The Girl in White Pajamas Read online

  “On a Saturday night?”

  “Yes,” Jack said flatly.

  “They don’t look that busy over there. Why was she working at that time of night?”

  “I’m not sure. I think she had to get ready for a deposition.” The sweat was forming on Jack’s forehead and his light pallor had a red tinge to it as Bogie continued to stare at him.

  “When was the deposition?” Bogie asked.

  “I think it wound up getting cancelled because she was sick.”

  “Were you with her in Rubin’s office?”

  “No. I drove her there. I did some work here until she was ready to leave.”

  “And where did she fall?”

  “She fell on the sidewalk. I wasn’t there.”

  “And you picked her up or she got up by herself.”

  “Both. She was groggy,” Jack said then exhaled. “Can we please stop this? I feel like I’m in an interrogation room.”

  “You are. I’m going to bring out the rubber hoses in a minute.” Bogie tried to smile, but they both knew he was snarling more than smiling. “And where was George through all of this?”

  “He was home.”

  “So you left George at home alone so you could drive Bailey to her office on a Saturday night, is that what you’re saying?”

  “Yes.” Jack’s green eyes were cold and angry. “If there’s nothing else, I’ve really got work to do.”

  “When did you stop working for Rubin?”

  “Two and a half, three years ago. Best move I ever made!”

  “So it was your idea?”

  “Mutual agreement. I’d had enough of his bullshit. Sal was on his way out, and I could see the handwriting on the wall.”

  “What did the handwriting say?”

  “It said ‘without Sal you’re going down the toilet, you old fool’.”

  Bogie studied Jack then asked, “So you’re not doing personal injury work?”

  “A little, but I’m mainly focusing on co-parent adoption and divorce—non-traditional families. I got some litigation experience working with Sal so I’m getting along.”

  Bogie smiled. “Good. I’m glad for you!” After pausing for a few seconds he asked, “Why did Sal leave?”

  “He was disbarred.”

  “What!?” Bogie was stunned.

  Jack studied him then said, “I guess you didn’t know. The story on the street was that he got caught with cocaine in his possession in the courtroom.”

  “And the real story?” Bogie asked.

  After pausing, Jack said, “That was true, but the back story was that Rubin was under investigation. He had runners working for him and made Sal the goat! It was Sal who paid off these runners for bringing in clients, something like five hundred dollars a head for sprain/strain cases. The insurance investigators had testimony and pictures, but all they had was Sal. He wouldn’t give up Rubin so they came down on him like a ton of shit.”

  “I never realized Sal was so noble,” Bogie said.

  “He wasn’t being noble just pragmatic. Sal knew that taking Rubin down with him wouldn’t help either one of them. He figured that Rubin owed him big time after that!”

  “And what’s that worth?”

  “Shit, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “So where’s Sal now?”

  Jack laughed. “I’ve heard everything from representing members of a Mexican drug cartel to working as a conselerie for the Cosa Nostra.”

  Both men laughed until Bogie asked, “Do you know what he’s really up to?”

  “I think he’s living down in your neck of the woods. He’s involved with some jai-alai gaming project near Miami.”

  “That sounds more like Sal,” Bogie said. “He’s like a cat, always lands on his feet. So who’s doing the dirty work for Rubin now?”

  “Nobody, can’t you tell? The place is like a morgue!”

  “You sure he’s not pushing Bailey to do that?”

  Jack laughed and shook his head. “When she came back and was looking for work, I told her to talk to Rubin because I was leaving. I warned her about him. I told her not to get involved in that crap. I warned him, too, when she started. He knew I was watching him. That lazy son of a bitch would never dream of meeting and greeting, repeat networking and doing all the other stuff it takes to build up a client base.” Jack glanced at his watch. “I’ve really got to get back to—”

  “I know. Thanks for seeing me. Don’t be such a stranger!”

  When Bogie walked out of the tiny office, he knew that Jack and George would most likely make sure they saw even less of him now than they had before.

