[To Die For 01] - A View to Die For (2012) (17 page)

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Later that night, while having our beer out on the deck, Fred once again pretended to listen to me. There was a slight westerly breeze coming off the water that made the humidity bearable and kept the bugs at bay. I was working on my fourth or fifth beer. Fred was still on his first. “What do you think, Freddie? Do you have any good ideas on how we get that list?” It beat talking to myself.

Fred pushed my hand holding the beer. He answered me with a sneeze after slopping up another puddle full of bubbles.

“What list is that?” asked a voice from behind me. I didn’t turn to look. I could pick out my sister’s voice in a choir.

“Hal’s contact list,” I answered without looking at her. “Did you bring us another beer?”

Megan put a cold Keystone on the table and looked down at Fred. “Aren’t you afraid you’ll fry his liver or something?” she asked.

“What about my liver? How am I ever going to hack into Hal’s computer when I’m hooked to a dialysis machine?”

She took a chair across the table from me and sipped on her wine. “Why would you do that?

“Oh yeah, you’re right. That’s for kidneys isn’t it?”

Megan started to get up. “Maybe we should talk in the morning. I can see you and Fred have had too much to drink. You know I meant Hal’s computer.”

“Sorry,” I said, raising my hands in a gesture of surrender. “Rosenblum thinks I need to check Hal’s customers against a list he gave me today.”

She leaned forward to pet Fred and started rubbing his ears. “Yeah, I know. He told me all about your visit.”

“He called you?”

“No. I called him.” She stopped rubbing Fred’s ears and sat back in her chair. Fred pushed up against her, wanting more. “I got another notice on the house today. They’re threatening foreclosure already, so I called Ira for his advice.”

I poured more beer on the deck. It was a sure way to get Fred to stop bothering her. “So soon? What happened to the money Dad left you?”

Megan got up from her chair again. Only this time, she was on the verge of tears. “I used it to pay bills and bought a few things for the house. Hell, I don’t know. I never was very good with money. You know that,” she said, then started to sob.

I spent the next hour nursing the last of my beer while trying to figure out how on earth she had managed to spend so much so soon. Fred wasn’t much help. He had left with Megan, probably hoping for another ear rub. Eventually, I gave up trying to analyze women’s spending habits and went to bed.

It was well after ten on Saturday morning when Fred woke me up with his ritual. If I had still been sleeping on the couch and not moved down to the unfinished lower level, he would not have bothered. Someone else would have already let him out by now. When I didn’t respond to his pacing and tail thumping, he tried licking me awake.

“Okay, Boy, you win,” I said and let him out the door. I hadn’t hooked up a toilet, so I took Fred’s lead and let my bladder go off the side of the deck, too.

“Jacob Martin. I didn’t raise you in a barn. Can’t you use the bathroom?” My mother was on the upper deck.

“Morning, Mom. Coffee still hot?”

I zipped up and joined the family on the deck for a late breakfast. Fred didn’t care if his privates were showing and beat me to the table. Megan was grinning from ear to ear. “I see you’re in a good mood this morning,” I said to her. “What happened? Did you win the lottery since last night?”

“She’s finally come to her senses and is going to sell this albatross.” Mother answered for her while giving Fred a piece of burnt bacon.

Megan’s grin turned into a frown. “The realtor will be here this afternoon. Ira says I can still come out with enough to get by for a while. At least until I can find a job, or somebody gets off his butt and proves Mike didn’t kill himself.”

“Rosenblum said that?” I asked, feigning shock. “I wouldn’t think he’d be so unprofessional.”

Megan played with the scrambled eggs on her plate, picking through them like they might be infected with ants. “No, of course not. But you know there are no jobs around here. I really need that insurance, Jake.”

“Are you going to eat that?” I asked. “If not, give it to me, and I’ll tell you about the dream I had last night to get the proof you need.”

Mother spoke as though she never heard a word of our conversation. “I think it’s time I went home,” she said out of the blue.

Megan stopped playing with her eggs and slid the plate toward me. “Today, Mom?” she asked.

Our mother looked at Fred instead of looking at Megan. “It’s so strange going back without your father. Maybe I should get a dog to keep me company.” Then she raised her head. I could see tears in her eyes. “No. Not today. Maybe tomorrow. Anita’s been keeping an eye on the house, so I’m sure she won’t mind another day or two.”

