A Bone Dead Sadness Read online

  “Yep,” Drake said. “And a connection was thought of then, but none was found. No money came up missing. The bank was even. The armored car showed up there. The manger checked the money in. The money was put in the bank, and the right amount was there the next morning, and a week later. No one ever figured why the guards were killed, as they weren’t carrying money at the time, and no one ever figured why the bank manager was killed. A connection was implied, but never found. It seems to have all been a coincidence.”

  “I believe in them,” Marvin said. “Happens all the time. But three of them? The armored truck guard and driver. The manager of the bank. And Tom Craver missing. That seems like a lot of coincidences, and all of them at least mildly related.”

  “How do you see it?”

  “Not sure,” Marvin said. “I think Tom might have gone in and talked to his wife, and then acted as if he left the bank, but maybe hid in a storage room.”

  “To do what, use the bathroom later?” Drake said. “Nothing was stolen.”

  “That’s where my theory has a hole in it,” Marvin said.

  “And that puts you right back in the position where everyone else has ended up. Except no one has ever thought Tom hid out in the storage room. And if he did, to what purpose?”

  “You’re making me feel bad,” Marvin said.

  “You getting paid good money for this?”

  “I am.”

  “Monopoly money?”

  “Nope. The real stuff.”

  “Who’s paying?”

  “Tom’s mother.”

  Drake nodded. “She’s got some dough.”

  “Yep.”

  “I know you’re going to actually try and find Tom. I think some of the other detectives, from what I’ve heard, didn’t. I have a feeling you’re going to end up tired and frustrated.”

  “You knew them? The private detectives?”

  “One. He wasn’t so good in the reputation department. He probably did enough to make it appear he took a serious look, but I think he mostly looked at his name on the check Mrs. Craver wrote him. She’s a nice sort, actually. I’ve met her a few times.”

  “I liked her,” Marvin said. “She seems like a tough old bird.”

  “Last of a breed,” Drake said. “So, you doing this with the help of your crack assholes, Hap and Leonard?”

  “Don’t think I need them for this.”

  “Good. Otherwise they might have come in with you. They give me a stomach ache. Especially Leonard.”

  “They’re my friends, and they give me a stomach ache. Especially Leonard.”

  “You feel you’re really onto something?” Drake asked.

  “You ever have that sensation that there’s a worm of wisdom in the back of your brain, and that it has the answer to what it is you’re searching for. That it has things figured out and it’s trying to burrow to the front of your head so it can let you know what’s up?”

  “Nope.”

  “Yeah,” Marvin said. “Me neither.”

  · · ·

  Marvin drove back to his office. The worm in the back of his head was wiggling pretty hard now. He parked and waved at the good looking woman who ran the bicycle shop below his place, climbed the stairs and unlocked the door. His leg was bothering him, and when he got inside, he was glad to see his cane on his desk. He had a pretty good idea that for the rest of the day, he walked anywhere he and it would be companions.

  He made a cup of coffee, fixed it the way he wanted, was about to sit at his desk, and the door opened.

  Two guys not any bigger than professional wrestlers entered the room. They weren’t young, but they weren’t old either. One was a little tubby, but he still looked like he could turn over a car and fuck it in the transmission. The other was leaner and had more defined muscles. He was the prettier of the two, and would have only been scary to children and small animals and old people, and well, pretty much anyone.

  “You Hanson?” said the pretty one.

  “That’s me,” Marvin said, and put the coffee down. He looked at them and moved toward his desk, stood behind it. He studied the men. They had an air of trouble about them. “How can I help you?”

  “Look here,” said the not so pretty one. “We want you to leave our sister alone.”

  “And who might that be?”

  “Tiffany,” said the pretty one.

  “I thought Tiffany and I had a nice and civil conversation,” Marvin said.

  “She said you wanted to talk to her again, and she don’t want to talk,” said the pretty one.

