A Long Line of Dead Men

by Lawrence Block

Page 16

 

  "I dont own a black T-shirt. "

  "Ill get you one. Id get you a black tanktop if I thought youd wear it, but would you?"

  "No. "

  "Thats what I thought. Let me put these in water, and then Ill close up and you can walk me home. Unless the flowers were for the apartment?"

  "No, I thought theyd look nice here. "

  "Youre right, and Ive even got an empty vase the right size. There, dont they look pretty? Well stop at the Korean and pick up something for a salad, and Ill fix us some pasta and a salad and well eat at the kitchen table. How does that sound?"

  I said it sounded fine.

  After dinner I opened the envelope Id been carrying around all day and got out the printouts of the TRW reports, along with the letter of commendation Wally had dictated to the client. Elaine went into the other room to watch Jeopardy and I had a look at what just about anybody with a couple of bucks to spend could find out about the financial standing and bill-paying habits of the fourteen living members of the club of thirty-one.

  I had gone through most of the stack when Elaine brought me a cup of coffee and the news that none of the three contestants had known that Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison.

  "Neither did I," I admitted. "What was the category, Guys Named Harrison?"

  "Presidents. "

  "Oh, William Henry Harrison. Tippecanoe?" She nodded. "And Tyler, too. It all comes back to me. He died, didnt he?"

  "No shit, Sherlock. He was elected president in 1840, so what do you want from him? Whats this?" She took the clients letter from me and read it through. "This is great," she said. "Wally dictated it?"

  "So he says. "

  "Its perfect, dont you think? You should make it a point to get one of these whenever youve got a client who tells you what a great job you did for him. "

  "I suppose. "

  "Your enthusiasm is contagious. "

  "I guess I should have it framed and hang it on my office wall," I said, "if I ever get a real office. And I could tuck a copy in the portfolio I show to prospective clients. "

  "If you ever put together a portfolio. "

  "Right. "

  "But you dont know if you want all that. "

  The coffee was too hot to drink. I blew on the surface to cool it. I said, "Its about time I got off my ass, dont you think? Its been twenty years since I turned in my gold shield. "

  "You were bottoming out with your drinking," she said. "Remember?"

  "Vividly. "

  "And then you were getting sober. "

  "And now Ive been dry so long Im a fire hazard, as Ive heard it said, and what the hell have I done with my life?" I tapped the sheaf of credit reports. "Heres a group of guys my age," I said, "and theyve got families and careers, they own their own homes, and most of them could retire tomorrow if they wanted to. What have I got to put up against that?"

  "Well, for one thing," she said, "youre alive. More than half of those men are dead. "

  "Im talking about the living ones. Anyway, nobodys been trying to kill me. "

  "Oh? I can think of one fellow who really put his mind to it for a while there. If you forget what he looks like, look in the mirror. "

  "I get the point. "

  "And," she said, "give yourself a little credit, will you? From the day you left the department youve made a living. "

  "Some living. "

  "Were you ever on welfare? Did you ever miss a meal or sleep in the park? Did you break into parked cars and steal radios? I dont remember seeing you on the street with a paper cup, asking for spare change. Did I miss something?"

  "I got by," I said.

  "You made a living," she said, "doing the work youre best at, and you didnt chase after it, either. You let it come to you. "

  "The Zen detective," I said.

  "And now youre fifty-five years old," she said, "and you think you ought to be more of a man of substance. You got along for twenty years without a PI license, but now you think you need one. Your clients somehow found their way to you when you worked out of your hotel room, but now you think you need an office. Look, if you want those things, thats terrific. You can rent office space in a good building and get stationery and promotional brochures printed and go after the law firms and the corporate clients. If thats what you want, Ill back you up all the way. Ill run the office for you, if youd like that. "

  "Youve got a shop to take care of. "

  "I can hire an assistant. Every day I get people asking if I can use help, and some of them are better qualified to run the place than I am. Or I could close the place. "

  "Dont be ridiculous. "

  "Whats ridiculous? Its a hobby, something to keep me from going crazy. "

  "When I walked over there this afternoon," I said, "I stood in front of the window and I was in awe of what youve done. "

  "Come on. "

  "I mean it. Youve made something out of nothing. You took an empty storefront and all the artworks youve collected over the years, and youve added things nobody else saw the beauty in until you pointed it out to them. "

  "My thriftshop masterpieces. "

  "And Rays stuff, for Gods sake. He was nothing but a cop with a useful skill until you made him realize he was an artist. "

  "Thats exactly what he is. "

  "And you put it all together," I said. "Youve made it work. I dont know how the hell you did it. "

  "Well, Ive been having fun with it," she admitted. "But I dont know if itll ever make a profit. Fortunately it doesnt have to. "

  "Because youre a rich lady. "

  She owns rental properties in Queens, all of it managed for her by a company that does that sort of thing. Every month she gets a check.

