Heat

Chapter 5: Necessary Invasion

Chapter 5: Necessary Invasion

721-A North Palm Way

6:57 P.M.

I decided not to make the drive to Bungalow Sixteen on Hurricane Road and have a strong drink and heated s*x with my lover. Instead, I had a necessary invasion to process, without anyone knowing, which included the friends and relatives of Rudy Shower, and the Hurricane Bay Police Department.

The bungalow at Seven-Twenty-One-A North Palm Way looked like the smallest one I had ever seen in my life. After circling the peach-colored edifice and peering inside its windows, I determined that it had three rooms: kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Since there was no bedroom, I deduced that Rudy slept on his sofa, which looked battered with numerous holes. Once I was aware that the place was empty, I used three tiny, L-shaped rods with the finest points on the rear door’s lock. Then I made my way inside the bungalow.

I learned rather quickly that Rudy Shower became a connoisseur of Margo Pagino’s work. The living room area was covered in her books. Paperbacks and first edition hardbacks lined one wall, some of which were signed. Posters of the woman’s book covers decorated a second wall. The covers included her most recent bestsellers: Timing is Everything, Fire’s Well, Quick Ties, and Sweet and Sour. There were two pictures on IKEA end tables that drew my attention. Both were of Rudy Shower standing next to Margo Pagino at local book signings. The pair hugged each other and grinned at the camera.

Invading Rudy Shower’s space were the clay figurines of Margo Pagino on two shelves, which were positioned over the forty-two-inch flat-screen inside the living room, all of which looked creepy. The eight creations were twelve inches high, three inches wide, and oddly showed Margo holding her novels in different positions. Each red clay figurine detailed her as a much younger woman. After picking them up one at a time while wearing gloves, I read their titles, which all looked to be written with a toothpick or scalpel before the pieces had been placed in a kiln. The titles included M Sitting, M Standing, M on Belly, M Cradling Tome, M Kneeling, M Lounging, M Praying, M Stretching, and M Bowing.

I did not see a kiln on the property and guessed that either Rudy Shower had purchased the intricate art pieces at a nearby gallery or created them himself away from North Palm Way. The abode lacked anything remotely interesting except for the figurines. There were no discovered diaries, journals, lists, letters, a computer of any sort, or cellular phone. The entire bungalow was spotless, minimally decorated, and unhelpful in recovering clues to the young man’s murder.

Although the desire to thieve one of the clay figurines of Margo Pagino ate at me, I didn’t. Instead, I exited the abode empty-handed and without leaving a fingerprint or trace of DNA behind. Before making an exit, though, I snapped off a few pics of the clay figurines with my cell phone; pictures that I could continue investigating outside of Rudy Shower’s residence.

After climbing into my brand new Mercedes, a recent birthday gift from Rebecca, I drove to Hurricane Road and called Casey on my way.

To my surprise, the man said, “Are you expecting company?”

Of course not. Or at least not that I knew of. “Why?”

“There’s someone here who wants to speak to you.”

“Who?” I asked.

“He won’t tell me his name, Axle.”

Intrigued and startled at the same time, I contemplated who it could be and what they wanted. How bizarre.

Calmly, I told Casey, “I’ll be there in a few minutes. Give him a drink or something.”