I started to ask who Anita was when we heard the sliding door open. Kevin and Taylor were up before noon. Fred was the first to greet them.

Kevin bent down to pat Fred on the head, “Mornin’ Freddie.” He looked at the empty plates on the table, and said: “What’s for breakfast, Mom? I’m starving.”

“Can’t you greet your grandmother and uncle, too?” Megan answered.

My mother was already out of her chair and on her way to the kitchen. “Scrambled okay?” she asked.

Taylor opened the door for her. ”Can I help you, Mrs. Martin?” he asked while following her into the house. Kevin and Fred knew where the food would be and followed alongside.

Megan waited for everyone to leave. She cupped her hands together, holding her head with her elbows on the table. “Well?” she asked. “Are you going to tell me about your dream?”

“Well, Mrs. Freud, it’s quite elementary.”

Megan laughed and said, “Aren’t you mixing metaphors there? Even I know the difference between Freud and Sherlock Holmes. Maybe you should forget about telling me your dream and cut to the chase.”

I thought about that for a moment and realized she was right. My dream involved a lot more than a solution to hacking into Hal’s computer – it would be best if I skipped over the part involving Linda smothering me with kisses. “I’ll take your pontoon for a ride down the lake and park by Hal’s house. I doubt his internet is secured, so I’ll simply connect to his computer through his router. Then I’ll search his webpage cache and cookies for usernames and passwords. I can pack it up and leave once I get his email ID and password.”

Megan gave me her Fred impersonation: the dumb look he gives me when he doesn’t understand me. “Right. Clear as mud. What good will his email ID do you?”

“I’ll bet my next paycheck there’s an email in there that will connect Bennet and the drug dealers. And if we’re really lucky, something to prove Bennet killed Mike and Bill.”

Megan laughed. Not the hiccup inducing laugh of something really funny, but the Doubting Thomas kind. “Ah, Porky. Did you forget? You don’t have any paychecks?”

Fred and I went on our little boat ride later that day. Megan stayed behind with our mother, who wouldn’t go; she never learned to swim and didn’t trust boats. I didn’t dare ask Taylor to tag along on my intrusion into his father’s computer, and Kevin was attached to Taylor at the hip. That left Fred as my only passenger.

The boat had been sitting in the dock since before Mike’s death. Its pontoons had a thick coat of algae at the water line, and I didn’t know if it had any gas or if it would even start. I took the keys from under the seat. Meg said Mike hid them there because he was always losing them, and I tried to start the motor. Nothing happened, not even a click. “So much for a three-hour tour, Gilligan,” I said to Fred.

Gilligan started barking. I looked in the direction he was focused on. The outboard motor had a little round squeeze-bulb that had to be pumped to get gas to the motor. Fred must have thought it was a ball and wanted me to throw it for him. “Not now, Freddie,” I said. “And if you’re trying to tell me to squeeze it, you’re dumber than I thought. There’s an electrical problem not a fuel problem.”

Nonetheless, I went over and squeezed the bulb. Then I saw the cable next to the battery. It was disconnected. “Maybe you should be the skipper,” I said and started the motor after connecting the battery and squeezing the gas bulb three times.

We cruised out of the cove and onto the main channel. Fred acted like a puppy trying to catch the spray coming over the bow. I guess he was just a dog after all. For a while there, I thought he had more sense than me. You couldn’t pay me to drink this water. Unlike the clear blue lakes and rivers back home, where you could see trout ten feet down, this water was the color of sewer water with visibility no more than three inches. There could be a shark down there, and you would never know it until it bit you. Water quality aside, I did have to marvel at how peaceful this end of the lake was compared to the hustle at the dam. We barely saw another boat, and when we did, the people never failed to wave. I was beginning to wish Hal and Amy lived further away when I saw their dock up ahead.

Maybe bringing Fred along on my first felony wasn’t such a good idea. We were getting ready to tie up to Hal’s dock when I realized Fred might start barking. I knew Amy would be at work, but I wasn’t so sure about Hal. Then I saw the sign on the dock and quickly pushed off. “THIS PROPERTY IS UNDER VIDEO SURVIELLANCE,” the sign read. It could have been one of those fake warnings to scare away an intruder; I couldn’t see any cameras or wiring, but I couldn’t afford to take the chance. With state of the art technology, it was possible to hide a wireless camera almost anywhere.

