I'm a Fool to Kill You Page 9

  ‘To your garage?’

  ‘Sure, why not? Ain’t no place else got more Horizon cabs then here.’

  I wasn’t all that sure I should get Louie and his drivers involved. Not after what had happened to Larry.

  ‘Look, Louie . . . I don’t know exactly what these people want,’ I explained. ‘I don’t know if they’re dangerous. I mean, Larry ended up in the hospital, but I don’t really know what’s goin’ on.’

  ‘You think they got guns?’ he asked.

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘We got guns. And if these are the guys who put Larry in the hospital, we wanna piece of ’em.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Whataya say, guys?’ he asked the other drivers. Suddenly, there was a cacophony of voices shouting their agreement.

  ‘See that, Mr Vegas? So you come on ahead, I’ll give you the address. You ain’t even gotta lose your cab. You can drive in the front and out the back. They’ll never see ya.’

  That sounded like a good idea.

  THIRTY-ONE

  Following Louie’s directions I drove directly to the garage of The Horizon Cab Company. There were several doors opened in front as I arrived. Apparently, Louie had somebody watching for me, because a man appeared in the center doorway, waving me in. I drove in, up a ramp, and stopped where I saw several men standing. For a moment I wondered if I’d made a mistake. Maybe these drivers were out to get revenge for Larry . . . against me? But I was committed, so I stopped the cab and got out.

  ‘Hey, Mr Vegas.’

  I turned, saw a dark, swarthy guy about forty approaching with a big smile on his face. He had heavy black stubble that didn’t make up for the thinning hair on top.

  ‘I’m Louie,’ he said, putting his hand out. ‘Those guys follow you here?’

  ‘They did. They’re out front.’

  ‘Willy, go take a look!’

  ‘Sure, boss,’ a small, wiry man said.

  ‘We’re gonna get you gassed up and out the back door in a minute, Mr Vegas,’ Louie said. ‘But I gotta ask ya somethin’.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Ain’t you curious about who these guys are?’

  ‘I’m real curious,’ I said. If I’d had Jerry with me I would have played it differently, stopped the cab, surprised those guys and found out who sent them. But alone I didn’t have a chance especially if they were armed.

  I even thought about leading them back to the Beverly Hills Hotel so Jerry and I could grill them, but I didn’t want to take a chance with Ava’s safety.

  ‘So why don’t I have some of the boys go out and drag them outta their car, bring ’em in here so we can find out?’

  ‘Louie, I don’t want anybody else getting’ hurt—’

  ‘I toldja, we got guns.’

  ‘I know, but they probably do, too. You go out there and somebody’s going to get hurt. Now, I appreciate your help, but all I want is the gas and the back way out.’

  Willy ran back in.

  ‘Two guys in a black Plymouth, Boss, Just sittin’ there.’

  Louie looked at me and I shook my head.

  ‘OK, boys,’ he said. ‘Gas ’im up and let’s get ’im outta here.’

  With a full tank of gas I pulled out the back exit of the garage and proceeded to the Beverly Hills Hotel with no tail in sight.

  ‘By the time they suspect anythin’,’ Louie the dispatcher had said, ‘and come in to check, nobody here’ll know nothin’.’

  ‘If I give you a call in a few hours,’ I said, ‘you can let me know if they let anything slip about who they’re working for.’

  ‘Sure thing,’ Louie had said. ‘In fact, when they come in lookin’ for you I’ll have one of my drivers check out their car.’

  ‘That’d be great,’ I said.

  Before I drove out Louie asked, ‘You want a better car than this one, Mr Vegas?’

  ‘No, this’ll do,’ I said. ‘I’ll leave it at the hotel after I rent another one.’

  ‘You need to rent a car? Here.’ He dug a business card out of his pocket. ‘My brother’s got a car lot. No questions asked. It’s a cash business, though. I can get you a discount, but—’

  ‘That’s OK, Louie,’ I said. ‘I’m willing to pay.’

  ‘OK, then,’ he said, and we shook hands. ‘Looks like we’re in business.’

  I pulled up in front of the hotel and grabbed the bag out of the back seat.

  ‘They’re cold,’ I said, as I entered the bungalow.

  ‘I can’t eat cold hotdogs,’ Ava complained.

  ‘I can,’ Jerry said, grabbing the bag.

