Dashing Through the Snow (21 page)

“Interesting,” Lily murmured as she wrote in
her notebook. She looked up when she was finished. “At the club in
Sheffield-Chatham the members have lockers. Is it the same
here?”

“Yes.”

“Might we see Mr. Landry’s?”

Townes hesitated. “I want you to know that I
don’t agree with this at all, but I spoke to Mrs. Landry and she
said that I was to let you have access.”

They followed her out of the office, down the
stairs and to the back of the building. “This is unlike any locker
room I’ve ever seen,” Lily said as she looked around at the large
room with its tapestry-covered walls, carpeted floors and wooden
lockers polished to a high gleam.

Townes smiled and walked over to a row of
lockers. “Yes, it is rather nice, isn’t it?” She chose a key from
the key ring she carried and opened the locker.

Lily started to move forward, but Smith
grabbed the tail of her coat and pulled so that she was walking
precariously backwards. “Uh uh uh,” he said when she glared at him.
“My turn.”

Eyes promising retribution, Lily simply
inclined her head in acquiescence. She didn’t want to make a bigger
scene than he already had.

“There’s nothing here but a map of the
exhibits at the Field, a pool cue and case and a couple of
cigars.”

“What kind of cigars?” Lily asked.

“Camacho Triple Maduro.”

“Oh, really? Well then that means he’s been
here since last Friday.” She turned to Mrs. Townes. “Are you sure
you haven’t seen him since the first part of the month?”

“Positive, but then I’m not always here. He
could have come last weekend and I wouldn’t have known it. You
could ask Tam.”

“Let’s do that,” Smith said.

But when they went to talk to Tam, he was
gone. “It was after he came back from delivering your tray, Mrs.
Townes,” the cook explained. “He grabbed his stuff and left. Didn’t
say word one to me and was in a big hurry.”

“That’s odd,” Mrs. Townes said as they left
the kitchen. “Tam has never missed a day of work or even been late
in the fifteen years he’s worked here.”

Smith and Lily looked askance at each other
and Smith shook his head quickly to warn her not to say anything.
“Perhaps he’s ill,” he suggested.

Mrs. Townes continued to frown. “Even if he
were, he’d have requested the time to take off. I’d better call
him.”

Lily and Smith were both tense as they
watched her make the call. After a few seconds, Mrs. Townes shook
her head. “He’s not answering. Tam?” she said brightly into the
phone. “It’s Mrs. Townes. It’s not like you to just leave and I’d
like an explanation. Call me when you get this message,
please.”

“May we have his phone number and his
address?” Smith asked when she’d disconnected. “It’s vitally
important that we talk to him,” he said hurriedly when she
hesitated. “He might be able to tell us something that will help us
find Mr. Landry.”

“Yes.” Lily moved in when she saw that Mrs.
Townes was still undecided. “Mrs. Landry misses him terribly and
just wants him home in time for Christmas.”

The other woman looked from one of them to
the other and sighing, nodded. “All right, you win. I’ll have to go
upstairs and get his address. In the meantime, you can talk to Mr.
Anders while you wait. This way to the billiards room.”

James Anders was a short, bantam-like man
with a balding head and wrinkled brown skin. He also seemed to have
a lot of nervous energy. As he stood talking to them, he
continually bounced on his toes. “Call me Jim,” he told them.
“Everyone does.”

Smith smiled. “All right, Jim. What can you
tell us about Charles Landry?”

“Charlie? Why Charlie’s the guy with the big
ideas.”

“What do you mean?” Lily asked.

“I’m just saying that Charlie thinks
differently than the rest of us, is all. Outside the box, as they
say. Charlie’s always outside the box.”

“Can you give us an example?”

Jim nodded three times in rapid succession,
his tiny head wobbly on his skinny neck. “Sure, sure. Ah, let’s see
here,” he began and then let his voice fade before snapping his
fingers. “I got it. You two remember the robbery at the MSI about
ten years ago?”

“MSI?” Smith asked in confusion.

“The Museum of Science and Industry,” Jim
said. “Do you? Remember the robbery, I mean?”

“Maryland Club Rye,” Lily said. When both men
looked at her in confusion, she elaborated, “That’s the name of the
leather bound book that was stolen.”

