A figure laid on the floor. I saw it through the frosted glass leading into my office. For a moment I thought Ethel had gotten herself drunk and passed out, before remembering she never touched the stuff. I took a deep breath and turned the handle. The body of a young woman was splayed out on my floor, she was a beautiful blonde with red lips and a figure like the girls from the pictures. She had been shot in the forehead, blood trickled down her face and pooled on the floor. The smell of ammonia and burnt toast lingered in the air. I bent down and found a pistol under the sofa, I didn’t touch it or anything else. Instead, I tiptoed into the adjoining room, slammed the door and grabbed the phone, “Operator, give me SFPD. Detective Stanley and hurry.”
+++++“Yes ma’am, putting you through, one moment please.” The line went silent and crackled.
+++++“You’re through to Detective Mick Stanley, what can I do you for?”
+++++“Mick, it’s Betty, I need your help.”
+++++“Oh, so now you need my help. I’m not so sure the offer is still…”
+++++“Shut up and listen for once. I’ve got a dead broad on my floor.”
+++++“What? Who is it?”
+++++“Not a clue, never seen her before. Now get your guys down here and” I noticed a piece of paper on my desk, “and get this sorted.”
+++++“On my way.”
+++++The paper smelt like lavender and the writing was pretty with big swirls that made it difficult to read.

Dear Miss Nowak,
+++++I must apologise for the commotion I am going to cause. You see I have a problem, I know I cannot go on any longer, but I must ask you take on my case. This is why I had to end my life here in your office, so my spirit can spur you on when things get tough. May God forgive my soul.
+++++For the past several months my life has been hell. A most vile man, Samuel Greene, decided that I will be his prey. I have been followed, watched and photographed, yet the police have made no effort to help. Yesterday I received a letter saying he is planning to kill me. The police will not try to stop him until it is too late so I know what I must do. I must come to you and I must end my life on my own terms.
+++++It is too late for me now, but I beg you to stop him before he does this to anyone else.
+++++With my sincerest apologies and greatest hopes,

+++++Miss Nancy Anderson

The doorbell rang and I shoved the note in my pocket. It was Mick ready to examine the scene. The uniforms took me aside and told me not to touch anything, whilst they got their filthy paws over every inch of my office. They took photographs and collected useless items I had laying around for years. I headed down to the diner and ordered a coffee.
+++++The diner had been around since before my time. It was filled with broken leather booths and always stank of old cigarettes. The bar was a rusted silver with the kind of stools you could never get comfortable on. I sat there, trying to stop my hands from shaking.
+++++Mick, looking his usual ‘I haven’t slept in 10 days’ self walked in, “The boys are all done. Did she leave anything else? A Note? A Letter?”
+++++“Not to my knowledge. You got there fast enough, I didn’t have time to check things out.”
+++++“Right. Well, it looks like a suicide, maybe to spook you. You working on anything big?”
+++++“No, just a few of the usual cheating husbands and tailing jobs. She’s not one I’ve met.”
+++++“OK. The ME will give her a look over and we’ll keep you posted.” He turned around and walked out.
+++++The waitress, dressed in a stained mustard dress, came over to refill my cup, “Have men forgotten their manners? Where are the niceties?”
+++++“He’s usually alright, just mad at me. A few months ago, I didn’t let him take the credit for a case we worked, I guess his ego is still a bit bruised. He’ll come around.” The waitress shrugged and walked away. I finished my coffee in silence thinking about Nancy Anderson. Something didn’t feel right, and I had to find out why.