  ‘Then you can have them all, sweetie,’ Ava told him, with a smile.

  ‘Sweetie?’ I said.

  ‘Hey, you left us alone,’ Ava said, ‘so we got acquainted.’

  I looked at Jerry. He blushed, bit into a hotdog and said, ‘We played cards – like I told ya.’

  ‘He owes me big,’ Ava said from the sofa.

  I walked over to her. She was smiling, and looked refreshed. I didn’t think she had been drinking.

  ‘What happened at the studio?’ she asked.

  ‘They’re making cartoons and TV shows, now,’ I said. ‘They’re not happy.’

  ‘Fuck ’em,’ she said.

  ‘Nobody’s been there looking for you.’

  ‘Who told you that?’

  ‘A man named Vargas.’

  ‘Don’t know him,’ she said. ‘What are we going to do now?’

  ‘We’re going to Vegas.’

  ‘When?’

  ‘Tomorrow.’

  ‘Can’t we go today?’ she asked. ‘I’m going stir crazy here.’

  ‘Tomorrow,’ I said, ‘Jerry and I still have some things to do today.’

  ‘Like what?’ Ava asked. ‘Something interesting, I hope?’

  ‘Well, we have to rent a car.’

  ‘That’s not interesting,’ she said, disappointed.

  ‘We’re not gonna rent it from a rental agency,’ I said. I took out Louie’s brother’s card. ‘We’re gonna rent it from this guy.’

  ‘That’s interesting,’ Jerry said, with – I think – the entire second hotdog in his mouth. He had mustard in the right corner of his mouth, and I didn’t know how to tell him.

  ‘Jerry, sweetie . . .’ Ava said, and wiped at the corner of her mouth with her thumb.

  Jerry did the same to his and said, ‘Thanks, Miss Ava.’

  ‘And after you rent a car?’ she asked.

  ‘Well, actually, probably before we rent a car we have to find out who the rat is in the hotel; the clerk or the manager.’

  ‘And how will you do that?’

  ‘Jerry’s gonna ask them, because that’s kinda what Jerry does.’

  She looked at Jerry.

  ‘This big sweet man?’

  ‘I ask people questions they don’t wanna answer,’ he said. ‘I can be real persuasive . . . if ya get my drift.’

  I said. ‘That’s how it works.’

  She looked at Jerry and said again, ‘This big sweet man?’

  Jerry blushed again, and ate the third and final hotdog.

  ‘How were they?’

  ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘Not Brooklyn.’

  ‘So, when you go and rough up the manager, can I come?’ she asked. ‘I can’t stand that little pipsqueak.’

  THIRTY-TWO

  We started with the clerk. Ava stayed in the bungalow.

  ‘Keep the door locked,’ I told her. ‘We’ll be right back.’

  ‘Ya want this?’ Jerry asked, holding out his forty-five.

  ‘Ooh, yes!’ she said, eyes wide.

  ‘Oh, no,’ I said. ‘Put that away, Jerry.’ I looked at Ava. ‘Just lock the door. We won’t be long.’

  She pouted as we went out the door.

  ‘Let’s go to the lobby. Hopefully, the clerk is on duty.’

  He was. He saw us coming, and looked like he wanted to run. The fact that
he didn’t had me thinking he might not be the guilty party.

  ‘Jerry, don’t hurt him, just scare him a little.’

  ‘You don’t think it’s him?’

  I shook my head. ‘Maybe he’ll give up the manager though.’

  We approached the desk.

  ‘Can I help you, sir?’

  ‘Do you know my name?’ I asked.

  ‘Um, I‘m sorry, sir,’ he said. ‘I know I heard it when the phone call came in, but I can’t remember.’

  ‘Try,’ Jerry said, putting his big hand on the young man’s chest.

  ‘I, uh, I’m sorry—’ he moved his eyes nervously between us. ‘Is he gonna hurt me?’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ I said. ‘Unless . . .’

  ‘Unless what?’ he asked, leaping at what he thought might be salvation.

  ‘Somebody made a call,’ I said, ‘when I got here.’

  ‘A call?’

  I nodded.

  ‘That’s why there were two men waiting to put me in the hospital when they heard me being paged,’ I explained, ‘only the cab driver took the call, and the beating.’

