Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine 11/01/12 (14 page)

"Officially or as a caring human being?"

"Can you stop being you for a moment and just tell me what you have in mind?"

I had a moment in which I visualized Wolfgang the extraterrestrial in his
hospital bed, bandaged and receiving drips. My feeling of isolation from the
world I inhabit can be as self-created as his. "Sorry. I'm going to try to
become a better person."

"Perhaps you can postpone that too," she said, looking at her watch.

"I want to start by looking at 3117 Hincot Street. If I can find it."

"Want to follow me and my GPS?"

 
Hincot was a short, dead-end street behind an old shopping center a
couple of miles south of the city's center. It didn't appear to be a bad
neighborhood, but then again, it didn't
appear
much at all. The GPS had
brought us to a dark stretch between two streetlights that didn't work. Or that
had been shot out. I've never owned a gun in all my years as a P.I. but for a
moment I was glad Sam-the-cop was packing.

However, the only trouble we encountered was not being able to see the house
numbers without our flashlights, what with the darkness and the rain.

But we found 3117, which turned out to be the top half of a duplex. Both halves
were dark.

"What do you think?" Sam asked.

"I'm going to walk around back in case Harvey's sitting in his kitchen drinking
himself silly by candlelight. You could make a note of the license-plate numbers
of the cars parked nearby along the street."

"You think one of them is Harvey's?"

There were only a few cars on the street, none parked in front of the duplex, so
the chances weren't good that they were relevant. But who knew?

My squishy stroll around the property did not reveal Harvey lit up round back. Or
any evidence of occupation at all. There were also no cars on the alley pull-in
space behind the house. Maybe everyone was out partying.

But when I returned to the front, Sam's was not the only umbrella over the
sidewalk. She was talking with a woman.

Sam said, "Daddy, this is Laurie. She lives—"

"Across the street and has an orange door." I stepped forward with a hand
extended. "Nicole told us about you. Once we checked to see whether Harvey was
at home we were going to come over and see you."

Laurie's hand was soft and warm, both pleasant qualities to experience when
you're standing under an umbrella on a cold, rainy night.

"Are you a cop too?" Laurie asked.

Sam said, "Laurie came over because she thought we looked like we were
police."

"I leave the weighty burden of badge-carrying to the youngsters," I said.

"I thought maybe you were here because you'd arrested Harvey and wanted to check
out his house, that kind of thing," Laurie said.

"Laurie," I said, "why do you think Harvey's done something to be arrested
for?"

"Can you see my face?" she asked, and turned her head.

Sam lit Laurie's face with her flashlight, revealing puffy bruising around her
left ear and cuts that looked like scratches on her neck.

"Are you saying Harvey did that?" I asked.

"He certainly did."

"Why?"

"He thought I knew where Elaine was, that I was holding out on him."

"When was this?"

"This morning."

"And did you report the assault to the police?"

She hesitated, maybe working out that her answer could be checked. "No."

"Why not?"

"He said it would be my word against his, and that if I told the police he and
his friends would come back and
really
hurt me."

Sam said, "And do you know where Elaine is?"

Laurie hesitated over this too.

I said, "Elaine's with you, isn't she?"

"What?" both women said.

"Elaine is in your house right now," I said. "Isn't she? That's why you couldn't
do anything that might result in Harvey coming back and coming in."

 
Elaine Warren met us just inside the orange door. "Has Harvey been
arrested?" she asked Laurie. "They're cops, right? He's been arrested, right?"
She looked from me to Sam and back to Laurie. None of us spoke. "What?
What?"

"The girl's a cop," Laurie said. "And no, Harvey hasn't been arrested."

"Why
not?"
Elaine was clearly agitated.

Laurie put her arms around her friend and made a face at us to say we shouldn't
upset her more.

I wasn't that worried about upsetting her, but I said, "That's a lovely daughter
you have, Elaine."

"What?" She looked up and pulled away from Laurie's support.

"Nicole. Bright, funny. A real credit to you."

