Deadly Compromises by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
Chapter 21
Mabel Elliot’s relentless, aggressive, feigned cheerfulness resulted in a dearth of neighbors desirous of being flushed with joy. So, she was relegated to solo walks at the river and just happened to be there when Bobby and Kelly were. Mabel is the childless wife of “Rattle the Cage” Detective Steve Elliot, with whom she enjoys “relations” as often as Kelly and her dearly departed. Her five foot, five inch 160 pound body is always covered with a dress, today’s version being a cutesy light violet pastel, somewhat at odds with her size and 32 year age, giving the appearance that she was taking her non-existent daughter to the prom and they mistakenly cross dressed. She didn’t think it appropriate for women to wear pants outside the home and, even there, not in the presence of company. Suffice to say that she’s a somewhat disgruntled woman with few interests in the world that don’t involve watching someone who appears to have a life. Curiosity, her apparent guiding motivation, she would surreptitiously like to inhibit anything that has the audacity to move freely. It would be no revelation
to add that she never really liked Kelly very much, probably because guys did.
On her solitary, of necessity, morning constitutional, she saw just what would make her day; Kelly with yet another guy.
The potential for chit-chat enormous, she knew various vantage points to keep an eye on that slut with a man she had never previously seen. In the interest of propriety, she was duty bound to observe the two offenders. This was a particularly egregious travesty so soon after Alan Simburg’s demise. She was hoping she’d see something nefarious enough to photograph and unfortunately didn’t. It really didn’t matter anyway, as she carried no camera, perhaps a testimony to her competence.
Unseen, she followed them back to their cars and watched them leave. She thought, “Something has to be done about this sort of thing. Besides, I don’t have any pressing engagements scheduled all day.” However, she again, missed the significance of her own thoughts. She walked home and luckily Steve had not yet left for work.
She said; “Hey, Steve.”
He affected a tone of hurriedness and said; “Hey, Mabel.
I’m on my way out. I’m a little late already.”
“Guess who I just saw?”
With his hand on the doorknob, Steve disinterestedly said;
“Beats me.”
“Kelly Simburg walking with some guy I’ve never seen before, at the river.”
Steve’s interest was now piqued, as, he too, was no Kelly fan, especially after she handled his questioning so well during their last meeting. He wouldn’t mind having a reason to ruin her day, or at least a part of it. He continued the conversation, which was now of interest to him and asked; “What were they doing?”
“Just walking together. But still, it’s bad enough she so often does that, but especially now.”
“I know, I know. This whole murder business just suits her smart little ass too well. I need another avenue to pursue.
The Sheriff likes her.”
“Well, find out who this guy is and ask her about him.”
“What did he look like?”
“I never got closer to them than 250 feet or so. He looked like a lot of people; thin, a little taller than her, white, long, graying hair that covers his ears, middle aged....”
“That’s not very helpful, but it’s a starting point. Did your observational powers glean anything else?”
“No. I suppose I was too shocked.”
“Well, you keep thinking about it and see if anything else comes to mind.” He left for work.
He pulled into the police headquarters parking lot and saw that the Sheriff’s car was already there. He went in and saw the Sheriff in his office. He went right in.
“Good morning, Sheriff. Sorry I’m late.”
“Good morning. Don’t worry about it.”
“I was probably on police business anyway. My wife saw Kelly walking at the river with some unknown guy.”
“I think that has been seen before.”
“I know, I know. But, now?”
With a grimace and an air of disinterest, Mack said; “Ah, you know Kelly. But, if you really want to pursue it, we may as well dot all the ‘I’s’ and cross all the ‘T’s.’”
Steve turned to leave.
“But don’t give it top priority. There’s other work here.”
With an “Okay” Steve left and drove back home. His wife was puttering around in the kitchen.
“Hey, Mabel. I’ve got some more time to talk to you. Try to remember everything you can about this guy with Kelly.”
“I don’t remember anything more than I’ve already said.
Right now I’m having a problem with the garbage disposal. You keep telling me you’re going to look at it and you never do. If it’s not fixed, I’ll probably have a permanently blocked pipe any day now. It’s starting to stink, too.”
