House of the Rising Sun

CHAPTER NINE

Ray turned the corner in his Mustang and glided down Mandeville Street. It was a quiet residential street with modest single-family houses set right up against the sidewalks and nothing but on-street parking.

He found 1224 Mandeville in the middle of the block, a single-story, white clapboard house with a small covered porch. With the late-afternoon sun shining directly on the house, Ray couldn’t tell if there were any lights on inside.

He would have to watch the house.

After cruising past the house, he drove into the next block, turned around, and parked next to the curb on the opposite side of the street from the house. It was a long shot, but it was the best lead he had.

The Mandeville Street house was the last known address of Cleo Harris, aka Winky. If the cops had Harris right, and he had killed someone with the same Smith amp; Wesson. 40 caliber that the asshole in the skull mask had used to try to put a bullet in the back of Ray’s head, Ray wanted to know what Harris had done with that pistol.

Three hours and nine cigarettes later, Ray’s bladder couldn’t take it anymore. He drove around the corner and took a leak at a Shell gas station on Elysian Fields Avenue. When he got back, there was a black Dodge four-door parked across the street from 1224 that hadn’t been there when he left.

It was just past 7:00 PM, and completely dark now. A couple of lights were on inside the house, but Ray wasn’t sure if they had come on since he had left for the gas station or had been on already. If this was Harris’s house, he probably didn’t have a job or keep regular hours, but if it wasn’t Harris’s house, whoever’s house it was had probably just come home for the night.

Ray had not liked surveillance before. Now he hated it. Too much sneaking around. He preferred the direct approach. The problem was, he wasn’t a cop anymore, and he didn’t have a gun. If this guy Winky was inside, and if he was the shooter the cops thought he was, he would have a gun.

Ray eased his Mustang down the street and parked two houses away from 1224. He slipped out and walked down the sidewalk, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. At the edge of the yard he looked around to see if anyone was watching. Then he stepped onto the porch and stood at the front door.

Pressing his right ear against the door, Ray heard television voices just on the other side, as well as the sound of a baby crying deeper in the house. Now what the hell do I do? Nothing else came to mind, so he knocked on the door. Shuffling sounds from inside, people whispering, then a female voice said, “Who’s there?”

Ray didn’t say anything. Curiosity might make her open the door. The same voice spoke again, this time louder and more insistent. “I said, who’s there?”

He knocked again. He heard more whispering, then footsteps walking toward the door. The doorknob rattled. Ray took a deep breath to steady his nerves. The door jerked open. Inside stood a black woman, early twenties, five foot five, a pretty face but chubby, as if from a recent pregnancy. Her long hair was shellacked into a pile on top of her head. She looked hard at Ray. “What you want?”

Ray peeked past her shoulder, but he didn’t see anyone else. The other whisperer had disappeared. “Is Cleo-”

Almost too late he remembered that you never ask a yes-orno question. Make people explain everything. Never give them a chance to simply say no. “I’m here to see Cleo Harris.”

She shook her head. “He don’t stay here.” Her answer was an admission that she knew him.

Behind her, in the small den, Ray saw a tattered sofa, two beat-up chairs, and a television perched on top of a rickety stand. “Who were you talking to?” he asked.

She made a show of looking around before answering. “I wasn’t talking to nobody.”

“I heard you talking to somebody.”

Working her jaw, she smacked a piece of gum a couple of times. “You must’ve heard the TV, ’cause there ain’t nobody here except me and my baby.”

“I need to talk to you about something. You mind if I come in?”

She put a hand up in front of his face. “I don’t know you, mister, and you are not coming into my house.”

Ray put one foot on the doorstop. “It’ll just take a minute.”

She tried to push the door closed, but he held it open with his hand. She stepped into the doorway and blocked it with her plump body. “You got to have a search warrant to come in my house.”

“I don’t need a search warrant,” Ray said as he tried to squeeze past her.

The woman dug her feet into the floor and wedged her arms into the door frame. “My lawyer told me the police need a search warrant to go inside somebody’s house.”

“He’s right, but I’m not a cop,” Ray said. He shoved her backward into the den.

She screamed out, “Help! Help! He in the house!”

Ray doubted she was calling for the baby. Someone was here.

From a hallway to Ray’s left a man rushed into the den. He was black, midtwenties. He came straight at Ray. Ray shot a glance at his hands. No weapon. The chubby girl hung on to Ray’s left arm while her boyfriend grabbed the front of Ray’s shirt with both hands and started shoving. Both were screaming at Ray to get out.

Ray had to get the door closed in a hurry. He didn’t need nosy neighbors calling the cops. He threw a right hook over the top of the guy’s arms that caught him on the chin.

He dropped like a stone.

“Sit down and shut up,” he shouted at the girl as he shoved her away. Then the back of her leg hit the coffee table and she spilled onto the sofa. The guy tried to get up, but Ray dropped a knee onto his neck and pinned his face to the thin carpet. Something he had learned as a cop: if you get control of a man’s head, you can control his entire body.

The girl scrambled to her feet. “I’m calling the police!”

