The Amazing Harvey (16 page)

Hannah said, “When I was little, a neighborhood boy used to babysit me. I had the biggest crush on him.”

Kevin smiled. He leaned forward and set down the pepper shaker. “Yeah. Guess it's an older-man thing.”

Good, Hannah. You're relaxing him.

She said, “How'd you get back together?”

Kevin told the story we'd pieced together from the e-mails. Sherry came into his restaurant with a girlfriend, he waited on them, they exchanged info, he followed up, and they started dating.

I said, “How'd her old man feel about that?”

He drew back from the table.
Ooops.
Did he just figure out that we knew more than we were telling?

Hannah kicked me under the table.
Ow.
I moved my leg away from her.

She spoke soothingly to Kevin. “Where'd you go on the first date?” He kept looking at me, then turned back to her.

“Raz. This club in Hollywood.”

As he talked about his dates with Sherry, I could see him loosening up.

Okay, Hannah. I won't miss any chances to shut up.

While he told Hannah about his date with Sherry, I reached into my jacket pocket, took out a piece of smooth white rope, and laid it on the table. Hannah glanced at it, looking puzzled, then went back to talking to Kevin.

I saw Kevin's eyes go to the rope, then back to Hannah.

While they spoke, I started tying the rope into a loop knot. Exactly like the one around Sherry's wrists. As the knot took shape, I watched Kevin for a reaction. He glanced down at the rope, looked up at me like I was some kind of whack job, then went back to Hannah.

Hannah gently worked him up to the subject of Sherry's father.

Kevin said, “The old man didn't like me when I was a kid. Probably thought I molested her or something.” He looked back and forth at us. “I'd never do anything like that.”

Hannah and I were both shaking our heads. “Of course not.”

Kevin said, “Both me and her figured it was better if her old man didn't know about our hooking up again. I mean, you know, unless it got real serious or something.” He picked up the pepper shaker and tapped the side, quivering the flakes.

Hannah said, “What's he like? Her father?”

“Tough guy. High-school boxer, I think. Scared the shit out of me when I was little.” His mouth formed a shy grin. “Guess he still does, a little.”

“You said he was really protective?”

Kevin blew an upward puff of air from the side of his mouth, meaning “No shit, Sherlock.”

She said, “Did he find out about you?”

He shook his head. “Not unless she told him. Which I seriously doubt.”

“What happened over the last few weeks?”

Kevin clunked down the pepper shaker. “She wanted to break up.” His eyes got wet.

Hannah nodded sympathetically.

Kevin told a story consistent with the e-mails. She stopped answering his calls, then sent an e-mail saying they should see other people. She said something about dating an older man. Kevin didn't know who he was.

He said, “I loved her. I told her this was bogus. You know, breaking up by e-mail and all that. I said she should tell me to my face. So I kept bugging her until she agreed to see me.”

“Did she?”

“Yeah.”

I sat up straight. So did Hannah.

That wasn't in the e-mails.

Hannah said, “When?” Her voice had a little quiver.

“The night before she…” He bit his lower lip and looked away.

The plastic tablecloth snapped in the ocean breeze.

Hannah said, “What happened?”

A customer walked past us, into the store. Kevin jumped up, ran inside, and stood behind the counter. We followed him in. Hannah was watching him closely. Does she think he's going to run?

Kevin wrote up the order, then came back to us. We walked outside and sat at the table again.

He looked around. “Sherry said I could come by her place. No fooling around, she said. Just one last conversation.” His eyes filled with tears.

I said, “I'm sure she cared about you.”

Hannah kicked me again.
Okay, okay.
I slid away from her.

Kevin said, “We talked for a long time. I couldn't get her to tell me what was going down. She just said she was dating somebody. Wouldn't tell me who. Anyway, I'm crying, and telling her I love her, and then I sit next to her. Then I try to kiss her, and she says, ‘No,' but I can tell she doesn't mean it, so pretty soon, she really doesn't mean it, and we ended up, you know…”

The sounds of the crowd seemed to get louder.

