Part 14 (1/2)
”What we need to know is if Andrew had his car parked out there earlier in the week, like on Tuesday or Wednesday?”
”It's a while back now,” the old man says.
”Yeah it is, but can you think on it ...”
The old man drops his head back against a pillow and stares at the cracked ceiling. The room waits.
”Think he did, yeah.”
”You think so, huh?”
”He park it back there a lot, you know,” says the old man.
”Yeah, that's what I remember you telling me,” says Landsman. ”Listen, what do you know about Andrew?”
”Don't know nuthin', really.”
”I mean what kind of a guy is he?”
The old man looks nervously at his wife. ”I really don't know ...”
Landsman looks at Ollie and catches something on her face. She has something to say she doesn't want her husband to hear.
”Well, listen, thanks a lot for helping,” says Landsman, moving toward the bedroom door. ”You take care of yourself now, okay?”
The old man nods and watches his wife follow the detectives out of the room. She closes the door and follows Landsman to the other end of the hall.
”Hey, Ollie,” Landsman says to her, ”remember what you were saying about Andrew?”
”I don't ...”
”About how he's like a gigolo living off ...”
”Well,” says Ollie, a little embarra.s.sed, ”I know she bought that car for him and now he uses it to go out on the town. He's gone every night.”
”Yeah? Do you know if he likes young girls?”
”Yeah, he likes young girls,” she says, disapproving.
”I mean, real young.”
”Well, that I can't really say ...”
”Okay, that's all right,” Landsman says. ”Where's the car now? Do you know?”
”He say the repo man came an' took it.”
Pellegrini and Edgerton look at each other. It's almost too perfect.
”It was repossessed?” asks Landsman. ”He told you that?”
”She told my husband that.”
”Your neighbor did? Andrew's wife?”
”Yeah,” she says, wrapping her robe tight in the chill of the front hall. ”She say Johnny's Cars came an' got it.”
”Johnny's? Up on Harford Road?”
”I guess.”
The detectives thank the woman, then head straight to Johnny's in Northeast Baltimore, where they walk the entire lot looking for the car that Andrew's wife said had been repossessed. No Lincoln. Landsman is now completely convinced.
”This motherf.u.c.ker dumps the body, gets rid of his car, and when people ask him, he says it got repo'd. f.u.c.k it, we need to talk to this motherf.u.c.ker tonight.”
It is after 11:00 P.M P.M. when they return to Newington Avenue and talk their way into 716. Andrew is a short, balding man with a face that is all hard angles. He is still awake, drinking warm beer and watching the local news in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Three plainclothes detectives walking down the stairs do not seem to surprise him.
”Hey, Andrew, I'm Sergeant Landsman, this is Detective Edgerton and Detective Pellegrini. We're working on the little girl's murder. How you doin' tonight?”
”Awright.”
”Listen, we want to ask you a couple questions about your car.”
”My car?” asks Andrew, curious.
”Yeah. The Lincoln.”
”They took that away,” he says, as if that should end any discussion.
”Who did?”
”The car dealer.”
”Johnny's?”
”Yeah.' Cause my wife, she didn't make the payment on it,” he adds, a little put out.
Landsman steers the conversation toward the parking pad in the back alley. Andrew readily acknowledges his habit of keeping the car in the rear yard to prevent theft or vandalism, then further agrees that the car had been in the rear yard on the Tuesday night of the girl's disappearance.
”I remember it 'cause I went out to the car for something and felt like someone was out there watching me.”
Landsman, startled, looks hard at the man.
”How's that again?”
”I went out to the car that night to get something and I felt real nervous, like someone was out there watching me,” he repeats.
Landsman gives Pellegrini one of those did-I-hear-what-I-just-thought-I-heard stares. Three minutes into the conversation and the guy is already putting himself out in the alley on the night the child is abducted. h.e.l.l, he probably had reason to be nervous about being watched out there in the alley on Tuesday. Who the f.u.c.k wouldn't be nervous carrying a little girl's body from their back door to a car trunk?
”Why were you nervous?”