Law and Disorder (27 page)

I got P. J. on the phone. “Me again, and don’t interrupt. Are you sure there wasn’t any way that Annalisa Fillmore could have stage-managed that ‘alibi’ for the time of Rollie Thorsten’s death?”

“Hello to you, Tiger. And no, there isn’t any way. I’ve been checking and rechecking. The people she was with are rock solid. And none of them had any reason to love her, let alone lie for her. At best, she was like a permanent hangnail for most of them. Endless harassing letters and time-wasting calls. Most of the people who can vouch for her would have been overjoyed to see her as a viable suspect in a murder case.”

“Did they know that’s why you were asking? It’s not like the police suspected her.”

“I may have suggested the possibility of something tasty if we could put her somewhere else at that time, without revealing what. They were all tempted, but the fact is she was there. All evening. Mind telling me why you’re pushing this?”

“Soon. I promise you will be glad you helped me.”

“High time. I’m always helping you.”

“I just need to check out one small detail, then I’ll let you see something that will blow the top of your head off.”

“Make sure it happens. I’m getting tired of all this one way—”

I hung up and planned my next move. Bunny was the only person who might possibly be able to answer the question as to why Annalisa Fillmore was lying in the morgue. If they had already identified her, that might explain Mombourquette’s lack of cooperative information sharing. And, more worrying, the police would now be actively looking for Bunny. Sure, his house had burned down and he was a victim, but they didn’t believe in him the way I did.

If Bunny wasn’t dead, and now I felt confident that he wasn’t, where the hell was he holed up? His townhouse was toast, and from the stories I’d heard over the years, every member of Tonya’s family and all of her friends had hated the idea of a smart, hardworking girl with her own successful business saddled with a dyslexic, art-loving burglar. According to Bunny, Tonya had cut off contact with most of them. Therefore, it was unlikely that they’d go running to that side of the family.

Bunny had sworn he’d never go back to his old life, that he was steering clear of any lowlife colleagues who could drag him back. I’d believed him. Just to stay grounded, I reminded myself that this wouldn’t be the first time I’d been fooled by a former client who talked a good story. Even so, I couldn’t figure out how Bunny’s recent troubles came from his criminal past. Brugel had never figured in his life.

Mrs. Parnell’s place would have been perfect, yet Bunny hadn’t stayed there long. And stranger still, he hadn’t found a way to let me know where they’d gone or even that they were all right. Why not?

What would have motivated him to hide from me? Elaine and I were the only two people in the world who always stood by him, aside from Tonya, and even she had threatened to walk away if Bunny was involved in something shifty. She was raising a child, so I got that, no question. But I couldn’t imagine what circumstances would cause me to abandon Bunny.

He should have known that. So where the hell was he?

Bunny could have been anywhere.

Or nowhere.

I whipped over to Clearwater with the copied DVD and a new plan. The execution started in the mailroom on the first floor of the building I’d called home for years. I turned my attention to the mailboxes. I had Alvin’s copy of Mrs. Parnell’s keys and decided to use picking up her mail as a cover. I waited until no one was in the room, then began at one end of the mailboxes and moved along. I was checking for boxes that were stuffed with paper, signs of mail not collected for a while. By the time I’d reached the end of the bank of mailboxes, I’d identified two dozen of them, all conveniently identified by their apartment numbers. I checked as I got off the elevator and hustled down the hallway on the third floor. My hunch was that Bunny had felt exposed in 1608. Too many people knew about the connection with Mrs. Parnell and me, and he didn’t want to take a chance. Now that I’d seen what had happened to his home and what could have happened to his neighbours, in retrospect I couldn’t blame him. If it had been my family, I wouldn’t have chosen an apartment on one of the higher floors. If he needed to get out fast, close to ground level would be better.

The third floor seemed like the place to start. I tried not to berate myself for giving a known burglar the run of the apartment building. After all, this was an emergency and an unusual one at that.

I tried the door of 306.

No luck. The door didn’t budge when I turned the handle. There wasn’t much I could do about that: I didn’t own burglar tools and wouldn’t have been inclined to use them if I did. The door at 310 held fast. There were extra locksets on each of these doors. I figured these people probably also invested in deadbolts that were too much for the casual break-in. By the end of the hallway, I was no better off. I took the stairs to the fourth floor and started again. At apartment 428, I paused. There was a crack of light at the edge of the door. I stuck out a finger and gave the tiniest of pushes. The door swung inward, and I popped through it without waiting. Bunny never was much for locking doors.

Inside, Tonya’s face was swollen from crying. She slumped on the sofa in this stranger’s apartment with a blanket over her shoulders, Destiny snuggled beside her.

“Hello,” I said, glancing around for Bunny. “Where’s—?”

Bunny stuck his head out of the bedroom and began pacing, pale and agitated. “You found us.”

“Hi, Tonya. Destiny.”

“I lost my dolly. Daddy’s going to get me another one.”

“Guess what I found?” I said, putting a finger to my lips. “He won’t have to.”

I pulled the ragdoll from my big yellow handbag. Destiny squealed and hugged the doll, then put her hand over her mouth. “We’re not supposed to make any noise.”

I said, “Do you and Mummy want to take your dolly into the bedroom so she can have a nap while I chat with Daddy about big people stuff?”

“So,” I said when they’d closed the bedroom door behind them. “Thanks a lot for giving me all this grief, Bunny.”

“Sorry, Camilla, but I had no choice. I have to protect them. I didn’t know who else might know where we were. I didn’t know that carpet guy, or if I could trust him. His kids were once in trouble with the law. They might still be connected.”

“They’re not connected, but anyway, you can trust me.”

“You can’t be everywhere all the time.”

