Peter Leonard - Trust Me

O'Clair was asleep when he got the call from Ann-Marie Karmo telling him Johnny had been killed. Troy police had knocked on her door at eight o'clock in the morning to give her the bad news, but few details. She wanted to know what happened and asked O'Clair if he'd look into it for her. What was strange, she didn't sound sad or upset, maybe it was a relief after all Johnny had put her through.

Now O'Clair was on the second floor balcony of the Red Roof Inn, looking across the parking lot at the building where they'd found Johnny. It was entertaining to watch the local cops secure the crime scene, taking O'Clair back to his own days on the force.

He stood there like one of the renters who'd gathered on either side of him, coming out of their rooms to see the action. Guys with shaving cream on their faces, cigarettes in their mouths; couple of girls in tank tops, girls drinking beer, smoking cigarettes- up all night, or just getting up-their idea of breakfast-breakfast of champions. It was strange seeing people partying so early in the morning.

At the far end of the building he saw a black maid in a China doll wig come out of a room and wheel her cart toward him. The wig was shiny black and had bangs that came down to her eyebrows. O'Clair moved toward her, blocking her way and said, "How're you doing?" Her skin was the color of dark chocolate and she had high cheekbones and dark eyes that wouldn't look at him. "You know what happened," O'Clair said. "Don't you?" Now she glanced at him.

"You with the police?"

He stared at her, picturing himself in his dark blue Detroit police uniform, his attitude and expression saying, I can make a lot of trouble for you.

"I didn't find him," she said in a slow voice with an island accent that sounded Jamaican. "Was Loretta. She like to faint, going in that room, blood all over, man dead under the bedcovers."

O'Clair said, "What else can you tell me?" He could see her hesitate like she didn't want to talk to him, like she had something to hide. "I'm not with the police."

"That right," she said. "Who you with?"

He could see beads of sweat on her upper lip.

"Man was a friend of mine," O'Clair said. "You saw who did it, didn't you?"

She looked over the railing where the police were. Sweat rolled down her face and she wiped it with the back of her hand.

"I was over in building A, across the lot from where they find the dead man at," she said. "I seen the red hair girl go in there. Come out later on, rolling a suitcase, looking around like she sneaking out."

"What else?" O'Clair said.

"Saw the red hair girl get in a black car, drive off, almost run this dude over. Seem like he know her."

O'Clair said, "What do you mean?" He wiped sweat off his forehead with the sleeve of his tan sport coat.

"Talking to her, like they friends, or was."

"What kind of car?" O'Clair said.

"BMW," the maid said.

O'Clair said, "What'd the guy look like?"

"White dude," the maid said.

"How old?"

"Can't say for sure."

O'Clair took the photo of Bobby out of his pocket and showed it to her. "This him?"

She glanced at it and said, "Could be."

"What do you mean?" O'Clair said. "It's either him or it isn't."

"I don't know. I got work to do," she said, and wheeled her cart past him.

He watched the action outside Johnny's room, local cops going through the motions, and wondered about Johnny. Was he mixed up in it too? Johnny knew Samir's habits, his routine. Knew who'd be in the house and the best time to hit. But O'Clair also knew Johnny and didn't think Johnny would have the nerve to do it.

O'Clair and Johnny had worked together on occasion over the years, helping each other out whenever two guys were needed. He tried to guess how many houses they'd broken into in the middle of the night, surprising the mark who was avoiding them, past due on payment, the vig having multiplied out of control.

In another life, they might've been burglars. They knew a few things about breaking into houses that was for sure. If O'Clair was giving advice to young collectors, he would've said: get yourself a crowbar. With a crowbar you could break into a house, any house in a couple minutes. Okay, a pocketknife too, a good one with a sturdy blade. And don't worry about security alarms because most people forget to turn them on.

What they'd do, O'Clair and Johnny would go into the mark's bedroom, wake the guy up sleeping next to his wife. O'Clair would say, Hey Jerry, or whatever his name was, get up, we need to talk to you. Scare the shit out of him. That was the point; make him feel vulnerable and afraid. The guy would get out of bed in his underwear, praying his wife wouldn't hear them.

One time they broke into a house and sat in the guy's family room and watched the end of a bowl game that was running late-Michigan State against Fresno State. The mark heard the TV, got up, came in rubbing his eyes.

O'Clair had said, "Hang on a second," waiting for the Spartans to score the winning touchdown.

"I'm calling the police," the mark, whose name was Rob Snipes, had said. "What do you think you're doing?"

O'Clair said, "What's the matter, don't you like football?"

Or O'Clair would wake the mark up, bring him in the living room and say, "Want Johnny to go in there keep the little lady company?"

Guy'd start begging. And O'Clair'd say: "You better quit fucking around, hand over the money."

If he got the impression a mark was holding out on him, they'd take his car or his wife's car. No guy wanted to get his wife involved. He'd never hear the end of it.

O'Clair left the motel and drove to the Palace in Auburn Hills to see Minde, the Automotion dancer, surprised the girls were practicing their routines on the Pistons' basketball court. There was a guy on a ladder replacing one of the nets, and maintenance guys in burgundy golf shirts, cleaning the VIP seats. O'Clair and Minde sat on the Pistons' bench, the dancers bending and stretching on the basketball floor-twelve girls with lean hard bodies in all kinds of different outfits-getting ready to practice some new routines for an exhibition game that night.

"He was unconscious when I found him," Minde said. "I was going to call 911, but the police were already pulling in the driveway. How'd they find out so fast?"

Good question. The police told Ricky someone had called 911 from the house. But who? It wasn't Ricky or Moozie or Minde, so who was it? He noticed Minde's face was bruised. It looked like she tried to hide it with makeup.

"My friends thought Smoothie hit me. He has a temper but he'd never do that. It was one of them dressed like cops who did it."

O'Clair said, "Where was Ricky when all this was happening?"

"On the kitchen floor," Minde said. "They taped his hands. I cut him free and he stood up and said what he was going to do when he caught them, not I should've done something when they were here."

That was Ricky, tough guy till he had to prove it. O'Clair was watching the dancers, fixing his attention on a dark-haired girl with a pair of melons that were trying to bust out of her workout shirt. He turned back to Minde as she slid onto the floor and did the splits.

"You don't mind, I have to stretch while we talk," Minde said.

O'Clair said, "What's it like dancing for the basketball fans?"

"It's okay. Most of us model and appear in commercials. We do this to stay in shape. Not for the money, we get like twenty bucks a game."

O'Clair wondered what would happen if he tried to do the splits. He didn't know if he'd be able to get up.

Minde looked up from the floor, her eyes on him. "Oak, do you know who hurt Smoothie?"

"That's what I was hoping you were going to tell me." He took the photograph of Bobby out of his shirt pocket, handed it to Minde and watched her eyes light up.