Jim smiled. “That’s right, young lady. It was
taken from the Titanic exhibit they were having. Well, we were both
right here when they reported the theft on the news. And right
away, Charlie turns to me and he says, ‘The security guard did it.’
I ask him how he knows this and he says he just does. Good old
Charlie even says he’d like to meet the kid and perhaps make a deal
of some kind. I laughed and told him he was bananas, but he just
stared at me like he was looking right through me and I knew he was
serious.”

“Did he make contact with the security
guard?”

“Nah.” Jim shook his head. “The police caught
the guy before Charlie could get in touch with him. Charlie was
disappointed, and he called the guard a schmuck. He says to me that
museums all over the world probably have stuff in storage that
they’d never miss because they don’t have the time or the staff to
keep up with it. And that’s why the guard from MSI was such a
schmuck ‘cause he should have just gone into the inventory and no
one would have ever been the wiser. Then Charlie started talking
about that greedy lady foolishness again and I tuned him out like I
always did. Now that he’s missing, though, I wish I’d listened to
every word he said like it would be his last. ”

Lily frowned as something clicked in the deep
recesses of her mind, but she couldn’t quite grasp it before she
was distracted by Mr. Anders. “Charlie’s a good guy. Just a regular
guy, you know?” He said, his rheumy eyes showing sadness.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Anders -- Jim, I mean,” Lily
said when she saw he was going to object. “We’re doing our best to
find your friend. Were you here last Friday?”

“Nah. Unfortunately, the wife made me stay
home. I had a slight cold and she didn’t want me taking any chances
by going out. Says I’m too damned old to recover quickly enough to
suit her because she’s too damned old
and
smart to want to
take care of me night and day.”

Both Smith and Lily laughed. “Sounds like I
would like your wife, Jim,” Smith said.

Jim grinned. “Just about everybody does.”

“One last question, if you don’t mind,” Smith
said. “Do you know why Charlie’s brother Simeon didn’t want to hang
with Charlie when he was with your crew?”

Anders smirked. “‘Crew’, huh? I like that. I
take it you mean Terry Howell, Ash Montgomery and me?” Smith nodded
and he continued, “That’s an easy one. Simeon doesn’t like us
because none of us are from old money. Terry and I both came from
modest backgrounds and made our fortunes, such as they are, in real
estate. Ash came from dirt poor beginnings, is the first person in
his family to graduate from college and he made his money in
banking. Add it all up, Mister, and in Simeon Landry’s mind, none
of us are good enough to lick his or Charlie’s boots.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Obviously, Mr. Tam heard us talking about
Charles Landry and flew the coop, don’t you think?” Lily asked as
they hurried up the side street on which the club was located and
back to busy Michigan Avenue where they were more likely to find a
cab.

“Yeah,” Smith agreed. “Does the address she
gave us sound like Tam lives in an area you’re familiar with?”

Lily shook her head. “Unfortunately, no, but
that doesn’t mean much.” She squeezed his arm in excitement, her
mind on something else. “I think we need to go to the Field Museum,
don’t you?”

“Yeah, but it will have to wait until
tomorrow. We have that meeting with Naomi Pfister, Landry’s former
mistress, remember?”

“Yes. It’s not for another two hours, though.
Right around dinner time.” While Smith flagged down a taxi, Lily
found herself looking wistfully across the street at the white
marble edifice of Water Tower Place, the city’s most famous and
popular mall.
If only we had a couple of hours,
she thought
and sighed.
Bet Armani has some great stuff.

“Don’t even think about it,” Smith muttered
and practically tossed her into the taxi that had pulled up and was
waiting. He climbed in after her and read Tam’s address off to the
driver.

The driver frowned. “You sure about that,
man? That’s Uptown -- the not so safe area of Uptown.”

On hearing that, Smith frowned himself,
wishing there was some way he could get rid of Lily without her
raising holy hell. He thought about it. There wasn’t. “Positive,”
he told the driver.

The driver pulled out from the curb, drove
around the corner and then shot onto Lake Shore Drive. There was
very little traffic and the driver took advantage of that by
driving like a bat out of hell. Smith looked out the window to see
the sand covered with drifts of white snow and a churning gray Lake
Michigan. The sky was ladened with sullen gray clouds. All in all,
it’s depressing as shit, he thought.

“So, how do you want to handle Tam?” Lily
asked.

