Silenced by the Yams - By Karen Cantwell Page 0,34
sick feeling in my stomach worrying about Colt. He might just be sleeping through the phone calls, but a little voice in my head told me differently. I decided to run by his condo and see for myself.
After waking Callie and instructing her to take care of Mama Marr and to be available when Amber and Bethany returned from their sleepovers, I grabbed my keys and a travel mug of coffee.
I rang Colt’s doorbell several times and knocked several times more. The only person who came to the door was his neighbor, who was annoyed with my incessant ringing and knocking. I gave up and went back to my car, where I decided to try Guy Mertz to see if Colt ever called him. Voicemail.
So there I sat, all dressed up with no where to go. And no one to talk to. Hitting dead ends at every turn.
I drained the last of my coffee and looked at my watch. I figured it would take me forty-five minutes or longer to drive into DC and park myself in a lot close to the ACL’s Tanner Building. That would put me there right around ten o’clock. At the Tanner Building, I could talk to Jorge Borrego and Clarence the Creepy Projectionist. Who knew what Jorge could tell me, but Clarence claimed to know something.
And so I pulled the car into reverse and peeled out of the parking lot. Traffic, it turned out, was a bumper-to-bumper crawl the entire way in. An hour and a half later I was walking up to the front doors of the ACL. The summer heat and humidity was already steaming the city at this early hour and my shirt was sticking to my damp skin when I spotted a man leaving from a side door of the building. His hands were stuffed into his cleanly pressed khakis and a pair of mirrored Ray Bans covered his eyes, but I had no problem identifying him as Andy Baugh. I had never officially met the man, but we had shared a horrific event, and I felt compelled to say something to him—to offer my condolences.
I had stopped walking until he passed my way. “Mr. Baugh?”
Andy looked surprised as he stopped and raised his head to see who was addressing him.
“I’m . . . I mean, my name is Barbara Marr. From the other night. I’m so sorry about your brother.”
The mirrored shades didn’t let me read his eyes, but I understood his slight head tilt as recognition. “You were the woman he was hitting on. Sorry about that.”
His willingness to apologize for his brother was touching and it made me feel worse. “No, no. It’s fine. I’m just so sorry for your loss. That’s all I wanted to say.”
“Thank you. Thank you. It’s been very hard on my parents.”
“I can only imagine.” I stood awkwardly for a moment and then blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. “The man who’s been accused of his murder is my friend, Frankie Romano.”
Andy’s body tensed, and I regretted not censoring my thoughts, but I couldn’t stop now. “He’s a good man, and I know he has that, you know, questionable background, but he’d never murder anybody. He couldn’t even whack Tito Buttaro, who’s a really bad guy. In fact, Frankie’s never whacked anybody, so why would he start with your brother?”
“I don’t think we should be having this—”
“Was your brother a drug addict?” I couldn’t believe the words came out of my mouth.
I don’t think Andy could believe it either. Now he was scanning the area nervously, looking for a getaway, I’m pretty sure. “Listen, like I said, this has been very hard on my parents. Very hard. Do you understand?”
“Yes, I do.”
“No, I don’t think you do. If they knew half of the things Kurt did in his life, it would kill them.”
“You mean he was a drug addict? Was it prescription drugs? Pain killers?”
He started to make a dash across the street but I grabbed his arm. “Mr. Baugh, why did you ask the police to investigate your brother’s death as a murder? Why were you so sure?”
He pulled his arm from my grip. “Listen, I’m sorry about your friend. I am.” He paused for a moment as if he might say something else, but then he was gone and if I wanted to chase him, I’d have to take a hit from an oncoming Acura to do so.
As I turned back to continue into the building,