  *****

  Isabella watched Angel and a Cambodian man named Ken Nguyen, who was no relation to Kim, practicing mixed martial arts. The child seemed entranced as she observed them. At times, her small arms moved out as she imitated the men. The door opened and Tommie, a giant of a man, stood there filling the entire frame. He nodded to the men and they nodded back. When he saw the little redhead his wide face broke into a full grin. He moved toward her and stretched out his hand. “Hello, I’m Tommie!”

  Isabella studied him and took his hand shaking it. “I’m Isabella. You’re very big!”

  The pale-haired man laughed. “Maybe you’re just very little.”

  Isabella studied him then started giggling.

  “Do you like martial arts?”

  Isabella nodded vigorously.

  “Would you like to try some?”

  “I’d really like to, but I don’t have an outfit like them,” she said pointing to the white karate clothes the men wore.

  “You don’t have to…” Tommie started to say until he noticed how she longingly looked at the men and their outfits. “I know what!” he said. “You can come with me!”

  Isabella shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to go with anybody.”

  “Good!” Tommie said. “You’re a smart girl.”

  Isabella was disappointed as she watched him walk out of the room, but her mood instantly changed when Tommie returned with Rose. Rose was holding Isabella’s jacket. “It’s okay to go with Tommie. He’s going to walk you over to Chinatown,” Rose said.

  “Is it far?” Isabella asked.

  Rose shook her head. “It’s very close.”

  “Why are we going there?” Isabella questioned.

  “It’s a surprise,” Rose said as she winked at Tommie.

  In less than half an hour Isabella and Tommie returned to R & B Investigations. Isabella wore a small, white karate outfit with a white belt wrapped around her waist. She carried her other clothes in a bundle and ran to Rose’s office where she immediately removed her coat. “Look, Aunt Rose! I’m a real warrior now!”

  Rose looked at Isabella wondering if her parents would be equally as thrilled.

  38 A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT

  After he left Jack’s office, Bogie walked down a narrow street called City Hall Avenue which was between the side of twenty-seven School Street and the Old City Hall. The street led to Pi Alley where the side door to One Boston Place was located.

  Bogie only nodded to Jesus when he entered the offices of Rubin Goldstein. Without acknowledging the receptionist who was leaning over her desk flirting with Jesus and asking about his scar, Bogie walked past the doors of five offices until he reached Rubin’s. Bogie knocked once and opened the door at the same time. He stared at Rubin who was speaking on the phone while smoothing his perfectly-cut pewter-colored hair. Rubin’s mouth opened wide in a fake smile showing off his glistening white teeth. Rubin quickly said goodbye to the caller and started to stand until Bogie motioned for him to stay seated.

  Bogie sat in the chair across from his desk. “Long time no see, Rubin!”

  “Yeah! Sorry about your brother. You’re looking good. You actually look younger than you did the last time I saw you. Nice tan!”


  “Florida sunshine! Now that we’ve got all the social niceties out of the way, I’d like to ask you a few questions.” When Rubin made a gesture with his hand for Bogie to continue, Bogie asked, “Do you have any thoughts on who would want to kill Bailey?”

  “If my older brother, Stanley, was alive, he’d be number one on my list; but he’s not, so no, I don’t have any ideas.”

  “What about his wife?”

  “Ester?” Rubin shook his head. “She is remarried living in Arizona. Besides, if she’s going to kill anybody, it would be you, not Bailey. She blamed you for all the financial woes you caused Stanley. Ester said you were blackmailing him.”

  Bogie’s laugh was mirthless. Only greedy Ester could explain away a pedophile’s behavior with dollar bills. “She never mentioned that money belonged to Bailey and Jack?”

  Rubin already knew that. When his sister, Veronica, and her husband, Hank Hampfield, were killed in a small plane crash, their sizable estates went to their twins, Jack and Bailey. Stanley wasted no time getting to Sutton, West Virginia to scoop up the fifteen year old twins so he could bring them to Boston. Never mind that he and Veronica hadn’t spoken to each other in eleven years and had little or no use for each other. Stanley knew that love was where the money lived.

