“What time was that?”
“Close to five.”
“Early.”
“I like to have the whole building checked over before people come in. That way I know what needs to be done.”
I liked that answer. It was how I worked.
“How’d you meet Jackie?”
“Trevor worked for me. He did cleaning and some fixing but then he stole from one of my tenants. He took a turntable and a pair of speakers from room C-fifteen and tried to sell it to Mr. Dodson, who owns the hardware store across the street. I went over to his house, to speak to his mother. I told her that I would call the police if I did not get the things he stole or the money they were worth.”
“And did she pay you?”
“A week later Jackie came to my office with the money.” Musa’s lips began to quaver, his hands were unsteady. “When I opened the door she came right in and looked me in the eyes. She said that she had my money. She was so beautiful. I asked her to come in. I have a little couch in my office, Mr. Rawlins. A chaise lounge. Instead of going to a chair she went right to the chaise lounge and patted a place next to her.” Musa patted the arm of his chair to show me. “We were kissing before three more words. I loved her.”
“Did she give you the money?”
“I bought her a new dress and shoes with it. Then we drove to San Diego and went to the zoo.” Tears welled in his eyes. “She taught me how to dance.”
He certainly loved her enough to kill her.
“How long this go on?”
“Months,” he said. “Three…no, four months.”
“Love at first sight.”
He smiled at me and shook his head.
“My wife left me. She took the children but I didn’t care. Even now that Jackie’s dead I don’t regret. Have you ever loved like that, Mr. Rawlins?”
It sounded more like a contest than a profession of love.
“No,” I said. “Cain’t say that I have.”
We were both silent there for a while. It was a pleasant day. I thought about my good friend Raymond Alexander. When I believed he was dead I was as distraught as the man before me.
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“Somebody had beat her…. They found her in the alley, behind my building.”
“What was she doing there?”
“I don’t know. She had the key. Maybe she was coming to surprise me.”
Tremors shook Tanous’s forearms and knees.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it. I’ll try and find out who killed her. But I warn you, man: I
“You haven’t told me your price.”
“Who rents that office we found you in?”
“No one. It’s been vacant for over a month. I was trying to do my work from there without anyone knowing. But Trevor found me somehow.”
“If I find out who did it and get you off, you give me that office for twenty dollars a month for as long as that building is in your family,” I said. “The rent stays the same, forever.”
My demand amused him. He smiled for a moment and then nodded.
For my part I was surprised. I had no need for an office but somehow that room seemed as if it had been waiting for me. I wanted to go back there, sit in a chair, and look out of the window at the street.
“Where does Trevor live?” I asked.
He gave me the address. It wasn’t far.
“And I’ll need a picture of Jackie. Do you have one in your wallet?”
“No,” he said. He seemed rather embarrassed. “I have some at home.”
“Then let me have your address and telephone number. I’ll call before I come by, probably tonight.”
COX BAR WAS A DIVE in a back alley off of Hooper, not far from Steinman’s Shoe Repair. I don’t think the alley had a name. It had been paved at one time but most of the asphalt had worn away, leaving a rutted dirt path that ruined the alignment of any car that drove on it.
It was a boxlike structure tiled with tar paper flaps that had green-and-red pebbles pressed into them. The sign was a hand-painted flat board leaned up against the front wall.
I parked on the street and walked the hundred yards or so to the screen door. The room smelled of cigarettes, smoked sausage, and stale beer. At noon its only inhabitants were Ginny Wright and Raymond Alexander.