***

I spent the night in my office with a cheap bottle of scotch, reading the note again and again. It was early morning when Ethel, my secretary, shook me awake, “Betty, are you ok? Did you spend the night again?” My head was spinning.
+++++“Oh Jesus, Betty, you drink all that by yourself?” She said looking at the empty bottle on the table. Ethel was an older lady with a triangular face and long grey hair, always dressed in an ill-fitting floral dress that reminded me of curtains.
+++++“Morning Ethel, did you hear about last night?” I slurred, “Young woman killed herself right here, in this room. Some bastard spooked her good and she blew her brains all over our carpet.”
+++++“Of course I have! It’s in the papers, photos and all.”
+++++“Shit. Alright, best get to figuring out this mess.”
+++++“Whoa Betty, you’re not going anywhere in this state. Go in your office, I’ll get you an aspirin… or five. Try to sleep it off.”
+++++“No, this can’t wait.” But as I tried to stand up, my body resisted and I landed on the floor next to specks of dried blood. Ethel was right. She was always right. With a moan I dragged myself into the adjacent room, climbed onto the sofa and closed my eyes.
+++++It was dark when I came to in a cold sweat. My eyes opened to the familiar sight of beige walls and my cherry desk, which I rescued from the garbage all those years ago. I pulled myself up and staggered towards the desk for the aspirin, I threw three or four pills down my throat and took a swig from the flask in my pocket. Anderson’s note was laying under the lamp with a scrap of paper clipped to it, it read ‘Home 548, 7th Avenue off Anza Street. South of Golden Gate Bridge. Wait for me or at least take Shirley’ in sharp scribbles. Ethel always put her misery to work, unlike me who drank it all away.

***

The road was like any other quiet residential street in this part of town, small detached two-story homes lined each side. They reminded me of the doll’s houses you see in expensive department store windows at Christmas. Except number 548. It didn’t take me long to find it even in the dark. One side was pristine like the others, the other was missing a part of its roof, with black scorch marks covering the entire west panel. I got out of my Chevy and headed towards the door. The front of the building had a large bay window, it was cracked and I could see the inside all covered in soot. The door was open. I headed in, taking one step at a time as the floorboards creaked and bent under my weight. I stepped into what looked like a living room, there were remnants of a sofa, coffee table and some display cases, all ordinary apart from a thick layer of grey dust.
+++++The kitchen looked untouched. In fact, even with the layer of soot, it looked cleaner than any kitchen I’ve ever stepped foot in. The cabinets were empty and all the appliances brand new. The fridge was the exception, it stank of old meat. I opened it expecting a cloud of flies. Instead it was full of neat white paper parcels, I unwrapped one and gagged. It held 4 severed fingers. They looked male judging by the state of the nails but all different shapes and sizes. Every pouch was filled with a decaying body part. Toes. Slices of skin. Eyeballs. I ran to the sink and vomited, watching all the coffee and alcohol I’ve had in the past 24 hours run down the sink. My vision swayed as I realised that this case would be a whole lot more than I had imagined. Just who was this dead broad?

***

“Look who’s here, bright and early.”
+++++“Get anything?”
+++++“Straight to business eh Betty? I suppose I expected that.”
+++++“Fine, fine. How’s the family?”
+++++“Like you’d ever care. I’m sick of you coming in here and requesting information from open investigations. If the boss didn’t have an eye for you, you’d be out of here.”
+++++“I suppose I’m a lucky girl. Now what’d you find out?”
+++++Mick let out a strange sound, like a growling cat, and passed me a manila folder, “Here’s the ME’s report, no foul play as suspected. Though he did find multiple sets of prints on the gun. It’s all detailed in there. We also found that a Private Dick has been following her around over the last month or so, we’re trying to figure out who he is and locate him. I suppose you’d like to keep tabs.”
+++++“I’d appreciate it. I’ll phone if I find anything.”
+++++“Stay away from this and let us do our job Betty. This isn’t another adultery case, you’re going to get hurt.”