"Is she all right?"

"She's fine. We've left her with a guy from Child Services."

"Child Services?" New panic. "But Wolfgang said he'd look after her," Elaine
said.

"Wolfgang is in the hospital, Mrs. Warren," Sam said. "He was attacked by four
men and stabbed several times."

"No," Elaine said, with disbelief.
"No!"
she cried.

I said, "So the Child Services guy is waiting with Nicole at Wolfgang's. They
both hope you'll come back tonight to pick her up."

"How can I do that?" Elaine was more agitated than ever. "Where could we go? If
Harvey sees me, I'm a dead woman."

"You think he's still looking for you?" Sam said.

"Unless you people lock him away."

"Elaine," I said, "when we came in, why did you ask if Harvey'd been
arrested?"

"Because he's dangerous, and evil. Look what he did to Laurie."

"But the police didn't know what he did to Laurie."

Elaine looked from me to Sam to Laurie. "I just thought . . ."

"What?"

"Oh, I don't know. I don't
know.
I need to get Nicole. But I
can't.
If he sees me . . ."

"You think he'll be waiting for you outside Wolfgang's?"

She thought. "He could be. He probably is. Oh God!"

"Well, suppose we bring Nicole here for the time being."

Sam looked at me uncertainly.

"Would you?" Elaine said. She sounded more hopeful than at any previous time in
the conversation. "Will you? Please!"

12.

 
As soon as Laurie's orange door closed behind us, Sam said,
"Whitney Moser's not going to let us bring Nicole here. Not with a dangerous guy
on the loose who's already threatened to come back to Laurie's."

"No?"

"I wouldn't."

I said nothing.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, dear?"

"What are you up to?"

"Tell me, if you were Harvey and you were looking for Elaine, where would you
wait for her?"

Sam considered. "Wolfgang's maybe."

"Once you've seen the cop cars there? Given that Elaine all but told us that he
was one of the gang that stabbed Wolfgang."

"She did?"

"She expected him to be
arrested,
honey. Even Wolfgang the
extraterrestrial doesn't claim to read minds and if he can't, then the police
sure can't. Arrested for what, since Laurie didn't report him?"

"If he
was
part of that," Sam said, "then he wouldn't hang around while
the cop cars were there."

"So what would be your second choice as a place to wait for Elaine?"

"Well," Sam said, "here, I guess. If he thinks Laurie is helping her."

"And tell me, did you get a chance to look at the cars parked along the
street?"

"Yes. But I haven't called them in."

I said, "Were the windows of any of the cars fogged up with condensation?"

13.

 
Sam and I got in our cars and drove away.

Around the corner and then another block for luck. Sam called for a couple of
squad cars to join her, stressing that they must do it quietly and must avoid
Hincot Street.

The rain might have brought a lot of people out to the ER but it seemed to have
kept most of Indy's malfeasors at home. Patrolling cops were bored. The call for
two cars brought five.

Under Sam's guidance, a couple of them drove up the alley behind 3117 with their
lights out. Once they were in place at the end of the street, Sam and the other
patrol cars filled the street from its open end.

I walked back to the corner to watch. While I waited for Sam to give the go, a
gust of wind blew my umbrella inside out. Then another gust righted it, but left
me with a droopy corner—the umbrella would never be the same again. Was
it a metaphor for life? We survive our trials but we're never quite the
same?

Suddenly the six cars leapt into action, lighting the street with head, spot, and
blue-revolving lights. Moments later, Harvey's car was surrounded with guns
brandished by cops in raincoats. I saw his car's door open a crack. The first
thing out was his hands, held high and in plain sight. Once he was standing by
the car, even from a distance he looked like he didn't know what had hit
him.

I wondered if Harvey figured that his windows being steamed up would make him
inconspicuous because no one could see him in the car. Wrong. His being the only
car on the street with opaque windows made it more conspicuous, not less. Poor
Harvey. Not one of nature's deep thinkers, at a guess.

