by Ed Lacy
“Certainly. How about toast, eggs?”
“Just coffee.”
I went into my room and watching the sleeping boy, I hid my empty gun. The kid had a big knife in his fishing box, but I didn't know much about using a knife.
I was sipping a tiny cup of the thick, soupy coffee when a car pulled up outside. I went out and asked Jane if she wanted coffee. The dim light from the dashboard hit the planes of her face at an odd angle, making it look like a long soft mask. She was wearing slacks, a tight white blouse with a big jade pin at the neck, and a short suede jacket. The tightness of the blouse said she was a bigger woman than I'd imagined. She hesitated, then said she would take a cup. We walked to the house and I introduced her to Bessie—for a second they looked each other over like pugs listening to the ref's instructions. Jane drank her coffee in silence, and drank it fast. Then she stood up, told Bessie, “I never had anything like that before. It's very good. Thank you.” She turned to me. “It's getting late.” She walked toward the door, the odd, stiff-legged walk, her thick braid doing a saucy dance on her back.
I put on Danny's too-big windbreaker, told Bessie I'd probably be back in the afternoon but not to worry if it was later. Bessie put her lips to my ear and whispered a single word:
“Wow!”
As we drove toward Riverside and Patchogue the sky was bright with pale stars and the road spotted with fog pockets. Jane was a good driver, real good. After a while she said, “Your daughter-in-law is a very attractive woman. It must be a joy to have children, visit with them.”
“I don't know. After kids grow up they should stay out of their parents' way, and vice versa. I don't think they want to be bothered with an old man. And I didn't want to come out here. I have a better time alone in the city.”
“That's a strange thing to say.”
“Why? I'm old, set in my ways, and I know it. Next week I have to go up to the mountains to see my daughter Signe and her kids. It's a routine. Another crowded, noisy cottage. I won't get any rest there and neither will Signe.”
“The fortunate are not always aware of their fortune.”
I didn't know if that was supposed to be an old Indian saying or not, and didn't ask. “Shouldn't we see if Anderson has pulled out with his truck?”
“He's left. We'll pick him up at Patchogue. He never makes any stops until he starts back. He'll return to the Harbor by nine, then take out his station wagon to deliver the mail. About ten-thirty he'll pick up his truck, head out toward Montauk.”
My mind began to wrinkle with doubts as I wondered how often Jane had tailed Anderson before—or driven with him?
“That was an odd coffee Mrs. Lund served. I hear she makes an interesting wine pudding.”
I turned and stared at her. “How did you know that?”
“Just heard it.”
“Hasn't anybody in the Harbor anything to do but snoop on...?” I saw her face tighten up and added. “What I mean, exactly how does this village gossip work?”
“Very simple. Mrs. Lund asked Charley, who has the store as you turn into Main Street, for grapes, said she was going to mash them. Naturally he asked why and she told him about the wine pudding. I happened to be in the store later in the afternoon when he was repeating the recipe to some other woman. Don't people talk to each other in New York?”
“I suppose so, but there's so many people it's hard to tell.”
The roads were empty and she kept the car at fifty, only slowing down as we went through Riverside, and as we neared Patchogue an hour later, in a lot of truck traffic.
It was starting to turn light as she pulled up before some old buildings, nodded down the street. There were lights on in a warehouse beside a railroad siding, and several trucks were backed up to a loading platform. Anderson was watching two colored men loading his neat truck.
“What do we do now?”
“Wait,” I said, reaching into a pocket for my lost pipe and a notebook. I borrowed one of her cigarettes as I wrote down the name of the wholesaler and the time. Jane sat there, staring at nothing; she made me uneasy. I couldn't entirely lose the feeling I was walking into a trap.
At six forty-eight, the day starting bright and sunny, Anderson headed back toward the Harbor. I nudged her knee, told her not to stay too close. If I'd had my wits about me, I would have brought the glasses along. But there were more cars on the road and it wasn't any trick tailing the big green truck. Anderson drove some twenty miles before he stopped at a village of two stores; a hardware shop and a general store. The owner of the general store helped Larry unload a few crates of stuff. Although we were parked behind a bend down the road, I could make out a kind of mild argument—the storekeeper evidently wanted Anderson to take back a small basket of tomatoes. Finally Anderson was paid and drove off.
I made a note of the store and time, told Jane to drive on. She asked, “I thought you were going to talk to the man in the store?”
“We'll return later. You know Anderson's route, don't you?”
“No. From here on he'll make a lot of stops. Suppose you get out and talk to this man, while I follow Larry? Takes him five or ten minutes at each stop, and when I find where he's stopping, I'll come back and get you.”
“We can return here later in the day....”
“I'd like to get this over quickly. I don't like spying on people.”
“But suppose we lose him?”
“Island's so narrow here if we cruised about for ten minutes, we'd run into him,” Jane said, opening the door for me.
