The Beast (19 page)

“I agree we can’t get tunnel vision, but it adds to Penny’s weird quotient.” Decker leaned back in his desk chair and turned to Marge. “What’s left on our checklist?”

“Wanda and Drew are interviewing the neighbors . . . not all of them are home because the building is scheduled for fumigation on Tuesday. You also wanted me to look up exotic pet dealerships. You’re interviewing the Shoops tomorrow.”

“Who are the Shoops?” Oliver asked.

“Neighbors of Hobart Penny who complained about noise coming from one of his apartments.”

“What kind of noises?”

“Growls. I’m going to talk with them Sunday afternoon.”

“When are Penny’s two children coming to L.A.?”

“Monday night.”

Wang took out a notebook. “What are their names?”

“Darius Penny and Graciela Johannesbourgh.” Marge spelled it. “Sabrina Talbot is also coming in on Tuesday for the service.”

Lee lifted the print cards. “I’ll take these to an examiner. Then I’ll start making cemetery calls.”

Decker nodded, and Wang left the office. Marge stowed the Bruce Havert photocopies in her purse. “I’m off to see the chicken lady . . . maybe she can identify Bruce Havert. Even if she can’t, I’m starved.”

“I’ll come with you,” Oliver said. “I’m hungry, too. You need something, Rabbi?”

“No. I’m okay for now.”

Alone and in silence, Decker heard his stomach growl. He was going to call up Vignette Garrison, but it was almost three and he hadn’t eaten all day. Like any good engine, he needed fuel, and since his house was only fifteen minutes away, it made sense for him to eat at home.

Rina would have leftovers in the refrigerator.

He loved his wife. He wished he were a better husband. Not that he was a bad husband, but he wasn’t around a lot. Rina never complained about his prolonged absences. She took care of herself. She liked to read and do puzzles. She liked to watch TV and listen to music. She exercised daily. She prayed daily. She learned Bible daily. She taught at the local Jewish high school. She kept in contact with all the kids, including Cindy. She called up her parents and often called up his parents. She spent time trying to help everyone else solve their problems. She had a very good capacity for solitude, but she was still very social. Even as he grumped, she dragged him to parties and affairs because it was “the right thing to do.” He always wound up having a good time. She seemed to know when to push him and when to hold back.

She knew what was good for him—much better than he did.

Their marriage was a successful one. It only seemed fair that he gave credit where credit was due.

S
HUFFLING THROUGH THE
photo array of the Bruce Haverts, Ki Park, better known to Marge and Oliver as the chicken lady, peered at each sheet with concentration and purpose. Neither detective rushed her, each one of them content to eat and wait.

“This one he-ah,” Ki finally announced. “Next-door man . . . but older man now.” She tapped the picture. “Not like this.”

Marge finished chewing a french fry. “The man next door . . . how old was he?”

“Man next door?” Ki thought a moment. “Oh, forty, fifty.”

Oliver looked at the photograph she had identified. “So this is the same man as next door, but in this picture, he’s much younger.”

“Ye-ah. Much younga.”

“You’re sure they are the same man?”

“Same man. He like drumsticks—fried and baked. Always with onion ring. He put five dollars in tip jar.”

“Thank you very much, Ki. You’ve been really helpful. Could you pack the rest of my lunch to go?”

“Mine, too,” Oliver said.

“Why you rush off?” Ki said. “Not good for stomach. You stay.”

The woman was lonely. On weekends, the traffic in the strip mall was light and business was probably dead. The two detectives exchanged glances. Marge said, “You’re right. We’ll finish here.”

Ki said, “I give you refill of soft drink.”

“I’m fine,” Marge told her.

“It free. You take it. You too skinny.”

“Well, okay then.” Marge held back a smile. “Your chicken is delicious. You know? I’m having company over. Could I get a whole rotisserie chicken to go?”

“Oh sure . . . right away.” Ki gave a hint of a smile, and then covered her mouth. “You take fries, you take coleslaw and I give you biscuit for free. Deal?”

“Deal.” Marge pushed aside her plate. “I’m going to get a little air. I’ll be back in a minute to pick up my food.” She left and Oliver followed.

He pulled out his cell. “Who’re you having over?”

“No one. I’ll split it with you, and we’ll both have food in our refrigerators.”

