Charles Willeford - Way We Die Now Read online

  But he wasn't certain; he merely had an intuition, and that meant that he was getting anxious again, pressing too hard. When he was first assigned to the cold cases, together with Bill Henderson and Ellita Sanchez, they had been lucky, solving three three-year-old cases during the first ten days. Then Henderson had been promoted to commander, and Hoke and Ellita had worked alone. He had pushed, trying too hard and putting in too many hours, and had come very close to suffering a breakdown. A month's leave without pay had given him enough distance to realize that this was just a job, not a mission. After Ellita had been shot and retired on disability, he had worked alone until they gave him Gonzalez, a young investigator too inexperienced to provide much help. Hoke hadn't come close to solving a cold case since he had returned from his month's leave, and now, what with the shortage of detectives in the Homicide Division, this was an assignment Major Brownley couldn't keep him on much longer. He was needed for regular duty, and so was Gonzalez; but it would be rewarding to solve at least one more case before he returned to straight duty.

  Hoke shook his head. It didn't pay to become obsessed with anything, especially a case as gelid as the Russell murder. If he solved it, fine; if he didn't, what difference would it make a hundred years from now? Hoke clicked the door opener several times, aiming at nothing. Then Ellita called to him that dinner was ready. He tossed the opener onto the dresser and, barefoot, padded down the hall to the dining room.

  CHAPTER 3

  Hoke shared a leased house with Ellita Sanchez; her baby son, Pepe; and Hoke's two teenaged daughters from his broken marriage.

  Patsy, Hoke's ex-wife, had kept the two girls, following their divorce, for ten years. She had then married a pinch hitter for the Dodgers, a black ballplayer named Curly Peterson, and moved to Los Angeles. Before she left Vero Beach, Florida (she had met Curly Peterson there during spring training), she had shipped the two girls down to Miami and Hoke on a Greyhound bus. Hoke had not seen or heard from the girls in ten years, when they had been six and four years old. Because there was no way he could think of to get out of the responsibility for them, he had, of course, taken them in. Ellita had moved in with him to share the expenses when her father had thrown her out of his house when she became pregnant. Hoke was not the father of Pepe Sanchez; that honor belonged to a one-night stand Ellita had picked up in Coconut Grove, but Ellita's parents suspected strongly that Hoke was the father because Ellita had moved into the house with Hoke and his two daughters.

  Then, one night, Ellita had been shot in the shoulder by an escaped holdup man. As a result of the wound, she had lost approximately twenty percent usage of her right arm, and now she stayed home full-time with Pepe. Because of the rehabilitation exercises she had had to perform to get her arm and body back into shape, she looked better now than she had before she had been wounded. She had trimmed down to 120 pounds, her pretty face was thinner, and although she was thirty-three, she could pass easily for twenty-nine.

  Sue Ellen and Aileen helped Ellita with her baby, so she had ample time to shop every day and have a "standing" every Thursday at the beauty parlor. By living with Hoke and his daughters, instead of living under her father's tyrannical thumb, she had unlimited freedom and no longer had to hand over half her salary to her father. Her disability pension was more than adequate to pay her share of the expenses, and she intended to stay home with Pepe and keep house until he was old enough to go to school before she looked for a part-time job.

  The girls adored the baby and were always willing to baby-sit if Ellita wanted to go out with one of her old girlfriends to lunch or dinner, or to attend mass at St. Catherine's in Hialeah. After the baby was born, Ellita's father had forgiven her and asked her to move home again, but she had refused. At thirty-three Ellita had no intention of giving up her freedom again. Ellita's mother, who sold Avon products in Little Havana, visited the house frequently, and Ellita took Pepe home occasionally (Señor Sanchez, a security guard, would not set foot in Hoke's house) to see his grandfather.