***

Ethel was straightening up the sitting area when I arrived back at the office later that morning. She had that look on her face, someone had ticked her off.
+++++“Morning Ethel, I’ve just had a very interesting chat with…”
+++++“You’ve got a client. He’s in there”, she said without turning to look at me.
+++++There was a man standing in my office looking around, tapping his foot. I looked him up and down. He was about 40, cleanshaven, with salt and pepper hair, black suit and tie and a large gold ring.
+++++“Good morning, Mr?…”
+++++“Gleeny, Charles Gleeny.”
+++++We shook hands and I gestured for him to take a seat. “So, Mr Gleeny, how can I help you today?”
+++++“Well, you could be here during working hours, I have been waiting for forty-five minutes. No matter. No matter. I need you to find this woman for me and as fast as you can. I will pay whatever you want.” He handed me a handful of photographs, the first was a grainy shot of some woman on a beach. The next few made my heart sink.
+++++“Who the fuck are you?”
+++++“Excuse me?” he stood up.
+++++“I said who the fuck are you? Is this… Is this some sort of a sick joke?”
+++++“I do not understand what you are talking about, Miss. My name is Charles Gleeny and I am here to hire you to look for my fiancée. She disappeared about a week ago without a word. At first, I figured she needed some time away, as she often took off to be alone, but after a few days I began to get worried.”
+++++“Mr Gleeny, this woman shot herself in my office 2 nights ago.”
+++++There was a pause, he already knew.
+++++“My Nancy? Nancy Anderson? Are you quite sure?”
+++++“Well I doubt you’d be here chatting to me if you didn’t already know. Now, why don’t you do me a favour and tell me who the hell you actually are? Because I ain’t buying the concerned fiancée act.”
+++++He reached into his jacket and took out a revolver. I grabbed my pistol and aimed it at him. “Well Charlie, why don’t you tell me what’s going on before we blow each other’s brains out?”
+++++“I need to know what you found in the house. Was anything left?”
+++++“Oh, there was plenty. The kitchen was the main event.”
+++++I could see beads of sweat roll down his forehead. He mumbled, “That damned fridge. I told her not to keep them there but she had to disobey me again.”
+++++“I don’t know what you’re playing at Charlie but if you want to live then you better get the hell outta here.”
+++++“I will return, you have my word.” He placed his gun back in his jacket and left.
+++++I waited till I heard him slam the door. I tried to pour myself a drink but more went on the table than in my glass. Then Ethel walked in and sat down, “I heard.”
+++++“G-Good. Then we can move on. We need to go through Mick’s files.” I said as my shaking hand clenched my scotch.
+++++“I cannot believe you, Betty. You take off to God knows where last night, you didn’t even take Shirley. And now this. Look at you, you’re a mess.”
+++++“Who the fuck is Shirley?”
+++++“That’s what we named your pistol, remember? On that first case”, she sighed and put her face in her palms.
+++++“Shit, I’m sorry Ethel. You’re right, I’ve not been myself since all this started. But I can’t give up now. I need your help to get to the bottom of this or it will haunt me forever.”
+++++I filled Ethel in as we began to flick through the files. It was clear the police weren’t interested. As far as they could tell it was just another manic woman committing suicide. Ethel, reading another file, shot out of her seat and ran to the phone book. She flicked through and shouted, “I found him, I actually found him.”
+++++“Who? The PI?”
+++++“Yes, his name is Trevor Rollins. He’s based in midtown. Just above that new café.”
+++++“How the fuck did you do that Ethel?”
+++++“Theres a photo in the ME’s report, they found part of a business card in her pocket. I recognised the design because when I was looking for Miss Anderson’s address, he had an advert out in the phone book.”
+++++“Why would she have…? Never mind. You’re the greatest, I’m heading there now.”
+++++“Please take Shirley with you.”

