Falafel Jones - The Kewpie Killer (27 page)

A big man wearing a Hawaiian shirt said, “Hey, man. Leave her alone.”

Eddie held up his badge. “Back off, Pal. Police business.”

The man said. “I don’t care who you are. Leave my mother alone or I’m going to flatten you.”

As I scanned the crowd, only one person wasn’t watching Eddie. I moved closer and saw Orazio Medici wearing a white crew uniform and pushing a cart stacked with boxes. He saw me looking at him, left the cart and ran.

I yelled, “Eddie, it’s him,” and pointed.

The man in the Hawaiian shirt advanced on Eddie who ducked under his reach and ran for Medici. Medici opened the door to a wooden booth at the end of the dock, went inside and shut the door. Eddie caught up to me and asked, “Where is he?”

“In there.”

We circled the seven-foot tall, five by five foot booth. A sliding board covered the only window. Eddie drew his gun. “Stand back, Raquel.” Then he pounded on the door. “Orazio Medici. This is the Police. Come out with your hands in plain sight.”

I waited for a tense minute but nobody came out. Eddie pointed his gun at the edge of the door and yanked it open. He peered inside and his mouth went slack. “What the…?”

I hid behind him and looked inside the empty booth. “Where did he go?”

“Stay here and watch it.” Eddie shut the door, holstered his gun and walked to the edge of the dock. He lay on his stomach and looked underneath. He came back shaking his head and then pointed at the big guy in the Hawaiian shirt. “Hey, you. Come here.”

The big guy gave Eddie a puzzled look but came anyway. Eddie grabbed two corners of the booth. “Help me move this.”

The two of them moved the booth four or five feet then Eddie got on his knees and examined the dock where it had been. He stood up and smiled.

I asked him, “What’s so funny?”

“When I was nine, I had a magic kit. I sucked at it but I learned one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Sometimes, illusions work because people can’t reconcile what they perceive. They know what really happened but dismiss it because it doesn’t make sense.”

“So?”

“So, we see Medici enter the booth but when we open the door, we see it’s empty. We would dismiss the fact he’s in there because it makes no sense. However, we didn’t see him leave the booth, it’s heavier than it should be and the wood under it is solid. He’s still inside.”

“But how can you arrest him if you can’t find him?”

Eddie carried a waste bin from the dock over to the booth, opened the door and placed the bin inside. Then he walked up to a bystander smoking a cigarette and took it from his mouth. “Easy. Just give him a reason to come out of hiding.” Eddie used the cigarette to ignite newspaper in the bin. When it started to flame, he shut the door. After a few minutes, a crash came from inside the booth. The door opened and the smoking waste bin tumbled out followed by Orazio Medici.

“What do you mean we can’t make it stick? He confessed. I heard it. Raquel heard it. He said he killed Connelly, Burke, Finley and Ryan.”

Assistant District Attorney Amy Gallagher pushed herself up to sit on the edge of Eddie’s desk. Four foot ten and plump with short blonde hair and a tight, yellow, suit, her bulging bust and butt made her look like a fireplug. She wriggled herself back until her feet hung in the air and one of her sling back shoes slid off her heel. She watched it sway from her toes for a while and then said, “Calm down, Detective. When you’re ready to listen, I’ll explain.”

Eddie shook his head side to side. “This is nonsense. We’ve got the guy.”

Gallagher sat quietly, and then she looked at me. “Do you have any idea how to get through to him?”

I shrugged. She may have been right but it wasn’t my job to convince Eddie. It was hers.

She sighed. “The confession won’t hold up. You obtained it at gunpoint, there’s no recording and the only collaboration is your civilian… girlfriend who shouldn’t have been anywhere near the scene.”

Eddie looked at Gallagher and then down at the floor.

Gallagher went on. “One more time. Can anybody place Orazio Medici at the scene for the deaths of Connelly, Burke or Finley?”

Eddie made a face like he tasted something sour. “No.”

Gallagher raised her hands and face to the ceiling. “O.K. progress. Now, in New York, which is out of our jurisdiction anyway, we’ve got proof of Medici in Ryan’s hospital room, but what evidence do we have that he did more than just visit him?”

“We have a gold charm and some finger marks on Ryan’s neck.”

“Good, maybe New York can nail him. Can anyone prove that Medici left either one there?”

“Medici’s wife had a charm bracelet.”

