11
Karen answered the phone. “Hawley’s Home for Wayward Women. Hawley speaking.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the line.
Then Graham said, “Karen, have you been drinking?”
“Yep.”
“Can I speak to Neal?”
“You could if he was here, but he’s not here,” Karen answered. “May I take a message?”
There was another silence while Graham considered what, if anything, to tell her. Just because Joey Beans was involved with Jack Landis didn’t mean there was necessarily any danger, and he didn’t want to alarm Karen.
“Yeah, why don’t you have him call in, okay?” Graham said.
“No reason, I guess.”
“How’s everything going there?” Graham asked. “Okay?”
“Yeah…” Karen said as she debated what to tell Graham. She thought it would be better if Neal told him such little things as the fact that Candy Landis was sitting at her kitchen table eating frozen pizza with Polly Paget and discussing baby names. “Everything’s fine.”
“How’s our friend?”
“Late.”
“Huh?”
“I mean radiant,” Karen said. “Our friend is radiant.”
“Hey, Karen, take it easy on the sauce, okay?”
“You betcha.”
“Have Neal call,” Graham repeated. “Right away.”
“Right away.”
“Good night.”
“Back at ya.”
Karen hung up.
“Who was that?” Polly asked.
“Neal’s dad,” Karen answered. “And his mom, his grandfather, his best friend, teacher, and boss.”
“We have one of those speaker phones,” Candy said as she poured herself another glass of white zinfandel. This was her fifth glass, which matched her normal biannual intake of alcohol.
“You sounded a little tipsy on the phone,” she warned Karen. “I think that Polly should answer the phone from now on, seeing as how she is not drinking. She can be the designated talker.”
“Friends don’t let friends talk drunk,” Karen agreed.
Polly asked, “Is there any pizza left?”
Neal was halfway through his first beer at Brogan’s when Walter Withers staggered in. Dust covered his rumpled suit and sweat stained his white shirt. The briefcase in his hand looked as if it weighed a good eighty pounds. And he was drunk.
But his tie is still knotted, Neal noticed with a mixture of admiration and disdain.
Withers’s eyes narrowed like the gun slits on a tank as he shuffled toward Neal. When he was at least an inch from Neal’s face, he spit out, “That was a low thing you did, Neal. I must have walked six miles before I got picked up.”
Neal swiveled on his stool to face Withers.
“You walked!”
“Disappointed?”
“Didn’t your buddy Charles come looking for you?” Neal asked.
“Who’s Charles?”
“You can drop the act,” Neal said. “You got the job done. Your client is sitting with Polly as we speak.”
Withers hauled himself onto the bar stool, an action that his sore muscles might have made a lot more difficult save for a lifetime of practice.
“I don’t think so,” he answered. He couldn’t imagine Ron Scarpelli even coming to this godforsaken wilderness, and besides, he hadn’t told the lascivious voyeur where he was. Or had he?
“I’m telling you, Walter,” Neal answered. “Candy Landis is bonding with Polly right now. Congratulations. You beat me, okay?”
As gratifying as that might be, my boy, although I do detect a trace of rancor in your inflection, Withers thought, the euphoniously named Candice Landis is not my client. However, if you do persist in believing that, there might be some small advantage to be found…
“Experience, my boy, that’s all,” Walter said. “May I make it up to you by buying you a drink?”
“I have a drink,” Neal answered. He swallowed some beer to demonstrate.
“Then may I make it up to you by buying myself a drink?” Withers asked. “A whiskey, please.”
Brogan poured a shot, then set the glass and Withers’s car keys on the bar. Walt picked up the glass.
“You can tell me where the ‘Jehovah’s Witness’ went,” Neal said.
Have I suffered that dreaded first blackout? Withers wondered. I seemed to have missed a Candy Landis and a Jehovah’s Witness-at least.
“Perhaps into the Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program,” Withers suggested. “Does it matter?”
“I guess not,” Neal said. “So what are you going to do now?
“Well,” Withers answered, “now that Chuck has seemingly abandoned me, I suppose I will try to find a room and then return to Reno in the morning. Unless, of course, you’d like to put me up.”
I’d like to put you up on a sharp pole, Neal thought.
“Why don’t you go to Reno tonight? The hotels are much better there.”
“I’m a little tired, my boy,” Withers answered. He drained his glass and added, “From all the exercise, I suppose.”
“There’s a motel across the street,” Neal said.
“Yes, I think I’ll just have a nightcap and hit the hay.” He yawned dramatically.
Neal didn’t believe him-not the nightcap, not the yawn, not one damn word he had to say. There was no reason on earth Walter Withers would hike even one mile if he thought he’d done his job, and he’d have been cocky, not angry, when he walked in. And most of all, he wouldn’t be hanging around a bar with the opposition-he’d get his car keys and get the hell out of town.
“Open the briefcase,” Neal ordered.
“I’m sure that you meant to say, ‘Would you mind opening the briefcase, please?’ ” Withers said. “In either case, the answer is no.”
“What I meant to say was, ‘Open the briefcase,’ ” Neal repeated. “When I want a lesson in etiquette, I’ll write to Miss Manners. Now open the briefcase and show me what’s inside.”
Withers ignored Neal and turned to Brogan. “May I have another drink, please, my good man?”
“I ain’t your good man,” Brogan rumbled. His voice blended into the dog’s low growl. “And I ain’t selling you another drink. I ain’t going to get my ass sued off when you drive that car into somebody, either.”
He put his big hand over the car keys.
“I’m not accustomed to barmen getting cheeky with me,” Withers said.
“Open the briefcase, Mr. Withers,” Neal said.
Withers slid off his bar stool, picked up the briefcase, and pulled himself to his full height.
“Well, you can go to hell, my boy,” he said as he weaved in front of them. “And you can go with him, my good man. I have never been treated so shabbily in my life. You can both rest assured that you will hear from my attorney, of the law firm of… of… Howard, Fine and Shep… an experience you will not enjoy… I assure you.”
Neal got off his stool and caught him before he hit the floor.
“He’s got a load on,” Brogan said.
