The Original Alibi

Chapter 16

I found Cliff in the garage. He had showered and changed clothes but likely had done so without the rain forest shower head, the plush bath towel, and the eye candy that had accompanied my clean up in Karen’s boudoir. Life is good.

“You’re a tough son of a bitch, Kile.”

“Make it Matt. I’ll be sore for a week.” We shook hands. Yeah. This was like the old days when men could fight and find friendship, at least respect.

“So, you represent the general in this?” Cliff asked.

“I represent myself. It’s a tough world out there. For now, working for the general is in my best interest.” I had been cagey because I don’t like suspects being too certain of my motives or ethics.

“I got a couple of beers in the fridge in the corner?” I nodded and he got them. We screwed off the caps and took a pull before I spoke.

“I mean no disrespect, but I know Karen manipulated you into what just went down. You must know she enjoys pushing your buttons.”

He sat on a stool that faced a small workbench below a wall of tools, mostly for cars, not gardening. “Yeah. I gotta get over her, but it ain’t easy. If fucking were an Olympic sport, Karen would bring home the gold.”

I laughed. “She’s jobbing ya. Getting you to do something I doubt is in your best interest.”

He just lowered his head, shook it some and looked up with a smile. Then he nodded. “Beer okay?”

“Good and cold. Thanks. Look. You know why I’m poking around in the Whittaker family closet. I also figure you do a bit of watching and a lot of listening while you’re driving them here and there. You introduced Eddie to Ileana, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Back then, Eddie and me rode our Harleys together. He’d never done that and needed an experienced rider along. For him it was a new toy. He sold it some years ago and I went back to just being the general’s driver.”

I went over and opened the passenger door of a black 1950 Mercury with wheel-cover skirts, it’s lines as sleek as Karen’s hips. I left the door open and sat with my feet on the sill, facing Cliff. “Tell me about Ileana.”

“Hot chick. She loved it like Karen, only Illy didn’t use her talents to tease. She dug Eddie, but I think she also saw him as a ticket to the good life.”

“You ever hear her say that?”

Cliff came over and got in the driver’s side. I swung my legs around and we became just two fellas talking in a car, a guy thing if ever there was one.

“Never heard any scuttlebutt, just my take on it. Illy was gorgeous. I went after her once. Did it right, flowers, met her folks, the whole deal. But I had nothing material to offer her. We became friends. That was it.”

“Could that be why you think she saw Eddie as a meal ticket?”

He hunched up his nose like he’d detected a foul odor. “Could be, I s’pose. Who knows? But Illy was good. Nice, you know, funny. Didn’t seem to take herself too seriously. But she wanted more than her folks had. Guys’ eyes followed her. She always smiled at them. Not flirty. I think she liked being noticed. And I can tell you, the guys liked noticing her.”

“Was Eddie a player or the kind who wanted to settle down?”

“He’s always liked playing around, no doubt of that. But then why not, he was a young man and he had a generous allowance. He lived good, didn’t need to marry for a second income to pay the bills. But the man was nuts about Illy. Her death broke ‘im, man. He was down a long time. I used to drive him to therapy. In those days he didn’t even care to drive his Mustang. On the way, he’d just sit quiet. Three times a week. Silent. Just sit there. Like a year, man. I was worried about the dude.”

“But he came out of it?”

“Yeah. A year I guess. How long can a guy be in the dumps? Hormones keep getting produced. Tail talent keeps swishing by. Life goes on, you know. But for years, I could tell. There’s a point out there where he and Illy used to sit and look at the ocean for hours. Just talk. Laugh. You know. He still goes out there some. Sits. I don’t think he’s full over her yet.”

Cliff got out and brought back two more beers. When he got back in, I turned on the seat to face him. “Cliff, did Eddie kill her?”

His eyebrows went up, but his answer came fast. “No way. He loved her. Even if he didn’t, Eddie doesn’t have killer in him. Few guys do. Eddie spends most of his nights looking for a new place to hide his dick. No. Somebody tried to frame ‘im. It couldn’t just be a random killing. The papers said nothing was taken. She wasn’t raped. And a random killer wouldn’t have known about Eddie, or not enough to try and frame him. Somebody wanted Eddie to go down for it.”

“Who?”

He just shrugged.

“I hear you taught Eddie how to shoot?”

“Not long after I started working here, Eddie would have me take him out and we’d practice. Every once in a while he’d get in a groove and shoot the shit out of the target, like a sniper, man. But then he’d go back to missing the barn, you know what I mean? He’d go extra alone and practice. Next time I went with him, he’d be about the same, no better. Eddie just couldn’t consistently stop jerking when he pulled the trigger.”

“Why’d he want to learn in the first place?”

“The general used to have family shoots, him and Eddie and Karen, usually me and sometimes Charles. The general wanted Eddie to get better. Now Karen, she was a different story. That gal could shoot the light off a candle, particularly with a handgun. She actually did that once while we were shooting, just the two of us.”

“But Eddie never got it going?”

“Not consistent like, no. Just them spurts when he couldn’t miss. After some months, he gave it up, dropped it flat and quit participating in the family shoots. That’s Eddie. When mastering something doesn’t come easy, he drops it.”

“Before you came to work for the general, didn’t Charles drive for him?”

“Sure. But in those years a lot of the time the general drove himself.”

“But since you were hired about twelve years ago, you always do the driving?”

“I’m the general’s driver. Sometimes Karen drives when she takes the general into town for lunch now and again. Charles drives when it’s my day off, but the general schedules his stuff for my days, you know, because Charles is pretty busy. Charles goes along when the general is seeing his attorney. Karen goes along when the general is going to his accountant or broker. But I do the driving; it’s my job. That’s about it, except for when I was driving Eddie to see his shrink, but that hasn’t been for some years now.”

“The general’s dying, we all know that. What’re your plans after that?”

“Eddie has told me he will keep me on. I hope he does. This is a good gig. Easy, you know.”