Need to Know
I’ve never been married so I had no idea what this guy was going through, but I had been in a ruinous relationship, and I knew there comes a time when ya gotta give it up. Matt Hagerty wouldn’t, or couldn’t, and he paid an awful price.
Matt offered a hundred bucks to find his wayward wife, Ellen. He said she’d been brainwashed by some New Age, doomsday cult. She’d been gone six months and he was having trouble taking care of Roy and Little Susie. The police had been no help, and the kids wanted Mom back in the worst way.
A hundred bucks was barely a day’s pay, so I kept the poor slob hanging till he sweetened the pot. Something about the guy seemed off, and his story was suspect, but I was in no position to turn away a paying client no matter how many red flags flew. The rent was due, and I couldn’t afford scruples. He finally forked over five hundred, and I promised something within a week.
Hagerty was oddly reluctant to provide much background, but I pressed, and he finally gave up info on the so-called cult and Ellen’s recent employers, plus some hometown history and her high school yearbook photo. Not much, but enough to get me started.
First up was the Amrita Ascendant Alliance, the sinister group that had “brainwashed” Ellen Hagerty. There have been a bunch of cults countrywide, Branch Davidians, Heaven’s Gate, and such, but there hasn’t been much activity in Pittsburgh since solicitation was banned at the airport and the Hare Krishnas faded away. Not unless you consider Steeler Nation a cult, and I couldn’t see Ellen Hagerty as a rabid football fan. Still, something had lured her from her allegedly happy home, so off I went.
Matt told me the cult worked out of a storefront in the Strip District, but the address he gave me was occupied by the Sunrise Yoga Studio. The lithe young woman behind the counter had never heard of the Amrita Ascendant Alliance, and she’d never seen nor heard of Ellen Hagerty. Puzzled, and a little pissed off, I stopped at a local library and learned that the Alliance was notorious in South Korea for a series of subway disruptions, but it had no presence in the U S of A. None. Hagerty had slipped me a red herring to go with the red flags. But why?
I found a pay phone and called Hagerty’s number, but he didn’t pick up and there was no machine. “This is why you get the money up front,” I reminded myself. Also, why it’s best to ask the client a few questions before banking his cash. Bottom line, I needed more on Matt Hagerty before I followed any farther down his rabbit hole, so I decided to seek the aid of my friend and neighbor, Trudy Bonner.
Trudy and I once worked for the same Spirit-Sucking Insurance Company, until the pinheads in personnel had proposed a career change. For me. Trudy maintained a lower profile, despite her hennaed hair and black-lacquered nails, and toiled on for the soulless giant. Fortunately, she was not above using company resources to run credit checks and track numbers, for me, the Deacon Blues Detective Agency.
Trudy was now my downstairs neighbor in a converted townhome in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood on Pittsburgh’s south side. The city had set up a “Cultural Trust” in ‘84 to encourage investment, and it was off to the races. Ten years later the area was on the verge of being overrun by hipster wannabes, but for now, it was still livable.
“Frank, you know there are services that do this stuff,” Trudy complained. I had caught her on the landing as she was heading out to a class, and she was growing weary with my mooching.
“Trude, you know I can’t afford those services, and I’m not looking for much. No credit check or anything. Just stuff that’s laying around in public.”
Trudy couldn’t stand my whining, so she agreed to run some research, and then ran off to aerobics. I climbed the flight of stairs to my apartment where I sorted through the day’s mail, and listened to a message from a parole officer named Lou Romero who was looking for my missing client and wanted a call back ASAP.
Anyone else I would have blown off, but Louisa “Lou” Romero was one spicy civil servant. A fantasy world franchise player I’d met on a case a few months back. I couldn’t pass up the chance to see her again, so I called her office and found her working late, as usual. I asked her to dinner, but she claimed serious business to discuss. She asked me to stop by her office after her last appointment which gave me just enough time to get downtown.
