A Long Line of Dead Men

by Lawrence Block

Page 28

 

  Id intended to drop by Friday night, but spent the evening on the Upper East Side instead, saving souls for sobriety. Now, two nights later, the saloon was almost empty, with three old men sitting in silence at the bar and two others sharing a table. Burke, behind the bar, told me out of the side of his thin-lipped mouth that the big fellow wasnt expected.

  I stayed long enough to drink a Coke and watch a little of the game on ESPN, the Brewers playing the White Sox, with a lot of players on both teams hitting the ball into the seats. But I wasnt paying any real attention, and when my glass was empty I went home.

  Wally Donn called first thing in the morning. "I could use you a couple or three days this week," he said. "You up for it?"

  "Im in the middle of something," I told him.

  "Keeping you busy?"

  It wasnt, not really. There wasnt much I could do until we had our big meeting at Gruliows Tuesday afternoon.

  I said, "Suppose I call you Wednesday morning? Or late tomorrow afternoon, if I get the chance. By then Ill have a better idea of how I stand. "

  "I really need you today," he said. "You call me Wednesday, I might not have anything for you. But call and well see. "

  * * *

  I could have gone in that day, for all the work I wound up doing. I made my usual call to Forest Hills and was not all that surprised when nobody answered. I had already decided that Mrs. Watson was out of town, and was beginning to wonder what I could possibly ask her if she ever turned up again.

  Sometime after lunch I went over to Elaines shop, intending to spell her, but she wasnt there; TJ, cool and professional in his preppy outfit, was minding the shop for her. I sat around talking with him for half an hour, during which time he sold a pair of bronze bookends to a stoop-shouldered man in a Grateful Dead T-shirt. The man offered thirty dollars, then forty, then said hed pay the full fifty-dollar sticker price if TJ would forgo the sales tax. TJ stood firm.

  "Youre tough," the man said, admiringly. "Well, Im probably paying too much, but so what? Ten years from now when I look at them on the shelf, will I even remember what I paid?" He handed over a credit card, and TJ wrote up the sale and did what you have to do with the card as if hed been doing this sort of thing for years.

  "Theyre really nice," he said at last, handing over the wrapped bookends. "All said, I think you got yourself a bargain. "

  "I think so, too," the man said.

  Over dinner I gave Elaine a play-by-play description of the transaction. " All said, I think you got yourself a bargain. Where do you suppose he learned to talk like that?"

  "No idea," she said. "How come he got full price? I told him he can cut any price ten percent to make a sale. "

  "He said he knew the customer would pay the full fifty if he just held firm. "

  "Plus the tax?"

  "Plus the tax. "

  "I guess shilling for the three-card monte dealers teaches you something. I guess if you can buy and sell on Forty-second Street you can buy and sell anywhere. "

  "Evidently. "

  "But it still amazes me when he turns the language on and off. Is it possible hes actually a middle-class kid and all the street jives an act?"

  "No. "

  "Thats what I figured. But you never know, do you?"

  "Sometimes you know," I said.

  Jim Shorter hadnt called. I tried him after dinner and got no answer. I went over to St. Pauls. The woman who spoke had very strong opinions on everything. I left on the break and went over to my hotel room and sat there looking out the window.

  Id taken off Call Forwarding as soon as I came in. I was trying to make this automatic, and to put it on again automatically when I left. I picked up a book and read for a while, then put it down and looked out the window some more. And the phone rang, and it was Shorter.

  "Hi," he said. "Hows it going?"

  "Just fine," I said. "How about yourself?"

  "Well, I didnt drink yet. "

  "Thats great. "

  "And I was at a meeting," he said, and told me where hed gone and more of the speakers story than I needed to know. We talked AA for a few minutes, and then he said, "And what about your investigation? Hows that going?"

  "Its sort of stalled. "

  "Tomorrows the big day, isnt it?"

  "The big day?"

  "You know, when you get together with everybody and find out where you go from here. Do you suppose the killerll be there?"

  "Theres a thought. I dont know for sure that there is a killer. "

  "Hey, Matt, I discovered Watsons body, remember? Somebody sure as hell killed him. I mean, he didnt do that to himself. "

  "A single killer," I said. "As I said, I dont know for sure that there is one, and if there is I have no reason to believe hes a member of the group. "

  "Who else would it be?"

  "I dont know. "

  "Well, what I think- but where do I get off having an opinion? Forget it, you dont want to hear this. "

  "Sure I do, Jim. "

  "You sure? Well, I bet its one of the members. Some guy whose life looks picture-perfect on the surface, but underneath its a mess. You know what I mean?"

  "Yes. "

  "Are all of them coming tomorrow?"

  "Most of them. A few cant make it. "

  "If you were the killer," he said, "and if somebody called a meeting like this, would you go? Or would you say you couldnt make it?"

  "Impossible to say. "

  "Id go. How could you stay away? Youd want to hear what they were saying, wouldnt you?"

