Shell Game – Chapter 21 – Unexpected Guests

The air in the apartment stood still. The only sounds were Evan, Claire, and Harold’s breathing, along with the anxious cicadas chirping in the cottonwoods. For a moment, it seemed time halted its progress. Each person stared at the door.

Then, Harold hissed under his breath to Evan, “You careless fool!” He took out a handkerchief and began to blot imaginary beads of sweat from his forehead.

“Who could it be?” asked Claire and covered her mouth with her hands.

“Everybody calm down,” Evan said to his guests before turning toward the door. Harold grabbed Evan’s elbow.
“Mr. Gold,” he said, “I hope you don’t think this could be a neighbor asking for some sugar or some other harmless visitation. Not at this hour. Don’t answer the door.”

Evan shook his arm free. “This ain’t my first rodeo, Mr. Huber. Believe me, whoever it is has seen the lights on and heard us talking. I agree it’s not just anyone out there, and because of that, we aren’t going to be able to get away with ignoring them. You both stay calm and let me get rid of them.”

“Do you think it’s that woman from outside?” Claire asked, looking at the window as if the woman might climb in at any moment.

“Or…” Harold placed one hand over his right eye, “… him.” Claire began to pace.

“Well,” Evan said with a mischievous smile, “only one way to know. Remember, stay calm.” He walked up to the front door and asked, “Can I help you? It’s kind of late.”

“Come on, Gold, open up,” came a voice from the other side. Evan recognized it as Lt. Steve Abrams and said as loudly as possible, “Certainly, officer.”

He opened the door only as wide as his body and saw that Lt. Bobby Short tagged along. “Good evening,” he said.
“Let us in, Gold,” Short said.

“Sure,” said Gold, “so long as this is a personal visit and not official in any way, and if it’s official, only if you have a warrant.”

“Evan, you could stand to be more cooperative,” said Abrams. “We’ve been hoofing it all day and could use the break.”
“I sympathize,” said Evan, “but what would I tell Mrs. Cravens, my third-grade civics teacher? I can’t let you in here without a warrant. She taught me that much. You got something to chat about, we can do it just as well out here.”
“Fine,” said Short leaning in, “you want to play hard to get? Fine. We heard a rumor going around that you and Silver weren’t the closest of business partners.”

“Oh? Yeah?” said Evan. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You didn’t always see eye-to-eye,” said Short with too much emphasis.

Evan leaned his shoulder against the door jamb. “You got to do better than that if you’re going to interrupt a man’s evening at this hour. This level of police work is beneath what I’ve come to expect from you two. I’m disappointed.”
“Well,” said Short, “you can wipe that smug look off your face. We got a tip.”

“You got a tip, did you?” Evan asked. “What kind of tip?”

“One that says maybe you killed your partner out of spite.”

Evan rubbed his chin. “Uh-huh. And was there a name to go with this tip?”

Short proudly shook his head. “Anonymous.”

Evan laughed a humorless laugh and looked at his shoes before saying, “You should defiantly take that one seriously, gents.”

“Give us some credit, Evan,” Abrams said. “We wouldn’t be here if that was the only tip like that we got.”

“Yeah? Like what?” Evan asked.

“The widow, Mrs. Silver. She’s been saying how you and Gabe had some rather long and loud disagreements. She’s saying maybe you killed him out of jealousy.”

“I see,” said Evan. “She’s partly right. Gabe and I had disagreements, sure. Find me two people who don’t. But she probably didn’t tell you that she was upset at the long hours and the constant fear that what did happen to her dearly departed could have happened a thousand times before that. Your wives probably have the same fears. Now that everything’s fallen on her, she’s taking it out on me. Can’t say as I blame her.”

Short slowly shook his head, “I don’t know, Evan. Too many things are starting to add up.”

“How you figure?” Evan asked.

“Simple. You decide you’ve had enough of Gabe. Too many of these disagreements. You’re too much of a lone wolf. You want to go out on your own. So, you send Gabe out on a job. Only, you lurk in the shadows and off him and throw him off the bridge.”

Evan laughed from his toes, “For starters, you’ve seen Memorial Bridge. From where am I going to lurk? The only thing that place has going for it is that it’s so remote. But if I, as you say, I wanted to go out on my own, why not just dissolve the partnership and save myself the prison time? And let’s not forget, about this time yesterday, you said I killed Charles to avenge the murder of my partner. I’m afraid you can’t have it both ways, fellas.”

