Chapter One I met Bobby Callahan on Monday of that week. By Thursday, he was dead. He was convinced someone was trying to kill him and it turned out to be true, but none of us figured it out in time to save him. Ive never worked for a dead man before and I hope I wont have to do it again. This report is for him, for whatever its worth.
My name is Kinsey Millhone. Im a licensed private investigator, doing business in Santa Teresa, California, which is ninety-five miles north of Los Angeles. Im thirty-two years old, twice divorced. I like being alone and I suspect my independence suits me better than it should. Bobby challenged that. I dont know quite how or why. He was only twenty-three years old. I wasnt romantically involved with him in any sense of the word, but I did care and his death served to remind me, like a custard pie in the face, that life is sometimes one big savage joke. Not funny "ha ha," but cruel, like those gags sixth-graders have been telling since the world began.
It was August and Id been working out at Santa Teresa Fitness, trying to remedy the residual effects of a broken left arm. The days were hot, filled with relentless sunshine and clear skies. I was feeling cranky and bored, doing push-downs and curls and wrist rolls. Id just worked two cases back-to-back and Id sustained more damage than a fractured humerus. I was feeling emotionally battered and I needed a rest. Fortunately, my bank account was fat and I knew I could afford to take two months off. At the same time, the idleness was making me restless and the physical-therapy regimen was driving me nuts.
Santa Teresa Fitness is a real no-nonsense place: the brand X of health clubs. No Jacuzzi, no sauna, no music piped in. Just mirrored walls, body-building equipment, and industrial-grade carpeting the color of asphalt. The whole twenty-eight-hundred square feet of space smells like mens jockstraps.
Id arrive at eight in the morning, three days a week, and warm up for fifteen minutes, then launch into a series of exercises designed to strengthen and condition my left deltoid, pectoralis major, biceps, triceps, and anything else that had gone awry since Id had the snot beaten out of me and had intersected the flight path of a .22 slug. The orthopedist had prescribed six weeks of physical therapy and so far, Id done three. There was nothing for it but to work my way patiently from one machine to the next. I was usually the only woman in the place at that hour and I tended to distract myself from the pain, sweat, and nausea by checking out mens bodies while they were checking out mine.
Bobby Callahan came in at the same time I did. I wasnt sure what had happened to him, but whatever it was, it had hurt. He was probably just short of six feet tall, with a football players physique: big head, thick neck, brawny shoulders, heavy legs. Now the shaggy blond head was held to one side, the left half of his face pulled down in a permanent grimace. His mouth leaked saliva as though hed just been shot up with Novocain and couldnt quite feel his own lips. He tended to hold his left arm up against his waist and he usually carried a folded white handkerchief that he used to mop up his chin. There was a terrible welt of dark red across the bridge of his nose, a second across his chest, and his knees were crisscrossed with scars as though a swordsman had slashed at him. He walked with a lilting gait, his left Achilles tendon apparently shortened, pulling his left heel up. Working out must have cost him everything he had, yet he never failed to appear. There was a doggedness about him that I admired. I watched him with interest, ashamed of my own interior complaints. Clearly, I could recover from my injuries while he could not. I didnt feel sorry for him, but I did feel curious.
That Monday morning was the first time wed been alone together in the gym. He was doing leg curls, facedown on the bench next to mine, his attention turned inward. I had shifted over to the leg-press machine, just for variety. I weigh 118 and I only have so much upper body I can rehabilitate. I hadnt gotten back into jogging since the injury, so I figured a few leg presses would serve me right. I was only doing 120 pounds, but it hurt anyway. To distract myself, I was playing a little game wherein I tried to determine which apparatus I hated most. The leg-curl machine he was using was a good candidate. I watched him do a set of twelve repetitions and then start all over again.
"I hear youre a private detective," he said without missing a beat. "That true?" There was a slight drag to his voice, but he covered it pretty well.
"Yes. Are you in the market for one?"
"Matter of fact, I am. Somebody tried to kill me."
"Looks like they didnt miss by much. When was this?"
"Nine months ago."
"Why you?"
"Dont know."
The backs of his thighs were bulging, his hamstrings taut as guy wires. Sweat poured off his face. Without even thinking about it, I counted reps with him. Six, seven, eight.
"I hate that machine," I remarked.
He smiled. "Hurts like a son of a bitch, doesnt it?"
"Howd it happen?"
"I was driving up the pass with a buddy of mine late at night. Some car came up and started ramming us from behind. When we got to the bridge just over the crest of the hill, I lost it and we went off. Rick was killed. He bailed out and the car rolled over on him. I should have been killed too. Longest ten seconds of my life, you know?"
"I bet." The bridge hed soared off spanned a rocky, scrub-choked canyon, four hundred feet deep, a favorite jumping-off spot for suicide attempts. Actually, Id never heard of anyone surviving that drop. "Youre doing great," I said. "Youve been working your butt off."
