May 15, 2025 • 33 mins
In the grimy underbelly of the city, a girls lifeless body is discovered in a desolate lot, horrifyingly beaten and with an eye brutally gouged out. Across town, another young woman is found dead under similar circumstances. Lieutenant Mendoza is convinced theres a chilling connection. As he delves into this twisting mystery in this first riveting installment of the Lt. Mendoza series, he navigates a colorful landscape of intriguing characters, veiled secrets, and stark realism that resonates with the modern reader. (Summary by Ben Tucker)
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter seven of case Pending by Del Shannon. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Chapter seven Mendoza felt
rather irritated at the cosmic powers. If they intended to
direct a little lucky way, they might have been more explicit. Still,
one never knew it might lead to something. The gift
(00:21):
shop was closed, of course, he would come back tomorrow.
And it was possible that this Breen woman had simply
told a lie to avoid having to pay back twelve
or thirteen dollars, but such a relatively small amount, and
Missus Dimmerst was emphatic on assurance of her honesty. Judge
for himself, he drove tedious miles across the city, cursing
the Sunday traffic, to Allison Weir's apartment and was late
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by some minutes. She opened the door promptly and told
him so, taking up her bag, joining him in the hall.
She was in green and tan to day, plain dark
green wool dress, high necked coat, shoes, bag, all warm beige,
and copper ear rings a big copper brooch. He settled
her in the car, and sliding under the wheel, said
unsubtle that dress every woman with red hair automatically fills
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her wardrobe with green. It's only fair to tell you,
said Allison amiably that like practically all women, I detest
men who know anything about women's clothes. As intelligent people,
we should always try to overcome these illogical prejudices. He
had not moved to start the engine. He smiled at her.
You know it will be regrettable if you were lying
(01:28):
to me, miss Weir. The little amusement died from her
green hazel eyes meeting his. Do you think I've lied
to you? Why? I No, I don't think so. But
Teresa Ramirez, as her sister, meant to tell you about
this queer boy, and yet you don't know quite as
much as she told. Teresa I told you about that.
She probably didn't mean to tell me a lot more,
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but I took up her consultation time with lecturing her.
You can't regret it any more than I do, Lieutenant,
if I'd listened to her, yes, said Mendoza. He turned
sideways to look at her, his right arm along the
seat back. He laughed abruptly and slid his hand down
to brush her shoulder, gently, reaching to the ignition. I'll
tell you I'm not just a hundred percent sure. I
(02:10):
mustn't be, because I'm working this on a preconceived idea,
and that's dangerous. I find something that doesn't fit, I'm
tempted to think, let it go. It's not important, just
because I don't want to prove my beautiful theory wrong
just now, and then I am wrong, and it's not
an experience I enjoy. I see. I also dislike egotistical men.
(02:32):
Ah mege tito roha. What you mean is that you
dislike the ones honest enough to admit to vanity. Nobody
walking on two legs asn't an egotist, and you should
have more common sense than to talk so rudely to
a rich man, are you? I am none of my doing,
in case you were thinking of bribes from gangsters. My
grandfather was shrewd enough to buy up quite a lot
(02:53):
of land, which turned out to be just where the
city was expanding. Office buildings, you know, and hotels and
department stores, all crazy for land to build on. Unfortunately
I was his only grandson. It was a great shock
to everybody there. He was for years and a thirty
dollar a month apartment, saying we couldn't afford this, and
that damning the gas company as robbers if the bill
was over two dollars, and buying second hand clothes. My god,
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he once got a hundred dollars out of me on
the grounds of family duty to pay a hospital bill
and me still in the rookie training stool and in
debt for my uniforms, And then when he died it
all came out. My grandmother hasn't recovered from the shock yet.
She's still furious at him. And that was nearly fifteen
years ago. Oh why for fifty eight years she'd been
nacking at him to stop his gambling. She'd been telling
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him for fifty eight years that gamblers are all wastrels,
stealing the food out of their family's mouths to throw away,
and they always die without a penny to bless themselves.
And that's where he got a capital his winnings. And
to add insult to injury, because if she had known
about it, she'd have found some way to safe face
and also been a woman something else to nag him about.
He managed to get the last word by dying before
she found it out. Frankly, I think myself it wasn't
(03:59):
all luck. The old boy wasn't above keeping a few
high cards up as sleeve. But you know the one
about the gift horse and unfortunately Adam Mendoza sliding neatly
ahead of an indignant bus to get in the right
turn lane. But then I got into the habit of
earning an honest living, and I've never cured myself. Well,
it's an original approach to a girl, said Alison thoughtfully.
(04:21):
Such a fascinating subject too. I've always been so interested
in money. If only I'd had the chance to study
it oftener, I might have developed real talent for it.
But I must say, I should think you'd bolster up
your ego more by doing the keen koffetua business instead
of practicing offering a bribe not at all subtle. I'm
always loved for myself alone. And why esclaro a woman?
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If I principle like you, She's afraid to be taken
for a gold digger, so she starts out being very
stand offish. She's so busy convincing me she's not interested
in my money. Why ya, she's never on guard against
my charm. Ah, the double play I keep forgetting you're
an egotist, But what about the stupid ones, the ones
like elenor of bleached curls and giggles and gold ankle chains,
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the ones those tired middle aged business men. A vapordius.
I never go near such females except in ohale work.
There's no credit to the marksmen in an easy target,
or to the wolf who catches the smallest lamb. I
see what you mean, so I'll let you have the
last word. You will do me a favor tomorrow, what
she regarded him wearily, Mendoza grinned at her. Don't sound
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so suspicious. I don't operate so crude and sudden as
that look. I want you to ask all your girls
if Elen has said anything at all to them about
this staring man. Don't tell them much, don't lead them.
A couple of them might make up this or that
to be important, but you'll be more apt to get
something helpful out of them if anything's there to be got.
Official questioning might encourage them to romanticize. Oh well, certainly
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I'll do that. I meant to anyway. Yes, I think
you're right about that. At head quarters, he piloted her
upstairs to his office. She looked around, curate what exactly
is the procedure. I've never done this before. I've made
a rough draft here of the substance of what you
told me. Just look it over see if you want
to change or add anything, and then we'll get a
(06:12):
type for you to sign. And what do you want?
He added, as Hackett wandered in after them. I thought
you were safely occupied for the afternoon. Una espectativa vana,
said Hackett, spreading his hands. Kids, it's the damnest thing.
They'll be budding Einstein's at twelve, but the minute they
hit their teens, I swear to God, they'll turn into morons.
You think they were blind and deaf? His eyes were
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busy on Allison. It's a phenomenon known as puberty, said Mendoza. Nothing, nada.
You going to remember your manners? Or do I count
as the hired help around here? Miss Weir? The crusts
I am given to bear, Sergeant Hackett the brawn, said Alison, wisely,
nodding at him. I knew you must have somebody to
do the real work. And she has brains too, said Hackett, admiringly.
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You got a visitor, Luis before I forget that Ramirez girl.
He jerked a thumb huh, and Doza got up. You'll
excuse me, miss ware. If this caveman type gets up streperous,
you've only got a scream. Standing there by the clerk's
empty desk in the ante room. Before she spoke, she
wasn't this century at all. Black cotton, dressed too long,
the shabby brown coat over her arm, and a black
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woolen shawl held around her both hands clasping it at
her breast. No make up. She'd come straight from church,
from late Mass. Probably this large official place had somewhat
subdued her. You want to see me, miss Ramirez, sit
down here, won't you? Oh? Thanks, but it won't take
long what I come for. I wasn't sure you'd be
here Sunday, and all I thought i'd ask it. I'll
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leave a note for you. She took a breath. There
were some of your guys coming with a warrant to
look at it all through eleinent things. Mamma, she just
had a fit. She don't understand about these things. So good.
I'm sorry it troubled her. We have to do that,
you know, sure, I know it don't matter. We haven't
nothing to hide. He wondered the visiting uncle. The faint
(08:03):
defiance over the honesty, and her round brown eyes looked convincing.
