“Not mine,” Eddie said.
Red was speechless as Skylar and Eddie made their way toward Butler. “Hello, Detective.”
He studied her quickly. “Hello, Skylar. What’s going on?”
“This is Edward Parks, one of the patients at the facility where I work.”
Eddie interjected. “Harmony House is a special place for special people.”
“Hello, Edward. I’m Detective McHenry.” Butler extended his hand to shake.
Eddie did not extend his hand. He just stared awkwardly at the detective’s.
Skylar intervened. “Eddie doesn’t shake hands. He’s not comfortable with most forms of physical contact.”
Butler nodded as pleasantly as he could. “Okay.”
“Is there somewhere more private we can talk?”
The detective turned down the bar to Red. “You mind if I use the office for a minute?”
Red shook his head. “Don’t mess anything up. I just had it cleaned.”
Eddie made his BUZZER sound.
Red wasn’t sure how to take it. “What was that?”
Butler answered, “He said your momma was good last night.”
“That is not true, Detective. I’ve never even met his mother.”
McHenry led Skylar and Eddie through a door marked “Private” at the rear of the bar. The small office was an absolute pigsty, but at least it was more quiet than in the bar.
“Not cleaned. Definitely not cleaned. You see?” Eddie ran his finger along the dusty desktop, just like Skylar’s little brother, Christopher, used to do around the surfaces of their childhood home. With her mother out of the picture so early, and her father not much of a domestic, it was left to Skylar to keep the house clean. By Christopher’s standards, she usually failed miserably, but did her best because dust made her brother uncomfortable, just like it was putting Eddie ill at ease now.
“I do see.” Her tone was soothing, intended to calm Eddie down. It worked, at least to some degree.
Eddie watched the grainy black-and-white images on two old surveillance monitors. The video flickered through badly scratched glass. One angle showed the cash register. The other showed the bar’s entrance. “Are places for guys with nothing better to do always so loud?”
McHenry stifled a smile. “For this place, that’s actually quiet.”
Skylar turned to Eddie. “Would you play him the last conversation you played for me when we were in Dr. Fenton’s office?”
“Because he’s a detective who is going to help us?”
“That’s what I’m hoping for.”
He stared at Butler for a moment and turned back to Skylar. “Yes.” Eddie turned on the laptop, which took a moment to boot up.
Skylar explained to Butler, “What you’re about to hear is a conversation that took place on Wednesday afternoon, approximately four hours before the incident in the subway occurred.” She said it in such a way that the detective understood Eddie did not know about Jacob Hendrix’s death, and that she did not want him to.
“Where did this conversation take place?”
“In my boss’s office at Harmony House. His name is Dr. Marcus Fenton.”
“Was he aware the conversation was being recorded?”
Eddie chimed in quickly. “The conversation was not recorded.”
“You lost me.”
Eddie immediately launched into his lecture. “The basis for sound-wave retrieval and reconstruction, which is called acoustic archeology, has existed since 1969. We just haven’t had equipment sensitive enough to acoustically map an enclosed space or the computing speed necessary to re-create the original sound wave.” He paused for emphasis, just like he had in the recreation room at Harmony House. “Until now.”
Detective McHenry turned to Skylar. “What the hell is he talking about?” He didn’t notice the two men who could be seen entering the bar on the two old black-and-white monitors.
Red’s was a locals-only bar. And it was a cop bar. If someone new wasn’t either, every set of eyes in the place was on them until an acceptable explanation as to their presence was given. Red knew when he approached Skylar and Eddie that they weren’t going to be trouble. The opposite was true when he moved toward Lutz and Hirsch. “Can I help you?”
Hirsch eyed the massive bartender. “We’re looking for Detective Butler McHenry.”
The bar quieted ever so slightly, but Red didn’t flinch. “Never heard of him.” He returned to cleaning glasses behind the bar.
Lutz didn’t appreciate the lack of cooperation. “Are you the proprietor?”
Red positioned himself next to one of the photographs on the wall in which he was clearly identified. “Good guess.” He glanced behind the bar, where his trusty baseball bat was located. From the dings and dents in the bat’s surface, he was obviously not afraid to use it.
Down the bar, another off-duty detective quickly typed in a text message on his phone: You’ve got company.
Inside Red’s office, Butler felt his phone vibrate as Eddie babbled. When the detective read the message, he glanced at the security monitors. The two strangers were talking to Red. He interrupted Eddie’s lecture, addressing Skylar. “Do you know who those guys are?”
Skylar’s face went white. “They work at Harmony House. In security.”
Eddie looked confused. “How did they know we were here, Skylar?”
“I had a feeling we were being followed.”
“What kind of feeling?”
“I’ll explain it later. Eddie, just play the conversation you played for me earlier.”
He nodded and clicked “Play” on the laptop. Eddie had managed to clean up some of the harmonic distortion, which made the conversation sound clearer than it had previously:
FENTON: Mr. Barnes, to what do I owe the pleasure?
BARNES: Your new doctor’s boyfriend has been looking into Eddie.
McHenry looked to Skylar. “By new doctor, is he referring to you?”
Skylar nodded.
“Who’s the guy talking to your boss?”
“We believe he’s head of Harmony House security.”
Eddie chimed in quickly. “His name is Mr. Barnes, but I call him the mystery man because he’s very mysterious.”
FENTON: What have you got?
Papers could be heard flipping.
BARNES: Either she’s got loose lips or he’s been sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.
Skylar grew increasingly nervous. “Eddie, skip forward a little.” He did so.
BARNES: Will you want to know the details?
FENTON: Nothing in his residence. Make it look like an accident.
BARNES: He takes the subway.
FENTON: All kinds of bad things happen in subways these days. I’m sure you’ll figure something out.
“Eddie, that’s enough.” Skylar’s hands were trembling as she turned to McHenry. “What do you think?”
The detective stared at the echo box in amazement. “I think it’s going to be a while before I get to enjoy any Rolling Rock.” He paused. “This is for real?”
She nodded. “I need your help.”
McHenry believed her. “First things first.” He typed a response to the text message: Get them out of here.
On the surveillance monitor, the detective who received the message looked directly into one of the security cameras and nodded.
In the bar, the detective made his way through the crowd of fellow officers, patting them on the shoulders. “Hey, Red, why don’t you give the fellas a couple on the house?” He might as well have said, “Lock and load, boys.”
Six off-duty officers and detectives joined him, surrounding the strangers.
Red answered the detective. “I did. Said they weren’t interested.”
“Then what are they doing here?”
“Looking for a Butler McHenry. Ever heard of him?”
“Can’t say that I have. Any of you?” He turned to the others, who all shook their heads. “Looks like you two are shit out of luck.”
It was a standoff. Hirsch and Lutz knew they weren’t going to get anything from these guys. Cops were a tight fraternity. Almost as tight as former intelligence operatives. Hirsch never broke eye contact as he and Lutz backed toward the door. “Luck changes.”