There wasn't anything for me to do but get out. I told her, “If you don't see me when you come back, honk your horn twice. And park a ways down from the store.” She nodded and drove off. I knew I was making a rock play. Why had she practically put me out of the car? Was she warning Larry? But she could have done that last night, or refused to come with me, or give me her car.
The storekeeper was a pudgy Italian, or maybe a Syrian, with a very straight large nose and dark eyes. He was opening a crate of melons, feeling each one, as I walked in.
I bought a corncob pipe and some tobacco. He gave me the “Now I know summer is really here, seeing you. Stopping at the Fan Tail Hotel, sir?”
“No, I'm staying at End Harbor, merely riding around this morning.”
Giving the last melon a feel he took the bait, told me, “My vegetable man comes from there. You know Larry Anderson?”
“I've seen his truck. Hard worker.”
“Kills himself three times a week, and of course he's the mailman, too. But in the winter he only makes a trip here once a week. Me, I stand on my feet all day long, winter and summer.”
“I bet,” I said, trying to turn the conversation around to something—and not knowing what “something” was. “Guess you know Pops is sick? Larry must have his hands full.”
“I know. Larry takes good care of old man Watson. Tell you, you won't find many people these days giving a hoot about anybody else or.... Up early, Mrs. Kane.”
A young woman customer was at the door. “I have the baby in the car, Joe. Give me a bottle of milk, package of bacon, two packs of cigarettes. Put it on my tab.”
I waited until he had taken care of her, feeling excited. Then I asked, “Did you say Pops' name was Watson?”
“Sure.”
“Of course I'm only down for a week, but my son knows him and I thought his name was Pops Brown?”
He shook his fat head. “Naw, not the old man living with Larry. Used to help him out. His name is John Watson, I know.”
“I suppose you do, but I'd have sworn it was Brown.”
“Well, you have him mixed up with somebody else.”
I considered flashing my badge to get more dope, but tried talk. “I don't want to contradict you, mister, but I never forget a name. I'm sure it's Brown.”
The storekeeper sighed. “Look, I know, every month I cash his Social Security check. John Watson—no middle name. For seven years I been cashing them every month. Mister, if
I was on Social Security I'd sit for the rest of my life.”
A horn honked twice outside. “None of my business, but why does... eh... Watson come all the way over here to cash his check?”
He shrugged. “Maybe he don't want the End Harbor bank to know his business. Maybe it's a habit—I started cashing the checks when old man Watson was helping Larry on the truck. Now—every month Larry brings me the check. It's for... I don't even know why I'm telling you this, Larry always says he don't want people knowing his business. But like I said, that's how I'm sure his name is Watson.”
The horn sounded again. “Guess you have me,” I said, making for the door. “First time I've been wrong on a name in years.”
“Always a first time for everything,” the storekeeper said, opening another crate.
Jane's car was down the road. When she saw me she turned around and as I slid in beside her she said, “Larry's about seven miles from here, making a delivery to a roadside diner, having breakfast there. Learn anything?”
“I don't know. What did you say Pops' name was?”
“Brown.”
“Are you positive?”
“Certainly. Why?”
“Nothing, I couldn't remember it. We'll wait until Larry leaves the diner then do the same thing—you go on to the next stop, come back for me.”
The diner was a fancy chrome job at a road intersection, and seemed too imposing for the orange juice I ordered. I said I noticed Anderson's truck leaving, were these his oranges? The place wasn't busy and the counterman bent my ear explaining how all juices come canned these days and a what a great timesaver it was. I had to order another juice before I could turn the talk around to Pops. But he only knew Pops as Pops.
Jane returned to tell me Anderson was at a store a dozen miles away. At this store and the next one, as I stocked up on tobacco, and cigarettes for Jane, I found out nothing. One storekeeper was a newcomer, the other knew Pops, but had no idea of his last name. I was beginning to think the first storekeeper had been batty, when at a few minutes before eight we stopped at a small store outside Riverside, several minutes after Larry pulled out. The store was run by a skinny Jewish woman who insisted Pops' name was Robert Berger. When I started my polite argument about having a memory for names, she cut me off with: “Mister, I don't like to contradict a customer, especially you, for now I know the summer has started well, but on this I'm sure. Berger himself wanted it.”
“Wanted what?”
“When he was driving around with Larry, years ago, he personally asked me to cash his Social Security check. I remember, it was the first time I'd known the old man's same and I asked if he was Jewish—a name like Berger. He told me he was part Jewish on his mother's side. Tell you the truth, I admire Larry for being nice to the old man, all this time, even though they're of different religions. And every month Berger insists Larry bring his check here for me to cash,” she said, proudly—I thought.
“Doesn't he trust the End Harbor banks?” I cornballed.
“Berger doesn't want his business mixed up with Larry's. That's smart, I say.”
“I suppose so. Do you go into the Harbor to visit Berger often?”
“Me? Mister, I'm lucky to have time to read a book. My husband takes care of the chickens, I run the store, and any free time we have isn't for visiting—we rest.”