Louisa Romero was a poster child for the American Dream. First in her family to attend college, she quaintly felt she should pay something forward by performing a public service. Her office was a shoebox in the old section of the county courthouse, just right for one of those retronauts who actually believed in what they were doing. I found her behind a big, wooden desk in a room crammed with file cabinets. She looked up as I entered and the light from the desk lamp caught the slender gold chain around her neck. I firmly believed that a delicate gold cross dangled in the shadows between her exquisitely rounded breasts. I yearned for confirmation.
“Mister Rotten, take a seat,” she said with that hint of Hispania she wore like a favored piece of jewelry. “What can you tell me about Matt Hagerty?” Her tone suggested that my ache for confirmation would remain unsoothed, at least on this night.
“What makes you think I know anything about Matt Hagerty?”
“He’s missed his last two appointments, so I checked his apartment and found your card.”
“In that case, he’s a client of mine.”
“And just what are you doing for Mr. Hagerty?”
“I’m helping him look for something.”
“Would that ‘something’ be his ex-wife?”
“Ex? He told me his wife had joined a cult and left him with two small kids. I thought they were still married.”
“Did you run any kind of background check?”
“I didn’t know he was on parole. He paid in cash, and I didn’t ask many questions.”
“Your client just served six months for battering his wife,” she lectured sternly, reducing me to idle speculation about the end of the chain. “His third offense,” she continued, showing no mercy. “They are now divorced, and they have no children.”
“I haven’t found her,” I said weakly.
“He’s gone, Frank,” she said accusingly, and I could tell she wanted him back in the worst way. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know. After her, I guess,” I said, and she stared at me like I’d said something stupid, which I had. “Hey, I’m sorry. I’m not his keeper,” I offered lamely. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Find him and bring him in. By the end of the day tomorrow. If not, a warrant will be issued for his arrest.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said, and she returned to her work. “I guess this means we’re not going to dinner”, I concluded as I rose to go.
“Good night, Frank,” she said flatly without looking up.
Damn, she was hot! But even by my low standards, that had not gone well. Not only was my client a lying sack of shit, he was also a wife beater and fugitive from justice. It was embarrassing how little I knew about the guy. I should have just cut him loose, but I was low on liquidity and in no position to issue any refunds. So, snoop on, Rotten.
Early next morning I set out for the Hagertys’ hometown of Bridgeton, WV. Not exactly “holler” country, but close enough to hear the banjo twang. I stopped at the town police station and asked to speak with the chief, one Tobias Millard Coleman. I didn’t expect much, showing up unannounced, but before you could say, “Welcome to Mayberry”, I was sitting across from the big man himself.
“What brings you to Bridgeton, Mister Rotten?” asked the uniformed chief who looked every bit the stereotypical smalltown sheriff – buzz cut, paunch, and squinty, suspicious eyes. Fortunately, he proved to be level-headed and slow to judge. And helpful.
I explained I was trying to track down a former resident by the name of Matt Hagerty and told him I was working with the Allegheny County parole office, which wasn’t that much of a stretch. I offered my license and one of Lou Romero’s cards that I had lifted from her desk.
He gave my license a close look and handed it back, then set Lou’s card on his desk and slowly opened up about my wayward client.
“You say he violated his parole?” asked the chief, and I nodded. “What was he in for?”
“Simple assault. He did six months for beating his wife, Ellen.”
“Not too surprising. I knew Matt Hagerty to be a coward and a bully. Ellen was a sweet kid, friend of my daughter’s. I was sad to see her get mixed up with him.”
“What kind of trouble was he into here?
“He raised some hell in high school, knocking over mailboxes, fighting at football games, that sort of thing. Nothing too serious. But after he graduated, I strongly suspected he was dealing drugs. Meth is a real problem in these parts, and it was working its way into town. I thought I had him dead to rights a few years back, but he wriggled off the hook. He and Ellen left town shortly thereafter.”
“You think he might head back here now that he’s wanted in Pittsburgh?”
“Not likely. He burned a lot of bridges. This is a small town and people talk. If he was in the area, I expect I’d hear about it.”
I thanked the chief for his help, and he promised to call Lou if he heard anything.