Ray added weight to his knee. The man winced. Pointing a finger at the girl, Ray said, “If you don’t sit down and shut up, I’ll break his damn neck.”

“Do what he say,” the black man yelled at her.

She sat down. The baby started screaming in the back of the house.

Ray looked down at the man whose head he had pinned to the floor. “What’s your name?”

Through clenched teeth, the man said, “What the fuck you want?”

Ray put a little more weight onto his neck. “Wrong answer.”

“Okay, okay.”

He raised his knee just a little. “What’s your name?”

“Tyrone.”

“Tyrone what?”

“Washington. Tyrone Washington. If you’re some kind of bounty hunter, you got the wrong man.”

Ray put all of his weight down on the guy’s neck.

He screamed and kicked his feet.

“Stop it, stop it,” the girl cried. “You’re killing him.”

Ray eased up, then bent his face down next to the guy’s ear. “Try again.”

“My name Cleo Harris.” Saying it so quickly the words ran over each other.

“They call you Winky?”

“Sometimes. But I ain’t wanted for nothing. That charge been dropped.”

“I’m not here because you’re wanted,” Ray said. “I’m here about the gun.”

“About a gun,” the girl echoed.

Winky tried to turn and look up at Ray. “What gun you talking about?”

Ray pushed his knee harder down on Winky’s neck. “The Smith forty you shot the guy on Frenchman Street with.”

Winky tried to shake his head but couldn’t. “I ain’t had no gun and I didn’t shoot-”

A kidney punch shut him up. “I don’t care who you shot or why,” Ray said. “All I want to know is what you did with the gun.”

The girlfriend started to cry. “You’re hurting him, mister.”

Ray looked at her. “It’s up to you. When I find out what I want to know, I’ll leave.”

She wiped tears off her cheeks. “Who are you?”

Ray took some pressure off Winky’s neck. “The people I work for run a place in the Quarter called the Rising Sun. You know who I’m talking about?”

She shook her head.

“I know who you talking about,” Winky mumbled.

“Who?” the girl demanded.

“Them people,” Winky said. “Them Eye-talians.”

“Oh, Lordy Jesus,” she said.

Ray took off some more weight.

Winky kept talking. “I heard what happened over there, but I swear to Jesus I ain’t had nothing to do with that. I swear on my baby’s-”

“Then who’d you give the gun to?”

“I told you, I ain’t had no gun.”

Ray punched him in the face.

The girl jumped to her feet. “Stop beating on him.”

Ray pointed his finger at her again. “Sit your fat ass down or I’ll kill him.”

She sat back down.

Winky said, “Somebody get shot with that gun?”

“Why do you think I’m here?” Ray asked. “You gonna tell me who you gave it to or not?”

Winky sighed. “I’ll tell you.”

Ray waited.

“They had me wrong for that shooting,” Winky said. “I didn’t have nothing to do-”

“Where’s the gun?” Ray asked.

“I sold it to a white boy-kind of a white boy-named Scooby.”

Ray pressed down hard. “I bet he’s got a friend named Shaggy?”

“I swear to God I’m telling you the truth. Dude scores from me.”

“Heroin?”

Winky tried to nod. Ray could feel it under his knee.

“You got his phone number?”

“He ain’t got no phone.”

“Then how do you get in touch with him?”

“He usually comes by here.”

“How can I get in touch with him?” Ray put so much weight down on his knee he thought for sure the kid’s neck was really going to snap.

“Hold up, hold up.”

“Where is he?”

“I been to his apartment once.”

Ray let up almost all the way. Dead men can’t talk.

That name was familiar. He ran into a guy once who went by the nickname Scooby, but he couldn’t put a face to the name.

“What’s he look like?” Ray asked.

Winky shifted around a little, trying to get more comfortable. “He’s a Cuban.”

“Is he really a Cuban, or does he just look Spanish?”

Winky nodded. “He’s kind of dark, but he ain’t black.”

Ray thought back for a second, remembering an arrest, a guy in the Quarter on a dope charge. “What does his hair look like?”

“Poufy,” Winky said. He tried to move his hand to his head to demonstrate but couldn’t reach far enough. “I mean big, all curly.”

“What color is it?”

“Red.”

Same guy. Ray couldn’t remember his real name but it had to be the same guy. He wasn’t Cuban. He was South American or maybe Puerto Rican, and then only half. The other half was white.

“I found that gun right after that shooting,” Winky said. “I figured it was hot, so I sold it to Scooby. He said he needed it for protection.”

“You remember how to get to his apartment?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re coming with me,” Ray said.

“Why? I told you I ain’t had nothing to do with that shit that went down in the Quarter.”

“You’re going to show me where Scooby lives.”

Winky shook his head. “I only been there that one time. I might not be exactly sure about-”

Ray leaned into Winky’s neck again just to shut him up. “You show me where he lives. Then you’re out of it.”

After a few seconds, Winky nodded. “I just got to show you his apartment?”

“That’s all I want.”

