The Brass Ring Ch. 08-09

Chapter 8 Making Decisions

It was going to be a fairly major problem tracking down Harley McDougal. I had no idea if he was still in town, or had departed for other places. Either case, I needed a way to find him. I'd spent a restless night thinking about what I needed to know before I could decide what to do about Merilee. I had a plan. It wasn't much of a plan, I admit, but at least it was something.

"Discreet Services," the woman answered in a sexy voice. "How can I help you?"

"I need help to find someone. Can your company do that?"

"Yes, sir. Let me put you on to one of our staff. Just a moment, please."

I waited as the elevator music played on the phone while I was on hold.

"Spagnoli speaking," came a gruff man's voice. "Can I help you?"

"My name is Dieter Hunsinger. I need to find someone. Can you do that for me?"

"Probably, but I need to know a lot more. Why don't you come to the office and we can talk about it? I should be able to tell you what the chances are then."

"Yeah ... sure. What time?" I wouldn't have too much trouble shuffling my schedule.

"Let's say one o'clock this afternoon. Ask for Norm Spagnoli."

"Sure. See you then." I hung up, still wondering if my idea was going to work.

I walked into the fairly modern offices of Discreet Services promptly at one. The receptionist was just coming back from lunch and relieving the girl who had covered for her.

"I'm here to see Mr. Norm Spagnoli. I have an appointment."

"Yes ... just a moment and I'll get him for you," she said in that sexy voice I really liked.

A couple of minutes later a big, bald, rough looking guy with a goatee and dressed in a dark suit came out from the back and looked me over.

"Mr. Hunsinger?" he asked in a voice that sounded more like a growl.

"That's me."

"Good," he said, extending his very big hand. "Let's go in the back and talk."

I followed him and he led me to a small meeting room. I took one of the comfortable seats and sat across from him. He had a spiral-bound notebook and pulled out a pen.

"Why don't you tell me who you're looking for and why," he began.

"I'm looking for a guy by the name of Harley McDougal. I want to talk to him."

"What about?"

"My girlfriend ... or ex-girlfriend."

He looked at me for a moment. "You plannin' to beat the shit out of him?"

That caught me off-guard. "No ... no ... just need to talk to him."

"Yeah ... sure. Look, Mr. Hunsinger, you don't need the kind of trouble you could get into if you did something like that. Everybody in this town knows you and respects you. Why would you want to throw all that away with a criminal conviction?"

He knew who I was! That was not necessarily good.

"I don't want to cause that kind of trouble. I need to talk to him to find out some facts about him and my ... ex-girlfriend."

"And what happens if he won't talk to you?"

"I don't know. I haven't worked that out yet."

He was shaking his head. "Why don't you tell what the hell you are trying to accomplish and then maybe I can help."

I looked him over. I wasn't sure I would trust someone who looked like him normally, but he was a professional and I had to trust someone.

"Harley is a well-known pussy hound in this town. I was dating this girl and found out she was seeing him on the side. I want to find out just what went on between them. Then I want to talk to her and see if her story matches. See if she's telling the truth."

"What makes you think Harley what's-his-name is going to tell you the truth?"

"He borrowed five hundred dollars from her. I was planning to be a bill collector. I figured I might be able to trade the debt for some information."

Again he was shaking his head. "Jesus, pal. That's weak. You got little or no chance of getting the truth. He'll tell you what you want to hear to get out from under. Your plan ain't worth shit."

I slumped back in the chair. He was right. All he had to do was ask the right question at the right time and I knew my idea wasn't worth a damn.

"So ... what can I do?"

"You leave it with me. Go look at yourself in the mirror, Mr. Hunsinger. Then look at me. If you were Harley, who would you least likely want to talk to between you and me?"

I snorted a reply. "You," I admitted.

"Good guess. So let's get down to the nitty gritty," he said, leaning forward. "What do you really want to know? And don't bullshit me. I can't do my job if you aren't straight with me."

I gave him the whole story. I told him about Harley and Merilee and what had caused me to break up with her. I wanted the whole truth and not some fairytale. I was trying to decide what to do about Merilee and I needed the facts.

