Heartstone

“Mr. Heartstone, I’m Al Caproni. I’m with the district attorney’s office and I need some help from you on a case. Could I come in?”

Caproni had used the phrase “need some help” on purpose. He imagined it had been quite some time since anyone had asked Willie Heartstone for help or he had been able to give any.

“About what?” Heartstone asked, his interest piqued.

“I’d rather not discuss it standing out here where other people can hear us,” Caproni answered in a tone which he hoped was conspiratorial.

Heartstone tried to weigh his alternatives for a moment, but the task proved too much for him and it must have appeared simpler to let Caproni in, because he moved back and opened the door.

The room smelled of stale clothing and unwashed bodies. A bed covered by rumpled sheets was pushed under the only window. The window was open and late night street sounds drifted in.

Someone had placed a laced doily on top of the dresser. Someone else had stained it. There was an overstuffed secondhand armchair under an ancient pole lamp and a sink attached to the wall catercorner from the window. Caproni sat in the armchair while Heartstone turned on the tap and splashed cold water on his face. A small mirror was suspended above the sink from a rusted nail embedded in the cracked and flaking plaster. The paint on its cheap frame was chipping and the zinc backing showed through in spots, breaking up the face reflected there. Heartstone stared in the mirror and rubbed his eyes as if in disbelief. He turned away from the mirror and dried his face on a towel that hung over the side of the dresser. Then he sat down opposite Caproni on the edge of the bed. There was a half-filled fifth of cheap Scotch and a five-and-dime glass sitting on the nightstand. Heartstone filled the glass and drank from it. He coughed, wiped his mouth and then, suddenly remembering that Caproni was in the room, offered the bottle to him.

“No thank you, Mr. Heartstone,” Caproni said.

“Suitcherself,” Heartstone replied and poured a refill. The drink seemed to make him more sober.

“I came here to ask you for information about a case I’m working on.”

Heartstone eyed him suspiciously.

“I ain’t gone talk wit’ no cops. Lass time they pulled me in when it was that other damn guy. The son of a bitch.”

“This is about a case that occurred some time ago.”

Heartstone stood up. He seemed steadier on his feet than he had when he sat down. His face looked meaner.

“Lissen, if this is about that rap where I was falsely accused of a weapon, I ain’t talkin’ to no cop. That was a frame. That bastard bartender cheated me. Besides,” he added sheepishly, the anger in his voice changing rapidly to shame, “I don’t remember most of what happened.”

“This has nothing to do with that incident, Mr. Heartstone,” Caproni assured him. He seemed relieved and sat down again. Caproni checked the door and window for a possible exit if the man got violent. He also checked the room for possible weapons. Heartstone reached for the Scotch bottle and grabbed it by the neck.

“Were you living in Portsmouth in 1960 and ’61?”

“Sure,” Heartstone said suspiciously, his hand resting on the bottle neck. “I ain’t never lived no other place.”

“Where were you living at that time?”

Heartstone passed his other hand in front of his face, trying to clear away the cobwebs that draped the corridors of his faded, alcoholic memory.

“Shit, I don’t know,” he answered finally.

“Were you living with someone named Ralph?”

Heartstone’s face clouded and his voice took on an edge of potential violence.

“Why d’you want to know about Ralph? He’s long gone. Went to Arizona years ago.”

“We want to speak to him.”

“About what? What is this?”

Caproni decided that it was time to get to the truth.

“We believe that Ralph murdered a girl in January of 1961.”

Caproni did not see the bottle, but he heard the animal roar that escaped from Heartstone’s throat at the moment the bottle co

When he came to, a half hour had passed and the room was empty. Heartstone had cleared out. The door of a small closet was open and the closet was empty. Two dresser drawers were half open. Caproni could see all this from his position on the floor. There was a terrible pain in his head and it got worse when he tried to sit up. He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, but lying down again was the only thing that helped.

He felt like a fool. How had that wino caught him so off guard? He had never expected him to move so fast. He tried to sit up again and made it by rolling to his side and getting his knees under him. He touched his head. It was tender enough to make him grimace, but, miraculously, there was no blood. Scattered pieces of glass lay all over the floor and Caproni tried not to cut himself on them.

When he was on his feet, he washed his face in the sink. He wondered why McGivern had not come up to find him, then he remembered that he had told him to stay downstairs. What an idiot he had been. He assumed that Heartstone was far away by now. There must be a back entrance. If he had gone out the front, McGivern would have apprehended him or come upstairs to see why he had not come down. He was begi

When he was well enough, Caproni eased himself downstairs. McGivern was leaning against a parked car and he rushed over when Caproni staggered out.

“What happened?”

“He hit me with a bottle of Scotch and a few other things that he had handy,” Caproni answered.

“Are you okay?”

“I think so.”

“I’ll radio his description and we can pick him up.”

“No,” Caproni said quickly. Everything he was doing was behind Heider’s back and potentially damaging to the state’s case. He could not risk word of it getting back to Heider.

McGivern gave him a puzzled look, then shrugged his shoulders.

“I think I should take you to the hospital for an x-ray.”

“I agree. But first I want to go to the county jail. There’s a prisoner there that I have to see.”

The front entrance of the county jail looked like the portal of a medieval castle. Caproni rang an electric bell that looked out of place buried in the cold stone blocks and a second later the red iron bars of the front gate swung open.

He walked up a short flight of stairs into a circular reception area. To the right was a counter and, behind the counter, a hallway leading to the office of the jail commander. A guard sat behind the counter. He put down a copy of True Detective magazine, took his heels off his desk and stood up.

“I’m with the D.A.’s office. It’s urgent that I see one of your prisoners, Edward Toller.”

The guard looked at Caproni’s identification and handed it back.

“I’ll get him in a second,” he said and pressed a button on the jail intercom. There was a crackling noise and a voice answered. The guard said, “I need a cell block on an Edward Toller.”

There was silence for a second, then the voice on the intercom said, “He’s not here. Are you sure you have the name right?”

The guard looked at Caproni and Caproni nodded.

“Check the files on him, will you? I have a D.A. here who wants to talk to him.”

There was more silence.

“I got it,” the voice said. “He was released a week and a half ago.”

“Ask him why,” Caproni said. Something was going on here that he did not like.

“Charges were dropped. That’s all I know,” said the voice.

“Dropped by who?” Caproni asked.

“The court order just says motion of district attorney.”