“So do a lot of wives. Is there proof Medici left the charm or that the finger marks are his?”

“No, but what about the attack on Ryan in the tunnel?”

“Was anyone else in the tunnel at the time?”

“Leonardo, his son.”

“Orazio could say it was Leonardo who attacked Ryan. Can the son testify convincingly to the contrary?”

“The son is dead.”

“Exactly. I’ll say it just once more. I don’t have time to explain it over and over. Your best case against this guy is the murder of Rosa Popslowski. Her husband saw her enter a trailer with only one door just moments before he found her inside with a knife in her chest. Aside from a three year old, the only other person in the trailer at the time was Orazio and his fingerprints are on the murder weapon.”

“Can we make a good case with what we’ve got?”

“That depends…”

“On what?”

“Viktor Popslowski.”

“OK, OK. I get it. What do we have to do?”

“Get Popslowski down here to testify and see if New York has anything new they can use to indict Medici there.”

A.D.A. Gallagher gathered her things and flounced out of the precinct. Eddie said, “Geez, Raquel, what am I gonna do?”

“Well, I’d call Robby, get him and Pops down here. There’s enough time for them to catch the last flight tonight. Maybe we can salvage this thing.”

Eddie picked up his desk phone. “Geez, the only reason Haskell couldn’t fire me was because I brought in Medici. When he finds out my case won’t stick, he’ll be all over me.”

“C’mon, we still got a shot.”

* * *

Late that night Robby and Pops met Eddie and me at the Achalaca County Police Station. A.D.A. Gallagher explained the case.

“Mr. Popslowski, there’s no statute of limitations on murder but the time lapse still works against us. Juries often don’t find twenty year old memories credible. Most people don’t recall where they were last week. Plus, we look incompetent. We failed to realize Orazio wasn’t dead and until now, we even had the victim’s identity wrong. If we didn’t stumble on the son and exhume the body, we would have charged Medici with killing a woman who actually died some 16 years later of cancer. A jury could easily find reasonable doubt.”

“But… can we win? Can we get justice for my Rosa… and for Leonardo?”

“The whole case will rest on your testimony and I’ll have to overcome the fact you lied about who died that night and kept up the lie for twenty years. Even if we’re convincing, Medici could get off with involuntary manslaughter. He meant to kill Agnese, not Rosa. It’s a crap-shoot. The guy could even walk.”

Pop leaned over the table and held his head in his hands. “I’ll testify. What other choice do I have?”

A.D.A. Gallagher stood up and placed her hand on his shoulder. “It’s late. Get some rest and I’ll take your statement tomorrow. We’ll give it our best shot.”

Robby asked, “What about nailing him for using Ryan’s credit card?”

“New York got proof that was Medici?”

“No. We’ve got nothing on him.”

“Go get some sleep and we’ll deal with this mess tomorrow.”

Eddie said, “Carlyle, why don’t you and I go see Medici in the morning. See what we can shake loose?”

“Can we be back in time for Popslowski’s statement with your A.D.A?”

“Sure.”

“OK,” Robby said. “I found a motel near the courthouse that’ll take a W.P.D. voucher. They’re holding a couple of rooms. I’ll tuck Pops in and we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Robby escorted Pops out the door and Eddie turned to me. “Well?”

“Well what?”

“Well, now that we’ve locked up Orazia, I’m not so sure where you and I stand. You going back to New York?”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do… I need some time to figure it out.”

“I see, well, you riding with Robby to the motel or are you coming home with me?”

“What’s your preference?”

“I want you to come with me. What’s yours?”

“You don’t need to ask that.”

“If you might be leaving me for New York or an unfinished road trip, yeah, I think I do.”

“Eddie… that’s not it. I love to be with you, but I need time to work things out. I hoped you’d understand.”

He looked up at me with his head tilted and I said, “Eventually, I’ll get to back to Florida… and we can be together… if you still want to… we can pick up where we left off. See who I am… where it goes…”

We both sat without speaking and for the first time that evening, I heard the air conditioner kick in.

After a moment, Eddie got up and asked, “Can we talk and Skype while we’re apart?”

I stood to face him. “We can have video dinner dates again.”

He stepped closer. “Maybe meet in romantic places for week-end rendezvous?”

I pulled him to me. “I love your French.”

“Just so you know… I can be flexible… when I need to be.”