“Sounds good. The larder is pretty bare.” Oliver punched in some numbers and waited. “Hey, Lee, we have an identification on one of the Bruce Haverts you pulled up . . . the one who was a dealer in Vegas . . . Great. Tell Decker and we’ll be back in about ten minutes.” He hung up. “Lee said he’ll get right on it.”

“I’ll get the chicken.”

Oliver pulled out a twenty. “My treat. Tell her to keep the change.”

“Why, Scott. You old softie.”

“Not really. I just appreciate anything done correctly, and the lady makes a damn good chicken.”

DECKER LOOKED AT
the printout: Bruce Havert born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the year of his birth telling them he was forty-three. Not much in the way of biography. From the ages of twenty-six
to forty-one, Havert worked as a blackjack dealer at Havana! in Las Vegas. During his sojourn in Vegas, the man had been arrested for two DUIs, one drunk and disorderly, one misdemeanor conviction of possession of marijuana. He had no current wants or warrants. For the last two years, he seemed to have walked off the face of the earth. “Not Mr. Joe Citizen, but for a Vegas dealer, it’s pretty clean.”

Marge said, “Yeah, he did hold down a job for fifteen years.”

Decker said to Lee, “Did you call up Havana!”

“Yes, I did,” Wang said. “Someone’s supposed to get back to me, but as soon as I mentioned
cop,
I felt the brick wall come down. I’m not holding my breath for a callback.”

“What’d you say that made them mute?” Decker asked.

“All I asked for was a verification of his employment.”

Oliver said, “From our last job in Vegas, that’s typical with the big casinos. The big guys are very private with their own policing and their own policies.”

Marge said, “You know? We made contacts from the Adrianna Blanc/Garth Hammerling case. Rodney Major and Lonnie Silver. They work North Las Vegas, not the strip, but it’s something. I’ll give them a call.”

Oliver said, “What brought Havert to L.A.?”

Decker said, “And until last week, he owned or managed a massage company. Maybe he was pimping women while he was in Vegas and decided on a change of scenery. Or maybe he was run out of town.”

“Or the Vegas market was saturated,” Marge said. “Less competition out here, or it’s more spread out.”

Decker said, “Where is he?”

“I’ve tried Facebook and LinkedIn, but struck out.” Wang stood up. “There are other networking Web sites. And Casey’s Massage and Escort did have its own Web site at one time. I’ll backtrack . . . see if I can dig up some leads.”

After Wang left, Decker took out a piece of paper and began to doodle. “Let’s think this through. What
do
we know?”

Marge ticked off a list. “Penny had a single gunshot wound—a twenty-two—to the back, but more than one round was fired. We haven’t found the gun. Penny was also clubbed in the head. No weapon found with that either. He was a recluse who collected wild, poisonous, and venomous animals. He had a tiger. The only one that seemed to know anything about the tiger is Vignette Garrison.”

“Yes, she is definitely still in the picture,” Decker said.

“She admits visiting him a few days before he died and giving the tiger the shots, so she’s really in the picture. Plus, she’s the only person we’re aware of that could have done something to Penny and not have the tiger eat her alive.”

“All true.”

“But you don’t like her as a suspect.”

“I still think that Penny was worth more to Vignette alive than dead.”

Marge wasn’t so sure. “We also have a tape of two women with massage tables parked across the street from Penny’s apartment. The women were driving blue Priuses. The license plate of one of those cars was registered to Casey’s Escort and Massage—a business owned or managed by Havert.”

Decker tried to keep a train of thought going. “And we like Casey’s because Penny had a thing for weird sex and also because George Paxton said that he had seen sexy women going into Hobart Penny’s apartment, some with massage tables.”

Oliver said, “Plus Casey’s was cleaned out right after Hobart Penny’s murder and none of us are big ones for coincidences.”

Marge said, “Which apartment did Penny use for his women? Obviously not the ones with the snakes and bugs.”

“Who knows with that whack job?” Oliver said. “Did you talk to the shrink?”

“Still waiting for a callback.” Decker checked over his notes. “Paxton said neighbors complained about noise from the apartment directly under him. It’s being processed by SID, just to make sure nothing was butchered there.”

Oliver said, “So if SID is in the building, what’s going on with the fumigation?”

“That’s been scheduled for Tuesday,” Decker said. “Wanda and Drew had notified almost all the residents. They haven’t come up with any new information. Most of them didn’t even know the old man existed.”

