Worse Than Being Alone (30 page)

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Somehow I had managed to fall asleep. My dream
involved Harley taking a bath in a tub filled with tomato juice,
cursing my name with venom. The tapping noise interrupted the next
scene and woke me up. I was laughing when I looked over and saw
Cindy standing on the passenger side of the Pilot. She clutched her
carry out bag, and had a satisfied grin on her face. Cindy climbed
in and handed me the bag.

“
What were you laughing about?”
Cindy asked.

“
I was dreaming Harley was taking
a bath in tomato juice to get rid of the skunk smell.”

“
Does that work?” Cindy
asked.

“
I don’t really know. All my
research was about getting him skunked. How did it go?”

“
Mission accomplished,” she said.
“A few bumps along the way. I must have given Ho a strange look
when she brought my water, but I pulled it together and she lost
interest. When no one was looking, I switched glasses. I wrapped it
in a small towel I had in my purse.”

“
Good job. Wow, this stuff smells
fantastic. Ho may be a comp cheat and God knows what else, but if
she owns this restaurant, she’s got a winner.”

“
Are we going to follow her when
she leaves here?” Cindy asked.

“
Might as well. We can see if she
goes back to Shaw or somewhere else. In the meantime, I’m having
lunch. Do you want the egg roll?”

“
No thanks,” Cindy
said.

I was just opening the top of the carton when the
black Mustang pulled up in front. Disappointed my lunch would be
delayed, I put the carton back in the bag. The tracking device was
still attached to the undercarriage of the Mustang and pinging,
affording us the luxury of following from several blocks away and
out of the driver’s sight. It became obvious we were headed for the
Shaw Avenue house when we exited the highway.

“
They’re headed for the same
place,” Cindy said.

“
Yeah, let’s park down the street
and watch for a while. See if the same kind of thing is going
down.”

I made a right turn on a side street one block over
from Shaw Avenue and almost hit a large black SUV that was blocking
my path. No sooner had I stopped and another black SUV pulled up
behind, blocking any escape. Before I could react, armed men in
black clothing carrying menacing looking weapons rushed to both
sides if the Pilot.

“
This doesn’t look good,” Cindy
said.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Arnie Feldman seemed to consider Roni’s question for
a long time before he answered. It didn’t help matters when his
mother shuffled in to ask if his appointment had been canceled. She
seemed surprised to see Roni sitting there as if she had magically
appeared. Arnie escorted his mom out to the front desk and
returned.

“
Wow, time to start checking out
the homes,” he said. “You know, I know there was fight over Ben’s
ashes but I can’t remember the details. Marian had become a pariah,
you see. Most people knew the Wrights and took their side. Why
don’t I call them and see if they’ll talk to you?”

“
That would be great,” Roni
said.

Fifteen minutes later, Ben Wright’s parents, Alan
and Monica, were sitting next to Roni in Arnie’s office. Arnie’s
mother was fully awake and totally engaged now that there was
gossip involved. She had tried to stay in the room after the
Wrights arrived but Arnie shooed her out. Roni was certain the old
woman was probably listening in somehow.

“
Thank you for coming Mr. and Mrs.
Wright,” Roni said.

“
Alan and Monica, please,” Monica
said. “Arnie said your dad is married to Marian, is that
right?”

“
Yes, they’ve been married a
couple of months,” Roni said.

“
Let me guess,” Monica said.
“She’s started doing some things that made you suspicious so you
decided to check her out.”

“
Yeah, it’s exactly like that,”
Roni said, laughing.

“
Now Monica,” Alan Wright
said.

“
Don’t you Monica me Alan,” she
said. “If I had acted on my suspicions five years ago Ben might
still be alive. I know I’m biased but Marian is a gold
digger.”

“
Ben wasn’t perfect, either,” Alan
said.

