Part 34 (1/2)
”But I also know what it's like to be powerless when someone's beating on you. No girl should have to walk the streets in fear. Let me know where to pick her up, and I'll do my best.”
I found I'd been holding my breath and let out an audible sigh. Before we hung up, I told her about the meeting I wanted to hold in Darraugh's office the following afternoon, and she promised to arrange her lunch break so she could attend.
I got up and thanked Caroline for her help. ”Although 'thanks' is a pretty feeble word, for all you've done.”
She smiled, her brisk, corporate smile. ”All in a day's work, Vic. But if we need to reach you, where will you be?”
I shook my head. ”I don't know yet. I'll try to get a room at the Trefoil Hotel, using my mother's birth name, Gabriella Sestieri, but I can't afford more than a couple of nights there.”
Caroline thought for a moment. ”I'll check with Darraugh, but we keep an efficiency apartment in the Hanc.o.c.k building for overseas staff who have to spend more than a few nights in Chicago. It's free now. I can book you in as Ms. Sestieri.”
I felt my eyes grow wide. ”It's extremely generous. But, Caroline, it's not just beyond the call, it could expose you to danger, too.”
She shook her head. ”My sister's only son was killed in Iraq, blown up in Fallujah. He was a reservist, and he had a new baby he never even saw. I can't stand the thought that companies like Tintrey have been making money on his body.”
She looked at the console on Darraugh's desk, saw that he'd finished his video conference, and took me into the boardroom so she could explain what she proposed. Darraugh grunted an agreement, and Caroline told me to stop back by in the morning to pick up a key and a photo ID for Gabriella Sestieri.
Darraugh escorted me to the elevator; he believes in old-fas.h.i.+oned etiquette and decorum. As I was getting into the car, he let out an unexpected bark of laughter and brushed a finger across my cheek.
”You are Rock to the life. I don't know why I never thought of that before.”
50.
Phew! Around the Sal Corner.
I didn't feel very Rock-like crossing the Loop. Rainier Cowles and Kystarnik had me so spooked that I stopped in my bank to cash a large check; I didn't want to take the chance that they might be able to track my credit card or ATM transactions. That's the trouble with the Age of Paranoia-you know people can trace you, given the resources, but you don't know if they are actually doing so, not unless you're a whiz like NCIS's Abby Sciuto, who can back-trace anyone who's looking at her records. didn't feel very Rock-like crossing the Loop. Rainier Cowles and Kystarnik had me so spooked that I stopped in my bank to cash a large check; I didn't want to take the chance that they might be able to track my credit card or ATM transactions. That's the trouble with the Age of Paranoia-you know people can trace you, given the resources, but you don't know if they are actually doing so, not unless you're a whiz like NCIS's Abby Sciuto, who can back-trace anyone who's looking at her records.
When I finally reached the Glow, it was half an hour after the closing bell, and the traders were packed three-deep around Sal's famous mahogany bar. Sal saw me, nodding as she directed traffic. Within two minutes, a minion appeared with a gla.s.s of Johnnie Walker Black. I left the drink on the bar, not wanting alcohol to take the edge off my awareness. I also resisted the temptation to pull out my cell phone and reconnect to the world. I was anxious about Chad Vishneski's safety as well as the Guaman family's, but I couldn't take any chances right now.
When the traders, exhausted by a day from h.e.l.l in the markets, had finally drunk themselves into enough oblivion to manage a commute home, Sal came over to my perch at the end of the bar.
”I hear Olympia's had to close the Gouge,” she said. ”Bad fire in there.”
I shrugged. ”Not that bad. She needs to redo her stage and her electrics, but the structure's okay. Question is, where she'll find the money, since she's already in way over her botoxed forehead to Anton Kystarnik.”
Sal's lips rounded in a soundless whistle. ”So the rumors were right this time. I couldn't believe anyone would be such a complete idiot. Still, as my mother says, a fool and her wits are soon parted.”
She paused, measuring me. ”You'd probably better know there's another story running around the club scene. Some people say you started Olympia's fire.”
”People will say anything, won't they? Especially Olympia Koilada. I did threaten her with legal action if she kept slandering me, but she probably knows I don't have the time or patience for a civil suit.”
”So how did the fire start?”
”Actually, I sort of did did start it.” start it.”
Sal threw up her hands. ”Oh, Vic, why? I'm sure it wasn't the kind of pedestrian reason most of us would have: she dissed your cousin, she kicked your dog, or, in my case, the last time I had a fire here some idiot had left her curling iron on a stack of towels in the women's toilet.”
”I didn't do it on purpose. It was sort of collateral damage.”
