Bad Karma (9 page)

Standing nearby kibitzing on the game was what looked like another college student. A tall blond Germanic-looking kid with red cheeks, a smart-assed smile and a cheap stogie dangling from his lips polluting the air around him. “Idiot,” he exclaimed as the other kid reached for his bishop. “Don’t you see you can win a pawn?”

The younger player turned to him and pointed a finger. “Are you playing this game?” he asked. “No? Then shut the fuck up.” Under his breath, he added, “Moron.”

The color dropped from the tall blond kid’s face. Still smiling his smart-assed smile but with no humor left in his eyes, he tossed his cigar at the player.

“Sonofabitch,” the kid jumped up, knocking the cigar out of his lap. “You’re going to throw a lit cigar at me?” He was a good six inches shorter and sixty pounds lighter than the blond kid.

“You could’ve been more polite about my suggestion…” the blond kid started, but before he could say anything else he was hit hard with an uppercut that sent him on his ass.

“The sonofabitch threw a lit cigar at me,” the other kid repeated, his arms moving in wild gestures as he stormed away. The blond kid looked stunned as he sat on the ground. Then, rubbing his jaw, he flashed an embarrassed grin before getting back to his feet and walking gingerly in the opposite direction.

“I never knew chess was a contact sport,” Shannon said.

The Paul Bunyan look-alike had watched the event with an amused sparkle in his eyes. He slipped his upper plate back in place. “You live in Boulder long enough you’ll see everything.”

“I wonder if your opponent knew you had mate in four no matter what he did?”

The older man leaned back on the bench and appraised Shannon slowly. “Show me,” he said.

Shannon played out the moves, demonstrating how mate in four could be forced.

“You know your chess. The name’s Eddie, by the way. Why don’t you take a seat. Let’s see what you can do.”

Shannon sat down in the folding chair and introduced himself.

“Out to kill a few hours?” Eddie asked.

“More to clear my head.”

Eddie nodded. “You have the look of someone with a purpose. About my last opponent, he didn’t have a clue. I had him hook, line and sinker. Nothing but a fish waiting to be reeled in and gutted. A shame I didn’t get my chance to fillet him.”

The first dozen moves went quickly, then Eddie started taking more time to study the board before making his moves. When it was his turn he’d be locked in deep concentration, his face rigid except for his upper plate sliding in and out of his mouth. When it was Shannon’s turn, Eddie would engage him in conversation.

“How’d you lose those fingers?”

“They were broken off.”

“How was that done?”

“With a nutcracker.”

“That must’ve hurt.”

Shannon looked up, saw no sarcasm in Eddie’s heavily lined face. Other than trying to get an edge by distracting his opponent, he was doing nothing more than talking straightforwardly.

Shannon made his move, then dead silence for several more minutes until Eddie decided on his next course of action. Then:

“You been in Boulder long?”

“About five years.”

“Me, off and on since ’74. I left in ’97 after the student rioting. Ashamed after that to admit I was from Boulder. I only came back a few months ago. And I keep wondering why I did.”

“Students rioted here in ’97?”

“Yep, did their share of damage up on the Hill. And guess what their reason was? To protest racism? Inequality? Poverty? An unjust war? Nope. Nothing more than they wanted underage drinking. When I think back to the sixties and seventies and then what these students did it makes me sick.”

“A different world, different priorities,” Shannon offered philosophically.

“I guess. But ’74, that was when Boulder was Boulder. A different town than it is now. That was before all the Californians and money rolled in. Of course, you’ve always had your share of rich students, but nothing like today.”

“Must’ve been something.”

“It certainly was,” Eddie said, a wistfulness misting his eyes. “As close to heaven on earth as I’ve ever found. Money and urban sprawl changed all that. Maybe thirty thousand people back then in Boulder, outside of the students. If you drove to Denver you’d see nothing but open prairie. Three months ago when I took the bus back here all I could see were new developments. One right after the next. Broke my heart.”

Shannon made his move and sat in silence again while Eddie studied the position. After he made his next move he showed Shannon a toothless grin thanks to his upper plate slipping out of place. Using his thumb he pushed his plate back into position.

