I touched my index finger to the tip of her little nose. 'You ought to be a detective,' I said. 'Probably do a lot better at it thanme. '
Except that he wasn't in the book.
There were around two dozenFuhrmanns in theManhattan directory, twice that number ofFurmans , and a handful ofFermans andFermins . I established all this closeted in my hotel room with a phone book, and then I placed my calls from the booth downstairs, stopping periodically to get more dimes fromVinnie . Calls from my room cost double and it's annoying enough to waste dimes to no purpose. I tried all theFuhrmanns , however spelled, within a two-mile radius of Armstrong's, and I talked to a lot of people with the same last name as my writer friend and a few with the same first name as well, but I didn't reach anybody who knew him and it took a lot of dimes before I gave up.
I went back to Armstrong's around eleven, maybe a little later. A couple of nurses had my regular table so I took one over on the side. I gave the bar crowd a fast glance just to make sureFuhrmann wasn't there, and then Trina scurried over and said, 'Don't look or anything, but there's somebody at the bar who's been asking about you.'
'I didn't know you could talk without moving your lips.'
'About three stools from the front. Big guy, he was wearing a hat, but I don't know if he still is.'
'He is.'
'You know him?'
'You could always quit this grind and become a ventriloquist,' I suggested. 'Or you could act in one of those old prison movies. If they still make them. He can't read your lips, kid. You've got your back to him.'
'Do you know who he is?'
'Uh-huh. It's all right.'
'Should I tell him you're here?'
'You don't have to. He's on his way over here. Find out what he's drinking from Don and bring him a refill. And I'll have my usual.'
I watched as Eddie Koehler came over, pulled a chair back, settledhimself on it. We looked at each other, careful appraising looks.
He took a cigar from his jacket pocket andunwrapped it, then patted his pockets until he found a toothpick to puncture its end. He spent a lot of time lighting the cigar, turning it in the flame to get it burning evenly.
We still hadn't spoken when Trina came back with the drinks. His looked to be scotch and water. She asked if he wanted it mixed and he nodded. She mixed it and put it on the table in front of him, then served me my cup of coffee and my double shot of bourbon. I took a short sip of the bourbon neat and poured the rest of it into my coffee.
Eddie said, 'You're tough to get hold of. I left you a couple of messages. I guess you never got over to your hotel to pickem up.'
'I picked them up.'
'Yeah, that's what the clerk said earlier when I checked. So I guess my line mustof been busy when you tried to call me.'
'I didn't call.'
'That so?'
'I had things to do, Eddie.'
'No time to call an old friend, huh?'
'I figured to call you in the morning.'
'Uh-huh.'
'Sometime tomorrow, anyway.'
'Uh-huh. Tonight you were busy.'
'That's right.'
He seemed to notice his drink for the first time. He looked at it as if it was the first one he had ever seen. He switched his cigar to his left hand and lifted the glass with his right. He sniffed it and looked at me.
'Smells like what I been drinking,' he said.
'I told her to bring you another of the same.'
'It's nothing fancy.Seagram's. Same asI been drinking for years.'
'That's right, that's what you always used to have.'
He nodded.' 'Course , it's rare for me to havemore'n two, three in a day. Two, three drinks- I guess that's just about what you have for breakfast, huh, Matt?'
'Oh, it's not quite that bad, Eddie.'
'No? Glad to hear it. You hear things around, you know. Be amazed what you hear around.'
'I can imagine.'
'Sure you can. Well, what do you want to drink to, anyhow?Any special toast?'
'Nothing special.'