  ‘Oh, I . . . I think I understand.’

  ‘Did you place that call?’

  ‘N-no, I swear.’

  ‘Then who did?’

  He looked frightened, and not only of Jerry.

  ‘Look, if you’re worried about your job, don’t. Nobody will know. When I got here and asked for Lucy Johnson’s room, somebody made a call. Who was it?’

  The clerk didn’t answer fast enough, so Jerry made a fist, gathering the kid’s shirt in it.

  ‘It was M–Mr Gentry. B–but I don’t know who he called. I just know he made a phone call.’

  ‘Where is he?’

  ‘In his office.’

  ‘Show us.’

  The clerk nodded and Jerry released his shirt. He came out from behind the desk, walked us around the corner and pointed to a door.

  ‘OK,’ I said. ‘Go back to work.’

  ‘Sure thing.’

  Jerry stopped him by putting his hand on his chest.

  ‘Don’t make no calls.’

  ‘No sir!’

  ‘Now get lost.’

  The kid ran back to the desk.

  ‘Do we knock?’ Jerry asked.

  ‘Why warn him?’ I said. ‘You go in first.’ I figured Jerry’s sheer size would put the manager in the right frame of mind.

  ‘Should I kick it in?’ he asked.

  ‘Let’s try the doorknob first.’

  ‘Spoilsport,’ he muttered.

  He reached for the knob, turned it slowly and then nodded to me. I gestured for him to go in. He opened the door quickly and stepped inside. I followed, and closed the door behind us.

  ‘Mr Gentry—’ I said, and stopped.

  Gentry was sitting behind his desk. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t looked at us. In fact, he wasn’t looking at anybody.

  ‘Jerry . . .’

  Jerry approached the man, examined him without touching him, then put two fingers to his neck.

  ‘He’s a stiff, Mr G.’

  ‘How, and for how long, do you figure?’

  Again, he examined the corpse as well as he could without touching it.

  ‘I don’t see no marks,’ he said.

  ‘Maybe he was strangled?’

  ‘His tongue would be out, and swollen,’ Jerry said.

  I looked at the desk top. No glasses to indicate he might have been poisoned with a drink.

  ‘His skin feels like it’s coolin’, Mr G..’

  ‘So not in the past hour or so, huh?’

  ‘Naw,’ Jerry said, ‘maybe this mornin’.’

  ‘We could ask the clerk when he last saw him, but I don’t want to alert him yet.’

  ‘He’s gonna give us up when he finds the body.’

  ‘He doesn’t know your name, and if he was on the level, he can’t remember mine.’

  ‘He might mention Miss Gardner.’

  ‘You’re right about that,’ I said. ‘We’re gonna have to get out of here now. I’ll call Ava and tell her to pack up—’

  I was reaching for the phone when he stopped me.

  ‘Not from this phone, Mr G.,’ he said.

  ‘Damn it, what was I thinking?’ I said, snatching my hand away from the phone. ‘Let’s see if we can get back to the bungalow without passing the clerk.’

  ‘If we can’t, maybe we can get to a house phone.’

  ‘If we pass him he’s gonna wonder what went on,’ I said. ‘He might even decide to come back here to ask.’

  Jerry examined the doorknob.

  ‘We can lock this and pull it shut,’ he said, ‘then tell the clerk his boss don’t wanna be disturbed. It might keep him out of here for a while.’

  ‘OK,’ I said, ‘but let’s take a quick look around first. Maybe we’ll find something helpful.’

  ‘Yeah, we can do that,’ Jerry said, ‘but don’t touch nothin’, Mr G..’

  ‘I gotcha, Jerry.’

  THIRTY-THREE

  We looked the place over, mostly the desk, but didn’t find anything. I was looking for a phone number scribbled on something.

  ‘Maybe the clerk knows more than he’s saying,’ I said.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Jerry said, ‘I don’t think we can take the time to find out. We gotta get out of this hotel, Mr G . . .’

  He was right. We needed to get Ava away from this murder.

  ‘Jerry,’ I said, ‘any chance this man died of natural causes? Maybe a heart attack?’

  ‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘There are no marks, but every heart attack victim I’ve ever seen looks calm. This guy looks . . . well, surprised.’

  He was right, again. With his eyes wide open Gentry looked like he’d been taken by surprise.

