Wake Up to Murder
Page 15
He took off his battered black hat and ran his lean fingers through his sweaty hair. “It burns me up when I think of it. I get all sick inside. But would it do any good for me to go out and get a snootful and feel sorry for myself? No. I’d just get in wrong with the Department and my family and a little deeper with some personal finance company.”
Lieutenant David was silent a long moment. It was almost like he was talking to himself when he continued. “I guess all we little men of the world have the same problem. We’re all riding a blind horse. And despite our best efforts, most of the time it plods on where it will. And all we really can do is hang on and keep our heads.” He stopped, suddenly self-conscious. “Well, no use me running on. You know your business.” He reached across May’s lap and opened the car door.
May and I got out. Lieutenant David put his hat back on his head. Then May said, quietly:
“We were going to have a little birthday party for Jim last night, Lieutenant. But, well, with things turning out as they did, I had to call our guests and ask them not to come. And with no one to eat them I had to wrap the sandwiches in waxed paper and put them in the refrigerator. And, well, there are quite a few of them. And I have a birthday cake, too. And it wouldn’t take me but a minute to make some coffee. So if you don’t have to get right back to your detecting business — ”
Lieutenant David hesitated. “I shouldn’t, Mrs. Charters, believe me.” He grinned. “What kind of cake?”
“Chocolate,” May smiled. “Homemade.”
Lieutenant David switched on his two-way radio. “24.H.Q. Homicide. Lieutenant David,” he said into the speaker. “I will be detained about half an hour.”
May changed her dress while the coffee water was boiling. Then, looking prettier than I’d ever seen her, she set out her best dishes. On the kitchen table, along with the sandwiches and cake. While we were drinking our coffee she excused herself and went and got the watch she’d saved her pennies for.
I acted surprised and said, “How swell” and “Just what I wanted” and things like that. I didn’t have to be pleased. I was. Especially by the card, To My Beloved Husband. And all the time the breezeway kept banging in the draft, not loud, but annoying. I looked for something to prop it open.
“Use that case of beer,” May called.
I shoved the case of beer against the door. “Where did we get a case of beer?” I asked her.
May poured more coffee in Lieutenant David’s cup. “Some man named Kelly sent it. There’s a card tied to one of the bottles.”
I took the card off the bottle and read it. It said:
Happy Birthday to a valued and
respected customer.
Jim Kelly
I couldn’t help it. I choked a little. Kelly had bought a beer for a couple of punk ball players. But he’d sent me a case.
I took the card to the table and laid it alongside the watch. Lieutenant David was eating May’s cake like he enjoyed it.
“You know what, Mrs. Charters?” he asked her.
“What?” May smiled back at him.
He said, “I think sometimes us little guys are best off after all. Maybe we aren’t missing a thing. Maybe it’s the big shots who are missing something.” He nudged me with his elbow. “How about that, fellow?” He reached for another piece of cake. “And say, by the way, happy birthday.”
I looked at May’s shining eyes. “Thanks. Thanks a lot, Bill,” I told him.
All things considered, I decided it was the nicest birthday that I’d ever had.
THE END
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Text Copyright © 1953 by Harlequin Books, Ltd.
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Names, characters, corporations, institutions, organizations, events, or locales in this novel are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used fictitiously. The resemblance of any character to actual persons (living or dead) is entirely coincidental.
ISBN 10: 1-4405-5990-2
ISBN 13: 978-1-4405-5990-7
eISBN 10: 1-4405-5989-9
eISBN 13: 978-1-4405-5989-1