Money Ain't Nothing Read online

  “How did he die?”

  “Don’t know for sure. Looks like he might have slipped in the bathtub and cracked his head. Or maybe he just knocked himself out and then drowned. That’d be my guess. These red splotches over his chest are probably from the hot water beating down. I’m not certain this was a murder Anthony, despite the insurance policy for Melodie.”

  “So she wasn’t known to you?”

  “Most folks like this are known to us. But just petty juvenile stuff. Shoplifting etc.”

  “Have you spoken to her?”

  “No, not yet. You know our workloads here. We’re getting to it. Doesn’t look like a homicide like I said. But then again, you seem to find homicides out of little old ladies passing on in their sleep.”

  He grinned at me and spread the pics around. Some of the scene. The bath tub. The fancy bathroom with marble sink which needed a clean. Little droplets of water around and some dirty, smudged droplets around the sink. The pale blue towel was a little smudged in parts. I asked John about that. He figured the guy had washed his hands before he had a shower. Didn’t want to dirty the shower taps first. Fair enough I said. It was his own bathroom and teenagers aren’t sticklers for cleanliness. The bathmat was crumpled up. Probably the brother. They never pay attention to scene contamination when they find loved ones. Understandable. Couple of droplets of water on the floor here and there. Some Alfred Sung cologne on the counter. Barely used. Toothpaste with whitener and these fancy sonic toothbrushes. All a façade. Where was the depth? No blood spilling out from behind the head that I could see. Might have been washed away. I asked John about that. No blood at the scene he said.

  “You mind if I talk to this Melodie?”

  “I was hoping you’d say that. Would be a big help to us?”

  He scribbled her name and number on a sticky note. Doctor’s handwriting. I wouldn’t have been able to read it if I didn’t have chicken scratch myself.

  “Still no penmanship classes at the academy?”

  He grinned at me. “You’re a fine one to talk. Maybe you could come back and give some pointers.”

  I shook my head. I’d been gone too long. And I left for a reason. I wasn’t coming back.

  “Tempting though,” I said.

  I like John but I was too close to him. I could smell his cheap cologne. Sweet like flowers, like something old men might wear at those clubs you see them at sometimes looking down the shirts of young women. John wasn’t married. I figured a wife wouldn’t let him wear stuff like that. And he wasn’t old. Not old enough to be interested in young women.

  “How’s the chief?” I asked him rolling my chair towards the closet door to get some fresh air.

  “He knows you’ve been invited onto the case. He says good things about you. Can’t figure out why you took in that mangy cat though.”

  “Birds of a feather, or something like that. But he wouldn’t know about that.”

  I looked at the folder again. I was still close enough. I looked at another picture of William. High school grad photo. Good looking kid with blonde curls like his mother. But his lips were full, not sharp and he had a lazy eye. The left one was half closed as he smiled.

  “How old was he?”

  John rifled through some of the papers clipped to the back of the folder.

  “Nineteen,” he said, “full life ahead of him.”

  “Maybe,” I said, “maybe he wasn’t going to amount to much.”

  John grinned again. He does that. Finds the oddest things funny. I got up from the chair. I wanted to smell the salty air again. I grabbed his paw and shook it tight. He didn’t get up. He closed the folder and put it away and leaned back in his chair.

  “Don’t go cracking any heads now Anthony. This one needs to be discreet.”

  Now it was my turn to grin at him. I walked outside and stuck a cigarette in my face. I let it hang there cold. I got in my car and went for a drive. I figured the crime scene would be a place to start.

  I parked on the shoulder of the road. I could get used to it up here. Nice and quiet, probably great views of the ocean. I figured their house was probably worth a few million. Maybe more. Hard to say for someone like me. Still, looked like too much house for three people. Maybe four if pops was still around. I lit my cigarette. The first puff bit my throat. I swallowed down a cough and pulled out my cell again. Signal was good, so I figured I’d call someone who might want to reminisce with me.

  “Hello,” it was a girl’s voice. A little squeaky. Maybe like a mouse if they could talk.

  “Melodie Rimes?” It was half a question.

  “Yes.”

  “Melodie, this is Anthony Carrick. I’d like to talk to you about William.”

