Part 11 (1/2)

Who did he think he was, giving me orders?

I flashed him my sincerest con smile ”Sure You can trust h stop and ask: ”Why the f k a into a parking slot in don Milwaukee I'd been forced to bringbecause he'd have attracted too un, standing on the seat with his nose pressed to the , barking to alertpaper, and other dangers

I parked in the trendy Third Ward, where old warehouses had been converted into lofts and condos and where Labeck's Volks would blend in with the Priuses and Mini Coops favored by the resident hipsters Taking the toolbox and clipboard, I got out muffin shot out like a small, hairy torpedo and immediately attacked a flock of sparrows on the sidewalk I'd have to ditch him somewhere in the city, maybe stick a label on him and drop him in a mailbox

I found duct tape in the toolbox, tore off a strip, and taped Labeck's keys to the car's rear wheel well, a trick I'd picked up fro a chop shop Later I'd contact Labeck and tell his by re him a favor The more distance I created between us, the safer Labeck would be Irving Katz hadn't struckhis obstruction of justice warning seriously Labeck didn't deserve going to jail because he'd allowed hi to trust Labeck, which worried entle his bed while he slept on the sofa, but boorish enough to watch while I took a bath He possessed the rogue mindset of a clever criht He was overbearing, chauvinistic, and treated h I had brains of suet On the other hand, he'd fed me supper, analyzed the nanny cam video, and lent me his car

Fortunately, Ben Labeck's quirks were no longer en and all, before he wound up in prison, too Right now I had to focus allup the toolbox and clipboard, I strode off Radon-Man, saving the city from radon, whatever radon was The day was unseasonably hot and hu shorts or ski indown overheavier with every step My pontoon-boat shoes sainst a wall

without a leash, eeing at every hydrant, terrorizing pigeons, drinking out of rain puddles I walked faster, hoping to shake hiies ”Scraed along, looking happier than I'd ever seen hi the ankles of passing pedestrians a second glance

It was a ten-minute walk to the corporate headquarters of the Brenner Brewing Company, which sat in massive splendor above the east bank of the Milwaukee River A knockoff of the German Renaissance style, it was built of cream city brick with a black slate roof like scalloped licorice and a twelve-story clock tower The beer baron who'd co had wanted to cap the toith a forty-foot-tall beer stein that would flip its lid on the hour, wafting buckets of beer suds over the city-it's three-hic!-o'clock-but more sober heads had prevailed, and the tower had been topped with a ho-huazed up at the building's top-floor s Kip's office used to be up there Back in our early days, when the marital waters were clear and unruffled, I'd often popped in on Kip so we could go out for lunch To get into Kip's office, though, I had to pass through his secretary, Freda Scher the gold in the Lonely Mountain

”Did you phone ahead?” Freda would inquire ”He's busy, you know”

It didn'tIdirty jokes on interoffice email; I still had to be vetted and approved before she buzzed , but at least I didn't have to worry about Kip enjoying nooners with Freda, enty years too old to be his type I think she lived in terror that Kip would pension her off and replace her with so bon-bon Hardly likely, since he couldn't have functioned without Freda's help She wrote his reports, compiled his statistics, and fibbed for hi, waited in line to buy hie when he was broke All this for a salary one fourth of what Kip made

It was painfully obvious that Freda was in love with Kip and I'd felt sorry for her, a lonely ed woman who lived only to make her boss's life run smoothly I took her out to lunch every couple of weeks and invited her to join my book club We discovered that we shared an enthusiasm for Ruth Rendell mysteries and secretly adored Harry Potter Our mutual enthusiasm for books formed the basis of a tentative friendshi+p, and when Kip was murdered, Freda at least didn't juon

The police had interviewed Freda at the time of Kip'ssuspicious going on at the company, nobody in Kip's circle of business acquaintances who'd have reason to kill hi without realizing she knew it? She ht possess some tidbit of information that when pried loose, would prove to be the clue that would point to Kip's murderer ”I suddenly re a Coloaination A shi+ny helium balloon with an unfortunate tendency to rip loose fros of reality and soar off toward Never-Never Land

Obviously I couldn't just brazenlyand knock on Freda's door, not with every security guard in town slavering over that five-grand reward I could try the radon sca had its own full-tias sniffers, official types ore uniforms and IDs on lanyards They'd spot lanced ataround a Keep Milwaukee Clean trash barrel Gingerly I poked at a soggy Waffle House bag Could fast food be my ticket to the top? The Brenner staff, who liked to believe they were so overworked they barely had ti out Delivery guys waltzed in and out of the building all day I pulled an Erbert & Gerbert sack out of the trash and peeked inside Corned beef on rye with a single bite cho to get at the rank-s stuff