He thought whether they caught the shifty TiO Tomas said
anything or not that was a wrong one. But he
also thought that Ramirez family hadn't an inkling of that.
He waited she had something else to say. She fidgeted
with the shawl, burst out a little nervously. I I
thought of something else, Lieutenant. That's why I come. Yes.
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I don't want to sound like I'm telling you your
own business, see, but well you are sort of looking
into that palace skating place, aren't you. I mean, we
are why I don't know nothing about it, she said,
I never been there myself. Anyway, I guess this don't
have anything to do with it. I mean, whoever runs it,
you know? But I got to thinking after you asked
me yesterday about any guy botherin Elenor. I try to
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remember just what she did say, if there was anything
I hadn't told you. And I remember one more thing
she said. It was when she was talking about this
fellow watching her. She said, he gets on my nerves. Honest.
I nearly fell down A couple of times. Now, that's
very interesting, said Mendoza. See she must have meant it.
It was at the rink she saw him once, anyways,
(09:08):
because where else would be in nervous make her almost
fall down? I yes, of course, and there were a
number of possibilities there. A little imagination would produce a
dozen different ideas. He thought about some of them airely,
the attendants, the other kids, as he thanked the girl
for coming in. Allison came out of his office with
Hackett and was sympathetic friendly with Teresa, asking conventionally about
(09:29):
the funeral. The girl was a little stiff, responding, using
more care with her manners and grammar. Well, I I
guess that's all I wanted to tell you, Lieutenant. I'd
better get home. Allison sent Mendoza a glance he missed,
and another at Hackett, which connected. He said he was
going that way, be glad to drive her home, and
gave Alison a mock reproachful backward look shepherding Teresa off.
(09:52):
Your draft's quite all right, hey, wake up, I said, yes,
said Mendoza. Is it good? In? One of the Stennos
on duty took Allison back to his office to wait
gave her a chair and cigarette, but no conversation. She
sat quietly watching him with a slight smile, looking round
the room. When the typed pages were brought in, she
signed obediently where she was told, and announced meekly that
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she could get home by herself. Mendoza said, don't be foolish,
but he was mostly silent on the drive across town.
When he drew into the curb at the apartment building,
he cut the motor, didn't move immediately. Tell me something.
Did you like dolls when you were a little girl?
Against my better judgment, you do intreat me. Most little
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girls do, he grunted. Ever know any little boys who
did when they're very young? Otherwise not, though I believe
there are some. But they can't be very normal little boys.
The psychiatrists, I beg you, not the devil talk about
it an ego and super ego, especially not about infantile
sexuality and the traumatic formation of the homosexual personality. Esto
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keda and try lostos. Just between the two of us,
I find most suggestive resemblance between the Freudians and those
puritanical old maids who put the worst interpretation on everything,
and with such damned smug self satisfaction into the bargain.
She laughed, Oh, I'm with you every time. But what's
all this about? Dolls? He got out a cigarette, looked
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at it without flicking his lighter. Suppose you're talking one
of those word association tests. What do you say to
that doll? Why? I guess little girls? Why? And me too,
he said, which is what makes it difficult. Well, never mind,
inquisition over for to day. He lit the cigarette and
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turned to her with a smile. You'll have dinner with
me tomorrow night. Tell me what you get out of
your girls, if anything. Alison cocked her auburn head at him.
I seem to remember you said you didn't mix business
with pleasure? Do I infer? I'm absolved already. I'm always
making these impossible resolutions. He got out, went round and
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opened the door for her. Black, he said, gesturing something
elegant and decolette, maybe pearls. Seven o'clock. She got out
of the car leisurely and graceful, and tucked her back
under her arm. She said, charm isn't the word, but
I have heard, speaking of the Freudians, that there are
some women who really enjoy being dominated seven o'clock it is,
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and I'll wear what I damn well, please, Lieutenant Luis Mendoza.
Ah mikatitao roha, he said, smiling, and said, Allison, I
am not your little red kitten. You you tomacho insolente.
Oh language for a lady until tomorrow. It grinned at
(12:42):
her straight back. There was he was aware a certain
promise in being called an insolent male animal by a
female like Allison. It sat on the corner of Matson
and San Rafael, a block up and a block over
from Commerce and Humble, not really much of a walk
home for eleanor a quarter of an hour by daylight.
Down San Rafael to Commerce, to Humboldt, across the empty lot,
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and down a block to Foster, where Humboldt made a
jog to bypass a gloomy little cul de sac misleadingly
called a court. Another block to Maine, another to lig It,
and half a block more to home. Little more than
half a mile, but that could be a long way
at night. Maine was neon lights and crowds up to
midnight anyway, but these other streets were dark and lonely.
(13:26):
It was a big barn of a building. Matson Street
wasn't residential, but strung with small warehouses, small business that
must permanently balance on the edge of insolvency. Rug cleaning
said the faded signs, tools sharpened, speedy, shoe repair, cleaning
and dying, and in between the secretive warehouses, unlabeled or
reticent with wholesale parts incorporated Masters and Brothers associated industries.
(13:51):
At Matson and San Rafael, there was a graveyard for
old cars on one corner with a high iron fence
around it, second hand parts, cheap and warehouses on two
other corners, and on the fourth the palace roller rink.
The building wasn't flushed to the sidewalk like the warehouses,
but set back fifteen or twenty feet to provide off
street parking on two sides. Mendoza parked there among six
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or eight other cars, mostly old family sedans, a couple
of worked over hot rods. It was ten past four,
a good time for the experiment he had in mind.
He fished up a handful of change from his pocket,
picked out a quarter, a dime and a nickel, and
walked up to the entrance. There were big double doors
fastened back, but at this time of year the place
facing north, not much light fell into the foyer that
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was perhaps ten feet wide three times as long. Up
to the restroom doors at either end, there was a
coat dispensing freezer, and a big trash basket under a
wall dispenser for paper cups. In the middle of the
foyer was a three sided plywood enclosure with a narrow
counter bearing an ancient cash register. An inside on a
high stool with a back sat erlich. The proprietor a
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grossly fat man in the late sixties, bald, bullets shaped
head descending to several rolls of fat front and rear,
pudgy hands clasped over a remarkable paunch, wrinkled khaki shirt
and pants, no tie erlick, peacefully drowsing, still very likely
digesting a solid noon dinner which had ended with several
glasses of beer. Mendoza surveyed him with satisfaction, walked quietly
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up and laid the silver on the counter. The fat
man roused with a little grunt, scooped it up and
punched the register and produced from a box under the
counter of sleazy paper ticket slid it across. Mendoza picked
it up, and passed by At the narrower door in
the main part of the building. He glanced back Erlk's
head was again bowed over his clasped hands. So there
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we are, thought Mendoza. The man had raised his eyes
just far enough to check the money. If the exact
change was laid out, a gorilla in pink tights could
walk by him without notice. The second door led Mendoza
into more than semi darkness. It was a rectangle within
a rectangle, a fifteen foot wide strip of dark around
all four sides of the skating floor that was a
good hundred and fifty five long, a little more than
(16:01):
half as wide, of well laid hardwood like a dance floor.
There was an iron pipe railing and closing it, with
two or three gaps in each side for access to
the occasional hard wooden benches, scattered groups of folding wooden
chairs along the four dark borders. A big square skylight
several unshaded electric bulbs around it poured light directly down
on the skating floor, but not enough to reach beyond anywhere.
(16:24):
Off the edge of that floor it was dark. The
effect was that of a theater about that quality of
light looking from the borders to the big floor. Straight
ahead from the single entrance at the gap and the rail,
there sat one of the attendants, sidewise in a chair
to catch the light on his magazine. Beside him was
a card table, a cardboard carton on it, and another
on the floor. Those would hold the skates, not just
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the skates, Mendoza remembered from the statements, taken flat shoes
with skates already fastened on. Something to do with the insurance.
