CHAPTER 26

Though I was beginning to doubt Jeffcoat was our man, the next morning Red Eye insisted we had to find out about Peter Margolis.

“Once we find out about him,” he said, “we can start putting the screws to Jeffcoat. If he didn’t do it he can point us in the direction of who did.”

I was too crazed from the brick through the window and seeing Newman to disagree. I had become a passenger on Red Eye’s bus. He decided that the starting point was Joaquin, a friend of his from the pen who needed a few bucks, had a car and no distinguishing features like a harelip or being sleeved up with everything from NLR to naked ladies performing lewd acts on smiling men.

Joaquin’s task was simple. All he had to do was shadow Jeffcoat—find out his habits and his haunts. Red Eye said we needed a way to catch him out of his comfort zone, away from those panoramic views and pushbutton security guards.

“You can squeeze the balls of the high and mighty and they’ll scream just like anybody else,” was how he put it. “You just need to get them to a place where you can get a good grip on their huevos,”

It took no time at all for Joaquin to discover Jeffcoat’s major haunt—the Cavalier Bar, an upmarket downtown joint that served those seven-dollar drinks with fancy names and parasols or bears carved from ginger sticking out of them. Jeffcoat went there every night after work. But the place was more than a watering hole. According to Joaquin, lots of aspiring young ladies frequented the place.

“They’re not hookers,” he said, “just gold diggers.”

I wasn’t sure there was a difference, but that wasn’t the point. Joaquin assured us that Jeffcoat liked to buy the young ladies a few drinks.

“He’s real friendly,” Joaquin said. He didn’t need to explain any more. We already knew Jeffcoat’s Achilles heel lay between his legs. If we could catch him with his pants down, he’d melt. All we needed was the right woman. Red Eye and I would handle the rest.

Olga took some convincing. Not that she was adverse to our scheme and she liked the sound of the new name on the drivers’ license I’d gotten her, “Maria Kournikova.”

“They will think I’m the sister of the famous one,” she said. “So exciting.”

The problem was she couldn’t quite comprehend that the attire for the Cavalier had to be understated. She was used to micro miniskirts and massive cleavage displays.

“These are wealthy gentlemen,” I told her. “They have the same desires but they require more discretion.”

Olga may have understood the dictionary definition of discretion, but she had a hard time applying the concept. It was more than a language problem.

“Let’s go shopping,” I told her, “I’ll show you.” She didn’t require convincing about making a trip to the mall to shop for clothes. We started at a little boutique called The Eternal Rose.

I picked out a long pink skirt with a slight slit, reaching just above the knee.

“This is discretion,” I explained. “Still sexy but leaving something to the imagination. A little mystery.”

She pulled a black leather micro-mini off the rack and found some gold stiletto heels to match.

“Trust me,” I said, “that’s not the ticket. We’re going upmarket.”

A round-neck white blouse went perfectly with the pink skirt. No cleavage but a suggestive button to be left undone.

“You wear this, you’ll catch him,” I said. “Wear one of those thin bras that give him a suggestion of your nipples. Like you’re already hot. It’ll drive him wild.”

“American men are crazy,” she said.

“I’m paying,” I said. “I call the shots.”

She pouted for a moment, then tried a sexy finger touch to my sensitive regions.

“You want my honey pot,” she said, “buy me black leather. I go animal.”

“Not today,” I said. “Today is all business. I’m paying you a flat rate. A thousand dollars plus clothes.” She was beginning to understand. “And you don’t tell a soul about any of this.”

“That’s not hard,” she said. “Olga may not speak good English but she knows how to keep a secret.”

We picked a Thursday night to strike. We were prepared for success. We’d paid a friend of Red Eye’s who he called Jimmy the Geek, to use his San Leandro apartment for the evening. It took a lot of air freshener to get it ready. I even bought a new pink bedspread and some matching throw pillows, then added a couple landscape paintings for the wall. It wasn’t a suite at the Hyatt, but plenty good enough to trap a scumbag millionaire. We bought some vodka for entertainment purposes, though we didn’t want Jeffcoat too drunk to be scared.

Red Eye and I sat in the Volvo with Olga just down the street from the bar and waited. We listened to the Eagles and waited for Joaquin to give us the high sign.

Once he phoned us and said Jeffcoat had just gone into the Cavalier, we turned Olga loose in her tasteful round-necked blouse.

She phoned us in an hour and said she had Jeffcoat wrapped around her finger.

“He’s horny but not bad-looking,” she told us as she got in the car. He was supposed to meet her at the apartment in about an hour. A married businessman couldn’t be seen leaving a bar in the company of a strange woman with erect nipples. As I’d told Olga, discretion was currency.

As we headed off toward San Leandro, Olga started to complain.

