The Doper Detective in:Dead Herring
Episode 1
Chapter 1: Beginning at the Start
It was 3 o’clock on a lazy day. On the street below, people seemed to be walking in slow motion. Sunlight streamed in through the window, and reflected off the dust particles floating in front of my face. For some reason, Odie didn’t believe in maid services. He always said that having somebody we didn’t know snooping around in the office was too risky. I always said that if he died, the first thing I’d do was have the place cleaned.
Not that I was complaining. Funds were low as it was, and a cleaner would just be another item on the bill. If it was a choice between clean tabletops and dinner, I’d take the grub any day of the week. Odie was reading a newspaper at his desk across the room, oblivious to the rest of the world. I lay my head back in the chair, and let myself doze off for a little while.
From the outer office, I heard the door open, and the clacking sound of Cheri’s typewriter quit. I could hear muffled voices talking, and then the door to the inner office clicked open, and Cheri came in. “There’s a woman here to see you, Mr. Mason,” she said. “Why thank you, Ms. Scott,” I replied, “but I’m sure that we can dispense with the formalities. My name’s Rick.”
“Whatever you say, boss. Just be careful, she’s a looker.” Odie looked up from his newspaper, now that something interesting had been said.
“Aren’t they all? Show her in.”
“Sure thing, Rick.”
Cheri opened the door, and the woman walked in. My secretary hadn’t been lying; the lady was a knockout. A green dress with black lining clung to her curvy body, and a sloping green hat hid all but a tuft of black hair, which fell down over her left eye. The eye that was showing was deep, jade green, and almost drew attention away from her rich, ruby lips. Not that I notice those sorts of things.
Odie and I both stood, and I gestured to a chair in front of my desk. “Won’t you sit down, Miss….”
“Golden,” the woman said in a throaty purr. “Eve Golden.”
“Well, please sit down, Ms. Golden.” I took a moment to commit the name to memory, and took her coat. “I am Rick Mason, and this is my associate, Keith Thompson.”
“You can call me Odie,” said Keith with a grin, looking up from her figure for a brief moment. “Please, tell us how we can be of service.”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure where to start,” Eve said uncertainly.
“I have found, Ms. Golden, that the best place to start from is most often the beginning,” I said.
“I need you to find someone for me,” she stated, in her most quivering, nervous, lady-like voice. “His name is Smokey Bottle, and he is an…acquaintance of mine.” She handed a photo across the table to me. It depicted a man of medium build, dressed in a black suit, standing on the deck of a ship. It looked to be a private yacht, and a city line could be seen in the background.
I passed the photo to Odie, who looked at it, then cast a penetrating stare in her direction. “Acquaintance?” He asked, suggesting something more.
Golden tried to match stares with him, but realized that he wasn’t going to give and wrenched her eyes away. “We…we were married…” she began in a shaky voice. “I see,” he said, cutting her off patronizingly.
“We were married,” she said again, looking angrily at him. “But, he ran off one day, and never returned. He also took a large number of jewels with him. They were all family heirlooms, and very valuable. I have recently received word from a friend that he is in town, and I would like either you or your partner to locate him for me, and possibly retrieve the jewels.”
“Why would he take your jewels?” I asked. “He seems pretty well off in this picture, what with the yacht and all.” Eve looked down at the ground, nervously. “It was all a bit of a fiasco,” she began. “He claimed that the jewels belonged to his family, when they most definitely were inherited from my mother. One day, I woke up and he was gone, the jewels with him.”
“I see,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “Well, I’m afraid that this is quite a big city, Ms. Golden, and finding just one man without any leads is going to be an incredibly hard job. I’m not sure whether my partner and I will be able to undertake such an operatio…”
“I am willing to pay you both 500 dollars for your services,” she said, cutting me off.
I traded glances with Odie, who gave me an enthusiastic nod. He looked about as shocked as I was.
“Well,” I said, turning back to Eve, “I feel it would be impolite to leave a woman in need.”
“Excellent,” she answered, brightening. “A friend or mine saw Smokey in a drug store, and followed him to this address. Thank you again for this. The jewels truly mean a lot to me.”
“I’m sure they do,” I said, showing her to the door.
After she left, Odie threw me a quizzical look. “I don’t like this, Rick,” he said. “Something about her seems fishy.”
“Maybe it’s the fact that she’s swimming in dough,” I responded.
“Oh yeah, that’s gotta be it,” he said, smiling toothily.
Chapter Two: Midnight Rendezvous
The rest of the day went by without anything else happening. The only other job that Odie and I had at the time was to keep tabs on a coroner who was suspected of mob ties, but he had just been found floating in the river that morning, so we were pretty sure that we were done. At 5 o’clock, I went back to my apartment, had a scotch, and thought about Ms. Golden’s figure again. After all, a good detective must thoroughly analyze every detail.