“
That’s true,” Monica said. “We’ve
had a lot of time to think about our parenting mistakes. We had two
sons, Mark and Ben. Mark is a doctor and lives in St. Louis. Ben
was the baby and we spoiled him terribly. He got into drugs and
alcohol in high school. The truth is, Ben was an addict with all
the bad behaviors that go with that.”

“
I think he met his match with
Marian,” Alan said. “At least that’s what I think now. We didn’t
even meet Marian until after they were married. Ben was an
accomplished liar. I think he thought Marian had a lot of money. He
worked at our dealership but didn’t make a lot of money. We
couldn’t trust him with money because it all went for
drugs.”

“
It was the only job he could do,”
Monica said. “He’d been fired from every other job he ever had. He
told Marian he was part owner of the dealership. I guess Marian
thought he was wealthy.”

“
Maybe they were meant for each
other,” Alan said. “They started fighting over money and Ben kept
coming to us for cash.”

“
Been there, done that,” Monica
said. “Ben got sick and Marian came to us for help. We paid for his
medical bills but that was it. They were fighting and Ben kept
going downhill. When we got the call about the accident we weren’t
really surprised. We knew it wasn’t going to end well.”

“
We should have tried an
intervention,” Alan said. “We should have sent Ben to an
out-of-state rehab place away from us and away from
Marian.”

“
I know what you’re going to say,”
Monica said. “Hindsight’s great and all of that. You know, we never
investigated Marian. We felt so guilty and were just devastated. By
the end, I think we were just exhausted. What have you found out
about her?”

“
My father is her sixth husband,”
Roni said. “Only one of the other five is still alive. The others
all died and were cremated.”

“
Oh my,” Monica said. “Do you
think Marian killed them and then had them cremated?”

“
I can’t prove that,” Roni said.
“It’s really just speculation.”

“
That’s part of the reason I
called you,” Arnie said. “I remember there was a fight about
cremating Ben.”

“
Yeah there was,” Alan said.
“Marian wanted Ben cremated right away but the coroner stepped in
and wanted an autopsy. We thought Marian wanted to hide the fact
Ben was drunk and high. You think she was trying to hide something
else?”

“
Well, again, it’s just
speculation,” Roni said. “So after the autopsy, was Ben
cremated?”

“
We wanted to bury Ben,” Monica
said. “We hired a lawyer but Marian prevailed.”

“
That’s a shame,” Roni
said.

“
Would they be able to determine
anything from the ashes?” Alan asked.

“
I don’t know,” Roni asked.
“Why?”

“
We never turned Ben’s ashes over
to Marian like we were supposed to,” Monica said. “She kept calling
and demanding that we give them to her.”

“
I think she wanted to go back to
the judge,” Alan said. “By that time she was probably running out
of money. Would Ben’s ashes help?”

“
I know just the person to ask,”
Roni said. “Would you be willing to release Ben’s
ashes?”

“
In a New York minute,” Monica
said. “Imagine that. When all is said and done, Ben nails Marian.
Kind of makes you believe in God and karma.”

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Our kidnapping had taken place in less than a minute
in broad daylight on a secluded street. I had been pulled from the
driver’s seat and placed between two armed men in the back seat of
a black SUV. Cindy had been grabbed and placed in the same position
in the twin vehicle. One of the men had jumped in the Pilot and was
heading up the rear of our little convoy.

My one attempt at a question had been met with a
profanity-laced admonishment intended to discourage further
conversation. It actually worked fairly well since I was too
terrified to try again. I kept imagining a dark room with harsh
lights and one of David Tran’s goons beating us into
submission.

Of course, I would tell them absolutely anything
they wanted to know without the beating. In fact, I would blurt it
all out before they asked the first question. I would even admit
for the first time, that yes, I was the one who put the dead rat
under Schulte’s bed in college. I can truthfully say I had never
been more scared in my entire life.

