Fast Lane (13 page)

Chapter 12

That night Marge called me. I told her I had a toothache and hung up on her. About an hour later the doorbell rang, and there she was.

“
Look,” I growled at her. “I told you—”

“
Shuddup,” she snapped, and she slipped under my arm and squeezed past me. In the middle of the room she undid the belt of her overcoat, letting it slip off. As it slid to the floor, I realized that was all she was wearing, unless you wanted to count her cowboy boots.

Her glistening eyes challenged me to say something. Then she stuck her tongue out at me and marched into the bedroom.

When we were finished, she climbed on top of me and asked which tooth was bothering me. I pointed to a corner of my mouth, and she reached down and gave me a hard peck where I pointed.

She beamed. “There. I kissed it and made it better.”

Even though we both knew I didn’t have a toothache it was still a dirty trick. I had to carry on as if I was in agony. I said, “I should put you on my knee and paddle your ass off.”

I wanted to do more than that. As she looked at me, her eyes widened in an exaggerated display of terror. She said, “Oh, you look like you want to kill your poor little Margo.” Then she giggled and moved down a little. “I bet you wouldn’t want to do that if I kissed you over here.” And then she moved down a little more. “Or here.” And after a while she was right.

When she was done, she propped herself up on her elbow and asked for a drink. I brought her the whole bottle. By the time she passed out, it was half empty. I took the bottle with me and went back downstairs. I knew I had no chance of getting her to go home but that didn’t mean I had to stay with her. I settled down on the sofa with the bottle and a glass in front of me. I had too much nervous energy to sleep, and neither the booze nor my tumble with Marge had helped any. I poured myself drinks until the bottle was empty. Then I found another bottle.

* * * * *

The next day started off bad and only got worse. It wasn’t that anything really terrible happened, it was just the way I was feeling.

Marge woke me early that morning and yelled at me for falling asleep downstairs. I was feeling too low to argue with her so I just sat there and took it. After a while she calmed down and tried pouring on the sweet stuff again. That was worse than the bawling out she gave me (as I said, things only got worse). Well, eventually she pulled herself together and headed home, but not without first putting me through the wringer.

Right before she left, she reached over and planted a big kiss on me. “There,” she said, pulling away, her eyes sparkling. “I’ve put my mark on you. You’re mine forever. And lover, you better not forget it.”

After she’d gone, I looked in the mirror and saw that the kiss had left a red blotch of lipstick on my forehead. I washed it off.

Not much else happened that day. Other than the fact my stomach was doing somersaults and my nerves were screaming bloody murder, the only thing worth writing about was that I talked with Mary a few times, hinting to her that I was close to a discovery. After the last call I went out shopping. When I returned home, I brought a couple of bottles of booze to the sofa and waited for the darkness.

Chapter 13

Everything seemed to happen on Thursday. I came within a whisker of killing Max Roth. Mary found out about Jerry Bry. I discovered who had been sending those anonymous letters. Mary and I—let me start from the beginning.

* * * * *

When I woke up Thursday, my head felt as if it was going to split in two. For a few moments I didn’t know who or where I was. But for the first time in days, even with the headache, I felt at peace. Slowly, memories started seeping in, though. Before long, I remembered all of it.

I knew I couldn’t continue the way I was going. I couldn’t go on the radio under the weight of all that worry. I called Mary and told her I had good news. We arranged to meet at my office in an hour.

When I got there, Mary was already waiting. She jumped up and fired a dozen questions at me.

I held out my hands. “Whoa. Take a seat and I’ll tell you everything.” We sat down. Or at least I did. Mary’s rear barely touched her chair. “I’m so nervous,” she said. “I want to know everything.”

“
I know, Mary.” I smiled, or at least tried to. My head felt like an overripe melon, and a pain shot through it, jerking the smile right off my face.

“
You really found my parents?”

I nodded. “Your mother died two months after you were born. That’s what made it so hard to find your records. You weren’t adopted as a newborn baby. Your daddy’s alive, though. Living right here in Denver.”

For a moment I thought she was going to break down, but she got a stiff upper lip and choked back the tears. “I always thought my mother was alive,” she said. “It’s hard to believe she isn’t.”

“
I’m sorry.”

She swallowed back whatever emotion was fighting its way loose and asked me to tell her about her father.

I told her about Jerry Bry. I told her he had a wife now who didn’t know about this. “He knows you want to contact him, but he’s afraid his wife will divorce him if she finds out about you.” I handed her one of his business cards. “He’d like you to call him at his office.”

She bit her lip. “How did you find him?”

“
Well—” I said, and spun her quite a yarn. By the time I finished, I believed it myself. She sat there quietly, soaking it all in. All of a sudden, she reached over and kissed me on the cheek.

She looked at me for a few seconds, frowning slightly. “Johnny, you look terrible. Are you okay?”

“
I’m fine. I’ve been working hard on this the last few days. Haven’t slept much.”

“
Oh.” Concern was deepening her frown. She kissed me again. “Can I see you after I talk with my father?”

“
Sure. Anytime.”

As she was leaving, she stopped at the door. “Are you going to be alright?”

“
Don’t worry about me, honey. A little sleep and I’ll be as good as new.”

“
Well, then—” She ran over to me and gave me a third kiss. This one on the mouth. “’Bye Johnny. Thank you for everything.”

I sat back, feeling better about things, although I still had to worry about Bry lousing things up. I swore to myself I’d break his neck if he did.

* * * * *

Later that morning Debra Singer called. She wanted to let me know that things were getting better with her. She was eating properly, and even claimed she was getting a little chubby. She was having trouble sleeping but thanks to the money I gave her she was seeing a therapist. She hadn’t seen her father and was debating whether or not to file charges against him. I got the idea her mother was making things difficult for her. I told her when my schedule wasn’t so crazy I’d take her to lunch.

