Authors: Robert B Parker

Sixkill (2 page)

BOOK: Sixkill

13.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

ads

"Care for coffee?" I said.

"Got some," Quirk said. "Nice of you to ask."

"You ever read
Frazz
?" I said.

"What the fuck is
Frazz,
" Quirk said.

He was as big as I was, which is biggish, and always dressed well. Today he had on a chestnut-colored Harris tweed jacket. His hands were thick, and there was in his eyes a look of implacable resolution that made most people careful with him.

"A comic strip in the
Globe,
" I said. "It's new."

"I'm a grown man," Quirk said.

"And a police captain," I said.

"Exactly," Quirk said. "I don't read comic strips."

"I withdraw the question," I said.

Quirk nodded.

"I need something," he said.

"Everyone says so."

He ignored me. Quirk ignored a lot. He wasn't being impolite. He was merely focused, and I had known for years that he cared very little what other people thought.

"You know about Jumbo Nelson?"

"The actor," I said.

"Yes."

"Here shooting a movie," I said.

"Yeah."

"You guys think he murdered a young woman," I said.

"He's a person of interest," Quirk said.

I looked at him. I'd known him a long time.

"And?" I said.

"Lemme fill you in," Quirk said.

I got up and poured myself more coffee, and warmed Quirk's up. Then I put the pot on the burner, sat down in my chair, and leaned back with my feet up.

"Do," I said.

"Real name's Jeremy Franklin Nelson," Quirk said. "Ever seen him?"

"Seen his photograph," I said. "Never seen a movie."

"Photo's enough," Quirk said. "You can see where the nickname came from."

"I can," I said.

"He's in town," Quirk said, "shooting a movie. Which you know."

"As yet untitled," I said.

"
Frazz
tell you that?" Quirk said.

"I'm adventurous," I said. "Sometimes I read other stuff."

"Fucking media's treating this like it was the Lindbergh kidnapping."

"Lotta media to fill," I said.

"Too much," Quirk said. "Always was. Anyway, Jumbo is in town, travels with a bodyguard, an Indian."

"A Native American?"

Quirk nodded.

"Like I said."

"Could be an India Indian," I said.

"This guy's American Indian," Quirk said. "Wait'll you get a load of him."

"Dangerous?" I said.

"I dunno," Quirk said. "Looks good."

"Bodyguard involved?" I said.

"In the crime? Not that I know of," Quirk said.

"Press tells me that Jumbo raped and murdered a young woman and should be beheaded at once."

"Yeah," Quirk said. "That's what they tell me, too. What everybody tells me."

"You have doubts?"

Quirk shrugged.

"Here's what I know," he said. "Girl's name is Dawn Lopara, twenty years old, graduated last year from Bunker Hill Community College, was not employed."

Quirk sipped some coffee.

"More sugar," he said.

He went to the coffeemaker on the file cabinet and got some, and stirred it in, and sat back down. He took another sip and nodded.

"She's watching them shoot a scene outdoors on the Common, near Park Street Station, and Jumbo spots her. He sends a production assistant over to invite her to have lunch with him in the commissary. She's thrilled."

"As I would be," I said.

"Yeah," Quirk said. "Me too. So she has lunch with all the stars and the movie crew, and Jumbo gets her phone number and says maybe they can get together later, and she says oh-wow-yes."

"Do you know she said that?"

"The oh-wow-yes?" Quirk said. "No. So he calls her that night and she goes over to his hotel. They drink some champagne. They do some lines. They have sex. When they get through, they get dressed. Jumbo excuses himself for a moment while he goes to the bathroom. And while he's gone she lies back down on the bed and dies."

"I was having sex with Jumbo Nelson," I said, "I might consider it myself."

"It was after," Quirk said.

"Maybe she died of shame," I said.

"There was considerable bruising around the vaginal area," Quirk said.

"Suggesting an, ah, accessory object?"

"ME isn't sure," Quirk said. "Maybe Jumbo really is jumbo."

"Cause of death?" I said.

"ME thinks it's asphyxiation," Quirk said. "They found some ligature marks on her neck. But they don't seem entirely comfortable with how they got there."

"They're not sure?" I said.

"No."

"Aren't they supposed to be sure?" I said.

"For crissake," Quirk said. "One case I had, they lost the fucking body."

"That would be disheartening," I said.

"Was," Quirk said. "Also, when they're not sure, it gives a lot of space for rumors."

"I heard one report that the accessory object was the neck of a champagne bottle and it broke inside her and she bled to death."

Quirk shook his head.

"I know," Quirk said. "No evidence of it."

"I don't think the Internet requires evidence."

"Or knows how to get it," Quirk said.

"How 'bout Jumbo?" I said.

"Says he doesn't know what happened. Admits he was whacked on coke and booze. He says he left her alone and when he came back in the bedroom, he notices she's not responsive. Tries to wake her up. Can't. And calls nine-one-one."

"He'd been on top of her?" I said.

"Apparently," Quirk said. "At some point."

"Jesus," I said.

