The Girl in White Pajamas (24 page)

On
this
sunny, Sunday morning there was no pity party for Bogie McGruder. He sat on a lounge chair watching Bailey as she coaxed Isabella to paddle in the shallow end of the pool. Wearing his white robe, John Carpenter sat down on a chaise lounge near Bogie. Bogie glanced over. “You better have empty pockets.”

John smiled. “That reminds me. You never gave that taser gun back to me.”

“It’s in the office. If you promise to behave yourself, you can have it on your way out.”

John nodded. “No private party this Sunday?”

Bogie smiled. “It’s hard to have a private party with a bunch of people around.”

“Miss it?”

Bogie shook his head. “There are lots of things to celebrate. We’ve got a graduation coming up, an engagement party, a wedding. It’s better to celebrate than brood.”

“This coming from the Dark Knight!”

Bogie glanced at him. “You saying I’m not a happy guy?”

“Those are not the words I would use to describe you. Maybe you’re so happy that you can hide it from the rest of the world.”

“There you go!” Bogie said.

The men watched as Rose joined Bailey and encouraged Isabella to paddle in the water. John said, “Do you know how long I listened to you going on about ‘Pop always says’ and ‘Pop showed me this’ before I found out he’s not your father?”

Bogie said, “My father was an asshole. I’d never repeat a thing he said, and I learned nothing from him!”

John laughed. “Don’t hold back! Just let it pour out. I didn’t mean to get you going. I was just surprised to find out it was Rose’s father you call Pop.”

“What’s wrong with that? You know that expression ‘you can choose your friends but not your family’? Well, I disagree. My family was good for shit so I chose a new one.”

Bogie remembered the summers he spent in Dorchester helping Pop work on the triple decker house. Darryl, Gretchen and Rose lived on the first floor and rented out the two units above them. The first summer Bogie was there he was paying back his father for the cost of the fines incurred and damage to the family car. He had taken it for a drunken joy ride. Surprisingly, Baxter McGruder didn’t charge him for the Emergency Room care Bogie received at Boston City Hospital after Baxter broke the kid’s arm when he beat him up.

Feeling sorry for the boy, Darryl offered to pay the costs and then have Bogie work for him over the summer. Baxter jumped at the chance, glad to have the punk out of the house. Bogie, too, was thrilled to be away from his brutal father. Since Darryl treated Bogie like a real person, Bogie worked harder than he had ever worked in his life. He learned a lot about home improvement from Darryl, and when Darryl didn’t know something they drove to the fountain of knowledge, Grossman’s.

Half way through the summer, Darryl told Bogie that he had worked off his debt, but Bogie disagreed. Darryl knew the kid’s home life was crappy so he started paying him. One week before summer was over, Bogie took little Rose down the street for ice cream. Two white boys started snickering at Rose and calling her a little nigger. They called Bogie a nigger lover. Bogie seemed to ignore them as he walked Rose home. Once she was inside the front door, he dashed down the front steps and ran toward the boys. He stuffed his cone in one boy’s ear after he kicked the other one in the balls. He continued to kick and punch both of them until Darryl pulled him off and held him. The police came and the boys were taken to Carney Hospital. Bogie had to work the entire next summer to pay for the medical bills. Bogie didn’t mind, though, he would have worked for nothing.

John Carpenter watched as Amanda, Zoe and Tiffany lounged on chairs across from the men. Mandie wore a tankini while Tiffany and Zoe wore string bikinis that were little more than strands of yarn. Zoe glanced at Bailey in a black one piece bathing suit. “She still has a ‘baby bump’. Time to hit the gym!” she snickered.

As they giggled, Bailey stared at Amanda then looked away.

John said, “You know, you have to give it to these girls now-a-days. They just put it right out there! Christ! When I was their age, I would have given my left nut for a peek at a box. Now, they shave their twats and show them off for the whole world to see!”

Bogie looked at John and quietly said, “How long has it been since you’ve lived with a woman?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“They don’t shave, they wax.”

“Sor-rrry!” John watched Rose as she talked to Isabella. “You never told me Rose’s father is black.”

After a long pause, Bogie looked over at John. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

John shrugged. “Nothing. I—was just surprised.”

Bogie looked straight ahead and said, “Pop and Rose are my family. I’d be real unhappy if anybody hurt a member of my family.” He pointed his index finger at John, bent it in a trigger-pull position and made a clicking sound before he got up and walked to the side of the pool where Rose, Bailey and Isabella were splashing in the water.

Bogie’s phone vibrated, and he pulled it out of his pocket to check the caller ID. “Hey, Jesus, what’s up?” Bogie said as he answered the phone.

“I hate to bother you with this shit, but I thought you should know,” Jesus said.

“Okay, spit it out!”

“I got a call from George. He said there was something strange at the house, and he didn’t want to bother you.”

“What?!” Bogie asked exasperated.

