Страница 56 из 86
“I guess the Guffeys won’t be getting their deposit back.”
He laughed, but not much.
After we’d hung up, I took a moment to assess the situation.
Between Melvin Downs’s disappearance and the Guffeys’ vandalism, I didn’t see how things could get worse. Which just goes to show how little I know about life.
The rest of Monday was uneventful. Tuesday morning, I took my metaphorical hat in hand and met with Lowell Effinger to deliver the news about Melvin Downs. I’d seen Effinger on two previous occasions and our dealings thereafter had been conducted on the phone. Sitting across the desk from him, I noticed how tired he looked, smoky gray pouches under his eyes. He was a man in his early sixties with a tangle of curly hair that had turned from salt and pepper to white since I’d seen him last. He had a strong chin and jaw, but his face looked as crumpled as a paper bag. I wondered if he had personal problems, but I didn’t know him well enough to ask. He spoke in a deep voice that rumbled up from his chest. “You know where he worked?”
“Not specifically. Probably near City College because that’s where he caught the bus. When the driver told me where he lived, I was so busy trying to co
“If he moved out of his room, he probably quit his job, don’t you think?”
“Well, it’s worth pursuing in any event. I’ll go back over to the hotel and talk to Mrs. Von. I’ve seen her so often she might as well adopt me by now. She claims a policy of minding her own business, but I’ll bet she knows more than she’s told me so far. I can also talk to some of the other residents while I’m there.”
“Do what you can. If nothing turns up in the next few days, we’ll revisit the issue.”
“I wish I’d been quicker. When I talked to him Saturday, he gave no indication he was pla
Thirty minutes later I found myself at the residence hotel for the umpty-ninth time. This round, I caught Mrs. Von coming out of the kitchen with a cup of tea in hand. She wore a sweater over her housedress, and I could see a peek of the tissue she’d tucked up her sleeve. “You again,” she said, but with no particular animosity.
“I’m afraid so. Do you have a minute?”
“If it’s in reference to Mr. Downs, I have all the time you want. He left without giving notice so that does it for me. This is my afternoon off so if you’d care to come into my apartment, we can talk.”
“Happy to,” I said.
“Would you like a cup of tea?”
“No, thanks.”
She opened a door at the rear of the office. “This was originally the servants’ quarters,” she remarked as she went in.
I trailed behind her, taking in the rooms at a glance.
“In my grandparents’ day, servants were expected to be invisible unless they were hard at work. This was their parlor and the anteroom where they took all their meals. The cook prepared food for them, but nothing like the meals that were served in the formal dining room. The servants’ bedrooms were in the attic, above the third floor.”
She was using the two rooms as a bedroom and sitting room, both done in pinks and mauves, with a surfeit of family photographs in silver-plated frames. Four Siamese cats lounged on the furniture, barely stirring from their morning naps. Two regarded me with interest, and one eventually got up, stretched, and crossed the room to take a little sniff of my hand.
“Don’t mind them. They’re my girls,” she said. “Jo, Meg, Beth, and Amy. I’m Marmee,” she said. She took a seat on the sofa, setting her teacup to one side. “I assume your interest in Mr. Downs has to do with the lawsuit.”
“Exactly. You have any guesses about where he went? He must have family somewhere.”
“He has a daughter in town. I don’t know her married name, but I’m not sure it matters. The two are estranged and they have been for years. I don’t know the details, except that she refuses to let him see his grandsons.”
“Sounds meanspirited,” I said.
“I wouldn’t know. He only mentioned her the once. Naturally my ears pricked up.”
“Did you ever notice the tattoo on his right hand?”
“I did, though he seemed so self-conscious about it I tried not to look. What did you make of it?”
“I suspect he’d been in prison.”
“I wondered about that myself. I will say in the time he lived here, his behavior was exemplary. As far as I was concerned, as long as he kept his room neat and paid his rent on time, I saw no reason to pry. Most people have secrets.”
“So if you knew he’d been convicted of a crime, it wouldn’t have precluded your taking him as a tenant.”
“That’s what I said.”
“You know what kind of work he did?”
She thought about that briefly and then shook her head. “Nothing that required a degree. He said more than once how much he regretted not finishing high school. Wednesday nights, when he came in late, I thought he was attending night school. ‘Adult education,’ I believe they call it these days.”
“When he first showed up looking for a room, did he fill out an application?”
“He did, but after three years, I destroy them. I have enough paper cluttering my life. Truth is, I’m mighty careful about my tenants. If I’d thought he was a man of low character, I’d have turned him down, whether he’d been in prison or no. As I recall, he listed no personal references, which struck me as odd. On the other hand, he was clean and well spoken, clearly intelligent. He was also gentle by nature, and I never heard him swear.”
“I guess if he had something to hide, he’d be too smart to put it on an application.”
“That’d be my guess as well.”
“I understand he was chummy with a guy on the second floor. You mind if I talk to him?”
“Talk to anyone you like. If Mr. Downs had been honorable about giving notice, I’d have kept my observations to myself.” She paused to look at her watch. “Now unless you need something more, I’d best get on with my day.”
“What’s the name of the gentleman in room number five?”
“Mr. Waibel. Vernon.”
“Is he in?”
“Oh, yes. He lives on his disability checks and seldom goes out.”
26
Vernon Waibel was a bit more friendly than Melvin’s third-floor neighbor, who’d shut the door in my face. Like Downs, Waibel was in his fifties. He had dark brows and dark eyes. His gray hair was thi
I went through the usual, hi-how-are-you stuff. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
“Depends on what you want.”
“I understand Mr. Downs moved out. You have any idea where he went?”
“You a cop?”
“Private detective. He was supposed to be deposed as a witness to an automobile accident and I need to track him down. He’s not guilty of wrongdoing. We just need his help.”
“I got a little time to talk if you want to come in.”
I thought about Juanita Von’s rule about no women visitors in a tenant’s room with the door shut. She and I were such good friends by now I thought I’d risk her disapproval. “Sure.”
He stepped back and I passed in front of him. His room was not as large as Downs’s, but it was cleaner and it had a lived-in feel to it. The furnishings had been augmented with personal items: two plants, a sofa with throw pillows, and a quilt folded over the iron bedstead. He gestured toward the only upholstered chair in the room. “Take a seat.”