Chapter 13

Chapter XIII

Ralph kept his early morning appointment with Kurtis and Spacer in Spacer’s office in the police station.  He was prompt.

“Did you have anyone following Ms Vickers this morning?” Spacer chose as a place to start.  He knew no one had followed her.

“No.  I thought it was you who told me not to replace the shadow.” Ralph was casual in answer, but he had lost a man on duty and he wanted to get to the bottom of that as much as the police did – more.  He would co-operate, unless progress slowed.

“Were you the black suit, Styles said, was following Johnson when he disappeared?” Kurtis asked.

“No.  I was hired, originally, to find out if he disappeared, or took off.”  Ralph back tracked, “I’d done a couple of little things for the company, but that’s when they really started working my agency.” He went on, “If they hadn’t cleaned, you’d have found my prints all over the Peterson house.  I wasn’t careful,” he said, “It was a week before I found Johnson’s new house.  He never bothered to tell anyone at Opts he’d moved.”

“He still had his treadmill and some equipment in the old house.  We have reason to believe he was still using it there when he disappeared.” Spacer said.

“When I got there, there was no sign of that, nothing but an old computer.  The electricity was off.  It’s in the report to Wilson,” Ralph said.

“Why were you watching the Peterson place last night?” Spacer asked.

“We’d been watching them to be sure they were going to connect on the trail.  We were supposed to intercede if one was running late,” Ralph explained, “It had to look like the one was always there when the other was.  They were like clockwork, wouldn’t miss their run.  I think it was love at first sight.”

“Why would you continue after they found each other?” Kurtis asked.

“Wilson said they were acting funny and, maybe, they rather than Johnson, made the changes in the program.  We weren’t as critical after they met,” Ralph admitted, “We sometimes left early or before our replacement showed.  Why would they kill my man?  All they had to do was say drop it tonight.”

“Did you have anyone watching the place Sunday morning?” Spacer asked.

“Dieter watched until around ten.  He saw Wells go in and called me.  I told him to take off Wells could watch them.”

“He didn’t see Wells leave?” Spacer was quick to find Ruby’s answer. Did they see Johnson leave?

Ralph shook his head.  “We’ve been loose on Sunday’s; Wilson’s orders.”

“How well did you know Hope Styles?” Kurtis asked.

“Talked to her a lot in the beginning.  She was the main reason Wilson was curious.”

“You happen to know who she was seeing,” Spacer asked.

“Johnson, I assumed.  She’s the one that put me on to the new house,” Ralph said, “She was certain a man didn’t buy a new house and leave town.  Made sense to me.”

“You never saw Styles with another man,” Kurtis pushed.

“No, we weren’t following her.” Ralph shook his head, frowned, then mentioned, “One day I saw her picked up by a limo – figured that was work related.”

“Why would you figure that?” Spacer asked.

“Rocco Penz’s limo!  He spent some time talking to Wilson.”

“Penz?  Thought he was into boxing. …Oh, the chain of Gyms.” Kurtis realized.

“Yeah, I think Wilson is setting him up with the five trail model.”  Ralph laughed.  “Ole Rocco’ll probably find a way to stick a porn flick in there and call it ‘Run a fuck’.”

They laughed.

“Some of his girls could make contacts there,” Kurtis said, “If they don’t forget to pay a commission – if he has girls working for him.”

They smirked over the last ‘if.’

“Always making money for someone else,” Spacer grumbled.

“You guys can’t go in that business.” Ralph waited for the questioned response.  “You’d have to pay people off.  Then you’d arrest the bribe takers and be out of business.”

Spacer and Kurtis nodded to each other and looked back to Ralph.

“I checked on you.  Think I want dirty cops on my man’s murder?”  Ralph had to show his concern with aggression.  He was one up.

“Could Dieter have been freelancing on another case?” Spacer asked.

“No, he knew I called him first and kept him busy.  He got the hours he wanted and options.  He, Porter and I were like partners.”

“You have any clients other than Fitness Opts?” Kurtis asked.

“Not that he was involved with at the moment.  Opts has kept us pretty busy.”

“Can you leave Dieter’s home address with us?  We’ll need to swing by there,” Spacer said.

Ruby dropped Pete off and went on to work.  Jeanne was waiting by Ruby’s desk, when she came in.

“I was wondering if you were going to make it in.  There was a murder practically in front of your new house last night.” Jeanne wasted no time on greetings.

“Luckily the police were right there to discover it,” Ruby said.

“I thought maybe you called them.”

Ruby wanted to tell the whole fantastic tale but who’d believe it.  She just said, “The police came by to see how our treadmill worked and saw the car apparently watching our house.  They checked it out to see why and found the body, ” Ruby said.  “I wish things would stop being so police involve.  I’d like to have you and a couple of people over to see the house, but being followed and questioned all the time is kinda not a good time.”

“From what you’ve said, when you let him off the treadmill, Pete is doing a lot of fixing.  Maybe it will be better to wait until he’s finished.”

“He is good.  You know he works for a remodeling company, so he gets wholesale prices.  We’re doing the whole place.”

“You aren’t afraid his boss will get uptight about so much going into your house and no profit?”

“He has an in, the owner of the company – his father,” Ruby said.

“You’re kidding.  When did you find out?”

“We were introduced when I tried to tell the delivery man where to put the order.”

Jeanne laughed, “That must have been embarrassing.”

“I was set up.  But Big Pete’s a nice guy.  He and Pete wasted no time; as soon as they unloaded the order, they had pads and pencils out and were drawing every room in the house.  I did get to choose some colors.” Ruby said, “It’s going to be beautiful, if we stop the murders about.”

Spacer and Kurtis were doing their gloved hand trip through Dieter’s things.  Spacer was in the bedroom while Kurtis probed the desk. 

Spacer joined Kurtis by the desk.  “Nothing particularly kinky in his room – a few girl magazines.”

“He was pretty meticulous.  Bills and receipts all stapled and filed,” Kurtis said, placing a pile of papers back in a drawer.  He paused.  “What’s this?”  He picked up an envelope that had been shoved in the back of the drawer. 

“Hel-lo,” Kurtis said, removing the letter from the envelope.  Kurtis nodded to Spacer.  “We got something.  Parole board thought he would like to know Warren Tate had been released from prison after serving nine years for the murder of his wife.”

“Why would Dieter want to know?” Spacer asked.

“We better call them and find out.  I don’t know how this relates to Styles but it could solve Dieter.”

“Shall we go to the office and call the parole board then have lunch in the park and see if we can get lucky there?” Spacer asked. “Oh and I want to talk to Rocco Penz later.”

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