A Place Beyond Greed (Part 2)
Following up on a hunch, the detective investigates Eddie Ramirez, the last caretaker of the victim, Mr. Frank.
Don’t get spoiled! Read Part 1 first!
Eddie Ramirez lived in a house on the corner of two streets on the other side of the tracks. Every house in the neighborhood was a derelict one-story rancher, with cars parked in an overgrown yard or shoved up against a garage door. Long, drooping cables hung off transmission towers running through the backyards. The insects hummed like they only do when it’s bright, hot, and muggy in the Florida backwoods.
Eddie’s yard was thick with clover. A rusted trampoline stood unmolested next to a frail magnolia. The garage door was open with a faded silver sedan inside and in the front yard three little kids played a game with rules only they understood. They watched my car roll to a stop against the curb. I waited to see if they went inside. One did. The smallest tottered forward with her brother watching carefully. I got out and stayed on the driver’s side of the car and looked at the house.
“Mummy man,” the smallest one said. She had a big smile. “Mummy man.”
The door inside the garage banged open and a young man with long slick black hair stomped out. He spoke in Spanish and told the two kids to get inside. “Can I help you?” he shouted at me in unfriendly English.
“Mummy man!” the littlest one said again. Her brother picked her up and carried her inside.
“I’m looking for Eddie,” I called.
“Wrong house!”
“I don’t think it is.”
“Like I said, man: wrong house!”
I sighed and showed him my badge. Eddie rolled his eyes, but he didn’t tell me to get lost again. I carefully stepped around my car and leaned against the other side. He walked halfway down the driveway and came no further.
“I tried calling,” I lied. “Nobody picked up the phone.”
“I was busy.”
“That’s fine. People get busy. I just came by to talk to Eddie.”
“Well, you’re talking to him.”
“So this isn’t the wrong house?”
The corners of his jaw flared. My mouth was running away from me. I pulled out a piece of gum, then thoughtlessly offered him a piece. He didn’t even put up a hand to refuse.
“You worked for Frank Richardson, right?” I asked.
“Maybe. What’s it to you?”
“Frank’s dead. He was shot this morning.”
Eddie’s glare fell away. He stuck his hands in his pockets and they came back with a lighter and a cigarette. “Jesus, man,” he mumbled. He lit the cigarette and puffed it a few times. “You know who killed him?”
“I was hoping you could help. You worked for him?”
“Yeah. I did things for him, you know. Shopping, yard work.” Another few puffs of the cigarette. “That sort of thing.”
“Did you notice anything odd about Frank before he died? Did he ever seem scared to you?”
Eddie laughed like I had told him a joke. “Frank?” he said. “Frank was over 90 years old and he still ran marathons, man. You couldn’t scare him with The Exorcist.”
“So what’s a man that active need an errand boy for?”
“Caretaker,” Eddie said tightly.
I grinned. “Alright. Caretaker.”
“What are you smiling for?”
I dropped the grin and said nothing. It seemed to soothe him. He took another puff of his cigarette. “I don’t know,” he said. “I think he was just lonely. Maybe he wanted someone to be with him.”
“Couldn’t get his kids to visit on the weekends, huh?”
Eddie shrugged.
“Did Frank owe anyone money?”
Eddie scoffed and immediately hid behind his cigarette. He shook his head.
“Did he owe you money?” I said.
“Nah,” Eddie said dismissively. “Nah, man. Frank always paid.”
“Something tells me you don’t believe that.”
“I’m not lying.” Eddie was more than halfway done with his cigarette already. “He didn’t pay good but he always paid on time. What do you want me to say?”
“Is that why you were fired?”
“Who said I was fired?”
I shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“Hell yeah it matters!” Eddie shouted. “I’ve never been fired from any job, never. I wanted better pay, Frank said he couldn’t do that. So I walked. Fired, nothing. That’s bullshit, man.”
Eddie took a huge drag from his cigarette, flicked it on the ground, and let the smoke fog his face while he fished out another from the pack.
“You see that house behind me?” he said. “It costs 290 grand. My mortgage is $2,600 a month. I’m from Cuba. I don’t have a college degree. You know what that means here? It means washing dishes. Moving concrete. Changing tires. Back-breaking work that’ll put you on your ass in two years. Or, if you’re lucky like me, you can get into a good position that pays well and lets you afford good things for your kids. I live off recommendations. If anyone sees that I got fired from any job, it strips my cred. Then there’s no money. I got six kids, man. If I lose my cred, my kids lose their home. So don’t say it doesn’t matter, because it matters.”
“Sure,” I said. “It matters. I didn’t know it was like that.”
Eddie leaned against my car so we were shoulder-to-shoulder. He lit another cigarette. “You gotta make sacrifices for your family. I needed to make more money and Frank wasn’t willing to pay. That’s all.”
I looked at the ground and tried to ignore the awkward silence. It felt like he was waiting for me to say something, or maybe he was searching for something new to say, some detail to elaborate on. Like with Lottie, I stayed quiet and listened and hoped he’d talk. Like Lottie, he didn’t. He just finished a second cigarette next to me and stared at his house and the shapes of his kids playing inside the window.
I thought a little about what he said and couldn’t find a flaw. It seemed ridiculous to believe he would kill Frank when he had so much to lose. There was only one thing that bothered me: the grin on his little girl, who called me the mummy man. It seemed like it was just part of a silly game.
Eddie pushed himself off the curb and my train of thought tapered off. “I gotta head back inside,” he said. “You need anything else from me?”
“No,” I said. “Thanks for the talk. Sorry we got off on the wrong foot.”
I offered him my hand. He shook it without hesitation.
“Actually, last thing,” I said. “You know that eagle statue Frank kept in a case? It’s missing.”
“Man, seriously? He was really proud of that thing.”
“Just keep an eye out. We’d appreciate the help.”
Eddie nodded and went back into his house. As soon as he was gone, the garage door shuttered closed. I got in my car and sat for a few minutes staring at the steering wheel, then I drove home.
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