I spent the rest of the morning making phone calls and updating some of the outstanding case reports lying on my desk. By the time I headed out for lunch, I was feeling pretty good, and hungry enough to make up for the last few days. I went full out: steak, baked potato, half a basket of garlic bread, a couple of beers, and two pieces of peach cobbler. The despair and distress I’d been feeling had become nothing more than a bad memory. After Mary met with Bry, it would all be over.

At two thirty I left for the radio station. The station was only a ten-minute walk from my office, and on the way a few people stopped me to ask for my autograph. By the time I got to the station the last few days weren’t even a bad memory.

I’d worked with the talk show host, Alan Glick, the last time I’d done a radio show. When he saw me, he waved and signaled for me to wait for the next commercial.

“
Johnny Lane,” he exclaimed after taking his headset off. “I’ve got to get you up here more often. A year’s just too long. After this commercial I’ll introduce you. I figure we’ll have you tell stories for the first half hour and then open up the line for calls. Sound good to you?”

“
Sure, sounds fine.”

“
Great. Commercial’s almost over. Put that headset on and get ready.”

He slipped his own headset back on. “Welcome back to KDCK, Denver’s own talk radio. I have a special treat for you this afternoon. Denver’s own tough guy, private eye Johnny Lane, is here in the studio with me. Glad to have you, Johnny.”

“
Glad to be here,” I said. And I meant it. It’s funny how relaxed I always feel when I’m making a radio or television appearance. Never bothers me at all. I guess I was born for the spotlight.

Most of it went as well as I could have hoped for. I told stories I thought I’d forgotten over the years. When we got to taking phone calls, folks were more interested in telling me how much they enjoyed my stories than in asking questions. Near the end, someone asked something so quietly I couldn’t hear.

“
Excuse me,” I said. “I don’t think I caught that.”

In a voice that wasn’t much louder but that echoed right through me, a woman asked, “Why don’t you tell us how you blackmail your clients?”

Glick flipped a switch and cut the caller off. “Come on boys and girls,” he admonished, “it’s a little too early in the afternoon to be hitting the hard stuff. They’re out there, Johnny. Let’s hear a word from the big guy paying our bills and then we’ll be right back with more of Johnny Lane.”

He cut off his mike and shook me. “If that vein in your neck pushes out any further, you’re going to have a stroke.”

I mumbled something.

“
Hey, don’t worry about it, man,” he said. “It’s just a crank call. This is radio, you know. You okay to take another call?”

When I could, I nodded.

He waited for the commercial to end. “We have time for one more phone call. And this time, please, no nuts. Yes ma’am, you’re on the air.”

“
Since you wouldn’t answer my last question,” the same voice quietly ripped into me, “would you mind telling us how you killed Walter Murphy?”

“
That’s it,” Glick interrupted. “Sorry about that Johnny, but they’re out there, alright. We’ll be back after the news with more talk, but if you’re a nut please save your dime.”

He cut his mike off again and gave me a tap on the shoulder. “Great show, Johnny. And it’s great to see you got your sense of humor back. You can’t let those nuts out there upset you.”

I was smiling, but he misunderstood the reason behind it. During the second call I recognized the woman’s voice. And there wasn’t a chance in hell I could’ve kept that smile off my face.

Chapter 14

I waited until dark before looking for Max Roth. From what I’d heard Max had gotten into the habit of spending his nights drinking his money away. I started out searching the bars on Denver’s south end and after two hours I found Max’s car parked alongside a little hole in the wall bar. I walked around the outside, checking out the layout. The parking lot was behind the building and away from traffic. For the hell of it, I measured the distance from the side door to the front of the building.

I was disappointed there was a full moon, but it would probably still be dark enough for what I was planning. I went through it forwards and backwards. I even play-acted it out and couldn’t see any problems. Apart from the full moon, the setup was as good as I could have hoped for.

I headed back to the bar’s entrance and stopped in the shadows of its doorway. I looked in and saw Max hunched over the bar with his back to me. I made my way to a table in the rear, making sure he didn’t see me. By now the booze and self-pity would be working on him, dulling his senses and leaving him with nothing but contempt.

I asked the gal working the tables to bring me a beer. I didn’t have to worry about Max spotting me. He wasn’t about to notice anything except the booze and all the crap he’d convinced himself life was dumping on him. He wasn’t going to see me until I wanted him to and by then it would be too late.

He kept me waiting quite a bit, taking extra care to treat each drink with kindness. Being gentler with the alcohol than he ever was with his own wife or kids. Almost two hours later, Max had his wallet out and was looking at it with dejected bewilderment. That meant it was empty and he couldn’t face up to the fact that the booze was going to be cut off.

He tried kidding the barkeep for one last drink but the barkeep turned a deaf ear. Max stood there, uncomprehending, before resigning himself to the cruelty of the situation, and, shoulders slouched, turned towards the door.

I headed for the men’s room. On the way I made a sharp turn out the side door. I took a deep breath and waited, holding myself close to the outside of the building. As Max walked past me, I moved out and pushed my foot hard against the back of his leg, hitting the area just below the knee. He sort of crumpled backwards, and I dug my forearm into his neck and threw myself forward, letting gravity do the rest. We ended up falling into a heap, me crisscrossed on top of him and his head wedged between the dirt ground and my elbow.

Spitting out dirt, he mumbled, “You picked the wrong guy. I’m flat broke.”

I forced one of his eyes open with my thumb and waited until it focused. “It’s me, Max,” I said. “I’ve been wanting to have a talk with you.”