“Well, the day you left, George and Jack came home late. They saw there were no lights on in the big house. They weren’t that concerned because, well, Kim has a history of taking too much shit and passing out. Anyway, they got up the next morning and noticed the back door was open. They went inside, and there was no Kim. They went through the house and still no Kim, but her stuff was in her room. When they went back down to the kitchen, Jack noticed that Isabella’s bowl of cereal was still on the table with some of those brown balls floating around in it.”

Bogie considered this then said, “So what you’re saying is that Kim’s gone, and it looks like she walked out the door right after we left.”

“That’s about it except for the flowers. George said the flowers on the cat’s grave are all rearranged and…”

Bogie sighed. “Finish it, Jesus, I’m pretty sure I can guess the rest.”

“The grave behind the house was disturbed,” Jesus almost whispered.

Matt MacDonald parked his wife’s dark sedan around the corner from the brownstone and walked down the alley toward the house. As soon as Matt put his hand on the back gate, he heard a loud bang. It sounded like a gun shot, but he figured it was just a car backfiring. When Matt opened the gate and walked toward the back of the house with what appeared to be a key in his hand, a second floor window opened and the barrel of a shotgun was aimed at him. “Nice of you to visit me, Matt!” Jeannie said in her raspy voice. “You come to give me the key to the cellar?” Matt said nothing. He stared up at the shotgun barrel that was pointed at his head while Jeannie wheezed and coughed.

After a few minutes of the Mexican standoff, Matt bravely said, “I’ll be back!” As he turned to leave, Jeannie called out, “You want me to call Triple A! You got a flat tire! How about I call the cops? They’ll help you get that spare tire out of your trunk!”

As Jeannie continued laughing and gagging, Matt backed out of the yard then ran down to the end of the alley where he saw the front tire of his wife’s car blown out. “Fuck’n crazy cunt!” he muttered as he pulled out of a parking space and drove away riding on the rim.

Jeannie took a couple of slugs of whiskey from her bottle then moved away from the window. She lumbered up the stairs to the third floor. Jeannie wheezed as she walked to the back room. When she opened the door, she smiled. Jenny’s little bed was against the wall, neatly made up with matching Cinderella sheets and a comforter. Her dolls were all lined up on the bed waiting for a child to play with them. The child’s wooden table and chair set was in the middle of the floor with the ceramic Pocahontas dish and matching mug. Jennifer’s dark blue Rothschild coat and hat were draped over the back of one chair.

Jeannie sat in a large wooden chair next to an end table that held a large bottle of Seagram’s 7 and a water glass covered with smudges. She poured four fingers of whiskey and drank it straight. “It won’t be long now, Jenny,” she said and smiled.

Matt MacDonald sat across from Jack staring at him. “Let me see if I understand this. You drove her car into Boston on a Saturday night during a storm, dropped her off then went all the way around the block to park it in a garage next to her building.”

Jack stared at him but finally said, “No.”

“You didn’t drive around the block to park in a garage next to her building?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Why?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “It’s a one way street.”

“So why’d you say you didn’t?”

Jack sighed. “You keep insisting I drove Bailey’s car. I drove my own car.”

Matt MacDonald sat frozen. “But
you
said…” His swollen fingers fisted.

Jack shook his head.

Matt sputtered, “But
she
said…”

Jack sighed again. “I doubt that.”

Matt slammed his notebook shut and stood up. He pointed a thick finger at Jack. “You’ve both played games long enough!” He stormed out of the office determined to get those fuckers. They thought they were so clever!

A man sat in his unmarked car and punched in a telephone number. When Darryl Jones answered his phone, Mike Wislowski said, “Hi, Darryl. You said to let you know if anything happened on the McGruder case.”

“Yes?” Darryl responded.

“Well, Matt MacDonald’s outdone himself this time. Is Rose still involved with that piece of shit?”

The women were gorgeous, the men were handsome as they celebrated Amanda, Tiff and Zoe’s graduation from high school. Isabella, wearing her lacey white dress, moved through the reception area chatting with guests as she explained to all her new admirers that her white dress was like
the bride’s
dress. Since most of the guests already knew Amanda was engaged, they assumed she was trying to emulate her older sister. They didn’t realize that Isabella had brought the overpriced dress from her closet at home.

The caterers served almost one hundred people, among them Tiffany’s father, Paul Gallagher, a lieutenant with the Riviera Beach Police Department and Zoe’s father, Martin Ziegler. Although both men paid for new apartments for their daughters, neither saw fit to have a graduation party for them. Tiffany Gallagher’s father leased a modest apartment for her in the Village of Palm Springs. Martin Ziegler rented a pricey apartment for Zoe in City Place. Bogie suspected that Paul Gallagher didn’t want to deal with another embarrassing scene from his wife whose alcoholism was acknowledged by everyone except her. Martin Ziegler had just married a wealthy divorcee after a contentious divorce from Zoe’s mother. The mother moved back to New York, and Martin moved to South Ocean Boulevard.

Although Tiffany and Zoe would not have been Bogie’s first choice as friends for Amanda, they were her friends so he always tried to make the girls feel welcome.

Bogie was relieved that Amanda finished high school. He encouraged her to share the spotlight that evening with Tiffany and Zoe. He ordered three small identical graduation cakes, each with one of their names on it.

