Read Online Lover Man: An Artie Deemer Mystery by Dallas Murphy - Free Book Online

"Couldn't the lock have been drilled out
after
I left?"
    Cobb stared at me for a long time, neck probably itching like impetigo, before he said, "Why did the deceased take pictures of bums?"
    "She felt sorry for them. She was expressing compassion."
    This, clearly, was a difficult notion for Cobb to grasp. "Renaissance Antiques. That ring any bells?"
    "Isn't it across the street from Billie's studio?"
    "Good. What else?"
    "Nothing. Just a store. Isn't it?"
    "Yeah, right. Just a store. Anybody else been around asking questions?"
    "Like who?"
    "Like who? Like anybody in the whole fucking country!"
    "No."
    "You must think we're a bunch of chuckleheads, Deemer. Sal, he must think we're both simple fucks."
    It's true, I was beginning to think they'd missed Freddy altogether.
    "Let's go, Sal. This guy's a liar." Then he turned back on me. "One day soon, Deemer, we'll find out how you're connected to this, and don't tell me you aren't, insult my intelligence. Then we'll be comin' for you."
    But Sal (good cop?) changed the subject: "What do you know about Billie Burke's father?"
    "Just that he's in the film business."
    "You know that because she told you? You never met the man?"
    "No, never."
    "We don't find any Burkes with daughters at the major studios. We'll keep trying."
    I said I was sorry, but I didn't know any more, and that was true.
    "What about the name?" Loccatuchi continued. "Billie Burke was an old-time actress. It seems odd she should have the same name. Maybe that was a career name."
    I said that it was the name I knew her by, and that, too, was true.
    "Yeah, well, I still think you're bullshittin' us, Deemer, but I don't know why. Someone drills out the lock and ransacks her studio on the same night she's murdered. Blows to hell the theory of a random victim of an asshole who likes to watch women drown, wouldn't you say?"
    "Yes." Palomino? What about Freddy?
    "And why would someone ransack the studio of a photographer of bums? Because they were looking for something? Why kill that photographer? Because she had something the murderer wanted? You with me, Deemer?"
    "Of course."
    "Look how she died. Tied up and drowned. To force her to give up this thing the murderer wanted? Fits, right? Makes methink she was into something besides bums. And so we come to ask you, her ex-lover."
    "I don't know, Detective. Honest."
    "Honest, huh? You didn't seem all that surprised to hear about the ransacking. What do you think about that, Sal?"
    "He didn't seem very surprised."
    "I was surprised. Look, I'm sort of in shock, I think."
    "Yeah? Tell me again why you went to the studio on the same night it was ransacked and she was murdered."
    "I don't know exactly. It was whim. I wanted something to remember her by, something that showed the two of us together." Every lie I told sucked me deeper into the mire. I knew that.
    He gazed hard into my eyes for a long time, then began scratching his neck. "On the other hand, maybe you're just a sentimental weirdo eccentric. No furniture, smoke dope all day, live off your dog. Maybe. My neck tells me different. My guess is we'll be back here, wouldn't you say, Sal?"
    Sal nodded slowly, solemnly.
    And then they headed for my front door. Was that
it?
No Palomino?
    Cobb snapped his card down on the half-round table in my foyer. "You think it over, Deemer. Look at it like this. Maybe the killer still doesn't have what he killed for. Maybe he thinks you do. If the super saw you at her building, who else did? Follow?"
    I followed. After the door closed behind them, I smoked the other half a gasper to quell the twitching hands. I put Eric Dolphy on the box, playing exquisite pain. I focused on the notes, finding refuge. I sat in my Morris chair, put my feet on the sill, and watched the river. All I needed to do was to give myself over to the music and there would be harmony between reality and imagination. Jazz could turn the world into a tranquil place. Jellyrollsensed the potential. He stretched his