He didn’t like it and went on at some length to explain why. I couldn’t tell if he was genuinely worried or if he just wanted a bigger role in my affairs. Whichever it was, I preferred the possibility of a breakin to spending a night on his sagging couch under the empty birdcage.
“I’m sleeping in here, then, cookie. The princess’ll bark if anyone comes in and we’ll be upstairs in a wink.”
I wondered briefly if they’d have a jolly confrontation with Rick and Vinnie in the middle of the night. It might be worth getting out of bed for. I thanked him gravely for his concern and made good my escape.
40
Scared Out of House and Home
I turned on the bath when I got into my own place but my mind was racing too hard for me to relax. I got out of the tub and tried Murray. He wasn’t in, either at the news office or his home. I thought about calling Bobby but I could just imagine his reaction. Accusations against the chairman of the county board and his wealthy sidekick? Much worse than stirring up the officers of his regiment. Just not done, Vic old thing—if you had a touch of class you’d understand.
I went to look out the window. Despite my brave words to Mr. Contreras, I felt lonely and vulnerable by myself. I wondered if the two men who’d come calling had indeed meant to waylay me or if they were, in fact, a harmless duo of salesmen. Were they the answer Ralph MacDonald had promised to give me within twenty-four hours? Was that man idling across the street really waiting on his dog or waiting for me to come out?
I dropped the blind and went back to the phone to call Lotty.
“Vic! I’ve started to become quite worried, not hearing from you for so many days. How are you?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve got a tiger by the tail and I don’t think I’m quite strong enough to wrassle with it.”
“What kind of tiger?” Lotty asked.
I told her where my thinking had been leading me. “I’m just a little scared, Lotty. And I keep worrying about my aunt. I think she must have seen whoever they hired to set the fire. She probably tried a little genteel blackmail, she and Cerise between them, and now she’s hiding out someplace not very safe. I don’t know how to find her. The cops are helping. At least a cop is helping,” I amended, remembering that Finchley hadn’t even known Elena’d skipped again. “And now my car is dead so I can’t …”
My thought died and my voice with it. A cop knew Elena had done a bunk because he’d gone to Michael Reese specifically to see her. Just as he’d gotten me to reveal her address two weeks ago so he could go see her then.
The police didn’t give two hoots if an aging drunk on her uppers tried to pick up young men in Uptown. Michael did.
McGonnigal’s reaction to that gold bracelet came tumbling through my head and I saw it laid out for me in such complete detail that I thought my whole insides would come up through my mouth. I remembered now where I’d seen it before, the time he’d worn it last February when I’d gone to a birthday party the pals had put on for him. McGonnigal thought I’d brought the bracelet around to flaunt my long-cooled affair with Micheal. That’s why he hadn’t told me it was Furey’s.
Only Furey hadn’t left it at my apartment. Elena and Cerise had. The night they slept there they’d laid it on the floor under the mattress, the way people do. And in the morning, when Cerise was so sick, they’d forgotten it.
“Vic—what’s gone wrong? You haven’t fainted, have you?” Lotty spoke sharply; I realized I was standing like an idiot with the mouthpiece in my hand.
“No. No. I just suddenly am seeing something that ought to have hit me long ago.”
“What you need most right now is a hot meal and a night’s sleep. Why don’t I come for you—you can have some soup and sleep in my guest room. Then tomorrow you’ll have the strength to think of an advanced design in tiger traps.”
It was so enticing an offer I couldn’t turn it down, even as my mind was churning over Michael. I pulled my jeans on again and flung a few things into my backpack— including an extra clip for the Smith & Wesson.
The night Elena brought Cerise to my apartment was the night of Boots’s barbecue. Michael had driven back to my place and was waiting for me there when I pulled up. He’d had a police emergency and couldn’t stay, that was what he’d said. A triple homicide. I could check that sometime, if I lived past tonight, but I doubted it had ever occurred.