  To Ester’s dismay, he moved them into their lovely home. They were a couple of hillbilly teenagers who talked with a mountain twang. Ester finally convinced Stanley to send the boy off to military school because he cried too easily and was too much of a sissy. The school would make a man of him. Bailey stayed in Newton with her cousins. They were embarrassed to be seen with this hick who couldn’t dress or talk right.

  Bogie and Rose met Stanley when Bailey was a sixteen year old runaway. Stanley had an office on Lincoln Street and wanted a discrete investigation conducted. Bring the wayward girl home. No harm no foul.

  Bogie found Bailey panhandling on Boston Common. That wild red hair was the giveaway. She looked like a princess even with the smudged face and soiled clothes. But her features crumbled when he grabbed her arm and started walking her to Arlington Street. Tears slowly spilled down her cheeks and she said, “Please don’t take me back. Please! I’ll do anything, anything you want…” When she sobbed, Bogie’s gut told him there was more to the story than Stanley was telling them.

  Bogie took her to R&B, where Bailey told him and Rose how her uncle Stanley had sexually molested her for the past year and no one would believe her. Her aunt told her she was a filthy liar and a tramp. All Bailey wanted to do was get back to Sutton where they had some ‘kinfolk’ and then get Jack out of that awful school where they were so mean to him.

  Late the following day, Bogie met with Stanley in the den of his Newton home. At that point, Bogie already knew how much money the kids received and how Stanley diverted their funds. Bogie explained that Bailey wasn’t coming back to Newton and gave Stanley a schedule of payments he would make for the kids’ upkeep and education. Jack would transfer from the military academy, and the twins would attend Phillips Academy in Andover.

  When Stanley laughed at him, Bogie told him he would turn the whole matter over to the courts and family services. “Nobody likes a pedophile, Stanley. Either you do as I say or we’ll have the cops, the courts and The Boston Globe all over this. I promise you!”

  While calling Bogie a cock-sucking gumshoe, Stanley signed an agreement. The twins got educated and were safe. Everyone was happy, except Stanley, who watched their money decreasing as his own income went down. Fees were off, investments failed and his family spent money like tomorrow would never come. Tomorrow came when the twins were in law school. Stanley had a massive heart attack and a series of strokes. When he died, Ester was appalled to learn how much money had been spent on the hillbilly children through their guardian angel, Bogie.

  Bogie almost smiled as he remembered Ester threatening to sue him until he told her to show how he personally ever received one cent from Stanley. She unhappily gave up the fight.

  Bogie stared at Rubin. “What’s going on here? Where are the clients? Where’s the staff?”

  “Gone,” Rubin said quietly. “After Sal left, it just went bad.”

  “Where’d he go?”

  “Puerto Rico, then Florida.”

  “You have a falling out?”

  Rubin just shook his head. “Sal got disbarred.” Bogie’s eyebrow raised, and Rubin continued, “He did most of the criminal work. Hell, he was the one who brought it in. He was in the courtroom representing an alleged drug dealer. Sal was putting on his usual show and twirling a pen while he talked. He dropped the pen. When Sal reached down for it, a bag dropped out of his pocket.” Rubin held his hand over the breast pocket of his jacket. “The rest, my boy, is history!”

  “And Bailey can’t replace him?”

  “Get serious! I couldn’t keep up with Sal. And Bailey—she couldn’t put a patch on a litigator’s ass. She has no litigation experience.”

  “Thank you so much for your vote of confidence!” Bailey shrieked as she stood in the doorway of his office. “The only litigator we ever had around here left the building! When was the last time you walked into a courtroom, Rubin?” Without waiting for an answer, she continued, “Maybe you could snap out of your ‘dream state’ and get back in the trenches. The shit’s piling up down here!” Her face red and her eyes watery she stomped away. When the door to her office down the hall slammed, she was finished.

