A Long Line of Dead Men

by Lawrence Block

Page 38

 

  "And this?"

  "This prick?" He leaned forward, blew some eraser dust from the surface of the sketch. "This doesnt have to be art. Just so it looks like him. "

  I went to a copy shop, ran two dozen copies of the sketch. It seemed to me it was a good likeness. I gave the original to Elaine but told her not to hang it anywhere for the time being. I left a copy with TJ, who raised an eyebrow and announced that Shorter was an ugly-looking dude.

  Over the next few days, I got around to most of the men whod been at the meeting at Gruliows house, as well as a few who hadnt been able to make it. No one echoed TJs sentiment, but neither did anyone recognize Shorter as a long-lost cousin.

  "Hes a pretty ordinary-looking guy," Bob Berk told me. "Not a face that would jump out at you in a crowd. "

  Several of them said he looked vaguely familiar. Lewis Hildebrand told me he might have seen Shorter before, that it was impossible to say. "The visual onslaught in this city is overpowering," he said. "Walk a few blocks through midtown Manhattan and more people will pass through your field of vision than the average small-town resident will see all year. Walk through Grand Central Station at rush hour and youll see thousands of people without really seeing any of them. How much of it do we screen out? How much registers, consciously or otherwise?"

  In his living room on Commerce Street, Hard-Way Ray Gruliow squinted at the sketch and shook his head. "He looks familiar," he said. "But in a very vague way. "

  "Thats what I keep hearing. "

  "What a crazy thing, huh? Heres somebody who hates us all enough to devote his entire life to killing us. Because hes not a guy who got pissed off one morning and took a gun to the Post Office. This is his lifes work. "

  "Thats right. "

  "And we look at him," he said, "and all we can say is he looks vaguely familiar. Who could he be? How could he know us?"

  "Where could you remember him from?"

  "I dont know. The only time we were all together was once a year at dinner. Maybe he was a waiter at Cunninghams. What did we decide he was, sixteen years old? He couldnt have been a waiter. Maybe he was a busboy. "

  "And maybe you stiffed him on the tip. "

  "No, we wouldnt do a thing like that. Were a generous bunch. "

  Local 100 of the Restaurant and Hotel Workers of America maintains offices on Eighth Avenue, just two blocks from Restaurant Row. I talked to a man there named Gus Brann who was amused at the thought of trying to hunt down employees of a restaurant that had gone out of business twenty years ago. "Restaurant work isnt the trade it once was," he said. "Not on the service floor. You used to have waiters who spent their life in the profession. They knew their customers and they knew how to serve. Now do you know what you get? Actors and actresses. My name is Scott and together well enjoy a dining experience. Guess what percentage of the rank and file also holds membership in Actors Equity. "

  "I have no idea. "

  "Plenty," he said. "Take my word for it. You go out for a meal and what you get is an audition. "

  "The turnovers not as high in the old-fashioned steak houses, is it?"

  "No, youre right about that, but how many of them have we got left? You got Gallaghers, you got the Old Homestead, you got Keens, you got Peter Luger, you got Smith and Whatsisface, Wollensky, you got-"

  I said, "Waiters tend to stay with the same general type of restaurant, dont they?"

  "I just told you, they dont even stay with the business. "

  "But the old-fashioned type of waiter. If a man was working at Cunninghams and it went out of business, hed probably look for work at one of the places you just mentioned, dont you think?"

  "Unless he had a longing to scoop Rocky Road at a Baskin-Robbins. But yeah, you tend to stay with what you know. "

  "So if you wanted to find somebody who used to work at Cunninghams, those would be the first places to look. "

  "I suppose. "

  "But I myself would hardly know how to begin," I said. "And Id have to spend a couple of days running all over the city, trying to convince people to give me the time of day. Whereas a knowledgeable person like yourself could probably manage the whole thing by just making a few phone calls. "

  "Hey," he said. "I got a job to do, you know what I mean?"

  "I know. "

  "I cant sit around making phone calls, bugging people, asking who worked where twenty, thirty years back. "

  "Youd be saving me time," I said, "and time is money. I wasnt looking to get the information for free. "

  "Oh," he said. "Well, that puts a different light on it, doesnt it?"

  The following day I called Gruliow and told him Id found not one but two gentlemen whod spent their lives bringing steak dinners to people with hearty appetites. "They were both working at Cunninghams when it closed," I said. "One of them started there as a busboy over forty years ago. "

  "Hed have been there for our first dinner," he said. "Christ, hed have been around for quite a few meetings of the previous chapter. "

  "He didnt recognize the sketch, though. Neither did the other fellow, whos actually quite a bit older, although he was only at Cunninghams from 1967 on. He went from there to the Old Homestead, and thats where he was when he retired three years ago last September. They both said the same thing. "

  "Whats that?"

