swings between guilt, anger, fear, and hope—sometimes alternating, sometimes simultaneous? And did they really want to know? He wondered if people would think him rude or crazy if he printed up little cards that listed possible responses to that question. He could check off one or the other and hand it to the asker.
“Well you let me know if there’s anything I can do. They feeding her good up there at that hospital? I could fix up a tray.”
“She’s fine right now, Flora, thank you. Eating isn’t her big problem.”
Charlie slouched into the diner, waved a greeting to Flora, which was studiously ignored, and sat across from him.
“What do you recommend for breakfast, Ike, and why are we here? You made a perfectly adequate meal yesterday. Now, I wake up, you have vanished and left me a note. Not very hospitable, I must say.”
“In the first place, I always eat here in the morning if I can. It is one of my listening posts. I’m not officially on duty at the moment, but you never know what I’ll pick up. Secondly, Frank is meeting me here because I refuse to go to the office. Oh, and as I indicated to you before, I don’t recommend food to Flora’s customers. If she likes you, she will select your breakfast for you. If she doesn’t, she insists you order it yourself, and then will tell you she’s out of whatever you ask for.”
“Then the strategy, assuming I am not on her dance card, is to order something I really don’t want in order to get what I do.”
“You have the proper devious mind to figure that out.”
“I’ve had lots of practice.”
Flora brought coffee and glared at Charlie. He ordered a fish sandwich with extra tartar sauce and was told the diner was out of fish. He got scrambled eggs. Frank joined them a few minutes later and sat next to Charlie.
“What’s new, Frank?”
“Nothing changes. Amos Wickwire has taken up permanent residency, it seems. The mayor, we assume, is convinced you will return and he will catch you using public, that is to say, police equipment to work your private case.”
“Poor Amos. It can’t be easy working for the mayor in an election year. Anything else?”
“It appears our suicide, isn’t. The ME says he died of asphyxia, all right, but not carbon monoxide intoxication. He surmises that the man was hit on the head and then smothered somehow. Plastic bag, maybe. After that he was dumped in the van. The suicide is a setup.”
“The dead man, who is he again?”
“Worker from up at Callend, general duties, janitorial, I think. We’re still checking. We’re looking into his background now. His name is Marty Duffy. He arrived about the time the school underwent the merger to become a university. He rents in the trailer park, we think. We’ll find out more soon enough. Also, I’ve had a number of calls about the Comcast truck in the alley behind the stores near Lee Henry’s back door. Do I need to worry about that?”
“Nope. I hear Lee is installing Internet and TV for her customers. Maybe she’ll put in a coffee bar too.”
“Great. One last thing, and you are not going to like this. Essie and Billy have been snooping around Jack Burns. I had a call or two from his campaign people wanting to know who authorized the Sheriff’s Office to stalk their candidate. They threatened to call the Fair Election Committee and file a formal complaint.”
“It’s my fault. I told them if they could connect Burns to a truck and so on, I’d consider Essie’s idea. Tell those two to cool it. I have enough tsouris at the moment and Burns may be a bad candidate for sheriff, but he is not a good one for attempted murder.”
“I know, but there is one little problem the two of them turned up. He has no alibi for Sunday night and his cousin owns a platform truck like the one in the video.”
“That’s not good, but still doesn’t move him into the picture. Did Grace turn up anything useful on Ruth’s cell phone?”
“The caller used a
“Well you let me know if there’s anything I can do. They feeding her good up there at that hospital? I could fix up a tray.”
“She’s fine right now, Flora, thank you. Eating isn’t her big problem.”
Charlie slouched into the diner, waved a greeting to Flora, which was studiously ignored, and sat across from him.
“What do you recommend for breakfast, Ike, and why are we here? You made a perfectly adequate meal yesterday. Now, I wake up, you have vanished and left me a note. Not very hospitable, I must say.”
“In the first place, I always eat here in the morning if I can. It is one of my listening posts. I’m not officially on duty at the moment, but you never know what I’ll pick up. Secondly, Frank is meeting me here because I refuse to go to the office. Oh, and as I indicated to you before, I don’t recommend food to Flora’s customers. If she likes you, she will select your breakfast for you. If she doesn’t, she insists you order it yourself, and then will tell you she’s out of whatever you ask for.”
“Then the strategy, assuming I am not on her dance card, is to order something I really don’t want in order to get what I do.”
“You have the proper devious mind to figure that out.”
“I’ve had lots of practice.”
Flora brought coffee and glared at Charlie. He ordered a fish sandwich with extra tartar sauce and was told the diner was out of fish. He got scrambled eggs. Frank joined them a few minutes later and sat next to Charlie.
“What’s new, Frank?”
“Nothing changes. Amos Wickwire has taken up permanent residency, it seems. The mayor, we assume, is convinced you will return and he will catch you using public, that is to say, police equipment to work your private case.”
“Poor Amos. It can’t be easy working for the mayor in an election year. Anything else?”
“It appears our suicide, isn’t. The ME says he died of asphyxia, all right, but not carbon monoxide intoxication. He surmises that the man was hit on the head and then smothered somehow. Plastic bag, maybe. After that he was dumped in the van. The suicide is a setup.”
“The dead man, who is he again?”
“Worker from up at Callend, general duties, janitorial, I think. We’re still checking. We’re looking into his background now. His name is Marty Duffy. He arrived about the time the school underwent the merger to become a university. He rents in the trailer park, we think. We’ll find out more soon enough. Also, I’ve had a number of calls about the Comcast truck in the alley behind the stores near Lee Henry’s back door. Do I need to worry about that?”
“Nope. I hear Lee is installing Internet and TV for her customers. Maybe she’ll put in a coffee bar too.”
“Great. One last thing, and you are not going to like this. Essie and Billy have been snooping around Jack Burns. I had a call or two from his campaign people wanting to know who authorized the Sheriff’s Office to stalk their candidate. They threatened to call the Fair Election Committee and file a formal complaint.”
“It’s my fault. I told them if they could connect Burns to a truck and so on, I’d consider Essie’s idea. Tell those two to cool it. I have enough tsouris at the moment and Burns may be a bad candidate for sheriff, but he is not a good one for attempted murder.”
“I know, but there is one little problem the two of them turned up. He has no alibi for Sunday night and his cousin owns a platform truck like the one in the video.”
“That’s not good, but still doesn’t move him into the picture. Did Grace turn up anything useful on Ruth’s cell phone?”
“The caller used a
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