  “So she sent you troglodytes around to ask me not to call?” Marvin said. “That seems extreme.”

  “Extreme, not so extreme,” said the not so pretty one, “we want you to not bother her anymore.”

  “You know, I didn’t plan to,” Marvin said.

  “That’s good,” said the not so pretty one. “It’s best that way.”

  “I didn’t have any reason to,” Marvin said. “Until now.”

  Marvin grabbed the cane and came out from behind the desk and whipped the cane over his head and caught the pretty one in the teeth. It was a good blow. Hickory is stout. The prettier of the two was soon less pretty. He was on the floor, bleeding from the mouth, spitting teeth.

  The not so pretty one came at Marvin, and Marvin swung the cane and hit him in the knee, popped it up and caught him in the side of the jaw, then stepped in and folded the cane against his forearm and hit the not so pretty one in the throat with that. The man went down.

  The prettier one tried to get up and Marvin kicked him in the throat.

  For good measure, he popped him across the back of the head with the cane. He went back quickly then to his desk, dropped the cane on it, pulled open the drawer and took out a large automatic. He sat down in the chair behind his desk and waved it in their general direction.

  “My leg hurts,” Marvin said. “So, I’m going to sit. You two can get up, but do it slow and don’t act like assholes, or I’ll shoot you full of more holes than a cheese grater. I’m in what I like to think of as one of my blue moods.” Marvin rubbed his leg. It hurt like hell all of a sudden. The quick moves, the twisting.

  “Now, what the hell is this all about?” he said.

  “You knocked out some of my teeth,” said the formerly pretty one.

  “Yes, I did,” Marvin said.

  “It hurts.”

  “I hope so. Now, both of you. Pay attention. Tell me what this is about, or I’m really going to get mad.”

  “You’re already mad,” said the not so pretty one.

  “Yes, but this isn’t as mad as I get.”

  “Our sister wanted us to tell you to quit.”

  “Let me tell you something,” Marvin said. “I have a gun. I have a cane. I have two friends that are less pleasant than I am. One’s named Hap, and one’s named Leonard—he’s really unpleasant. If I don’t beat you to death with my cane, or shoot you, they will find you and do one or the other if you bother me again. Do you understand?”

  “They don’t know us,” the not so pretty one said.

  “They’ll find you,” Marvin said. “You can count on that. Now, don’t bother me anymore. Get up and leave, and don’t let your fucking shadow darken my doorway again.”

  They got up slowly.

  Marvin said, “Before you go. You. Asswipe, find your teeth and take them with you.”

  The formerly pretty one stood up and went about looking for his teeth. They were in various places around the room. He picked them up and put them in his pocket.

  “Put those on ice, go to a dentist, they might can put those back in for you,” Marvin said.

  “We was just gonna scare you,” said the not so pretty one. “It worked on the others.”

  “The others?”

  “Detectives,” said the not so pretty one.

  “Now git,” Marvin said.

  They got.

  · · ·

  Marvin looked up Tiffany’s address and dr
ove over there. It was a very nice house. Not as rich as the Craver’s joint, but nice nonetheless, and in a neighborhood that was even more nice. No wear and tear around there.

  Parking at the curb, Marvin went to the door and pushed the bell. Tiffany answered the ring. Her pretty face fell.

  “Hey,” she said. “My brother lost teeth. I think Tony has a broken nose.”

  “I hope so,” Marvin said. “They were certainly quick to call.”

  She tried to shut the door. Marvin stuck a foot out and blocked it.

  “No you don’t.”

  “I’ll call the police,” she said. “You get off my property.”

  “I’ll wait here while you call the police, and then I’ll tell them about your brothers, and about how they threatened me. Had you left well enough alone, I might not have known you were dating your boss at the bank.”

  “You don’t know that…I mean, that isn’t true.”

  “Sure it is,” Marvin said. “I had my suspicions from our conversation earlier. But it didn’t matter to me. Not until you sent your brothers to see me. That was just plain stupid. Can I come in?”