Because his haze, or was it Murphy had put it otherwise,
some of these dumb girls would come in with four
inch heels on, as Elena had. He remembered. It was shoddy,
It was dirty, a place of garish light and dense
shadow of drafts and queer echoes. From its very size,
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no attempt was evident to make it attractive or comfortable.
The soul amenities, if you could so call them, appeared
to be the coat machine, and at the opposite side
of the floor an old nickel jute box which was
presently emitting a tired rendition of the beautiful blue Danube.
And yet the fifteen or twenty teenagers on the floor
seemed to be enjoying themselves, mostly skating in couples, round
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and round, one pair in the center, showing off with
complicated breakaways and dance steps. Half a dozen in single file,
daring the hazards lyned down the far side, a little
artificial hill, a low bar jump. Those girls shrieked simulated terror,
speeding down the sharp drop. The boys jeered affected nonchalance.
It was all very innocent and juvenile, depressingly so, Mendoza
(17:52):
reflected sadly, from the vantage point of his nearly forty years.
But he hadn't come here to philosophize on the vagaries
of adolescence. If you went straight down to the attendant
to give up your ticket and acquire your skates, you
would be noticed. Otherwise he could easily miss seeing you.
Mendoza had wandered a little way to the side from
the door and stood with his back to the wall.
(18:13):
He was in deep shadow, and he had made no noise.
He stood there until his eyes had adjusted to the
darkness to avoid colliding with anything, and moved on slowly.
He knew now that it was possible to come in
here without being noticed, but could any one count on it?
Five times out of five. There would be times Irlick
was wider awake. For one thing, he sat down in
a chair midway from the railing, twenty feet from the attendant.
(18:35):
In five minutes, neither the man nor any of the
skaters took the slightest notice of him. He got up,
drifted back to the wall, and began a tour of
the borders. When it got round to the opposite side
of the floor, he made an interesting discovery. In the
corner there a small square closet was partitioned off, with
the door fitted to it. He tried the door, and
it gave to his hand with a little squeak. He
(18:58):
risked a brief beam from his pencil flash rude shelving,
cleaning materials, an ancient can of floor wax, mops and pails.
Hackett was quite right. Nobody had disturbed the dust in
here for a long time. He shut the door gently
and went on down the rear width of the building.
The juke box was never silent long. It seemed to
have a repertoire only of waltzes, and now, for the
(19:18):
third time, was rendering in all senses of the word
let me call you sweetheart. He came to the far corner,
and with mild gratification, found another closet and another door.
I guess the fuse boxes, he murmured, and eased the
door open. A quick look with the flash interested him
so much that he stepped inside, pulled the door shut
after him, and swept the flash around for a good look.
(19:41):
Fuse boxes, yes, also, of course, the meter and a
narrow outside door for the meter reader. Obviously very convenient.
He tried it and found himself looking out to a narrow,
unpaved alley between this building and the warehouse next to it.
And does it mean anything at all? He wondered to himself.
He retreated, and now he did not care if he
was seen or not. He kept the flash on the
(20:03):
being pointed downward. How very right Hackett had been. This
place had not been so much as swept for years,
but full of eddying drafts. As it was, you couldn't
expect footprints to stay in the dust, however thick. He
worked back and forth between the rail and the wall,
dodging the chairs. He had no idea at all what
he was looking for, and also was aware that anything
he might find would either be completely irrelevant or impossible
(20:25):
to prove relevant to the case. Now, of course he
had been noticed. He heard the attendant's chair straight back,
and a few of the skaters had drifted over to
the rail this side. Curious, he didn't look up from
his little spotlight of the flash. He followed it absorbedly,
back and forth. Hey, what the hell are you up to? Anyway?
The attendant came, heavy footed, shoving chairs out of his path.
(20:45):
Who stop where you are, for God's sake, exclaimed Mendoza.
Suddenly I'm police. You'll have my credentials in a minute,
but don't come any closer. Police. Uh oh, well, and
Mendoza said aloud to himself, So here it is, but
I don't believe it. It's impossible. And to that he
added a ruefle And what in the name of all
(21:05):
devils and hell does it mean? In the steady beam
of the flash, it lay there, mute and perhaps meaningless,
a scrap of a thing three inches long a quarter
inch wide, a little strip of dainty pink lace, so
fine that it might once have been the trimming on
de lingerie of a very special doll. Rlick went on saying, doggedly,
my place didn't have nothin to do with it. That door. Well,
(21:28):
sure the inside ought to be kept locked. It usually was,
but neither he nor the attendants would swear to have
checked it for months, all three maintaining it was the
other fellow's responsibility. Mendoza found them tiresome. Hackett and Dwire,
summoned by phone if they didn't altogether agree with Erlick,
were less than enthusiastic over Mendoza's find Hackett said, frankly,
it didn't mean a damned thing. He listened to the
(21:49):
story of Carrollbrook's doll and said it still didn't mean
a damn thing. I don't want to disillusion you, but
I've heard rumors that real live dolls sometimes wear underwear
with pink lace on. And just like you said, say
it is nice and dark along here. Not having such
a pure mind as you, I can think of a
couple of dandy reasons and such elegant amenities for it,
said Mendoza sarcastically. A wooden bench of foot wide, we're
(22:13):
a pair of folded chairs, and may be over fastidious,
but I ask you, there's a classic tagline you ought
to remember. It's wonderful anywhere, So maybe it doesn't mean anything. Nevertheless,
we'll hang on to it, and I want to sketch
you this place, showing that door and the exact spot
this was found. Okay, we'll do. There was always a
lot of labor expended on such jobs and a thing
(22:35):
like this that turned out to have been unnecessary, but
it couldn't be helped, and in case something turned out
to be relevant, they had to keep the DA's office
in mind. Document the evidence, and what happened to you,
asked Mendoza, turning on Dwyer, who was sporting a patch
bandage taped across one eye. Dwyer said, aggrievedly, he ought
to have run the guy in for obstructing an officer.
(22:56):
All he had been doing was trying to find out
more about that brown girl who'd found on the body
as Pert words. First, he'd got the rough side of
her landlady's tongue. The girl wasn't home for asking a
few ordinary little questions like did the girl ever bring
men home? Or get behind in the rent and so on?
You'd have thought she was a girl's mom the way
she jumped on him. If the police didn't have anything
better to do than come round and insulting decent women,
(23:19):
She's still yacking at him about that when this guy
shows up who turns out to be some friend of
the girls, and before Dwyer can show his batch, the
guy damns him up and down for a snooper and
hauls off and me, Lieutenant, it was a fluke punch.
He caught me off balance. Ah, that's your story, said Hackett.
I swear to me walking into one off guy I
could give four inches and thirty pounds. And his name
(23:41):
turns out to be Joe Capaccio at that. So now
you've provided the comic relief. What did you get? Not
a damn thing but the shina Except she's only lived
there three months or so. But how could she be
anything to do with it? Lieutenant, I don't think she is,
but no harm getting her last address. Well that was why.
Let me give him all the news, said Hackett. You
(24:03):
take the car and go on back, send Clawson over
to do a sketch, and then go home and nurse that. Aye,
you've had enough excitement for one day, Dwyer said, gratefully.
He'd do that. He had the hell of a headache
and he must be getting old. Let anything like that happen,
Hackett said, let's sit down. I've got a couple of
little things for you. First, Brown, I was bright enough
to ask for her last address when we took her
(24:24):
formal statement. Let her think it was a regulation of
some kind. Thought it might be useful, and you might
say it was. She gave one, but it turned out
to be non existent, which is why I sent Bert
to sniff around some more. That's a queer one, said Mendoza.
You think it's anything for us, Hackett considered. It doesn't
smell that way to me. No. She struck me as
(24:45):
an honest girl and sensible too, which means it's not
likely she's mixed into anything illegal. But they say everybody's
got something to hide. We might trace her back, sure,
but I think all we'd find would be the kind
of thing innocent people get all hot and bothered about
hiding an illegitimate baby or a relative in the nut house,
or maybe she's run away from an alcoholic husband. I
think it'd be a waste of time myself, but you're
(25:07):
the boss. It might be just as well to find out,
said Mendoza slowly. And a thing like this, any loose
in sticking out at a tangle, take hold and pull.