“I can’t make sex in these funny clothes,” she said, “and in a strange place. Not a good idea.” Everyone has their line in the sand. We’d found Olga’s. I told her I’d throw in two hundred bucks more and she got back on point. We also promised her not to leave them together for too long. We got there before Jeffcoat, giving me enough time to fluff up the pillows and take the Oakland Raiders team photo off the wall. Don’t know how I missed it the first time around. Red Eye was busy going through a little leather suitcase, making sure all our equipment was ready. It was going to be a long night. The only problem was that Jimmy’s apartment was a studio—no place for us to hide. When Jeffcoat buzzed at the downstairs door, Red Eye and I headed for the roof. We promised Olga we’d be back in ten minutes.

“Just long enough for you to get his pants off,” I said.

“No man has ever refused to let me take his pants off” she boasted.

We sat up on the roof and smoked a joint. Red Eye pulled the steam iron out of the suitcase and held it up in the air.

“This works every time,” he said. “The minute you plug it in, they start shaking.” I couldn’t wait.

Jeffcoat was in his boxers when we barged in, guns drawn.

“Good evening,” I said. “Is this a bad time?” Olga quickly pulled her hand away from Jeffcoat’s rapidly deflating manhood.

“What the hell is this?” he shouted as he reached for his pants. Red Eye got there first. He picked up Jeffcoat’s black slacks and threw them across the room.

“Your dick seems to be getting you into all types of hot water lately,” I said. “Maybe you should learn where it belongs.”

Red Eye summoned his most gravelly WWE voice to order Jeffcoat onto the floor. The pantless CEO crawled off the sofa and lay down on his back on the hardwood floor.

“Not on your back, fool,” said Red Eye. “Roll over.”

Jeffcoat moved onto his stomach. Red Eye tucked his pistol into his belt and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of the leather suitcase.

“Definitely don’t want to scratch our boy’s Rolex,” Red Eye reminded me as he moved in to put the cuffs on Jeffcoat. Once they were in place, Red Eye peeled off the watch and put it on.

“Quarter past seven,” he said, admiring the watch face.

I kept my Walther pointed at Jeffcoat’s head. Despite our surprise appearance, Jeffcoat had regained his calm, save for the telltale dribble of sweat on his upper lip.

Red Eye brought out the duct tape. Initially I’d been against it but we’d had long talks the night before. Red Eye’s persistence won out.

He’d also talked about swords, piano wire, electrical cable, and electric drills. My AK-47 fantasies had faded slightly so I managed to limit his toolbox to the steam iron and the curling iron.

“Mr. Jeffcoat,” said Red Eye, “we can do this the hard way or the easy way.”

“Do what?” Jeffcoat asked.

“You tell us everything you know about the death of Prudence,” said Red Eye, “that’s all.”

“And about Peter Margolis,” I added.

Red Eye reached into the backpack, pulled out the steam iron and plugged it into the wall.

“This is the hard way,” said Red Eye holding up the iron. “I press your cheek like it’s a Van Heusen. I’d hate to have to do that.”

“I’ve told you everything I know already,” said Jeffcoat.

“I’ve also got a curling iron,” said Red Eye. “You’ve probably never felt one of those.”

“I don’t have anything else to tell you,” said Jeffcoat.

“Tie him up with the tape,” Red Eye told me. “And get her out of here” he added pointing to Olga. She didn’t need perfect fluency in English to understand where this was headed. She’d already seen too much, at least enough to know Red Eye wouldn’t be adding creases to Jeffcoat’s slacks with that iron.

Olga scrambled to get on her high heels. I gave her an envelope with the $1,200 in it, thanked her, and she was on her way. I wondered what chance there was that she’d never tell anyone about this, like we’d agreed.

Red Eye plunked Jeffcoat down in a wooden chair. I wrapped the duct tape around him to make sure he didn’t go anywhere. His gentlemanly forehead was suddenly enveloped in sweat but he maintained his ignorance about Prudence’s death.

“And I suppose you still don’t know anything about strange middle-of-the-night events at my house either” I said. He went silent.

“Don’t worry,” I told him, “we’ve got copies of all those tapes.”

“If you did,” he said, “we wouldn’t be here.” Part of the power of any successful businessman is finding the hole in your counterpart’s argument. Jeffcoat had found ours in about ten minutes. I hated him for it. Red Eye’s approach was winning me over.

“You’ve played your hand,” he said, “now you’ve got nothing on me. I didn’t kill that girl but I couldn’t leave you with those tapes. You could have blackmailed me for the rest of my life.”

The iron started to make that tapping sound. I wanted to put it right in the middle of Jeffcoat’s face. Where me and Red Eye grew up, we used to fantasize about moments where we had clean-faced pretty boys like Jeffcoat begging for mercy. I thought I’d moved beyond those boyhood fantasies but I had to admit that this was way better than stealing lunch money.