“This Anderson certainly sounds like a good soul. Does he have many old men living with him?”
“Look, he isn't running a hotel. Just Pops Berger, and believe me if others looked after their old workers the way Larry does, this would be a better world.”
I said it would; wanted to add it would be a world full of cemeteries.
Anderson made a fast stop in Riverside and Jane told me, “Now he'll go home, leave his truck, and take out the mail for an hour. Shall we follow his mail route?”
“No, that would be too obvious, a store is a public place, a home isn't. Let me talk to the guy in tins Riverside store.”
I bought some bacon and eggs and learned nothing—the storekeeper vaguely remembered Pops—but as Pops.
Back in the car I asked Jane. “How often do you go to these little villages we've stopped at?”
“Never. I don't know anybody there.”
“Do the people in these villages, the storekeepers, do they come to End Harbor much?”
“Of course not. They might go into Riverside or Patchogue at times, to the bigger stores, once in a while. Like on Christmas. What's the bacon and eggs for?”
“I had to buy something. Thought we might have breakfast at your place, then pick up Anderson when he starts on his route again.”
“Worried about taking me into a restaurant?”
I heaved the package of eggs and bacon out the open window. She stopped the car, got out and pulled the drippy package of bacon from the mess, wrapped it in the remains of the paper bag, slid back in the car. As we drove on she said, “Waste is stupid.”
“So was that crack of yours. Stop at any diner or restaurant you wish.”
“I'd rather make us breakfast,” she said. And I didn't make any remarks about understanding women—even to myself.
We put away a healthy snack of blueberry pancakes and coffee, although I'd eaten so much junk at the stores I had to force myself. When we finished she said, “You look tired, lay down while I do the dishes.”
I said I was okay, helped dry the few dishes. She didn't talk for a time, then she asked, “Well, do you think we're getting anyplace?”
“Yeah. I'm not absolutely sure yet, but I think we've stumbled on the key to the whole mess.”
“You still believe Pops has run away? Do you know where he is?”
“I think Pops is dead.”
She spun away from the sink, her hands falling to her side. Even her braid jumped. “Dead?”
“Maybe murdered.”
“What did we see today that could possibly make you think that? I mean, I can't believe it. Pops murdered, why it's—”
I said, “I don't actually know how he died. Could be Barnes killed him. Or....”
“That's crazy!”
“Miss Endin, I said I wasn't sure yet. Until I am, let's not argue about it. I don't want to blow holes into a half-formed idea.”
“All right.”
The surprising thing was she didn't talk about it again. At ten o'clock we started shadowing Anderson once more. His route took him all the way out to Montauk. After a time I didn't bother to stop at all the stores Larry serviced —the pattern was easy to follow: Social Security checks under various names, eight that I'd been able to find, were cashed each month but always at a store twenty or thirty miles away from the other. Although Hudon hadn't been among the names.
At a few minutes after three we were back in Jane's home, and Anderson's truck was in his garage. Jane insisted upon fixing lunch and I told her, “I'm sure of the motive now. Anderson and Pops had a Social Security racket going for them. Pops was getting checks under eight different names, besides his own, and maybe more that we haven't found out. Anderson has the perfect set-up for cashing them, the storekeepers, miles apart, who know Pops under his various names. In fact, Pops himself cashed the checks when he was working, then Larry took it from there when the old gay retired. As you said, there's little chance of the store owners meeting each other, checking on Pops' names.”
“Where did Edward fit into this?”
“Here's what I think: Larry was away that. Sunday night. The doc got a call from Jerry and then Nelson dropped in to find out about his old buddy, who'd sent him a card from End Harbor. Now, as Barnes was about to leave he got another call—from the 'old goat.' That had to be Pops, who must have felt sick—or maybe Larry was threatening him, over what I don't know, but you can never tell when the crooks will fall out. The point is, I think, the doc found Pops dead and Larry then killed Barnes.”
“But why? I can't believe he'd kill Edward.”
“If I'm right, he not only killed him but did it up the
street, so you'd be blamed.”
“Me?”
“Of course, you should have been the number one suspect, But Larry didn't know about Jerry yelling at the doc.
Jerry was picked up instead and of course it didn't matter to Anderson.”
“But suppose Pops is—did—die? He was an old man, why kill Edward?”
“Way I see it, Larry wanted to continue this Social Security racket and for that he had to have a live old man. Once the word went around Pops was dead, he couldn't cash any more checks, no matter what names he used. Let's say Pops had a heart attack and Barnes got there before Larry—Anderson had to think fast, if he killed Barnes and kept up the line that Pops was sick, but still alive, his racket could continue for another few months, or years. Even if he supposedly sent Pops to a sanatorium out of the Harbor, he could have Pops lingering for another year or so, keep on cashing the checks. My idea is Anderson had to think fast, so he switched the devil for the witch, as the old saying goes, killed Barnes.”