  She said, "Thats part of it, isnt it?"

  "Whats part of what?"

  "I have some money saved," she said. "And you dont. "

  "Both of those statements are true. "

  "And were living in an apartment I paid for. "

  "Also true. "

  "Which means you ought to have a more substantial career so we can be on an even footing. "

  "You figure thats it?

  "I dont know. Is it?"

  I thought about it. "Its probably a factor," I said. "But what it does is make me take a good look at myself, and I see a guy who hasnt accomplished a hell of a lot. "

  "Youve got some former clients who would disagree with that, you know. They might not be able to give you an endorsement on a fancy company letterhead, but they amount to a lot more than helping some manufacturer of schlock patio furniture avoid a lawsuit. Look at the difference youve made in peoples lives. "

  "But I havent done much for my own self, have I. " I brandished the stack of credit reports. "I was reading these," I said, "and imagining what the wonderful people at TRW would have to say about me. "

  "You pay your bills. "

  "Yes, but-"

  "Do you want the license and the office and all the rest of it? Its up to you, honey. It really is. "

  "Well, its ridiculous not to have the license," I said. "There have been times when its cost me work not to have it. "

  "And the respectable office, and a string of operatives and security personnel under you?"

  "I dont know. "

  "I dont think you want it," she said. "I think you feel you ought to want it, but you dont, and thats what upsets you. But its your call. "

  I went back to the stack of credit reports. It was slow going, because I didnt know what I was looking for. My hope was that I would recognize it when I saw it.

  Douglas Pomeroy. Robert Ripley. William Ludgate. Lowell Hunter. Avery Davis. Brian OHara. John Gerard Billings. Robert Berk. Kendall McGarry. John Youngdahl. Richard Bazerian. Gordon Walser. Raymond Gruliow. Lewis Hildebrand.

  I knew what a few of them looked like. Id seen Gerry Billings on television, talking about cold fronts and the threat of rain. In my library research Id come upon news photos of
Gordon Walser (with two partners, celebrating the opening of their own ad agency) and Rick Bazerian (with two punked-out rock stars whod just signed with his record label). And of course Id been seeing Avery Daviss picture in the paper for years.

  Id been in the same room with Ray Gruliow a couple of times over the years, although wed never been introduced. And I knew Lewis Hildebrand, my client.

  But it seemed to me as though I could picture all of them readily enough, including the ones whose faces were wholly unfamiliar to me. As I read their names and reviewed their credit histories, images kept popping into my mind. I saw them walking behind power mowers over suburban lawns, I saw them dressed in suits, I watched them bend over to scoop up small children and hold them aloft. I pictured them on the golf course, then saw them having a drink in the clubhouse after theyd showered and changed, drinking whiskey and soda, say, in a tall frosted glass.

  I could see them, in their well-tailored suits, leaving their houses at dawn, coming home at dusk. I could see them standing on platforms with their newspapers, waiting for the Long Island Rail Road or Metro North. I could see them striding purposefully along a midtown sidewalk, carrying brassbound attache? cases, on their way to meetings.

  I could picture them at the opera or the ballet, their wives finely dressed and bejeweled, themselves at once resplendent and slightly self-conscious in evening clothes. I could imagine them on cruise ships, in national parks, at backyard barbecues.

  It was silly, because I didnt even know what they looked like. But I could see them.

  "Ill give it another day or two," I told Elaine, "and then Im going to call Lewis Hildebrand and tell him its just a statistical anomaly. His groups running a high death rate and an unusual number of homicides, but that doesnt mean somebodys knocking them off one by one. "

  "You got all that from a batch of credit reports?"

  "What I got," I said, "is a picture of fourteen very orderly lives. Im not saying these men dont have a dark side. The odds are a couple of them drink too much, or gamble for high stakes, or do something they wouldnt want their neighbors to know about. Maybe this one slaps his wife around, maybe that one cant keep it in his pants. But theres a degree of stability in every one of their lives that just doesnt fit a serial murderer. "

  "If hes been doing it for this long," she said, "hes unusually disciplined. "

  "And patient, and well organized. No question about it. But thered be chaos in his life. Hed be holding things together, but not without a lot of backing and filling, a lot of fresh starts and makeovers. Id expect to see a lot of job changes, a lot of geographics. Its almost inconceivable that hed have stayed married to the same person for a substantial period of time, for example. "

  "And have they all managed that?"

  "No, there have been quite a few divorces. But the ones whove divorced show a consistent pattern of career stability. Theres nobody in the whole group who looks at all like the kind of loose cannon hed almost have to be, in order to do the damage hes done. "