Maybe it isn't connected to the main knot, or maybe
it is. You can't know until you follow it in. Okay,
I got more for you. The brief flare of the
match as he lit a new cigarette brought some looks
(25:29):
his way again. The kids on the floor were more
interested in them than skating, now gathering in little groups,
slow moving to whisper excitedly about it. Some of them
would have known Elena Mendoza stared out at them, absently
listening to Hackett. It was now just about thirty three
hours since the body had been found. A lot of
routine spade work had kept a lot of men busy
(25:49):
in that time. A dozen formal statements had been taken
from the Ramirez family, from three or four of the
kids present here on Friday night, from Erlic and the
two attendants, from the Wades and their visiting neighbor. A
great many other people had been questioned, and of course
written reports had been turned in on most of this,
and a new case file started by the office staff.
Again as six months before, routine inquiry was being made
(26:11):
into all recently released or escaped mental patients and the
present whereabouts of persons with records of similar violent assaults.
The official machinery had ground elsewhere, arranging for the coroner's inquest.
As inevitably happened, crime had touched the lives of many
innocent people, a grouped together, an incongruous assortment of individuals
whose private lives had in some part been invaded, you
(26:32):
could say, if incidentally and with benevolent motive. And he
finally stopped fingering the cigarette he'd got out five minutes
ago and lit it. He would offer odds that if,
as and when they caught up with this one, it
would turn out to be one of the many homicides
any police officer had ever seen, which need never have
happened if some one had used a little common sense
(26:53):
or more self control, or hadn't been a little too
greedy or vain or possessive or impatient. Like missus Demmerist.
He sometimes felt it would be nice to believe there
was a master plan, that some reason for all this existed.
He disapproved on principle of anything so disorderly as blind fate.
After telling you you're chasing rainbows, Hackett was saying, I'll
(27:14):
give you a little more confirmation. I saw the wade
boy again and he says, maybe there was such a guy.
Ellena mentioned it to him twice. He thinks the first
time was about a week ago, but they were out
together two nights running, and he won't swear which it was.
They came here both nights. Anyway, She asked him, did
he see the guy sitting there at the side staring
at her all the time? Here, said Mendoza, sitting up
(27:34):
right here, so don't run to get a warrant. The
boy says he looked, and there was somebody sitting where,
he said, but he couldn't see what he looked like
in the dark, just that there was somebody there. He
didn't pay much attention because he thought it was just
one of the other kids, and Ellenor was imagining things
like girls do, he said. When she said it was
the same guy she had seen in here before, and
(27:54):
that he never took his eyes off her, you'll be
happy to know that Ricky also came to this conclusion
because he didn't see how she could recognize the face
that far off in this light. He couldn't. He wears
glasses for driving in movies, and he didn't have him on.
Never wears them in here on account of the danger
of breakage. Figt del Infierno, exclaimed Mendoza violently. Of course,
(28:15):
of course, go on listening. It gets better, he says.
Elena told him that she'd seen the guy here five
or six times, always in the same spot. But Ricky
thought then she'd maybe seen a couple of different kids
different times, and imagine the rest okay. On Friday night,
when they first got here, she looked and he wasn't there.
But later on, all of a sudden she spotted him
(28:35):
and made Ricky look, and there he was, or there
somebody was, now, mind you, Just like her sister, Ricky
didn't think she was afraid of this fellow, that there
was anything like that to it. If he had, if
she had acted that way, all the people she mentioned
it too, would have thought it right off. And I
read it myself that she started out being kind of
flattered and annoyed at once, which would be natural, and
(28:57):
then just annoyed because there was something funny about him.
So when she spotted him again Friday night, she acted
so worried about it that Ricky decided to get a
closer look to watch for the guy again. If you
follow me, Elena said, he'd showed up so sudden, it
was like magic. One time she looked a no guy,
and about three seconds later she happened to look again
and there he was. Yes, of course, so so then finish.
(29:21):
Before Ricky gets over to take a close look, Papa
comes in, breathing righteous wrath and yanks him out. This time,
Mendoza didn't swear, merely shut his eyes. And if you're
still interested, Smith has tagged the Ramirez uncle visiting what
is probably a cat house on Third. At least the
address rang a bell, and I checked with Prince and advice.
He pricked up his ears and said we'd closed it twice,
(29:43):
and he was glad to know somebody had opened up again.
They'll look into it. After that, Ramirez took a bus
way across town to treat himself to a couple of
drinks at a place called the Maison Duchat on Wiltshire,
which Smith thought was sort of funny because it's a
very fancy layout where you get nicked a dollar and
a half for a Scotch high ball, and so six
dollars for a stake because it's in French on the menu.
(30:03):
I don't give one damn about Ramirez taste and women.
Let prince look into that. The other yes, will follow them.
Find out what you can about it. It may be
a drop for a wholesaler. If anything definitely shows up,
throw it at narcotics then and let them take it over.
I'm ahead of you. I got Higgins and Farnsworth on it.
All they got so far is the owner's name, which
is Nicholas Demetrios. Hackett dropped a cigarette and put a
(30:24):
careful heel on it. Just what's your idea about all this? Anyway? Dolls? Yet,
I don't see you've got much to get hold of.
Melo quenta me. You're telling me, But I'll tell you
how I see it happening. Somewhere around here is our lunatic,
and don't ask me what kind he is, nor I
won't even guess why he finds it back way into
this hell hole and gets a kick out of watching
(30:45):
these kids on skates. It makes a better story if
you say was following Elena anyway, here he is, and
nobody else seems to have noticed him, particularly neither of
the attendants has much occasion to come down to this
end of the floor, and if any of the kids
noticed him, they took him for one of himselves. And
about that Depasso, I think we can deduce that he's
a fairly young man. Eleanor called him a boy, and
(31:07):
the odds are an older man would have been noticed
by the others in here would have stood out as
it is. I think he was seen casually by some
of the kids and accepted as one of them. On
the other hand, he seems to have taken care not
to be noticed much. Sitting back against the wall, Mendoza shrugged.
It's pretty even, maybe, but I think the balance goes
to show he's fairly young. All right. She had seen
(31:30):
him at least once elsewhere with another boy or several others,
one of whom is named Danny, all of which is
very secondhand evidence. Don't push me. He was here on
Friday night. He saw her leave alone. Evidently he hadn't
made any attempt before to approach her speak to her,
and I think he did then because he saw her
boyfriend taken out and thought this was his chance. He
(31:51):
followed her using his private door, so Eric and the
attendant didn't notice him leaving, so he had to walk
around the building, which put him just far enough behind
her that he didn't catch up for a block or
so finish, And I don't know why he killed her,
if that was in his mind from the start or
a sudden impulse. I'm inclined to say impulse, because she
couldn't find two girls more different than Brooks in this one.
(32:12):
So he doesn't pick victims by any apparent system, though
there's holes in that reasoning. I grant you he may
have had some peculiar logic of his own. Of course,
I'll buy all that, But there's no evidence at all,
and a lot of hearsay and a lot of ifs.
And how do you tie in Brooks in the doll? Oh,
damn the doll, said Mendoza. I can't figure the odds
(32:32):
on that, if it ties in or not. It's just
as possible that somebody stumbled on Brooks after the killer
left her and stole the thing, or that she was
robbed of it before she ran into the killer. And
I can say, Clara Esta, it's a lunatic, and the
same lunatic. And when we find him, we'll find that
last September he had some reason to frequent tapping street.
There's even less evidence on all that he stood and
(32:53):
took up his hat from the bench, flicked dust off
of it automatically. Here's clawson, I'm going home. I'm I'd
have expected that walk off and leave me enough work
so I can't try to beat your time with that redhead.
