When the Night Bird Sings Read online

  Taking Darcie’s comment to heart, I decided to go kick some tires on a new truck to pass the time until lunch. I wasn’t sure I wanted another truck. Even if I had the money to buy one, the one I had was like an old friend I would hate to say goodbye to.

  I would never tell anyone that because they would think I was kind of weird and I already had too many weird things going for me.

  The weirdest one was the box I took to the crime locker evidence room from The Mutilator case. If anyone ever opened that up I might be in more trouble than I could handle.

  Chapter 2

  It had been a while since I was at Brogans Restaurant. It wasn’t fancy but it was clean and the food was good. It was where most of the locals went for lunch or dinner when they wanted to take a step up from a fast food place. They had a semi-maître d’ who watched you come in and said hello but let you seat yourself.

  Darcie was sitting in a booth sipping red wine when I got there. I sat down, she smiled and pointed at her wine glass.

  “No, I think I’ll have a salad,” I said. “I haven’t been to the gym this week and I feel it.”

  “I’ll have a salad, too,” she said. “Want to go to the gym after work today?”

  “That would be now. We don’t have any work,” I said.

  “Well you could have made two hundred thousand if you didn’t have a conscience,” Darcie said.

  “Yeah, I know, but mostly I didn’t want a boyfriend named Bubba. Let’s see if we can snag a waiter.”

  “You’re going to be surprised,” she said.

  “About what?” I asked.

  “You’ll see,” she said.

  I looked up and it took me a minute to realize it was DeMax Baker walking to the table. DeMax was wearing black pants, a white shirt with a name tag and a bowtie. He had cut his bushy hair short and put on weight. He didn’t look much like I remembered.

  “Mecana. What it is?”

  “Man, do you look different,” I said.

  “Only on the outside,” he said, and smiled.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m a working man now. A bonifide server.”

  “You look the part,” I said.

  “Yep, what can I get you?”

  “Okay, Mr. Server, could we have two house salads with ranch, and I’ll have a Coke,” I said.

  “I got it,” DeMax said and wrote in his pad. “Would you like more wine, Miss Darcie?”

  “No, I’m good, DeMax,” she said.

  “That’s two house salads with ranch dressing and a Coke for Mecana, right?”

  “Right,” I said.

  “Coming up,” he said, stuck his notepad in his pocket and walked away.

  “You’re right,” I said. “I am surprised. DeMax and work don’t seem to fit in the same sentence.”

  “Looks like he’s changed his ways,” Darcie said.

  “I don’t know, I think I’ll wait a while to pass judgment. DeMax is pretty shrewd.

  He may be working an angle of some kind here. If he is I would bet a woman is involved.”

  “You are a Doubting Thomas aren’t you,” Darcie said.

  “Oh…That was cute,” I said.

  “I thought so,” she said, smiled and took a sip of wine.

  “You find some stuff for the office?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’ll drop if off at the office after lunch and meet you at the gym,” she said. “You think that sweet-smelling Candy lady will drop in again?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “She might not, but she may send someone. I don’t think it would be a social call. Some people can’t handle rejection”

  “I’ll make a note of that, partner,” I said.

  DeMax came back to the table carrying a tray. “Here you are,” he said. He placed the salads and Coke on the table, picked up the tray and looked at Darcie. “Miss Darcie, thanks again for getting me out of that mess with the police. You sure are a good lawyer.”

  “You’re welcome, DeMax. They needed a suspect and were willing to do whatever they could to get one, including railroading an innocent man.”

  “I sure was that. I wouldn’t kill all those pretty ladies.”

  “With your fondness for women,” I said, “we had already come to that conclusion.”

  “Hope I didn’t have anything to do with ya’ll quitting the police,” DeMax said.

  “You didn’t, it was mostly politics,” Darcie said.

  “We just didn’t fit there anymore,” I said. “We opened a Private Investigation office,” I said, handing him a business card.

  “That’s what Miss Darcie said. You need anything, all you have to do is ask. I owe you,” he said and stuck the card in his pocket.

  “You don’t owe us anything, DeMax,” Darcie said. “The legal system owes you.”

  “Well, just the same. If you need me you know where I am,” he said.

  “We’ll remember that,” I said.

  DeMax nodded and walked away.

  “How long you think he’ll be here?” Darcie asked.

  “Good question,” I said. “DeMax marches to his own drum.”

  “I think I’ll go,” she said. “I’ll see you at the gym.”

  “You barely touched your salad,” I said.

  “I’m not very hungry,” she said, finished off the wine and stood up. “Watch your back. I have a bad feeling about Candy Kane.”

  “I’ll be okay. See you at the gym,” I said.

  “You can get the check,” she smiled. “And give DeMax a big tip.”

  Chapter 3

  The lunch crowd was leaving the gym when I pulled in. I saw Darcie’s SUV and parked my Silverado beside it. When I went in I saw Darcie’s trainer Mindy showing an overweight young lady how to use a treadmill. Two gym rats were lifting weights.

  Mindy saw me, we waved at each other.

  When I came out of the locker room in my gym shorts and Marine t-shirt Mindy was talking to Darcie. As I walked up to them she smiled.

