Thinks a lady shouldn’t be in a bar by herself. I bought this new dress for him.”
“It’s very pretty.” Jack returned her smile.
“Thank you, sir.”
“Call me Jack.”
Helen giggled. “Well, call me Helen, Jack. I’m expecting my fiance to show up. He’s late. I’m sure he’ll show up. And if he doesn’t, I might just chat up some other gentleman. Isn’t that what you do in a bar?”
“Yes, Helen, that’s one of the things you do.”
“My fiance was an ex-hockey player.”
“You don’t say.” Jack smiled. “What’s his name? Maybe I’ve heard of him.”
“Joe Begin.”
Jack shook his head. “Haven’t heard of him. Did he play for the Leafs?”
Helen giggled and sipped at her wine. “To tell you the truth, he might have been telling me a little tale, to earn my favor. He’s quite a storyteller. Well, that’s his job, isn’t it?” Jack smiled.
“He’s a salesman.” Helen giggled. “That’s how I met him. He came in-to our office one day and sold my boss a shipload of supplies. He’s very handsome. You might have seen him in here a few times. We were here 127 together one night. There was a giant sitting at your bar with Mary.
Mary works with me in the office.”
The smile left Jack’s face.
“Wasn’t he one of…?”
Helen shook her head. “Oh, no. He wasn’t one of the bodies. He left town for a few days. He has a regular route. I’m expecting him back at any time. That’s why I bought this new dress. I’m sure tonight will be the night.”
Ed
Ed sat in his wheelchair by his window and stared out into the bright sunlight of the afternoon.
“So it’s come to nothing?” he asked.
Sam Kelly leaned against the wall beside the window, his hands in his trouser pockets. “Someone had dumped an old bed down there at one time and it had lodged itself against the walls. Everything else just piled on top of it. We thought for sure we’d hit bottom. All on tape. You could see bones, lots of bones underneath the garbage. It was the most hopeless feeling watching on the monitor. Two fellas went down there on ropes.
Volunteers from 22 Division. Herb and Jimmy. I don’t even know their last names.”
“It’s tough,” Ed said, shaking his head.
“One of them had just grabbed onto a sleeping bag when everything started to shake. There was a gurgling sound and then a pop. And it was gone. The whole mess disappeared into the depths of that hole. One of the ropes snapped. Frank was gone. Felt like the bottom of my stomach had dropped out. Jimmy held onto the sleeping bag for a moment and then it unraveled like a role of Christmas ribbon into the darkness.”
“You got…?” the old man asked.
The detective nodded. “We pulled Jimmy out.”
“And now?”
“Nothing. We’re left with nothing except what we have on tape. The captain doesn’t want to spend any more money. There’s talk of trying to retrieve Frank’s body, but who knows how deep we would have to go.” Ed began to laugh, coughing phlegm, then choking. The detective smacked the old man on the back.
“Thanks,” Ed said with a smile. He looked up at the detective. “Well, that’s a hell of a way to end a career. What are you going to do now that you’re retiring? Got any hobbies?”
Sam shook his head.
“And your girl?” Ed asked. “The waitress in the restaurant.” Sam shook his head and smiled.
Cloverdale Parking Lot
“What if they start asking me questions?” Wiggy cried, sucking on a cigarette, unable to stand in one place, twirling around the cars in the parking lot, slamming his fist on their hoods, clenching his fists.
Terry leaned against the hood of the Chev.
“Calm down,” he said. “I’ll call Frank later and let him know how things stand. They’ve got no reason to suspect us of anything.”
“That was my little brother’s sleeping bag we wrapped him in,” Wiggy pointed his cigarette at Terry. “Johnny was a friend of mine. I didn’t want nothing to do with it. I just went along for the ride.”
“I told you to steal a bag from the Sally Ann,” Terry cried.
“Well, they didn’t have any. What was I supposed to do, knit a bag?”
“If you hadn’t let go of the rope,” Terry barked. “If you had just held on.”
“My arms were sore. That fucking faggot was so heavy. We shouldn’t have gotten him drunk. The bartender is sure to remember that we were drinking in there that night… He should have checked our ID. What’s he doing serving minors? How am I going to explain this to my mother?
She’s already pissed off at my suspension from school. And my old man will have a field day. He’ll be ranting on me. I told you so, I told you so, didn’t I tell you so? That’s all I’m going to hear… Jesus, it’s not like we intended to kill Johnny… You know, he wasn’t such a bad guy once you got to know him.”
Wiggy collapsed on the hood of the Chev. Terry looked at him.
“That hole sure was deep,” Terry said, dropping his cigarette on the asphalt and grinding it out with his shoe. He looked around the parking lot. There were always security guards to worry about. They were going to have to return Adelle’s Chev.
“We should fill the Chev up before we return it,” Terry added.
Wiggy looked at Terry with a puzzled expression on his face.
“That hole was deep,” he said. “Did you hear Johnny hit the bottom?”
“What are you getting at?” Terry asked.
“Maybe there ain’t no bottom. Maybe Johnny just kept on dropping.” Wiggy flicked his cigarette high in the air over a nearby Volkswagon.
There was a look of terrible optimism in his eyes.
Terry looked at Wiggy, stood up, and snapped his fingers. “That’s it!
You’re a genius. All we gotta say is that we left Johnny after the pub. We can say we went over to Adelle’s. She’ll give us an alibi. They’re not going to suspect a bunch of teenagers of murder.”
“You think that’ll work?” Wiggy asked.
“Why not?” Terry responded. “As long as we keep our stories straight and no one talks too much. If they don’t find a body, there ain’t no crime.”
“I never liked Johnny anyway,” Wiggy stated, climbing to his feet. “He didn’t have any respect for women.”
Good-bye
Sam Kelly pulled the car over to the curb. Margaret turned toward him.
“Thanks for the lift home.” Margaret smiled.
Sam nodded.
“Is it all over now?” she asked. “Are they still going to try and find out what happened to all those people?”
Sam stared out the front window of the police car.
“Nothing is ever over,” he said. “Too much has happened to drop everything. But it’s over for me. I’ll put in for early retirement. The way I’ve handled things, there won’t be any argument.”
“What will you do?”
Sam laughed bitterly. “Don’t know. Don’t really know anything but police work. The future,” Sam hesitated for a moment before continuing,
“seems pretty dark.”
Margaret smiled and patted Sam on the hand.
“The future is supposed to be dark. It hasn’t happened yet.” Sam looked at the woman sitting beside him. He took her hand, squeezed softly, and then released it. “Thanks,” he said.
Margaret waited for a moment, then opened the car door. She turned to the detective.
“Would you like to come in for a coffee?”
Sam paused, then smiled.
“Another time, maybe.”
Margaret nodded then stepped out of the car. About to leave, she turned back to the car and leaned in the open window.
“Sam, you be careful. If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Why are you so sure it’ll work?” Frank leaned against the side of the telephone booth, gripping the receiver in his hand.
“Where are you calling from?” Terry’s voice asked.
“A telephone booth,” Frank responded, turning to look out across Bloor Street. “Across the street from the plaza. I didn’t want to talk in my house. My mother’s always listening in on the other line. If my parents even get a whiff of what we’ve been doing, I’m a goner. No college.