Death in North Beach (2 page)

‘Seems to be what's happening.'

‘Tell you what, you model for me and you can go in the back room and have your pick of the paintings.'

‘Model for you?'

‘Yes. Nude. A celebration of your freedom.' He fumbled about and found an oversized matchbox.

‘I'm not sure I'm that free, yet. And, Mo, I'm far from the nubile young women you usually paint.'

‘You are beautiful. Look at you. You are slender where it counts. You have some flesh where it counts. Your dark hair and deep Italian eyes. My God, Carly. You are at that wonderful age when a woman is a woman. You are an inspiration.'

She smiled at his compliments. She didn't know what was so wonderful about her age.

He lit his cigarette. His eyes, rather than looking at her, looked beyond and behind her.

Carly turned to see a handsome man, dark hair with a little silver. He wore expensive clothes and wore them well.

‘William,' Anselmo called out. ‘Come in and meet Carly Paladino, the most beautiful woman in the world. Carly, say hello to Sweet William, the most charming man in the world. What a fine coincidence.'

William smiled, shook hands with Carly.

‘Have you known this old poseur long?' William asked her.

‘Since I was a little girl,' she said.

‘Then there's no need to protect you,' he said. ‘May I interrupt you two for just a moment? I have something urgent to discuss with Anselmo. For just a moment or two.'

‘Certainly.'

‘You know where I keep the masterpieces, Carly,' Anselmo said. ‘Go pick one and I'll be with you shortly to discuss payment options.' He winked.

As Carly rummaged through the large paintings, all leaning against each other, she understood that she wasn't getting the right perspective. Anselmo painted as passionately as he lived. His work was achieved with broad, thick brushstrokes that created images in the abstract. She'd have to pull out the ones that she was drawn to and step back from them to fully appreciate them.

She slid one out carefully and brought it to the light. Closer to the other room, she heard what seemed to be William's desperate whispers and Anselmo's more controlled and audible voice saying, ‘Calm down,' and ‘I'm sure it's not as bad as you think.'

Carly was troubled by her impulse to listen more closely. But what could they expect, she thought, having a private investigator in the next room. Invading privacy was somewhere between a natural inclination and an undeniable urge.

‘They heard us arguing,' said the whispering voice of the person the painter called ‘Sweet William'.

‘I haven't read the papers,' Anselmo said. ‘What time was he killed?'

Carly couldn't make out the answer, but it was something about not being in the papers yet. She used to watch the morning news as she got ready to go to work at the security firm. Now that she was on her own, she was a little more casual about a lot of things. One of them was weaning herself from the morning shows. It was a depressing start to the day. The news was never good and the anchors tried to make up for it by an obscene amount of gushing goodwill.

This morning she had purposely avoided the news, taking her coffee and yogurt on her deck overlooking Mr Nakamura's garden belonging to the flat below. She had read a few chapters of Amy Tan's
Saving Fish From Drowning
before setting out for North Beach and her old friend, Anselmo. She wondered if she had missed something important because something important was going on in the next room. Carly was torn between listening to the sounds and looking at the paintings. She had pulled out two when Anselmo appeared.

‘Oh,' he said, ‘“Fawn at Dawn” and “Salmon Moon”.'

‘That's what they are,' Carly said, not hiding the sarcasm. William had appeared in the doorway, pale but smiling.

‘Why don't you give William your card, Carly?' He shrugged. ‘Just in case.'

‘Sure.' She retrieved a card from her bag, strewn in a corner. ‘In whatever case,' she said, trying to tone down her sudden urge to flirt. William, she thought, belonged in a French film. She would even let him smoke a cigarette if he insisted.

William looked at the card. His smile seemed genuine though it didn't match his eyes. He was troubled.

‘Thank you, Ms Paladino,' he said. ‘Don't take offense, but I hope I don't need you.'

‘Call me Carly. Though it's against my best interest, I hope you don't either.'

Noah Lang, the other half of Paladino & Lang Investigations, watched as Carly struggled with the large canvas. He was standing in the little reception area of their newly expanded and revamped office. His dress was casual – worn jeans and a sweatshirt.

‘A little help?' he asked.

‘I got it,' she said. And she did, successfully maneuvering it through the office door.

It seemed to Lang that the look of her office had become a priority project. He knew she was trying as best she could to make the space her own, not to mention establish a little island of taste and dignity in an otherwise desolate environment.

Shortly after Carly moved in with Lang, they discovered the quarters were just a little too close. So when ageing PI Barry Brinkman, who had a neighboring office, told them he had to give up his space because he could no longer afford a place to nap and read the paper, the three of them worked out a deal and the landlord agreed. They knocked out a wall and connected the spaces.

Brinkman, who had his own PI agency for more years than he could count and who now came to work because he had nothing else to do, settled for a small, windowless room in the rear of Lang's office at token rent. Lang had his original office space back, defeating the purpose of subletting his space for additional income. Carly had her own space and Thanh could sit in the reception area or in Lang's office on those occasions when this mysterious and illusive being of alternating genders appeared. The three of them – Lang, Thanh and Brinkman – formed the little family in which Carly Paladino uneasily found herself, much to the amusement of Noah Lang.

He followed her into her office.

‘You found a way to fit that into your little clown car?' he said, referring to her sporty little Mini Cooper

‘It's only a clown car when you're in it,' she said, leaning the painting against the wall behind her desk. ‘I tied it to the roof.'

‘I'm surprised you didn't have lift-off.'

She ignored him. She took the large bag from her shoulder, tossed it on her desk. The
San Francisco Chronicle
spilled out. She turned back to stare at her new painting. He couldn't tell whether it was admiration or an appraisal. There were things about her he didn't quite understand. He liked that fact.

‘What is it?' he asked.

