I crept over to the side of the shed and looked through the window. Inside, on his hands and knees, Bolduc was putting his case of beer through a hole in the shed’s floor. It was a good hiding place, and judging from his motions alone I could see it was one that he’d used many times. The hole was slightly larger than the case of beer, and hidden under a work-counter against the far wall. Once the beer was beneath the floor, he moved a heavy tool box over the hole. Normally, when the tools were needed, the box could be pulled directly out from under the counter, still masking Bolduc’s secret.
A high beam of light caught the corner of the construction hut; I got out of sight as a dark Cadillac drove to the gate and stopped its engine. I heard the rattle of chain and a moment later, footsteps. I peered around the corner carefully and saw Sid Geller about to enter the shed.
Once more at the window, I could see Bolduc smiling, still on his knees but quickly getting to his feet. They shook hands. I wanted to hear what they were saying, but I couldn’t. Was Bolduc about to report on what he knew about the column down in the excavation? It would make sense, but there was no way of telling until it happened. I watched their expressions. Bolduc had said something about Nathan’s death. Sid nodded heavily acknowledging the greatness of the loss. That seemed right. But Sid wasn’t there to exchange chit-chat. He didn’t seem to be dipping into family memories of the good old days. He was soon on his hands and knees, pulling out the case of beer from under the box where Bolduc had hidden it a few minutes earlier. Sid was on his feet now and he was not friendly. He was shouting at the old man. I could hear the force of his tirade through the window without being able to make out separate words. I decided not to be backward about coming forward. At least that way I’d get to hear what was going on. I came around to the door of the shed. “Anybody home?” I shouted in an innocent voice. Both men looked around. Sid’s right hand remained stuck in the air in the midst of a gesture as he turned.
“Who the hell is that? Is that you, Cooperman? That’s all I need.” Bolduc was forgotten for a moment while Sid’s heavy eyebrows met in a frown that had nothing to do with Bolduc’s beer consumption. “What brings you out at this time of night? You following me or something?” Luc Bolduc looked relieved by my timing and let a half-grin slide across his face as he stepped past his boss to the door and waved a flashlight at the two of us by way of explanation: urgent business on the site. Sid didn’t pay any attention as the old man left. He motioned me to a nail keg and I sat down. He moved his compact no-neck frame into a battered swivel chair with yellow foam rubber sticking out of the seat. Instead of answering him, I flashed my Player’s and he shook his head. I lit one for myself and stared at the clean black shoes of my host. Sid Geller took one of his own homemade-looking cigarettes from a pocket, and tapped it against the top of a messy desk to tamp down the tobacco. Once lit, he didn’t bother taking the cigarette from his lips to get rid of the ash, he simply blew out of the corner of his mouth until the ash vanished.
“I haven’t been following you,” I admitted rather lamely, and added “I haven’t been following anybody,” as though that made me an innocent man. I’d been wrong about my interruption; it hadn’t got me closer to the action, it’d stopped it. Now I was into something else. Whether I could turn it to account remained to be seen.
“Cooperman, you’re an oddball. I can’t get a make on you. Whenever I look around you’re underfoot. It’s only because I got a lot of respect for Rabbi Meltzer that I give you the time of day.” He was looking at me like I was expected to explain myself in a topic sentence and a tight paragraph. I just shrugged.
“You’re visiting the fire-hall site pretty late to see much activity,” I said. Geller pulled at his earlobe and thought for a moment.
“For what it’s worth, I’m just checking up on the old man. He’s alcoholic and he’s been hitting the booze again.”
“You feel responsible?”
“Hell, no! I paid to have him dried out half a dozen times. I’m not his goddamned keeper.”
“But you’ve known him for a long time.”
“Yeah, too long. Luc was with me at the very start. Showed me the ropes. But it’s been downhill for him for the last fifteen years.
“I heard he was dry.”
“Yeah, I thought so too. He knows what I told him would happen if I caught him drinking himself silly again. He thinks he’s got some God-given right to make me feel guilty about not making him a partner. Somewhere in that thick skull, he’s got the idea that I cheated him. I don’t know where he gets the idea. It’s not from Alex. He knows the score.”
“Is he disappointed that Alex didn’t make more of himself?” Sid looked at the rolled blueprints standing up in a metal-topped cardboard bin.
“Why would he be disappointed in Alex? Alex was one of the fastest juniors in the league. He’s a good kid. Hell, I wish I had a kid like that. Alex is all right. I see what you mean, though. He’s not a world-beater these last few years.”
“Did the old man have ambitions for him?”
“Look, I’ve known Luc for twenty years, and I’ll be damned if I know what’s going on in that head of his. He knows that for all the noise I make about his drinking and wandering off the job, I’ll never really let him go. He’s part of all this. Hell, the yard wouldn’t be the same without him. He’s part of me and my life. It’s his name, for God’s sake. What am I going to do about it?” I shrugged, which was the expected answer.
“Do you know what set him off this last time?”
“No more than I know why it didn’t rain today. You can’t tell with him. And he knows that he’s got more than his job to worry about. He’s got health problems. It’s going to kill him if he doesn’t stop.” I didn’t say anything. I was trying to add up what Sid was saying and match it with what I already knew. Sid noticed the pause and filled it. “Look, Cooperman, I’m sorry about this afternoon. I was edgy after the funeral. If I said anything … I’m sorry. You rub my girl-friend the wrong way. But Ruth told me you’d been a help to her.” He cocked his head to one side awkwardly and smiled. “I’m not the most sensitive guy around, you know what I mean? I call a lot of shots in a day, and I don’t call them all right. I know you got your job to do, and I guess it’s dirty work. Ruth and Debbie say you haven’t been making a pest of yourself. And I’m glad you came to the funeral.” He looked at the floor and over at Bolduc’s cache of beer. “You want a beer?”
“No thanks.”
“Come on, split one with you.” He reached for the beer and brought out two bottles. He used one to pry off the cap of the other. He handed me the frothing open bottle and returned the other.
It was quiet in the hut, sipping from the bottle and passing it back and forth. Sid Geller wiped off his mouth with a run of knuckles after each sip. He didn’t bother to clean the rim of the beer bottle with his hand. “I’ve enjoyed talking to your friend, Pia, this last week,” I said to Sid Geller. It seemed a good idea; the sort of talk for a construction shed. “You’re a lucky guy.” Geller closed his eyes and lowered his head slowly shaking it from side to side.
“She’s a pain in the neck half the time, but the rest of the time it’s … I don’t even know how to describe it, it’s so good.” He looked at me with the broadest grin I’d seen on him since I walked in on him four days ago.
“You’re a lucky guy,” I repeated, trying to put on a look that would inspire confidence. I didn’t know what Pia could tell me about the missing Larry Geller, but I didn’t think I’d mind hearing about Pia Morley even if it had nothing at all to do with the case.
“She’s got the loudest laugh of anybody I know, and I know some wild types. She can handle all of them. Buck Corelli takes bottle caps off with his teeth, but for her he’s running out and buying pantyhose ’cause she’s got a run in the pair she’s wearing. Hell, she can drink any three men under the table.”