The skin Gods jbakb-2 Read online

  "Not a problem," he replied. "I'll try to hook up with you in the field as soon as I can."

  "Okay."

  "Great to be working with you," he said.

  "You, too," Jessica lied.

  She capped the coffees and made her way to the door. At the door she caught her reflection in the glass, then looked beyond, racking her focus, at the room behind her. Special Agent Terry Cahill was leaning against the counter, smiling.

  Is he checking me out?

  8

  The Reel Deal was a small, independent video store on Aramingo Avenue near Clearfield, shoehorned between a Vietnamese takeout and a nail salon called Claws and Effect. It was one of the few mom-and-pop video stores in Philadelphia not yet put out of business by Blockbuster or West Coast Video.

  The grimy front window held posters of Vin Diesel and Jet Li movies, cascaded over a decade of teen romantic comedies. There were also sun-leached black-and-white head shots of fading action stars: Jean- Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Jackie Chan. One corner of the window bore a sign proclaiming WE CARRY CULT AND MEXI-MONSTERS!

  Jessica and Byrne entered.

  The Reel Deal was a long, narrow space, with videotapes lining both walls and a two-sided rack down the center. The racks had handmade signs above them, plaques denoting genre: DRAMA, COMEDY, ACTION, FOREIGN, FAMILY. Something called ANIME took up a third of one wall. A glance at the CLASSICS rack showed a full range of Hitchcock movies.

  In addition to the movies for rent were racks of microwave popcorn, soft drinks, chips, film magazines. On the walls above the tapes were curling movie posters, mostly action and horror titles, with a few Merchant-Ivory one-sheets sprinkled in for class.

  To the right, next to the entrance, was the slightly elevated checkout counter. The movie running on the monitor mounted on the wall was a 1970s slasher flick Jessica didn't immediately recognize. The requisite scantily clad coed was being chased through a dark basement by a knife- wielding, mask-wearing psychopath.

  The clerk behind the counter was in his late teens. He had long dirty- blond hair, kneehole jeans, a Wilco T-shirt, a spike wristband. Jessica couldn't tell which iteration of grunge he was emulating: the original Neil Young version, the Nirvana/Pearl Jam nexus, or some new breed of which she, at the ancient age of thirty, was not familiar.

  There were a handful of browsers in the store. Beneath the cloying smell of strawberry incense was the faint aroma of some pretty good pot.

  Byrne showed the clerk his badge.

  "Whoa," the kid said. His bloodshot eyes darted to the beaded doorway behind him and to what was, Jessica was fairly certain, his small stash of weed.

  "What's your name?" Byrne asked.

  "My name?"

  "Yeah," Byrne said. "That's the thing other people call you when they want to get your attention."

  "Uh, Leonard," he said. "Leonard Puskas. Lenny, actually."

  "Are you the manager, Lenny?" Byrne asked.

  "Well not, like, officially."

  "Meaning, like, what?"

  "Meaning I open and close and do all the ordering and all the other work around here. All for minimum wage."

  Byrne held up the outer box for the copy of Psycho that Adam Kaslov had rented. The Audio Visual Unit still had the original tape.

  "Hitch," Lenny said, nodding. "A classic."

  "You're a fan?"

  "Oh yeah. Big time," Lenny said. "Although, I never really got into his political stuff in the sixties. Topaz, Torn Curtain." I see.

  "But The Birds? North by Northwest? Rear Window? Awesome."

  "What about Psycho, Lenny?" Byrne asked. "Are you a fan of Psycho?"

  Lenny sat up straight, wrapped his arms around his chest, straitjacket style. He sucked in his cheeks, clearly getting ready to do some sort of impression. He said: "I wouldn't hurt a fly."

  Jessica exchanged a glance and a shrug with Byrne. "And who was that supposed to be?" Byrne asked.

  Lenny looked crushed. "That was Anthony Perkins. That's his line from the end of the movie. He doesn't actually say it, of course. It's a voice-over. Actually, technically, the voice-over says Why, she wouldn't even hurt a fly, but-" Lenny's look of hurt instantly morphed into one of horror. "You've seen it, haven't you? I mean… I didn't… I'm a real stickler on spoilers."