That said Mendoza, to quote another classic tag line, would
be sending a boy to do a man's work. But
you have my permission to try. Arturo, I never worry
(33:14):
about competition. End of chapter seven
Chapter seven of case Pending by Del Shannon. This LibriVox
recording is in the public domain. Chapter seven Mendoza felt
rather irritated at the cosmic powers. If they intended to
direct a little lucky way, they might have been more explicit. Still,
one never knew it might lead to something. The gift
(00:21):
shop was closed, of course, he would come back tomorrow.
And it was possible that this Breen woman had simply
told a lie to avoid having to pay back twelve
or thirteen dollars, but such a relatively small amount, and
Missus Dimmerst was emphatic on assurance of her honesty. Judge
for himself, he drove tedious miles across the city, cursing
the Sunday traffic, to Allison Weir's apartment and was late
(00:44):
by some minutes. She opened the door promptly and told
him so, taking up her bag, joining him in the hall.
She was in green and tan to day, plain dark
green wool dress, high necked coat, shoes, bag, all warm beige,
and copper ear rings a big copper brooch. He settled
her in the car, and sliding under the wheel, said
unsubtle that dress every woman with red hair automatically fills
(01:07):
her wardrobe with green. It's only fair to tell you,
said Allison amiably that like practically all women, I detest
men who know anything about women's clothes. As intelligent people,
we should always try to overcome these illogical prejudices. He
had not moved to start the engine. He smiled at her.
You know it will be regrettable if you were lying
(01:28):
to me, miss Weir. The little amusement died from her
green hazel eyes meeting his. Do you think I've lied
to you? Why? I No, I don't think so. But
Teresa Ramirez, as her sister, meant to tell you about
this queer boy, and yet you don't know quite as
much as she told. Teresa I told you about that.
She probably didn't mean to tell me a lot more,
(01:49):
but I took up her consultation time with lecturing her.
You can't regret it any more than I do, Lieutenant,
if I'd listened to her, yes, said Mendoza. He turned
sideways to look at her, his right arm along the
seat back. He laughed abruptly and slid his hand down
to brush her shoulder, gently, reaching to the ignition. I'll
tell you I'm not just a hundred percent sure. I
(02:10):
mustn't be, because I'm working this on a preconceived idea,
and that's dangerous. I find something that doesn't fit, I'm
tempted to think, let it go. It's not important, just
because I don't want to prove my beautiful theory wrong
just now, and then I am wrong, and it's not
an experience I enjoy. I see. I also dislike egotistical men.
(02:32):
Ah mege tito roha. What you mean is that you
dislike the ones honest enough to admit to vanity. Nobody
walking on two legs asn't an egotist, and you should
have more common sense than to talk so rudely to
a rich man, are you? I am none of my doing,
in case you were thinking of bribes from gangsters. My
grandfather was shrewd enough to buy up quite a lot
(02:53):
of land, which turned out to be just where the
city was expanding. Office buildings, you know, and hotels and
department stores, all crazy for land to build on. Unfortunately
I was his only grandson. It was a great shock
to everybody there. He was for years and a thirty
dollar a month apartment, saying we couldn't afford this, and
that damning the gas company as robbers if the bill
was over two dollars, and buying second hand clothes. My god,
(03:15):
he once got a hundred dollars out of me on
the grounds of family duty to pay a hospital bill
and me still in the rookie training stool and in
debt for my uniforms, And then when he died it
all came out. My grandmother hasn't recovered from the shock yet.
She's still furious at him. And that was nearly fifteen
years ago. Oh why for fifty eight years she'd been
nacking at him to stop his gambling. She'd been telling
(03:36):
him for fifty eight years that gamblers are all wastrels,
stealing the food out of their family's mouths to throw away,
and they always die without a penny to bless themselves.
And that's where he got a capital his winnings. And
to add insult to injury, because if she had known
about it, she'd have found some way to safe face
and also been a woman something else to nag him about.
He managed to get the last word by dying before
she found it out. Frankly, I think myself it wasn't
(03:59):
all luck. The old boy wasn't above keeping a few
high cards up as sleeve. But you know the one
about the gift horse and unfortunately Adam Mendoza sliding neatly
ahead of an indignant bus to get in the right
turn lane. But then I got into the habit of
earning an honest living, and I've never cured myself. Well,
it's an original approach to a girl, said Alison thoughtfully.
(04:21):
Such a fascinating subject too. I've always been so interested
in money. If only I'd had the chance to study
it oftener, I might have developed real talent for it.
But I must say, I should think you'd bolster up
your ego more by doing the keen koffetua business instead
of practicing offering a bribe not at all subtle. I'm
always loved for myself alone. And why esclaro a woman?
(04:42):
If I principle like you, She's afraid to be taken
for a gold digger, so she starts out being very
stand offish. She's so busy convincing me she's not interested
in my money. Why ya, she's never on guard against
my charm. Ah, the double play I keep forgetting you're
an egotist, But what about the stupid ones, the ones
like elenor of bleached curls and giggles and gold ankle chains,
(05:03):
the ones those tired middle aged business men. A vapordius.
I never go near such females except in ohale work.
There's no credit to the marksmen in an easy target,
or to the wolf who catches the smallest lamb. I
see what you mean, so I'll let you have the
last word. You will do me a favor tomorrow, what
she regarded him wearily, Mendoza grinned at her. Don't sound
(05:27):
so suspicious. I don't operate so crude and sudden as
that look. I want you to ask all your girls
if Elen has said anything at all to them about
this staring man. Don't tell them much, don't lead them.
A couple of them might make up this or that
to be important, but you'll be more apt to get
something helpful out of them if anything's there to be got.
Official questioning might encourage them to romanticize. Oh well, certainly
(05:51):
I'll do that. I meant to anyway. Yes, I think
you're right about that. At head quarters, he piloted her
upstairs to his office. She looked around, curate what exactly
is the procedure. I've never done this before. I've made
a rough draft here of the substance of what you
told me. Just look it over see if you want
to change or add anything, and then we'll get a
(06:12):
type for you to sign. And what do you want?
He added, as Hackett wandered in after them. I thought
you were safely occupied for the afternoon. Una espectativa vana,
said Hackett, spreading his hands. Kids, it's the damnest thing.
They'll be budding Einstein's at twelve, but the minute they
hit their teens, I swear to God, they'll turn into morons.
You think they were blind and deaf? His eyes were
(06:34):
busy on Allison. It's a phenomenon known as puberty, said Mendoza. Nothing, nada.
You going to remember your manners? Or do I count
as the hired help around here? Miss Weir? The crusts
I am given to bear, Sergeant Hackett the brawn, said Alison, wisely,
nodding at him. I knew you must have somebody to
do the real work. And she has brains too, said Hackett, admiringly.
(06:59):
You got a visitor, Luis before I forget that Ramirez girl.
He jerked a thumb huh, and Doza got up. You'll
excuse me, miss ware. If this caveman type gets up streperous,
you've only got a scream. Standing there by the clerk's
empty desk in the ante room. Before she spoke, she
wasn't this century at all. Black cotton, dressed too long,
the shabby brown coat over her arm, and a black
(07:21):
woolen shawl held around her both hands clasping it at
her breast. No make up. She'd come straight from church,
from late Mass. Probably this large official place had somewhat
subdued her. You want to see me, miss Ramirez, sit
down here, won't you? Oh? Thanks, but it won't take
long what I come for. I wasn't sure you'd be
here Sunday, and all I thought i'd ask it. I'll
(07:43):
leave a note for you. She took a breath. There
were some of your guys coming with a warrant to
look at it all through eleinent things. Mamma, she just
had a fit. She don't understand about these things. So good.
I'm sorry it troubled her. We have to do that,
you know, sure, I know it don't matter. We haven't
nothing to hide. He wondered the visiting uncle. The faint
(08:03):
defiance over the honesty, and her round brown eyes looked convincing.
He thought whether they caught the shifty TiO Tomas said
anything or not that was a wrong one. But he
also thought that Ramirez family hadn't an inkling of that.
He waited she had something else to say. She fidgeted
with the shawl, burst out a little nervously. I I
thought of something else, Lieutenant. That's why I come. Yes.