He told me what he charged, and he wasn't cheap. But when I thought about it, I wasn't going to be happy until I knew, so I gave him the go ahead, signed the agreement, and wrote a check for the retainer. He said he would get back to me as soon as he had something to report. For whatever reason, I felt I had made a good decision with Norm Spagnoli. He was rough, and didn't pull any punches, but I got the feeling he was good at his job.

I tried to put Merilee out of my mind until I heard something from Spagnoli. I wasn't too good at that. How am I supposed to forget someone as sexy and good-looking as her? Not easy! I guess I should be grateful, just the same. I had almost forgotten about Joanna and what she had done to me. And ... I was sleeping better at night.

It was two weeks later that I got a call from Norm Spagnoli. We set up a meeting at his office for four o'clock on Wednesday afternoon.

"Let's go back to the office," he said when he came out to greet me. "The meeting room's being used, so excuse the mess in my pigsty."

It wasn't as bad as he made it out to be, but I could see papers piled in some sort of order, but it looked like filing was not a priority.

"Okay, Dieter. May I call you Dieter?" he asked after a pause.

"Sure."

"You probably know my brother, Tony. He's the head mechanic at Central Auto," he said.

"Yeah ... sure ... I know Tony. I didn't connect the dots. I guess I didn't know Tony's last name."

"Well, he knows you and says you're a good guy. Always there when he needs you. And I know your name from the family business. You gotta good rep in this town. That's why I didn't want you to get yourself in trouble when you first came to see me."

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

"So ... here's what we know. Mr. Harley McDougal is now living in Ortonville. Not that far away. He's in trouble up to his neck with debts. Somehow or other he scrounges up money from one place or another, but it doesn't seem to last long. He's not smart enough to change identities, so he goes from woman to woman, stealing or borrowing money wherever he can get it. Merilee Jenkins, who I assume is the Merilee Jenkins of Jenkins Motors, was just one of a number of women who he conned.

"There are a couple of warrants out for his arrest for fraud and theft, but nobody is looking too hard for him. Most of his stuff is small-time. Not worth the cops getting all worked up about unless they stop him for something and run a check. None of the women are crying rape, so that keeps him under the radar. I'm close to finding him where I can get him alone and have a talk to him. I think he's shacked up with some broad who works in a bar. I shouldn't have too much trouble cuttin' him out of the herd."

"Harley's been around here for quite a while," I said. "It's hard to believe he could do all this for so long and get away with it."

"You're right. He was married with a kid. But she divorced him when she got tired of him running around, and he was saddled with alimony and child support. It didn't take him long to get behind on both of them. That's when he started to get himself deeper and deeper in shit. He was borrowing money left, right, and center. He maxed all his credit cards out and then applied for some new ones. Typical of those outfits, they gave him some. I figure he's getting to the end of the trail, though. He's used up all his options, so I need to get to him before he takes off and moves to greener pastures."

"Do you think he'll talk to you?" I asked.

He gave me a nasty smirk. "Probably. There's an advantage to looking like I do and having an Italian last name."

"Yeah," I chuckled. "I can imagine."

I left their office sure that I'd hired the right guy for this job. I laughed at myself thinking I could have pulled this off. I didn't even know where to look for Harley, much less what I was going to do about him if I did find him. Leave it to the pros, I told myself.

It wasn't even ten days later that Norm called me and said we should get together. We grabbed a coffee and headed toward his office again.

"Well, I think I got what you want to know, Dieter. It ain't all bad, either. It turns out Harley McDougal is not as good as his reputation. He was with Merilee Jenkins four times. Each time he took her to the Catbird Club and tried to loosen her up with booze. I guess Ms. Jenkins doesn't drink much, because he didn't manage to get her drunk.

"He struck out the first couple of times with her, so he decided he needed to help her along with some "E" and maybe some Meth. The plan was to spike her drink and then she'd be more than willing to join him in whatever he wanted to do. The problem was, he owed money to the guys he was buying the stuff from and they had cut him off. He had to resort to trying to talk her out of her panties.

"He conned her into loaning him five hundred dollars, saying his commission check from the brokerage house was late that month. He was planning to use part of the five hundred for the drugs, and the rest for himself. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't going to go out with him any more. Apparently you had found out about Harley and her, and she was pretty upset, he said.

"So ... the bottom line is ... Harley didn't get anywhere with Merilee Jenkins. He took her out, bought her a few drinks, got to kiss her a few times, but nothing more."

