Falafel Jones - The Kewpie Killer (22 page)

I said, “If he carried a bag from Herman’s Deli DeeLite, could be a regular. Maybe they know him.”

Eddie asked, “They far from here?”

“Down the block.”

“Let’s go.”

Eddie and I hustled down the street to Herman’s Deli DeeLite and burst through the door, Eddie ran up to the man behind the counter and asked, “The old guy with an anchor tattoo in a blue jacket carrying a take-out bag. Who is he?”

A four-foot tall old woman shook her finger at Eddie and said, “Wait your turn, young man.”

The guy behind the counter shrugged and pointed to the machine by the door. “Take a number.”

Eddie flashed his badge at the man and asked again, “Who is he?”

The Deli man looked at Eddie, then the old lady and then Eddie before he said again, “Take a number.”

I pressed the lever on the machine by the door and pulled number 87.

The deli man yanked a cord on the machine on the wall behind him and called, “86?”

The old lady raised a bony finger in the air and proclaimed, “NEXT!” as if she won the state lottery.

Eddie kicked at the air near his feet as if he just lost a bet on a World Series between the Yankees and the Cubs. I watched him fidget as the woman supervised the deli man thinly slicing her cheese to her specifications. When she finished and the deli man called 87, Eddie advanced as if on a perp.

“That guy in the blue jacket with take out. Who is he?”

The deli man started refreshing his containers behind the counter and said, “Whoa, Man, I deal with some intense customers but Buddy, you gotta calm down.”

Eddie watched the man restocking the counter. “Wait a minute. Are those kosher hot dogs?”

“Yeah, Hebrew National. How many you want?”

“Can I get three with the works?”

I hip checked Eddie, “Focus.”

“Oh and who’s the old guy in the blue jacket with a take-out bag?”

“You mean Danny Ryan?”

“Do I?”

“He’s a regular. Just left with a doggy bag to catch his bus back to the home.”

“The home?”

“Yeah, he’s retired, lives at the Soldiers and Sailors Retirement Home.”

We sat at a table in a back corner of the Deli and Eddie phoned Robby.

“Carlyle… ”

“Yeah… ”

“We need to track down a Daniel Ryan at the Soldiers and Sailors Retirement Home…”

“No, well, I don’t know. Could be the perp, could be the next victim. He’s been sending flowers to the Medici gravesite…”

“OK. Sure.”

Eddie put his phone in his pocket and reached for a hot dog.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Carlyle’s going to check on Ryan. Put a trap on his credit cards so if he buys something we can find him. He’ll call me later.” Eddie pointed his hot dog at the plate between us. “Have a dog, got one for you too. Good.”

“No, thanks.” I sat and watched Eddie go through three hot dogs before he went back for a potato knish with mustard and a Doctor Browns Black Raspberry soda. If he pursued crime like he did deli, the world would be a safer place.

“Hmmm. This is good,” he said. “You don’t get stuff like this in Florida.” He seemed upset when his phone rang and he had to put down his food to answer it.

“Yeah… ”

“OK. Thanks.”

Eddie shut his phone and said, “W.P.D. got to Ryan’s and just missed him. Seems after lunch, he got on a bus with the other geezers from the retirement home. Somebody gave them all free tickets to the carnival. Robby’s bringing some uniforms. They’re going to meet us there.”

I said, “Eddie, call Leonardo. See if he knows who put the Soldiers and Sailors Home on the ticket list.”

Eddie dialed and then closed his phone. “No answer, we better get going.”

By the time we got to the carnival, there was already an empty Soldiers and Sailors bus in the lot. We ran to the entrance, flashed a badge and a Press ID at the girl at the gate and rushed to Pop’s trailer.

He answered when we knocked and seemed surprised to see us. I said, “Pops, we need to know who sent passes to the Soldiers and Sailors retirement home… and why.”

“Leonardo handles that stuff.” Pops pulled out his cell phone and made a call. “No answer. Maybe he’s in the can… or asleep. Let’s go see.” We followed him to Leonardo’s trailer. Pops banged on the door and when no one answered, he pulled on the knob. It didn’t move. Pops used a key to enter the trailer and we followed him inside.

Eddie said, “He’s not here but look at this.” He held a plaster Kewpie Doll, broken and stained red in spots. The doll was a little boy but it looked old, like something Leonardo might have had as a child.

He shook it at Pops, “This one of your prizes?”

Pops said, “No, it’s Leonardo’s. We don’t use dolls like that.”

