Lynne Heitman: First Class Killing

THE FLIGHT PASSED WITHOUT INCIDENT… without major incident. Tristan did spill a carton of orange juice on a man wearing a business suit. He made him happy with the promise of a free upgrade. That in spite of his suspicions that the savvy passenger had knocked the carton out of his hand on purpose, expecting exactly that result.

“That’s not a suit,” he fumed. “It’s a polyester sponge from off the rack at the Men’s Wearhouse. It’s probably his designated spill suit. His real suit is up in that Tumi bag he stashed overhead.”

Eventually we made it to Boston, flying hard, low, and late into an early-autumn rainstorm. With the wings rocking and the tail hammering, the cabin was quiet, filled with the brittle tension that hardens inside an airborne machine that seems to be rattling too much. But if there were silent prayers and last-minute promises to God, they all evaporated when the wheels touched the runway and we landed safely in the steady, soaking rain.

It was still raining an hour later when I emerged from the T station at Copley Square in the Back Bay. My standard flight attendant’s umbrella, which was the size of a salt shaker when folded up, kept me dry from the waist up, but it was too small to protect my lower half. By the time I had walked the two blocks to the restaurant, my stockings were damp, and my dark blue leather flats, the best pair of working shoes I owned, had turned black. I was bitter about it. I couldn’t afford a new pair.

Inside the restaurant, it smelled like rain and felt like the onset of winter. Maybe it was the dim lighting. Maybe it was the rack full of raincoats inside the door. Maybe it was the lack of progress on a case that had begun back when it was summer and the Red Sox were still in first place.

“Hello, Miss Shanahan.” The hostess took my coat and umbrella. “Mr. Harvey is in the back.”

“Thanks, Yumiko.”

Harvey would be in his favorite booth in the back. I couldn’t see him, which was the point, but Harvey Baltimore was always where he said he would be and always at least twenty minutes early.

The first time I’d heard the name Harvey Baltimore, I had assumed it was a nickname, a street moniker bestowed upon a swaggering private investigator who happened to hail from Maryland. In fact, Harvey was a person as mild of manner as I had ever met and Baltimore was his real name. His great grandfather had emigrated from Poland in 1898. When asked at Ellis Island for his destination, he’d told them. According to Harvey, in later years, the old man would pronounce that he was glad he hadn’t been going to Schenectady. His name, he would always add, had not been too dear a price to pay for his new life in America.

I knew enough by now to get myself settled before walking into Harvey ’s line of sight and unsettling him. I slipped off my raincoat, shook out the little umbrella, stomped the water out of my soggy shoes, and stowed my bag behind the bar. Only then did I make my way back, where Harvey sat, hunched prayerfully over his cup of tea. As I approached, his head popped up. He blinked at me, and didn’t even wait for me to sit down.

“What is happening? Is something wrong? Why did we have to meet today?”

“Hello, Harvey.” I slipped into my side of the booth. “I’m fine and it’s nice to see you, too.”

He was dressed in his gray suit with the windowpane plaid-one of the two suits he always wore when he left his big house in Brookline-and the expression of deepest gloom, which he wore at all times.

“Sorry. So sorry, but your phone call had me worried. What is happening?”

“I didn’t mean to worry you and I’m sorry to drag you out in this weather.” I picked up the menu and signaled for the waiter. “Let me just order some dinner and I’ll tell you what’s happening.”

“Dinner? It’s not even four o’clock.” Harvey didn’t like the natural order of things to be disturbed.

“I’m starving and I didn’t have time to eat on the flight. Are you having something?”

“Soup. I will have soup.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

When the waiter came, I gave him my order for two bowls of miso soup, a California roll and…and…

“A plate of mixed tempura, please.”

I put the menu aside with a twinge of regret. What I really wanted was the sushi special-seven different varieties of raw fish on cubes of rice that I could drench in soy sauce, ginger, and wasabe. But every once in a while, I succumbed to the screeching warnings about the health hazards of eating uncooked fish. It must have been the proximity to Harvey and the influence of his chronically jangled nerves.

Harvey spent the majority of his time in a high state of agitation, convinced that if a meteor fell from the heavens tomorrow, it would fall on him. But he had good reason. He had been diagnosed five years ago with multiple sclerosis. It was a devastating blow that had peeled away the last defenses of a chronically nervous, fifty-one-year-old man and left him feeling vulnerable and scared. Working with Harvey was by turns murderously frustrating and heartbreakingly sad.

He reached up with his napkin and dabbed at the dew on his forehead.

“What did your doctor say?”

“I am still, unfortunately, as diseased as ever. Perhaps a little more.”

“I’m sorry, Harvey. I know you were expecting better news.”

“No matter.” He said it with that offhand nonchalance that left no doubt about how much it did matter. “What did you do?” he asked me. “Did you get fired? Is that what you are keeping from me?”

That was the other thing about Harvey. He was highly perceptive.

“I’m not keeping anything from you, which is why we’re here.”

“Then you did get fired.”

“No, I did not.” I slumped back in the booth. “I got a stern letter of warning.”

“I knew it.” He launched immediately into his quietly hysterical mode. “This thing is falling apart. I knew it would. Did I tell you? Did I not tell you this?”

“It’s not falling apart.”

“How can they fire you after only six weeks? What did you do?”

“I am not fired. I am warned, and all I did was melt a couple of ice buckets, which were not supposed to be stored in the ovens in the first place. I’ve had a few customers gripe, and a couple of trips ago-” I glanced up at him. There was no point in unsettling him further.

“How will you conduct an undercover investigation if you cannot hold on to your cover? You have to be a working stewardess to do this job.”

“Flight attendant.”

“What?”

“I’m working as a flight attendant, not a stewardess. I’m also working for you as an investigator, which means I am working virtually around the clock. I spend more than half my time on the road. When I’m not flying, I’m on surveillance. When I’m not on surveillance, I’m writing reports. It’s hard to smile all day and be nice when you’ve had no sleep for three nights running. All things considered, I think I’m keeping up pretty well. Did you get the pictures I sent from last night?”

“I never should have let you talk me into this. This is not what I do. Insurance fraud, background checks, forensic accounting. That’s what I do. What do I know from hookers and pimps? Nothing. That’s what.”

“ Harvey, I thought you should know what’s going on, but if this is the way you react, you will discourage any further impulse I might have to keep you in the loop.”

“I do not wish to be in the loop. I would rather not know. Dear God.”

“Is that true?”

“No. But I am no longer convinced this case is worth it for me anymore.”

“Look, maybe I am-” The waiter appeared with our soup. I waited for him to set the lacquered bowls in front of us and retreat. “Maybe I do cause you undue aggravation, but you have to be fair. This case has been worth a lot of money to you. Shall we review the billings we’ve generated from this job over the past few months?” It wasn’t enough to buy new shoes, but it certainly was enough to pay the rent.