"You believe that?" I asked, hoping it was true.

"Yeah. Harley was very eager to tell me the story. After I introduced myself and suggested he need to talk to me, he was quite cooperative. Of course, after he pissed his pants, he really didn't want to go anywhere for a while," Spagnoli grinned.

I leaned back in the chair. I was happy, but still uncertain about Merilee. Nothing had happened between her and Harley, but just the same, I still had my doubts.

"Thanks, Norm. You did a good job. I'll remember to call you the next time I need to find someone."

"No problem, Dieter. I hope this is what you wanted to know. Sounds like she just got herself involved with someone she shouldn't have. Young kids make those kinds of mistakes. Sometimes you just have to let them figure it out for themselves and learn from it," he said.

We shook hands and I left the office. His last remarks were a lot like the comments of Paulette on New Years Eve. Yeah, Merilee was young, and she was going to make mistakes. So really, the problem was about her being truthful, not about seeing Harley. No private detective could help me with that.

I had said I would call Merilee and we could talk. It was time.

"Hi, Merilee, it's Dieter. I thought maybe we could get together for a talk ... like we said at New Years."

"Yes, Dieter. I'd like that. I do want to talk to you. When and where?"

"Someplace private. I don't want everyone knowing our business," I said.

"My parents will be out on Saturday afternoon. Why don't you come over here then?"

I thought about it for a moment, then, "Yeah, okay. Saturday afternoon. Maybe two o'clock?"

"Two o'clock will be fine," she said. I could hear the upbeat tone of her voice.

"Okay, see you then," I said, signing off.

I know it was Merilee that wanted to talk to me, but I had some things to say too. First, I wanted her to tell me about what was going on with Harley. Then I wanted to say my piece about telling the truth and honesty and how important they were to me. I tried to imagine how this was going to go, but I couldn't get a grip on it.

Friday night, I stopped in at Tricky Dick's again. Mac said "Hi" the moment I appeared at the bar and didn't even bother to ask me what I wanted. The beer was open on the counter before I even got seated.

"Chili's on tonight, Duke," he said.

"Chili's on every Friday night, Mac," I chuckled.

"True. How's things with you?"

"Pretty good. No complaints."

"Got a new girlfriend yet?" he asked as he moved some glasses from the washer to the counter.

"Can't say. Maybe ... maybe not. I'll be okay, one way or another," I said.

"Good luck, man. You're ready for a good woman."

I settled in with my beer, told Mac to hold the chili for an hour, and kept one eye on the TV screen. It was showing a European golf tournament. Too early for basketball or hockey I guess.

The bar was jumping when I came in and although a few of the after-work crowd had left to go home, more were coming in to take their place. Mac would be busy tonight, as would the waitresses. He told me once that Thursday, Friday and Saturday paid for the whole week. Everything else was gravy. Monday night football was just an added bonus.

I was getting hungry when I gave Mac the high-sign for the chili and another beer.

I finished my bowl of chili and the side salad, and Mac took the dishes and utensils away as I settled with the rest of my beer. The college basketball game was already a blowout, with a ranked team taking on some unknown small college in a pre-March Madness warm-up. I was about to push off when I heard a bunch of women come in and look around for an open table. Good luck, I thought.

When I checked them out in the big mirror, I saw Teresa again and she was with five other women, one of whom looked familiar. As they waited for the waitress to put two small tables together and collect enough chairs, Teresa spotted me and came over.

"Hey, Duke. How are you? Seems like you're a regular in here on Fridays."

"Yeah, lately I guess I have been. Must be Mac's chili," I grinned.

"Still on your own, huh?"

"Yeah. Say, who's the woman in the green sweater with the brown hair? She looks familiar."

"Oh, that's Pattie Peppar. Do you know her?"

"Yeah, I do, but the last time I saw her she didn't look anything like that."

"Come on over and say hello, then," she said as she followed her gang to the tables.

I slid off the stool and walked behind Teresa, keeping my eye on the girl I knew as Mint. She didn't look anything like Mint anymore though.

"Hey Pattie, you remember Duke don't you?" Teresa said as we approached the two tables.

She looked up and smiled. Nosiree, this didn't look like the woman I once knew at all.

"Hi, Duke. Nice to see you again."

