“We got charge receipts.” She plucked at her hair and by now it was looking wild.
“Most people who been in here we know anyhow.”
We were about to leave, but there was one more detail I needed to know. “Daigo,” I asked, “did he take anything with him to go?”
She looked perplexed and got up from the table. “Let me ask.”
Marino crushed out another cigarette, and his face was deep red.
“Are you all right?” I said.
He mopped his face with a napkin. “It’s hot as shit in here.”
“He took his fries,” Daigo announced when she got back. “Cissy says he ate his sandwich and slaw but she wrapped almost all of his fries. Plus when he got to the register, he bought a jumbo pack of gum.”
“What kind’?” I asked.
“She’s pretty sure it was Dentyne. As Marino and I stepped outside, he loosened the neck of his white uniform shirt and yanked off his tie. “Damn, some days I wish I’d never left A Squad,” he said, for when he had commanded detectives it had been in street clothes. “I don’t care who’s watching,” he muttered. “I’m about to die.”
“Please tell me if you’re serious,” I said.
“Don’t worry, I’m not ready for one of your tables yet.
I just ate too much.”
“Yes, you did,” I said. “And you smoked too much, too. And that’s what prepares people for my tables, goddamn it. Don’t you even think about dying, I’m tired of people dying.”
We had reached my station wagon and he was staring at me, searching for anything I might not want him to see.
“Are you okay?”
“What do you think? Danny worked for me.” My hand shook as I fumbled with the key. “He seemed nice and decent. It seemed he always tried to do what was right. He was driving my car here from Virginia Beach because I asked him to and now he’s missing the back of his head.
How the hell do you think I feel?”
“I think you feel like this is somehow your fault.”
“And maybe it is.”
We stood in the dark, looking at each other.
“No, it’s not,” he said. “It’s the fault of the asshole who pulled the trigger. You had nothing in the world to do with that. But if it was me, I’d feel the same way.”
“My God,” I suddenly said.
“What?” He was alarmed, and he looked around as if I had spotted something.
“His doggie bag. What happened to it? It wasn’t inside my Mercedes. There was nothing in there that I could see.
Not even a gum wrapper,” I said.
“Damn, you’re right. And I didn’t see nothing on the where your ride was parked.
Nothing with the body street or anywhere at the scene, either.”
the place no one had looked, and it was right There was o where we were, on this street by the restaurant. So Marino and I got out flashlights again and prowled. We looked along Broad Street, but it was on 28th near the curb where we found the small white bag as a large dog began barking from a yard. The bag’s location suggested that Danny had parked my car as close to the cafe as possible in an area where buildings and trees cast dense shadows and lights were few.
“You got a couple pencils or pens inside your purse?”
Marino squatted by what we suspected might be the remains of Danny’s dinner.
I found one pen and a long-handled comb, which I gave to him. Using these simple instruments, he opened the bag without touching it as he probed. Inside were cold French fries wrapped in foil and a jumbo pack of Dentyne gum.
The sight of them was jolting and told a terrible story.
Danny had been confronted as he had walked out of the cafe to my car. Perhaps someone emerged from shadows and pulled a gun as Danny was unlocking the door.
We did not know, but it seemed likely he was forced to drive a street away, where he was walked to a remote wooded hillside to die.
“I wish that damn dog would shut up,” Marino said as he stood. “Don’t go anywhere.