High Five by Janet Evanovich Read Free Book Online

on them, and he was going to make out in spades. Those were his exact words—’make out in spades.’ I guess he never got to the garbage company.”
    â€œHow do you know he never got to the garbage company?” I asked Winnie.
    Winnie seemed surprised at the question. “Everyone knows.”
    No secrets in the Burg.
    â€œOne other thing,” I said. “I found some photographs on Fred’s desk. Did Fred ever mention any photographs to you?”
    â€œNo. Not that I can think of. Were these family photographs?”
    â€œThey were pictures of a garbage bag. And in some of the pictures you could see the bag’s contents.”
    â€œNo. I would have remembered something like that.”
    I looked over her shoulder into the interior of her neat little house. No husband in sight. “Is Axel around?”
    â€œHe’s at the park with the dog.”
    I got back in the Buick and drove two blocks to the park. It was a patch of well-tended grass, two blocks long and a block wide. There were benches and flower beds and large trees, and there was a small kids’ play area at one end.
    It wasn’t hard to spot Axel Black. He was sitting on a bench, lost in thought, with his dog at his side. The dog was a small mutt type, sitting there, eyes glazed, looking a lot like Axel. The difference was that Axel had glasses and the dog had hair.
    I parked the car and approached the two. Neither moved, even when I was standing directly in front of them.
    â€œAxel Black?” I asked.
    He looked up at me. “Yes?”
    I introduced myself and gave him my card. “I’m looking for Fred Shutz,” I said. “And I’ve been talking to some of the seniors who might have known Fred.”
    â€œBet they’ve been giving you an earful,” Axel said. “Old Fred was a real character. Cheapest man who ever walked the earth. Argued over every nickel. Never contributed to anything. And he thought he was a Romeo, too. Always cozying up to some woman.”
    â€œDoesn’t sound like you thought much of him.”
    â€œHad no use for the man,” Axel said. “Don’t wish him any harm, but don’t like him much either. The truth is, he was shifty.”
    â€œYou have any idea what happened to him?”
    â€œThink he might have paid too much attention to the wrong woman.”
    I couldn’t help thinking maybe he was talking about Winnie as being the wrong woman. And maybe he ran Fred over with his Chrysler, picked him up, shoved him in the trunk, and dumped him into the river.
    That didn’t explain the photographs, but maybe the photographs had nothing to do with Fred’s disappearance.
    â€œWell,” I said, “if you think of anything, let me know.”
    â€œYou bet,” Axel said.
    Fred’s sons, Ronald and Walter, were next on my list. Ronald was the line foreman at the pork roll factory. Walter and his wife, Jean, owned a convenience store on Howard Street. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to talk to Walter and Ronald. Mostly because when my mother asked me what I was doing to find Uncle Fred I needed to have something to say.
    Walter and Jean had named their store the One-Stop. It was across the street from a twenty-four-hour supermarket and would have been driven out of business long ago were it not for the fact that in one stop customers could purchase a loaf of bread, play the numbers, and put down twenty dollars on some nag racing at Freehold.
    Walter was behind the register reading the paper when I walked into the store. It was early afternoon, and the store was empty. Walter put the paper down and got to his feet. “Did you find him?”
    â€œNo. Sorry.”
    He took a deep breath. “Jesus. I thought you were coming to tell me he was dead.”
    â€œDo you think he’s dead?”
    â€œI don’t know what I think. In the beginning I figured he just wandered off. Had another stroke or something.