A Long Line of Dead Men

by Lawrence Block

Page 24

 

  I went out for coffee after the meeting with a couple of the others and we continued informally the sharing wed done at the meeting. I tried Shorters number when we arrived at the coffee shop and tried it again fifteen minutes later. I tried it a third time on my way out, which must have been a few minutes after seven. When my quarter came back once again I used it to call Elaine.

  There were no messages for me, she said, and the mail had held nothing of interest. I told her what I was up to, and that I might be out most of the evening. "If he had an answering machine," I said, "Id leave a message on it and call him again in a day or two if I didnt hear from him. But he doesnt, and Im in the neighborhood, and its not a neighborhood I get to often. "

  "You dont have to explain it to me. "

  "Im explaining it to myself. And its not as though hes likely to have any answers. Any question Ive got, the Forest Hills cops already asked. So how could he have anything for me?"

  "Maybe youve got something for him. "

  "What do you mean?"

  "Nothing really. Well, theres a lecture and slide show at the French church. I might go to that, and if Monica wants to go with me maybe well have a Girls Night Out afterward. Youll be having a late night, wont you?"

  "I might. "

  "Because you were going to drop in on Mick, werent you? Just so youre home in time for Marilyns Chamber tomorrow night. "

  "You still want to go?"

  "After the time we had last night?" I could picture the expression on her face. "Now more than ever. Youre pretty hot stuff, Mr. Scudder, sir. "

  "Now cut that out. "

  " Now cut that out. You know who you sound like? Jack Benny. "

  "I was trying to sound like Jack Benny. "

  "Well, in that case, it wasnt a very good imitation. "

  "You just said-"

  "I know what I said. I love you, you old bear. What have you got to say about that?"

  North of Eighty-sixth Street, the landscape on the Upper East Side is one of a neighborhood in transition, neither Yorkville nor East Harlem but reminiscent of both. Luxury condos rise across the street from low-income public-housing projects, the walls of both impartially scarred by unreadable graffiti. The upwardly mobile stride along with briefcases and grocery bags from DAgostinos; others, no less mobile but headed in the opposite direction, shake paper cups of change and drink forty-ounce bottles of malt liquor, or suck on crack pipes that glow like fireflies.

  Shorters building turned out to be a six-story brick tenement on Ninety-fourth between Second and Third. In the vestibule I counted over fifty doorbells, each with a slot beside it for the tenants name. More than half the slots were empty, and none had Shorters name on it.

  Originally the building would have had four rooms to a floor, but over the years theyd been partitioned and the apartment house turned into a rooming house. Id been in and out of hundreds of such places over the years, and if each was different they were still somehow all the same. The cooking smells in the halls and stairwells changed with the ethnic origin of the inhabitants, but the other smells were a constant throughout the city and through the years. The reek of urine, the odor of mice, the unventilated stench of neglect. Now and then a room in one of those rabbit warrens would turn out to be bright and airy, clean and trim, but the buildings themselves were always dark and sorry and sordid.

  Something like that would have been my next stop after the hotel. If I hadnt stopped drinking, the day would have come when I couldnt make the rent or talk them into carrying me until I caught a break. Or Id have reached a point where, money or no, I no longer had the self-esteem to walk past the desk each day, and would have looked for something more in keeping with my station.

  I asked a man on his way out of the building if he knew a James Shorter. He didnt even slow down, just shook his head no and kept walking. I asked the same question of a little gray-haired woman who was on her way into the building, walking with a cane and carrying her groceries in one of those mesh bags. She said she didnt know anyone in the building but that they all seemed to be very nice people. Her breath smelled of mint and booze- peppermint schnapps, I suppose, or a beaker of gin with a breath mint for a chaser.

  I walked to Second Avenue and tried Shorters number from a pay phone on the corner. No answer. It struck me that if he wasnt working he might very well be somewhere having a drink, and the neighborhood afforded plenty of opportunities. There were half a dozen taverns on Second within two blocks of Ninety-fourth Street. I worked my way through them, asking bartenders for James Shorter. Was he in? Had he been in earlier? Nobody knew him, at least not by name, but the bearded fellow behind the stick at OBannions said hed heard precious few last names over the years, and not that many first names, either. "He could be one of these lads, for all I know," he said.

  I considered calling out his name. "James Shorter? Is James Shorter here?" But then Id have had to repeat the process in the saloons Id already covered, and I didnt feel like it. Id had enough of their boozy ambience.

  And how about the gin joints on First Avenue? Shouldnt I go ask for the elusive Mr. Shorter there?

  I might have, but first I tried his number again, and this time he answered.

  I told him my name, said Id got his from the police and his address and phone from Mr. Banszak at Queensboro-Corona. "I know youve been over this plenty of times," I said, "but Id appreciate a few minutes of your time. Im in your neighborhood right now, as it happens, so if I could come by and see you-"

  "Oh, lets meet somewhere," he suggested. "Theres a nice place around the corner on First Avenue, the Blue Canoe. Its a good place to talk. Say ten minutes?"