  “Sounds like she’s not too happy with you,” Bogie said.

  “At this point, I don’t care. I’m closing the office. We’ll be out of here in about three weeks.”

  “Does she know?”

  “I haven’t told her the exact time yet, but she knows how bad things are. We’re just settling old stuff. She was supposed to do a deposition a couple weeks ago and then got sick. I was hoping the insurance company would make an offer after the deposition; but since we cancelled, they’re jerking us around and I have Bailey to thank for it.”

  “Why’d you let Jack go?”

  “That faggot! He’s a faggot and his clients are faggots. Him and his damned Pink Pages advertising! The reception area looked like a San Francisco freak show!”

  “So now you’re happy with no clients?”

  “I’m just sick of this whole business. Maybe I’ll be like you and Sal. I’ll move to Florida and retire.”

  “Sal’s retired?”

  “Sort of. He’s involved with a syndicate that’s planning on opening a casino near Miami.”

  Bogie smiled. “And he hit you up for money?”

  Rubin shrugged. “Hey, what could I do? He was always like a son to me. He promised we’d both retire when the place opens.”

  Bogie studied Rubin. “Don’t plan on an early retirement. There are plenty of casinos in Florida, and with the economy down the toilet they’re all hurting.”

  Rubin’s spray tan faded. “But Sal said—”

  “I’m sure he knows more than I do about the business. Like he always said ‘trust me’. I’m just surprised you invested in something when your own business is shaky.”

  Rubin shrugged and feigned indifference.

  Tiring of tormenting Rubin, Bogie said, “If it makes you feel any better, I’m not retiring any time soon either. I’m working my ass off every day.”

  “But the settlement money—”

  “It’s for Amanda. I wouldn’t touch that blood money! My father and Olga put her through hell, and I figured it would help her get over the pains of childhood.”

  “It would help me get over the pains of childhood! How’s she doing?”

  “Engaged. Pregnant.”

  “Geez! She’s only what, eighteen?”

  Bogie nodded.

  “Who’s the guy, some kid in school?”

  “No. He’s a sheriff’s deputy. He’s actually a nice guy, but they’re both so young. Back to Bailey. The de
position she cancelled. When did she cancel it?”

  Rubin thought for a while then said, “Monday. Monday morning. She was supposed to meet with the client in the afternoon to prepare for the deposition. It was scheduled for Tuesday morning. She said she had an accident, a concussion and was throwing up.”

  “So she came in Saturday to prepare for the deposition?”

  Rubin nodded. “Don’t ask me why. I don’t know. It wasn’t complicated. She could have done that Monday morning.”

  “Did she have anything else scheduled Monday morning?”

  “Not that I know of. We don’t have that much going on.”

  “Did she say whether she went to a hospital or not?”

  “She didn’t say.”

  “Did she tell you when she had the accident?”

  “Not at the time. She told me later that she was here on Saturday night getting the materials in order and fell when she left the building.”

  “I’d like to see the security tapes for that night. Do you have any problem with that?”

  “No. I’ll call down to the security office and tell them to show the tapes to you.” Rubin looked at a list of numbers next to his phone then punched one in. After telling the head of security what he wanted, he hesitated. “When did they do that?...Okay…Well thanks anyway.”

  Rubin looked at Bogie. “The police have the tapes. They have the tapes and the computer printouts showing who was in and out of the building that night.”

  Bogie stood up. “Well, Rubin, it’s been!”

  Rubin nodded.

  After leaving Rubin’s office, Bogie went to the Pi Alley Garage and asked to speak to the manager. He showed the small, Middle Eastern man his credentials then asked if he could see the security tapes for April second.

  “I already told the cops. Our whole system was down for four days. They didn’t come to fix it until the following Monday.”

  “So you have no record of who came in and out of the garage?”

  “The monthly cars have a bar code card. We already printed out the list of cars, owners and what time or times they were in and out.”