  “Who?” she was cute. But I gave her a chance.

  “Pretty nice house they’ve got here. When can we meet?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about Mr.?” She bit the bait. Her voice cracked a little like a porcelain doll. And it wasn’t the line.

  “Carrick honey, and I’ve been around these mean Mulholland streets to know a liar when I hear one. I’m easier to talk to than the cops. You might want to give me a try. Bring a tough guy with you if you’d like.”

  She didn’t say much for a while so I blew smoke in her ear see if she’d like that.

  “Okay Mr. Carrick.”

  “How about I come and see you?’

  “Okay.”

  “Good then, where are you?”

  “112 Culver City Terrace, just off of Playa Street. I’m not in trouble am I Mr. Carrick?”

  Didn’t sound like a question to me. So I lobbed it back at her.

  “Should you be?” She didn’t say anything to that. “I’ll see you in about half an hour.”

  I was there as promised. I like being punctual. People know you mean business. I parked facing towards Playa Street. My nose pointing away from the mobile homes. There was a cemetery close by. Could come in handy. I walked along looking for 112. All these little homes packed up against each other. Nice and cozy. Some of them had potted plants outside. A burst of color, a nice distraction. But I’m being unkind. These folks mostly had pride of ownership as you hear about in the papers. But not so much 112. It was a sad looking building. Its face a frown. Paint faded and chipped here and there. A quarter mil could buy some space away from this place. Sure could. I squashed the buzzer on the doorframe. I heard the shrill ring like a big angry housewife. Nice and quick a young waif of a woman came to the door. Behind her trailed a Mexican looking fella in a wife beater. Her eyes had enough mascara to look beat up. Her hair was jet black and short all tousled. Goth I think is what they call it now. The Mexican fella was a thin short man with a prison buzz but no tattoos I could see. His hands were crossed in front of him, but it wasn’t cold. He looked at me from a crooked neck.

  “Mr. Carrick?” she said opening the door for me.

  “Sure,” I said as I took my hat off and entered the room. “Who’s the hired help?” I pointed my hat at the Mexican.

  He glared at me hard. It hurt my feelings but I got over it.

  “That’s Alvarez Sanchez the tough guy you said I should bring.”

  I invited myself in a little further. The carpet was stained and dirty. The couch with floral print was faded and worn. I could smell cat urine somewhere. I took a sniff off the couch before sitting down. It seemed okay. Melodie sat down across form me in a cheap armchair. Alvarez stood staring at me. I stared at him back. I got bored.

  “Listen son, I didn’t mean disrespect. I just don’t take kindly to people looking at me like that.”

  He glared harder. I thought he might hurt himself so I took to looking at Melodie. She was easier on the eyes anyway.

  “Tell me about Willy,” I said. I couldn’t help myself. Melodie glanced down at her hands and then at Alvarez.

  “Do you need his permission to talk? Because I can come back later if you’d like.”

  “No… William was my boyfriend,” she said. �
��We had a fight yesterday and I haven’t heard from him since.” She kept fidgeting with her hands. Alvarez shuffled a little bit and took his eyes from me for a second. He was getting tired.

  “Have a seat son, this could take a while.”

  “What you gonna do huh pops,” he said strutting his chin out at me.

  “Well there’s a lot of things I’d like to do, but that just gets me in trouble. Besides I’m tired and my breakfast left me sick. Worse than that I haven’t had any liquor today and I’m just trying to keep ahead of the cops. You’ve got worse trouble than me coming son.”

  He took my advice like a good lad and had a seat. He still had his hands crossed but I could see them. Mechanic hands. Maybe he earned a living. His legs were wide out in front of him. Jutting towards me like wooden flotsam. I thought about breaking his kneecaps, just to relieve my frustration. But that would be too much trouble. I fished out another smoke instead.

  “Can I have one?” she asked.

  “Sure.” This was going to be too easy. I tapped one out for her and she came up and got it. She had a young face. Maybe old enough to smoke. Pale white skin like a geisha. Maybe she was one. Maybe that’s what got her into trouble. I lit it for her and she inhaled like she hadn’t breathed in a long time. She was practiced. I offered Alvarez one but he shook his head real slow.