  "I've seen the movie," Byrne said. "I've just never seen anyone do Anthony Perkins before."

  "I can do Martin Balsam, too. Wanna see?"

  "Maybe later."

  "Okay."

  "This tape is from this store?"

  Lenny squinted at the label on the side of the box. "Yeah," he said. "That's ours."

  "We need to know the rental history of this particular tape."

  "No prob," he said in his best Junior G-Man voice. This was going to be a great story around the bong later. He reached under the counter and took out a thick spiral notebook, began to turn over pages.

  As he flipped through the book, Jessica noted that the pages were stained with just about every condiment known to man, and a few blots of unknown origin she didn't even want to think about.

  "Your records aren't computerized?" Byrne asked.

  "Uh, that would require software," Lenny said. "And that would require an actual expenditure."

  It was clear that there was no love lost between Lenny and his boss.

  "It's only been out three times this year," Lenny finally said. "Including the rental yesterday."

  "To three different people?" Jessica asked.

  "Yeah."

  "Do your records go back farther?"

  "Yeah," Lenny said. "But we had to replace Psycho last year. The old tape broke, I think. That copy you have there has only been out three times."

  "Doesn't seem like a lot of rentals for a classic," Byrne said.

  "Most folks take out the DVD."

  "And this is your only copy of the VHS version?" Jessica asked.

  "Yes, ma'am."

  Ma'am, Jessica thought. I'm a ma'am. "We'll need the names and addresses of the people who rented this tape."

  Lenny looked left and right, as if a pair of ACLU lawyers with whom he might confer on this matter might flank him. Instead, he was flanked by life-size cardboard cutouts of Nicolas Cage and Adam Sandler. "I don't think I'm allowed to do that."

  "Lenny," Byrne said, leaning in. He crooked his finger, motioning him to lean closer. Lenny did. "Did you notice the badge I showed you when we walked in?"

  "Yeah. I saw that."

  "Good. Here's the deal. If you give me the information I asked for, I'll try and overlook the fact that it smells a little bit like Bob Marley's rec room in here. Okay?"

  Lenny leaned back. It appeared as if he was unaware that the strawberry incense didn't completely cover the aroma of the reefer. "Okay. No prob."

  While Lenny looked for a pen, Jessica glanced at the monitor on the wall. A new movie was running. An old black-and-white noir with Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd.

  "Do you want me to write these names down for you?" Lenny asked.

  "I think we can handle it," Jessica replied.

  In addition to Adam Kaslov, the two other people who had rented the movie were a man named Isaiah Crandall and a woman named Emily Trager. They both lived within three or four blocks of the store.

  "Do you know Adam Kaslov well?" Byrne asked.

  "Adam? Oh yeah. Good dude."

  "How so?"

  "Well, he has good taste in movies. Pays his late fees without a hassle. We talk independent film sometimes. We're both Jim Jarmusch fans."

  "Is Adam in here a lot?"

  "I guess. Maybe twice a week."

  "Does he come in alone?"

  "Most of the time. Although I did see him in here once with an older woman."

  "Do you know who she was?"

  "No."

  "Older as in how old?" Byrne asked.

  "Twenty-five maybe."

  Jessica and Byrne exchanged a glance and a sigh. "What did she look like?"

  "B
lond, pretty. Nice body. You know. For an older gal."

  "Do you know either of these other people well?" Jessica asked, tapping the book.

  Lenny turned the book, read the names. "Sure. I know Emily."

  "She's a regular?"

  "Kind of."

  "What can you tell us about her?"

  "Not much," Lenny said. "I mean, we don't hang or anything."

  "Whatever you can tell us would be most helpful."

  "Well, she always buys a bag of cherry Twizzlers when she rents a movie. She wears a little too much perfume but, you know, compared with the way some of the people who come in here smell, it's actually kind of nice."

  "How old is she?" Byrne asked.

  Lenny shrugged. "I don't know. Seventy?"

  Jessica and Byrne exchanged another glance. Although they were fairly certain that the "old woman" on the tape was a man, crazier things had happened.

  "What about Mr. Crandall?" Byrne asked.

  "Him I don't know. Hang on." Lenny brought out a second notebook. He thumbed to a page. "Yeah. He's only been a member here about three weeks."

