A Flash of Green by John D. MacDonald Page B

started to come back a little, and when he married Nan McMay about five years ago, he came out of it a lot more.”
    “Nanette Melton McMay,” Shannard said. “I was in on that case.”
    “Were you? I didn’t remember.”
    “Why it didn’t destroy her, I’ll never know. So that makes them a pair of refugees, in a sense. At least she should be strong enough to cope with anything.”
    “This is the third time she’s had to face it. The last time he fell off, we got him hooked up with the AA’s, and it seemed to work. Borklund wanted to let him go then. Ben Killian said he could have one more chance. If they don’t get him in time, if he blows it, I don’t know what will happen to him. He’s forty-five. He’s got no place to go, not from here.”
    “Howie?” Shannard said. “Once again here. Where were we, James? Oh, we were discussing the infinite variety of the commissioner. Did you get a tidy news story out of him tonight?”
    Jimmy Wing felt an immediate wariness. “Nothing I can use right off, Leroy. More like background material.”
    “Over the last few years, Elmo has been the best source of any of the five commissioners, I’d imagine.”
    “Well, you could say a practical politician on any level makes use of the press. Some of them have a feeling for it. Elmo does. Sometimes it’s a knack of saying nothing in such a way it comes out sounding like news.”
    “Would you think Elmo’s knack is worth pursuing?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Could he go further with it? Higher offices?”
    “If he has the desire. But Elmo has the knack of making money too. Maybe that’s more important to him.”
    “But you’re talking about alternate roads to the same thing, Jimmy. Aren’t you?”
    “Power and importance? It would depend on what kind Elmo wants, and how much of it he wants.”
    “Let’s assume his appetite is insatiable.”
    “Where are you heading, Leroy?”
    The eagle face creased into a sleepy, knowing grin. “Hell, I’m just talking. He’s an interesting man. I wanted to get your slant on him. He likes you, Jimmy. If you wanted, you could latch on and go along with him. That’s what I’ve been doing.”
    “I’d have to wait for him to ask me, Leroy. I’d have to know where he was headed. You see, I can’t think of anything I want very much that I haven’t got.”
    Shannard put the money down and got off the stool. Jimmy thanked him and they walked out to their cars.
    “I guess I was too obvious about it, Jimmy,” Shannard said.
    “Too obvious about what?”
    “He said you’d know how to handle it, but I had to check it out myself.”
    “I just don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
    Shannard got into the Thunderbird and grinned up at him. “You’re perfectly right, you know. Elmo should clear it first. But welcome aboard anyway. Night, James.”
    By the time Jimmy drove out of the parking area beside the Spanish Mack, Shannard’s car was out of sight. Three carloads of teenagers passed him, cutting from lane to lane, yelling at each other. The stoplights were off, blinking yellow down the length of Center Street through the middle of town toward City Bridge. The lift of the drinks was gone. He felt stale and sleepy.
    A block before the bridge he changed his mind about going straight home. He turned right and cut back to Brian Haas’s place. Brian and Nan lived in a garage apartment. The big house had been torn down and replaced by a row of connected one-story shops and small offices erected close to the sidewalk with parking area in the rear. The garage apartment was just beyond the asphalted area. It had a small walled garden at the side, shaded by an enormous banyan tree.
    When Jimmy Wing parked by the garden wall and turned his lights off, Nan Haas came hurrying out.
    “Just me,” he said. “Anything new?”
    “Not yet, Jimmy. They’re looking for him. Come in and help me wait. Isn’t this a hell of a thing?” Her voice was casual, but he could