"Hi ... Pattie," I said, almost calling her Mint. "Long time. How are you?"

"Great, thanks. I've got a new job with Hamilton Realty. Not in sales, though. I've got to earn my license for that."

"Congratulations," I said, surprised at how much she seemed to have changed.

"I don't have to ask how you are doing. That big building and last year's Chamber of Commerce award says everything's going great for you too."

"It's been a good few years all right." As she held up her hand, I saw a big engagement ring. Another surprise.

"Wow ... nice ring. You're engaged?"

"Yes. He's a great guy. Works for the city as a building inspector in the engineering department. They say he's got a big future."

"I'm glad to hear it, Pattie. When's the big day?"

"June thirteenth. And no ... I'm not superstitious," she laughed.

I had a hard time getting over the change in her. It was like she was a different person from the one I knew. Maybe people could change. Obviously, Pattie could.

"Well, all the best to you both for your marriage and your job. Good luck, Pattie," I said, holding her hand for a moment before I left. Her smile was so different from the one I remembered. She was relaxed and happy. The 'Goth Girl' was gone for good.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at meeting her. This wasn't a big city and most of us stuck to the neighborhoods we knew. On the other hand, if Teresa hadn't introduced her, I'm not sure I would have recognized her.

See, Pattie brought home again that people do change for the better. I had no idea what caused Pattie to become "normal," but whatever it was it looked good on her. So that left the question I needed to deal with tomorrow. Could Merilee change? Could she become the "one man woman" that I was looking for?

I woke up Saturday morning and immediately started thinking about my meeting with Merilee. I'd had too much time to think of all the things I might say and then try and imagine all the answers to my questions she would give. It was a hopeless deal. I might as well relax and just wait and see what happened. I didn't want it to be an angry discussion. I wanted to forgive her, if I could. The truth is, I was looking for a way to forgive her.

I rang the doorbell just after two that afternoon, my stomach tight with tension, wondering just how this meeting would go.

"Hi, Dieter," Merilee smiled as she opened the door. "Come in."

I walked past her into the great room and she suggested we sit on a pair of chairs that were almost facing each other, only a few feet apart.

"Would you like something to drink? Coffee, or a beer?"

"I'll have a coffee if there's some made, thanks," I said.

"Cream only ... right?"

"Right," I agreed.

She was back in a minute with two mugs of coffee and placed them on coasters on the table between the chairs.

Just like the last time, we didn't seem to know who would go first. This time, Merilee took the lead.

"I never had a chance to tell you how sorry I was about what happened between us. I wish I had it to do all over again, but I don't. What's done is done and I can't undo it. I'm sorry, Dieter. Really very, very sorry."

She sounded very sincere and didn't try and excuse herself or make it sound less than it was.

"Why don't you tell me what happened between you and Harley," I suggested.

She looked at me, knowing this was probably going to be something I would ask her to do. She didn't look happy, but after a short pause, she began.

"I met Harley just before I met you. He was a slick, smooth kind of guy, with a glib tongue and a flashy wardrobe. I didn't think I was naive enough to fall for his line, but I guess I was. Anyway, I went out with him a total of four times. We never had sex ... I want you to know that. Oh, Harley tried all right, but I didn't want to get that involved with him. After I met you, I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't seem to say no to Harley.

"When he borrowed five hundred dollars from me, I started to realize how stupid I was. He gave me some line about his commission check being late. Anyway, that's when I knew I didn't want to see him anymore. But ... it was too late. You found out about him, and I knew I'd lied to you about not seeing anyone else. I felt so lousy about that, but it was too late. You were gone."

"Harley was pretty famous for getting his way with women," I said. "You say you never had sex with him?"

She nodded. "Never. I just couldn't bring myself to let him have me. I didn't want to be what you called another notch on his bedpost."

Her story was consistent with what Harley had told Norm Spagnoli. That was a relief in a way. Not that it solved all the problems, but she told the truth.

"You know, Merilee, I wouldn't have been as upset if you had told me about him and had sex with him. I mean, it was about telling the truth. You know, trust."

She nodded. "I know. That's the part I feel the most ashamed of. I couldn't bring myself to tell you the truth, even though we didn't know each other that well. You asked me a simple question ... and I lied. I'm sorry and ashamed."