“What now, Fred? I don’t have a plan C.” Fred responded with his usual bark, and we pulled away from the dock and headed down stream. Although it was hot and humid, the wind and spray of the water felt good. I decided to mix business with pleasure and do a little cruising. Maybe I’d get lucky and find the Tracker boat in someone’s dock.

The lake had another thing going for it that Colorado waters didn’t. There was a bar or waterfront restaurant every few miles. I pulled the boat into the dock of a lakeside restaurant and tied her off. Fred stayed on the boat while I went in for my afternoon libation.

The bartender was an older woman who was missing most of her teeth. “Afternoon, stranger. What can I get ya?”

On closer examination I decided she had to be at least ten years younger than I first thought. She wasn’t all that bad looking either. Given a set of dentures, she would be considered attractive. “Coors Light, Please.”

“So what do you think of your Broncos now?” she asked while reaching under the counter for my beer. “Looks like they forgot to show up yesterday.” I forgot I was wearing my Broncos hat, and this was Chief’s territory. A quick look around the bar assured me I was in no immediate danger. There was only one other customer, an old man with a cane leaning against the bar. I figured I could probably take him if I had to.

“Tell me about it,” I answered. “They can’t seem to do anything right since Elway retired.”

She wiped off my bottle with a rag that looked like it had been used to clean the floor. It reminded me of the same hygiene I observed at the Pig’s Roast. Maybe they used river water to clean their towels. “Two bucks, unless you want to run a tab,” she said, handing me my beer.

“No tab, but can I get a couple of burgers and a six pack to go? I don’t want to leave my dog down there too long. He’s liable to go for a swim any minute.”

“Sure thing, Sweetie. I’m also the cook today, so if you need another beer while I’m gone, just ask Clarence,” she gestured toward the end of the bar.

The old guy who had been watching us got off his stool at the mention of his name, then limped over and took a stool next to me. “Saw you pull up in that pontoon down there. I had a friend with one just like it,” he said. “Clarence is my name. Clarence Bukowski. I don’t think I’ve seen you around much.”

“Mine’s Jake. Thanks, but the boat belongs to my sister. It was her husband’s before he died. Maybe you know her. Megan Carver. She has a house less than a couple of miles from here, on the lake.”

“I told Carrie you was Meg’s brother. Didn’t I, Carrie?” he called out to the barmaid. But she was already out of hearing range or had just decided to ignore him. “Me and your dad used to fish all over the lake in that boat before we both got too sick. That’s when he gave it to Mike. Bet you didn’t know there’s a live well under the front seat. Course we never put no minners in there, just our beer. I’m sure gonna miss Marvin.”

Then I made the connection. “Bukowski? Do you know a Linda Bukowski?”

“Fraid so. She’s my granddaughter. Been one wild ride with that girl, I’ll tell you. But deep down, she’s really a good kid. Why you ask? She leave you with a broken heart?”

I looked at Clarence and could see a slight resemblance to Linda. He had the same short-stocky frame as his granddaughter and the same dark eyes. “No. Nothing like that. I only met her a couple of times is all.” It didn’t seem appropriate to tell Clarence I once had the hots for his granddaughter. “Heard she went to California. How’s she doing out there?”

“Oh, she’s on her way back already. Went out with some construction worker who left her for a hooker in Las Vegas. We had to send her the bus fare to get back home,” he answered.

Before I had a chance to find out when Linda would be back, Carrie came over with a brown bag and a six-pack. “No charge, Jake,” she said. “I’m sorry to hear about your father, and tell Meg that I’m praying for her.”

I forgot about Linda instantly. Carrie’s words put a lump in my throat. “Thank you, Carrie,” I said. “Thank you very much.” And I took my burgers and beer and headed toward the door.

I returned to the boat a little too late. Fred had jumped out and swam to shore. He was giving a fisherman a shower as he shook the water off. “Fred!” I yelled. “Get over here.”

After apologizing to the fisherman and offering him one of my beers, I gave Fred his burger, and we got back on the boat. Once out and away from the docks, I gunned the motor and headed for home at the breakneck speed of fifteen miles an hour.

Fred was out on the front deck of the boat again, biting the spray as it came over the bow. I was wishing life could be so simple for us humans when I heard the siren behind me. A Missouri water patrol boat was flashing his blue light and signaling me to come to a stop.