Read Online Straight No Chaser by Jack Batten - Free Book Online Page B

time, Ralph,” I said. “Fenk is Hollywood. That’s my information, and I know it’s reliable. Let’s suppose they had an encounter out there, Dave and Fenk. What do your records say about Dave in the neighbourhood of Hollywood?”
    â€œHow’s that get Dave back on the job at Abner Chase’s?” Ralph said. “He’s lost a night’s pay already, and I just know Harp Manley’s bummed off, excuse my French. What we ought to be doing, my opinion, is beat the bushes for Dave right now. You sure he’s not drunk or something? Had a relapse?”
    â€œFenk’s the link. Let’s go with that for the moment. If we can come up with a reason for Fenk’s interest in Dave, maybe we stand a chance of locating Dave.”
    Ralph hadn’t touched his dark rum and Coke. Neither had I. I was nervous about the taste. What was Ralph’s excuse?
    Ralph said, “Well, you’re right about California. Dave was out there a couple of weeks ago on a tour. Dave Goddard and His Canadian All-Stars. I thought that one up. Dave’s got a big underdog reputation, you know. Fans from way back still come out to hear him.”
    â€œUnderground, Ralph. Dave’s got an underground reputation.”
    â€œI’m not up on the jazz lingo,” Ralph said. “All I know’s I booked this band of Dave’s into a bunch of clubs down the west coast. He was out there May to August.”
    â€œAnd at some point he hit Los Angeles?”
    â€œLast stop on the tour. But I don’t recall this what’s-his-name had anything to do with the place Dave played at.”
    â€œRaymond Fenk.”
    â€œOff the top of my head, I couldn’t tell you the name of the place either.”
    â€œWhy not you get out the apple-pie records and we’ll both take a look.”
    â€œWill do,” Ralph said. He spun the Motolounger into the disembark position.“You sit there and enjoy the drink. I’ll get the paperwork out of the den.”
    I sipped from the rum and Coke. It seemed short on rum and long on Coke. I sipped again. A few more sips and I’d have a personality as sugary as Bill Cosby’s.
    Ralph kept his brother’s contracts, itineraries, and other documents in orderly six-by-twelve file folders. He had eight or nine of them stacked up. They were orange-coloured, and each was fat with forms held neatly together by paper clips.
    â€œFour people were in the band besides Dave,” Ralph said. He shuffled files as he spoke. “Dave rounded them up in Vancouver. I leave that end to him, the musicians. So, let’s see, the band played the first two, three weeks right around Vancouver and after that, kept moving right on south.”
    â€œThey reached Los Angeles in August?”
    â€œTransportation’s your biggest expense.” Ralph stopped at one file, lifted out a sheaf of papers, and turned slowly through them. “Your other cost, it’s the lay-over time. Some of these jazz clubs only run weekends. So what was I gonna do with Dave and the four other fellas Monday to Thursday? Ship them all the way back to Vancouver?”
    Ralph raised his head from the papers and gave me the big grin.
    â€œNot on your life,” he said. “I just went on ahead and scouted through telephone books and whatnot for the areas out there, and I found universities, community colleges, the likes of them, places there was a lot of kids, and I sold them on a concert. Had to cut my price most times, but it paid the freight and some left over.”
    I said, “Abner Chase told me you were astute, Ralph.”
    â€œDid he now.”
    Ralph squared the sheaf of papers in his hand, returned them to their file, and resumed his shuffle through the other files. I leaned back in the sofa. This was going to take a while. I went at my drink very slowly. If I finished it, Ralph might offer me another.
    â€œPortland, Oregon. Eugene,