hiding under the park bench while Mandisa saved an old man’s life. In prison, we’d call that a bitch move. I was lots of things but nobody’s bitch.
I did the routine with the rugs and the floorboards and pulled the tapes out of the box.
I put in the first tape as I popped the seal on a fresh bottle of Wild Turkey I gritted my teeth and knocked back the whiskey. By tape number three the sun was coming up and I was ready. I put on my best suit, stuffed my Walther inside my belt and headed for Jeffcoat’s office—ready to rock and roll. I didn’t even take the time to put the tapes back in my stash.
When I came out of the elevator Jeffcoat’s secretary’s eyes were on me like a store detective. I’d popped two Wintergreen Lifesavers in the elevator to get rid of the Wild Turkey smell. Not everyone appreciated whiskey breath in the morning. When I got into her sights, I gave her my biggest smile.
“I’d like to see Mr. Jeffcoat,” I told her. She looked at me for a long time before replying.
“I don’t remember your name on today’s appointments, Mr. Winter.” I was surprised she remembered my name, even more shocked when she pulled a little Chinese paper fan out of her desk drawer and waved it in my direction. I guess the Life Savers didn’t do the trick.
“I don’t have an appointment,” I said, “but I think if he reads this note, he’ll make time for me.” I handed her an envelope with a letter inside informing him I’d seen the tapes and would like to talk to him. She disappeared into his office and came back after a couple minutes.
“He’ll see you when he’s finished with this client,” she said. “Can I get you some coffee?”
“Cream and two sugars,” I replied. I was enjoying my momentary triumph over Jeffcoat’s gatekeeper. She was a little past her physical prime but her hips were tastefully plentiful and the cleavage display extended a little beyond office protocol. She was more than enough to make plenty of wives jealous. But then Mrs. Jeffcoat had bigger jealousy concerns. The coffee was freshly brewed, just the jolt I needed to face the enemy.
“I didn’t expect to see you again,” he said as I strode through his office door.
“Some pests are harder to eradicate than others,” I replied. I debated about pulling the Walther but left it in my belt.
“I’m an optimist,” he said. “I always assume that little roaches die on the first spray. What’s your price?”
“Information.”
“I’ve got plenty,” he said. “You want stock tips? Interested in a little foreign currency trading? I look for the value of the Euro to rise. I’ve got nothing but good advice.”
“Prudence was blackmailing you,” I said. “You paid her some money a couple weeks before she died.”
“Interesting theory. Difficult to prove.”
“I could always try. If I reported the matter to the police like what you did to me, they might launch an investigation. Videotapes linked to crimes play well on the evening news, especially when they’re X-rated. Could make national, with some tasteful editing of course. Not to mention marketing the unedited versions to the porn sites. The whole world wants to know how the rich do it. They’re hot and I haven’t even seen them all.”
“Perverted bastard,” he said. “The girl’s not even cold in her grave and you’re already trying to squeeze money out of her corpse.” He stood up and turned away, as if looking over the city would solve the problem. When someone sits on the fourteenth floor all day, the lives of everyone else begin to look small, insignificant. Tiny ants scurrying around the streets. Every once in a while, though, disgusting little insects like Calvin Winter manage to scale the walls.
I enjoyed his quiet suffering even though I could be provoking a murderer. I was coming back to reality, feeling more and more out of place with that 9 mm tucked in my belt. I wasn’t a killer. Who was I trying to kid? That’s part of why I kept Red Eye around. He’d earned his stripes. Had an SS tattoo on his leg to prove it. Luckily Fast Freddy hadn’t seen that one. You only won the right to wear that ink in prison by completing a mission. Red Eye had done more than one. By contrast, I usually liked to think of myself as a coyote, living by my wiles. If I was going to pin Jeffcoat to the wall, it wouldn’t be with a gun.
“I’ll ask again,” he said, “what’s your price?”
“I’m trying to find out how Prudence died,” I said. “I want information.”
“She drowned,” he said. “That’s what you told me. That’s what the police say. She died with the winning lottery ticket in her purse. Right, Winter?”
“That’s part of the story. I think you know more.”
If he was looking for an apology for the lottery scam, he could forget it. I’m no investor but I know there’s no more underhanded game than playing around with other people’s money. In other words, I know a hustle when I see one. He wasn’t going to get away with sneering at a coyote.