“You’re double jointed? How come I never saw that in bed?”

He hugged me and said, “A guy’s gotta save some tricks for later.”

We kissed and I said, “Speaking of late, c’mon, let’s go home.”

* * *

Back at Eddie’s place, my growling stomach reminded me we never got to eat dinner.

“Geez,” Eddie said, “That you?”

I put my hand on my stomach. “Yeah, not too lady like, huh?”

“I’ve heard worst. Order in some Chinese?”

“Veggie Lo-Mein.”

I turned on the TV news while Eddie called in the order. When he joined me on the couch, he said, “Fifteen to thirty minutes.”

The news ended and a police drama started. After ten minutes of listening to Eddie complain about inaccuracies in the show, my cell phone rang. The display identified the caller as Mom. I motioned for Eddie to mute the TV.

“Hi Mom.”

“Raquel, I found Dad’s notes… from that story the Doctor mentioned. He interviewed hospice patients about their lives. I think this is the story that led him to Florida when he… had his accident.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Here. He wrote, ‘Rosa Bellini (not real name) regrets husband who killed her sister is still alive. Follow up in FL.’ Raquel… do you think maybe the man who killed those people also…”

After Mom finished reading, I started to choke but managed to say, “I don’t know Mom… I gotta go.”

I hung up my phone and Eddie put his arm around me. “What’s wrong?”

I told him what Mom said and asked, “Can there be more to Dad’s death than we thought?”

Eddie said, “Lemme make some calls,” and left the room. I stared at the TV with the sound off until he returned.

“Found out Lenny Conrad investigated the case. Determined your Dad slipped by the hotel pool, cracked his head on the edge and fell into the water.”

“Then it was an accident. Right?”

“Lenny thought so. He’s a good cop.”

Eddie had an odd expression on his face.

“But?”

He sat still for a moment, then, “But nothing.”

“Please. I need to know.”

Eddie took a deep breath. “Lenny said everything looked kosher back then but if he knew a few years ago what we know now, he would have looked at it some more.”

“He thinks someone wanted to… thinks it might not have been an accident?”

“Doesn’t know for sure now… and it’s too late to go back.”

“What do you mean, ‘Too late.’?”

“He already interviewed everyone. The odds of finding someone now who can recall something they didn’t already tell him isn’t too likely.”

“Do you think Orazio… do you think my Dad was…”

“Raquel, I’m sorry. I don’t think we’ll ever know.”

I started to cry. Eddie held me and stroked my hair until the doorbell rang. He took his gun from a kitchen cabinet and tiptoed to the door. When he entered the foyer, I couldn’t see him anymore so I held my breath and listened for anything amiss. Eddie returned to the living room carrying a brown paper bag and I realized how tense his ritual made me. He went into the kitchen. I heard some glass clinking and he returned with two bottles of beer. As he placed them on the coffee table, he sniffed the bag of food and said, “Smells good.”

“Is this why your engagement ended?”

“You asking if Debbie and I broke up because of Chinese food?”

“You know what I mean. This is the fourth time I’ve seen you answer the door and each time you had a gun in your hand.”

Eddie opened the bag and started to unwrap chopsticks. He placed them on the table and crumbled the wrapper between his hands. “I’m a cop. They make me carry a gun for a reason.”

“And living like that doesn’t bother you?”

“Not as much as it would if someone shot me.” He opened a container of what looked like Chow Mein. “Besides, by now, it’s second nature. Why? Does it bother you?”

I opened my Lo-Mein container and poked around in it with my chopsticks. “I don’t know.”

“It bothered Debbie.”

We finished the meal in silence watching the rest of the cop show. For some reason, Eddie stopped pointing out the show’s shortcomings. When it ended, he turned off the TV and said, “It’s been a rough day and we have an early morning. You want, you can have the guest room.”

“I don’t want it.”

Eddie grinned. “Then, I guess the door thing’s not a deal breaker.”

“I don’t have to like everything, it’s part of who you are. You wouldn’t be the guy I want if I changed you.”

“Speaking of want…”

* * *

My Dad must have been on my mind because when I fell asleep I dreamed about driving his MGB with the top down. The sun shined and my hair flapped in the wind. Dad sat in the passenger seat, laughing. He smiled at me and I felt at peace. Finally, I knew where I belonged. I had ink in my blood. I was a newspaperwoman.