“What about Deb Goodhouse?”
“What about her?”
“Mitzi slammed her often enough. Was she in the works?”
“I don’t know.”
“Jo Quinlan then. She was a favourite target.”
Was that a flicker that passed between Wendtz and my new friend?
Wendtz looked at his watch, which was large and Swiss and cost more than my car. He looked back at me. I smiled.
A pregnant cloud of silence hung in the air.
I think Wendtz was getting ready to splatter me all over the wall when I stood up.
“Sorry, gentlemen,” I said, “you are excellent company and I am tempted to spend the morning here with you in idle chatter, but I have important work to do, and I cannot allow you to entice me away from it.”
Large-and-Lumpy nodded. Wendtz looked at both of us in disbelief.
At the door I turned. “Oh, and Brooke Findlay, was there any connection between her and Mitzi?”
Bingo. Large-and-Lumpy gawked at me, more in sorrow than anger. Just as well, because enough rage flashed across Wendtz’s face for both of them. Most people get hot when they’re angry. Wendtz radiated coldness. I felt my body temperature drop, even in the thrill of finding a connection between Rudy Wendtz and Brooke Findlay.
Now we’re cooking, I thought, as I reached for the door to let myself out.
Large-and-Lumpy beat me to it.
“You shouldn’t of said that,” he whispered as I left.
* * *
I wasn’t one block away from the house when a car pulled up beside me. A portable flashing light was perched on its roof. McCracken was inside.
I pulled over, surprised at how my heart was thumping. Large-and-Lumpy, for all our instant rapport, had made me very, very edgy. To say nothing of his keeper.
McCracken’s laid-back good humour was eclipsed by a somber stiffness. It didn’t look right on him. Big men like that should be good-natured and outgoing.
“What the hell are you doing at Wendtz’s place?” he asked, leaning over my window.
“What you should be doing, McCracken. Investigating.”
“You’d better leave that to us.”
“Glad to, if you’d do your job and arrest a certain well-known member of the underworld who we both know probably offed the victim with a smile on his face. Instead of badgering gentle cat lovers to their grave.”
“He didn’t do it.”
“Of course, he did it. And we both know it. And I’m going to prove it while you sit on your duff.”
McCracken’s eyes bulged. “Interfere with this case any more…”
“What any more?”
“…and I’ll arrest you, for all kinds of interesting things.”
“I’d enjoy that, McCracken. We’d both make a splash in the media.”
McCracken stood up. “Hang around Wendtz and you’ll make the papers all right. Some sad little missing persons announcement. Use your brains on this one, for God’s sake.”
He started back to his car. I knew he hated to ask me about Alexa, and I wondered how long he could hold out.
Not long. He turned and walked back.
“You know, you may have stirred something up here. Who knows what you’re going to have to deal with as a result. These guys are pretty dangerous. Here’s my home number in case you ever have to get in touch with me. It’s unlisted. Any time you need help or advice.” It must have hurt him to say that, his jaw was so tense. “And if you want to pass it on to your sister, that’s okay too.”
* * *
I parked in the open air lot on O’Connor and walked a couple of blocks to the joke shop. Not as fancy as wherever Stan gets his stuff, but it took my mind off the Benning brief for a little longer, and gave me a chance to chuckle my way out of the chill created by Rudy Wendtz.
The office phone was ringing when I returned with my purchases. Someone persistent enough to keep trying while I fiddled with the key and let myself in.
“Where the hell do you go in that little office that it takes you seventeen rings to answer the phone? Just tell me that.”
“Temper, temper, Merv. You don’t want to have a stroke.”
“Right. If my doctor knew about you, he’d put you on a list with cheap whisky and cigarettes and french fries.
Health hazard.”
“My secret ambition, Merv.”
“I’ll bet it is, too. Listen, I didn’t call you just to chew the fat. There’s a point.”
“Get to it then, Merv.”
I could hear him exhale.
“This guy Wendtz. He is major bad news. Remain as far away as you can from him. Do not meddle. He is connected.
He is into some very bad stuff. Capish?”
“Point taken. Of course, you’re a bit too late.”
“Christ, Camilla. You got a death wish or something? Half the police forces in this country, including our own, have an eye on this guy, and there’s you sticking your little pointed nose in.”
“Don’t exaggerate, Merv. My nose is not pointed. And if so many police forces, including our own, have so much interest, how come they don’t nail him for Mitzi’s murder, which he committed? Tell me that.”
“They’d sell their souls to nail him for Mitzi’s murder, they just happen to know he didn’t do it.”
“Yeah, right, and how do they know that? Were they with him at the time?”
“Jeez, that’s just it. They were. The guy was under surveillance the whole night. He’s been the subject of a major drug investigation. He wasn’t out of their sight for two minutes. Some alibi, eh? Half the members in this town can swear he didn’t do it.”
It was my turn to be quiet, and when I spoke again it was through clenched teeth.
“I don’t care what your mounties saw or think they saw, Merv, this guy’s involved in this killing. Maybe he didn’t do it himself, but I bet he made it happen. The local boys never even followed up properly on that blow-up he had with Mitzi the night before she was killed. I saw his face today when I mentioned Brooke Findlay. There’s a connection. And according to my sources, Mitzi was about to do a real number on Brooke. That’s why Robin’s reacting the way she is.”
“What did Robin ever do to end up in a family like that?”
“Unlucky, I guess.”
“Can’t you talk some sense into her?”
“I’ll try, now that I have a bit of ammunition.”
But I had two calls to make first.
Lunch at the Harmony was an experience to soothe your soul. The music soothed. Chopin’s Nocturnes. The wine soothed. California chardonnay. The food soothed. Shrimp and scallops, with basmati rice and four perfect bitsy witsy vegetables. Richard Sandes didn’t soothe, although he might have wanted to. Just the opposite. I could feel my heart going boom-bitty-boom underneath my teal suit.
“You look different today. What’s up?” he asked.
I smiled at him and kept my dirty thoughts to