  “Hi Mecana haven’t seen you for a while,” she said.

  “I know, been busy getting our office open.”

  “Anything I can get you?” she asked.

  “No, I think I’m good.”

  “Okay, have a good workout. I’ve got a class to teach. See you.”

  “Yeah, see you,” I said as she walked away. I turned to Darcie. “What were you two talking about?”

  “You,” Darcie said. “About what a good-looking dude you are with those sexy gray eyes and that bod. I think she wants to play nice-nice with you.”

  “What do you think about that?” I said and grinned.

  “Fine, I’ll go home and pack since it’s your house,” she said.

  “Not to worry. Not my type.”

  “Then I won’t pack. For now.”

  “Good. I would be lonesome.”

  “Not for long if she knew I was gone.”

  “I don’t know, I suspect she may have more interest in you.”

  “Not into that sort of thing. I have enough trouble with you.”

  “You know the house can be yours, too. We can go to a Justice of the Peace or do the whole ball of wax wedding thing.”

  “That’s a subject for another day,” she said, pushed the treadmill button and started running.

  After a good two-hour workout I had had enough. “Think I’ll call it good and take a shower. Want to take one with me?” I said.

  “I think management frowns on coed showering,” she said.

  “Party poopers,” I said.

  “That doesn’t mean we can’t take another one when we get home,” she said, and

  winked.

  “Time to go,” I said, picked up my towel and headed for the locker room.

  We stopped by the office to look at the new things Darcie bought. The place looked a lot more alive with reprints of dead painters’ art on the walls and a couple of artificial plants. She even got us nameplates to set on our desk.

 
“It’s looks great,” I said. “Can we go now?”

  “What’s your hurry,” she said.

  “We were going to take a shower together?”

  “Maybe,” she said and stopped at the door, looked at the sign again and sighed.

  “I’ll take care of it,” I said, locked the door and headed home.

  I got a call from Chief Verves two days later.

  “Mecana, they found Mr. Kane dead this morning in a New York City hotel with four 9mm slugs in him, all in his heart,” Verves said. “I got someone on the way to see Mrs. Kane. His buddy Landon Fritz said he had dinner with him at the hotel and went home around ten that night.”

  “Fritz have any family?” I asked.

  “Said he didn’t but we’re still checking him out,” Verves said.

  “She wasn’t whistling Dixie,” I said. “Sounds like the hitman beat her to the punch.”

  “Yeah, I’ll let you know,” he said and hung up.

  Darcie walked in the room with a towel wrapped around her head and another around her body. “Who was that?” she asked.

  “Verves. They found Candy’s husband full of holes in a New York hotel very dead.

  Maybe I should have been more sympathetic about her situation before I turned her away.”

  “You did the right thing,” she said. “But she may not think so.”

  “Why didn’t you wait for me?” I said. “I kinda liked the coed showering the other day.”

  “Go take a cold shower by yourself,” she said.

  “Won’t change anything,” I said.

  “Well switch gears, we’ve got an insurance company man coming. He has some work for us.”

  “Do you know you’re naked?”

  “Knock it off and get ready,” she threw the towel wrapped around her waist at me and walked back to the bedroom buck naked.

  Chapter 4

  We arrived at the office at ten the next morning. Darcie made coffee and a Mister Summers from the insurance company showed up a short time later. He was middle-aged, trim with thin gray hair and glasses, wearing a light gray suit and a red tie.

  “Congratulations on your new business,” he said. “I saw your ad.”

  “Looks like that ad was money well spent,” I said. “Have a seat, Mr. Summers.”

  He sat down and placed his briefcase beside the chair.

  “Would you like some coffee?” Darcie asked.

  “No thank you,” he picked up his briefcase, opened it and took some papers out. He looked at Darcie like he was inhaling her, placed the papers on my desk and sat the briefcase back beside the chair.

  “I think we have some claim adjusters taking kickbacks. That’s the information you will need to check out,” he said, motioning toward the papers on my desk. “We had a client tell us he paid off one of our claim adjusters to get the figure he wanted. There may be more. We don’t want to handle this in-house, they might catch on.”

  I picked up the papers, took a quick look, nodded and handed them to Darcie.

  She looked at them and leaned against my desk facing the man. “Mr. Summers, this may take a day or it may take a month, depending on what we have to do. We charge five hundred a day plus expenses. You only pay for the days we are working on your case.”

  “That will be fine. Let me know when you finish your investigation,” he said.

  I thought it would be. She could have sold him the Brooklyn Bridge.

  “The first five hundred is up front, Mr. Summers,” I said. “We’ll bill you for the rest.”

  “I came prepared,” he said. “I have a signed check. I’ll fill it out.”

  “Make it out to Conner’s and Mecana Private Investigators,” I said, looked at Darcie and grinned. She didn’t show any expression, I didn’t think she heard me. He made out the check and handed it to me, picked up his briefcase and stood up.

  “Thank you,” I said and shook his hand.

  “We’ll keep in touch with you, Mr. Summers,” Darcie said.

  “Thank you,” he said and walked to the door. I opened it and he walked out.