"What else can I do? Just after the accident, they told me Id never walk. Said Id never do anything."
"Who said?"
"Family doctor. Some old hack. My mom fired him on the spot and called in an orthopedic specialist. He brought me back. I was out at Rehab for eight months and now Im doing this. What happened to you?"
"Some asshole shot me in the arm."
Bobby laughed. It was a wonderful snuffling sound. He finished the last rep and propped himself up on his elbows.
He said, "I got four machines to go and then lets bug out. By the way, Im Bobby Callahan."
"Kinsey Millhone."
He held his hand out and we shook, sealing an unspoken bargain. I knew even then Id work for him whatever the circumstances.
We ate lunch in a health-food café, one of those places specializing in cunning imitation meat patties that never fool anyone. I dont understand the point myself. It seems to me a vegetarian would be just as repelled by something that looked like minced cow parts. Bobby ordered a bean-and-cheese burrito the size of a rolled-up gym towel, smothered in guacamole and sour cream. I opted for stir-fried veggies and brown rice with a glass of white wine of some indeterminate jug sort.
Eating, for Bobby, was the same laborious process as working out, but his single-minded attention to the task allowed me to study him at close range. His hair was sun-bleached and coarse, his eyes brown with the kind of lashes most women have to buy in a box. The left half of his face was inanimate, but he had a strong chin, accentuated by a scar like a rising moon. My guess was that his teeth had been driven through his lower lip at some point during the punishing descent into that ravine. How hed lived through it all was any-bodys guess.
He glanced up. He knew Id been staring, but he didnt object.
"Youre lucky to be alive," I said.
"Ill tell you the worst of it. Big hunks of my brain are gone, you know?" The drag in his speech was back, as though the very subject affected his voice. "I was in a coma for two weeks, and when I came out, I didnt know what the fuck was going on. I still dont. But I can remember how I used to be and thats what hurts. I was smart, Kinsey. I knew a lot. I could concentrate and I used to have ideas. My mind would make these magic little leaps. You know what I mean?"
I nodded. I knew about minds making magic little leaps.
He went on. "Now I got gaps and spaces. Holes. Ive lost big pieces of my past. They dont exist anymore." He paused to dab impatiently at his chin, then shot a bitter glance at the handkerchief. "Jesus, bad enough that I drool. If Id always been like this, I wouldnt know the difference and it wouldnt bug me so much. Id assume everybody had a brain that felt like mine. But I was quick once. I know that. I was an A student, on my way to medical school. Now all I do is work out. Im just trying to regain enough coordination so I can go to the fuckin toilet by myself. When Im not in the gym, I see this shrink named Kleinert and try to come to terms with the rest of it."
There were sudden tears in his eyes and he paused, fighting for control. He took a deep breath and shook his head abruptly. When he spoke again, his voice was full of self-loathing.
"So. Thats how I spent my summer vacation. How about you?"
"Youre convinced it was a murder attempt? Why couldnt it have been some prankster or a drunk?"
He thought for a moment. "I knew the car. At least I think I did. Obviously, I dont anymore, but it seems like ...at the time, I recognized the vehicle."
"But not the driver?"
He shook his head. "Couldnt tell you now. Maybe I knew then, maybe not."
"Male? Female?" I asked.
"Nuh-un. Thats gone too."
"How do you know Rick wasnt meant to be the victim instead of you?"
He pushed his plate away and signaled for coffee. He was struggling. "I knew something. Something had happened and I figured it out. I remember that much. I can even remember knowing I was in trouble. I was scared. I just dont remember why."
"What about Rick? Was he part of it?"
"I dont think it had anything to do with him. I couldnt swear to it, but Im almost positive."
"What about your destination that night? Does that tie in somehow?"
Bobby glanced up. The waitress was standing at his elbow with a coffeepot. He waited until shed poured coffee for both of us. She departed and he smiled uneasily. "I dont know who my enemies are, you know? I dont know if people around me know this ‘thing Ive forgotten about. I dont want anyone to overhear what I say . . . just in case. I know Im paranoid, but I cant help it."
His gaze followed the waitress as she moved back toward the kitchen. She put the coffeepot back on the unit and picked up an order at the window, glancing back at him. She was young and she seemed to know we were talking about her. Bobby dabbed at his chin again as an afterthought. "We were on our way up to Stage Coach Tavern. Theres usually a bluegrass band up there and Rick and I wanted to hear them." He shrugged. "There might have been more to it, but I dont think so."
"What was going on in your life at that point?"
"Id just graduated from UC Santa Teresa. I had this part-time job at St. Terrys, waiting to hear if I was accepted for med school."
Santa Teresa Hospital had been called St. Terrys ever since I could remember. "Wasnt it late in the year for that? I thought med-school candidates applied during the winter and got replies back by spring."
"Well, actually I had applied and didnt get in, so I was trying again."