Elaine didn't
think
Harvey had a gun, but in Indiana you can never be
sure. Hence the aggressive posture of the bored police officers. As it turned
out, he was as unarmed as he was unaware. They didn't even find his knife.

While the assembled representatives of law enforcement secured him ready for
transfer downtown, I crossed and went back to Laurie's orange door, my
umbrella's new flap flapping in the wind.

14.

 
Whitney Moser was sitting on a kitchen chair, concentrating on his
phone. Either he was dealing with weighty matters of child protection or he was
playing on one of his game apps. Nicole was asleep at his feet, curled up on a
nest of mattress leftovers.

Elaine followed me into the house, but as soon as she saw Nicole she rushed to
her and took her in her arms.

"Mom?" Nicole said as she rubbed her eyes and opened them.

It would have broken my heart if she'd woken up like that for anybody else.

Moser and I stepped away and I explained that the abusive boyfriend was now in
custody, that Elaine and Nicole could go safely to the duplex where they'd been
living or stay with a friend across the street.

"That's just as well," Moser said, "because I couldn't allow them to stay on
here."

I thought he meant because of the lack of whole beds but that wasn't it.

"The guy who owns this place," Moser said, "what's his name?"

"Wolfgang. I'm not sure what his full name is." By now he might have changed it
again, to that of someone else whose precociousness he suspected of identifying
a fellow extraterrestrial.

"Well, I've checked the address and he doesn't have any of the permits he needs
to run a refuge,
especially
one with children."

"I don't think Wolfgang intended this place to become anything formal. He just
took in people who asked him for help."

"Well, he'll have to learn to say no," Moser said, "unless he goes through the
authorization procedure. But even if he gets personal clearance, his chances of
being approved for one big open-plan room . . ."

"He means well," I said. "I can't say more than that."

Moser gave me a card. "Have him get in touch with me if he wants to talk about
his options."

I took the card.

But my lack of enthusiasm for bureaucracy's facility for stifling generosity must
have shown because Moser said, "I'm not one of the bad guys, Mr. Samson."

"I worked that out before," I said.

"It's just the way things are."

15.

 
I didn't return to the hospital until the morning. The heavy rain
had stopped at last. Impenetrably gray skies were dropping no more than a
drizzle.

Sam met me there, curious to see the guy who was at the center of the action. And
I was pleased to see that Nurse Matty was on duty again. Or was it still? "Don't
you ever get time off?" I asked her.

"I volunteered for a double," she said, "which tells you something about my
private life."

"It tells me you're a wonderful, caring person who's probably stockpiling her
money in order to open a charitable foundation."

"Me and Bill Gates." She eyed Sam up. "So, who's your friend? Or is this a
nonfriend too?"

"She is, indeed, a friend. As well as being my daughter."

"The cop?"

"Yes."

"And she's
your
daughter?" Matty tilted her head. "Her mother must be
very very beautiful."

I declined to respond. "How's the patient?" I asked.

"He's making me a little uncomfortable, to tell the truth."

"Because of his endless demands for attention and enhanced comforts?"

"Cut up like he is, he should be restless and trying to get more pain relief out
of us. But instead he just lies there."

"And that's a problem for you?"

"He watches everyone come and go, and then he smiles a little smile whenever
someone takes his blood pressure or fluffs up his pillows."

"And says thank you, I bet."

"Every time. It's creeping me out. I'll be glad when we get a normal patient back
in that bed."

"Matty, have you had a personal chat with him?"

"Personal?
Is that man code for something I don't understand?"

"Asked him about himself, his family?"

"No." She peered at me. "Why?"

"Well, don't, if what you like is normal."

"Okay, now you're creeping me out too." She shook her head. "You know where he
is."

"Yeah."

"Nice to meet you," she said to Sam and went about her business.

I led Sam to my nonfriend.

Wolfgang was not asleep. He gave us a little smile when we came in. "Albert," he
said. "And a stranger." He peered at Sam. "Are you two related? Daughter?"

"Thanks for acknowledging my genes," I said. "This is Sam."