It meant nothing to him. “What are ya here for? Want to buy?”
“I want to talk to you,” Cindy said slowly, not wanting to put him off.
He jutted out his big bottom lip, “What about?”
“Tiffany O’Connell.”
His face contorted for a second. “What about her?”
“Can I come in?” Cindy asked, not knowing what she expected to see inside.
“We can talk on the porch,” the guy said, eased out and slammed the door.
That was probably a better idea thought Cindy, though she was curious to look around inside his house.
“I don’t got anything inside you would want,” he said, covering his bases. “Who told you to come here?” Minute by minute he seemed more awake.
“Tiffany’s twin sister, Rori,” said Cindy.
He shrugged as if he had no idea who Cindy was talking about.
“Rori said you might have some ideas about who killed Tiffany.”
Suddenly, is bottom lip dropped and looked glum.
“Heard about that,” he mumbled, “damn, rotten shame,” he seemed truly distressed. “Nice girl.”
“You knew her well?” Cindy continued.
“Not well. But I knew her.”
He sat down on the edge of the one broken chair on the porch, and rubbed his knees.
“What can you do? You play with fire and it burns your ass,” he said.
“She got burnt bad,” Cindy said intrigued.
“Sure she did. Drugs burn. I have no idea what happened to her, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Cindy could barely breathe. The smoldering air down at the bottom of the hill, the dampness of the shack, the horrible discovery all pressed down hard on her chest.
“You have no idea who could have done it?” Cindy dug deeply in.
“You should know, not me,” the guy said, peering carefully at Cindy. “Who are you anyway, the lady detective I heard about who came down from the US to solve this crime?”
“How did you hear about me?” asked Cindy.
“People talk, word gets around. Nothing stays hidden here very long.” He looked at her more closely and grinned. As he grinned, his nose slanted to the other side of his face.
“And how about you? The cops know what you’re doing?” Cindy wanted to put him on the spot.
He laughed harder then. “Everyone here knows everything that happens. If a bird falls out of his nest, someone hears about it.”
Cindy suddenly wondered if Petrovich was in on this.
“Petrovich protects you?” she asked.
The guy got quiet then and chewed his lips.
“Good question. You’ve done your work. You’re not as dopey as you seem,” he said. “I always say watch out for the ones who act like they don’t know anything.”
“Petrovich takes a slice of your profits for protection?” Cindy continued, unabashed.
“He doesn’t need my profits, Petrovich’s got billions.”
“There’s something else he gets from you, then?”
At that the guy got up off his chair, looked at Cindy keenly and said, “the interview’s done. I gave Tiffany what she asked for. The rest’s up to you.”
He started to go back into his house, when his phone rang. This time he picked it up immediately.
“Yeah, she’s already here,” he said.
Someone had to be calling checking up on Cindy. She began to tremble inside. It couldn’t have been Mattheus as she hadn’t gave him the pusher’s contact information.
“No, no,” the pusher grinned, “she’s just leaving now.”
He hung up the phone.
“Who was that?” asked Cindy.
“No one you know,” he mumbled. “Just an old friend from Guadeloupe.”
“Sanchez Hanuah?” Cindy’s blood went cold.
Shocked, the pusher stared at her.
“You did more than your homework,” he said, impressed.
Hanuah had to have been keeping track of her, may have even tailed her to this spot. Once again, Mattheus was right. She shouldn’t have come here alone.
“Alright, I’m going now,” said Cindy.
“Good luck lady,” the guy said. “I really mean it.”
“Thank you,”
“And remember, Tiffany was a good girl. Just got caught in the rotten pool of desire that floods the folks down this way.”
“I’ll remember,” said Cindy.
“Take care of yourself,” he said then, as he crept back to the door, and disappeared inside.
Cindy walked off the porch quickly and turned back up towards the cab. Thankfully, he was waiting for her. It had grown darker out by now, but there was still enough light left to make her way to where he had parked.