Hannah said, “You think she was going to get back together with you?”

“I dunno. I hoped so. Until that guy came in.”

Hannah and I both said, “What guy?”

A bell inside the restaurant dinged. Kevin jumped up and ran inside. We went to the door and watched him grab a pizza off the kitchen counter, slide it off the round metal tray into a white cardboard box, and hand it to the customer.

From the kitchen, a gruff voice yelled, “Break's over.”

Kevin said, “I just need a second.”

“I don't pay you to sit around.”

Hannah walked toward the back. She said, “We'll be happy to order something. Please give us a minute with Kevin.”

A gray-bearded man's head came over the counter. “Who're you?”

Kevin looked terrified.

Hannah put on a purring sexy look.

Hadn't seen that one before. Kinda nice.

She said, “I'm his cousin from Ohio. Just in town this afternoon. Please, sir, I'd love a few more minutes to visit.”

The old man looked at her. He stared for a few seconds, then waved the air in a “Get on with it.”

Hannah ordered a three-cheese pizza. Kevin put in the order, and we went back to the table.

Hannah said, “So who walked in on you?”

“I know. I shoulda called the cops. I was just, well…”

Hannah patted his hand. “I understand. You were overwhelmed.”

His voice quavered. “Am I gonna get in trouble for not calling them?”

“We'll help you with that. Tell us about the guy. It was a man, wasn't it?”

He nodded. “I don't know much.”

“Just tell us what you do.”

“Well, we were, you know, going at it in her bed. Then I hear her dog bark. I didn't think much of it until I hear this guy's voice in the room. He yells, ‘Slut!' I roll over to get a look but he's gone. I hear her apartment door slam.”

Kevin pulled at one of his earrings.

Hannah said, “Was the dog barking the whole time?”

“No. Just a couple of barks before he came in. Then it stopped.”

“What happened next?”

“I asked her who that was. She wouldn't tell me. Sherry started yelling at me. She said I'd fu—screwed everything up, and told me to get the hell out. She actually hit me. First time she ever hit me.” He started crying.

The bell inside dinged. Kevin grabbed the front of his T-shirt and pulled it up to wipe his eyes. He then jumped up, went inside, and came back with Hannah's three-cheese pizza.

As he set it down on the table, Kevin whispered, “Ernie says I'm gonna get fired if I don't get back in there.”

“Where were you the next night?”

He stiffened. “The night she was…”

“Yes.”

He shook his head. “Working. Right here. You can ask Ernie. There were some regular customers who can vouch for that, too.”

“I believe you.” Hannah stood. “Kevin, you need to tell the police what you know. Ask for Sergeant Morton. He's working this case. Tell him I said to call.” She gave him her card.

He looked down at her card, then up at her. “This says you're a lawyer. You told me you were an investigator.”

She took the pizza. “I do both.”

*   *   *

As soon as Kevin went back inside, Hannah dumped the pizza in an oil-drum trash can.

Didn't you think I might have an opinion before you chucked it? I could smell the hot cheeses.

As we walked back toward my car, I said, “What do you think about Kevin's story?”

“The intruder was almost certainly the new boyfriend. Assuming Kevin is telling the truth and there really was an intruder. Kevin could've killed her because she broke up with him.”

“You think he was lying?”

“On instinct, no. But you never know. We'll see if his alibi is solid.”

I explained why I'd made a knot like Sherry's while we were sitting there.

She said, “Ah. I thought it was the equivalent of weaving baskets in a loony bin.”

I said, “He didn't react to the knot.”

“Might have been too subtle.”

We passed the straitjacket magician, who was packing up. I really should congratulate him. I looked at Hannah. Her face was lined with thought. Maybe I'll congratulate him next time.…

I said, “Sherry's neighbors complained about the barking dog. If it was a quick bark and then it stopped, the dog probably knew the intruder. She lived in a security building. The intruder had to be someone with a key to the building and her apartment.”

“Consistent with the ‘other lover' premise.”