  ‘OK,’ I said, ‘let’s get out of here and lock the door. Look for a back way out to the bungalows.’

  We got out of the office and pulled the door shut, locking it behind us.

  ‘This way,’ I said, and we went in the opposite direction from the front desk. After a few false starts we found another exit from the hotel. We came up to Ava’s bungalow from the other side, and let ourselves in.

  ‘What’s goin’ on, boys?’ she asked.

  ‘Pack up,’ I said. ‘we’ve got to get out of here.’

  ‘Why? What’s wrong?’

  ‘The hotel manager got himself killed,’ Jerry said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s probably murder,’ I said. ‘We’ve got to get you out of here before the police are called.’

  ‘What about you two?’ she asked. ‘Are you in trouble?’

  ‘The clerk saw us,’ I said, ‘knows that we went to see the manager.’

  ‘He don’t know our names, though,’ Jerry said. ‘We just need to get out of here before somebody finds the body, Miss Ava,’

  ‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll pack. But where will we go? Vegas?’

  ‘Not tonight,’ I said. ‘We’ll get in the cab and figure it out. We just need someplace overnight.’

  ‘What about my house?’ she asked.

  ‘Somebody may be watching it,’ I said.

  ‘What if they’re not?’ she asked. ‘What if whoever’s looking for me has already looked there? Besides, if I was running from somebody would I go back home?’

  ‘She’s got a point, Mr G.,’ Jerry said. ‘I can check her place out, see if it’s bein’ watched.’

  ‘All right,’ I said, ‘get your bag and let’s get going.’

  ‘Take me just a minute,’ she promised.

  Most women, no matter how little or how much they have to pack, need a lot of time. She was true to her word and came back out in a few minutes.

  ‘Let’s go.’

  ‘Jerry,’ I said, ‘you got a bag?’

  ‘Nope. Figured I’d get some clothes out here.’

  ‘OK,’ I said, ‘we’ll pick up some things for you on the way.’

  Jerr
y played the gentleman, took Ava’s bag and we left. At the cab we looked around to see if anyone was watching us, then we all got in with Jerry behind the wheel and Ava in the back seat.

  ‘Where to?’ Jerry asked.

  ‘I live on Vine Street, between Hollywood and Selma.’

  ‘Hollywood and Vine?’ Jerry asked.

  ‘Close by.’

  ‘Ava, tell Jerry how to get there.’

  THIRTY-FOUR

  With Ava’s directions we drove to the neighborhood, but stopped down the block from her house.

  ‘OK, Jerry, take a walk and see what you can see.’

  ‘Sure thing, Mr G.’

  It was getting toward dusk as he got out of the cab and walked down the street.

  ‘So tell me, Eddie, how did you and Jerry meet?’ Ava asked.

  ‘He didn’t tell you while you were playin’ gin?’ I asked.

  ‘He doesn’t like to talk about himself,’ she said. ‘All he told me was that you and he were both from Brooklyn. Is that where you became friends?’

  ‘No,’ I said, ‘it was in Vegas a couple of years ago, when Frank, Dean and the fellas were shootin’ Ocean’s Eleven.’

  ‘Oh, that thing about Dean being threatened?’ she asked.

  ‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Frank brought Jerry in to help me with that.’

  ‘You have quite a friendship,’ she said.

  ‘Well—’

  ‘He’d do anything for you, did you know that?’

  ‘Well—’

  ‘And you like him. Don’t try to deny it.’

  ‘Well . . . of course I like ‘im,’ I told her. ‘Why would I try to deny that? Plus he’s saved my ass more than once.’

  ‘He is a terrible gin player, though,’ she said. ‘Just awful. But he is sweet, and gentle as a lamb. Are you sure he’s a torpedo?’

  ‘He doesn’t like that word,’ I said, ‘but yeah, he’s broken an arm and a leg or two in his time. I think he’s just sweet to you, the way he was to Marilyn.’

  ‘He met Marilyn?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah, earlier this year he helped me with something I was doing for her,’ I said. ‘But he was mad at me, said I ruined her for him.’

  ‘Ruined her how?’

  ‘He said after meeting her he couldn’t help but think of her as a little sister.’

  ‘And is that the way he thinks of me, now? As a little sister?’

  ‘Oh, no—’