I described the night at the Club Gouge, with Kystarnik's thugs beating up the Body Artist and Olympia because they couldn't run their message board on the Artist's body.
”So where is Buckley doing her show now?” Sal asked.
I shook my head. ”She hightailed it. No one knows where to find her, but she's a woman with more than one ident.i.ty. I know two of them, and wouldn't be surprised if she had a third to use as a bolt-hole in a situation like this.”
Sal's shaved and painted brows lifted so high they looked like cathedral arches. ”You looking for her? What's Kystarnik going to do if you find her?”
”That, my dear friend, is the question of the hour. They have history, Anton and the Artist. The Artist and Zina, Anton's only kid, were so close, they OD'd together. Zina Kystarnik died, but the Artist pulled through and then disappeared. Where she spent the next thirteen years is a total mystery, at least to me, but Kystarnik apparently knew. At least, he knew she was doing her act at Olympia's. He's been using her, I just learned, but does he hate her or love her? Will he kill her or protect her? I'm betting the first, but he's a psychopath and they are like tornadoes, you don't know where they'll go.”
”Kind of like you, Warshawski,” Sal said. ”Is anyone paying you to look for the chick?”
”Not exactly. Someone is paying me to show that Chad Vishneski didn't kill Nadia Guaman. Kystarnik and the Body Artist don't connect the dots, but they sure have enough dots on them to look like a measles epidemic. Kystarnik wouldn't have wanted a spotlight on Club Gouge and the Artist, so I don't think he was behind Nadia's murder. I'm convinced the killer was hired by Tintrey. Or maybe even Rainier Cowles himself.”
I stopped to count on my fingers. ”So many parties to this horror show. Besides Cowles and his pals at Tintrey, there are four others: Nadia, Chad, the Body Artist, and Kystarnik. When a fifth party blocked [embodiedart.com] embodiedart.com, Kystarnik was beside himself. He roughed up the Artist and slapped Olympia around. He wanted that communications network up and running.”
I brooded over my drink. ”I'm sure it was Tintrey that blocked the site. Only now they seem to be happily doing business with Kystarnik. It was Anton's thugs who were parked outside the Guaman house this afternoon, but a week ago they didn't know each other's names. I don't know how it happened, although I'm wondering if Olympia brokered that marriage. And how it happened isn't important-it's what they'll do next that scares me.”
”You may make sense to yourself, but it's gibberish to me.”
Sal went over to talk to a couple of new arrivals whom she knew. Erica, Sal's bartender, came around with the Black Label bottle.
”You okay, Vic? You haven't touched your drink.”
”One of those days, Erica. Just not in the mood.” I'd never be able to prove I was right, not unless I found a way to make Prince Rainier speak. I laughed to myself, thinking of Darraugh calling me after his mongrel terrier. Speak, Prince Rainier! Or I will sink my teeth into your calf. Speak, Prince Rainier! Or I will sink my teeth into your calf.
However it had come about, Kystarnik and Tintrey had joined forces. Rainier Cowles didn't want to beat up the Guamans in person, so he hired Kystarnik's muscle to force the family to turn over their copy of Captain Walker's autopsy report. Cowles, or the Tintrey executives, thought this would end their problems. Apparently it never occurred to them that the Guamans might have made other copies. Or maybe they thought beating up Clara would persuade the bereft parents to keep Tintrey's dirty secrets to themselves. Or maybe they planned to kill all the Guamans once they had the report.
When Sal finally returned to my end of the bar, I spoke without preamble. ”Have I ever put your life or your bar at risk?”
”Nope. And you're not about to start now, Warshawski.”
I looked around the Glow, at the Tiffany lamps on the tables and the racks of gla.s.sware hanging over the horseshoe bar. Erica was polis.h.i.+ng the gla.s.ses methodically before putting them up in the manner of bartenders all over the world when business is slow. Each gla.s.s wiped obsessively until it reflects the light in the room.
”You'd want to put the lamps somewhere safe,” I said, ”and maybe move those racks of gla.s.sware out of fighting range. You could rearrange the tables, create an open s.p.a.ce for a performance. And if you let me cover the windows with sheets, they'd do nicely as projection screens.”
”V. I. Warshawski, I don't care if you are on a Carry Nation mission to torch the nightspots of Chicago as long as you leave the Glow off your list.”
I tilted my gla.s.s, watching the surface of the whisky retain its flat surface while changing shape. Gravity was amazing.
”For one night, Sal, one night only, I need to resurrect the Body Artist.”
”Rent the Art Inst.i.tute. They have better insurance than I do. And a real stage.”
”What's your deadest night of the week? Sunday? If I publicize this right, with a cover charge of twenty bucks, or even thirty, you could make your week's profit in two hours.”