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Authors: Gregory McDonald
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pray.”
“Mrs. Fraiman, you and your husband can’t sit here in an empty town. It’s been three months you’ve been alone. I have some experience with what that does to people.”
“We have the Lord, Mister Flynn.”
“Ach, well. Since Eden, Mrs. Fraiman, it’s been a good idea to have some other people around. Can’t you at least move into Bixby or Austin? You can keep your eye on Ada just as well from there.”
“Why, Mister Flynn, that’s a right good idea.”
“It is?”
“It surely is. I thank you for it.”
“Just an idea, Mrs. Fraiman.”
“We never thought of it. We never did. I do thankyou for takin’ thought for us. That’s right Christian of you.”
Just as Flynn was leaving the bungalow, going back into the hot, blowing air, he heard Marge Fraiman call out, “You be sure and come back, you hear? Right soon!”
10
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Why am I saying good evening?
It’s three-thirty in the morning
!
What are you doing up
?
What am I doing up
?
Like most audiences at a live performance, the people in the enormous Las Vegas lounge watching the comic Jimmy Silverstein on the huge stage with his hand-mike, listening to him, were eager to be pleased, even at three o’clock in the morning.
Flynn sipped his Perrier and lime.
“Get an education,” my mother said. “With an education you won’t have to be up at three o’clock in the morning, tiptoeing around the city, quietly collecting other people’s garbage.”
You heard me right: quietly collecting other people’s garbage
.
“Get an education,” my father said. “With an education you won’t have to be up at two o’clock in the morning pulling on your pants to come to work at the bakery
.”
I should have listened
!
Flynn had driven from Ada to the Dallas-FortWorth airport and then flown to Las Vegas. He had checked into Caesar’s Palace, then checked into Casino Royale. He slept, ate, bought a lightweight suit, four shirts, some underwear, socks, a small suitcase, spent hours in his room reviewing the material sent him from N.N., called the Pittsburgh number with several Information Requests, ate and slept again.
The material sent him from N.N. included the names, ages, photos, Social Security numbers, and biographical sketches of everyone who had worked in Air Force Intelligence Section, anything to do with either East Frampton, Massachusetts, or Ada, Texas.
What are you people doing in Las Vegas, anyway
?
Miami’s a beach, Hawaii’s a beach
…
Las Vegas is a beach, but have you ever tried walking to the water from here
?
Deep fried tootsies you get five days before you see even a drunk seagull
!
Thus far, in Las Vegas, Flynn had traced the following people from Ada, Texas:
JAMES A. FURTHERER, 19. Furtherer had worked in the Ada Wesgas gasoline station. Furtherer was currently working in a Wesgas gasoline station outside Las Vegas. When Flynn asked him what happened to the one hundred thousand dollars he had received, Furtherer said, “What hundred thousand dollars?”
GABRIEL and ALIDA SIMS, 32 and 31, respectively. Ranchers. Divorced in Las Vegas three weeks previously. Sims was now working as a baggage handler at Las Vegas Airport. Alida had bought a small house on the outskirts of Las Vegas and was unemployed.
RONALD and BARBARA ELLYN, 39 and 43, respectively. Ranchers. Ronald dead on arrival, Las Vegas Sunshine Hospital; fatal gunshot wound believed self-inflicted. Barbara’s whereabouts were currently unknown.
JOSEPH BARKER, 58. Grocer. Currently in Alcohol and Drug Center, Las Vegas Sunshine Hospital.
MILTON and JACKIE SCHLANGER, 28 and 25, respectively.Ranchers. Currently living in separate rooms at R.O. Motel. Flynn’s evidence suggested Jackie was supporting them both by prostitution.
CHARLES, WILMA, and WILMA AGGERS, 38, 36, and 12, respectively. Ranchers. Currently proprietors of the R.O. Motel. Although the Aggers would not state to Flynn the source of their investment in
“Mrs. Fraiman, you and your husband can’t sit here in an empty town. It’s been three months you’ve been alone. I have some experience with what that does to people.”
“We have the Lord, Mister Flynn.”
“Ach, well. Since Eden, Mrs. Fraiman, it’s been a good idea to have some other people around. Can’t you at least move into Bixby or Austin? You can keep your eye on Ada just as well from there.”
“Why, Mister Flynn, that’s a right good idea.”
“It is?”
“It surely is. I thank you for it.”
“Just an idea, Mrs. Fraiman.”
“We never thought of it. We never did. I do thankyou for takin’ thought for us. That’s right Christian of you.”
Just as Flynn was leaving the bungalow, going back into the hot, blowing air, he heard Marge Fraiman call out, “You be sure and come back, you hear? Right soon!”
10
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Why am I saying good evening?
It’s three-thirty in the morning
!
What are you doing up
?
What am I doing up
?
Like most audiences at a live performance, the people in the enormous Las Vegas lounge watching the comic Jimmy Silverstein on the huge stage with his hand-mike, listening to him, were eager to be pleased, even at three o’clock in the morning.
Flynn sipped his Perrier and lime.
“Get an education,” my mother said. “With an education you won’t have to be up at three o’clock in the morning, tiptoeing around the city, quietly collecting other people’s garbage.”
You heard me right: quietly collecting other people’s garbage
.
“Get an education,” my father said. “With an education you won’t have to be up at two o’clock in the morning pulling on your pants to come to work at the bakery
.”
I should have listened
!
Flynn had driven from Ada to the Dallas-FortWorth airport and then flown to Las Vegas. He had checked into Caesar’s Palace, then checked into Casino Royale. He slept, ate, bought a lightweight suit, four shirts, some underwear, socks, a small suitcase, spent hours in his room reviewing the material sent him from N.N., called the Pittsburgh number with several Information Requests, ate and slept again.
The material sent him from N.N. included the names, ages, photos, Social Security numbers, and biographical sketches of everyone who had worked in Air Force Intelligence Section, anything to do with either East Frampton, Massachusetts, or Ada, Texas.
What are you people doing in Las Vegas, anyway
?
Miami’s a beach, Hawaii’s a beach
…
Las Vegas is a beach, but have you ever tried walking to the water from here
?
Deep fried tootsies you get five days before you see even a drunk seagull
!
Thus far, in Las Vegas, Flynn had traced the following people from Ada, Texas:
JAMES A. FURTHERER, 19. Furtherer had worked in the Ada Wesgas gasoline station. Furtherer was currently working in a Wesgas gasoline station outside Las Vegas. When Flynn asked him what happened to the one hundred thousand dollars he had received, Furtherer said, “What hundred thousand dollars?”
GABRIEL and ALIDA SIMS, 32 and 31, respectively. Ranchers. Divorced in Las Vegas three weeks previously. Sims was now working as a baggage handler at Las Vegas Airport. Alida had bought a small house on the outskirts of Las Vegas and was unemployed.
RONALD and BARBARA ELLYN, 39 and 43, respectively. Ranchers. Ronald dead on arrival, Las Vegas Sunshine Hospital; fatal gunshot wound believed self-inflicted. Barbara’s whereabouts were currently unknown.
JOSEPH BARKER, 58. Grocer. Currently in Alcohol and Drug Center, Las Vegas Sunshine Hospital.
MILTON and JACKIE SCHLANGER, 28 and 25, respectively.Ranchers. Currently living in separate rooms at R.O. Motel. Flynn’s evidence suggested Jackie was supporting them both by prostitution.
CHARLES, WILMA, and WILMA AGGERS, 38, 36, and 12, respectively. Ranchers. Currently proprietors of the R.O. Motel. Although the Aggers would not state to Flynn the source of their investment in
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