“I’d watch yourself, young man,” the chief advised as I made my way to the door. “He can be unpleasant if he doesn’t get what he wants.”
Apparently, Hagerty had not left his heart in Bridgeton, and my road trip was looking like a dead end, but I reminded myself I had been hired to find Ellen Hagerty, not Matt. And I remembered that Ellen had worked waiting tables, so I took a short walk down Main Street to the Hometown Diner where I settled on a stool and ordered a late breakfast.
I was expecting a high degree of small-town suspicion, but the young waitress was surprisingly friendly and readily recognized Ellen’s yearbook photo. She’d actually been in the same class and was happy to fill me in.
Matt and Ellen had been high school sweethearts and married right after graduation. Matt got a job in the auto parts store and Ellen worked right there in the diner. Ellen thought about taking some classes at the local community college, but never got around to it. Neither had family left in town, so it was no surprise when they picked up and left themselves.
“Off to the big city to make their fortune, or some such,” said the waitress as she warmed my coffee.
“I heard Matt was a bit of a troublemaker.”
“You must have been talking to my father, the police chief,” she said, and I smiled. “He had it in his head that Matt was dealing drugs. He may have been using on occasion, but I never knew him to be a big dealer.”
“How did he and Ellen get along?”
“Okay, I guess. Matt was a hard sketch. Bit of a control freak, but Ellen didn’t complain much. At least not to me. And I haven’t heard from her since they left.”
The lunch crowd was starting to pick up and the waitress was busy, so I just finished my omelet, left a generous tip, and headed home.
As I drove, I reviewed what I had so far, which wasn’t much. Matt Hagerty was looking like an edgy asshole who kept his wife on a short leash. Ellen might have had some ideas of her own but seemed to be following Matt’s lead. Things hadn’t gone well for either one.
I was beat by the time I got back and hoping to put the Hagertys out of my head for a while, but I didn’t make it far.
“Yo, Rotten! Get your ass in here,” Trudy Bonner called through her opened door as I reached the second-floor landing.
“Hey, Trude. What’s up?” I asked expecting the worst.
“Do you have any idea what a total sleazeball you have for a client?”
“I do now.”
“He did time for assault, Frank! The man beat his wife. Don’t you ever check up on these guys?”
“He paid in cash and the rent was due.”
“This is not good, Frank. The guy’s a total loser. I don’t want to be helping out with shit like this.”
“I hear you,” I said sheepishly, and it was, in fact, beginning to sink in. “How about Ellen? You come up with anything on her?”
Trudy flashed me some serious stink eye, but as mad as she was, she had a story to tell, and she couldn’t hold back.
“I turned up some police reports, and a newspaper article. Apparently, she developed a bit of a drug problem. Arrested for possession. Meth, I think. Anyway, given her history of being abused, they put her in a treatment program instead of sending her to jail. But get this, the newspaper article mentioned that the Libby Arnold Society was a “presence in the courtroom”. Apparently, they’d heard about her situation and were providing “support”. Pretty cool, huh?”
“What kind of support?”
“The paper didn’t say, but I imagine it was the usual stuff.”
The “usual stuff” covered a broad range. The group had formed about twenty years earlier at the dawn of the feminist movement, after a local Pittsburgh woman named “Libby Arnold” was raped and murdered by her husband. She’d been physically abused on repeated occasions, but the courts always seemed to feel her slimebag spouse was worth rehabilitating. Mister Misogynist had finally abducted his battered mate from a shelter, in broad daylight, then took her to the shuttered steel mill where he once worked. He ended her life there, then turned up dead himself, with a broomstick up his butt. On Halloween. A self-styled “womyn’s” militia group was thought to be responsible, but nobody tried very hard to prove it.
These days the Libbys conducted bake sales and bike rallies, to raise funds, and provided informal security at shelters and halfway houses. They were known in hacker circles for using Social Security numbers of dead violence victims to fashion new identities for runaway wives and black-eyed girlfriends. They were a presence in the yearly Pride Parade, but in a “Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell” world, they generally kept a low profile.