He often thought of her as a complaining machine, but usually was now adept at getting around that. “Tell you what.
I’ll take a look at the disposal; you go into another room and think about when you saw Kelly and this guy. Like what did he wear, the time, strange cars and anything else?”
She left, momentarily happy that her disposal may soon be working and focused on the next item on her agenda. She thought about it for ten minutes and couldn’t come up with anything new.
Steve got lucky. He merely had to push the restart button of the disposal to get it going again. She re-entered to hear it grinding and was elated.
“Thanks, Steve. I’m sorry, I can’t help you much. It was 10AM or so. When I first got to the river I did notice two cars; Kelly’s and one with out of state plates.”
“Do you remember the state?”
“No.”
“Do you remember the color?”
“Yellow, I think. I’m really not sure.”
“What kind of car?”
“I don't know cars. It didn’t look expensive. It was a common looking four door car, maybe three or four years old.”
“Do you remember what he was wearing?”
“Blue jeans and some kind of brown jacket.”
“Dark brown or light brown?”
“In between.”
Steve said; “Thanks,” hoping she didn’t detect the modestly sarcastic tone that emerged effortlessly. He wondered how it was possible for someone to be so incompetent at their life’s passion.
Though it wasn’t his area of expertise, it sounded to him like a description that could fit a hit man who wanted to remain anonymous. At least now, if he saw a stranger or a car fitting this vague description, Steve had an excuse to stop him for some reason. He also could drive to the river every day around 10:00AM and observe.
He drove back to the office and attended to the usual routine.
For the next two weeks he drove to the river daily at 10:00AM, to no avail. He remembered being there with Mabel, before she decided to be the complaining machine. He realized he did have some things in common with Kelly and her friends.
He did stop one car that fit the sketchy description; however, that too led nowhere. The driver had good credentials and was just heading back home to Texas after a few days in Las Vegas.
There wasn’t much potential in these endeavors, so Steve decided to make one more visit to Kelly’s.
He drove to White Horse Lane, parked in front of Kelly’s house, rang the doorbell and Kelly answered rather quickly.
“I heard you pull in the driveway.”
“Yes. Good morning. We’re wrapping up this case and if now is a good time, I’d like to ask you a few more questions.”
“Come on in.” She led him to the dining room and offered him a seat. She took another. “I guess you’re not making much headway,” with a bit of an accusing tone.
“There are still some directions to go. We’ve gotten reports of cars with out of state licenses passing through, with some descriptions.”
“Is that unusual here?”
“Frankly, no, it isn’t. Let me come right to the point.
About two weeks ago you were seen at the river with an unknown white male. Can you tell me something about him?”
The danger light went on in her head. But she knew it would be best to remain calm and appear helpful. She sighed and said, “I’m embarrassed.”
He just looked at her rather than repeating the question.
“Occasionally I meet someone who gets my interest. I think you’re probably referring to one of those days. About two weeks ago I met a guy in town and we went walking by the river.”
“Wasn’t it still pretty cold at 10AM?”
“Not if you keep moving.”
“Who was the guy?”
“You know, this is very embarrassing. I don't know his name. He was passing through, stopped at the convenience store for something when I was there and said something that made me laugh.”
“How did you get to the river?”
“We started a silly jokey conversation at the store and he told me he was interested in exploring the area a bit. He had never been here before and wanted to see some of the sights before he left.”
“So.”
“So I told him I was heading to the river anyway and that maybe he might be interested in the view. We each took our own car. He followed me and we walked around a while.”
“What did he look like?”
“I really didn’t look at him that often. I liked him because he could make me laugh.”
“Anything?”
“Average size. Brown hair. Thin. Spoke as if he were college educated, but not pretentious. And funny.”
“What did he wear?”
“A brown jacket and blue jeans.”
“Did he say where he was headed?”
“I only remember him saying that he was passing through.”
Steve saw that her story approximated Mabel’s, maybe even coincided with it, except without the nefarious intentions. He, now, was beginning to feel embarrassed.
“I thank you for your time, Kelly. I think we know everything we need to. This investigation is no longer active.”
“Mob hit man because of the debts?”
“Looks and sounds more and more like that. Just about everything points in that direction.”
