Lawrence Block - Sins of the Fathers

Vincent was at the desk when I walked in. He had given me a hard time awhile back, and he still wasn’t sure how I felt about him. I’d just given him a ten for Christmas, which should have clued him in that I harbored no ill feelings, but he still had a tendency to cringe when I approached. He cringed a little now, then handed me my room key and a slip of paper that informed me Kenny had called. There was a number where I could reach him.

I called it from my room. “Ah, Matthew,” he said. “How nice of you to call.”

“What’s the problem?”

“There is no problem. I’m just busy enjoying a day off. It was that or go to jail, and I’m none too fond of jails. I’m sure they would bring back unpleasant memories.”

“I don’t follow you.”

“Am I being terribly oblique? I talked to the good Lieutenant Koehler, just as you suggested. Sinthia’s is scheduled to be raided sometime this evening. Forewarned is forearmed, to coin a phrase, so I took the precaution of engaging one of my bartenders to mind the store this afternoon and evening.”

“Does he know what’s coming?”

“I’m not diabolical, Matthew. He knows he’ll be locked up. He also knows that he’ll be bailed out in nothing flat and charges will be dropped in short order. And he knows he’ll be fifty dollars richer for the experience. Personally, I wouldn’t suffer the indignity of an arrest for ten times that sum, but different strokes for different folks, to coin another phrase. Your Lieutenant Koehler was most cooperative, I might add, except he wanted a hundred dollars instead of the fifty you suggested. I don’t suppose I ought to have tried bargaining with him?”

“Probably not.”

“That’s what I thought. Well, if it works out, the price is a pittance. I hope you don’t mind that I mentioned your name?”

“Not at all.”

“It seemed to afford me a certain degree of entrée. But it leaves me owing you a favor, and I’m delighted to be able to discharge my obligation forthwith.”

“You got a line on Richie Vanderpoel?”

“I did indeed. I devoted quite a few hours to asking pertinent questions at an after-hours place. The one on Houston Street?”

“I don’t know it.”

“Quite my favorite blind pig. I’ll take you there some night if you’d like.”

“We’ll see. What did you find out?”

“Ah, let me see. What did I find out? I talked to three gentlemen who were willing to remember taking our bright-eyed boy home for milk and cookies. I also talked to a few others who I would happily swear did the same, but their memories were clouded, sad to say. It seems I was quite right in thinking that he hadn’t been hustling a buck. He never asked anyone for money, and one chap said he’d tried to press a few bob on Richie for cabfare home and the lad wouldn’t take it. Sterling character, wouldn’t you say?”

“I would.”

“And all too rare in this day and age. That’s it in the hard-fact department. The rest is impressions, but I gather that’s what you’re most interested in.”

“Yes.”

“Well, it seems Richard wasn’t terribly sexy.”

“Huh?”

He sighed. “The dear boy didn’t like it much and wasn’t terribly good at it. I gather it wasn’t just a matter of nerves, although he does seem to have been a nervous and apprehensive sort. It was more a matter of being uncomfortable with the whole thing and getting blessed little pleasure out of sex itself. And he retreated from intimacy. He’d perform the dirty deed willingly enough, but he didn’t want to have his hand held or his shoulder stroked. That’s not unheard of, you know. There’s a species of faggot that craves the sex but can’t stand the closeness. All their friends are doomed to stay strangers. But he didn’t seem to enjoy the sex all that much, either.”

“Interesting.”

“I thought you’d say so. Also, once it was over, Richie was ever so anxious to be on his way. Not the sort to stay the night. Didn’t even care to linger for coffee and brandy. Just wham-bam-thank-you-sir. And no interest in a repeat performance at a later date. One chap really wanted to see the boy again, not because the sex was good, as it wasn’t, but because he was intrigued. Thought he might pierce that grim exterior given another opportunity. Richie would have none of it. Didn’t even want to speak to anyone once he’d shared a pillow with him.”

“These three men—”

“No names, Matthew. I has me code of ethics, I does.”

“I’m not interested in their names. I just wondered if they ran to type.”

“In what way?”

“Age. Are they all about the same age?”

“More or less.”

“All fifty or more?”

“How did you know?”

“Just a guess.”

“Well, it’s a good one. I’d place them all between fifty or sixty. And they look their years, poor devils, unlike those of us who have bathed in the fountain of youth.”

“It all fits.”

“How?”

“Too complicated to explain.”

“Meaning bugger off? I don’t mind. The mere satisfaction of knowing I’ve been helpful, Matthew, is reward enough for me. It’s not as though I’d want a story to tell my grandchildren in my old age.”

Eddie Koehler was away from his desk. I left a message for him to call me back, then went downstairs and picked up a paper at the newsstand in the lobby. I had worked my way through to Dear Abby when the phone rang.

He thanked me for sending Kenny to him, his voice wary as he did so. I wasn’t on the force, and he shouldn’t have to kick any of it back to me.

I set his mind at rest. “You could do me a little favor in return. You can find someone to make a few phone calls or look in the right books. I could probably do it myself, but it would take me three times as long.”

I spelled it out for him. It was an easy way for him to balance the books with me, and he was glad to grab it. He said he’d get back to me, and I told him I’d hang around and wait for his call.

It came almost exactly an hour later. J.J. Cottrell, Inc., had had offices in the Kleinhans Building at William and Pine. The firm had published a Wall Street tip sheet for about a dozen years, going out of business at the time of the proprietor’s death. The proprietor had been one Arnold P. Leverett, and he’d died two and a half years ago. There had been no one named Cottrell connected with the firm.

I thanked him and rang off. That rounded things out neatly enough. I hadn’t been able to find a Cottrell because there had never been one in the first place. It was reasonable to assume that Leverett had played some sort of role in Wendy Hanniford’s life, but whether it had been a large or a small role was now no longer material. The man couldn’t be reached for comment without the services of a medium.

For the hell of it I put through a call to the Eden Roc and got the manager again. He remembered me. I asked him if he could check the same register for Leverett, and it didn’t take him as long this time because he knew right away where to find the records. Not too surprisingly, his records indicated that Mr. and Mrs. Arnold P. Leverett had been guests of the Eden Roc from the fourteenth to the twentieth of September.

So I had the name of one of the men in her life. If Leverett had left a widow, I could go and annoy her, but it would be hard to think up a less purposeful act. What I’d really accomplished was more negative than positive. I could now forget about tracing the man who had taken her to Florida, and I could quit wondering who in hell J.J. Cottrell was. He wasn’t a person, he was a corporation, and he was out of business.

I went around the corner to Armstrong’s and sat at the bar. It had already been a long day, and the drive to Mamaroneck and back had tired me more than I realized. I figured on spending the rest of the night on that barstool, balancing coffee and bourbon until it was late enough to go back to my room and go to sleep.