R. Jagger - A Way With Murder

He needed motion.

Sitting here wasn’t getting her found.

Come on, Spencer.

Hurry up.

Get your ass over here and kill me.

He heard a noise, something moving in the shadows, barely perceptible but definitely something.

A dog?

Spencer?

He held his breath.

No sounds came.

He listened harder.

No sounds came.

He shoved the flashlight in a back pocket and tucked the gun in his belt. Then with the knife in his left hand, he silently climbed down the ladder on the pitch-black backside of the boxcar.

Day Three

July 23, 1952

Wednesday Afternoon

Wilde found out somethinginteresting from one of the waitresses at the Down Towner where Alexa Blank worked, namely that Alexa suddenly left halfway through her shift on Tuesday with a Tarzan-like man who had long black hair. Before she left she said, “If I die, he’s the one who killed me,” or words to that effect. She hadn’t been seen or heard from since.

There was only one man in town who fit that description.

He was a guy who frequented the Bokaray.

Wilde had seen him there on several occasions.

They’d never talked, not once.

They didn’t like each other.

They didn’t look at each other.

They didn’t acknowledge each other’s existence.

Each was too much of a competitor of the other, especially when it came to the ladies. They were like two lions in the same cage, that much Wilde knew. Other than that he knew nothing about the man, not his name, not where he lived, not a thing.

He hopped in Blondie and headed for the Bokaray.

The front door was locked but the back one was open.

He headed in and shouted “Anyone home?”

“Back here.”

The words were feminine and faint, from somewhere back near the restrooms. Wilde headed that way. The mysterious black door at the end of the hall was ajar. Inside, a woman sat behind a desk working on papers. Wilde knew her by sight as one of the co-owners of the place but didn’t know her name.

“You’re the drummer,” she said.

“Bryson Wilde.”

“Bryson Wilde, ladies man,” she said. “I’m Mia Lace. There, we’ve finally been formally introduced. Have a seat.”

Wilde complied, tapped out two cigarettes, lit them up and handed her one.

“Thanks,” she said.

He nodded.

“That woman you brought up on stage, she’s got quite the voice.”

“She does.”

“She could be a star.”

“I agree,” he said. “The reason I’m here though is because I need to get in touch with that guy with the long hair who hangs out here, the Tarzan guy.”

“Dayton River.”

“Is that his name?”

She blew smoke and nodded.

“You two don’t like each other,” she said.

Wilde wrinkled his forehead.

“What makes you say that?”

She smiled.

“What do you want him for?”

“It’s personal. Where does he live?”

“You look like you’re going to kill him.”

“That’s not my plan.”

“Are you sure?”

He shrugged.

“He might have something that doesn’t belong to him.”

“Something of yours?”

“No.”

“What then?”

“A woman.”

“A woman?”

“Right, a woman.”

“He has a woman who doesn’t belong to him?”

“He might. I don’t know yet, one way or the other.”

“Your girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“What’s her name?”

“Alexa Blank,” Wilde said. “She’s a waitress.”

“I never heard of her,” Lace said.

“No reason you would have,” Wilde said. “So where does Tarzan live?”

The woman studied him.

Then she told him.

Wilde stood up.

“Thanks,” he said.

“Do you want some advice?”

“No.”

“Too bad because here it is,” Lace said. “If you screw with him, you better be prepared because he’ll rip your head off and piss in the hole.”

“My head doesn’t come off that easy.”

Lace blew smoke.

“You might be surprised.”

Twenty minutes laterWilde skidded Blondie to a stop in dusty gravel at the far end of the BNSF railroad yard. He pulled his gun out of the glove box, stepped out and shouted, “Tarzan, you got company.”

No one answered.

Nothing moved.

There were several boxcars converted to living quarters and some kind of tent canopy stretched between them. At the north end of it all was a car, a battered car that looked like it had been hit a hundred times by a freight train.

Wilde felt the hood.

It was cold.

“Tarzan, come out, come out, wherever you are.”

The noise of colliding couplers and straining steel came from up the tracks. Other than that, though, silence ruled the world.

Alexa Blank was here somewhere.

It was the perfect place.

Wilde cocked the trigger and headed for the closest boxcar with a pounding heart.

Day Three

July 23, 1952

Wednesday Night

The bathroom windowdumped Waverly and the spankee into a dark alley behind the Flamingo, which they took east towards traffic. Halfway there, Waverly grabbed the blond by the arm, yanked her to a stop and said, “Follow me.” She headed up a dark fire escape at the backside of a building. At the first landing she looked back.

The blond wasn’t following.

She was standing there, looking up.

“Come on,” Waverly said.

She continued up.

The next time she looked back, the blond was in tow, a floor behind.

They got to the roof and walked across to the front of the building. Larimer Street sprawled out four stories down.

“Why are we up here?”

“There was a guy who came into the bar,” she said. “I want to get a better look at him. I think he broke into my apartment. I’m pretty sure Bristol hired him.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m on to him about being the murderer and he knows it.” A beat then, “What’s your name?”

“Jaden.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Waverly.”

Hiding behind the parapetas much as possible while still keeping an eye on the street outside the Flamingo, Waverly gave Jaden the gruesome facts, the most important being the murder of Kava Every, the young associate Bristol had a secret relationship with, the second most important being the murder of Charley-Anna Blackridge in Denver this past weekend.

Jaden hadn’t known anything about either one.

She wasn’t impressed.

“Bristol wouldn’t do anything like that.”

“He did and he will again,” Waverly said. “You’re next or if not next at least on the list.”

“He’d never hurt me.”

“Take a good look down because this is the exact kind of place he’s going to bring you sooner or later. You’ll even be wearing the same dress you are now.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Let me ask you something. Why are you two in Denver?”

“He has business here.”

“What kind of business?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t particularly care, either.”

“Well, let me tell you what it is,” Waverly said. “Either he came here to put a stop to me, that’s one possibility. The other possibility is that after he killed the woman here this past weekend, something unraveled. Maybe he found out there was a witness or something like that. He’s here to fix whatever it is that’s coming unraveled.” A beat then, “If I can prove it, will you do me a favor and get yourself somewhere safe? Or, better yet, help me bring him down?”