The Professional

Chapter 66

I DON’T KNOW QUITE why I left Boo out of it, but I did. When Gary woke up he’d tell them what happened, and they’d come for Boo. I wanted a little time to get there first. I didn’t quite know why I wanted to get there first. I left Vinnie out, too-professional courtesy. I said that I’d been watching her place and seen somebody suspicious-looking come out of the building. So I’d called on my cell and got no answer. The rest of it I told as it happened.

I don’t think Frank bought it all, he came at it from a few different directions, but my story didn’t change and Frank let it go. He knew I hadn’t done it. And he knew that sooner or later, he and I were working the same side of the street.

Mostly.

I got to JP a little before midnight. There was a light on in the window of the second-floor apartment that Boo shared with Zel. I rang the bell. After a minute Zel came to the door, and looked out and saw it was me, and opened the door.

“Trouble?” he said.

“Where’s Boo?” I said.

“He ain’t here, ain’t been home all day.”

“We need to talk,” I said.

Zel nodded and stepped aside. He closed the door behind me and preceded me up the dim stairway. He had a gun in his right hip pocket.

In the kitchen, we sat on opposite sides of the table, under a single naked bulb.

“What?” Zel said.

I looked around the apartment. It wasn’t much. Two bedrooms, a bath, and a kitchen. The doors to all the other rooms were open to the kitchen. There was no sign of Boo.

“Boo killed Beth Jackson tonight,” I said. “Beat her to death.”

Zel didn’t move. He didn’t change his expression.

“Cops know she’s dead, but they don’t know yet that it was Boo.”

Zel nodded slightly.

“But you do,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said. “But they’ll know soon enough. Boo left an eyewitness alive.”

Zel shook his head sadly.

“Poor dumb bastard,” Zel said.

“Gary Eisenhower,” I said. “He was unconscious when we found him, but when he wakes up, he’ll pretty sure be mentioning Boo’s name.”

Zel nodded.

“So why are you here,” Zel said.

I paused. The room wasn’t much, but it was neat. No dirty dishes, no crumbs on the table. The refrigerator was old and made a lot of noise. Otherwise, there was no sound anywhere, and no sense that there was anyone alive in the building but me and Zel under the one-hundred-watt bulb.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I just figured I oughta talk with you before the cops came to get him.”

“Boo won’t want to go,” Zel said.

“They’ll come in large numbers,” I said.

“Yeah,” Zel said. “They do that.”

He got up and got two bottles of beer from the refrigerator and gave me one and sat down again.

“You know why he killed her?” I said.

“I got an idea,” Zel said.

I nodded.

“Here’s my theory,” I said. “See what you think.”

Zel nodded.

“I figure she came on to him,” I said.

Zel turned the beer bottle on the tabletop and didn’t say anything.

“I figure she came on to him so she could get him to kill her husband,” I said.

“Why’d she want him dead?” Zel said, watching the bottle as he turned it slowly, as if turning it just right was as important as anything he was going to do this day.

“So she’d get his money,” I said. “And be with Gary Eisenhower.”

“And why Boo?” Zel said.

“She didn’t know anybody else,” I said. “She tried Tony Marcus, didn’t work.”

“She thought it would?” Zel said.

“She had a lot of faith in sex,” I said.

Zel nodded and stopped twirling his bottle long enough to drink some beer.

“So Boo goes for it and pops Jackson,” I said. “And she gets his dough and moves in with Gary and Estelle.”

“Three of them,” Zel said.

“Yep. I guess Estelle kind of liked the idea.”

Zel shrugged.

“But it didn’t work,” I said. “Pretty soon Beth wants all of Gary, and Estelle don’t like it.”

Zel was twirling his bottle again. He hadn’t drunk much of his beer. I hadn’t drunk any of mine.

“So,” I said. “Beth calls in Boo, and with the same gun he used on Jackson, he pops Estelle for her.”

“Dumb,” Zel said, and shook his head sadly. “Dumb.”

“So there’s Beth, thanks to Boo, right where she wants to be. Money, Gary”-I raised my hands-“what could be better.”

Zel drank some beer.

“But…”

Zel nodded.

“But Boo thinks that he’s done her these two huge favors,” I said. “So she’s supposed to love him.”

“Boo never been with any women but whores, I think,” Zel said.

“And Beth thinks that since she bopped him several times, she’s done him several huge favors,” I said, “and wants no more to do with him.”

Zel nodded. His beer was gone. He got up and got another one from the refrigerator, looked at my bottle, saw that it was full, and sat down.

“They had a confrontation a week or so ago,” I said. “He tries to talk with her, she shoves him and runs inside. Middle of the day, Boo stands for a while and walks away.”

“You was following him?” Zel said.

I shook my head.

“Had a guy on her,” I said.

“So you been thinking about her for a while,” Zel said.

“Yes.”

“Was the guy watching tonight?” Zel said.

“Was through for the night,” I said. “And having a drink in the Taj bar. When he comes out, he sees Boo heading away from Gary’s apartment and calls me.”

“And you figure Boo went over there, kicked in the door, decked her boyfriend, and beat her to death?”

“Something like that,” I said.

“Why tonight?” Zel said.

I shrugged.

“Love unrequited,” I said. “The pressure built. He drink?”

“Some,” Zel said. “I tried to keep him from drinking much, but he’s hard to control.”

“Bad when he’s drunk?”

“Yes.”

“Will he come back here?” I said.

“Sooner or later,” Zel said. “Except I can shoot, I ain’t much, and Boo’s less. But we been together a long time.”

“He’s killed three people,” I said.

“He can’t do no time,” Zel said. “I tole you that.”

“I can’t let him walk around loose,” I said.

Zel looked at his beer bottle for a moment.

“I know,” he said.

We sat for a moment. Then I stood.

“Thanks for the beer,” I said.

And I left.