(08:26):
I don't want to sound like I'm telling you your
own business, see, but well you are sort of looking
into that palace skating place, aren't you. I mean, we
are why I don't know nothing about it, she said,
I never been there myself. Anyway, I guess this don't
have anything to do with it. I mean, whoever runs it,
you know? But I got to thinking after you asked
me yesterday about any guy botherin Elenor. I try to
(08:48):
remember just what she did say, if there was anything
I hadn't told you. And I remember one more thing
she said. It was when she was talking about this
fellow watching her. She said, he gets on my nerves. Honest.
I nearly fell down A couple of times. Now, that's
very interesting, said Mendoza. See she must have meant it.
It was at the rink she saw him once, anyways,
(09:08):
because where else would be in nervous make her almost
fall down? I yes, of course, and there were a
number of possibilities there. A little imagination would produce a
dozen different ideas. He thought about some of them airely,
the attendants, the other kids, as he thanked the girl
for coming in. Allison came out of his office with
Hackett and was sympathetic friendly with Teresa, asking conventionally about
(09:29):
the funeral. The girl was a little stiff, responding, using
more care with her manners and grammar. Well, I I
guess that's all I wanted to tell you, Lieutenant. I'd
better get home. Allison sent Mendoza a glance he missed,
and another at Hackett, which connected. He said he was
going that way, be glad to drive her home, and
gave Alison a mock reproachful backward look shepherding Teresa off.
(09:52):
Your draft's quite all right, hey, wake up, I said, yes,
said Mendoza. Is it good? In? One of the Stennos
on duty took Allison back to his office to wait
gave her a chair and cigarette, but no conversation. She
sat quietly watching him with a slight smile, looking round
the room. When the typed pages were brought in, she
signed obediently where she was told, and announced meekly that
(10:15):
she could get home by herself. Mendoza said, don't be foolish,
but he was mostly silent on the drive across town.
When he drew into the curb at the apartment building,
he cut the motor, didn't move immediately. Tell me something.
Did you like dolls when you were a little girl?
Against my better judgment, you do intreat me. Most little
(10:35):
girls do, he grunted. Ever know any little boys who
did when they're very young? Otherwise not, though I believe
there are some. But they can't be very normal little boys.
The psychiatrists, I beg you, not the devil talk about
it an ego and super ego, especially not about infantile
sexuality and the traumatic formation of the homosexual personality. Esto
(10:57):
keda and try lostos. Just between the two of us,
I find most suggestive resemblance between the Freudians and those
puritanical old maids who put the worst interpretation on everything,
and with such damned smug self satisfaction into the bargain.
She laughed, Oh, I'm with you every time. But what's
all this about? Dolls? He got out a cigarette, looked
(11:17):
at it without flicking his lighter. Suppose you're talking one
of those word association tests. What do you say to
that doll? Why? I guess little girls? Why? And me too,
he said, which is what makes it difficult. Well, never mind,
inquisition over for to day. He lit the cigarette and
(11:38):
turned to her with a smile. You'll have dinner with
me tomorrow night. Tell me what you get out of
your girls, if anything. Alison cocked her auburn head at him.
I seem to remember you said you didn't mix business
with pleasure? Do I infer? I'm absolved already. I'm always
making these impossible resolutions. He got out, went round and
(11:58):
opened the door for her. Black, he said, gesturing something
elegant and decolette, maybe pearls. Seven o'clock. She got out
of the car leisurely and graceful, and tucked her back
under her arm. She said, charm isn't the word, but
I have heard, speaking of the Freudians, that there are
some women who really enjoy being dominated seven o'clock it is,
(12:21):
and I'll wear what I damn well, please, Lieutenant Luis Mendoza.
Ah mikatitao roha, he said, smiling, and said, Allison, I
am not your little red kitten. You you tomacho insolente.
Oh language for a lady until tomorrow. It grinned at
(12:42):
her straight back. There was he was aware a certain
promise in being called an insolent male animal by a
female like Allison. It sat on the corner of Matson
and San Rafael, a block up and a block over
from Commerce and Humble, not really much of a walk
home for eleanor a quarter of an hour by daylight.
Down San Rafael to Commerce, to Humboldt, across the empty lot,
(13:05):
and down a block to Foster, where Humboldt made a
jog to bypass a gloomy little cul de sac misleadingly
called a court. Another block to Maine, another to lig It,
and half a block more to home. Little more than
half a mile, but that could be a long way
at night. Maine was neon lights and crowds up to
midnight anyway, but these other streets were dark and lonely.
(13:26):
It was a big barn of a building. Matson Street
wasn't residential, but strung with small warehouses, small business that
must permanently balance on the edge of insolvency. Rug cleaning
said the faded signs, tools sharpened, speedy, shoe repair, cleaning
and dying, and in between the secretive warehouses, unlabeled or
reticent with wholesale parts incorporated Masters and Brothers associated industries.
(13:51):
At Matson and San Rafael, there was a graveyard for
old cars on one corner with a high iron fence
around it, second hand parts, cheap and warehouses on two
other corners, and on the fourth the palace roller rink.
The building wasn't flushed to the sidewalk like the warehouses,
but set back fifteen or twenty feet to provide off
street parking on two sides. Mendoza parked there among six
(14:14):
or eight other cars, mostly old family sedans, a couple
of worked over hot rods. It was ten past four,
a good time for the experiment he had in mind.
He fished up a handful of change from his pocket,
picked out a quarter, a dime and a nickel, and
walked up to the entrance. There were big double doors
fastened back, but at this time of year the place
facing north, not much light fell into the foyer that
(14:36):
was perhaps ten feet wide three times as long. Up
to the restroom doors at either end, there was a
coat dispensing freezer, and a big trash basket under a
wall dispenser for paper cups. In the middle of the
foyer was a three sided plywood enclosure with a narrow
counter bearing an ancient cash register. An inside on a
high stool with a back sat erlich. The proprietor a
(14:56):
grossly fat man in the late sixties, bald, bullets shaped
head descending to several rolls of fat front and rear,
pudgy hands clasped over a remarkable paunch, wrinkled khaki shirt
and pants, no tie erlick, peacefully drowsing, still very likely
digesting a solid noon dinner which had ended with several
glasses of beer. Mendoza surveyed him with satisfaction, walked quietly
(15:20):
up and laid the silver on the counter. The fat
man roused with a little grunt, scooped it up and
punched the register and produced from a box under the
counter of sleazy paper ticket slid it across. Mendoza picked
it up, and passed by At the narrower door in
the main part of the building. He glanced back Erlk's
head was again bowed over his clasped hands. So there
(15:40):
we are, thought Mendoza. The man had raised his eyes
just far enough to check the money. If the exact
change was laid out, a gorilla in pink tights could
walk by him without notice. The second door led Mendoza
into more than semi darkness. It was a rectangle within
a rectangle, a fifteen foot wide strip of dark around
all four sides of the skating floor that was a
good hundred and fifty five long, a little more than
(16:01):
half as wide, of well laid hardwood like a dance floor.
There was an iron pipe railing and closing it, with
two or three gaps in each side for access to
the occasional hard wooden benches, scattered groups of folding wooden
chairs along the four dark borders. A big square skylight
several unshaded electric bulbs around it poured light directly down
on the skating floor, but not enough to reach beyond anywhere.
(16:24):
Off the edge of that floor it was dark. The
effect was that of a theater about that quality of
light looking from the borders to the big floor. Straight
ahead from the single entrance at the gap and the rail,
there sat one of the attendants, sidewise in a chair
to catch the light on his magazine. Beside him was
a card table, a cardboard carton on it, and another
on the floor. Those would hold the skates, not just
(16:47):
the skates, Mendoza remembered from the statements, taken flat shoes
with skates already fastened on. Something to do with the insurance.