  “Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack.”

  “My husband gets home in half an hour,” she said. “He wouldn’t like you here.”

  “Oh, it’s all right. Me and him can talk about your earlier days, about the bank, about your boss and what was going on with him.”

  Tiffany looked around, as if someone might be in the yard, said, “Okay, come in. But I only have twenty minutes.”

  “I think that’ll cover it, if we can quit horsing around and get to the point.”

  They went into a sitting room that didn’t look as if anyone ever sat there. It was very formal and smelled as clean as a hospital room, but was less charming. She waved at a chair and Marvin sat. She sat in the chair across from him.

  “Ask what you like,” she said.

  “Your boss. You were seeing him. Right?”

  “Right. That was then, though. This is now, and that’s long in my past.”

  “You were seeing him, and so was Frankie.”

  “How do you know that? Frankie tell you?”

  “No. You did. Or at least I could easily get that from your conversation today. It didn’t really matter that much at first, but when you sent your two stupid siblings around, it sort of did. It mattered that much to you that I didn’t ask about it, it had to be important.”

  “I just don’t want my husband knowing.”

  “Was that before you met your husband? You and Jim.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what do you care?” Marvin said.

  “I just don’t want it brought up.”

  Marvin nodded. “We can maybe avoid that. I think we can. If you answer some questions. And honestly. I’d hate to have to come back, or have your brothers lose more teeth.”

  “That was a bad idea, me sending them. It worked before. I guess I panicked. I didn’t want it to come up, and for my husband to know. He can be pretty jealous, even if Jim is dead.”

  “Like you were jealous of Frankie?”

  “I just never saw what he saw in her,” she said. “We were dating, and the next thing I know, she’s flirting with him, and I’m thinking, okay, look at me and look at her. I mean, even then she wasn’t pretty, but she certainly opened his nose.”

  “How long did the two of them date?”

  “They had just started. Me and Jim still saw each other, but I could tell he was playing the field. Me, her, whoever. But her working at the bank. Well, it hurt. I liked him quite a bit.”

  “All right. The day Frankie’s husband came by. Which way did he go out when he left?”

  “Go out?” she asked.

  “Which door?”

  “Oh, my god, that’s been twenty-five years ago. I have no idea.” Tiffany looked at her watch. “He’ll be home soon.”

  “Did you ever hear of any money missing from the bank.”

  Tiffany knitted her brows. “Never.”

  “Did all the money go straight in the vault?”

  “Yes…Well, there was the packet.”

  “The packet?” Marvin asked.

  “That’s right. I never quite understood about the packet. Jim explained it to me once, but I don’t remember the details, but it made enough sense then, whatever the explanation. It was some kind of extra money for the bank and was kept separate.”

  “Tell me about the packet,” Marvin said.

  “The armored truck. It brought the money, and it brought the packet, which was separate. The packet was kind of hush-hush because it didn’t go in the vault.”

  “Where did it go?”

  “In Jim’s desk drawer.”

  “Was it a packet of money?”

  “That’s what Jim said. That it was money, but it was separate. And that he had to make special notations and would put it in the vault later. I’m sure there was nothing wrong about it. The truck guards gave it to him and they were always there when he put the packet in the drawer, the rest in the vault.”

  “How big was the packet?”

  “Hefty. Like a couch pillow. It was money wrapped in paper. Or I guess it was money. It arrived every now and then, this packet. Frankie saw it too. It wasn’t a big secret.”

  “No hiding about it? Nothing unusual.”

  “No,” Tiffany said. “Nothing like that.”

  “Okay. And now I’m going to be a little more direct. Back then, were you sleeping with Jim?”

  “That’s none of your business. I won’t answer that.”

  “All right. Fair enough. Was Frankie?”

  Tiffany was quick to answer. “Yes. She was. I know she was.”

  “And how do you know?”

