Corridor Man (26 page)

Chapter Two

He pulled onto the
interstate and headed back toward St. Paul. An hour later he took the second Eau Claire exit and pulled into the Best Western parking lot right along the interstate. There was what looked like a garage on the far side of the parking lot, away from the office and next to some sort of tool shed. Bobby parked in the lot, grabbed the metal sand shovels and made his way around the shed walking toward the interstate.

The area behind the garage held a line of trees with brush and prairie grass which seemed perfect. The last thing he wanted was something tended by the state highway department. It was a cloudless night and he walked out toward the interstate, until he was at the edge of the shadows and began to dig. The handle broke off the first shovel at about ten inches, the second broke a few inches later, then ever so cautiously he dug another six to eight inches.

He hurried back to his car, but had to wait at the corner of the shed while some drunk staggered up to a side door entrance to the motel then fumbled with the electronic lock for the next five minutes.

Once he felt it was all clear Bobby grabbed the bag holding Prez’s head and ran back to the hole he’d dug. He rolled the head out of the bag and into the hole where it landed face down and he began to shovel the dirt he’d excavated back in the hole. The first shovelful filled the section the size of his fist where Prez’s skull had been blown off and in just a few minutes the hole was filled. Bobby carefully replanted the prairie grass he’d dug out not twenty minutes before, stomping it down with his foot and envisioning Prez’s face being ground into the soil almost two feet below.

He made a right turn out of the parking lot and saw the interstate exit up ahead. A moment later he pulled over so the flashing lights coming up in his rearview mirror could pass by, but felt his heart jump as the vehicle pulled in behind him and flashed a large spotlight on the Mercedes.

Between the spotlight and the flashing lights on top of the car Bobby couldn’t tell what the make or the color was. A large figure eventually stepped out, squared a Smokey the Bear hat on his head and headed toward the Mercedes. Bobby lowered the driver’s side window then placed his hands in plain sight on the steering wheel.

“Good morning, sir. How are you doing?”

“Fine thank you, is there a problem, Officer?”

“Did you happen to see that stop sign?”

“Stop sign?”

“Coming out of the Best Western parking lot. It’s been there for sixteen years and you drove right through it.”

“Sorry, no sir, I guess I didn’t see it.”

“You staying there, at the Best Western?”

“Actually, no I’m not. I’m driving back to the twin cities, I was feeling tired so I just came off the interstate and pulled into that parking lot to close my eyes for a bit.”

The patrolman nodded, focused briefly on the goose egg on Bobby’s forehead then said, “Have you been drinking, sir?”

“I had a glass of wine about eight o’clock last night.”

“Just the one?”

“Yes, sir.”

He seemed to think about that for a moment. “May I see your driver’s license?”

“It’s in my wallet in my back pocket, I’ll have to get it out.”

“Go ahead.”

Bobby pulled his wallet out of his pocket, then pulled the license out of the wallet and handed it to the patrolman.

“Humpf, Custer, any relation?”

“No, thankfully. If I was, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Bobby said and smiled.

The patrolman looked at Bobby, and a smile slowly spread across his face. “Yeah, I guess that would be right. Okay, Mr. Custer, just a verbal warning this morning, let’s watch those stop signs, drive careful and enjoy your time in Wisconsin,” he said then handed the driver’s license to Bobby and walked back to his car.

Bobby felt like he was going to throw up. From where he sat he could almost see the area off to the right where he’d just buried Prez’s severed head a few minutes ago. Just an hour and a half south of here he’d burnt Prez’s body in a pile of barn rubble.

The patrol car sat there for a long moment before the spot light was turned off and then the flashing lights went off. A few seconds later the vehicle made a quick U turn and headed up the road. Bobby watched until the tail lights disappeared over a hill before he put the Mercedes in drive and stayed five miles under the speed limit for the rest of his drive home.

He tossed the trash bags in a dumpster at a construction site close to downtown then made his way home, being careful not to speed. He threw his clothes in the washer and scrubbed his shoes. His heart was still pounding after he showered and shaved. On the way into the office he dropped the shoes and cleaned clothes in a donation box outside a Lutheran church. He was sitting at his desk still trying to calm down just before seven.

Chapter Three

At nine he phoned
Morris Montcreff.

“Yes.”

“Mr. Montcreff, just wanted to let you know I was able to attend to that small problem you mentioned yesterday evening.”

“Were you now?”

“Yes sir, not a worry.”

“Very well, Thank you, Bobby. I must say initially I had my doubts, but I’m impressed. Of course we’ll have to wait and see if there are any loose ends.”

