“I appreciate it, Wyatt.”
“You think you can keep your hands to yourself for a few minutes, darlin’?” he said.
A female voice giggled in the background and said, “I’ll try real hard.”
We spent a few minutes talking about the careers of some of our friends who’d journeyed to Chicago and Washington and New York. One of our old cronies had gotten a very good job in Ike’s justice department. He was already working for Nixon’s election campaign.
“I’m worried is what I am.”
“About what?”
I hesitated. “I know somebody who needs a little illegal medical help.”
“You could always get married. I’m thinking of that, myself.” I heard the female voice coo in the background.
“I’m not involved. Not directly, I mean.”
“McCain, the white knight.”
“It’s my sister.”
“Oh, shit, man, I shouldn’t have made a joke.”
“It’s all right. What I want to know is can you help?”
“Just a sec.” He cupped the phone. They talked for several minutes behind his hand. “How far along is she?”
“A month.”
He repeated: “A month.” Then he cupped the phone again. They talked some more.
“My friend Sue here knows a doctor,” he said.
“A real one?”
“A real one. He’s a staffer at one of the local hospitals here. Could you get her over to Des Moines?”
“Sure.”
“Sue’s a nurse. She knows this doc’ll help out once in a while if the girl isn’t too far gone and if he knows all the people involved.
He doesn’t want to get his ass in a sling, obviously.”
“Is she going to see him anytime soon?”
“Tomorrow morning. They both drew Saturday.
She can talk to him then.”
“You know what it’s like otherwise, without a real sawbones.”
“No shit. Girl around here had her friend try it with some kind of automobile suction device. Killed her.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. She feels guilty about it and wants to handle it fast before my folks find out. So she might try something stupid.”
“I think Sue can have an answer for you sometime tomorrow afternoon.”
“That’d be great.”
“You still got the same phone number?”
“Yeah. But it’d probably be easier if I called you.”
“Fine. Try me around two, three in the afternoon.”
“I really appreciate this, Wyatt.”
“No sweat. I just hope we can help you out.”
Now I needed to find Ruthie. Her friend Gloria drove a new yellow Vw bug that she’d received for her sixteenth birthday from her godfather. I swung by her folks’ home. The bug wasn’t there. I then began a systematic check of the places where the teenagers hung out. I even drove out to Howard Johnson’s again. I spent forty-five minutes on my search and had just about given up when I saw a yellow bug swinging out of the drive of a pizza place out on the south highway.
I honked the horn. Gloria recognized me. I waved and signaled for her to pull over to the curb.
As I approached the car, I could see that Gloria was alone. Would she have any idea where Ruthie was? I felt good about my call to Wyatt. I should have phoned him as soon as I found out Ruthie was pregnant.
Gloria rolled down the Vw window and turned down a Frankie Avalon song on the radio.
“Hi,” she said. She had a small, freckled face with a slight overbite and a rather pointed chin. She wore a thin yellow parka that almost matched the color of her bug, which I suppose was the idea.
“Hi. I’m looking for Ruthie. Have you seen her?”
I could have won a few million from Gloria in a poker game. Though her lips were shaping themselves into a lie, her eyes glanced guiltily away. “Uh, uh-uh.”
“Have you heard from her, then?”
“No, I haven’t heard from her, either.”
“That’s funny.”
“What is?”
“My mother’s under the impression she’s staying all night at your place.”
“Gee, that is funny.”
I said, “Why don’t you turn your engine off?”
For the first time, she showed a little bit of fear.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to leave until you tell me the truth.”
She shifted into first and said, “I’d better be going now.”
I reached in and grabbed the steering wheel.
“Damn it, Gloria, you remember the girl they found last night? The dead one who’d had the abortion?”
She sank back in the seat.
“Did you hear what I said, Gloria?”
“Yes, I heard.”
“You know what’s going on with Ruthie, right?”
She took a moment but finally, she nodded.
“Where is she, Gloria?”
She looked up at me. “I don’t know.”
“Bullshit.”
“I really don’t. She didn’t tell me.
She just asked me to cover for her, you know, with your mom, in case she asked if Ruthie was staying at my house tonight.”
“Gloria, if she goes to some quack who doesn’t know what he’s doing-”
“Honest to God, she didn’t tell me. She just said she’d figured out a way to take care of it. Honest. That’s all she said.”
I believed her. Her face had shifted from guilt to exasperation. Now she was telling me the truth and I was acting as if I didn’t believe her.
“Do you ever hear of anybody around here who does these operations?” I said.
“You mean like doctors?”
“Doctors or anybody. A nurse, maybe.”
“Uh-uh. Most girls go out of state.
There’s a place in Kansas City where my sister went.”
I should’ve called Des Moines sooner. I could have stopped this from happening tonight.
“If you see her or hear from her-”
“I’ll tell her to call you. I really will.
But right now I’m kind of freezing my butt off.
These heaters-”
“That’s all right. Thanks for talking.”
“She’ll be all right. I’m sure she will.”
“I hope you’re right, Gloria.”
The yellow bug headed up to the corner and then turned right when it got a green arrow on the traffic signal. Mist and fog were setting in.
You get a lot of both in the valley. I wondered about my little sister. I should have done so much better protecting her.
I walked back to the phone booth and called Judge Whitney. The brandy was flowing.
I could hear it in her voice.
“I hope you’ve called to tell me that you’ve found the real killer, McCain.”
“Not yet.” But I did tell her about my day and some of the strange things that happened.
“Do you think the colored man could have killed Susan, McCain?”
“Possibly.”
“Find out why he and Kenny had a falling-out.
There might be something in that.” She sounded as if she’d just had the most brilliant deductive thought in the world. But I’d been wondering that all day long.
“There’s also the fact,” I said, “that Renauld was in med school. He might be our man.”
“The Leopold Bloom’s guy?”
“Yes.”
“I wouldn’t think he’d have the guts. All the blood. He’d probably say eek.”
The brandy was flowing indeed. “What’s the music playing?” I said.
“You really don’t know?”
I let her feel superior as all hell.
“I really don’t know.”
“Why, it’s Chopin, of course. I’m very surprised you don’t know.”
“That question wasn’t on my exam when I got my private investigator’s license.”
“But back to the case. You know who I’ve also been thinking about?”
“Who?” I said.
“Bob Frazier.”
“So have I.”
“Really?”
“Between his temper and his pride,” I said, “I could see him going out there and killing Susan in a rage. She’d certainly humiliated him enough times in the past couple of years. And Kenny had humiliated him for years. Maybe he just couldn’t handle it anymore.”
“But then why would Kenny kill himself?”
“Maybe it was the same with Kenny,” I said.
“In fact, I’m almost sure it was. I was there when he did it, don’t forget. He was a very weary and very sad guy. I sensed that he was at the end of things. A pretty good number of alcoholics kill themselves when they feel they’re at the end.”