  Jessica wrote it down. "I'm also going to need the names and addresses of all the other employees."

  Lenny frowned again, but didn't even bother trying to object. "There are only two of us. Me and Juliet."

  At this, a young woman poked her head out between the beaded curtains. She had clearly been listening. If Lenny Puskas was the poster boy for grunge, his co-employee was the poster girl for Goth. Short and stocky, about eighteen, she had purple-black hair, deep burgundy fingernails, black lipstick. She wore a long lemon vintage taffeta dress, Doc Martens, and thick white-rimmed glasses.

  "That's fine," Jessica said. "I just need home contact information for both of you."

  Lenny scribbled down the information, handed it to Jessica.

  "Do you rent a lot of Hitchcock films here?" Jessica asked.

  "Sure," Lenny said. "We've got most of them, including some of the early ones like The Lodger and Young and Innocent. But, like I said, most people rent the DVDs. The older movies look a lot better on disc. Especially the Criterion Collection editions."

  "What are the Criterion Collection editions?" Byrne asked.

  "They put out classic and foreign films in remastered versions. Lots of extras on the disc. Real quality stuff."

  Jessica made a few notes. "Is there anybody you can think of who rents a lot of Hitchcock movies? Or someone who has been asking for them?"

  Lenny thought about it. "Not really. I mean, not that I can think of." He turned and looked at his coworker. "Jools?"

  The girl in the yellow taffeta dress swallowed hard and shook her head. She wasn't handling a visit from the police all that well.

  "Sorry," Lenny added.

  Jessica glanced at all four corners of the store. There were two surveillance cameras at the back. "Do you have tapes from these cameras available?"

  Lenny snorted again. "Uh, no. Those are just for show. They're not connected to anything. Between you and me, we're lucky there's a lock on the front door."

  Jessica handed Lenny a pair of cards. "If either of you think of anything else, anything that might be connected to this tape, please give me a call."

  Lenny held the cards as if they might explode in his hands. "Sure. No prob."

  The two detectives walked the half block to the department-issue Taurus, a dozen questions floating. At the top of this list was whether or not they were actually investigating a homicide. Homicide detectives in Philadelphia were funny that way. There was always an overflowing plate in front of you, and if there was even the slightest chance that you were off on a hunt over what was actually a suicide or an accident or something else, you generally bitched and moaned until you were allowed to pass it off.

  Still, the boss had handed them a job, and off they had to go. Most homicide investigations began with the crime scene and the victim. Rare was the case that began at a point before that.

  They got in the car and headed off to interview Mr. Isaiah Crandall, classic film buff and potential psychotic killer.

  Across the street from the video store, shadowed in a doorway, a man watched the drama unfold inside The Reel Deal. He was unremarkable in all ways, except in his capacity to adapt to his surroundings, like a chameleon. At this moment he might be mistaken for Harry Lime in The Third Man.

  Later in the day he might be Gordon Gekko in Wall Street.

  Or Tom Hagen in The Godfather.

  Or Babe Levy in Marathon Man.

  Or Archie Rice in The Entertainer.

  For when he stepped before his public he could be many men, many characters. He could be a doctor, a dockworker, the drummer in a lounge band. He could be a priest, a doorman, a librarian, a travel agent, even a law enforcement officer.

  He was a man of a thousand guises, skilled in the arts of dialect and stage movement. He could be whatever the day called for.

  This, after all, was what actors do.

  9

  At roughly thirty-three thousand feet over Altoona, Pennsylvania, Seth Goldman finally began to unwind. For a man who had found himself inside an airplane an average of three days a week for the past four years-they had just taken off from Philadelphia, heading to Pittsburgh, they'd be returning in only a few hours-he was still a white- knuckle flier. Every bump of turbulence, every raised aileron, every air pocket filled him with dread.

  But now, in the well-appointed Learjet 60, he began to unwind. If you had to fly, sitting in a rich butter-cream leather seat, with burl wood and brass appointments around you, and a fully stocked galley at your disposal, was definitely the way to go.

  Ian Whitestone was sitting at the rear of the jet, shoes off, eyes closed, headphones on. It was at times like these-when Seth knew where his boss was, with the day's activities planned and security in place-that he allowed himself to relax.

