“What politicians?”
“Lots of them. The people I talked to didn’t know too much about it, but Jo Quinlan got pretty excited about some of the people who went there.”
“How did she know who went there if they couldn’t tell her?”
Alvin looked down at his Docs. There must have been something fascinating about them, but I couldn’t see it myself.
He sighed.
“What is it?”
“Well, it’s just that these people didn’t want to tell me all this. Their jobs could be at stake, you know. So I had to give them a little something to help out.”
“How much of a little something?”
“Jeez, there were a lot of people. About eighty or ninety dollars.” He looked at me through his eyelashes.
“Fine.”
“More like a hundred, really.”
“I’ll give you your alleged hundred dollars. But in return I want to be able to talk to any one of your sources, whenever I need to. That means names, Alvin. Names.”
“Jeez, I forgot a couple guys. It cost me more like one twenty-five by the time I was through.”
“You’re close to being through again.”
“Like, I really hate it when you don’t even trust me.”
I’m afraid I snorted.
“What does that mean?”
“Where did you get all this money you so generously gave to your sources?”
He drew himself upright. “I work here. You pay me. I got other things going on the side. I get by. You can’t go around trying to get information in this town without a bit in your pocket to help people relax.”
“Hmmm. Okay. I’ll write you a cheque. You start by giving me the list of who saw whom do what at the Harmony.”
We were both in the middle of writing when a black shadow loomed against the door and Merv barged into the office, without knocking.
“Whoa,” he said, “you sure know how to get yourself in deep doo-doo.”
“Why, Merv, how poetic.”
He shrugged, “If you got it, flaunt it.”
“Why am I in doo-doo?”
“Well,” he said, lowering himself into a visitor’s chair and giving Alvin a nasty look, “a couple of reasons.”
I nodded to encourage him.
Merv was still narrowing his eyes at Alvin.
“Alvin,” I said, “you’ve been working pretty hard. Why don’t you take a little break, get some air?”
Alvin picked up his half-written list, slithered past Merv and vanished out the door.
“Gives me the creeps,” Merv said.
“Merv, Merv, you’ve got to learn to broaden your horizons.
It’s a whole new world out there.”
“Yeah, well.”
“Back to the topic, Merv. Why doo-doo?”
“Ho. I’ve been over to Robin’s. You are most unwelcome there. Do not darken the door and all that.”
“According to whom?”
“Jeez, you know I hate that whom shit. According to everybody, that’s whom. Mrs. Findlay and Brooke are pissed off. Maybe even Mr. Findlay, who knows. You’d never get past the front door.” Merv took out a cigarette and lit up. He kept watching me for a reaction.
I didn’t even tell him to put it out.
“There’s no way to get to her.”
“We’ll see about that, Merv.”
“And anyway, that’s not all. I heard that you screwed up your sister’s date with McCracken, and that everybody’s pissed off about that, even your family.”
“Who told you that?”
“Bit of police gossip.”
I thought for a minute. “That didn’t take too long to get around.”
“Hey, you just got to have coffee with the right people.” Merv heaved his shoulders. “Anyways, I can’t hang around here chewing the fat with you all day. Some of us have to work.” He lumbered through the door, leaving me with an additional set of problems.
The first one rang on the phone while Merv was still thudding down the stairs. Alexa.
“How could you?” she said.
“How could I what?” I said, knowing perfectly well.
“You know perfectly well. You’re the one who ruined my date.”
There was nothing to do but take my lumps.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea that Alvin’s investigations would ruin, I mean, interfere with your date with Conn McCracken.”
“You never wanted it to work out. Admit it. All those nasty remarks about him having a wife. All those little digs. I have a right to be happy. Sometimes you are a selfish brat and I wouldn’t put it past you to set up Alfred or whatever his name is to commit that burglary just to get Conn to go down to the station and leave me there to get home on my own.”
“I’m sorry, I…”
“We didn’t even get to say good-bye.”
“I know what you mean, my own date didn’t work out either.”
But she’d already hung up.
It was only when peace descended on the little office that I remembered. Alvin hadn’t told me about Large-and-Lumpy.
Who had seen Denzil Hickey behind the scenes at the Harmony and when?
Of course, Alvin was gone for the day.
Seventeen
I spent the early part of the evening puttering around the apartment. I had a lot to do, mostly involving making sense out of what I knew.
It is easier to concentrate in an apartment that does not house five cats. Not only did the kitty litter need to be emptied and the cat dishes filled, but the cats wanted company.
I ran into Mrs. Parnell while I was putting out the garbage.
“Home alone tonight, Ms. MacPhee?”
I didn’t want to get into my social life, disastrous as it was, with a neighbour whose nose just wouldn’t quit.
“All work and no play, Mrs. Parnell,” I said, opening the door of my apartment and scooping up two escaping cats. I closed the door behind me without looking at her again. One more second and she would have been asking me about Richard. I wasn’t ready for that.
“Now, buzz off,” I said to the cats. “You’ve been fed, you’ve had something nice to drink, you’ve got clean kitty litter.”
But they were all over me. Jumping up on the table where I was laying out my notes about the Mitzi Brochu case. Sitting on the nice, fresh pad of lined paper. Batting my pens and pencils onto the floor. And just getting between me and anything I wanted to do. The fat little calico had trouble jumping up and cried until I sat her on my lap.
“Behave, or I’ll never solve this case and get you back to Robin’s where you belong.”
That brought me back to earth. I had to convince Robin to tell me what she knew about Brooke’s involvement. But how was I going to get past the dragons?
I