***

The sun was just beginning to set when I got to the PI’s address. I sat in my Chevy staking out the front door. The street was still busy with passersby so I couldn’t pick the lock like usual. I sat there listening to Sly Stone DJ on KSOL and when the street got a bit quieter, I headed for the door.
+++++I rang the bell that read ‘Rollins PI’ but there was no response. Then I rang one below, ‘SF Property Co’.
+++++“Hello? I’m so sorry, I’m just trying to get up to Trevor Rollins’s, but my darling seems to have forgotten to give me the key for the front door. Could you buzz me up?”
+++++An electronic voice on the other side said, “Oh, you the new girlfriend?”
+++++I forced a giggle, “Suppose I am.”
+++++“Alright ma’am.”
+++++The second-floor door was easy enough to shimmy. I let myself into a damp, 10 by 10, with a single dangling light, a large mahogany desk and a window which faced a brick wall. I started to look for anything that might be relevant, opening drawers, flicking through various colour co-ordinated manila folders. Cheating spouse, missing person, follow job. Not a single thing detailing Anderson, Gleeny or anything I saw in that house. I spun myself round in the chair, wondering if those damned files were even in here. Just then, in the corner of my eye I saw the carpet on the side bending upwards. I dropped to the floor and pulled it back. Bingo. I picked up a heavy filing box labelled ‘Anderson & Gleeny’. I had just begun to take out the files when there was a knock on the door.
+++++“Ma’am?” It was the clerk who had let me in. “Hello ma’am? Did you get in OK?”
+++++I opened the door, he was an elderly man, wearing big glasses on a silver chain.
+++++“Why yes, thank you so much.”
+++++“Ma’am, you might want to head down to the police station, I think something has happened to Mr. Rollins.”
+++++“Oh no! Is he OK?”
+++++“I’m afraid I’m not sure. The police just called asking a few questions about him working above me and all. But when I said his lady was here, they seemed very interested and asked me to pass along the message.”
+++++“You are too kind sir. I’ll get down there right away. Let me just grab my things.”
+++++He smiled and made his way downstairs. I grabbed the box and got out of there before the police came knocking.

***

“Holy shit Ethel, this file has everything.”
+++++“Good morning to you too Betty.”
+++++“Yeah, yeah. Listen to this, ‘For the past 2 weeks I have taken on a new identity of Samuel Greene as I follow Nancy Anderson and Charles Gleeny who I suspect of kidnapping and murdering no fewer than ten men over the past year’.”
+++++“Lord.”
+++++“And it goes on. He followed them everywhere, took notes, photos. But something is missing. There’s nothing on who hired him or how he got turned onto the case in the first place.”
+++++“How odd… maybe he carried that with him? Like you do with that letter…”
+++++“That’s possible.”
+++++“So, you think they got to him?”
+++++“Yeah. I think they got him good. I think it was business as usual catching and killing him but somewhere along the line they realised he was a PI and things got complicated.”
+++++“Why not just run? Why kill yourself? And why in this office?”
+++++I sat there for a while, contemplating all the possibilities. Then it hit me like a bag of bricks. “This was no suicide. What if Gleeny killed Anderson, staging a public death, distracting the cops from the missing PI. It gives him time to get his affairs in order before he goes on the run.”
+++++“But why would he kill her?”
+++++“Didn’t you say the ME found Rollins business card in Anderson’s pocket? What if she asked him for help, maybe she wanted to go straight and Gleeny had none of it. So he kills her to cover his tracks and disappear.”
+++++“You need to tell Mick. He needs to find Gleeny before he hurts anyone else.”