”We can do better than this,” I told hi with ht try to follow ht under a bush, I started hauling trash out of the container and spreading it across the sidewalk Mazie Maguire: Murderer, Car thief, Litterbug While oodies, I picked up the Erbert & Gerbert sack andentrance

Heavingdoors, I studied the directory signboard in the vast, raded to Data Processing and now resided in the basement

This was bad The basement offices offered all the privacy of a football stadium

Abort mission I about-faced

Too late An authoritative voice rang out behind ht there, mister”

Mister? Did heot a visitor's pass?” he asked

Heart knocking against my ribs, I pretended to read fro on hty-nine”

”Yeah, okay, go,” grunted the guard ”Just tell Freda she's supposed to phone up here when she's expecting a delivery”

Noas forced to go through with the charade The guard watched as I descended the steps to the base sweat streaks on the curlicued iron railings Data Processing was just as I'd re the ceiling, the fluorescent light fixtures buzzed like angry flies, and the central area had been partitioned off into chest-high prairie dog cubicles that offered the privacy of public urinals It looked as though they'dcenter at Taycheedah

In for a penny, in for a pound As long as I was here Ithe row of offices that lined the outer walls The secret to success as a fugitive, I'd discovered, was appearing to knohere you were going B89 was halfway down the hall, its door open but the room unoccupied

Freda had come down in the world since her days as Kip's secretary Back then, she'd had her own office suite, a view of the river, and a private bathroom Now her office was a nine-by-twelve-foot box with a steel desk, a shabby swivel chair, and ranks of oversized file cabinets that looked like body drawers in a ue Freda's cat photos provided the room's only splash of personality No view of the river here-just a coat closet

Clu into the office-Erbert and Gerbert at your service!-I plopped the sack lunch onto Freda's chair while scoping out the appoint that ran until four o'clock It was 3:45 now I just had to stay out of sight for a fewon my clipboard, I covertly studied the closet door It appeared to be stout oak, with a brass key the size of a teaspoon resting in the lock

It would be bad manners to unlock that door Bad business ethics, too; Erbert and Gerbert would frown on their delivery personnel poking their noses in their customers' closets On the other hand, people shouldn't leave keys out in plain sight if they didn't want doors opened, I rationalized, using the sah supers of conscience I still retained, I unlocked the door, angling it so it screenedby

The door opened into a supply closet It was crammed with broken furniture, old wastebaskets, electric typewriters, file boxes, o back to the nineteenth century, and other bits of junk quietly e where they could officially be considered antiques The disturbed dust floated into the air, sendingto stifle the sneezes itive sucked

Tied by It was dark in the closet, illuh the half-open door To keepthe is one ofto read before bedti my toothpaste tube

But as this? Beneath a rack of outdated files and a stack of burned-out fluorescent light tubes was a cardboard box labeled in black marker: Save-Mr Vonnerjohn's Personal Possessions Fredaup all his possessions and hauling theed the box fro one ear alert for approaching footsteps, I pawed through the box's contents, wondering whether Freda occasionally fondled through this stuff, hoping for a faint whiff of Kip's cologne It was us, outdated calendars, and a slinky-type letter holder crammed with receipts, invoices, unpaid traffic tickets, and a copy of the rear end of some female staffer who'd sat bare-assed on the Xerox machine

There was an entire collection of feraphed: Darci Brittani, Traci, Staci, the i's dotted with little hearts

Could this be my first actual clue? Maybe some female employee with exfoliation needs was the dark-haired woown in the nanny cah the receipts, not really expecting anything ht my eye and I blinked, certain it was a case of ain the dust-speckled light Davidoff Automotive Imports, River Hills, Wisconsin One Maserati Quattroporte Sport DST, with customized options, sold to K Vonnerjohn, 143,000, paid in full with cashi+er's check Estimated delivery date: 11/18

I rubbed lue-it-yourself car from Hobby Lobby, let alone pay for the world's priciest sports car Where had Mr Garnisheed Salary gotten the money for a Maserati? It had to be a joke

Hastily I thuh the other receipts All were for expensive iteolf clubs, a lease on a luxury box at the basketball arena, a new Jet Ski All were paid by cashi+er's check and purchased in the two or three weeks prior to Kip's murder

There was a noise behind me and I whirled around

”M-Mazie!”

Freda Schermerhorn stood framed in the doorway, her face white and terrified The office supplies she'd been clutching exploded out of her arht I'd shocked her into a heart attack

She looked unwell When she'd been Kip's secretary, she'd worn tons of makeup and dressed in expensive suits Now her hair was thin and dry, her makeup was a bare scrilasses I'd lost touch with fashi+on, but even I could see that Freda's sweater and pants were off the clearance sale rack Probably her salary had taken a hit when she'd been downgraded to this depart, nonthreatening -”

”You shouldn't be here!” Freda's voice treet in a l-lot of trouble”