Because his haze, or was it Murphy had put it otherwise,
some of these dumb girls would come in with four
inch heels on, as Elena had. He remembered. It was shoddy,
It was dirty, a place of garish light and dense
shadow of drafts and queer echoes. From its very size,
(17:10):
no attempt was evident to make it attractive or comfortable.
The soul amenities, if you could so call them, appeared
to be the coat machine, and at the opposite side
of the floor an old nickel jute box which was
presently emitting a tired rendition of the beautiful blue Danube.
And yet the fifteen or twenty teenagers on the floor
seemed to be enjoying themselves, mostly skating in couples, round
(17:31):
and round, one pair in the center, showing off with
complicated breakaways and dance steps. Half a dozen in single file,
daring the hazards lyned down the far side, a little
artificial hill, a low bar jump. Those girls shrieked simulated terror,
speeding down the sharp drop. The boys jeered affected nonchalance.
It was all very innocent and juvenile, depressingly so, Mendoza
(17:52):
reflected sadly, from the vantage point of his nearly forty years.
But he hadn't come here to philosophize on the vagaries
of adolescence. If you went straight down to the attendant
to give up your ticket and acquire your skates, you
would be noticed. Otherwise he could easily miss seeing you.
Mendoza had wandered a little way to the side from
the door and stood with his back to the wall.
(18:13):
He was in deep shadow, and he had made no noise.
He stood there until his eyes had adjusted to the
darkness to avoid colliding with anything, and moved on slowly.
He knew now that it was possible to come in
here without being noticed, but could any one count on it?
Five times out of five. There would be times Irlick
was wider awake. For one thing, he sat down in
a chair midway from the railing, twenty feet from the attendant.
(18:35):
In five minutes, neither the man nor any of the
skaters took the slightest notice of him. He got up,
drifted back to the wall, and began a tour of
the borders. When it got round to the opposite side
of the floor, he made an interesting discovery. In the
corner there a small square closet was partitioned off, with
the door fitted to it. He tried the door, and
it gave to his hand with a little squeak. He
(18:58):
risked a brief beam from his pencil flash rude shelving,
cleaning materials, an ancient can of floor wax, mops and pails.
Hackett was quite right. Nobody had disturbed the dust in
here for a long time. He shut the door gently
and went on down the rear width of the building.
The juke box was never silent long. It seemed to
have a repertoire only of waltzes, and now, for the
(19:18):
third time, was rendering in all senses of the word
let me call you sweetheart. He came to the far corner,
and with mild gratification, found another closet and another door.
I guess the fuse boxes, he murmured, and eased the
door open. A quick look with the flash interested him
so much that he stepped inside, pulled the door shut
after him, and swept the flash around for a good look.
(19:41):
Fuse boxes, yes, also, of course, the meter and a
narrow outside door for the meter reader. Obviously very convenient.
He tried it and found himself looking out to a narrow,
unpaved alley between this building and the warehouse next to it.
And does it mean anything at all? He wondered to himself.
He retreated, and now he did not care if he
was seen or not. He kept the flash on the
(20:03):
being pointed downward. How very right Hackett had been. This
place had not been so much as swept for years,
but full of eddying drafts. As it was, you couldn't
expect footprints to stay in the dust, however thick. He
worked back and forth between the rail and the wall,
dodging the chairs. He had no idea at all what
he was looking for, and also was aware that anything
he might find would either be completely irrelevant or impossible
(20:25):
to prove relevant to the case. Now, of course he
had been noticed. He heard the attendant's chair straight back,
and a few of the skaters had drifted over to
the rail this side. Curious, he didn't look up from
his little spotlight of the flash. He followed it absorbedly,
back and forth. Hey, what the hell are you up to? Anyway?
The attendant came, heavy footed, shoving chairs out of his path.
(20:45):
Who stop where you are, for God's sake, exclaimed Mendoza.
Suddenly I'm police. You'll have my credentials in a minute,
but don't come any closer. Police. Uh oh, well, and
Mendoza said aloud to himself, So here it is, but
I don't believe it. It's impossible. And to that he
added a ruefle And what in the name of all
(21:05):
devils and hell does it mean? In the steady beam
of the flash, it lay there, mute and perhaps meaningless,
a scrap of a thing three inches long a quarter
inch wide, a little strip of dainty pink lace, so
fine that it might once have been the trimming on
de lingerie of a very special doll. Rlick went on saying, doggedly,
my place didn't have nothin to do with it. That door. Well,
(21:28):
sure the inside ought to be kept locked. It usually was,
but neither he nor the attendants would swear to have
checked it for months, all three maintaining it was the
other fellow's responsibility. Mendoza found them tiresome. Hackett and Dwire,
summoned by phone if they didn't altogether agree with Erlick,
were less than enthusiastic over Mendoza's find Hackett said, frankly,
it didn't mean a damned thing. He listened to the
(21:49):
story of Carrollbrook's doll and said it still didn't mean
a damn thing. I don't want to disillusion you, but
I've heard rumors that real live dolls sometimes wear underwear
with pink lace on. And just like you said, say
it is nice and dark along here. Not having such
a pure mind as you, I can think of a
couple of dandy reasons and such elegant amenities for it,
said Mendoza sarcastically. A wooden bench of foot wide, we're
(22:13):
a pair of folded chairs, and may be over fastidious,
but I ask you, there's a classic tagline you ought
to remember. It's wonderful anywhere, So maybe it doesn't mean anything. Nevertheless,
we'll hang on to it, and I want to sketch
you this place, showing that door and the exact spot
this was found. Okay, we'll do. There was always a
lot of labor expended on such jobs and a thing
(22:35):
like this that turned out to have been unnecessary, but
it couldn't be helped, and in case something turned out
to be relevant, they had to keep the DA's office
in mind. Document the evidence, and what happened to you,
asked Mendoza, turning on Dwyer, who was sporting a patch
bandage taped across one eye. Dwyer said, aggrievedly, he ought
to have run the guy in for obstructing an officer.
(22:56):
All he had been doing was trying to find out
more about that brown girl who'd found on the body
as Pert words. First, he'd got the rough side of
her landlady's tongue. The girl wasn't home for asking a
few ordinary little questions like did the girl ever bring
men home? Or get behind in the rent and so on?
You'd have thought she was a girl's mom the way
she jumped on him. If the police didn't have anything
better to do than come round and insulting decent women,
(23:19):
She's still yacking at him about that when this guy
shows up who turns out to be some friend of
the girls, and before Dwyer can show his batch, the
guy damns him up and down for a snooper and
hauls off and me, Lieutenant, it was a fluke punch.
He caught me off balance. Ah, that's your story, said Hackett.
I swear to me walking into one off guy I
could give four inches and thirty pounds. And his name
(23:41):
turns out to be Joe Capaccio at that. So now
you've provided the comic relief. What did you get? Not
a damn thing but the shina Except she's only lived
there three months or so. But how could she be
anything to do with it? Lieutenant, I don't think she is,
but no harm getting her last address. Well that was why.
Let me give him all the news, said Hackett. You
(24:03):
take the car and go on back, send Clawson over
to do a sketch, and then go home and nurse that. Aye,
you've had enough excitement for one day, Dwyer said, gratefully.
He'd do that. He had the hell of a headache
and he must be getting old. Let anything like that happen,
Hackett said, let's sit down. I've got a couple of
little things for you. First, Brown, I was bright enough
to ask for her last address when we took her
(24:24):
formal statement. Let her think it was a regulation of
some kind. Thought it might be useful, and you might
say it was. She gave one, but it turned out
to be non existent, which is why I sent Bert
to sniff around some more. That's a queer one, said Mendoza.
You think it's anything for us, Hackett considered. It doesn't
smell that way to me. No. She struck me as
(24:45):
an honest girl and sensible too, which means it's not
likely she's mixed into anything illegal. But they say everybody's
got something to hide. We might trace her back, sure,
but I think all we'd find would be the kind
of thing innocent people get all hot and bothered about
hiding an illegitimate baby or a relative in the nut house,
or maybe she's run away from an alcoholic husband. I
think it'd be a waste of time myself, but you're
(25:07):
the boss. It might be just as well to find out,
said Mendoza slowly. And a thing like this, any loose
in sticking out at a tangle, take hold and pull.