  Hoke did not even pretend to be the titular head of this household. He accepted his responsibility for the girls as their father, and he would feed and clothe them and give them a home until they reached maturity (or got married); but they were allowed to do pretty much as they pleased so long as no one else in the house was inconvenienced. Sue Ellen had dropped out of school to take a full-time job in the Green Lakes Car Wash and was allowed to keep all of her weekly paycheck and tips. She was also encouraged to buy her own clothes, now that she had a steady income, and so long as she was paying for them, Hoke didn't feel that he could tell her what to wear. She had bought a motorcycle, on time payments, without his permission, and he wasn't happy about that; but he taught her how to ride it and insisted that she wear a helmet, leather pants, and jacket every time she mounted the vehicle. If she skidded across the asphalt, he explained, in an accident (and the chances were sixty-forty that she -would- have an accident), the leather clothes would prevent the pavement from scraping her skin and flesh right down to the bone.

  Sue Ellen and Aileen both were sensible girls, so even when the heat and humidity reached the nineties in Miami, Sue Ellen wore her helmet and leathers when she rode her Yamaha. Hoke had ridden a motorcycle when he had been assigned to Traffic, and he knew how dangerous it could be. He had explained the dangers, but that was as far as he went with it. He had had some narrow escapes as a motorcycle cop, and the fact that he would not ride Sue Ellen's bike, under any circumstances, had helped make her take his warnings seriously, but not enough to give up the motorcycle. The bike, she insisted, gave her a certain status at the car wash, and she needed an edge to put her on equal terms with the male black and Cuban teenagers she worked with every day.

  Aileen was filling out nicely after recovery from bulimic anorexia, but at fourteen she had been so thin Ellita had nicknamed her -La Flaca- ("The Skinny One"). She now ate everything within reach at the table and snacked between meals as well. She was reconciled to being a female now, and her curly chestnut hair fell down to her shoulders in soft waves. Her pointed breasts had swelled, and because she didn't wear a brassiere, they bobbed under her T-shirt as she helped set the table. Aileen's teeth were slightly crooked, and she had a noticeable overbite; but her generous mouth provided her with a big white smile.

  Sue Ellen, who toweled down wet cars under a blazing sun every; day, was sunburned a deep golden brown and was almost as dark as Ellita. Her short, curly hair, clipped an inch from her skull and dyed electric blue down the middle, gave her the punk look she coveted, but she was attractive in spite of herself. She wore two pairs of plastic earrings and was considering the idea of having third holes punched into her earlobes for another pair. Both girls, when they were home, wore shorts and T-shirts and usually went barefoot around the house as well. Ellita, unless she was going out, almost always wore jeans, sensible heels, and a longsleeved blouse. She thought her thighs were too fat to wear shorts, but the Miami heat didn't affect Ellita as much as it did Hoke and his daughters.

  It was habit--not a rule--but everyone did his or her best to eat dinner at home every night, and it was the only time of the day they all were together as a family. Hoke, of course, as a homicide detective with odd hours at times, couldn't always make it home in time for dinner. But when he couldn't, he phoned, and Ellita always saw to it that he had a hot meal when he did come home. The rest of the time each family member went his or her own way, getting up at a different time and preparing personal meals other than dinner.

  Hoke took care of the finances, the rent and the utilities, and Ellita purchased everything else that was needed for the house, including food, cleaning materials, or the odd plumbing job that called for a professional. At the end of each month Hoke and Ellita sat down and figured out how much each owed, and then they paid the bills.

  Hoke ate and slept much better than he had when he was single and unencumbered, and he also spent more time watching television than he had when he had lived in a hotel room as a
single man. Even with Pepe to care for, Ellita still managed to keep the house neat and clean, and she prepared enormous meals at night.

  The major drawback to living as a family man (when the girls' stereo made too much noise, Hoke could always retreat to his small bedroom and close the door) was that Hoke couldn't very well bring a woman home with him to spend the night. He knew that Ellita wouldn't mind, but he had to set an example for his daughters. He was afraid that if he brought a woman home, they might decide to bring boys home to their room overnight. As a consequence, when Hoke managed a rare conquest, which now happened at longer intervals, he had to take the woman to a hotel or motel. Miami hotel rates are expensive, even during the offseason, and there had been times that he had dropped a promising pursuit when he knew he would have to pay at least seventy-seven dollars, plus tax, for a hotel room. Hoke was forty-three and looked every single day of it. The women he attracted, divorcees and widows he met in bars, were not, in most instances, worth that much money to him. Unhappily the divorcees and widows who were interested in sleeping with Hoke were usually in their late thirties, or older, and more often than not had teenaged children of their own; that also denied them the use of their own houses and apartments. It had been more than four years since Hoke had slept with a woman who didn't have stretch marks. But he didn't mind the stretch marks so long as she didn't complain about his middle-aged paunch.