*****
At 7, I was back at the office, waiting on the street for Odie to arrive. It was a crisp, clear night, without much of a breeze, but just enough of a bite to the air to remind me that fall was coming. Odie’s car pulled around the corner and parked in front of the office, but when I walked to it to get in, I noticed that he was in the passenger seat. Someone else was driving. This didn’t bode well.
As I climbed into the back seat, Odie flashed me a sheepish smile. “Meet our new driver,” he said, pointing at the kid at the wheel. The kid was just that; he stood about five ten and couldn’t have been more than 18. He was wearing a pair of faded slacks and a shirt that was too big on him, and had a scally cap pulled down over his forehead.
“The name’s Johnny L.A.” he said, reaching a gloved hand out to me.
“Christ, Odie,” I whispered, shaking the kid’s hand. “Can he even shave yet?”
“Don’t know,” he said in return. “But he can sure as Hell drive, I can tell you that. He’s my cousin’s son, just moved up here from down South. Says he can drive, and he was looking for work, so I told him we would give him a shot. Tonight can be a trial, and if it goes well, I was thinking of putting him on the payroll.”
“What payroll?”
Odie smiled and made a signal to the kid, who pulled away from the curve and around the corner.
*****
It was a long car ride to Bottle’s last known address, so Odie and I took the time to share our thoughts on the case. I didn’t like the look of the situation, and told Odie just that.
“You’re probably right, Rick,” He said in return. “But I’m gonna disagree, just for the sake of argument. I mean, after all, she seemed nice enough.”
“Sure she did,” I responded. “And she didn’t look half bad, either. But there are too many things that just don’t add up. For one, there’s him stealing the jewels. I don’t care how much of a ‘fiasco’ Golden says there was. There’s no reason for a guy that loaded to up and run off with a bunch of costume jewelry.”
“Maybe he had some gambling debts,” said Odie.
“Or a lady-friend who he couldn’t afford,” Johnny offered with a grin. I shot him a look and kept talking to Odie.
“Even if that’s so, it doesn’t explain where we come in. I mean, she said it herself, she knows where the guy lives. The only reason she would need us is to go and retrieve the jewels from him, and that’s the kind of job you go to the police with.”
“True,” Odie responded thoughtfully. “But maybe she wanted to keep it hush-hush, y’know?”
“It’s possible,” I stated. “But even still, I don’t like the look of things.”
“Well,” Johnny spoke up for the second time, “You’re about to find out if you’re right or not, cause we’re here.”
Odie and I climbed out of the car and I told Johnny to park up the street and wait for us. With a tip of his cap he drove off and stopped about 50 yards away from the house. I started towards the house, with Odie in tow.
Suddenly, as we walked towards the door, it flew open, and a man sprinted out. Although his hair was greatly mussed, and his suit wrinkled, I recognized him as Smokey Bottle, the man from the picture. He ran up, and clutched my jacket lapels.
“Please…help me,” he panted. “…Broke into my apartment, attacked…” I saw a muzzle flash in the alleyway, and a shot sounded out. Bottle went limp in my arms, with a bullet hole in his back.
I dropped him and ran towards the alleyway, gesturing for Odie to check the building. He nodded, pulled out his pistol, and ran inside. I pulled my own Smith & Wesson out of my shoulder holster, and peeked around the wall, into the alley. A clanging sound above me told me that the gunman had climbed the fire escape, and I went up after him. As I reached the top, I had just enough time to glimpse a figure silhouetted by the moonlight before two shots rang out, and I ducked behind the rim of the roof. I took a moment to curse, then got up and ran after the figure. He reached the end of the roof, then stopped, and looked over the edge.
“Freeze!” I yelled, training my gun on him. He froze, and I walked up behind him. Then, I brought the handle of my pistol down onto his wrist. I heard a crack and he let out a cry as he dropped his pistol. I don’t like to use violence, but this guy had just shot a man in the back and fired at me twice, so I wasn’t about to treat him gently.
“Just take it nice and easy,” I said to the back of his head. He jumped up onto the rim of the roof, yelled something in a foreign language that I didn’t understand, and flung himself off of the roof. Two stories later, I heard him hit the pavement. The sound made me queasy, and my legs shook all the way down the fire escape.
When I got back down, I saw that Odie was still inside. I walked into the house, gun drawn, and went up the stairs. It was old and run down inside, but it seemed solid enough. Down the hall, a door was open. Cautiously, I went inside, and saw why Odie hadn’t been waiting in the street.
Odie was dead.
To be Continued…