I promised Trudy I would set up a meeting and cut my loathsome client loose. She seemed satisfied and let me finish the climb to my apartment.
I cracked a beer, collapsed on my couch, and wondered how I could fire my client if I couldn’t find him. Fortunately, or not, I didn’t have to wonder long as I found a message on my machine from Hagerty saying he would be away from his apartment for a few days. He left a beeper number, which I called, and surprisingly enough, he called back right away. I started in but he was calling from a phone on a busy street corner, so we scheduled a face-to-face for the following day.
The sit-down was set for late afternoon in a cozy club called Desolation Row which served as my sometime office. I was waiting at the bar, nursing a draft, wondering if there’d ever be anyone I couldn’t live without, when Hagerty softly took the stool beside me. The Young American Dedicated Dad had seriously altered his style since last I’d seen him. He wore tight-fitting black jeans, a blousy shirt, and a stocking cap. He appeared to be wearing make-up and he reeked of patchouli.
“Hagerty?” I asked uncertainly.
“Hello, Frank. What have you got for me?” he said in a sultry voice that I scarcely recognized.
I almost asked a question that had nothing to do with the case, but excess baggage can slow a man down, so I stopped myself. Focus, Frank.
“Something to drink?” I asked as the barkeep drifted over.
Hagerty ordered TaB with a twist and let his eyes wander around the dimly lit room. This was starting to feel like an old Twilight Zone episode. My client had entered another dimension.
“I don’t know what you’re expecting from me, Matt. You gave me nothing but lies to go on.”
“If I’d told you the truth, you wouldn’t have taken the case.”
“Exactly right. I could lose my license, and you could go back to jail. Ellen’s not missing. She’s running away. From you.”
“I need to see her one last time.”
“Ellen’s your ex-wife, Matt. You need to let her go.”
He smiled and sipped his drink. “Ever been in love, Frank?”
“Love? That’s what you’re calling this?”
“Love’s the only thing that matters, Frank. When you take the big tumble, you’ll know, and you’ll never be the same.”
How bizarre to be getting romantic advice from a convicted wife beater. I could hear Rod Serling chuckling away in the shadows. I was crossing over.
“What do you want from me, Matt?”
“You promised me a lead.”
“That I did, but I’ve got nothing new. Ellen spent time in court-ordered rehab, then dropped out of sight. Apparently with the help of the Libby Arnold Society.”
Hagerty sipped his soda, fluttered his false eyelashes, and stared into the milky mirror behind the bar. It wasn’t the lead he was looking for, but it was as much as I was willing to give.
“Aren’t they those biker dykes?” he asked at length, still lost in the fog.
“A support group, not a cult. Long on leather, short on patience with pigs.”
“You have an address?” he asked.
“For Ellen? I wouldn’t give it to you if I had it.”
“For the Libby Arnold Society.”
I looked him up and down and remembered Chief Coleman’s advice. What could I do? I’d taken his money. I figured I owed him something. “They hold their meetings in a back room of the Mountain Moving Coffee House on Tremont,” I said with a sigh.
“Thanks, Frank,” he said as the sly smile returned. “I can handle it from here.” Then he slipped from his stool and left the bar, turning heads as he went.
The scent of patchouli lingered on the stale air. Try as I might, I couldn’t think of anything I needed as much as Matt seemed to need Ellen. And I hoped I’d never be tempted to take that kind of “big tumble”.
I ordered another draft and sat for a while pondering the nature of affection and obsession as the jukebox played tales of heartbreak in the background. It wasn’t long before I’d heard enough of “love” and headed home.
I only lived a few blocks from the club, and the walk would do me good. The money-grubbing world was draining away as the neon night snapped to life along the avenue. It was my favorite time of day. A time of transition and renewed promise. I can’t say I was proud of the way I’d handled the case, but I felt like I’d earned my keep. And I was done with Matt Hagerty.
Or so I thought. Once again, I was ambushed by Trudy as I made my way up the stairs.
“Not so fast, Frank,” she called through her half-opened door. “How’d it go?”