  For several months Hoke had carried on a long-distance affair with a married woman from Ocala, who would fly down to Miami once a month for a shopping trip. They would check into the Miami Airport Hotel, which had reasonable day rates, and spend the afternoon. Then she would fly back to Ocala. A.few days before she flew down, she would telephone Hoke and tell him what she was shopping for, and he would buy the items and have them ready in the hotel room when she checked in. She would reimburse him for the packages, of course, and they would spend the afternoon in bed. Hoke paid for the room. Once a month was better than nothing, but Hoke didn't like to do the shopping for the woman (which cut into his offduty hours), and after their fourth monthly liaison they had more or less run out of things to talk about. She hadn't called Hoke for several weeks, and Hoke had a hunch she had found someone else to do her Miami shopping. When he thought about it, as he did when he got horny, he discovered that he was just as happy that she hadn't called, and he wouldn't really mind if he never heard from her again.

  Now that Hoke had a family again, he had all the advantages of a family man (except for a regular sex life), and few, if any, disadvantages. Ellita respected him, and he got on well with his daughters. His clothes were always clean; Ellita did his laundry and put it away for him, and on Saturday mornings Aileen shined his policeman's black, hightopped double-soled shoes. He was one of the dozen men in Miami who still wore shoes with laces. He didn't like lowcut, slip-on shoes. Ellita was a wonderful cook, and in the past year Hoke had regained the twenty pounds he had dieted away and was back to his predict weight of 210. This was at least twenty-five pounds too much for a man of five-ten. Hoke's waist had swelled from thirty-eight to fortytwo, and he had been forced to buy two new poplin leisure suits in the cut-rate Miami fashion district because his old pants couldn't be let out any farther. Every day he promised to cut down on his eating but could seldom manage to do so. He also found it difficult to hold himself down to only two cans of Old Style a night when the refrigerator was always stocked with at least a dozen cans of his favorite beer.

  Hoke was also doing well professionally. He had a permanent assignment as sergeant in charge of the cold case files, which gave him almost unlimited time to work on the old and all but hopeless unsolved homicides. He had passed the examination for lieutenant and was at the head of the WASP list. Being at the top of the WASP promotion list meant that he had passed the exam with a higher score than any other candidate in the department, but it did not mean that he would be the next sergeant promoted to lieutenant. Because of affirmative action, there were three Latins and two blacks ahead of him for promotion (all with much lower scores than Hoke's), but if the department ever -did- get around to promoting a white American to lieutenant again, Hoke would get the promotion. He had a little more than five years to go for retirement, and he was positive-- or almost positive--that he would be promoted before he retired. And if not, whoever said that life was fair?

  When Ellita called him to dinner, Hoke broke his rule and decided to have a beer with his meal instead of waiting an hour after eating. To justify it, he decided he would drink only one more that evening and would hold off until 10:00 P.M., when the rerun of -Hill Street Blues- came on the tube.

  Dinner was roast pork loin, accompanied by boiled yucca, fried candied plantains, black beans, boiled pearl rice, hard Cuban rolls, and a salad of sliced tomatoes, avocados, and iceberg lettuce, with Ellita's homemade Thousand Island dressing. There was a bottle of garlicky -criollo- sauce for the pork, a bowl of mixed green and black olives, and butter and guava jelly for the rolls. Hoke was served a baked potato instead of yucca (he didn't like yucca). After he had split and mashed the potato, he spooned black beans over it and added a jigger of sweet sherry to the mixture. Ellita and the girls took ample portions as well, but unlike Hoke, they wouldn't eat seconds. Ellita, who starved herself during the day, always felt entitled to at least one decent meal at dinnertime, so she still managed to keep her weight on a fairly even basis. Hoke took second helpings but ate only one baked potato.