“I can assure you, there won’t be.”

“I should hope not,” he didn’t have to add,
“for your sake.”
“Anything else?”

“No sir, you had said you wanted me to check in this morning, that’s all I’m doing.”

“Thank you,” Montcreff said and hung up.

Bobby sat staring at the empty walls in his small office and took a series of deep breaths until he could feel his heart rate gradually begin to slow down. Had it been a test? An attempt to get him out of the way? Or maybe it was just a warning. What he wanted to do was run home and lock the door, but then what would that accomplish? Hippo apparently had a key.

He phoned Angie’s extension.

“This is Angie,” she answered sounding very businesslike.

“Hey Angie, Bobby how’s my favorite person in records?”

“Fine thanks, what do you need?”

Out late last night or just a fight with your husband? he wondered. “I’d like to review those Montcreff files, the last two from yesterday and maybe the next three or four.”

“Anything else?”

“No, that should do it.”

“I’ll have them to you in the next few minutes,” she said and hung up.

Not a happy camper he thought then went back to fixating on his scenic drive through the wilds of Wisconsin last night and Morris Montcreff.

Angie didn’t bother to knock a few minutes later. She simply pushed the door open with her hip and stepped into his office carrying a two foot stack of green accordion files which she carefully set on the edge of his desk.

“Anything else?” she said and Bobby noticed she stared for just the briefest of moments at the swollen bruise on his forehead.

“No, this is more than enough. You okay, Angie?”

“Why, do you think I’m doing a lousy job, too?”

“Hey, take it easy. You’ve done nothing but help me. What’s wrong?”

“Why should anything have to be wrong?”

“I don’t know, you were short on the phone, your tone just now, the lousy job comment. Someone giving you a hard time?”

She pushed his door closed and crossed her arms. “Apparently
I
lost some file belonging to Mr. Hinz.”

“Benny? I thought he was still out in Napa Valley?”

She shook her head. “Believe me, he’s back. He waved some fucking County receipt in my face from the end of last May. Said he didn’t have a record of it in his office and wanted to know what I had done with the file. If he doesn’t have a record of it why would I have the damn thing? Anyway, that fat ass read me the riot act, threatened to terminate me if I didn’t come up with the file.”

“Can he even do that?”

“He might seem laid back, but he’s got a reputation for being a real a-hole. As for terminating me, he’s one of the principles if you’d care to check our letterhead, they all think they walk on water. Believe me, he can do anything he wants. God, I’m so screwed,” she said then her eyes tear up and she bit her lower lip. “Oh shit.”

Bobby remembered Christine Woodley telling him she’d sent the receipt to Bennett Hinz when she was in the process of sliding down the drain. He meant to get hold of the thing before Bennett ever saw it, but between Prez, Montcreff, Hippo, and God only knew what else, he had completely forgotten. Christ!

“Do you have the receipt?”

Angie sniffled then nodded as she brushed a tear off her cheek. “I have it back in my office. It’s just that I’ve worked so hard to get this far, busted my ass. He’s gonna have me fired, I just know it. I….”

“Can you bring me the receipt? I know some folks down at County. You mind if I check into it.”

“I don’t want to involve you, Bobby he was really pissed off.”

“I won’t tell him. Let me do some checking, okay? See if I can’t get it straightened out.”

“You sure? It’s just that I don’t know….”

“Let me see the receipt, it’s got a document number, we can sort of work backwards. Who knows maybe he slipped it into the wrong file and you have it somewhere in the file room, it’s just that he screwed it up. Go on, you get that receipt and I’ll make a phone call or two.”

“Oh, thanks, I don’t know what to...”

“Angie, relax we’ll get this sorted out, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. Let me take a look.”

She seemed to visibly relax a bit or at least dial down a notch. “I’ll be right back,” she said and hurried out the door. She was back in less than two minutes with the receipt.

“Here it is, apparently there are a number of documents, it just doesn’t seem to make any sense. The names don’t ring a bell, and it’s usually not the sort of work Mr. Hinz is involved with. This is something that would normally be handed off to one of the paras. He’s going to just ream me a new….”

“Angie, let me make some phone calls and we’ll see if we can’t get it sorted. Matter of fact, now that I think about it, it might be better if I just went down there.”

“I don’t mean to impose with my headache and ruin your day.”

Bobby held up his hand. “You’re not ruining anything, let me see what I can find out.”

“Thanks, so much, I’d better get back to working, you’ll let me know right away, won’t you?”