“What information do you want?” he asked. “Yeah, I screwed her a few times. She made a film of it without my knowledge. I paid her $10,000 to destroy the film. I guess she didn’t do it. Where’s my crime in all this? I made a mistake. Everyone falls to temptation once in a while. She was a beautiful woman. And I wasn’t the only one she fucked. “
“Would you care to name the others?”
“That’s got nothing to do with this.”
“And neither would all those other women you’ve been hitting over the years.”
“My personal life is none of your business.”
“It would definitely be the business of the court. If you’ve had a string of affairs that ended badly, expect a nice little parade of your conquests to stream up to the stand in your murder trial. Of course, since you’ve got the perfect marriage, the little lady will stand valiantly at your side like Hillary did for Bill. Then there’s the issue of Peter Margolis.”
I still had no idea who this Margolis was but I figured it was worth testing the waters. I was on a roll.
Jeffcoat glanced briefly at a gold-framed family photo on his desk. His wife had put on a few pounds after childbirth and hadn’t lost them. And those gray roots were showing through big time. I guess she couldn’t be bothered to keep up appearances. She didn’t know what league she was playing in.
“Margolis’s death was a boating accident,” he said. “A great tragedy.”
“I suspect there’s a little more to it than that.”
“You can surmise all you want, but you can’t prove a thing. So if you don’t want money and you’re not going to give up the tapes, then get the hell out of my office.”
“So you say she had other men?”
“I didn’t worry about it. She was a good time for me. As long as I protected myself, what she did with the rest of her life was none of my business.”
“So you always used a condom,” I said. “That makes me feel better because she was my wife.”
He laughed.
“I know that,” he said. “I know everything about you.” He stood up. He was losing his cool. Anger can do strange things to people.
“It’s time we ended this meeting,” he said.
“I know you hate unnecessary meetings. Something about ineffective business practice.”
“Get the hell out of here or I’ll call security.”
“That’s what you won’t do,” I told him with my first smirk of the day. “The Internet porn sites are just a mouse click away. And if you know so much about me, you know I’d love to put you out there naked for the world to see.”
He calmed a little. He’d deployed nearly every weapon in his con man arsenal and I was still right in his face. Being a thorn in the side of a millionaire was better than shooting my wad with Olga any time. I had to find out about this boating accident.
“I’m just thinking that maybe you forgot to protect yourself one time and you caught something from her,” I said. “She was, after all, an African. You knew that, didn’t you? AIDS is rampant there. It could be a motive for revenge.”
“You’re way off the mark now,” he said. “She was from London. Time to regroup your forces. This is going nowhere for either of us.”
“But at least we’re having a good time along the way.” I gave him the broad smile I’d used on the secretary. My joy was not infectious.
“If I think of anything else, I’ll call you,” he said, moving toward the door.
“I’d appreciate that. I hope you don’t mind if I drop in from time to time just to keep you informed. I’m sure you don’t want to be out of the loop on this.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Winter. If there has been foul play, I hope you uncover it. In the meantime, please call before you show up at my office again. I’d hate to miss you. If you continue to bother me, though, I will find an appropriate response.”
“That almost sounds like a threat.”
“Take it however you like,” he said. “We in the business world don’t issue threats. We make offers, prepare lists of negotiating issues, determine priorities. I’m quite skilled in all phases of my work.”
“I’m sure you are,” I said. “So am I. I’ve got a certificate from the Leavenworth College of Business. Perhaps you’ve heard of it.”
He opened the door. I walked out, grabbing a quick glance at the harelip on his high school football team on the way. Poor kid was ugly as sin. I bet he was a reserve tackle. I paused for a second. The short kid next to him looked familiar, but I couldn’t put a name to the face. Probably somebody I met in the joint.
I gave the secretary a replay of my greeting smile and headed for the stairs. Waiting for elevators doesn’t make it when you’re trying for a triumphant exit.
Jeffcoat was clearly a ruthless character. I was probably on over my head playing with him, but I couldn’t stay away. This felt like my fifteen minutes of fame, wheeling and dealing on the fourteenth floor. If I was about to fall, let it be remembered that Calvin Winter successfully got under the skin of millionaires and cops in his quest to find justice for a wife he’d never kissed.
In the meantime, I had to find out about Peter Margolis.