‘A fawn.'

‘Oh.'

‘At dawn,' she said. She looked at him, daring him to say something.

He wasn't sure how far he could go. They were still getting used to each other. Perhaps he had gone too far with the friendly jabs. But if that was a fawn, then Lang had a stain on his carpet that was the
Mona
Lisa
.

‘You don't like it?' she asked.

‘I didn't say that.'

She looked at him. Expectation was on her face.

‘Classy,' he said. ‘Looks like we're movin' on up.'

He went back to his office, sat in the chair with the ripped seat, and put his hands on the wood desk, a piece of furniture out of the fifties with ring marks, dents, stains and scratches. The plant under the dusty window looked unhappy. The sofa was a green Naugahyde disaster. Its still shiny pillows floated precariously on a frame with broken springs. When the new office was annexed, the whole place got a coat of paint. Unfortunately, the contrast of old and new merely made his office look shabbier.

‘Classy,' he said. He thought that most would think a man barely this side of middle age would have had a more mature environment in which to work. They, of course, would be mistaken.

‘You busy?' Carly asked, waiting in the doorway.

‘Just adding up all my assets. I just started. OK, I'm done.'

‘I need a set of eyes.'

He followed her back into her office. She held up the painting, which was about as wide as she was tall. She lowered and raised it.

‘There,' Lang said.

She moved it left and right.

‘There.'

‘Could you hold it here while I mark it?'

He did. She put two pencil marks and he put the painting down. She reached in her purse to get two sturdy nails and one tiny hammer.

‘You borrow that from the Keebler elves?'

‘I did. By the way, they don't like you.'

She pounded in the nails. It was slow going, but eventually she got the job done.

‘Seems as if you live in a miniature world,' he said. She didn't answer.

Lang looked down at the newspaper. It was a late city edition, a rarity these days.

As Lang left Carly's office, his eye caught a photograph of San Francisco legend Whitney Warfield four columns wide and above the fold. The headline read: ‘Warfield Dead in the Water'. Lang didn't know Warfield, but knew of him. Who didn't? The headline was a surprisingly playful reference to one of his books,
Dead in the Water
, one of the many books Lang hadn't read.

Lang was more of a movie guy. In fact, tonight, he was going to have crab cakes and beer and watch three of his favorites –
Blood Simple
,
Blood and Wine
and
Red Rock West
– all gritty little films about nasty people.

Two

One could guess his age and be off ten years either way. Maybe more. On this sunny morning, Thanh wore a straw hat, a white silky shirt open two buttons at the neck, light, sharply creased slacks, and something of a cross between shoes and sandals. He – and Thanh was a ‘he' today – looked a little pimpish or just maybe in the wrong town. This was fog city, not sin city. But it was also September. Essentially summer. That San Francisco is in California is a myth – except during the warm and sunny months of September and October.

Thanh stood just inside Lang's office this beautiful morning, not only wearing cool but being cool.

‘There's a guy here looking for Carly.'

‘Do I look like Carly?' Lang asked without looking up.

‘No, I guess not. But maybe if we did something with your hair . . .'

When Lang looked up he got the full ‘Thanh in the tropics' effect.

‘You thinking about moving to Manila?' Lang asked him.

‘You going out for a game of touch football?' Thanh said. ‘You're one to talk. Look at you. You've worn the same sweatshirt for three days.'

‘This week. All last week as well.'

‘When was the last time you washed your jeans?'

‘Oh, you're supposed to wash these things?'

‘Now, take our guy waiting for Carly,' Thanh said. ‘Good-looking guy. Expensive clothes. Sharp crease in his pants. Asked for her by name.'

‘That's all very nice. I'm happy for him, but why are you telling me?'

‘She isn't here.'

‘Give him a magazine.'

Thanh sighed and left. One couldn't predict who Thanh would be tomorrow. It wasn't a game, this endless supply of identities. It was a way of life.

Lang looked at his watch. Carly was late. There were no posted hours, but during their relatively brief period as partners, she almost always beat him in.

He heard a door shut, conversation, introductions. All was well with the world. He went back to his computer, and his Netflix page. He was hungry for more of the kind of movies he watched last night. As he scanned a list of noir choices, he dialed up his iPod for ‘Tony Bennett Sings Duke Ellington'. He would call around to see if he could dig up business, but he'd wait until ten. Meanwhile, he'd play. After all, he was his own boss and a very lenient one at that.

‘Do I call you Sweet William?' Carly asked when they were seated in her office. To say she was aware of his green eyes would be an understatement.

‘If you want to, but only Anselmo calls me that, a name he gave me years ago.'

He wore a blue blazer, a white shirt and Palomino-colored pants, all custom-made, Carly was sure. Loosely draped and elegant. If she had known he was visiting, she would have taken a little more care of her own appearance. However, at the moment, she was working on a more relaxed image.

‘What can I do to help you?'

‘I have some questions for you first. Do you mind?' William asked.

‘No, it makes sense. What would you like to know?'

‘What is your background?'

‘I worked for more years than I care to mention at Vogel Security – one of the most prestigious investigation firms in the country.'

‘And you went out on your own?' he asked.

‘Yes. I hit the glass ceiling and the work was becoming routine,' Carly said.

‘How big a firm is this?'

‘We're small, just Noah Lang and I for the most part.'

‘And Mr Lang?'

‘He has been here for several years. He has tremendous experience in criminal defense work.' She waited to see if his expression changed. His blink, longer than usual, confirmed her feeling that he was here about Whitney Warfield. ‘That can be helpful, right?' she asked.

William took a deep breath, looked around, started to talk, but stopped. He nodded toward the doorway.

‘Thanh,' Carly called out.

‘Yes.'

‘Can you hear what we're saying?'