Eddie’s cell phone rang and I jumped. I didn’t realize how tense I was. I heard him speak to the caller.

“…so Robby Carlyle’s birth parents are Emily Welch and Rodney Blass….”

“Yeah…”

“You found a record of Medici’s son but no adoption papers? What’s the first name?”

“Leon? OK. Good job, Jennie. Thanks.”

Pops moved closer to Eddie. “What’s she saying about Leonardo and why the interest in his Kewpie?”

Eddie asked Pops, “Leonardo? He’s Leon Medici? Your nephew?”

Pops let out a breath and dropped his shoulders. “Yeah, my wife Rosa’s sister’s kid. We took him in when his parents died. Rosa passed just four years ago.” Pops crossed himself. “It’s been just me and him since. What about him and what’s with his doll?”

“You’ve seen Kewpies like these before?”

“Yeah, Leonardo’s Dad used to make’em by hand from a mold set he had. Special gifts for friends, family… special occasions. Once gave me a strongman Kewpie. Plaster, broke long time ago.”

“And you’ve been raising him like a son?”

“Yeah, Rosa couldn’t have kids. When her crazy bastard brother-in-law murdered her sister, her last living blood relative, we took the kid in. It was like they needed each other, Rosa and Leon. He saw something no one should ever see, really messed him up. When Orazio stabbed Agnese, this helpless three year old watched his mother bleed to death. Poor kid, he’s even tried to kill himself.”

Kewpies must have been at one time a fun family thing. One commemorated his parent’s marriage, another one, his birth. They were gifts for friends and family. Then, they became symbols of death. The story was sad but something didn’t make sense. I said to Pops, “I thought you said you weren’t related to Leonardo?”

“No. You asked if he was my son and he’s not. There’s no blood relation. Rosa and Leon… that was blood family. The last of it. When she died, he changed.” Each time Pops mentioned Rosa he crossed himself again.

Pops picked up the Kewpie Doll and asked, “What’s the dolls got to do with anything?”

I said, “Police found a plaster Kewpie Doll near each of four murder victims. Did Rosa have a gold charm bracelet?”

Pops sat down on Leonardo’s bed, still holding the Kewpie Doll, “What? Yeah. Her sister Agnese’s. Rosa wore it all the time, even took it to the hospice. Wasn’t in her stuff when she died. Don’t know where it is now.”

Eddie said, “We think Leonardo’s been killing people he holds responsible for driving his father to kill his mother.”

“You mean the men that gave her those gold charms?”

“Yeah, we hear she had an affair with a sailor, David Ryan. He’s at the show now with a group from his retirement home. Police are on their way to look for him. We need to find Leonardo right away. Where is he?”

“Don’t know.”

“Raquel, call Robby, bring him up to date on Leonardo. Pops, where should we look?”

I made my call to Robby and finished in time to hear Pops when he said, “… or he could be anywhere else on the grounds. Please don’t hurt him. If he did… anything, he couldn’t help himself.”

“OK, let’s go.” Eddie said, “Pops, call your crew on their radios. See if anyone knows where Leonardo or the Soldiers and Sailors group is.” Eddie opened the trailer door but Pops just sat there.

Eddie said, “C’mon. We move fast, we may save the sailor, maybe Leon too.” Pops let the Kewpie slip from his hand and followed us down the trailer steps.

I saw Robby when we entered the main grounds. He waved his radio at us. “Raquel, Franklin, one of my guys spotted the group from the home. C’mon.”

Pops, Eddie and I followed Robby to the petting zoo where two officers stood checking IDs cards from a half dozen old men in blue windbreakers. Each jacket bore the same emblem on the left breast. Two rifles crossed a ships steering wheel. None of the men knew where to find Ryan. One sailor told Robby some of his friends went to the sideshow. Robby sent two officers to investigate and asked, “Pops, where could Leonardo be?”

Pops looked from Robby to Eddie and then to me. He held his hands apart and shook his head slowly. He seemed so lost and alone, I took his hand.

Pops looked in my eyes, and then pointed between two trailers. “He sometimes comes here to watch the animals.” Robby, Eddie and I squeezed into a narrow space that opened up near the lion cage. There was nobody there.

Pops turned to Robby. “Please. Don’t hurt Leonardo. He’s not well, gets depressed, has mood swings but he’s a good boy.” He grabbed Robby’s elbow. “Please, promise me you won’t hurt him.”