***

It was past midnight by the time I got to the Police station. I was told by some uniform that Mick was in an interview, so I waited at his desk flicking through files. Burglary, domestic, a streaker file that gave me a chuckle, and then something caught my eye. It read ‘five men kidnapped – same perpetrator’, the five was crossed out, and a ten was written in red ink underneath. The notes were sparse but there were profiles drafted up for each of the missing men. Mick seemed to think it was to do with how they looked and the places they frequented. All ten were last seen around the same café in midtown and were seen speaking to a woman before they disappeared. He got further than I thought he would but judging by the scribbles this was his intuition and not an official case.
+++++“Comfortable there?”
+++++“Oh shit, Mick you scared me.”
+++++“What do you need and why are you going through my cases?”
+++++“I was bored. But I’m here on official business. I found your kidnapper and solved my suicide.”
+++++“You mean… the ten kids? I was right?”
+++++“For the most part, but looks like you didn’t get very far”, I picked up the flimsy file and dangled it in front of him.
+++++“Not easy when your Captain thinks you’ve lost it.”
+++++“Well, I have all your proof right here”, I patted the filing box with my foot. “Though I can’t take all the credit, PI by the name of Trevor Rollins put all this together. All I did was find it.”
+++++“Ahh. So, you’re the lovely Mrs Rollins we’ve heard so much about?”
+++++“Guilty. So, you found him?”
+++++“At least what was left… A torso washed up onto the shore. Lucky break I suppose.”
+++++“A little too lucky if you ask me. I’d say someone wanted you to find him.”
+++++“I know. He was in pretty good shape for a floater, usually they come in all green and bloated after they’ve been in the bay.”
+++++“Then I’d say that your kidnapper put him there. But why would he need him found by the police?”
+++++“I have a theory.” Mick picked up a newspaper, “Once we find a body and ID it, an announcement is put in the local paper. Full name listed and all, in case anyone has any information. Once this creep has his name he can find his office, home address, you name it.”
+++++“Well, it’s a good thing I already have all the files.”
+++++“You better take all this to the Captain, Betty.”
+++++“No. My job here is done, this one is all yours.” Mick giggled like a schoolgirl.
+++++“Go on, go get your promotion. I’m outta here.”
+++++By the time I left the station the sun was just coming up. I paused, took in a big breath and thanked the powers that be for ending this case. Ethel and I weren’t in the killer-catching business after all.

***

The office was locked when I arrived. Most days Ethel would be making her morning coffee, singing something Christian under her breath and straightening out the waiting room. Today the room was empty and quiet, I shrugged it off, maybe it was her day off and I forgot again.
+++++I beelined for the kitchenette, grabbed a bottle of scotch from under the sink and headed for my office. I took a step inside and the bottle slipped from my fingers, landed on the floor and smashed into a thousand pieces. The alcohol ran down the floorboards and mixed with blood. Ethel was sitting slumped over in the chair, her chest was covered in blood. I ran over and shook her limp body again and again. Her head flopped back exposing a slit across her neck and a terrorised expression on her face.
+++++I dropped to the floor and crawled through the liqueur, blood and glass into the corner, putting my knees up to my chest. Then I saw a glimmer in the distance, Shirley was laying on the floor. I grabbed the gun, kissed Ethel on the forehead and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind me. Before I could leave a familiar figure walked in.
+++++“Got my present I see?”, Gleeny stood in the reception room grinning. He seemed feral. His suit was stained and torn, his salt and pepper hair wet and messy.
+++++“You”, I raised Shirley, pointing it at his head, “Why? She had nothing to do with this.”
+++++He raised his revolver, “Oh, the receptionist? She was just in the way.”
+++++“Don’t you fucking call her that. She was more than you could ever be.”
+++++“Whatever you say, it is your time to join her anyway.”
+++++“First tell me about Nancy, was she in the way too?”
+++++“I loved her and she betrayed me. We did everything together. Everything. And then she decided to turn on me and run off with a Private Dick? I could not allow that to happen. She was mine.”
+++++“But why here, why me?”
+++++“I needed someone to look for him. I needed to know how much he had. He neglected to share when I was cutting off his toes. You were just a random name out of a phone book, don’t flatter yourself.”
+++++“And the note?”
+++++“Good way to get you fired up, was it not?”
+++++“You son of a bitch. You’re gonna burn in hell.” I fired Shirley. He fired his revolver. His body fell to the floor with a loud thud. I felt the bullet pierce my chest and collapsed.

 

[Image Credit : Photo by Prakash Rao on Unsplash]