Smith was still looking out the window and
had watched the landscape go from majestic office buildings to even
more majestic apartment buildings with doormen and now as they
exited the Drive, he saw a mish mash of rundown buildings, cracked
sidewalks and barren storefronts. “We’ll play it by ear, but just
stay behind me. I don’t like the looks of things.”

“Looks fine to me,” Lily said.

And she was right. The landscape had changed
again. Now they were driving down a street with modest, well-kept
old homes and apartment buildings. “Excuse me, driver,” Smith
called. “Is this area going through some kind of transition or
something?”

“Yes it is. Very slowly.”

Smith got his meaning when he looked out the
window and saw a block that looked pretty much like the first one
he’d seen. It was unfortunate for them that at just that moment,
the driver pulled over to park right in front of one of the
seediest looking buildings on the block. “Thank you,” he said as he
paid the driver.

They approached the twenty story building,
being careful of the snow, ice and holes in the walkway. Smith
pulled open the outer door and then followed Lily inside a small
filthy vestibule that had several unclaimed newspapers wrapped in
plastic.

Lily wrinkled her nose. “A little
housekeeping is in order.”

There was a list of names next to buzzers,
but there was no need to search for Tam because the inner door was
propped open with a big rock. They went inside. Smith looked at the
small piece of paper. “He’s in apartment 1204.”

Lily squinted suspiciously at a pair of
elevators. One had an out of order sign and the other one appeared
to be stuck on the twelfth floor, if the glaring red light
illuminating the number was any indication. “Stairs?” she
asked.

“Stairs.”

Smith led the way to a door hidden in the
shadows and they reluctantly went inside. “At least the smell isn’t
as prevalent here as it was in the lobby,” Lily muttered after
they’d climbed the first set of stairs.

“I’m guessing it’s just a combination of
scents from all the different foods people cook, that’s all,” Smith
said as he rounded the corner heading to the third floor.

They grew quiet and remained that way for the
next six floors. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,”
Smith began.

Slightly out of breath, Lily looked up at
him. “Yes?”

“I noticed a bruise on your back the other
--” he paused on the stairwell, making Lily bump into him. “God,
was that just yesterday? Anyway, I noticed a bruise right in the
center of the small of your back. It’s fading now; it was a nice
sickly yellow, but that’s an odd place for a bruise and I wondered
how you’d gotten it.”

“Psycho Santa Claus,” Lily panted.

“What?” Smith turned to look at her.

“Psycho Santa Claus,” she repeated. “You
heard me right the first time. There’s this rogue Santa that’s been
harassing me,” she told him and proceeded to explain. By the time
she finished, they were on the eleventh floor.

“You’re telling me that some guy dressed in a
Santa suit has assaulted you?”

“That’s what I’m telling you.”

“And you’re sure you don’t know the guy?
Could it be an old boyfriend or something?”

Lily snorted as he opened the door and they
finally emerged on the twelfth floor. “No. I’ve never dated a man
old enough to be my father, thank you.”

“Maybe it’s just some guy off his meds, then.
And since you haven’t been bothered by him in a week, he’s probably
forgotten about you.”

“I certainly hope so.”

“Okay, here we are,” he said once they were
standing in front of Tam’s door. He raised his fist to knock just
as the door was being pulled open. Tam stood there, suitcase in
hand and fear and shock on his face. Before Smith could react, the
other man was slamming the suitcase into his chest and turning to
run back into the apartment. Smith pushed the suitcase to the floor
and ran in after him.

“Come in and shut the door,” he yelled over
his shoulder to Lily. “And
stay.
here
.”

He heard Tam’s footsteps as they sounded deep
into the apartment and he followed the heavy, hurried noises down a
long hall. He heard quick, light footsteps behind him and turned
his head just long enough to see Lily following behind him. “I’m
going to kill her,” he promised.

He didn’t hear the sound of running footsteps
ahead of him anymore and stopped, cocking his head to listen. He
stood in front of a room with a closed door and he pressed his ear
to it. He thought he heard faint scraping and cautiously began to
turn the knob. He looked at Lily who was just a few steps away and
he thrust out his arm out, palm up. She stopped.
Stay
back
, he mouthed urgently. Eyes wide, she nodded and he
slammed the door back against the wall.