  I held the check up and looked at it before handing it to Darcie. “Our first money,” I said. “You want to make the deposit?”

  “I can’t until you change the name at the bank to Conner’s and Mecana.”

  “You did hear me,” I said. “It was a joke, you’re trying to rattle my cage.”

  “I don’t think they will take it,” she said.

  “Quit rubbing it in and take the check to the bank,” I said. “I’ll see if I can come up with some information on the claims adjuster.”

  “Alright, we’ll see,” she waved the check at me and left.

  I stared at the sign on the door and poured myself a cup of Darcie’s coffee and sat back down at my desk, propped my feet up and took a sip. It felt like my eyes were going to cross. It was worse than the stuff Verves made at the station. I was glad she didn’t give it to Mr. Summers or we might not have a client.

  I was still gagging when my phone rang. It was Candy Kane.

  “Mecana, Ashton is dead,” she said.

  “I heard, I’m very sorry. Have you talked to the police?”

  “A cop showed up to tell me about Ashton, asked some questions and left.”

  “Why did you call me?” I said.

  “I need your protection,” she said.

  “Not interested,” I said.

  “Mecana you’re the only one I can turn to.”

  “We’ve already discussed your situation; the cops are your best bet.”

  “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” she said. “Just keep me alive. Someone took another shot at me when I pulled into the hotel parking lot last night. Just missed me, it went over my head as I got out of the car.”

  “Where had you been?” I said.

  “Shopping. I was lonesome, please.”

  I knew it wasn’t a good idea but the please part got to me. “Did the bullet hit anything? A post, a trash can, anything?”

  “Not that I know of,” she said.

  “We can talk but I’m not promising anything,” I said.

  “There’s a ‘K’ on the door, top floor of the Ellison hotel,” she said and was gone.

  I considered calling Verves, but decided to hear her out first. I stuck the insurance folder in my desk and dumped the bad coffee in the trash can.

  On my way to the hotel, I called Darcie and told her to meet me to check out this Candy lady.

  “Wait for me before you go up,” Darcie said.

  “Meet you in the lobby,” I said. I wasn’t sure if she was conscientious, cautious, jealous or all three.

  I had just walked in the hotel when Darcie showed up.

  “You deposit the check?” I said.

  “They took it with some reluctance,” she said and smiled.

  “Never give up do you?”

  “Nope. What have we got here?”

  “I told her we would talk,” I said. “I didn’t make any promises.”

  “You go on up. I’ll make sure no one is following you,” Darcie said.

  “Okay, it’s a penthouse on the top floor, room K.” I got on the elevator alone while Darcie waited for the next one.

  I got off on the top floor and walked down a long hall with Ansel Adams photographs hanging on the walls. I rang the buzzer and stood to one side of the door with the “K” on it, waiting.

  A voice from the other side asked, “Who is it?”

  “Mecana,” I said and she opened the door. I walked in and she closed it quickly.

  “Am I glad to see you,” she said.

  “You should let the cops handle this,” I said.

  “I was afraid they would arrest me.”

  “Should they? Did you have anything to do with your husband’s murder?”

  “Of course not. How could I? I was in Dallas.”

  I looked around the massive room. I always thought of motels and hotels as a place for two things, and th
e only thing that was required for both was a bed and privacy. This place had large windows with a view of jets taking off and landing at DFW. Wall-to-wall folding doors stood at one end of the room, opening to a bedroom where I could see a king-sized bed that had not been slept in for several days.

  The doorbell rang.

  “Oh no,” she said, and gasped.

  “I think that’s my partner Darcie, she was covering my back.” I walked over and stood beside the door. “Darcie?”

  “Yes,” she said. I unlocked the door and let her in.

  “This is Mrs. Candy Kane, Darcie.”

  Darcie acknowledged her by looking her up and down. “You want a private investigator or a hitman, Mrs. Kane?”

  “I need you to find a hitman before he finds me.”

  “Your husband have any family?” I said.

  “Ashton’s parents were killed in a plane crash when he was ten. He grew up in his aunt’s home. She helped pay his way through medical school. He doesn’t have any siblings, kids or ex-wives that I’m aware of.”

  “What about the sister? Where is she now?” I asked.

  “She died last year from cancer,” Candy said.

  “Anyone else?” I said.

  “Not that I know of.”

  “The cops won’t cost you anything,” I said. “But we will.”

  “No cops,” she reiterated. “I don’t want our lives plastered all over the news.”

  “You may not have a choice,” Darcie said. “We’ll have to call the cops and let them know we’re working for you. If we decide to.”

  “Then you’ll do it?” she asked.

  I looked at Darcie and she nodded yes.

  “As long as you understand that we’re getting paid to solve the case. The two hundred thousand you offered, plus five hundred a day for expenses - with half the fee in cash now,” I said.

  I checked Darcie’s reaction to my proposal and she nodded her head.

  “Okay with me,” Candy said.

  Darcie and I looked at each other surprised. She went for the deal.

  “We’ve got to get you to a safer place,” I said.

  “I’ll pack some things,” she said. “I have to handle Ashton’s funeral when they ship his body back to Dallas.”