To Catch a Spy by Stuart M. Kaminsky Page B

tables. Tony’s, which was owned by the Philoplis brothers—neither of whom was named Tony—served a good burger. Since I had given Mountain my last taco as a peace offering, I paused at the bar and ordered a burger and a beer while I looked around for Shelly.
    I couldn’t remember which Philopolis brother was Anton and which was Constantine. They didn’t look much alike. One was tall and skinny with a sour face. The other was average height with some heft to him and a weary bartender smile that said he’d heard it all and expected to hear it again.
    “Looking for the dentist?” asked the tall skinny one behind the bar.
    “Yeah.”
    “Said you’d be here. All the way back in the last booth. I’ll bring your burger and brew.”
    I headed for the back of Tony’s and found Shelly scrunched up in the last booth on the right. He was wearing sunglasses and took them off when I sat down.
    “It’s me,” I said.
    “Thank God. He’s going to kill me, Toby. You’ve got to do something.” He cowered back into the corner of his side of the booth.
    “Advice first,” I said. “Take off the sunglasses. They’re a lousy disguise and you’re blind wearing them.”
    He squinted at me and in the general direction of the door to Tony’s. Then he reached into his pocket, took out his smudge-lensed regular glasses, and put them on.
    “He tried to kill me,” Shelly said, reaching for the half-full glass of beer in front of him. “Look.”
    Shelly pulled down his collar. I didn’t see anything but a frayed shirt.
    “What?”
    “The marks. He tried to strangle me.”
    “If he tried, you’d be dead,” I said.
    “I managed to escape. He was still woozy from the gas or I would be a dead man. If I die, Toby, I want you to have everything. No, my sister should have everything. She’s in Duluth. Violet can give you her address. But Mildred gets nothing. Promise me.”
    “That Mildred gets nothing or your sister gets all your rusting tools and the dental chair?”
    “Both.”
    “I’ll do my best.”
    Shelly wasn’t looking at me during all this. His eyes were fixed on the door.
    “Talk to Jeremy,” he said. “Maybe Jeremy can reason with him. Or maybe I should just pack a bag and move.”
    “To Duluth?”
    “San Diego,” Shelly said. “Change my name and start a new practice. I’ve got a cousin in San Diego.”
    “You pulled the wrong tooth, Shel?”
    He shrugged and looked at me.
    “I could have sworn,” he said. “It was big and yellow and right where he said the pain was. We all make mistakes.”
    “It’s best not to make them with four-hundred-pound wrestlers with a bad temper,” I said.
    “I don’t need Chinese sayings,” he said. “I need protection. You owe me, Toby.”
    The skinny Philopolis brother brought my beer and burger, and Shelly said he’d like a burger too. Skinny Philopolis nodded and moved away.
    “You want to hire me to protect you from Mountain?”
    “Well, I was thinking more like you’d do it as an act of friendship,” he said, leaning toward me and twitching his nose to keep his glasses from slipping off.
    “How do I stop him?” I asked.
    “You’re the professional,” Shelly said with a touch of exasperation. “Reason with him. Tell him I’m suffering from a rare disease, that I’m dying and my mind is going. Shoot him.”
    “I’ll ask Jeremy to talk to him,” I said.
    “You think he knows where I live?”
    Shelly had lived in a hotel since his wife Mildred had thrown him out. He was waiting for a divorce. Maybe his mind was going.
    “I don’t see how he can,” I said.
    “Maybe he tortured Violet, made her tell,” he said, pushing back his eyeglasses and blinking at me through thick lenses.”
    “Violet is fine. She can take care of herself. She wouldn’t turn you over.”
    “You think her husband Rocky will kill me when he gets back from the war? I mean I only touched her once and that was …”
    “Everyone is not trying to kill you, Shel,” I