  “Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”

  She looked at Alvarez and then said sure, why was I here? I told her she was making it too easy for me. I asked her about the quarter mil. She feigned ignorance. No Oscar for her.

  “Well Willy had an insurance policy payable to you in case he died.” She didn’t mind that I bastardized his name like that.

  “A quarter mil would sure get you and Alvarez a nice new start away from a place like this.”

  “Don’t tell this dick nothing Melodie. He ain’t nobody. He knows nothing.” He glared at her this time and she looked between him and me. I smiled at her. Some folks murder people by accident. Those are the easiest to reel in. Like soft fat fish. They don’t have the hardness needed. They’re usually good people. Just got a bit of a temper. Terrible thing when it’s not under control.

  “Why did you do it Melodie? Just for the money. I don’t figure you’d do it just for the money. You’re not a mean girl. You could have waited and married him. Then you’d be in for a ton more.”

  “It’s not like that,” she said. I was taking candy from a baby.

  “This is bullshit man. Don’t say nothin’ before you’ve called a lawyer,” said Alvarez. She looked at him and then at me. I smiled at her again. I was feeling generous.

  “She doesn’t like me ‘cos I’m from a trailer park. You don’t know what it’s like. She was always putting pressure on him to dump me. But he loved me okay. You probably don’t get that either. I’d never kill him. Never. I couldn’t collect the money if I had killed him anyway.”

  “How did you get him to buy life insurance? I’m curious. Why would a guy do that? Seems it would put him in a bit of a spot.”

  Alvarez was up and pacing. Cursing under his breath. Shit, shit, shit he kept saying. I was tired of playing with her. I wanted to pull her in. I looked at her a long while. I wasn’t smiling anymore. As a matter of fact I was frowning. I’d practiced that look over the years. I took a pull on my Marlboro. The smoke stung my eyes and made me frown even more. She started playing with her fingers. Her cigarette growing ash. She couldn’t look at me steady.

  “Well,” she said just glancing at me, “we figured, Billy and me, that if he had insurance for me then his mother would have to be more careful about trying to destroy us. We were in love okay. Not that you’d get it.”

  She was pouting at me now. Alvarez pacing around like a hungry panther trying to shut her up. I didn’t buy what she was selling. Maybe because I didn’t have enough.

  “Come on Melodie stop playing with me. I get it that you were in love, but you don’t seem like a bad girl. I’m sure you had your reasons. I just want to know. A lot of folks want to know. It’ll give them closure. Think about his brother who had to find him.”

  “Don’t say nothin’ Mel. Nothin’ you hear me?” He was glaring at her but it wasn’t working so he turned it on me.

  “What you playin’ at pops? We ain’t scared of you. You don’t know nothin’”

  “Sit down son. I said this could take a while. The way I see it, is one of you killed Will. I could believe it was an accident. I could even put a good word in for you to the cops and the D.A. We go back a ways.”

  I was running out of cigarette. I wanted to go someplace and have a long drink. I wasn’t sure why I’d been handed this gig. Twenty-five hundred bucks for too little work. So I wanted to finish this up.

  “You know what I think Mel?” I could see Alvarez wince a bit at that. He didn’t like it. “I think that Al over here did it. And you know why? Because his soiled hands were washed in the sink and he left his dirty paws all over the towel. That’s what I think. Maybe I should just get going now. Send the cops out here to take a statement. Only they won’t be so polite. These are rich folks you’re dealing with. They’ve got connections. This is how cops get promoted on a slam dunk like this.”

  I made a show of getting up. Alvarez was tiring me out with all his pacing.

  “Wait,” said Melodie. I remained standing up, looking at Alvarez. He had his mitts thrust in his pockets now. He was slumping a little in the shoulders too. Like a sagging balloon. All his bravado leaving him with every breath.

  “It was Alvarez’s idea. He figured we could make some easy money after I told him that Billy had taken an insurance policy out for me. He said he’d make it look like an accident, like he slipped in the bathtub or something, but I didn’t want him to. I loved Billy okay. I didn’t want him killed but I couldn’t stop Alvarez.”