  "They said he looked familiar. "

  "Oh, Jesus," Gruliow said, "You know what our friends got? Hes got a universally familiar face. Nobody can place it, but everybody thinks he must have seen it somewhere before. You know, Matt, that was just an offhand remark of mine about his having worked at Cunninghams. "

  "I know. "

  "Yet you followed it up. "

  "It was worth checking. "

  "How on earth did you find those fellows?"

  "I didnt," I said. "I found someone who could find them for me. You know, if I were to hand this over to the cops, theyd be able to turn up a dozen men who worked at Cunninghams during the period in question. And one of them might be able to put a name to the face in the sketch. "

  "I was talking to some of the others," he said.

  "And?"

  "We all intend to be very cautious. Well keep an eye out for the man in the sketch. But wed rather not go public with this if we dont have to. "

  "If someone else is killed-"

  "You said hed probably lay low for the next six months. "

  "Thats what I said," I agreed, "but what the hell do I know? I cant presume to predict what a madman is going to do next. And so far he hasnt shown any inclination to call me up and let me know. "

  That was on a Wednesday afternoon. That night I went to a meeting for the first time all week, and I stopped at the Flame afterward and had a cup of coffee. One of the fellows at the table was a newcomer, and the others were trying to help him, answering his questions and reassuring him that there really was life after sobriety. The new man was in his early thirties and looked nothing like Jim Shorter, but his attitude was very similar to the persona Shorter had adopted for the occasion, mixing guarded hope and cynical skepticism. It made me very uncomfortable to sit at the same table with him. He wasnt doing anything wrong, and I knew he wasnt putting on an act, but I couldnt help feeling as though I was being conned all over again.

  I went home and told Elaine about it. She said, "Youd like to kill him, wouldnt you?"

  "The guy tonight? Oh, you mean Shorter. "

  "Of course. "

  "I guess Im angry," I said. "I dont really feel it, but it must be there. I was trying to help him, the cocksucker, and he was just playing me like a fish on a line. The son of a bitch. "

  "Yes," she said. "I think you might be the slightest bit angry. " She started to say something else but the phone rang and she got up and answered it. "Yes," she said. "Just one moment, Ill see if hes in. "

  She covered the mouthpiece. "Its him," she said.

  27

  "Jim," I said. "Im glad you called. I was hoping Id hear
from you. "

  "Well, Ive been busy, Matt. "

  "Hey, I know what its like," I said. "Ive been running around a lot myself. I tried to reach you a couple of times but I guess you were out. "

  "I guess I was. "

  "I thought I might run into you at a meeting, but Im on the other side of town. "

  "Whole different world. "

  "Thats right. Hows it going?"

  There was a pause. Then he said, "I know you know, Matt. "

  "Oh?"

  "Funny thing is I thought you knew from the jump. I thought, shit, they finally figured out whats going on and hired themselves a detective. But you didnt know a thing, did you?"

  "No. "

  "Getting me to come to an AA meeting. I thought it was a ruse at first. Get me off my guard, take me by surprise. But you werent suspicious at all, were you? You figured I needed help and you wanted to help me. "

  "Something like that. "

  "You know," he said, "that was very decent of you, Matt. Seriously. "

  "If you say so. "

  "And the meetings were interesting. I can see how a person with a drinking problem would find a whole new life in the rooms. And I get the feeling some people who arent alcoholics go for the companionship and the sense that theyre getting their lives in order. "

  "I dont think youll find many like that," I said.

  "No? Well, youd be a better judge of that than I am, Matt. See, I, uh, gave you a false impression. Im not an alcoholic. "

  "Whatever you say. "

  He laughed. "Denial, right? I bet you get to hear it all the time. No, see, I just wanted a neat exit from Queensboro-Corona, and Marty Banszaks a bear when it comes to booze. Son of a bitch eats Valium all day long, hes tranked out like the night of the living dead, but if he smells alcohol on your breath youre history. "

  "But he gave you a second chance. "

  "Yeah, isnt that a gas? Second time around I figured lets leave nothing to chance. "

  "What did you do, call in the complaint yourself?"

  "Howd you know? Hey, youre a detective, right? Its your job to figure things out. "

  "It is," I said, "and I dont seem to be doing too well at it. "

  "Hey, I think youre doing fine, Matt. "

  "There are things I cant figure, Jim. "

  "Like what?"

  "Like why youre doing it. "

  "Ha. Cant work that out, can you?"

  "I thought maybe youd help me. "

  "You mean like give you a hint?"

  "Something like that. "

  "Nah, I cant do that. Hey, Ill tell you, it hardly matters how I got started on this project. Man starts collecting stamps, pasting em in a book, lives in an attic on peanut-butter sandwiches, puts every dime he can into his stamp collection, are you gonna ask him what got him started collecting in the first place? Hes a stamp collector. Its what he does. "