“Fine. It’s all over. I’m done with Mr. Hagerty,” I said as I crossed her threshold.
“So, you called his parole officer and turned him in?”
“No, I couldn’t do that. He was a client. I owed him something.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Just an overview of what I’d done.”
“What’d you tell him about his ex-wife?”
“That she disappeared with the help of the Libby Arnold Society.”
“You stupid shit!” she said as she punched me hard on the shoulder.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“He didn’t need to know that. I can’t believe I helped you find her.”
“I didn’t find her. And he probably knew that much already.”
“What if he goes down there? I feel responsible, Frank. You’ve got to do something.”
“Like what?”
“Go to that coffeehouse. Let someone know he’s out of jail.”
That was the last thing in the world I wanted to do at that point, but she wasn’t backing off.
“Come with me,” I pleaded. “I can’t go down there by myself.”
“I can’t. I’ve got a date tonight,” she said firmly. “It’s Halloween.”
“Trick or treat? Tonight?” I said, having forgotten. “What’s with all these dates?”
“I’m a popular girl, Frank, not that you’d notice. Now get out of here,” she said, pushing me toward the door. “I’m serious, Frank. If you don’t do this, I’m never helping you again.”
She didn’t leave me much choice. In fact, she physically blocked the stairs to the third floor, so I reluctantly set out for the Mountain Moving Coffee House.
Was I too stupid to live, or what? If I had a nickel for every time I’ve said to myself, “I can’t believe I did that”, I’d have a couple of bucks, at least. Obviously, I hadn’t grasped how strongly Trudy felt about Ellen Hagerty, and now I was paying the price.
I’ll admit my ignorance. I’m not up on all that feminist, lesbo-goddess blather and, sad to say, I don’t much care. I’m all for “live and let live”, but identity politics wear me out. I’ve got enough of my own problems to worry about. And yet, the fact that I didn’t know my way around a Sapphic drum circle was not what made me nervous that night as I pulled into the Mountain Moving parking lot. My primary cause for concern was dangling between my legs, and feeling seriously exposed, as I entered the smokey roadhouse alone.
I had an instant lesson in minority living as conversation ebbed and a roomful of hard stares swung my way. The place was a haven for twelve-steppers now, so they served nothing stronger than espresso, but it still had that “dive-bar”, roadhouse vibe, and strangers were not warmly welcomed.
I took a seat at the bar and ordered a double cappuccino. I sat and sipped and waited for the buzz to flow back before turning on my stool to scan the room. Old neon adorned the walls, tables ranged around a small stage in front, and typical tavern games filled the rear of the former gin joint. As I figured, I was the only one there with reason to wear a jock strap. There would be no fading into the woodwork, so after a few minutes I got up and edged over to the jukebox which featured the usual tribal, sweat-lodge fare; an odd mix of earnest irony and flowering romanticism. Life wants a soundtrack, so I played a few classics by Fanny, and Two Nice Girls, and tossed in a couple cuts by the reigning out-of-the-closet, lesbo-rocker, just to show ‘em I was cool, then reclaimed my seat at the bar.
The whole scene reminded me too much of stories my uncle used to tell about traveling the South in the Sixties, sporting hair to his shoulders. Major mistake the way he told it. I tried to calm myself imagining the worst that could happen, and it worked, until I spied the biker-dyke foursome shooting pool. They all wore t-shirts saying, “Broomsticks Cue Club”, across the front, and, “Get Bent at Broomsticks”, on the back. The back also featured the silhouette of a sturdy woman bending over a pool table preparing to stroke a shot, but instead of a pool cue, she was using a broomstick.
I was ready to book on out of there with my butt unstuck, but Trudy could always tell when I was lying, and my business would be hamstrung without her help. So, I found my photo of the haunted young blonde who had once been Hagerty’s wife. I waved the barista over and flashed the snap, but she claimed to be seeing the face for the first time.
I was about to ask if she knew Ellen Hagerty when I was distracted by the big-boned brunette who had been sitting two stools down. She had hair to her shoulders and wore a denim jacket, long denim skirt, and sandals without socks. She had some of the ugliest feet I’d ever seen on a woman, and there was something unsettling about the hipless way she walked. She approached one of the biker-dykes and must have asked about playing a game of pool.