  After everyone was served and eating, Hoke told them about the new chief's planned no-smoking-in-the-station rules.

  "Henderson was taking a survey in the division, and it could be a narrow margin. A lot of guys have quit already, and it may be a majority for the new chief. If so, I'll have to go outside every time I want a smoke."

  "You've been trying to quit," Ellita said, "and if he makes the rule, it'll be that much easier for you to stop."

  "That isn't the point, Ellita. Smoking's still a legal activity in this country, and cigarettes are still sold in the stores. If it's legal to buy 'em, it should be legal to smoke 'em. It's a hard habit to break, and I don't think the new chief can enforce a rule like that for very long without a rebellion from the PBA. So tomorrow I'm going to get together with Bill and start a little office pool. I think, if the rule goes in, it'll last for only three days."

  "I'd say five," Ellita said. "Put me down for number five in the pool. How much for each ticket?"

  "I hadn't thought about it. Five dollars, do you think?"

  "That's too much. Make it two dollars a ticket. I'll give you the money after dinner. Save me number five."

  "I still say three."

  "According to the -Miami News-," Sue Ellen said, "the army's already stopped soldiers from smoking in their vehicles and inside all government buildings."

  "Where'd you see that?"

  "In the paper. A few weeks ago."

  "How come I didn't see it?"

  "I don't know, but it was in there."

  "The army won't be able to enforce that rule either. At least they wouldn't've been able to when I was in the service, and I was an MP."

  "When you were in the army," Aileen said, "they didn't know that cigarettes caused cancer. Not back in the world war."

  "I wasn't in the world war. I was in the Vietnam War."

  "They still didn't know, not way back then."

  "They don't know now either," Hoke said. "They only suspect cigarettes cause cancer. There's no real proof."

  "The surgeon general says they do," Sue Ellen said.

  "Who're you going to believe?" Hoke asked. "The Tobacco Institute or the surgeon general?"

  "The surgeon general," both girls said in unison; then they giggled.

  Hoke grinned. "Me, too."

  Hoke put two slices of white pork on his plate, cut off the fatty edges, and frowned as he looked around the table.

  "Aileen," Ellita said, "please get the Tabasco sauce for your father. You didn't bring it in when you set the table."

&
nbsp; Aileen went into the kitchen for the Tabasco. Ellita put her utensils down and looked sideways at Sue Ellen. "As a favor to me, Sue Ellen, I'd like to ask you one more time. Please dye your hair back to its natural color for Sunday, and I'll help you dye it blue again on Monday. Mama wants Sunday to be a very special party for Uncle Arnoldo, and she says it would upset him to see blue hair on a woman. Tio Arnoldo's a very conservative man, and he wouldn't understand."

  Sue Ellen shook her head. "No, Ellita. If he's going to live here, he'll have to accept America as it is, and it might do him good to see blue hair. Miami isn't Cuba. We can do what we please here."

  "He understands that, but he's been waiting in Costa Rica for four years for his visa, and every relative we have will be at the party Sunday. He's my father's older brother and very dignified."

  "I'm conservative, too," Sue Ellen said. "But if you think the color of my hair'll bother your uncle, I'll just go to work instead. I can get more overtime in the car wash. In fact, I can work every Sunday if I want."

  "I think you'll enjoy the party, and I want you to come. It's just that Mama wants everything to be nice for him. He was in prison for twenty-two years before he got to Costa Rica."

  "I don't speak Spanish anyway." Sue Ellen shrugged. "I'd just as soon go to work."

  "If you don't come now, Sue Ellen, Mama'll think it's her fault, and you know she loves you."

  "I like your mom okay, too, but I won't dye my hair back just to go to a dumb party."

  Hoke cleared his throat. "I don't think I'll be able to make it either, Ellita. I meant to tell you earlier, but it slipped my mind."