Amanda was a smart kid but had no interest in school. College would have been a waste of time and money. Now Amanda’s only concern was when she could officially announce her engagement so she could have another party. As happy as he was for one daughter, he watched the little redhead every minute.

While Mother McGruder slept and Margarita’s sister guarded the door, Ann enjoyed meeting and greeting other guests. With Dolores by her side, Ann showed off her social skills with style and grace. Carlos and Margarita were the flashiest couple at the party. He was shirtless wearing a white suit with only gold chains decorating his chest. Margarita with her long, dark hair falling to her shoulders had on enough eye liner and mascara to make her large brown eyes look enormous. She wore a bright red dress that fit like body paint. The outfit was set off by a pair of silver Manolo Blahnik five-inch-high, strappy sandals.

As the guests started to depart, Bailey rounded up the little entertainer. Bogie gestured for Bailey to lock the bedroom doors in case she fell asleep and Isabella got up and wandered. Bogie turned to Amanda and motioned for her to follow him. They walked into his office off the lobby. He could hear Isabella chattering through the connecting door to the bedroom.

Amanda sat down and shook her head. “Please tell me I wasn’t that much of an attention whore at her age.”

“No. You were a quiet kid. You waited till you were a teenager to act out.”

“Like you were the perfect teenager! Aunt Annie told me stories of some of the crap you pulled. No wonder Grandpa wasn’t too crazy about you! Did you really hot wire their car and get caught drunk driving when you were sixteen?”

Bogie nodded. “Enough about me, let’s talk about you and Tiff and Zoe and some—”

Amanda held up both hands in mock surrender. “Let’s not!”

Bogie opened the middle drawer, and pulled out a check. “I believe this is yours.”

Amanda stared at the check. “You didn’t have to give me the whole thing.”

“It’s your money. Spend it wisely because you’re not getting another payout until you’re twenty-five.” The check was the first of three large annuity payments for settlement of the claims made for the deaths of her step-mother, Olga, and her sister, Barbara. Bogie wouldn’t touch the money. He considered it blood money but believed Amanda was entitled to it since she suffered at the hands of Olga and Baxter McGruder. To Bogie the whole bogus marriage and living arrangement was a chance to get enough money to start a new life with his daughter and Bailey. He thought the thing through carefully, but forgot one important detail, the detrimental effects the arrangement would have on his only child.

Bogie never trusted his father and was wary when the old man came to his office with a proposition that entailed Bogie marrying Baxter’s immigrant lover. At first, Bogie laughed at him. But Baxter McGruder waved the golden carrot in front of Bogie. He showed him the deed to property in his name in Palm Beach. Although Bogie feigned indifference, he was shocked that his father could own property anywhere near South Ocean Boulevard where the homes sold for millions of dollars. At first, Baxter promised that at the end of two years he would deed the property over to him. Bogie told his father to get the hell out of his office. He knew Baxter was a liar and a cheat and couldn’t be trusted to keep his word. Baxter returned two weeks later saying he would turn the property over to Bogie but Bogie had to sign a document promising not to sell the property. Bogie told the old man to fuck off. A week after that, Baxter McGruder agreed to turn the property over to Bogie but wanted Bogie’s verbal assurance that he wouldn’t sell it. Bogie agreed knowing he’d sell the property the first chance he got before the old man found a way to screw him out of it.

Bogie knew that Olga and Baxter figured she’d get at least half the property in a divorce settlement so he retained Monroe Inker to draw up a pre-nuptial agreement. Baxter and Olga went ballistic when they learned he had the best, ‘Mr. Divorce’, draw up the agreement.

Baxter ridiculed Bogie for having Olga sign the pre-nup. Baxter told his son he was paranoid and thought everybody was out to get him. Didn’t he have anything better to do than spend thousands of dollars for a pre-nuptial agreement? Bogie was immovable and prevailed. Whatever schemes Baxter and Olga planned when the marriage ended would be significantly thwarted by the agreement. As it turned out, the marriage dissolved with her death, and Monroe Inker met his maker about the same time.

Bogie had placed the property on the market within twenty-four hours of the deed transfer and sold it one month later. He put aside a chunk of money for taxes and looked for a commercial property he could fix up. He found the run-down apartment complex in the Village of Palm Springs a month before Baxter, Olga and Barbara McGruder were killed in the car accident.

When Bogie and Amanda flew to Palm Beach, it was to pass papers on the property and do preliminary estimates of the work to be done. The passing took place a week later in Good Samaritan Hospital where Bogie was recovering from a heart attack and preparing for open heart surgery.

Amanda looked at the check, then at Bogie. She smiled. “We’re going to buy a house.”

Bogie only nodded.

When Bogie and Amanda returned to the party, Ann and Dolores were talking to Rose. Dolores opened her mouth to speak, and Rose put up a finger to stop her. Rose opened her cell phone. At that moment, Bogie’s phone began to vibrate. He then heard the office phone ring. All Bogie could think of was ‘third man on a match’ with the third guy getting shot. A feeling of foreboding enveloped him.