“Let’s stop this game before it gets out of hand,” Jeffcoat added. “You don’t want to kill me, and you don’t want me for an enemy. Even two morons like you aren’t that stupid.”

I hated a smartass in a $2,500 Armani suit without his pants talking tough. Though the duct tape was wrapped around him, he had us tied in knots. The steam iron suddenly didn’t seem like such a hot idea.

“If you didn’t murder her,” said Red Eye, “then who did?”

“How would I know? I wasn’t the only man she ever climbed into bed with. She was a horny little slut.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I screamed. “Don’t come with any of your high morals. You’re a cheap whore yourself. Olga lit your dick up easier than turning on the Christmas tree lights.” I wanted to knock him and his silk-tie ass across the room. He’d probably never been hit in his life.

Suddenly Red Eye looked scared.

“Let’s talk, Cal,” he said, motioning me out the front door. “Our boy’s not going anywhere.”

We stood in the hall and closed the front door halfway—enough to keep an eye on Jeffcoat.

“We’re backed into a corner now,” Red Eye whispered. “We’ve got nothing on him. The burglary at your house wasn’t even reported.”

“But he could be a killer,” I said.

“We played our hand too late,” said Red Eye. “If you want to ice him, we can. But we’re gone. Remember, the cops already know about that lottery caper. We’ll be prime suspects. A slam dunk for the DA. Plus the broad will rat in a heartbeat.”

I wondered why I’d let Red Eye talk me into this heavy-handed session in the first place. Or maybe I talked him into it. As if he needed persuading. My memory was fading fast, along with my buzz.

I looked in on Jeffcoat. He still had that pompous air. On a gut level, killing him had its appeal. But I wasn’t crazed enough to ignore what a bad idea it was. Not yet.

“Don’t bother trying to get loose,” I hollered at him. “Just be patient. We’ve got it all under control.”

“With my fate in the hands of two geniuses, why should I worry?” he replied.

I charged back into the apartment, grabbed the duct tape and slapped three pieces around his mouth.

“Easy, Cal,” Red Eye warned. With him playing the calm voice of reason in our partnership, we were entering very deep waters.

Jeffcoat mumbled through the tape. It sounded like something about not being able to breathe.

“Use your fuckin’ nose,” I said.

I toyed with spitting in his face but I left it there. Confusion, anger, and heartache were proving to be a lethal cocktail for me. Not to mention a shot of sheer foolishness.

Red Eye and I went back out into the hall and talked for another five minutes. We could have rattled on for hours and it wouldn’t unravel this mess. I thought I was being righteous finding the murderer of my wife. Now it was all coming back on me. It wasn’t Prudence’s killer or this lowlife Jeffcoat who would end up in prison here. It was me and Red Eye. There’s no justice for an ex-con finally trying to do the right thing. At least I had one card left to play. I brought out the list of names, explained to Red Eye what I knew about Peter Margolis from his widow.

“So we tell him I know about his settlement with Margolis. I figure he’s been doing the same thing with these other people. Taking their money and not paying it into their insurance.”

“We can’t give him the whole list just yet,” said Red Eye. “Always keep something back for a rainy day.”

“Feels like it’s pouring pretty hard right now to me and we got no umbrellas.”

“This is just a sprinkle,” he said. “We may be in the middle of a hurricane before this is over.”

“Yeah, the one called Hurricane Three Strikes and You’re Out.” We loosened Jeffcoat’s wraps and barked at him a lot about Peter Margolis.

Then I rattled off more names from the list: Sean Cutler, Ralph Jacobson, Earl Sadlowski. Jeffcoat’s arrogance deflated a little each time I mentioned a new person.

“You’ve taken these people’s money,” I said. “Their life savings, their futures.”

His eyes suddenly got real big. He didn’t even try to mumble a reply.

“Sometimes getting caught with your pants down hurts more than a hot iron on the cheek,” I said. For the moment, our business with Jeffcoat was over.

Red Eye put his hand in front of Jeffcoat’s face, rolled it into a tight ball, then promised him that the next time the gonads of a great financial adviser would be inside that fist if Jeffcoat said anything to anyone about “our little night on the town together.” I peeled off most of the duct tape, just leaving enough so it would take a few minutes for him to get loose.

Red Eye gathered up all our torture paraphernalia and put it back in the bag. We just might be pulling off a clean getaway. I was glad we hadn’t used that iron.

“Don’t contact anyone or go outside for half an hour,” I said. “If the police find out about this, I’ve got lots more names where those three came from.” At least this man who loathed ineffective business practices so thoroughly had learned to lie on his stomach instead of his back. Life is full of important lessons.

We had enough on Jeffcoat to keep him off our backs. The problem was, after all that drama, we weren’t any closer to knowing who killed Prudence.