Known to Evil

20

I left Wilma's apartment in a foul mood. The young lovers were still on the fourth-floor landing. They were huddled in each other's arms, pressed into a corner. His eyes were closed as she watched me walk by. Looking into her distant eyes, I tasted blood.

I'd been biting my lower lip that hard.

ON THE STREET I looked at my watch. The blue iridescent hands told me that it was 7:07. I figured I was on a roll and so trundled over to a liquor store I knew on Bowery and picked up a pint of cheap scotch. When buying scotch I always looked for the lowest price. Why spend good money when you hate the taste? For me, bourbon was king, while scotch was a mere pretender to the throne.

I CAME TO A building a little farther down on C that was dark even for the buildings in that neighborhood. There was a buzzer, though.

"Yes?" a mature woman said through the speaker.

"Mrs. Lear?"

"Yes?"

"My name is Tooms. I'm looking for your daughter."

"What do you want with her?"

"A man named Spender asked me to find her," I said, using a name from Rinaldo's files. "She hasn't been to work in a few days and he's worried."

"Did you call her?"

I rattled off her home number. I had, of course called it; no answer, no answering machine.

"I also went by her place on Twelfth," I added. "So I'm here to ask you."

For a while silence ruled our conversation. In the heartland of our nation, I've been told, people are happy to meet you and sit and talk. But in New York, a stranger's voice is, at the very least, a potential threat-definitely possible.

"Why are you looking for her?" Mrs. Lear asked at last.

"May I come up, ma'am?"

"I don't know who you are."

"Tooms, ma'am. I'm working for Larry Spender… Angelique's boss."

"Yes," she said, "Spender." Her "S" got stuck for a second more than she intended.

A buzzer sounded and I pushed the door open.

It was a much tidier building than the one Ron Sharkey inhabited. The halls smelled of mold, but I found no people shooting up in the stairwells. On the fourth floor there were small welcome mats in front of each apartment door. When I got to 4C, a willowy woman in her middle forties was standing there, peering out, ready to slam the door at a moment's notice.

She was wearing an off-white dress that fit her slender form from habit-not intention. Her face had aged past the forty-six years that Rinaldo's records said she was, but you could see hints of the beauty that once was there.

"That's a nice gold suit you have," she said as I came to a stop.

"Thanks. My wife made me buy it." I glanced down at the sleeves to see if any of Shad Tandy's blood was there-none that I could see.

"She has good taste."

"In everything but men."

"Come on in," she said, charmed by a joke.

The living room was small and well lived in. The furniture had been new when the deliverymen hefted it up the three flights, but it would be called secondhand now. There were small moth holes in the curtains, a lot of them, and three dead plants in as many pots.

The floor was swept and the walls had no dents, scars, or other markings. The once white paint had faded and darkened, but uniformly so.

There was no sofa or couch, just three stuffed chairs that faced each other across a small glass-topped table.

"Have a seat, Mr…?"

"Tooms."

"I wish I could offer you something to drink, Mr. T-Tooms. But my bar is empty."

Before sitting I pulled the pint bottle out of my pocket and set it on the glass table. This brought a light into the senior Lear's murky brown eyes.

"Oh," she said, straightening her shoulders. "I'll go get us a bucket of ice and some crystal."

She left the room, and I silently thanked Christian Latour for his diligence in collecting information on the people Rinaldo had him look into. It was the fruit of his research, I was sure, that had said Mrs. Lear was a heavy drinker who preferred scotch.

The lady's living room was filled with warm, dark color. It was like another time; not the past necessarily, but a period that only certain people inhabited-not my kind. My world smelled of sweat and smog, while Lizette Lear's was a world of potpourri, peach pie, and mothballs.

"Here you go," she said, bringing in two squat glasses and a white plastic bucket on a silver-plated tray.

She seemed to have some trouble with her left hip so I helped her set the platter down on the table.

"Ice, Mr. Tooms?" There was color in her cheek and the beauty that had shriveled over the years now seemed to be blossoming once more.

"A lot of it," I said. "Please."

The ice clinked and Lizette's smile threatened to become a laugh. She cracked the seal, poured my drink and hers. She drained her glass, sighed, and poured another.

Along with the relief flowed beauty. I had never seen anything like it. Lizette curled back in the chair and her body seemed to become young again, supple, even enticing. She looked into my eyes and for a moment I forgot why I was there.

"Angelique," I said, as much to remind myself as to pull away from Lizette's instantaneous charms.

Mrs. Lear smiled, downed the second glass, and tossed her mouse-brown hair.

"She's an amazing human being," she said. "Pretty, smart, certain about what she wants. And she always gets it."

Lizette poured a third drink.

"Do you know where she is?" I asked.

"No. No, I don't. But you can be sure that wherever she is she's another step closer to something else she wants."

You couldn't help but note the jealousy in her words.

"You aren't worried that she's missing?"

"Not at all." She finished the third shot and poured another.

"Angie makes silk from straw, sows' ears, and bad boyfriends… If I wasn't a good Christian I'd say she was a witch. She doesn't approve of me. Doesn't like my drinking. Blames me for her father leaving."

"Where is her father?" There was no mention of him in Rinaldo's files.

"I don't know," Lizette said, gazing up at the ceiling. She was rounding pretty and making a run for beautiful. "He rolled into my life, made me jump for joy, and then was gone before I hit the ground. Angelique doesn't have an ounce of him, and less than a pound of me, in her makeup. She has an old soul, that one."

"Do you know her boyfriend?"

"Johnny," Lizette said with a smile. The mention of this new name brought her into full blossom.

"I thought his name was Shad. Shad Tandy."

"Shad Tandy?" It was as if I'd shoved a sour lemon against her teeth. "He's just a momentary mistake for my girl. Her true love is a young man named John Prince. He's an architect. Probably walks on water, too. He and Angie break up now and again, but they always get back together."

"Do you have a number for him?" I asked.

"Sure." She finished her fourth shot, stood up, none too steady, and lumbered toward a door.

While she was gone I allowed myself a smile. There was no John Prince mentioned in Rinaldo's files. I liked that. It let me feel that I had a leg up on the Big Man.

When she returned, Mrs. Lear had forsaken the off-white dress for a flimsy robe. She was only in her forties, after all. She liked drinks, and men; I represented both.

"I can't seem to find it. Must have thrown it out in one of my cleaning binges. But you can probably look it up."

"Do you know where he works?" I asked as she slumped back into her chair.

"For an architectural firm. I'm sorry… I don't know which one."

"That's okay."

"You haven't touched your drink," Lizette chided.

"On the job," I said. "What do you do for a living, ma'am?"

"Lizette."

"What do you do for a living, Lizette?"

"I haven't had a job for a while, Mr. Tooms. What's your first name?"

"John."

"I haven't had a job in a while, John. My nerves, you know. Angie helps me out with the rent, and she has groceries delivered every Monday and Thursday. She doesn't give me any cash, though. If I want a cigarette I have to bum one on the street."

"She must do very well at her job."

"She told me that someone gave her a grant or something, and she's using part of that to help me. You'd think she could give me a few bucks, though. A bottle of wine now and then isn't such a sin…

"Maybe you and me could go out for a little swizzle."

"Maybe some other time," I said, rising to my feet.

"Do you have to go already?"

"I need to find your daughter."

"Angie's fine. She's like a cat."

Lizette wanted to stand up but her body wasn't accommodating the desire.

"Will you come back again?"

"When I find Angie I'll come back and tell you."

"Angie," Lizette said with a sneer.

As I went out the door I heard her mutter, "Bitch."