  She didn’t look at him. She could hardly look at me. Alvarez was shaking his head back and forth. Shut up he was saying to her. You lying bitch he added. This was the best part. See how each of their stories unravels and you get to the truth.

  She was lying. The way she didn’t listen to Alvarez. The way she was trying to play coy with me from the beginning. The way she couldn’t look at either of us decently. She was playing us both for a patsy, but I figured Alvarez wasn’t going to go down like that. She was trying to play on prejudice. But I’d given up on that a while back. The more you see the seedy the more you realize it’s a rotten core not stained skin.

  “I don’t know Alvarez. Does this seem real to you? I’m thinking that she figured that there’d be a way to make it look like an accident. And she played you for the patsy. Is that closer to anything like the truth?”

  Alvarez came and sat back down. I took a seat on the same tired couch.

  “What can you do for me if I tell the truth man?”

  I told him I’d put in a good word. I told him I could see how a guy like him could be used by a pretty white girl like Melodie.

  “Okay so this is how it went.”

  Melodie glared at him trying to hide the look. I caught it easily. A fly ball if there ever was one. I could taste the truth coming like a well aged scotch.

  “Okay man. You’re right about the towel. My hands were wet form trying to see if the guy was dead. Mel had gone over to see him. But the problem is she was two timing him with me. And she figured he didn’t know, but he must’ve. Because after they had sex he told her he knew about me and that he was cancelling the insurance policy. He went to take a shower and she told me she got scared and angry. She went into the bathroom to plead with him. But he got mean and told her she was a no good trailer trash whore and that his mother had been right about her all along. He told her it was over and to get the fuck out of his house. She just lost it man and she pushed him as hard as she could when he wasn’t looking. Then she called me and told me I had to get over there and when I did I couldn’t feel a pulse on the guy. I washed my hands and turned the taps off and then we...”

&n
bsp; Melodie got up and left the room. She looked mad. Looked like she was going to cry. I figured she was going to the bathroom to get some tissue. Alvarez never even noticed.

  “We got the hell outta there. I was just happy to get going. I mean these were rich people like you say. I was nervous that the cops would come round anytime. I imagine they drive around these neighborhoods all the time. I grabbed Melodie and we bolted. She was cursing me and calling me a pathetic loser. Said we had to go back and straighten it out. Make it look like an accident. I told her it already looked like one and that I wasn’t gonna get caught by the cops again. I’ve got a few juvy beefs but I’m straightening myself out. We came back here…”

  I caught a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye. I turned to see Melodie carrying a small little black gun in both her hands. She was crying and the mascara was running down her cheeks in two thin triangles. I got up and moved to the side of the couch, just in case I had to jump in behind it. She was pointing what looked to me like a .32 caliber Tomcat at Alvarez.

  “You stupid pathetic loser,” she kept saying to him. Then there were two loud thunder claps and I looked over at him. Two little red poppies were growing on his chest. It wasn’t Remembrance Day. And he had nothing left to remember.

  “You don’t know what it’s like okay. You don’t know what it’s like. Nobody ever loved me. He was going to be my ticket out of this godforsaken place, if it wasn’t for his damn mother and him finding out about Alvarez. But I would’ve ditched Alvarez. He just wouldn’t give me chance… he wouldn’t…”

  She was getting hysterical now. The little Tomcat with a stubby nose eyeing me now with an unsteady gaze. I didn’t like it. It was weaving back and forth in little smirks.

  “The cops are coming Melodie. Do the right thing. Put the gun down and everything will be alright.”

  She was only about five feet away. I figured I could rush her if need be. Maybe she’d get a round off into my arm or leg. But I didn’t want to try those Vegas odds. As I was thinking of options, with my hand out towards her offering my hat as a shield, she put the gun into her mouth. She kissed the gun good night at the sound of another crack. I didn’t care too much for the mess she left on the far wall. I’d seen it too many times. Her body fell like a sack of potatoes at my feet and she lay down there. A trickle of red blood slipped out of her mouth and rolled onto the carpet. I didn’t think these twenty five hundred bucks was so easy anymore. I started thinking maybe I had been played for the patsy.