We were headed for the heart of downtown St. Louis
and I considered screaming or trying to jump over one of the goons,
but when I looked at them that thought quickly dissolved. I
wondered about Cindy and what her aura reads were on this bunch. It
seemed like I could smell my own fear so I prayed for survival and
for not peeing my pants, which of course would only add to the
stench.

I was more confused than relieved when the driver of
the SUV pulled into the ramp leading to the underground entrance to
the Thomas Eagleton Federal Building. My relief that my kidnappers
weren’t David Tran’s goons gave way to the realization this
particular goon squad belonged to the Federal Government. I
couldn’t imagine what we had done that could account for this kind
of treatment.

The SUV pulled next to a bank of elevators. We were
hustled into separate cars that took us to the eighth floor, where
we were hustled into separate interrogation rooms and told to sit
down. It was the strangest feeling, sitting there looking at the
mirror on the wall, knowing someone on the other side was probably
staring at you. I was still scared, but there was also a little
slow brewing anger building. I was also worried about Cindy, whose
fragile mental health concerned me.

After the longest 10 minutes of my life, a short but
very buff looking man wearing a suit walked in the room, slapped a
file on the table, and sat down across from me. If that was
intended to intimidate me, it worked.

“
My name is Special Agent Douglas
Prentice,” he said. “Why have you been following Nguyan Thj
Dung?”

I thought about asking for an attorney and refusing
to talk, but I couldn’t think of anything we had done that could be
considered remotely illegal. Besides, I was really starting to get
pissed off.

“
Why were we kidnapped on a public
street?” I countered.

“
This will go a whole lot better
for you if you just cooperate. There are any number of things you
could be charged with.”

“
Why don’t you enlighten me then?”
I asked. “Because honestly, I can’t imagine anything we’ve done
that’s illegal.”

Prentice breathed heavily, as if I were being a pain
in his ass, and finally said. “Nguyan Thj Dung is the subject of a
federal investigation. You could be charged with interfering with a
federal investigation.”

“
OK, was that so hard?” I asked.
“I’m a private investigator. My agency was hired by Matt Daniels at
Tri-State Insurance. Dung filed a workers’ comp claim and Matt
thinks it’s fraudulent. We were hired to check it out. Look, my
brother Dave Meyer is a member of the Major Case Squad. Why don’t
you call him and check me out?”

Conversation seemed to be a problem for Agent
Prentice, who sat there considering my response. Finally he stood
up, closed the folder, and headed for the door.

“
Wait a minute,” I said. “What
about my companion? What about my one phone call?”

The door closed behind Prentice and I was left alone
again to contemplate the next stage. I decided I was going to play
the lawyer card the next time Prentice returned. I figured any
further admissions on my part would only get me in more
trouble.

Thirty minutes later, to my intense relief, my
brother Dave walked in the room with a sardonic grin on his face. I
had seen that look on his face during our childhood and it usually
meant I was the victim of some kind of prank.

“
So, Dave, what the hell is going
on?” I asked, summoning as much indignation as I could
muster.

“
They’re letting you
go.”

“
That’s big of them,” I said.
“They kidnapped us on a public street for God’s sake. Where’s
Cindy?”

“
Let’s get out of here. I’ll
explain everything, but there’s a problem.”

“
What’s the problem?” I
asked.

“
Cindy had a meltdown,” he said.
“She’s sitting in the corner of the interrogation room muttering
about snakes.”

Chapter Sixty

Billy Diamond passed the cement trucks as they left
the lot. He waved at the drivers, assuming they had just completed
pouring the foundation for his new house. He felt it was essential
to visit the site every day to insure the work was completed
properly even though his enthusiasm for the project had been
diminishing in recent weeks.

Marian had insisted they have lunch at the club
though Billy would have preferred a big cheeseburger at Fast
Eddie’s, a local bar featuring great appetizers and burgers. Lunch
had ended badly when Marian started complaining about financial
issues again, and then suggested that maybe they couldn’t remain
married if Billy wouldn’t show her all his assets.