  Seth Goldman was born thirty-seven years ago as Jerzy Andres Kiedrau, hardscrabble-poor in Muse, Florida. The only son of a sassy, opinionated woman and a black-hearted man, he had been an unplanned, unwanted late-life baby, and from the first days he could remember, his father had reminded him of this.

  When Krystof Kiedrau wasn't beating his wife, he was beating and berating his only son. Some nights the arguments got so loud, the bloodletting became so brutal, that young Jerzy had to flee the trailer, running far into the low scrub fields that bordered the trailer park, coming home at dawn covered with sand beetle bites and the welts of a hundred mosquito stings.

  During those years, Jerzy had one solace: the movies. He had worked odd jobs, scrubbing down trailers, running errands, cleaning pools, and as soon as he had enough for a matinee, he would hitchhike to Palmdale and the Lyceum Theater.

  He recalled many afternoons in the cool darkness of the theater, a place where he could lose himself in the world of fantasy. Early on he realized the power of the medium to transport, to exalt, to mystify, to terrify. It was a love affair that never ended.

  When he returned home, if his mother was sober, he would discuss the film he had seen with her. His mother knew all about the movies. She had once been an actress, having appeared in more than a dozen films, making her debut as a teenager in the late 1940s under the stage name Lily Trieste.

  She had worked with all the important directors of noir-Dmytryk, Siodmak, Dassin, Lang. The shining moment in her career-a career that mostly had her lurking in shadowed alleys, smoking unfiltered cigarettes with a slew of nearly handsome men sporting thin mustaches and double- breasted notch-lapel suits-had been a scene with Franchot Tone, a scene where she uttered one of Jerzy's favorite lines of noir dialogue. Standing in the doorway to a cold-water walk-up, she had stopped brushing her hair, turned to the actor, who was being led away by the authorities, and said:

  "I spent the morning washing you out of my hair, baby. Don't make me give you the brush."

  By the time she reached her midthirties, the industry cast her aside. Not wanting to settle for the c
razy-aunt roles, she moved to Florida to live with her sister, and it was there she met her future husband. Her career had long been over by the time she'd given birth to Jerzy at the age of forty-seven.

  At fifty-six, Krystof Kiedrau was diagnosed with advanced cirrhosis of the liver, the result of drinking a fifth of bottom-shelf whiskey every day for thirty-five years. He was told that if he drank another drop of alcohol, he could fall into an alcohol-induced coma, which could ultimately prove fatal. For a few months, the warning had scared Krystof Kiedrau into abstinence. Then, after losing his part-time job, Krystof had tied one on and come home blind drunk.

  He beat his wife mercilessly that night, the final blow, one that drove her head into a sharp cabinet handle, pierced her temple, causing a deep gash. By the time Jerzy got home from his job sweeping up the auto body shop in Moore Haven, his mother had bled to death in the corner of the kitchen, and his father was sitting in his chair, half a bottle of whiskey in his hand, three full bottles at his side, his grease-stained wedding album in his lap.

  Fortunately for young Jerzy, Krystof Kiedrau was too far gone to stand up, let alone light into him.

  Late into the night Jerzy poured his father glass after glass of whiskey, at times helping the man bring the filthy tumbler to his lips. By midnight, with two bottles left, Krystof began to drift in and out of a stupor, and could no longer hold the glass. Jerzy then began to pour the whiskey directly down his father's throat. By four thirty, his father had consumed a total of four full fifths of alcohol, and at exactly five ten that morning he fell into an alcohol coma. A few minutes later he took his final foul breath.

  A few hours later, with both his parents dead, the flies already seeking out their decaying flesh in the stifling confines of the trailer, Jerzy called the police.

  After a brief investigation, during which Jerzy said barely a word, he was placed into a group home in Lee County where he learned the art of persuasion and social manipulation. At eighteen he went to Edison Community College. He was a quick study, a brilliant student, and he attacked his studies with a fervor for knowledge he had never known was within him. Two years later, his associate's degree in hand, Jerzy moved to North Miami, where he sold cars by day and earned his bachelor's degree at night at Florida International University. Eventually he worked his way to sales manager.