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“We’re looking for him,” I said. “We just have a few questions. We thought you might be able to help us.”
She stepped outside and closed the door behind her. “It’s been a long time. Why are you looking for him?”
“We know about some money that might belong to him.”
“That sounds like Marcus. He was always scheming to get money.”
“Do you know where we might locate him?”
“Sorry. I haven’t seen him in a long time. We were only married for two years. Marcus and his brother had this idea to build a trucking company. His brother, Luther, would live in El Paso and Marcus would live in Trenton and they’d haul all sorts of things from Mexico to the Northeast. It sounded good on paper but the reality of it was that Marcus was never home. And when he was on the road he would fool around. So, I divorced him.” She turned and looked at her closed door. “I have a really nice family now. A good husband and two kids. They don’t know a lot about Marcus. I’d like to keep it that way.”
“Understood,” I said. “Thank you for sharing this with us.”
“The plot thickens,” I said to Ranger when we were back in the Porsche.
He called his office and asked them to get information on Luther Smulet.
Ranger has four spaces reserved for him in the Rangeman garage. One space is set aside for his Porsche 911 Turbo S. This was currently empty. His badass pickup occupies another. The third space is for the Cayenne. The fourth space doesn’t have a car assigned to it, so this is where I’d parked my Whatever. The Whatever looked ridiculous.
“I might have to give you a car,” Ranger said.
Add that to the plus side of the marriage list, I thought. A shiny new car and Ella. Not that Ranger needed anything more than himself. If Ranger were penniless and homeless, he would still be totally desirable.
We went to his fifth-floor office, and he pulled up the information on Luther Smulet. Two years older than Marcus. Divorced. Two kids. His wife had custody and lived in Austin. Luther had a house in El Paso. Also, a house in Chihuahua, Mexico. Sole proprietor of Acut Trucking. Owned two tractor trailers. One purchased ten years ago. The second purchased five years ago.
“Let’s see if Luther is in El Paso or Chihuahua,” Ranger said.
Ranger called someone in his control room and told him to find Luther. He disconnected from the control room and his phone buzzed with a text message.
“It’s Ella,” Ranger said. “She’s asking if you’re staying for dinner. Do you have other plans?”
“No plans.”
Yes, she’s staying, Ranger texted back.We’ll eat in the conference room. He stood at his desk and disconnected his MacBookPro. “There’s more room in the conference room,” he said. “I want to look at a map.”
We moved to the conference room. Ranger opened his MacBook and brought a map up on the large monitor that was mounted on the wall.
“This is a section of Trenton that includes Smulet’s house on Karnery Street, Paul Mori’s dry-cleaning business, and Pino’s,” Ranger said, moving a pointer around on the map, depositing a red X on each location. “They’re relatively close to each other. A long walk or a short drive.”
He went from a street map to a satellite view.
“Are we looking for something in particular?” I asked.
“We’re looking for a place to park an eighteen-wheeler. And we’re looking for a building that would lend itself to hanging a man on a hook.”
“I can’t see an eighteen-wheeler parked anywhere in the Karnery Street neighborhood,” I said. “Driveways aren’t long enough to accommodate one and residents wouldn’t tolerate one on the street. There are several blocks around Mori Dry Cleaning that have alleys behind them. In theory you might be able to park a tractor trailer in one of those alleys, but they’re only one lane, so a big truck would shut down the alley. And you couldn’t leave it there on garbage day.”
“I sent Manuel out to scout the area and he came back with the same conclusions, but I thought it was worth seeing it on satellite with you. You already know those streets.”
“That whole area is residential with mom-and-pop businesses sprinkled in with the houses. I don’t see a big rig getting parked there. And I don’t know of any buildings with concrete wallsand meat hooks suspended from the ceiling. There are a couple butcher shops that might have meat hooks, but they wouldn’t have concrete walls. If you drive past Pino’s and cross Broad there are some more commercial buildings. There’s an auto body repair shop with a parking lot surrounded by chain link. You might be able to make arrangements to park a truck there. I’m not super familiar with the other businesses.”
Ella knocked and came into the room with a serving cart. She set out placemats, linen napkins, silverware, water glasses, and wineglasses at the end of the table. She added a large bottle of water and a bottle of red wine.
“We have New Zealand lamb loin, wild rice, and mixed fresh vegetables tonight,” she said. “I brought a fruit plate for dessert, but we also have fruit sorbet.”
She set the plates of food on the table, removed the domes, and set the domes on the cart.
“Would you like anything else?” she asked.
