That was when it came to me: Buddy Elder had gone after our alarm system.
Before I left I told Molly to keep her revolver close. ‘Whoever hurt the dogs,’ I said, ‘might be back for you.’ I said the best thing would be for me to move back in, if she would let me. To my surprise Molly said she’d think about it.
I got back to town at dusk. I went directly to the house on Ninth Street where Denise Conway and Buddy Elder lived. A girl answered the door. She was over-weight but the right age and disposition to be one of Denise’s friends from work. Her kid came up behind her as we talked and stared at me curiously. ‘Denise Conway live here?’ I asked.
The girl shook her head. ‘Not no more.’
‘Actually, I was looking for Buddy Elder. You know where I can find him?’
‘He moved out too. They broke up.’
I tried to get some information from her, but she had been warned. She wanted my name. She wanted to know what my business was. I told her my name was Ralph W. Emerson. I wanted to talk to Buddy about some dead poets. She thought that was strange.
I had her write down my cell phone number and told her to tell Buddy to give me a call, if he had the guts.
I was almost back to Walt’s apartment when my phone trilled. ‘The W. stand for Waldo, does it, Ralph?’
Buddy asked.
‘Where are you living these days, Buddy?’
‘Denise and I broke up, thanks to you, Dave. I got a new place. Just trying to get my head together, start over. You know how it is, I expect.’
‘I’d like to come by and talk to you about a few things.’
Buddy gave me his address. I turned my truck around and went back into town. The lights were off in the house, and I was not sure Buddy actually lived there until I knocked at the door. From the darkened house I heard Buddy’s voice. ‘Door’s unlocked, Dave.’
I opened the door and looked into the darkness.
‘You hiding?’ I asked.
‘A long time ago a cop told me if I ever shot a man breaking into my house I better make sure he falls completely inside. Half-in and half-out isn’t good enough. You want to come on inside?’
‘Are you going to shoot me?’
Buddy laughed cheerfully. ‘If you come inside I am!’
He walked to the door. Barefoot, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, he held a nickel-plated. 38 revolver. I was guessing it was the same gun he had pulled on me outside The Slipper. As before, he pointed it at me with keen pleasure.
‘Where were you last night, Buddy?’
‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Someone killed our dogs.’
‘Your dogs? All of them?’ I didn’t answer. He shook his head, his eyes locking on mine without the pretence of sincerity. ‘That’s just a shame, Dave. A real shame.’
I pointed at his gun. ‘That’s not going to save you, Buddy. When you need it, you’re not going to have it.’
The street lit up from the lights of a car, and Buddy shifted his gaze from me for a second. ‘I don’t care what anybody says, the cops in this town are good!’
He stepped back into his living room and set his revolver under the cushion of the couch. I turned and walked off the step as the two policemen got out of their patrol car, their spotlight on me.
One of them told me to stop where I was and to put my hands on my head. He came toward me with his hand on his nightstick. His partner worked backup for him. When he got to me he asked me to step toward the house. I did. At his request, I placed my hands against the house and spread my legs. He patted me down, then let me stand up again. ‘I’d like for you to come back to the patrol car with me, sir.’
I did as he asked. His partner went inside and talked to Buddy. ‘You know the person in that house, do you, Mr Albo?’ my officer asked me after he had checked my identification.
‘Joe Elder. Buddy,’ I said. ‘He called me up a few minutes ago and told me to come over. I got here and he pulled a gun on me.’
‘That’s not quite how we heard it from our dispatcher.’
We batted it back and forth, our respective versions of the truth. By the time his partner returned from the house, I was fairly certain I would be going back to jail. The difference this time was my young friend had trapped himself with a lie. There would be a record of Buddy’s call to me. His flank exposed, I was going to make him pay for his games this time. My cop pointed at me and said, ‘He says he got a phone call, was invited over here to talk.’
The other cop nodded. ‘I got the same story, plus a little more. Your name is Dr Albo, right?’ I said it was.
‘You and Mr Elder are having problems?’
I knew enough about the law not to suggest that Buddy had poisoned my dogs. Statements to the police amounted to public record. A groundless accusation would open me up to charges of slander. For all I knew, that was Buddy’s plan.
‘I don’t like the guy,’ I said, ‘I’m not sure I’d say we have problems.’
‘He tells me you were accusing him of sleeping with your wife.’
I expect I smiled. I hadn’t seen that one coming.
‘ That problem,’ I said.
‘I’m going to let you go with a warning this time, Dr Albo, but I’m also going to file a report on this incident. You come out here again, you’ll be explaining yourself to a judge the next morning. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Let me give you some free advice,’ the senior partner added with a sigh. He had a dozen years on me, a look of perpetual misery that could only come from too much domestic bliss. ‘You’re going through a divorce, am I right?’ I nodded. ‘I see this kind of thing a lot more than you’d believe. Decent, clean-cut woman, all of a sudden she goes for something like that.’ He pointed his thumb absently in the direction of Buddy Elder’s house. ‘Two reasons. First, it makes her feel young again. Maybe she’s not sure if she’s still desirable. She wants to find out. Second reason is she knows it’s going to hurt you.
‘Truth is mostly she wants to hurt you. Now when you come out to this fellow’s house and make threats, maybe even get yourself arrested, she’s going to know she won. You follow me?’ I nodded. I followed. ‘You seem like a bright enough guy, professor. You don’t want to step into that kind of game.’
Once I was in the truck again and had started away, I began laughing. The son of a bitch was good!
Chapter 16
‘I said I want to think about it,’ Molly told me the following afternoon.
I paced nervously, my cell phone pressed to my ear.
‘You said you never wanted to sell the farm.’
‘We both said a lot of things, David. Look, I want to go down to Florida for a few weeks. Take a look at the situation. Doc says the housing market is getting stronger. I can flip a place in three-four months if I buy the right property.’
‘You’re quoting Doc on real estate, Molly. Listen to yourself.’
She laughed. ‘That’s why I need to go down there and take a look. You move back to the farm.’
‘And Lucy moves in with the Sloans until you decide what you want to do. I know. I just don’t know why you’re doing this.’
‘You’re the one who wanted to move back to the farm. So move back. Make Walt happy.’
‘I’ll break Walt’s heart. I didn’t tell you but we’ve zipped our sleeping bags together.’