“So when are we talking to the neighbors who complained about the noise?”

“The Shoops. Tomorrow at four in the afternoon. Did you get a chance to call any of the mortuaries?”

“Two,” Oliver said. “No one’s around. It’s a skeleton staff.”

Marge laughed at the pun. “We should probably go down in person. We can do the close ones tomorrow, and the others we’ll take care of on Monday.” Her phone beeped and she regarded the text message. “That was Darius Penny’s secretary. He’ll be here Monday after four. He’ll call when he gets in.”

“What about the sister?” Decker asked. “The countess somethingberger. Is she coming in?”

“Graciela Johannesbourgh. I’ll call up the foundation and get an ETA.”

“Sounds good.” Decker stretched. He had spent all of Shabbos working and had little to show for it. “It’s getting late. We can call it a day.”

Marge said, “Do you want me to stop by the apartment and check in on SID? It’s on my way home.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“I’ll come with you,” Oliver said. “What about you, Rabbi?”

“I’ll leave in a few minutes. Finish up some paperwork.” Decker waited until his office was quiet. But he didn’t pick up his memos, nor did he deal with his pink phone slips. Instead he pulled out his cell and clicked on to his contact list, staring at a cell number, wondering if it was operable. Donatti had a predilection for changing phones.

Decker loathed the idea of asking him for help. Donatti was an ace in the hole: and Decker wasn’t in the hole just yet.

IT HAD BEEN
gloomy all weekend. Sunday morning’s drizzle had turned into afternoon rain, droplets falling, speckling the asphalt of the parking lot. Even though it had been her suggestion, Gabe was convinced that she’d chicken out, especially once she saw the dump she had chosen.

The room was seedy, but not nearly as dirty as he expected. He knew it had been recently cleaned—the garbage cans with empty liners, a vacuumed carpet, and fresh sheets—but being there made him itchy. He checked his watch for the fiftieth time. Then he drew back the curtains and peeked out the window. Repeating the same thing over and over and over until a pewter daylight started to give way to a dreary, wet night. He’d promised Rina he’d be home by eight. If things kept going this way, he’d be home way before his self-imposed curfew.

Finally, at 4:03, he saw a car enter the lot—a four-year-old, black Mercedes. It was all shadows outside, and bright headlights caught the dance of the rain as the Benz pulled into a parking spot. Gabe grabbed his coat and stood outside the motel room, waiting under the portico. The emerging figure was tiny, dressed in a yellow raincoat, jeans, and black boots. No umbrella. He ran to her and protectively slipped his coat over her head, and the two of them dashed inside the room. His heart was thumping in his chest and it wasn’t because of the sprint.

He threw his coat on the chair and helped her off with her slicker. She was wearing a sweatshirt underneath. The hood was drawn over her head. He rubbed her arms. “Cold?”

“A little.”

“I was getting worried.” Yasmine was silent. “Second thoughts?”

“Maybe.”

Yasmine was looking at him with those gorgeous black eyes. She was as beautiful as ever. Her pixie childlike features had matured into something breathtaking. He hadn’t seen her in over a year, and he was as smitten as the day he first kissed her. For him, time and space suddenly
compressed. There wasn’t any world beyond the two of them. Gabe said, “We can leave. You know I’d do anything you want.”

She broke away. “I don’t know what I want.” She stood in front of the drawn curtains. On a table was a bag from Subway and a bouquet of flowers.

Gabe said, “Those are both for you.”

“And here I thought you were into decorating.” A pause. “God knows the place could use it.”

“We can go, Yasmine. Let’s just sit in the car and eat dinner together.”

She picked up the flowers—yellow roses with jasmine vines. He’d taken time out to personalize the bouquet. “They’re beautiful, Gabe.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome.”

She brought the flowers to her nose and inhaled. “I listened to the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata.”

“What’d you think?”

“Pretty dazzling.” Another smile. “I can hear you playing it in my brain . . . your phrasing . . . see your fingers flying. It’s weird because it’s very vivid.”

“How did I do?”

“You played magnificently, as always.”

“Thanks. But all of it is rubbish compared to you.” Gabe walked over to her and pulled her hood down. He drew his hands through her luxurious hair and released it from the jacket—a cascade of black waves that almost reached her waist. “Man, your hair got long.”