"What kind of work were you doing at St. Terrys?"
"I was a ‘floater, really. I did all kinds of things. For a while, I worked Admissions, typing up papers before patients came in. Id call and get preliminary data, insurance coverage, stuff like that. Then for a while, I worked in Medical Records filing charts until I got bored. Last job I had was clerk-typist in Pathology. Worked for Dr. Fraker. He was neat. He let me do lab tests sometimes. You know, just simple stuff."
"It doesnt sound like hazardous work," I said. "What about the university? Could the jeopardy you were in be traced back to the school somehow? Faculty? Studies? Some kind of extracurricular activity youd been involved in?"
He was shaking his head, apparently drawing a blank. "I dont see how. Id been out since June. Accident was November."
"But your feeling is that you were the only one who knew this piece of information, whatever it was."
His gaze traveled around the café and then came back to me. "I guess. Me and whoever tried to kill me to shut me up."
I sat and stared at him for a while, trying to get a fix on the situation. I stirred what was probably raw milk into my coffee. Health-food enthusiasts like eating microbes and things like that. "Do you have any sense at all of how long youd known this thing? Because Im wondering...if it was potentially so dangerous . . . why you didnt spill the beans right away."
He was looking at me with interest. "Like what? To the cops or something like that?"
"Sure. If you stumbled across a theft of some kind, or you found out someone was a Russian spy . . ." I was rattling off possibilities as they occurred to me. "Or you uncovered a plot to assassinate the President . . ."
"Why wouldnt I have picked up the first telephone I came to and called for help?"
"Right."
He was quiet. "Maybe I did that. Maybe . . . shit, Kinsey, I dont know. You dont know how frustrated I get. Early on, those first two, three months in the hospital, all I could think about was the pain. It took everything I had to stay alive. I didnt think about the accident at all. But little by little, as I got better, I started going back to it, trying to remember what happened. Especially when they told me Rick was dead. I didnt find out about that for weeks. I guess they were worried Id blame myself and it would slow my recovery. I did feel sick about it once I heard. What if I was drunk and just ran us off the road? I had to find out what went on or I knew Id go crazy on top of everything else. Anyway, thats when I began to piece together this other stuff."
"Maybe the rest of it will come back to you if youve remembered this much."
"But thats just it," he said. "What if it does come back? I figure the only thing keeping me alive right now is the fact that I cant remember any more of it."
His voice had risen and he paused, gaze flicking off to one side. His anxiety was infectious and I felt myself glancing around as he had, wanting to keep my voice low so our conversation couldnt be overheard.
"Have you actually been threatened since this whole thing came up?" I asked.
"No. Un-un."
"No anonymous letters or strange phone calls?"
He was shaking his head. "But I am in danger. I know I am. Ive been feeling this way for weeks. I need help."
"Have you tried the cops?"
"Sure, Ive tried. As far as theyre concerned, it was an accident. They have no evidence a crime was committed. Well, hit-and-run. They know somebody rear-ended me and forced me off the bridge, but premeditated murder? Come on. And even if they believed me, they dont have manpower to assign. Im just an ordinary citizen. Im not entitled to police protection twenty-four hours a day."
"Maybe you should hire a bodyguard—"
"Screw that! Its you I want."
"Bobby, Im not saying I wont help you. Of course I will. Im just talking about your options. It sounds like you need more than me."
He leaned forward, his manner intense. "Just get to the bottom of this. Tell me whats going on. I want to know why somebodys after me and I want them stopped. Then I wont need the cops or a bodyguard or anything else." He clamped his mouth shut, agitated. He rocked back.
"Fuck it," he said. He shifted restlessly and got up. He pulled a twenty out of his wallet and tossed it on the table. He started for the door with that lilting gait, his limp more pronounced than Id seen it. I grabbed my handbag and caught up with him.
"God, slow down. Lets go back to my office and well type up a contract."
He held the door open for me and I went out.
"I hope you can afford my services," I said back over my shoulder.
He smiled faintly. "Dont sweat it."
We turned left, moving toward the parking lot.
"Sorry I lost my temper," he murmured.
"Quit that. I dont give a shit."
"I wasnt sure youd take me seriously," he said.
"Why wouldnt I?"
"My family thinks Ive got a screw loose."
"Yeah, well thats why you hired me instead of them."
"Thanks," he whispered. He tucked his hand through my arm and I glanced over at him. His face was suffused with pink and there were tears in his eyes. He dashed at them carelessly, not looking at me. For the first time, I realized how young he was. God, he was just a kid, banged up, bewildered, scared to death.
We walked back to my car slowly and I was conscious of the stares of the curious, faces averted with pity and uneasiness. It made me want to punch somebody out.
Excerpted from C is for Corpse by Sue Grafton.Copyright © 1986 by Sue Grafton.Published in December 2005 by St. Martins Press.
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