“I really hope you catch him, for many reasons. Before the insurance people pay my claim they’re going to send out an investigator. It would be nice for me if the culprit was caught prior to that misery.”
“We’ll keep our eyes and ears open.”
As he walked back to the car, he noticed that he was beginning to be a bit of a Kelly fan.
Kelly was certain that she handled the situation well and wanted to share her joy. She drove to George’s.
There were two cars in the driveway this time; one was George’s clunker and the other was a new lavender Saab. Kelly didn’t know the car, but when she saw two bumper stickers; one read “Neuter and spay. Don’t let them stray” and the other;
“Vote Democratic,” she knew it belonged to Arlene, one of George’s and hers old communal friends. She thought better of again barging in and chose to knock at the door this time.
After about fifteen seconds, George came to the door, only partially opening it.
George graciously said; “Hey, Kelly. It’s really great to see you, but, boy, do you ever have timing. You still don’t like Alexander Graham Bell, do you?”
Unflustered, Kelly smiled and said; “You know I like surprises.”
George opened the door the rest of the way and Kelly saw Arlene standing fifteen feet away. She was now forty years old and weighed about 150, as opposed to her college years 110. It looked like the extra 40 went to the right places. There was something else different; she had dyed her hair a wine color.
She had on blue jeans, one of George’s green button-up shirts
and chose no adornment for her bare feet. She lit a joint, took a puff, walked over and handed it to George.
As soon as she stepped inside Arlene put her arms around Kelly and gave her a brief hug. She said; “It’s been ages, Kelly. I’ve missed you. Look what happened to me.” She circled around putting her hands to her breasts and hips, to draw attention to her new flesh. She then ran her hands through her long wine colored hair and laughed.
Kelly reached forward and put her arms around Arlene. She said; “It looks like only good things have happened to you, girl. I do hope I interrupted something.”
Arlene hugged Kelly again, but this time put her hands on Kelly’s ass and said; “You didn’t interrupt anything that wouldn’t be improved by your company.”
Kelly didn’t anticipate this and consequently was in a bit of a quandary. While, under other circumstances she would have appreciated the invitation, she felt some allegiance to Bobby.
She also realized that it was better not to tell them about him.
She took her turn and her time with the passed joint and got an idea. Not wanting to hurt Arlene’s feelings Kelly smiled warmly at her and said; “You’ve probably heard about what I’ve been
going through lately and I’ve been getting an education in propriety and what the neighbors will say.”
Arlene took Kelly’s hand, placed it on one fleshy breast and said; “Since when do you give a shit?”
Kelly gently squeezed Arlene and said; “Since the possible charge is murder. I’m going to give a shit at least until the investigation is over.”
Arlene coyly responded; “I’ve heard you’ve been hanging around here a lot lately.”
George said; “Not enough.”
Kelly nodded and emphatically said; “Not enough.”
Just then, Daisy, George’s Dalmatian, entered the room and walked over to Kelly, who got on her knees to give Daisy a big kiss. Daisy started frantically licking Kelly’s face.
Kelly said; “George, has she had the operation?”
George said; “Yes, thanks. She’s looking good, but a few more months’ recovery is necessary. She’s not limping and doesn’t seem to be in any pain.”
Kelly said; “Good,” as the joint again reached her. The three were getting a little buzzed. George put on the Rolling
Stones doing “Sway”. When they finished the joint, the three were looking at each other with warm smiles.
Kelly said; “I think I better be going.”
Arlene said; “No, stay.”
George added; “Please.”
Kelly turned to the door and put her hand on the knob.
Arlene said; “Is there anything new about the murder? I’m really curious about how anyone knew that he was dead.”
Kelly gave one more hug to both of them, laughed and said;
“He stopped negotiating.” Kelly broke away, opened the door and said; “Have fun, babies,” and closed the door behind her. When she got into her car she couldn’t help but think of good old times and contrasted that with the drudgery of the last five years. She hoped that Arlene and George were not insulted by her departure. She suspected not. She normally would have liked to stay and play, but now that she was with someone very special, who thought that she was also special, it didn’t seem right.
She didn’t want to go home yet, so she drove to the river and walked. She thought; “Maybe, better things are on the way.”