  The Blue Canoe was paneled to look like a log cabin. There were a couple of trophy heads on the wall, a stuffed marlin displayed above the mirrored back bar. The lighting was subdued and indirect, the taped music a mix of jazz and soft rock. The crowd was light and upscale for the neighborhood.

  I stood in the doorway for a moment, looked around, then walked directly to a table where a man sat alone with a glass of beer. I said, "Mr. Shorter?" but I already knew thats who he was. Id waited for him across the street from his rooming house and tagged him to the bar, then gave him time to settle in before making my own entrance.

  Old habits die hard, I guess.

  We shook hands and I took the seat across from him. Id formed a mental picture of him- the mind will do that, helpfully conjuring up an image to fit the sense one has of a person. People dont usually wind up looking much like Ive pictured them, and he was no exception, being older, darker, and, yes, shorter than Id had in mind. Late forties, I figured. Five-eight, wiry, with a round face and deep-set eyes. A pug nose, a narrow-lipped mouth. No beard or mustache, but a good two days worth of stubble darkening his cheeks and chin. Dark hair, black in the dim light of the Blue Canoe, cut short and combed flat on his round skull. He was wearing a T-shirt, and had a lot of dark hair on his forearms and the backs of his wrists.

  "It must have been a shock," I said. "Finding Watsons body. "

  "A shock? Jesus, Ill say. "

  The waitress came and I ordered a Coke. Then I took out my notebook and we started going over his story.

  There wasnt a lot to get. Hed gone over it repeatedly with detectives from Queens Homicide and the One-one-two, and hed had close to five months to forget anything he might have left out. No, he hadnt seen anybody suspicious in the neighborhood. No, he hadnt spotted Alan Watson earlier on, heading home from the bus stop. No, he couldnt think of anything, not a damn thing.

  "How come youre checking now?" he wondered. "Do you have a lead?"

  "No. "

  "Are you from a different precinct or what?" Hed assumed I was a cop, an assumption Id been perfectly willing for him to make. But now I told him I was private.

  "Oh," he said. "But youre not with Q-C, are you?"

  "Queensboro-Corona? No, Im independent. "

  "And youre investigating a mugging in Fores
t Hills? Who hired you, the victims widow?"

  "No. "

  "Somebody else?"

  "A friend of his. "

  "Of Watsons?"

  "Thats right. "

  He caught the waitresss eye and ordered another beer. I didnt much want another Coke but I ordered one anyway. Shorter said, "I guess people with money see things differently. I was just thinking how if a friend of mine got stabbed on the street, would I hire detectives to find out who did it?" He shrugged, smiled. "I guess not," he said.

  "I cant really talk about my client. "

  "No, I can understand that," he said. The waitress brought the drinks and he said, "I guess its your own policy, then. Not drinking on duty. "

  "Hows that?"

  "Well, like if you were a cop, you wouldnt be drinking on duty. Or private, either, if you worked for somebody like Q-C. But working independent, you can judge for yourself whether you should be having a drink or not having a drink, right? So youre ordering Coke, I figure it has to be your own policy. "

  "Is that what you figure?"

  "Or maybe you just like Coca-Cola. "

  "Its all right, but I cant say Im crazy about it. See, I dont drink. "

  "Oh. "

  "But I used to. "

  "Yeah?"

  "I loved it," I said. "Whiskey, mostly, but I probably drank enough beer over the years to float a light cruiser. Do you have a law-enforcement background yourself, Mr. Shorter?" He shook his head. "Well, I do. I was a cop, a detective. I drank myself off the police force. "

  "Is that right?"

  "I never got in trouble for it," I said. "Not directly, but I would have the way I was going. I walked away from it, the job, my wife and kids, my whole life…"

  I dont see what he could have for me, Id told Elaine. Maybe youve got something for him, shed said.

  Maybe I did.

  The way it works is remarkably simple. A day at a time, you dont drink. You go to meetings and share your experience, strength, and hope with your fellow alcoholics.

  And you carry the message.

  You do that not by preaching or spreading the gospel but by telling your own story- what it used to be like, what happened, and what its like now. Thats what you do when you lead a meeting, and its what you do one-on-one.

  So I told my story.

  When I was done he picked up his glass. He looked at it and put it down again. He said, "I drank myself out of the job at Q-C. But I guess you know that. "

  "It was mentioned. "

  "I was kind of shook, finding the body and all. Not the sort of thing Im used to, you know what I mean?"

  "Sure. "

  "So I was hitting it a little heavy for a while there. It happens, right?"

  "It does. "

  "General rule, I dont drink that much. "

  "They say its not how much you drink," I said. "Its what it does for you. "

  "Have to say it does a lot for me," he said. "Lets me relax, unwind, get some thinking done. Thats some of what it does for me. "