Short put his face close enough that Evan could feel the heat of his words, “All I know is that this whole thing has smelled like garbage from the moment go. As soon as you were attached to this crime, I just had a feeling about it. Keep this in mind, Gold, wherever it is you slink around in the dirty little corners of this town, the light is coming for you. We will point the full light of justice on you one way or another. You can’t hide what you’ve done forever.”

“Back up, Bobby,” Evan warned and shifted his eyes to Lt. Abrams. “If you want to keep this a friendly visit, Steve, you’ll back your attack dog up a little.”

“Give him some room, Bobby,” said Abrams. “We don’t have anything formal.”

“Not yet,” Short said before taking a step back.

Evan rubbed his chin and said, “Hey, I got an idea. Try this story on for size. I was upset at Gabe because he was a better detective than me. Everyone liked him. He was better looking. Blah, blah, blah. I wanted him dead. So, as you say, I sent him on a goose chase to lure him into my dastardly trap. I kill him, do a ham-handed job disposing of the body, then I beat it over to where Charles is, a man I’ve never met before, and kill him just to cover up the real intention of my murder. Even though every bit of it would point back to me as the obvious suspect – you’ll want to write this part down because it’ll give you a tip on my next move – next, I’m working out a simple but clumsy scheme to off Silver’s wife because she won’t keep her trap shut.”

The detectives stared at Evan. Short shoved his hands in his pockets, and Abrams tilted the brim of his hat back on his head. “You got to help us out, Evan,” Abrams said. “You didn’t do it; then you got to give us something.”

“Do I?” Evan asked.

“Don’t be like that,” Abrams said. “We’re all trying to get to the same place. We all want Gabe’s killer behind bars.”

“That’s nice,” Evan said. “I like that. But let’s cut out all this tomfoolery. What’s the real reason you’re here?”

“What do you mean?” Abrams said.

“This time of night, and all you want to do is float some theories by me?” Evan straightened up. “You could’ve had me down to the station in the morning and got yourself a decent night’s sleep. You’re here for something else, now out with it.”

Short lunged at Evan. Evan noticed the vein on Short’s forehead pulse and twitch under the stress of his words. “We’re on to you, Gold,” he said. “You’re hiding something, or a part of something, or giving us the run-around, which is obstruction. And you will be found out. You think you’re clever and that the normal rules of conduct in these cases don’t apply to you because you don’t wear a badge? You’ll be found out, and you’ll be shut down!”

“Wait,” Evan said, putting a hand between him and Short, “that was it? You’re telling me that the only reason you’re here is to intimidate me? You mean there’s nothing else going on in all of Athens occupying your attention? Aw, shucks, fellas, I’m flattered.” Evan studied the look of frustrated anger on Short’s face, the resolution of Abram’s weakness, and shook his head. “The DA has you by the neck, huh? How bad is it?”

“You know how it is, Evan,” Abrams said. “DA gets elected, and not more than two months later, we’ve two unsolved murders on the streets. There’s already a buzz for him to resign. Our jobs are on the line. We got to wrap this thing up and fast. You got anything that can help us; you should hand it over.”

“Let us in,” Short said, “I know you have evidence in there.”

“No warrant, no access,” Evan said. “I mentioned Mrs. Cravens, right? She was particularly specific on search and seizure. Not sure what that was all about, come to think of it. Maybe she had some secrets. Anyway, here’s what you do. You hop over and wake up Judge Hamm, which he’s not going to enjoy, and get a warrant like you should have done already, and I’ll be happy to let you in.”

The three of them stood there in the hallway in silence for a moment. “Anything else, gentlemen?” Evan asked.

Abrams looked at Short and readjusted his hat. “Come on, Bobby,” he said, “let’s see what those other leads might turn up.”

“We’re coming for you, Gold,” Short said.

“Uh-huh, Full Light of Justice,” Evan nodded, giving them a thumbs-up.

“You’re going to mess something up. Everyone does. No one can account for every mistake. You’ll be found out, and I’m going to be so happy to send you away.”

Evan started to step back and shut the door. He stopped and looked at the detectives. “Next time you’re on your way over, give me a call. I can have some refreshments ready for you. Goodnight, officers.”

Just then, from inside Evan’s apartment, there was a high-pitched shriek followed by the sound of a large glass vase smashing on the floor. The three men looked at each other. Bobby Short’s face went from frustration to victory.
“Looks like we just got cause for entering your premises after all, Gold,” he said.

“So, it does,” Evan nodded. “Right this way.” He smiled, opened the door, and let the detectives into the apartment.