"I know, and we've thought about that."

"How much does he weigh?" I said.

"Don't know," Quirk said. "I'd say three-fifty to four hundred. He claims he doesn't know, either."

"What kind of guy is he?" I said.

"Awful," Quirk said. "Food, booze, dope, sex. Never saw a girl too young. Or a guy."

"Long as it's alive?" I said.

"I don't know if he requires that," Quirk said.

"But a nice guy aside from his hobbies," I said.

"Loud, arrogant, stupid, foulmouthed," Quirk said.

"
You
think he's foulmouthed?"

"Fucking A," Quirk said.

SPRING WAS STILL
drifting in.

"Everybody likes him for it," Quirk said. "Us, the studio, people on the crew, everybody. Girl's parents."

"You like him for it?" I said.

"Governor likes him for it. Mayor likes him for it. Commissioner loves him. Command staff loves him more. Senate president. House speaker. Both newspapers. Everybody on TV. Every fucking cyberspace moron who can type," Quirk said.

"You?" I said.

"I don't think he murdered her," Quirk said. "Or if he did, we don't have enough hard evidence to say it. We're guessing."

"And everybody wants it to go away and take him with it," I said.

"They do," Quirk said. "He was probably with her when she died, and what they were doing may have killed her, I don't know. But I don't think you can convict a guy of murder on what we've got, and I'm afraid we might."

"The fact that he's a creep helps move it along," I said.

"It's not illegal to be a pain in the ass," Quirk said. "It was, you and me probably be doing time."

"Maybe you," I said. "Whaddya need from me?"

"I want you to look into it," Quirk said.

"Because you can't?"

"Correct," Quirk said.

"Anybody gonna pay me?" I said.

"The movie studio has hired Rita Fiore to represent Jumbo," Quirk said. "I've talked to her. She says Cone, Oakes will hire you to investigate."

"And bill the studio," I said.

"Be my guess," Quirk said.

"What makes you think he didn't commit first-degree murder?" I said.

"Maybe he did," Quirk said. "And if he did, we'll try to prove it. But right now I think he's being railroaded, and I can't stop it and stay a cop."

"What if I find out that he's guilty as charged?"

"Tell me," Quirk said. "I'll be thrilled. You want to look at our notes, so far?"

"I like to start fresh," I said. "I think better if I'm in the process."

"Yeah," Quirk said. "I know."

"Okay," I said.

"Okay you'll take the job?"

"Yep."

"Just like that?" Quirk said.

"Yep," I said.

"You might start out by talking to Rita Fiore," Quirk said.

"You might start out by not telling me what to do," I said.

"Okay," Quirk said. "What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna talk to Rita Fiore," I said.

"Good idea," Quirk said.

He almost smiled.

PEARL SCRATCHED
at the bedroom door.

Susan got out of bed naked and let Pearl in, then came back and got into bed too late to keep Pearl from getting between us. Susan tried to pull the covers up, but Pearl was in the way.

"You cold?" I said.

"I don't like to lie around naked," Susan said.

"I've seen you naked five thousand times," I said.

"That's not the point," she said.

She was trying to get the covers out from under Pearl so that she could pull them over herself.

"What is the point?"

"Lying around naked is wanton," she said.

"And that's a bad thing?" I said.

"You keep peeking at me," Susan said.

"I don't peek," I said. "I stare."

Pearl moved around vigorously for a moment until she was entirely comfortable, and put her head down in a position that allowed her to look at both of us.

Susan looked at her alarm clock.

"It's ten o'clock in the morning," she said.

"On a Saturday," I said.

"And we've already had sex," she said.

"Nice start to the weekend," I said.

"And we'll probably have sex again before the weekend is over," she said.

"If we can shake Pearl," I said.

"We're grown people," she said.

"I know," I said.

"Don't you think we're oversexed?"

"You're the shrink," I said. "You tell me."

"Yes," she said. "I believe we are."

"What should we do about it?" I said.

"Encourage the pathology," Susan said, and smiled her rebelangel smile at me.

We were quiet. The sun wasn't high enough yet to shine into Susan's bedroom window, which faced west. But the light outside the window was bright.

"Quirk wants you to help him with that Jumbo Whosis murder," she said.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He thinks Jumbo might be getting railroaded," I said.

"Can't he stop that himself?"

"No," I said.

"He's in charge of the investigation, isn't he?"

"Officially," I said. "But there are a number of people in charge of him."

"Such as?"

"Senior command staff. Commissioner. Mayor, governor . . . and such. All of them pressured by the media."

"It's why you quit being a cop," she said.

"Some of it," I said. "But to be fair, I don't know that there is an organizational structure into which I would comfortably fit."

"Nothing bigger than you and me," Susan said. "Could he quit?"

"Quirk?" I said. "Quirk is a combination of two things. He's married and has kids. That's one thing. And he's a cop. That's the other thing. Without those, he ceases to be Quirk."

"Love and work," Susan said.

"Same as we are," I said.

BOOK: Sixkill

13.46Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Read Book Download Book

ads