Ray shoved Winky into the front passenger seat of his Mustang. The heroin dealer had promised not to try anything stupid. The same went for his girlfriend, who swore she would stay home with their baby until Winky got back. For his part, Ray promised them both that Winky could come home as soon as he pointed out Scooby’s apartment. Then neither of them would ever see Ray again. As insurance, Ray took the girlfriend’s cell phone. The small house didn’t have a landline.

Ray drove south on Elysian Fields Avenue, toward the river. Winky said to turn left on Saint Claude Avenue. They made another left at Poland Avenue. The old two-story apartment building was three blocks down on the left. There were eight apartments, four on each floor. All eight doors faced the street.

Winky jabbed a finger at the ramshackle building. “That’s his apartment right there.”

Ray pulled into a parking lot across the street. “Which one?”

“Top floor,” Winky said, still pointing. “Second door on the right.”

The doors had numbers on them, but from across the street, Ray couldn’t make them out. “Second floor, second door from the right,” Ray repeated. “You sure?”

Winky reached for the door handle. “Positive.”

Ray grabbed his shoulder. “Hold on.”

“I showed you the apartment,” Winky pleaded. “You said that’s all I had to do.”

“What kind of car does he drive?” The small parking lot in front of the building had three cars in it.

“I never seen him drive. When he came to my place, he either got a ride or caught the bus.”

“When were you here?”

“At least a month ago, maybe about six weeks.”

“Was he alone?”

Winky nodded. “Yeah.”

Ray looked into the dope dealer’s eyes, then studied his face, trying to detect any hint of deception, but he could find none. “If you’re lying to me, I’ll come back and kill you, your old lady, and your baby.” Pure bluff, but Ray hoped the kid bought it.

Winky shook his head. “I ain’t gonna lie to you. I know who your people are.” He pulled the handle and cracked the door. “I got nothing to do with whatever that stupid motherfucker Scooby did.”

“You sold him the gun.”

“And that’s all I did. He went and shot somebody with it, that’s on him.” Winky pushed the door open all the way and started to ease out of the car.

Ray jerked him back into his seat.

Winky spun toward him. “You said I could go after I showed you the apartment.”

Ray handed Winky his girlfriend’s cell phone. Then he held out a twenty-dollar bill.

Winky stared at the twenty. “What’s that?”

“Bus fare.”

“Bus is only two dollars.”

“Take a cab.”

Winky looked at Ray for a second. Then he snatched the twenty. “Thanks,” he said as he sprang out of the car.

Ray pulled his Mustang across the street and parked in front of the apartment building. Up close the place looked even more neglected than it had from a distance. Weeds sprouted from cracks in the trash-littered parking lot. Paint was peeling off the doors. The metal stairway that ran up the right side of the building was covered with rust. Mounted to the front wall, near the foot of the stairs, was a row of dented black metal mailboxes, also spotted with rust.

Ray climbed the stairs.

The second door from the right had a metal 7 screwed into the wood just above the peephole. Ray knocked.

What do I do if Scooby opens the door?

I have no fucking idea.

No one opened the door. Ray knocked again.

Still nothing. He tried the knob. It was locked.

The door to apartment six, third from the right, opened and a pretty black girl stuck her head out. She was about twenty. She held a baby against her shoulder. “Who are you?”

“Friend of Scooby’s.”

She looked him up and down. “You’re police.”

Ray knew the cop look never left you. The way you knocked on doors, the way you stood, the way you talked to people-it all spelled POLICE. If he denied it, she wouldn’t believe him.

“I used to be, but not anymore,” he said. “You know if Scooby’s home?” He didn’t give her a chance to deny he lived there.

The baby squirmed as the woman shifted it onto her other shoulder. “Scooby’s dead.”

The words hit Ray like a punch in the gut. “How?”

She pointed with her free hand toward the street. “Night before last, right out there.”

Ray turned but saw only the street and a few cars passing. “What happened?”

“He was waiting for a ride. Somebody shot him. Happens all the time in this neighborhood. That’s why me and my baby sleep on the floor at night, bullets sometimes come into people’s houses.”

“Anyone stay here with him?”

She shook her head. “He ain’t had no girlfriend if that’s what you asking. Me and him used to talk, but that was a while back.”

“You know his real name?”

“Scooby’s all I know.” Her eyes narrowed. “You said you were his friend. Shouldn’t you know his name?”

Ray didn’t answer, just turned and walked away. The mailboxes at the bottom of the stairs weren’t numbered and not one of them had a name on it, but the seventh one from the left was stuffed with mail. Ray scooped out the envelopes, then climbed into his car.

Just down the street he pulled into a gas station parking lot and flipped through the stack of mail. Almost all the envelopes were addressed to Michael Salazaar. A couple of them were for Dorothy Williams, but Ray figured she was probably a former tenant. Michael Salazaar was the name he had been trying to remember. Now that he had seen it, he was sure.

He remembered a doper he and a couple of other Vice Squad detectives had arrested in the French Quarter. He remembered how he had to grab hold of Salazaar’s big poufy hairdo and wrestle him to the ground.

Michael Salazaar, also known as Scooby.