“Lay your dollar down and find yourself a partner,” the pool player replied, then seemed to focus on the brunette’s hands as she fumbled in her skirt for change. The hands were too large for the pockets, and I suddenly realized where I had seen that lazy, hipless shuffle before.
“Hagerty!” I called loudly across the room, and the brunette froze for a moment before vaulting onto the pool table.
In one practiced movement, Hagerty pulled a broad-bladed hunting knife from a sheath at the small of his back and leapt toward the pool players on the far side. He sidestepped an arcing cue, spun behind one of the stick-wielding women, and brought his blade edge to her throat. Under the wig and makeup, I hardly knew Matt Hagerty. But with fear in her eyes and a trickle of blood running down her neck, I finally recognized his ex-wife, Ellen.
She’d filled out a bit, her hair was shorter and darker, but the haunted features were suddenly the same. Matt Hagerty was forcing her to become someone she had worked hard to forget. He had twisted himself into a vision of someone he thought would win her back. And yet, his pretzel-logic love would never transform the world into a place the two could live together.
Music continued to blast from the jukebox, but no one moved to the beat. The air was curiously free of panic. The only fear showed in Ellen Hagerty’s eyes. Matt edged his former bride toward a door at the rear of the game room, and no one moved to intercept. The door opened easily behind them, and the couple remained momentarily silhouetted in the frame, until the fat end of a cue stick swung forward to meet the back of Matt Hagerty’s head. The cracking thud was audible above the music. Matt’s eyes rolled up and his knife fell to the floor. Ellen’s shoulders slumped, but she remained standing and raised her fingers lightly to her throat.
Two firm hands held me in my seat, and I lost the light as someone slipped a burlap sack over my head. My hands were taped behind my back, and I was led through the gaming area into the meeting room beyond. I was tied to a folding chair and left to wonder about the preparations taking place around me.
Furniture was being moved but conversation was kept to a minimum. People passing by would smack me in the head or poke my privates. My wallet was removed from my pocket and roughly replaced. I heard grunts and groans in a male voice. I heard cloth being ripped and knots being tied. I heard music still playing in the bar beyond. And finally, I heard fifty broomsticks pounding the hardwood floor in rhythm. Then silence, and the sack was removed.
I sat in a circle of light on Allhallows Eve, surrounded by solemn women wearing masks fashioned from photos of Libby Arnold taken at her murder scene. I had crashed a private party and I was paying the price. I was shown every shot of Ellen Hagerty that had been entered at her husband’s various trials. I was advised in no uncertain terms to choose my clients more carefully. Someone promised to be watching.
A woman approached wielding Matt’s knife, but she used it only to cut the cords that bound me to the chair. Beyond the circle of light, I caught a glimpse of Hagerty, splayed across a pool table awaiting his fate. I was pushed to a rear exit where I lost the light again as I was led to a waiting car.
Three Libbys gave me a silent ride back to my block in Southside. The car slowed and they rolled me out into the gutter. I struggled to my feet, but couldn’t work my hands free, so I sat on the curb with the sack on my head till Trudy returned from her date.
Trudy had been to her own costume party. She was dressed in black with a high, pointed hat, and she was accompanied by a hunchback. I was afraid to ask about her missing broomstick.
Trudy was decidedly unsympathetic. She and her deformed date kept me taped up till I told all about Ellen. I promised her that Matt Hagerty had abused his wife for the last time, but I refused any details. They were more than she needed to know.
I brooded for days about the botched case and scanned the papers for any clue of what had happened to Hagerty, but came up empty. A week later, against my better judgement, I returned to the coffeehouse and asked about Ellen. It was made very clear that Ellen’s whereabouts was none of my business. I explained that I wasn’t looking for her, I just wondered if she was alright. At length I was told that she was doing just fine, and I went on my way. It may sound selfish, but it was something I needed to know.
Horror Sleaze Trash 