Dave Zeltserman - Bad Karma

Shannon laughed. “Let me guess. Your remedy type is Medhorrinum.”

Maguire reacted as if he’d been sucker punched. He stared blinking at Shannon. “Goddamn, you’re good,” he said. “How’d you know that?”

“Susan’s my ex-wife. Well, more than that, we’ve been reconciling for a while now. She’s going to that yoga studio undercover. Her idea, not mine.”

“You and Susan live together?”

“Yep.”

“I’ve been to your apartment, man. Just this past Tuesday, in fact. Same day we went to the Sox game. Damn. Talk about your coincidences.”

“No such thing as a coincidence. At least according to a friend of mine.”

“Bullshit. This is a fucking huge one. Unless the stars aligned so we’d meet and become partners in a new thriving detective agency. Shannon and Maguire Investigations. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”

“Yeah, I know. One step at a time. And I know, you might be retiring from this business.” He paused for a moment to rub his hand across his cheek and jaw, leaving a reddish mark behind. “You seemed pretty down before about those two students next door who were murdered.”

“A moment of self doubt. It’s already passed.”

“So you think you’re going to solve it?”

“Yeah, if I keep tracking down leads I’ll solve it. Only a matter of time.”

“That’s the spirit.” Maguire nodded solemnly. “I hope you give me a chance to help you with it. Anyway, let me show you the photos. These are the ones of them entering.”

The first photo showed a van driving off. “It let the same three women off that the Mercedes picked up later. I didn’t realize what was going on until the van drove away, otherwise I would’ve taken a picture of the driver. He was young, though, maybe early twenties, bald, with a bandage wrapped around his skull.”

“I know who the guy is.”

“Why doesn’t that surprise me? Anyway, these are the three women he let out.” He pointed out the next three photos in the pile. Each photo showed a woman heading down the steps to the yoga studio. Two of these women were the ones who had confronted him at the studio, the third woman was young and petite with straight red hair.

Shannon flipped through the rest of the photos. With the exception of Susan, all the women were in their late teens or early twenties, and they were all very attractive. Maguire pointed a finger at the picture Shannon was looking at. “This has been bugging the hell out of me. I could’ve sworn I’ve seen her before and it just hit me where. She used to hang out at my neighbors’ condo.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Pretty sure. Yeah.” Maguire nodded, a sheen of excitement in his eyes. “And not just her. A couple of the others too.”

He took the photos from Shannon and studied them, taking out two of the photos. One was the dark-haired girl who had first confronted Shannon at the yoga studio, the other was a blond girl who looked enough like Melissa to be her sister.

“I’m pretty sure I saw those two also,” Maguire said. He absentmindedly rubbed his cheek harder than before, almost as if he had a toothache and was trying to massage the pain away. When he took his hand from his face his skin was mottled a reddish-white. “Shit, I knew they looked familiar.”

“You remember when you saw them?”

Maguire thought about it, shook his head. “No, after a while everything becomes kind of a blur. These days it’s hard to remember whether something happened six months ago or six years ago, you know what I mean? I just have this impression of coming home late from work a few times and seeing them talking outside the building with my neighbors.”

“All three of them talking with Carver and Gibson at the same time?”

“I don’t think so. Different ones at different times. But again, this is just an impression. I couldn’t swear to any of this on a Bible.”

“Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

Shannon’s heart beat a mile a minute as he jogged to his car, got the Vishna Yoga brochure and brought it back to Maguire. Trying to keep the excitement out of his voice, he asked whether Maguire ever saw Vishna hanging around with Carver and Gibson. Maguire studied the picture and shook his head. “I never saw this guy before.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure. If I saw this dude, I’d remember.”

“Yeah, well, I guess it would’ve made things too easy if you did.” Shannon took back the brochure and asked Maguire whether he could make copies of the photos of the women he had seen with his neighbors.

“Absolutely. Computer’s in the second bedroom.”

Shannon followed him to a small room that had been set up as an office. Several bookcases were stuffed with a mix of technical books and hardboiled PI novels. While Maguire made the copies, Shannon picked up a dog-eared copy of Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett and flipped through it.

“One of the best,” Maguire told him. “If you want to borrow it feel free.”

“Maybe another time. Right now I’ve got a collection of Zane Grey’s waiting for me.”

“Those are westerns, right?”

“Yep.”

“I’ve read a few recently by Cormac McCarthy. Terrific stuff. Has the same cynicism and bleak landscapes that you get in the best hardboiled books. By the way, all those computer books are getting tossed. In the next few weeks they’ll be replaced with investigation manuals.”

Maguire snapped his fingers suddenly and turned back to the computer. “A moment of inspiration hit me,” he explained to Shannon. “I wonder what would happen if I did an Internet search for Vishna Yoga?”

He brought up a search engine and tried it. “They’re opening up more studios,” he muttered softly as he looked over the results.

Shannon’s heart dropped as he looked at the list of upcoming locations. Fort Collins. Colorado Springs. Austin, Texas. Norman, Oklahoma. Boise, Idaho. Paveeth had far more ambitious plans than Shannon had given him credit for. He was going to mine those college towns for more women who fit his emotional and physical criteria. Shannon knew more expansions would come in the future. That this was just the beginning.

“What do you think?” Maguire asked, a twinkle showing in his eyes. “Should I buy some stock in his operations? Looks like a potential boom.”

“Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” Shannon said. “Look, I’ve got to head out. I’ll give you a call soon.”

“Sure. Let me walk you to your car.”

“There’s no need. I’ll find my way out.”

“Yeah, okay, um, you are going to give me another assignment, right?”

Shannon nodded, grabbed the photos. “Yeah, I will. You did a good job today.”

“Thanks, I appreciate that, and say hi to Susan for me.”

Shannon told him he would. Maguire walked with him out of the second bedroom and through the living room. Shannon was halfway down the steps when Maguire asked him if he had called Nancy yet. Shannon turned and gave him a puzzled look.

“My wife,” Maguire explained. “I was just wondering if you’ve talked to her.”

“No, not yet. I’ll give her a call tonight.”

“Let me know how things go.” He paused, showing a halfhearted smile. “Tell her I miss her, okay?”

Shannon told him he would. He felt lightheaded walking down the steps, realizing what he had stumbled into. True Light wasn’t just a local Boulder concern. Anil Paveeth had ambitions to go national. Maybe he had misread Paveeth’s purpose for these young women. Maybe what he was using them for was to train an army of ‘Vishna’ yoga instructors. And maybe the Russians’ role was to bankroll the expansion, and they leaned on him the other day to protect their investment. An image of Vishna Yoga studios in malls and shopping centers across the country struck him. If the sonofabitch was successful he’d be able to buy himself a boatful of parrots.