  “Because I was very serious about Jim, and I could tell things weren’t right, and then the way he and Frankie started flirting at the bank…A girl knows these things. And then he quit seeing me. I thought maybe we could work things out…Then, he was murdered. I really cared about him then. Loved him, I guess. But later, I had the feeling I didn’t really know him. Not really. I felt there had to be some secret for him to be killed like that. Nothing was stolen, or so I heard. He was just killed. I was even a suspect, but I was cleared. I had a solid alibi.”

  Tiffany looked at her watch. “Please. He’s so jealous. I don’t want him to find out about Jim, even if it was in the past. I don’t want to open that can of worms.”

  “One more question. How long before the old bank changed over to the new bank?”

  “There was a bank holiday that weekend. All the way until Tuesday.They were already building the new bank, and Tuesday we were to move into the new one and the old one was locked off. I remember that clearly. Will that do?”

  “Good enough,” Marvin said, and stood up.

  “So we’re through?”

  “Can’t say for sure,” Marvin said. “Probably. But no promises.” Marvin headed for the door, said, “I can find my own way out.”

  “I bet you can, you sonofabitch,” Tiffany said.

  · · ·

  That night, at home, Marvin had dinner with his wife, then she went up to bed. He didn’t even try to follow. He sat on the couch and turned on the TV and watched for awhile, and then the phone rang. He turned off the TV and answered.

  It was Frankie. “I just thought you should know. Babe is in the hospital.”

  “What?”

  “She’s been having spells, and she had a bad one today. I wanted you to know, because if there’s anything you’ve found out. Any kind of comfort, even if it’s a lie you can give her, that would be good.”

  “To tell you the truth, I might have something. I can’t say for sure, but if you’re willing to go to the bank museum tomorrow, I might have an answer, though I can’t promise.”

  “It’s Sunday. It’s closed.”

  “I know. But Chief Drake can have it opened.”

  “Chief Drake?” Frankie said.

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sp; “Yes. And if you can come, I’d be grateful. I might need you to verify something.”

  “What time?”

  “Ten A.M. And keep in mind, I could be all wet, and in the end I may end up embarrassed and know no more than I did when I first started.”

  “But you don’t think that?” Frankie said.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “I’ll see you then,” Frankie said.

  · · ·

  Marvin arrived at the bank museum about five till ten. Drake was there and had already had the lady Marvin had met at the museum open the doors. She was inside at her desk, not looking too happy about things. Drake was leaning against the fireplace. Frankie had yet to arrive.

  Marvin nodded at the lady at the desk, leaned on his cane. “Thanks for opening up.”

  She said, “I’m missing church.”

  “Sorry,” Marvin said. “I’ll try not to take long.”

  “I don’t want to go in after things start.”

  “I’m sorry you’ve missed,” he said. “This shouldn’t take long, and you can get on with the rest of your day.”

  This didn’t seem to please or inspire the lady any at all.

  Frankie came through the door and nodded at Marvin. She nodded at the lady behind the desk. “Tulip,” she said. “How are you?”

  “I’m missing church,” she said.

  “Preacher just makes it up anyway,” Frankie said.

  Tulip gave her a confused look.

  Frankie said to Chief Drake. “How are you?”

  “Fine,” Drake said. “I’m not missing church, but I am missing sleeping in late. I don’t want to miss football.”

  “This shouldn’t take that long,” Marvin said. “If I’m wrong it’ll take even less time. And if I’m wrong, I’ll owe you all a lunch.”

  “Get on with it,” Drake said.

  “Everyone get comfortable,” Marvin said.

  Frankie captured a chair out from behind one of the desks and carried it over and placed it by the desk where Tulip sat.

  “I’m just going to be blunt and get right to it,” Marvin said. “Frankie, I think your ex-husband Tom wanted you to help him rob the bank. No need to answer that. Just listen. I think he wanted you to do that, and I think maybe you were still seeing him again, and at the same time had taken up with Jim.