Джон Макдональд - A Flash of Green

“How did the morning paper look?”

“Surpassed our fondest dreams. Stroll anywhere in our friendly little city, James, and you will hear an enthusiastic populace buzzing about our new golden era.”

“And I’ve got more of the same to write,” Jimmy said and stood up. Leroy walked toward the office door with him. Jimmy stopped and turned toward him and said, “You certainly handled that girl with a lot of authority, Leroy.”

Leroy shrugged. “I picked what seemed likely to work the best with a girl of that sort.”

Jimmy felt a mild and wistful sense of disbelief as he heard his own grunt of effort. As Charity had mentioned, you get a good swivel, and you get your back into it. He saw Leroy’s eyes widen an instant before the pistol crack of palm against brown leathery cheek. His open hand blazed with pain. The slap spun Leroy halfway around, and he stumbled and braced himself, his hands against the paneled wall beside the door.

Jimmy stared at him stupidly, and suppressed the inane automatic apology which first came to mind. What do you say? My hand slipped?

Leroy seemed to stand for a very long time with his hands against the wall, his head bowed. He straightened up and turned around. Jimmy stood balanced and waiting, not at all certain he could whip the older man in a fair fight. He realized at that moment that it was not impulse, that he had brought the compulsion to violence all the way from Tampa.

Leroy was bleeding slightly from the left corner of his mouth. He looked at Jimmy with complete and hostile disgust. He took his handkerchief out and dabbed his mouth and sat down behind his desk.

“Feel better?” Leroy asked. “Sit down.”

Jimmy sat down. He felt strangely bland, mild, uninvolved.

“Noble gestures cramp my ass,” Shannard said gently. “Gallantry revolts me. It’s always based on a faulty image. I didn’t know you rode such a big white horse. What did you do? Bang her on the way to the airport and take a liking to her?”

“That’s neither here nor there.”

“You’re so right. It doesn’t illuminate the new problems.”

“Such as?”

“You’ve just done an amazingly stupid thing, James. Would it sound too pretentious if I were to say that it is the sort of thing which could change your future personal history?”

Jimmy considered that for a moment. “You could be right.”

“Thank you. It was a quixotic gesture, expressing moral disapproval at the risk of some form of martyrdom.”

“Just defense of womanhood, maybe.”

“If so, it came twelve hours late, didn’t it? The main thing is this, James. I don’t like people around me who are capable of such wild unexpected stupidities. I find them hard to predict. They can upset apple carts. Do you follow me?”

“Up to a point, the point being that I am not around you, the point being that Elmo brang me into this, as I recall.”

“You know, I’m annoyed at myself for misjudging you so completely. I didn’t want you brought into this. I told Elmo as much. But I think I had all the wrong reasons.”

“Such as?”

“You’re bright and you’re capable, James. And you’ve done very damn little with those qualities. You seem satisfied to stay where you are and be what you are. You’re not hungry. There isn’t anything you want badly enough to go after it. The best way to control men is through their hunger, whether it’s for money, fame, importance, power, liquor, women, gambling or what have you. You’re a bored man, James. I told Elmo you’d go along with us, but without any particular conviction one way or the other, so it would be smarter to leave you out of it. He said he didn’t agree. He said you like to be on the inside, to know a little more than the next guy, so your ego would make you useful. Also he said that you would be a sucker for the argument that you could keep your friends from being roughed up too badly by playing along with us. In a sense, James, it has worked out as he thought it would, right up until now. Now you disclose a new facet of the Wing character. And it bothers me. It makes me wonder what other dangerous impulses you might have.”

“I’m just a bundle of neuroses, Leroy.”

“You’ve been a help, but Elmo says you have a tendency to drag your feet.”

“I haven’t been standing at attention and saluting. Maybe I just didn’t get the top jobs to do. Like Eloise Cable.”

Leroy Shannard tilted his head, pursed his lips, stared intently at Wing. “Elmo tell you?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be damned if I can figure out why. Everything he does usually turns out to have some reason behind it.”

“Maybe he knew we weren’t going to get along too good, Leroy.”

“Believe me, boy, if I could turn Eloise over to you or anybody, I’d gladly do it. It stopped being much of a pleasure a long time ago. I can’t wait for the money end of it to get all tidied up. There’s been some dumb women I’ve enjoyed. And there’s been some earnest ones who’ve pleasured me. And I’ve nothing against a woman with a real loving nature. Also, a woman who can’t help being real active in bed is supposed to be a good thing to come across. But I’m telling you James, after the new has wore off her, a dumb, earnest, loving, passionate woman can give you the longest afternoons you ever spent in your life.”

“Martin should be grateful, you mean.”

“You’ve got a smart-pants way about you that just rubs me the wrong way, James. But now I’m quieting down a little. I’m going to tell Elmo about what happened here.”

“I couldn’t care less.”

“The way I see it, we’re both being used by Elmo. He isn’t going to unload you because I don’t like you and don’t trust you. He’s going to keep the people he can use, and get rid of the ones he’s used up, so I can guess you and me, we’re going to be in this right along.”

“There’s one thing about you which puzzles me, Leroy. Half the time you speak like a bad essay in the Atlantic . Then you switch to a southrun folksy lingo as thick as Elmo’s. I have the feeling that when you get folksy, that’s the time to watch you the closest.”

“Watch me at all times, James. Watch me at all times.”

“Do we have anything more to talk about, actually?”

“Since trying to slap my head off, you’ve handled yourself well. Very smooth and quiet.”

“All I did was make the point I didn’t think you had to belt that girl the way you did.”

“You know the old story about the agricultural college that had a special course on mule training. The first day of class this old boy led a big skittish mule into the classroom, dropped the rein, snatched up an eight-pound sledge and give the mule one square between the eyes. The mule sagged, cross-legged and cross-eyed, tongue hanging, and nearly went down. The class gasped. The professor turned to them and he said, ‘The first thing you do in training a mule is you get his attention.’ ”

Jimmy stood up and said, “So it worked both ways, didn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You got hers, and I got yours.”

Leroy nodded very slowly. “Yes indeed, you can say that you captured my attention, James. Permanently.”

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, pursuant to Chapter 58–1855, Laws of Florida, and as amended by Chapters 59–1811 and 60–1866, Laws of Florida, that the Board of County Commissioners of Palm County, Florida, sitting as the PALM COUNTY BULKHEAD LINE AUTHORITY, will hold a PUBLIC HEARING at 8:00 P.M. on the 26th day of July A.D. 1961 in the Palm City Municipal Auditorium, Palm City, Florida, upon the application of: the Palmland Development Company for the: PURCHASE OF SUBMERGED LANDS: ESTABLISHMENT, CHANGE AND LOCATING OF THE BULKHEAD LINE, within the area of: Grassy Bay, lying in Section 8, Township 20 South, Range 15 East, Palm County, Florida, and more particularly described in map and addendum appended to this PUBLIC NOTICE, being a parcel containing 833.24 acres, more or less. A permit for DREDGE AND FILL will not be considered at such Public Hearing. All interested persons may appear and be heard at the time and place specified. Written comments filed with the Clerk of said Authority will be heard and considered .