“Or her father. Or like you said, Kevin did it and there was no intruder.”

We walked up Venice Boulevard. I said, “Kevin's story doesn't really help me, does it?”

“He didn't see who came in. It's impossible to pin someone's voice on a single word.” Hannah kept looking straight ahead. “So you could have been the intruder.”

 

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

 

Hannah and I drove down Washington Boulevard, away from Venice Beach, and got onto the 405 freeway. As we picked up speed, I said, “Why'd you keep kicking me under the table at the pizza place?”

“Why do you think?”

“Because I was screwing up whatever line you were on?”

“Right. You have to make people comfortable before you interrogate them. Start with nonthreatening questions. Get them in a talking mode. You kept cutting to the chase. Like when you asked about her father early on. We knew that was a touchy subject from the e-mails. Did you see how he reacted?”

“Yeah.”

She said, “It's like, when you first meet a girl. Five minutes later you don't say ‘Let's hop in bed.'”

“You don't?”

Hannah punched me.
Ow.

We got off the 405 and onto the 101.

Hannah looked at the road. “Do you think I look like a cop?”

“Huh?”

“Do I look like a cop?”

I grinned. “Yeah. You could be on
Law and Order.
”

“I'm serious. Three people asked me that today.”

I shook my head. “Nah. You were just all business suited-up on the Boardwalk. May as well wear a sandwich board that says
UPTIGHT.
”

Her head snapped toward me. “You think I'm uptight?”

“Course not.”

Compared to, say, the Pope.

*   *   *

As we neared the Laurel Canyon exit, Hannah said, “Do you mind stopping at my apartment for a minute?”

“No problem.” I'd love to see you in your natural habitat. “Why?”

“We're running late. I've got to change clothes.”

I shifted in the seat. “Like for a date?”

“Something like that.”

I looked over at her. She was staring straight ahead.

I said, “Who's the lucky guy?”

“Get off on the 134, then turn left on Cahuenga.”

*   *   *

Hannah lived in a three-story apartment building on Cahuenga, just north of Riverside Drive. It was an old Spanish building that was pretty well kept-up, if you ignored the six-foot-long cracks in the stucco. Her living room had overstuffed red furniture with toothpick legs, sitting around a kidney-shaped glass coffee table. Real fifties vibe. In a corner of the living room was a blond-wood desk stacked with piles of papers. I looked away from that area. Don't want her getting any ideas about my organizing that shit.

Hannah went into the bedroom and shut the door. I wandered over to her bookshelf. Top row was a bunch of law books, some with yellow
used
stickers on them. Contracts. Civil Procedure. Torts, whatever those are. I opened the torts book to a random page. Lisa shifted on my shoulder, as though she were reading along with me. Some legal case about fireworks in a subway station.

Below the law books were a bunch of thin paperbacks, all titled
Double Crostics.
I put back the torts book and pulled out one of the paperbacks. Tricky kind of crossword puzzles. Next to that were books with logic problems. I opened one called
Figure This Out.

“If a caterpillar crawls to a leafy bush at a speed of nine inches per hour, eats until it is full, then returns over the same distance at only three inches per hour, what's its average speed for the full trip (not counting the eating time)?”

Hmm. Gotta be … nine plus three, divided by two, equals six. I flipped to the back. Huh? The answer is four and a half. How?

I heard the bedroom door open, jammed the book back on the shelf, and spun around so quickly that Lisa flapped her wings to keep her balance. From the dark bedroom, Hannah's voice said, “What are you doing?”

I looked over, but I couldn't see her. “Just looking at your bookshelf.”

“If you were a dog with that expression, I'd be checking the rugs.”

“The rugs are fine. But I did take a dump on your sofa.”

Maybe I heard a chuckle. At least she's too far away to hit me.

Hannah came through the door, wearing a tight-fitting black dress, a pearl necklace, and dangling pearl earrings. Her face was smoothed with makeup.

“You look … wow.”

She checked her watch. “Let's go.”

*   *   *

When she got in the car, I could smell her vanilla perfume.