  "I suppose so. "

  "You better get a good nights sleep," he said. "Tomorrow youre going to be in the room with the killer. Do you think youll be able to sense anything?"

  "I doubt it. "

  "I dont know," he said. "You were a cop a long time. Youve got the instincts. That might keep him away. "

  "My instincts?"

  "Knowing that youre going to be there. Unless, you know, he wants to be face-to-face with his adversary. What do you think?"

  "I think youve been watching too much TV. "

  He laughed. "You know what? I think youre right. Wheres this going to happen tomorrow? Somebodys office?"

  "I really cant say, Jim. "

  "But its in Manhattan, right? Sorry, Im sticking my nose in, and I dont mean to. "

  "Its in the Village, but I dont want to say any more than that. "

  "Not important. Speaking of the Village, I was thinking I might go to that midnight meeting on Houston Street. I dont suppose youre up for that tonight, are you?"

  "Not tonight. "

  "No, you got a busy day tomorrow. I dont know if I want a late night myself. One oclock by the time the meeting lets out, and then Ive got to get all the way uptown. And it might rain. Its threatening. You know what? I think Ill stay home. "

  "I dont blame you. "

  He laughed. "Its good talking to you, Matt. Believe me, it helps. Before I called you I was thinking, why the hell cant I have one glass of beer? I mean, who would even feel the effects of one glass of beer?"

  "Well-"

  "Dont worry," he said. "Im not gonna have it. I dont even want it now. Have a good day tomorrow, huh? And give me a call afterward if you get a chance, will you do that?"

  "Ill do that," I said.

  I must have been waiting for his call. Once Id finished talking to him, I put on Call Forwarding and went home. Ray Gruliow had called in my absence. I called him back.

  He said, "Three-thirty tomorrow. That work for you?"

  "Fine. "

  "I told the others three oclock. Thatll give us a chance to bring everybody up to speed before you join us. "

  There would be eight of them, he said, nine if Bill Ludgate could clear his calendar. And it would be strange seeing them again so soon, not quite two months after the last dinner. Strange to see them away from the usual venue, in a private living room instead of a restaurant.

  "Incidentally," he
said, "I enjoyed our conversation the other night. "

  "So did I. "

  "Well have to do it again sometime," he said. "After this nonsense is all taken care of. Deal?"

  "Deal," I said.

  I hung up and poured myself a cup of coffee. I went and watched television with Elaine, but I couldnt keep my mind on the program.

  Depending on Bill Ludgates ability to cancel his appointments, wed have eight or nine members at Gruliows house, five or six absentees. Would the killer be present or absent? Would curiosity draw him? Would fear keep him away?

  Maybe it was his house.

  Ridiculous to think it could be Gruliow. Hard-Way Ray as diabolical murderer? God knows he was bright enough to work out the details, and resolute enough to carry it out. And there were people who would say he was ruthless enough, and even crazy enough.

  I couldnt see it. But I couldnt see it for any of them, and nobody else had a motive. Forget motive- no one else even knew the club existed.

  Could I rule out anyone? Hildebrand, I thought. The one thing the killer wouldnt do was bring in a private detective.

  Unless-

  Well, it was crazy, but why expect sane behavior from someone who was systematically wiping out his lifelong friends? Maybe bringing in a detective would add a little excitement to the game. Maybe it was getting dull, knocking off somebody every year or so. Maybe it was infuriating the way the rest of them refused to realize what was going on. So maybe Lew Hildebrand had decided to even the odds a little by bringing in a detective. But, because he didnt want to make things too hard for himself, hed had the good sense to hire a detective who wasnt all that bright…

  Get a good nights sleep, Jim Shorter had urged.

  Fat chance.

  20

  They assembled, nine of fourteen of thirty-one, at three oclock on the last Tuesday in June, a hot and hazy day with the burnt reek of ozone soiling the dense air. No one was anxiously early or fashionably late. The first to arrive were Gerard Billings and Kendall McGarry, who came in separate taxis that discharged their passengers simultaneously. The two men rang Gruliows bell at five minutes before the hour. They had no sooner taken seats than the bell rang again. When Bob Berk arrived at 3:02, apologizing for being late, he was the ninth man. It was five minutes after three when Ray Gruliow got to his feet to open the meeting.

  He had done this once before. With Frank DiGiulios death the previous September, he had become the clubs senior member, and had accordingly presided at the annual meeting in May. This was only the second time the gavel had passed in thirty-two years- from Homer Champney to Frank DiGiulio, and now to Gruliow.

  What he had not done before, what no one had done, was open a meeting at other than the traditional time and place. He had given some thought to the form this meeting ought to take, and had consulted several of the others on the matter. His conclusion was that it ought to vary as little as possible from the usual form, and he began accordingly by intoning the names of deceased members in the order of their passing, beginning with Philip Michael Kalish and James Severance and Homer Gray Champney, concluding in due course with Francis DiGiulio and Alan Walter Watson.