“You’d never believe this,” he said. “but Boulder used to be a dry town. That was back in the sixties. What makes that kind of ironic was how this town became a conduit for drugs in the seventies.”

Shannon raised an eyebrow at the older man.

“It’s true,” Eddie went on. “We had a lot of small planes flying to hidden out-of-the-way airfields, supplying drugs for a good part of the West. With the mountains, these planes were hard to track. And because the statute of limitations has long run out, I have no problem now admitting to a police officer that I made a good chunk of my money in those days offloading drugs from these planes and providing a taxi service for them. The route I was usually given was Kansas City. Used to drive there at least once every two months.”

“What makes you think I’m a cop?”

Eddie smiled again, this time with his upper plate in place, showing off perfectly-shaped white plastic teeth. “You’re probably not anymore ’cause of those fingers, but you used to be. Written all over you.”

“Damn, I’ll have to get a squeegee and some soap. But you’ve got good eyes. I did used to be a cop. For ten years.”

“You’re still involved somehow,” Eddie said, nodding.

“That’s right, freelancing these days as a private investigator.” Shannon paused for a moment before asking, “What’s your take on those two students who were killed?”

Eddie shrugged. “I came back a few weeks after it happened but I’ve been reading the newspaper stories about it. Murders are rare in Boulder. Probably more people killed here by mountain lions over the years. When you do have one, especially when it’s as violent as those two, more times than not it’s drugs.”

“What if it’s not drugs?”

“Well, that would be a tough one. Those murders didn’t sound much like a personal dispute. From what I read they were pretty ugly. I guess if its not drugs, then it would have to be one of those random crimes you never know what’s the reason behind it.”

“What if you were to make a guess?”

“Wouldn’t have one.”

When Shannon made his next move, Eddie’s eyes darted from the board to Shannon, then back to the board. He restrained himself for a good minute to make sure he hadn’t miscalculated, then he pounced, making a move that would force Shannon to give up a rook for a knight.

“Fish,” Eddie muttered under his breath.

Three moves later when Eddie realized he was going to have to give up his queen, he put his king down.

“You suckered me into that,” he complained.

“I took advantage of you being a little overeager,” Shannon said.

Eddie’s lips compressed into a thin line as he shook his head, still not believing the mistake he had made. For a moment his heavily-lined face looked like a wood carving. “Care for another game?” he asked.

“I’d like to but I should get back to my snooping.”

“You’re looking into those two students who were killed, aren’t you?”

“That’s a good guess.”

“Aside from what you might think from that last game, I’m not a complete dummy.” Eddie absentmindedly bit down on a yellowed thumbnail. He looked at it as if he were wondering how it had gotten into his mouth. Shifting his gaze back to Shannon, he said, “Leave me your phone number. I’ll put my ears to the tracks and if I hear any rumblings I’ll give you a call.”

Shannon wrote his number on a notepad and ripped the sheet out for the older man. “Know anything about the True Light?” he asked.

Eddie showed a little smile. “If you asked most people that they’d have no idea what you were talking about. I’ll give them credit, unlike other cults that have come to Boulder, they’ve kept a low profile. But I do know something about them.”

“Which is?”

“There’s a price for that information.”

Shannon rolled his eyes, started to take out his wallet but Eddie stopped him. “The price is giving me a rematch,” he said.

“Fair enough. Set them up.”

For the next game, Eddie stayed silent during Shannon’s moves. With his deeper concentration, his face looked older, almost ancient. If it weren’t for his eyes darting over the board and his upper plate sliding in an out, he could’ve been taken for a grotesque example of taxidermy. Even with his more determined effort, the result ended up the same—with Eddie knocking his king over once he realized his position was hopeless.

“Just be gentle when you take me off your hook,” he said, his face frozen in disgust.

“I’ll be as gentle as I can,” Shannon said. “Now for your part of the bargain…”

“About the True Light, huh?” Eddie made a face as if he’d coughed up something that needed to be spat out. “Up until a few days ago I’d been setting up shop at the student center. A week ago, a girl, maybe eighteen, tried hitting me up for money. She ended up hanging around for a few hours while I taught her the rules for chess. Very skittish girl, maybe worse, I don’t know. Anyway, at one point she told me she’d been a member of the True Light. She didn’t say much else about it, other than whispering to me that their leader was a false prophet.”

