Дэвид Балдаччи - A Gambling Man [calibre]

“Yeah. I did before I made the decision to use Liberty.”

“What time?”

“I got a message from the stage manager right after Liberty finished her audition that Ruby hadn’t turned up for her warmup. So I went looking for her, starting with her room. The door was locked but I have a key. I thought maybe she was sick or had overslept or something. I went in. But there was no one there.”

Archer glanced at Callahan once more. “And no one had seen her?”

“No. I thought she might have gone off somewhere with someone and left me in the lurch.”

“Why would you think that?” asked Archer in a sharp tone.

Dawson looked at him warily. “No reason, Archer.”

“Come on, Mabel, we’re all friends here.”

“Ruby liked men.”

“Any men in particular?”

“Rich men,” said Dawson.

“Okay, I guess that narrows it down. Any rich man in particular?”

“You’re the gumshoe, I’ll let you figure that out.” She sat back, a look of clarity spreading over her features. “So that’s why you were out earlier talking to her. It was about some man she might be seeing.”

“It might have been. So what’s the deal with Sawyer Armstrong?”

She eyed his damaged face and then ran her gaze over his stiffened posture. “Maybe I should be asking you the same thing.”

“I understand he built this place.”

“Before the war started.”

“Is Armstrong married?”

“What do you care?”

“I’m just trying to get some information. That’s what private detectives do.”

“His wife, Eleanor, died in a plane crash a couple years ago.”

“Do you know Beth Kemper or her husband?”

She laughed. “I don’t move in those sorts of exalted circles.”

“I understand that Douglas Kemper comes here to play cards. And maybe for other things?”

“Maybe you understand that. I don’t.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I’m not getting involved. If you have any other questions, ask somebody else.”

“Okay. Well, if Ruby turns up, let her know that I want to talk to her.”

Dawson looked at Callahan. “Don’t be late on Friday, Liberty. We need to sign your deal and get things sorted out.”

They left, got into the Delahaye, and were driving out when the first patrol car came flying up the road and passed them heading to the entrance. As they made their way down the road, two more prowlers sailed past them, their lights flinging away the gloomy darkness and their sirens cutting through the sounds of the breakers off in the distance.

“What now, Archer?” said Callahan.

“Now we go back to the boardinghouse.”

“You want to go get a drink?”

“No, I’ve had enough.”

“Okay, I guess I can understand that. I just feel bad leaving her there like that.”

He gripped her shoulder. “Get that out of your mind. And don’t slip up if anybody asks you, Liberty. We didn’t go up there and we didn’t see anything. You got that square?”

“Sure, Archer, sure.”

“Because if the police start asking questions and you mess up, we’re both in trouble. Big trouble.”

They rode the rest of the way back in silence.

Chapter 35

A DISTRAUGHT CALLAHAN HAD GONE to her room, and Archer to his. He got undressed and climbed into bed, but he couldn’t sleep. He felt that if he closed his eyes, they wouldn’t reopen. And his whole body ached even more.

It was nearly two in the morning now, but he rose, padded down to the bath, and splashed cold water on his face and neck. He went back to his room, slipped on the same clothes, and laced up his shoes. He opened the window and looked out. Even from the other side of Sawyer Avenue, he could hear the beat of the ocean, smell its pungent scent, and feel the mist from the marine fog that chilled him to the bone and made his injuries more painful still.

He pulled his PI license from his jacket pocket and looked at it.

Though it looked official and important, it represented nothing to him, really, because he’d done nothing to earn it. This could have been handed out to any Tom, Dick, or Harry.

Or Aloysius.

He was a shamus solely under the auspices of Willie Dash. Anyone could be under the auspices . It was like hitching a ride in someone’s car and then claiming you owned it.

He pulled his pocket flask, and, despite telling Callahan he’d had his fill, he took several swallows of rye whiskey, which flamed his already inflamed body. It felt good, as though it was fire of his own making, and not a by-product of another’s man angry attack.

He closed the window and went downstairs as quietly as he could. He had no desire to run into Callahan or anyone else. But that desire was to be defeated.

In the front room Madame Genevieve sat in an upholstered chair wearing a thick woolen robe and frayed white slippers. She was nursing what looked like a hot toddy in a clear glass mug with a handle. Her hair was mostly hidden under an old-fashioned cloth sleeping bonnet. Her ankles protruded from the robe and were bony and the color of the dead.

She looked up at him. “You cannot sleep, Mr. Archer?”

He leaned against the stair post and shook his head. “Might just be the new place.”

“Your ‘friend’ does not appear to have that difficulty. I passed her door earlier and heard the snores. Soft but still audible.”

“Well, she had a big night. We both did.” Archer sat down in a chair across from her. “So what are you doing up? Can’t sleep either?”

“I like this time of night. There is no one around and it is quiet. I can think. But I can also open the window and I can hear the water speaking to me. I can smell it. I can let it embrace me like a shroud.”

“How many of those drinks have you had?” Archer said with a grin.

“It is not alcohol that speaks, Mr. Archer.”

“What then?”

“Perhaps it is the wisdom of an old woman who has seen much. Perhaps too much.” She cradled her drink. “What are you really doing in Bay Town?”

“Got a job. I’m a private eye. Working for Willie Dash. You know him?”

“I’ve seen the billboards. And do you like being a private investigator?”

He shrugged. “Haven’t been doing it long enough to really know. But it has its good points and bad points.” He rubbed his neck. “I saw the bad points a few hours ago.” He looked down at his shoes. “Look, you know anything about Sawyer Armstrong? Or Beth and Douglas Kemper?”

“Everyone in Bay Town knows of them.”

“But you don’t know them?”

“I don’t know them, not really.” She said these words as though they were distasteful lingering in her mouth for even a moment.

“You trying to tell me something? If so, I’d prefer if you just say it.”

“I will not say anything of the sort. I live here. I have a business here that I need to operate in order to survive.”

“We have the right to speak our minds in this country.”

She glanced dourly at him. “Free speech is not really free if it costs you all that you have.”

“Care to elaborate?”

She shook her head and held the glass against her withered cheek.

“Douglas Kemper is running for mayor,” said Archer.

“I know.”

“Thinking of voting for him, or for the dentist he’s running against, Alfred Drake?”

“I haven’t thought much about it, quite frankly. I liked our last mayor.”

Archer perked up. “And who was that?”

“Benjamin Smalls. He was honest. He did right by the people.”

“Why isn’t he running again, then?”

“He died while in office, just a month ago. The upcoming election is a special election. The winner will finish out Smalls’s term, which is three more years.”