Leave Her Hanging: A Noir Thriller

Chapter Eight

“Raj,” I said. “You got a minute?”

Raj looked up from his guitar. "Spade. Long time no see. Check it out, I just invented a new chord."

He mashed the fretboard and strummed. I pressed my palms against my ears.

“Christ. Sounds like you’re cutting up a cat with a hacksaw.”

He grinned up at me and patted the low wooden fence beside him. “Step into my office.”

I dropped my backpack on the grass and sat down. We were at the edge of the school field, facing the bike racks. The racks were mostly empty now, except for a few stray bike locks chained up. School didn’t start for nearly an hour, but Raj was always here early. Something about his folks living out in the wops and needing to drop him off early on the way to work.

“You hear about Ella Lewis?” I said.

Raj nodded while he fiddled with the tuning on his guitar. He was a little guy, skinny, Fijian Indian or something.

“Tough break. You two used to go out, eh?”

“You know damn well we did. You know everyone who’s going out with everyone.”

He plucked at a string. “All right, bro, easy. Just being sociable.”

“I’m looking into some stuff," I said.

“What kind of stuff?”

“Stuff about Ella.”

He nodded and made a noise, but he kept his eyes on the guitar.

I stared out over the field at a flock of seagulls chilling out on the grass. The road behind them was already thick with early morning traffic.

“You heard anything about what Ella’s been up to over summer?” I said.

He strummed the guitar once more, put it aside, and looked at me. “I woulda thought you’d be asking her friends. Like that girl, the blushing one with the big tits.”

“Megan,” I said. I knew he knew, but I said it anyway. “She doesn’t know either. Ella’s been off the radar these past couple of months.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“So have you heard anything?” I said.

He pulled a mandarin out of his bag and started peeling it. “You look like shit, you know. You need to get more sleep.”

“That wasn’t what I asked you.”

He offered me a segment of mandarin. I waved it away. He shrugged and popped it in his mouth. “Maybe I’ve heard some stuff. But what does it matter? I know you two were close, Spade. But these things happen.” He tossed the mandarin skin on the ground. “Way I hear it, last time you knew too much it didn’t work out well for anyone involved. Some things you’re better off not knowing. They just cause more pain.”

Ella’s voice came back to me. Her screams as the paramedics took her father away. This is why I didn’t tell you! Everything’s so goddamn black and white to you, isn’t it?

I rubbed my forehead like I could push the memories away. But I couldn’t. And it was too late to worry about consequences now. “Tell me.”

“You should go steal a bottle of whiskey from somewhere and get smashed. Or stoned. Go make up with those friends of yours. Move on. I know you, bro. Whatever you’re planning, don’t do it. Don’t let this obsession in the door.”

I leaned close and growled, “Tell. Me.”

He stared at me a few moments, chewing on his mandarin. Past the seagulls, a small group of Year Ten girls walked across the field towards school, their skirts flapping in the morning breeze.

“All right,” Raj said finally. He shrugged. “I tried. When you come back in a few days’ time, wishing you could un-know what you know, don’t say I didn’t try.” He gave me a sideways glance. “I hear she was seeing this guy. That bother you?”

The pain was sharp, drilling into my chest. The sort of pain that hurts more than you know it should. We were done, me and Ella. But it still hurt.

“No,” I said. “Doesn’t bother me. Who was he? Someone at school?”

Raj shook his head. “Older guy. Uni student. Third year. Business major or something like that.”

“Auckland Uni?”

“Yeah.”

Where would she meet someone that old? I knew she had a couple of friends at other schools, but always our age or younger. “You got a name for this guy? And some way for me to track him down?”

“You planning on finding some trouble, Spade? I thought you said it didn’t bother you.”

“I’m not planning anything. I just wanna talk to the guy. Maybe he can shed some light on what happened with Ella.” Or maybe he killed her. Maybe she trusted this guy, let him get close. And maybe he slipped her own belt around her neck and hung her from her bathroom door handle. “You got a name or not?”

“Not right now. But maybe I can find out.”

“It’s always ‘maybe’ with you, isn’t it?”

He grinned. There were bits of mandarin flesh in his teeth. “Maybe I could talk to some people at morning tea, make some calls, find out a name. But I may be pretty hungry by then, and I’m flat broke. It’s hard to find out information on an empty stomach.”

“You’re an arsehole, you know that?” I shook my head and dug my wallet out of my pocket. “Is this enough?” I held out a ten dollar note.

He cocked his head to the side, looked at the bill, made a face. “I got a big appetite.”

I sighed and added a twenty to the ten. The bastard had cleaned me out. He pocketed both notes and nodded. “Come see me at lunch. I’ll have something for you by then.”

~~~

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