“I’m here now. And you are going to be arrested for being unlawfully in this apartment. You had access to Mrs. Parnell’s place. You didn’t have to worry about breaking the law.”

Tonya yanked open the door to the bedroom and blurted, “You’re here unlawfully too, Camilla. Probably none of this would have happened if you hadn’t gotten involved. I think the police will have to know that.”

I rolled my eyes, “Good thing you’re an honest citizen, Tonya, because you don’t have what it takes to make a criminal. I know that you’re stressed, but I need you to work with me. Try to remember that I have your best interests at heart.”

Tonya sniffed before retreating to the bedroom and closing the door softly. Bunny paused in his pacing. “Did you see what happened to our house? I had the TV on with no sound just to keep Destiny amused. Tonya freaked. I hope no one in the next apartment heard her carrying on.”

“Lucky for you, most people here work during the day. Look, I’m sorry about your house, Bunny. I know your paintings would have been destroyed too but it was a good thing that the three of you got out of it. You had a close call.”

“Tonya and Destiny are safe. That’s all that matters. But on the news they said a woman was badly burned in the fire. Who was that? One of our neighbours?”

“I thought it was you at first, or Tonya. I was terrified there might be three bodies. Do you have any idea how I felt about that?”

“I never thought about it,” Bunny said. “I’m sorry, Camilla.”

“By the time I heard about the news, I already knew that you weren’t where you were supposed to be, so guess what went through my mind?”

“I told you, I couldn’t stay there.”

“Whatever. You sure can’t stay here.”

“How did you find me?”

“I used to be your lawyer, remember? I knew your MOs.”

Bunny’s hazel eyes teared up. “I thought I’d never have to use any of those again. I’m really serious about going straight. This was a matter of life and death for…” He stared toward the closed door.

“We have to get you out of here and into somewhere safe. You’re going to do what I tell you and not try any tricks.”

I hoped like hell I wasn’t being a gold-plated patsy falling for Bunny’s tales. Of course, I knew if he’d planned it, he could have found a better hiding place and one that wouldn’t come with a spell in the slammer.

“I don’t know if anywhere is safe. I saw people checking out the building. We’ve kept the lights off in the apartment just in case. But it looks over the parking lot, and I can see people watching the windows.”

“You’re a tad too paranoid lately, Bunny, even for this weird situation,” I said. “Of course, who am I to talk? I’ve been worried that my phone or car could be bugged. Conspiracy theories dance in my head. Anyway, let’s get down to work. How about if we get you all out of here? My sisters are away, and you’ll be all right at one of their places. I have keys.”

“I bet they’re watching you too, Camilla. Someone probably followed you here. They’ll just track us, and we’d be sitting ducks. I’m not going to risk it.”

“Unlikely, Bunny. They, if there is a ‘they’ and whoever ‘they’ might be, will be looking for a family of three. We can outfox them on that front.”

“Maybe.”

Bunny was the picture of misery. For the first time I noticed the pronounced shake in his hand. I sat down and looked him straight in the eye. He managed to evade my scrutiny. I said, “Before we go anywhere, I need to know what your connection is with Annalisa Fillmore.”

“Who?”

“Oh, come on, Bunny. Anyone who reads the paper knows…”

“Dyslexia, remember?”

“You watch television. You must see the news from time to time.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know who she is.”

“She’s the crusading mother who has been lobbying for stiffer sentences for people who injure or kill other people while commiting a crime. She’s been advocating a return of the death penalty.”

Bunny stared back at me uncomprehendingly.

“Ring a bell?” I said.

“No, and anyway, why would it? I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, Camilla. You know that’s true.”

I did.

“Death penalty?” he said with a shiver.

“This would be a good time to quit dicking around, Bunny. Who is after you? And what the hell do they want?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know anyone who would want to hurt me. I mean, the guys I used to hang out with, they’re just losers, small-time crooks. They want a fix or a few bucks to blow on a weekend. They’re not evil. They might kill a person in a bar fight, or if they felt trapped in an armed robbery, but they wouldn’t chase my family. So I don’t understand. But I’m really scared.”

“What about Brugel?”

“What about him?” Bunny was practically gibbering by this time.

You can’t really throttle a terrified father, so I fought off the urge. “Is there something I should know, Bunny? Something that connects you and Brugel? The kind of thing that could get your house burned down and someone killed?”

Bunny bit his lip until it bled.

I couldn’t say I blamed him. I was coming up empty trying to find a reason to connect Brugel and Annalisa and Bunny too.

“Well, there must be some connection. Think.”

“But Camilla, I already thought about it.”

“Well, you’d better think harder.”

He stared at me, panic clouding his features. “What is the matter with you? Why are you asking me about Brugel and this woman, whatever her name is?”

“Because she walked right into your home just before it burned down. And I believe that her body was found outside what was left of your house. Is that a good enough reason?”

“Why would this woman that I don’t know and don’t have anything to do with have been in my house?”

“You tell me.”

His voice rose like the whine of a chainsaw. “But I can’t. I don’t understand. I didn’t know her. I can’t think of any reason at all. She’s a stranger.”

I did a little hard thinking myself. I did know that Bunny was dyslexic and never read anything he didn’t have to unless it involved the art world or Destiny. All to say, maybe Bunny did know her and didn’t know he did.

I said, “Is there a computer here? Or a DVD player?”

Bunny shook his head. “No DVD player and I guess whoever lives here took their laptop with them. There’s a TV, but we’re trying to keep the lights down so the people who are watching from the parking lot don’t catch on that we’re here.”

I let that go. No point in arguing with a paranoid person.

“Hang on a bit,” I said. “I’m going to go to Mrs. Parnell’s place. She has a DVD player.”

“Be careful, Camilla.”