“When you say, ‘very skittish girl, maybe worse’, what do you mean by that?”

“Maybe she was fearful of something.”

“Do you know her name?”

Eddie shook his head.

“How about describing her?”

“Small. Maybe five feet, ninety pounds, if soaking wet. Long straight red hair along with the pale skin redheads usually have. Would’ve been attractive if her eyes weren’t jumping around like ping pong balls.”

Shannon stood up and offered his hand to Eddie, who frowned at it. “Don’t get offended,” he said. “But I don’t shake hands. It’s just something I’ve never done.” He put his own hand up to his grayish red beard and started stroking it. “If you’re willing to give me a rematch sometime soon, I’ll set up shop back at the student center and see if I can find her again.”

“Deal. How about in a few days?”

Eddie nodded and turned his concentration back to the chess set, frowning deeply as he studied the position he had ended up in.

Shannon checked his watch and saw it was a quarter past ten. He tried calling Mike Maguire, who sounded rushed as he told Shannon now was not a good time and to call him later. Almost as soon as the line was disconnected, Pauline Cousins called. Shannon agreed to meet her at noon at the coffee shop inside of the Best Western motel. He then walked back to the courthouse, found a grassy spot on the lawn, and sat cross-legged as he meditated on his heart chakra using a technique Eli had taught him. The technique involved picturing a small blue ball hovering in front of his chest. At first the ball was spinning wildly, darting in and out of his mind’s eye. After a while he was able to slow it down, and for a moment he had it hovering calmly in place.

His cell phone jolted him out of his meditation. For a long moment he didn’t want to move, hoping to be able to hold onto the peace of mind he had slipped into. Realizing it was lost, he checked the caller ID and saw it was Paul Devens.

“I have a court date for tomorrow morning,” Devens told him. “I’m going to have to do some fancy tap dancing to get you into that condo while at the same time keeping Carver’s family out. I’m afraid if they got in, the place would be cleaned out in minutes.”

“After meeting with them yesterday I have to agree with you.”

“Quite a family,” Devens said.

“Quite a family,” Shannon agreed. He filled Devens on what he had done so far. “I’m thinking I should visit Linda’s family. How would your client feel about travel expenses to Wichita?”

“Not an issue. Whaever you need to do. I’ll call you after the hearing and let you know how my tap dance went.”

After putting the phone away, Shannon thought briefly about trying to get back into the calmness he had slipped into, but decided it was a lost cause. Instead he got to his feet and headed back to his apartment. He didn’t have much time if he was going to make travel arrangements to Wichita before meeting Pauline Cousins.

***

Shannon arrived at the Best Western motel a few minutes before noon. When he walked into the adjoining coffee shop he spotted a woman sitting alone at the counter who kept glancing towards the door. Her eyes had a hollowed out, desperate look as they locked on his. He approached her. She tried smiling, but it didn’t stick.

“Pauline?” he asked.

She nodded, biting her lip. “You must be Mr. Shannon?”

“Bill,” Shannon corrected.

“Bill,” she said. This time a wisp of a smile stuck for a few seconds before disappearing. “Thank you so much for meeting with me.”

“Why don’t we take a booth? It will give us more privacy.”

She moved unsteadily as she slid off the counter stool. Shannon took her hand, then her arm as he directed her to a booth. She was nearly skeleton-thin and walked as if she needed the support Shannon gave her. Looking as worn out and frail as she did, she could have been anywhere from her late forties to early seventies. Once he got her seated, he went back to the counter to fetch her coffee.

“If you don’t mind my asking, how did you get my name?” Shannon asked as he sat across from her.

She tried smiling again. This time it lasted a few second longer. “A woman at the university recommended you. Lauren Magglia. She told me you helped them find a student who had run off.”

A year earlier Shannon had been hired by the University of Colorado to find a missing student with a history of depression. Lauren was his contact for the job. It turned out the student had stopped taking his medications, and when Shannon found him he was holed up at a fleabag rooming house off East Colfax Avenue in Denver. A month after being back on his medications, he was no worse for wear. Last May Shannon and Susan took him out to dinner to celebrate finishing his junior year of college.