VINNIE CALLED ME at home from his cell phone. It was nine-eleven at night. I was watching the Celtics game.
“You might want to know this,” he said.
“I might,” I said.
I muted the sound on the television.
“Been watching Beth’s ass all day. Followed her home from the club, ’bout five-fifteen, watched her go in. ’Bout six o’clock the boyfriend comes home. I watch him go in. By seven I figure they’re in for the night, so I call it a day. I walk down Arlington to the Ritz, Taj, whatever the fuck it is now, and go in to take a leak. Then I’m in there, I figure I’ll go in the bar, have a couple pops, think about Beth’s ass, which I would now recognize at three miles in the dark. So I’m in there for maybe an hour or so, and I have a few, and then I go out and head down Arlington to get my car. I know a guy works the door at The Park Plaza, and he’s holding my car for me.”
“Uh-huh,” I said.
The Celtics were up four on the Wizards late in the first half.
“And I see the pug,” Vinnie said.
I shut off the television.
“Boo?” I said.
“Same guy had the argument with Beth a while back,” Vinnie said. “He’s walking along Arlington same direction I am, like he could have been down at Beth’s place. He’s on the other side of the street. So I slow down and sort of let him get ahead of me and I see what he does. He crosses over in front of me at Boylston and goes into the subway. So I chuck along after him and go down, too.”
“Was it crowded?” I said.
“Naw,” Vinnie said. “Place was empty. So he goes through the turnstile and waits on the outbound platform, and I don’t see any reason to waste two bucks, so I go back upstairs and get my car. On my way home I swung by Beth’s building, but everything looked, you know, copacetic, so I kept going.”
“Thank you, Vinnie,” I said.
We hung up.
I dialed Gary Eisenhower’s number. After four rings the answering machine picked up.
“Hi, it’s Beth. Neither Gary nor I can come to the phone right now, but your call is important to us, so please do leave a message, and we’ll get back to you as quick as we can.”
When the beep sounded I yelled a couple of times that it was Spenser and pick up the phone. But nothing happened, so I hung up and got dressed and took a gun and hoofed it down to the apartment that Beth now shared with Gary, which was only a couple of blocks from my place.
The front door was locked. I rang Gary’s bell; nothing happened. I rang a few other bells. One of the tenants answered. It was a woman.
“Hi,” I said. “It’s Gary from the first floor. I seem to have the wrong front-door key. Could you buzz me in.”
“Call the super,” she said, and broke the connection.
Neighborly.
I found the superintendent’s number and rang the bell. After two rings he answered, sounding foggy.
“Yeah?”
“Police,” I said. “I need you to come open a couple doors for me.”
“Police?” he said.
“You heard me, now run your ass up here.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, officer, gimme a minute.”
It took more than a minute, but it was only two or three before he appeared in the entryway and opened the door.
“You ain’t wearing a uniform,” he said.
“No shit,” I said.
“You got a badge or something?”
I looked at him hard.
I said, “Ain’t I seen a mug shot of you, pal?”
“Me? I never done nothing.”
“That’s your story. Open up apartment one-A pretty goddamned hubba hubba, or I’ll run your ass down to the station for a look-see.”
“One-A, yeah, sure,” he said, and took out his key ring. “No need to get all worked up.”
“Move it,” I said. “Or I’ll work you up, you unnerstand that?”
“Yes, sir, sure thing.”
He went to Gary’s door and unlocked it. I went in. The super came in behind me a step.
“Jesus,” he said. “Jesus Christ.”
“Call nine-one-one,” I said. “Cops and an ambulance.”
“But you’re a…”
“Call it,” I said.