Gin Palace 01 - The Poisoned Rose

call in if I have to.”
    “Can you afford that?”
    I didn’t answer.
    “Look, I’ll compensate you, if you want. Put you on the payroll for a few days. Can’t have you starving.”
    “Let’s just keep this simple, Frank. I do the job as a favor to you and we’re even. I cover my own expenses, everything. I do this job and I never hear from you again. We’re clear on this?”
    He nodded. “Very.”
    “So what is it exactly you want me to do?”
    “I need you to find a woman named Marie Welles. Last her family knew of her she was living in Flanders with a guy named Tim Carter. Two weeks ago she disappeared, and no one has heard a word from her since.”
    “What do they think happened?”
    “Her trail ends very neatly. Very deliberately, in fact. As if she wanted to disappear, planned it out carefully, then went underground. There’s not one loose end leading to her.”
    “Except for this Carter guy.”
    Frank nodded. “It turns out he’s something of a petty crook. He has a record. Possession with intent to sell, that kind of thing. He was fired from his most recent job for stealing from the register. From what I know of him, he strikes me as one of those people who can’t decide whether they’re a crook or straight, so they kind of muddle along in between, doing a generally half-assed job in either world. But he has no record of violent crime. And there is no evidence that anything happened to the girl. She’s just gone.”
    “There’s a difference between missing and gone, Frank.”
    “Maybe. Carter is still in the cottage in Flanders they shared. I need you to go there tonight and find out from him where she is.”
    I knew what he meant by that.
    “Why hasn’t her family gone to the police?” I said.
    “They want this handled privately. They had their own people working on this, but when they came up with nothing, the family called me.”
    I looked out over the ocean and thought about all this. Several waves came in and tumbled over before either of us spoke again. I didn’t like any of what I was hearing from Frank.
    “How old is this Welles woman?”
    “Your age.”
    “Old enough to know what she wants, don’t you think?”
    “She has a history of mental illness. That’s why her family kept such close tabs on her when she moved out.”
    He took a slip of paper from his shirt pocket and handed it to me.
    “Carter’s address,” he said.
    I didn’t take the paper at first, just looked at it. Finally, I reached out for it. The paper was damp with Frank’s sweat. I slipped it into the pocket of my T-shirt without looking at it.
    “Any questions?” Frank asked.
    “What if I he doesn’t want to tell me what I want to know?”
    “I’m sure you’ll come up with something persuasive. You’re not without your skills, right? I’ll call you tonight when it’s time to go. Meet me back here tomorrow morning at eight and tell me what you’ve got.”
    “And if I don’t have anything?”
    “Just find where the girl went, Mac. That’s all you’ve got to do. Find the girl.”
    I’d heard these very same words from him once before.
    I drove to Southampton Hospital and caught up with Augie as he was coming out of his morning physical therapy. He had already traded in his crutches for a cane, though by the way he walked I couldn’t help but wonder if it he had done so prematurely. Of course I knew that was just the way he did things. The beating had done enough brain damage that he had to relearn pretty much everything. Some things didn’t come as easily as others. Walking was one of them.
    We headed down a long hallway to a large plate-glass window that overlooked Old Towne Pond. We stood there, shoulder to shoulder, and looked out over the lawn below and the patients who roamed it. They were wearing hospital bathrobes and slippers. Augie had on shorts and a T-shirt and running shoes. He refused to dress like an invalid, in gowns or even pajamas. The doctors had given up fighting with him a long time ago. These were the same doctors who had told Augie that the chances he would walk again were slim.
    Augie and I chatted for a while about his recovery, his impending release, about the idiot doctors and how they don’t even dare to stick their heads into his room anymore. He said that Gale was around here somewhere, that I should find her on my way out and say hello. But I had other things on my mind.
    “So what is it?” Augie said finally. “Something’s obviously