Read Online the Moonshine War (1969) by Elmore Leonard - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Elmore Leonard
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Mr. Baylor, had asked him, "What do you get out of this? A five-dollar-amonth raise?" Probably he wouldn't even get that. He'd put in his expense sheet and get a hard time from the fat woman clerk who would act like it was her money she was giving out.
The other way, keeping the whiskey himself--the minimum he stood to make would be forty-five hundred gallons times five dollars a gallon. Or, at the bootlegger's price of five dollars a fifth he could make over a hundred thousand bucks.
Hell yes, he had thought about it. He'd thought about it most of the time the last couple of days: find the whiskey, get somebody who knew what he was doing to ship the stuff out by truck to Louisville, and split the profit with him: some bootlegger who knew the market and ways to get to it. Long had a file on some pretty good boys. Some wanted, some in jail, some just released. One in particular Long couldn't get out of his mind, the perfect guy for a deal like this one, somebody who had the knowledge and experience to sell the whiskey and, at the same time, somebody who could be trusted. Hell, the man had been a dentist before becoming a bootlegger. You had to be pretty upstanding as well as smart to be a dentist.
Dr. Emmett Taulbee was his name.
Long got a two-ring binder out of his suitcase and sat down on the bed again as he opened it, flipping through pages of reports and "wanted" sheets until he recognized Dr. Taulbee's photographs, in profile and head-on.
There he was: Emmett C. Taulbee, D . D. S . Age fifty-one, a slight smile curling his lip and showing some of his upper front teeth. He must have thought they were something to show, though they protruded a little and were big horse teeth. Taulbee considered himself a ladies' man, and maybe there was some indication of that in the way he combed his wavy hair and let it dip down across one side of his forehead. He was also said to be a dude--wore expensive striped suits and detachable white collars on a blue shirt. His last known place of residence, Louisville, Kentucky. There was an address and a phone number, the typewritten phone number crossed out and another number written above it in pencil.
The photographs had been taken seven years ago, at the time of Dr. Taulbee's arrest for sexually assaulting a woman patient in his dentist chair.
At the trial the woman testified that she had been a patient of Dr. Taulbee's for several years.
No, he had not made advances or displaye d a n interest in her physically, not until sh e w as in his chair for the extraction of he r m olar. She said Dr. Taulbee placed the mas k o ver her nose and mouth and told her t o i nhale the gas slowly. She remembered th e s ound of breathing in the mask and the awfu l s uffocating feeling for a moment. Then she wa s a sleep. After that she remembered stirrin g a nd feeling a weight and something whit e o ver her, close to her face. She did not realiz e a t first that it was Dr. Taulbee partly on to p o f her on the chair. She thought perhaps sh e w as dreaming, until she felt something an d m oved her body and knew that her lowe r b ody was bare and that her legs were apart.
When she screamed Dr. Taulbee twisted of f h er. He stood with his back to her for a m oment, then hurriedly left the room. Th e w oman testified that she found her undergarment on the footrest of the chair. He r s kirt had been pushed up around her hips, bu t h er stockings and shoes had not been removed.
She was an attractive woman in her early thirties, the mother of three children. In questionin g h er, Dr. Taulbee's defense counsel playe d w ith the implication that the woman ha d m ade up the story as a means of smearing Dr.
Taulbee's name. Though they gave no reaso n w hy she would want to, nor did they accus e h er of it directly. The woman answered all questions calmly, candidly looking at Dr. Taulbe e f rom time to time to see how he was taking it.
Taulbee sat quietly most of the time. Occasionally he would smile or
The other way, keeping the whiskey himself--the minimum he stood to make would be forty-five hundred gallons times five dollars a gallon. Or, at the bootlegger's price of five dollars a fifth he could make over a hundred thousand bucks.
Hell yes, he had thought about it. He'd thought about it most of the time the last couple of days: find the whiskey, get somebody who knew what he was doing to ship the stuff out by truck to Louisville, and split the profit with him: some bootlegger who knew the market and ways to get to it. Long had a file on some pretty good boys. Some wanted, some in jail, some just released. One in particular Long couldn't get out of his mind, the perfect guy for a deal like this one, somebody who had the knowledge and experience to sell the whiskey and, at the same time, somebody who could be trusted. Hell, the man had been a dentist before becoming a bootlegger. You had to be pretty upstanding as well as smart to be a dentist.
Dr. Emmett Taulbee was his name.
Long got a two-ring binder out of his suitcase and sat down on the bed again as he opened it, flipping through pages of reports and "wanted" sheets until he recognized Dr. Taulbee's photographs, in profile and head-on.
There he was: Emmett C. Taulbee, D . D. S . Age fifty-one, a slight smile curling his lip and showing some of his upper front teeth. He must have thought they were something to show, though they protruded a little and were big horse teeth. Taulbee considered himself a ladies' man, and maybe there was some indication of that in the way he combed his wavy hair and let it dip down across one side of his forehead. He was also said to be a dude--wore expensive striped suits and detachable white collars on a blue shirt. His last known place of residence, Louisville, Kentucky. There was an address and a phone number, the typewritten phone number crossed out and another number written above it in pencil.
The photographs had been taken seven years ago, at the time of Dr. Taulbee's arrest for sexually assaulting a woman patient in his dentist chair.
At the trial the woman testified that she had been a patient of Dr. Taulbee's for several years.
No, he had not made advances or displaye d a n interest in her physically, not until sh e w as in his chair for the extraction of he r m olar. She said Dr. Taulbee placed the mas k o ver her nose and mouth and told her t o i nhale the gas slowly. She remembered th e s ound of breathing in the mask and the awfu l s uffocating feeling for a moment. Then she wa s a sleep. After that she remembered stirrin g a nd feeling a weight and something whit e o ver her, close to her face. She did not realiz e a t first that it was Dr. Taulbee partly on to p o f her on the chair. She thought perhaps sh e w as dreaming, until she felt something an d m oved her body and knew that her lowe r b ody was bare and that her legs were apart.
When she screamed Dr. Taulbee twisted of f h er. He stood with his back to her for a m oment, then hurriedly left the room. Th e w oman testified that she found her undergarment on the footrest of the chair. He r s kirt had been pushed up around her hips, bu t h er stockings and shoes had not been removed.
She was an attractive woman in her early thirties, the mother of three children. In questionin g h er, Dr. Taulbee's defense counsel playe d w ith the implication that the woman ha d m ade up the story as a means of smearing Dr.
Taulbee's name. Though they gave no reaso n w hy she would want to, nor did they accus e h er of it directly. The woman answered all questions calmly, candidly looking at Dr. Taulbe e f rom time to time to see how he was taking it.
Taulbee sat quietly most of the time. Occasionally he would smile or
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