Mariah Stewart - Dead End

“So, where’s your lawyer?” Evan asked.

“I only got one call,” Jelinik told him, “and that was to you.”

“Really? I’m flattered.” Evan sat on the edge of the table.

“I figured you were a better bet. Last time, my lawyer didn’t do such a great job keeping me out of jail.”

“Maybe it’s time to get another lawyer.”

“Maybe it’s time for you and me to talk.” Jelinik addressed Evan, then turned to look pointedly at Detective Carr.

Carr raised both hands in front of him, as a gesture of surrender, and walked backward to the door.

“He’s all yours,” he told Evan as he left the room. “Chief Mercer said to let you do your thing.”

“You and Mercer must be tight,” Jelinik said.

“We know each other.” Evan wasn’t about to share the news that his sister, Amanda, and Sean Mercer had recently become engaged. “Lucky for you he believes in professional courtesy.”

“Yeah. Lucky for me.”

“So let’s cut to the chase, Jelinik. What do you have-or think you have-that’s good enough to serve as a Get Out of Jail Free card?”

Jelinik lowered his voice. “I got an address. The one you’re looking for. That whorehouse in Carleton.”

Evan stared at him without reaction. Carleton was a small middle-class town a few miles away, and might have been one of the last places Evan would have looked.

“Maybe it’s old news.”

Jelinik just smirked and said, “Do we have a deal?”

“What exactly do you want?”

“I want out of here.”

“No can do, Perry.” Evan shook his head. “You’re looking at a mandatory sentence.”

“We both know you got pull with the D.A.” Perry sat back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest, his smile replaced with thinly disguised impatience.

“No one has that much pull, Perry.” Evan slid off the side of the table and started toward the door. “I could maybe help get your sentence reduced, but I can’t make it go away.”

“How much?” Jelinik asked as Evan opened the door to leave.

“Depends on how good the information is and what kind of mood the D.A. is in when I talk to him.”

“The information is good.” Jelinik was less cocky now, but still confident.

Evan turned and gestured for Jelinik to continue.

“You’re gonna do the best you can for me, you promise? You give me your word?”

“I give you my word, I will do the best I can for you.”

“The house is on Lone Duck Road, just past where it goes into a Y with Franklin, you know where I mean? There’s that small lake there, the one with all the geese around it?”

“I know it, sure.” Every kid who’d grown up in Avon County had, at one time or another, swum in that lake in the summer or skated on it in the winter. Evan had almost drowned in that lake as an eight-year-old when he fell through the ice. He knew it well.

“About a quarter mile down the road, past the lake, on the opposite side, is a driveway. It’s one of those half-circle things, goes in on one side, comes out on the other.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Jelinik nodded.

“And you know this because…?”

“Because I was there, man.” He paused, then shook his head. “No, no, not for that. Those girls out there don’t even speak English. Well, no more than they have to, to do their jobs, if you get my drift. At least, that’s what I heard. I was only there to tow a car; this was back when I was working for Stock’s, you know the repair place? I drove their tow truck.”

“Whose car needed to be towed?”

“The lady who was in charge, I guess she was. Older lady, maybe fifty or so. Short dark red hair, kind of on the skinny side.”

“What was her name, you remember?”

“Dotty something. I didn’t need to know her name, I only needed to tow her car. Calvin might know, though. He owns the shop.”

“You still work there?” Evan glanced in the mirror but was unsure if anyone was there on the other side, listening.

“No, man, I got canned about six months ago.”

“How long ago was it that you towed this woman’s car?”

“About that long. I didn’t work there for long, maybe a couple of weeks, that’s all.”

Evan took a sip of his coffee, then made a face.

“Shit, it’s cold. How’s the coffee here, Perry?”

“Not too bad. It’s still early, so it hasn’t had time to solidify in the bottom of the pot.”

“I’m going to see if I can get a refill. You okay there?”

“I’d rather have a soda. It’s hotter’n shit in here.”

“I’ll be right back.” Evan ducked out into the hall.

“You see Carr?” he asked the officer at the door.

“He’s in there.” The officer pointed to the next door.

“You get that, Carr?” Evan went into the room. Through the mirrored wall he could see Jelinik staring up at the ceiling, one knee bouncing nervously.

“Got it. House right past the lake.”

“Would you call Chief Benson over in Carleton and ask him to send someone out to Stock’s Auto Repair and see if they can get a name and address for this woman? We’re going to need the exact address for the warrant, and we’re going to need to check the tax records to find out who owns the property. My guess is that it doesn’t belong to the woman who’s running it.”

“I’m on my way.” Carr left the room without glancing at Evan.

Must have been something I said, Evan thought, catching the door that Carr had allowed to swing back. He went into the break room, dumped the coffee in the sink, and dug in his pocket for change. He dropped the coins into the soda machine and hit the Pepsi button, then repeated the process. After both cans had dropped, he returned to the interrogation room.

He set the cans on the table and Jelinik took his, clutching the can with both hands as if to cool them.

“So, let’s go back to the house where you picked up the car that day. You said the girls there don’t speak English. How’d you know that?”

“Oh, Stock’s kid told me. He goes out there once in a while, spends a little time, drops a little cash.”

“Which one of Stock’s kids?”

“Chuck, the oldest one. He’s about twenty-five or so.”

“He work at the shop?”

“Him? Nah, he wouldn’t work there. He went to college, he’s some kind of insurance guy. He just stops in to see his old man once in a while, and this one time, he was talking about this place.”

“What else did he say about the girls, other than that they don’t speak English? He say what language they spoke?”

“Spanish.” Jelinik nodded readily. “Said he took Spanish in school, so he had no problem talking to ’em.”

“He say anything else about the girls?”

“Just that some of them were young. Like, real young.”

“You know anyone else who might have frequented that house?”

“No. But Chuck might.”

“I’ll be sure to ask him. Thanks, Perry. You’ve been very helpful.”

“Wait a minute. You’re just going to leave me here? I thought we had a deal…” Jelinik began to whine.

“I told you I would speak with Chief Mercer and with the D.A. I made no promises other than that I would do my best to get the best deal I could for you. I won’t go back on my word.” Evan walked toward the door. “But we both know that under the circumstances, there’s no way you can just walk out of here right now. Give me a little time to talk to some people, see what I can do. But in the meantime, you’re a guest here in Broeder, and there’s nothing I can do about that, so I suggest you make yourself comfortable. Take a nap, Perry. Watch a little daytime TV.”

“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” Jelinik muttered as Evan closed the door behind him.