“Soon as I find something out,” he said. Then he got up from behind his desk and ushered her out the door. As he headed for the elevators he gave Marci the word that he would be in a meeting for an hour or two, never stopping until the elevator door closed behind him and he hurried home.

Chapter Four

Bobby pulled into his
private space in the underground lot where barely twelve hours earlier Morris Montcreff and his thugs had placed Prez’s dismembered body parts in the trunk of his Mercedes. He glanced around quickly then hurried up to his condo. He’d hidden copies of the power of attorney, the Revocable Trust Agreements and the Last Will and Testaments of Precious ‘Prez’ Clarken and Arundel in an envelope taped to the bottom of a dresser drawer.

He made a quick walk through the apartment just to make sure Hippo wasn’t there raiding the refrigerator or watching his flat screen before he made a beeline for the bedroom. He pulled the third drawer of the dresser out, tipped it over and pulled off the manila envelope taped to the bottom.

He removed the documents pertaining to Prez and Arundel, left the documents leaving everything to himself, replaced the drawer, placed the clothing back in the drawer and headed out the door. He stopped at the UPS store and had copies made of the documents and was back in the office just after noon. He worked reviewing more Montcreff files, took a leisurely stroll passed Bennett Hinz’s office then phoned Angie a little after two.

“This is Angie.”

“Hi Angie, Bobby, I….”

“Did you find anything?” the stress in her voice was apparent.

“I think you can take a deep breath and start to relax. When you have a moment come on over to my office.”

She knocked on the door less than a minute later, stepped in and closed the door behind her. “Anything?” There was a slight tremor to her voice and she bit her lower lip as if she was afraid to hear his response.

“Grab a seat,” Bobby said then nodded to one of the two empty client chairs in front of his desk.

She slid into the first chair with her knees locked together and her hands folded like she was about to say a prayer.

Bobby opened a usually empty drawer and pulled the copies of the files he’d had made just before noon. “This goes no further than the two of us, understand?”

Angie nodded, then bit her lower lip again.

“I spoke to one of my friends over at County. They made copies of the file for me.”

“Can they do that?”

He ignored her question. “You’ll note that the filing stamps have been covered so these will appear as the original documents. You can see,” he said sliding the stack of documents over to her. “That these are all relatively simple and are filled out on the standard County forms. Just between you and me, my guess is that Mr. Hinz may have done this work for a friend or acquaintance and did it just as simply as possible, hence the forms rather than some elaborate document. Now that I think about it, he may have done it pro bono, possibly for a charity or social organization.”

“But these are dated from last May, why did he
just
receive the receipt it seems to me that….”

“Do you remember the power failure last spring? The power was out for a couple of days at County. These apparently got caught up in that mess. Occasionally a document surfaces they have no record of, invariably it was filed on the twenty-sixth of May, and if you check the dates apparently that was the case here.”

She seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “God, Bobby, I can’t thank you enough. You are a life saver. I have no doubt, fat ass Hinz would have had me fired by the end of today.”

Bobby smiled. “You just get those filed like it was done on the twenty-sixth of May. Once he gets back from his sauna and massage you can tell Mr. Hinz you found them and let it go at that. He’ll be too busy deciding on what wine he’s going to have with dinner to worry anymore about it. I’ll maybe speak with him later this afternoon, just to smooth things over, might tell him I came across that file in one of these Montcreff documents and foolishly sat on them for a while.”

“Oh, that’s sweet, but I don’t want you getting in any trouble.”

“I won’t be in any trouble.”

“You’re probably right. You sure you’re not with the IRS, the state or the feds?”

“Believe me, I’m not, now you just get those things filed,” he nodded at the paperwork in front of her. “Then have a glass of wine or two when you get home, take a deep breath and relax.”

“God, don’t tell him you found them in the Montcreff files, that might just get him mad or he’ll get Mr. Denton involved and I don’t need that. I’ll tell him I had them filed in temporary holding, waiting until the receipt from County came. The power failure is the reason for all this and I’m pretty sure he’ll accept that,” she said standing up.

“As long as you’re sure that will work.”

“It will, listen, Bobby, if you ever need anything, I mean anything, you just let me know. I’ll do it. I mean it, I really owe you. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Let’s just keep it between the two of us, Angie.”

She stepped over and gave him a big kiss on the cheek and whispered, “Thank you.” Then she gathered up the documents and stopped at the door. “Anything at all, I really mean it,” she said before turning on her heel and hurrying out of his office.