Maybe it isn't connected to the main knot, or maybe
it is. You can't know until you follow it in. Okay,
I got more for you. The brief flare of the
match as he lit a new cigarette brought some looks
(25:29):
his way again. The kids on the floor were more
interested in them than skating, now gathering in little groups,
slow moving to whisper excitedly about it. Some of them
would have known Elena Mendoza stared out at them, absently
listening to Hackett. It was now just about thirty three
hours since the body had been found. A lot of
routine spade work had kept a lot of men busy
(25:49):
in that time. A dozen formal statements had been taken
from the Ramirez family, from three or four of the
kids present here on Friday night, from Erlic and the
two attendants, from the Wades and their visiting neighbor. A
great many other people had been questioned, and of course
written reports had been turned in on most of this,
and a new case file started by the office staff.
Again as six months before, routine inquiry was being made
(26:11):
into all recently released or escaped mental patients and the
present whereabouts of persons with records of similar violent assaults.
The official machinery had ground elsewhere, arranging for the coroner's inquest.
As inevitably happened, crime had touched the lives of many
innocent people, a grouped together, an incongruous assortment of individuals
whose private lives had in some part been invaded, you
(26:32):
could say, if incidentally and with benevolent motive. And he
finally stopped fingering the cigarette he'd got out five minutes
ago and lit it. He would offer odds that if,
as and when they caught up with this one, it
would turn out to be one of the many homicides
any police officer had ever seen, which need never have
happened if some one had used a little common sense
(26:53):
or more self control, or hadn't been a little too
greedy or vain or possessive or impatient. Like missus Demmerist.
He sometimes felt it would be nice to believe there
was a master plan, that some reason for all this existed.
He disapproved on principle of anything so disorderly as blind fate.
After telling you you're chasing rainbows, Hackett was saying, I'll
(27:14):
give you a little more confirmation. I saw the wade
boy again and he says, maybe there was such a guy.
Ellena mentioned it to him twice. He thinks the first
time was about a week ago, but they were out
together two nights running, and he won't swear which it was.
They came here both nights. Anyway, She asked him, did
he see the guy sitting there at the side staring
at her all the time? Here, said Mendoza, sitting up
(27:34):
right here, so don't run to get a warrant. The
boy says he looked, and there was somebody sitting where,
he said, but he couldn't see what he looked like
in the dark, just that there was somebody there. He
didn't pay much attention because he thought it was just
one of the other kids, and Ellenor was imagining things
like girls do, he said. When she said it was
the same guy she had seen in here before, and
(27:54):
that he never took his eyes off her, you'll be
happy to know that Ricky also came to this conclusion
because he didn't see how she could recognize the face
that far off in this light. He couldn't. He wears
glasses for driving in movies, and he didn't have him on.
Never wears them in here on account of the danger
of breakage. Figt del Infierno, exclaimed Mendoza violently. Of course,
(28:15):
of course, go on listening. It gets better, he says.
Elena told him that she'd seen the guy here five
or six times, always in the same spot. But Ricky
thought then she'd maybe seen a couple of different kids
different times, and imagine the rest okay. On Friday night,
when they first got here, she looked and he wasn't there.
But later on, all of a sudden she spotted him
(28:35):
and made Ricky look, and there he was, or there
somebody was, now, mind you, Just like her sister, Ricky
didn't think she was afraid of this fellow, that there
was anything like that to it. If he had, if
she had acted that way, all the people she mentioned
it too, would have thought it right off. And I
read it myself that she started out being kind of
flattered and annoyed at once, which would be natural, and
(28:57):
then just annoyed because there was something funny about him.
So when she spotted him again Friday night, she acted
so worried about it that Ricky decided to get a
closer look to watch for the guy again. If you
follow me, Elena said, he'd showed up so sudden, it
was like magic. One time she looked a no guy,
and about three seconds later she happened to look again
and there he was. Yes, of course, so so then finish.
(29:21):
Before Ricky gets over to take a close look, Papa
comes in, breathing righteous wrath and yanks him out. This time,
Mendoza didn't swear, merely shut his eyes. And if you're
still interested, Smith has tagged the Ramirez uncle visiting what
is probably a cat house on Third. At least the
address rang a bell, and I checked with Prince and advice.
He pricked up his ears and said we'd closed it twice,
(29:43):
and he was glad to know somebody had opened up again.
They'll look into it. After that, Ramirez took a bus
way across town to treat himself to a couple of
drinks at a place called the Maison Duchat on Wiltshire,
which Smith thought was sort of funny because it's a
very fancy layout where you get nicked a dollar and
a half for a Scotch high ball, and so six
dollars for a stake because it's in French on the menu.
(30:03):
I don't give one damn about Ramirez taste and women.
Let prince look into that. The other yes, will follow them.
Find out what you can about it. It may be
a drop for a wholesaler. If anything definitely shows up,
throw it at narcotics then and let them take it over.
I'm ahead of you. I got Higgins and Farnsworth on it.
All they got so far is the owner's name, which
is Nicholas Demetrios. Hackett dropped a cigarette and put a
(30:24):
careful heel on it. Just what's your idea about all this? Anyway? Dolls? Yet,
I don't see you've got much to get hold of.
Melo quenta me. You're telling me, But I'll tell you
how I see it happening. Somewhere around here is our lunatic,
and don't ask me what kind he is, nor I
won't even guess why he finds it back way into
this hell hole and gets a kick out of watching
(30:45):
these kids on skates. It makes a better story if
you say was following Elena anyway, here he is, and
nobody else seems to have noticed him, particularly neither of
the attendants has much occasion to come down to this
end of the floor, and if any of the kids
noticed him, they took him for one of himselves. And
about that Depasso, I think we can deduce that he's
a fairly young man. Eleanor called him a boy, and
(31:07):
the odds are an older man would have been noticed
by the others in here would have stood out as
it is. I think he was seen casually by some
of the kids and accepted as one of them. On
the other hand, he seems to have taken care not
to be noticed much. Sitting back against the wall, Mendoza shrugged.
It's pretty even, maybe, but I think the balance goes
to show he's fairly young. All right. She had seen
(31:30):
him at least once elsewhere with another boy or several others,
one of whom is named Danny, all of which is
very secondhand evidence. Don't push me. He was here on
Friday night. He saw her leave alone. Evidently he hadn't
made any attempt before to approach her speak to her,
and I think he did then because he saw her
boyfriend taken out and thought this was his chance. He
(31:51):
followed her using his private door, so Eric and the
attendant didn't notice him leaving, so he had to walk
around the building, which put him just far enough behind
her that he didn't catch up for a block or
so finish, And I don't know why he killed her,
if that was in his mind from the start or
a sudden impulse. I'm inclined to say impulse, because she
couldn't find two girls more different than Brooks in this one.
(32:12):
So he doesn't pick victims by any apparent system, though
there's holes in that reasoning. I grant you he may
have had some peculiar logic of his own. Of course,
I'll buy all that, But there's no evidence at all,
and a lot of hearsay and a lot of ifs.
And how do you tie in Brooks in the doll? Oh,
damn the doll, said Mendoza. I can't figure the odds
(32:32):
on that, if it ties in or not. It's just
as possible that somebody stumbled on Brooks after the killer
left her and stole the thing, or that she was
robbed of it before she ran into the killer. And
I can say, Clara Esta, it's a lunatic, and the
same lunatic. And when we find him, we'll find that
last September he had some reason to frequent tapping street.
There's even less evidence on all that he stood and
(32:53):
took up his hat from the bench, flicked dust off
of it automatically. Here's clawson, I'm going home. I'm I'd
have expected that walk off and leave me enough work
so I can't try to beat your time with that redhead.
That said Mendoza, to quote another classic tag line, would
be sending a boy to do a man's work. But
you have my permission to try. Arturo, I never worry
(33:14):
about competition. End of chapter seven
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