Robby escaped Pop’s grip and said, “We don’t want to hurt him. We’ll do our best not to, but in the end, that’s all up to him.”

Pops nodded as if he understood and started sobbing. He took hold of my arm. “It’s my fault. I should have seen this. I should have realized what was going on.” I patted his back.

Robby said, “Mr. Popslowski. If you want to help your nephew, help us bring him in safely. Where else could he be?”

“I don’t know.” Pops said and then led us to various tents stopping every few feet either to beg for Leonardo or to berate himself for not seeing the trouble his nephew was in.

As we left a repair tent, Robby’s radio squawked. Patrol saw a man in a puffy white shirt walking on a high wire. They watched him while we raced to meet them. When we arrived, I could see he wasn’t Leonardo. Pops said, “That’s Phillipe.”

Eddie said, “This is too slow. We’re not going to find either one of them in time if we just keep running around.”

We were all quiet for a while, and then it hit me, “Leonardo killed the clown at a circus, the Farmer in field, the retired banker on a golf course. He’ll kill the Sailor on a boat. Pops, is there a boat in the carnival?”

“Sure, the Tunnel of Love, it’s the only boat ride we got.”

We rushed from the high wire following Pops through the grounds. Robby radioed for help. As we passed the carnival gate, more Waalbroek police appeared. They caught up as we all ran to the Tunnel of Love. When we got there, a sign at the entrance read, “Closed.”

Pops removed a flashlight from under the ride’s ticket counter. Robby took it from him, unholstered his gun, crouched and led two officers inside. We watched from the doorway until they disappeared into the darkness. After a few quiet moments, Robby yelled. “Get a medic!”

One of the officers emerged from the tunnel calling for a medic on his radio. Robby and the other officer carried out an unconscious, bloody and wet old man wearing a blue jacket. They placed him gently on the ground.

Robby said, “Heard sounds of a scuffle when we went in. Followed the noise and found this guy lying in the water with a head wound. If we didn’t find him when we did, he would have drowned… or died from getting whacked in the head with this.” Robby displayed a bloody Kewpie Doll in a plastic bag. The doll was dressed as a sailor.

By now, the rest of the police arrived. Two of the officers ran over and started first aid on the old man. Eddie asked, “Which way did he go?”

Robby said, “Not sure. Thought I heard two pairs of footsteps.”

“Probably just an echo in the tunnel. Which way did the louder steps go?

Robby pointed, said, “That way,” and started to run. We all followed him through a clearing between tents and trailers until we came to the Ferris wheel.

When we got there, a woman pointed up at the top of the ride and gasped. “There’s a man up there.”

I looked up and saw Leonardo standing on the top of the stopped wheel, his puffy white shirt fluttering in the wind. He looked down at the police on the ground, and then raised his arms as if he was going to perform a carnival feat. He followed that gesture with a perfect swan dive… into the dirt next to the ride. The crowd around the wheel stepped back and made a sound as if they were all one person. Thirty souls drew in a sharp breath at the same time. I never want to hear that again.

Police officers ran to Leonardo. His body was bloody, limbs at odd angles. One officer checked his pulse and stated the obvious, “Dead.”

I edged past the crowd. Eddie kneeled next to the body and pointed to Leonardo’s clutched fist. “Look.”

I bent over for a better view and I saw it sticking out of the dead man’s hand, a charm bracelet with only one charm left. It was a gold baby carriage with a spot for a gemstone, but the jewel was gone.

Later, back at the house, Mom opened a cabinet, reached past the everyday whiskeys and took out a bottle of Jameson’s Rarest Reserve Vintage. Then she placed three low-ball glasses on the coffee table and poured three inches in each, neat. Eddie released my hand and leaned forward on the sofa. He handed me one glass and then took one for himself. Mom stood in front of the fireplace, raised her glass and said, “I can’t drink to someone dying, but I can drink to the dead.”

We all raised our glasses and I said, “It’s really tragic. That poor little boy was only three. He had no way to handle what he saw.”

“But, he didn’t have to hunt down people and kill them. Their murders are the real tragedy,” Said Eddie as we all nodded.

The house phone rang. Mom finished her drink, slammed her glass down on the fireplace mantle and said, “Sucks all around,” then she left to answer the phone.

Eddie leaned back on the couch and asked me, “So, now what?”

I raised an eyebrow. “You tell me.”

He shrugged. “Got to go back to Florida,” then sipped his drink. “Hoped you’d come with me.”