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Authors: John D. MacDonald
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come on out like a lamb. To save you from sitting here worrying about my business, I better let you sign the release and go on about your business.”
He filled in the blanks in a standard release and I signed it and two of his people witnessed it. I had been apprehended and brought in voluntarily for questioning and released with no charges placed against me.
“How do I get back to my car?”
“A man who made all the money you made just for knocking folks down should be able to figure something out.”
I walked three blocks to the bus station where I phoned a cab which took me over to my car. I had recurrent waves of nausea which effectively canceled any idea of the dinner I hadn’t had yet. I drove back to the cottage and showered and went straight to bed. In spite of a thumping headache, I went to sleep in minutes. But I kept waking myself up during the night by rolling onto my left side and putting too much pressure on the knot over my ear.
4
W hen I parked by the office at twenty after nine the next morning, Jennie Benjamin, Alice Jessup and Vince Avery were standing in the morning shade of the building looking irritable.
“I’ve heard the phone ringing in there,” Alice said. “What will people think?”
“You
do
have a key, old man?” Vince said hopefully. “I’ve mislaid mine. Jennie’s is home, and Alice was never given one.”
“Sis hasn’t showed up?” I asked as I walked toward the door, sorting out the right key.
“A flaw in her alarming efficiency,” Vince said. “And damned inconvenient.”
“I phoned from across the street,” Alice said, “but she isn’t home.”
After I let them in I went across the street and had an enormous breakfast. I had thought the major lump too diminished to be noticeable, but old Cy said, “One of your women club you, Sambo?”
“Just a love tap.”
“If that’s love, don’t you never rile that woman. You single fellers lead a right interesting life.”
“We’re busy every minute. I keep a supply penned up out behind the place, Cy. Every evening I go out there, make a choice, then I turn her loose in the morning.”
“Don’t that upset the neighbors some?”
“Only when they get to baying at the same time, those nights the moon is full. It gets hard to hear yourself think out there.”
As he refilled my coffee cup, he said, “What you should have done, Samuel, was tie up that Sis Gantry permanent when you had the chance.”
“Everybody gives me advice.”
“I’m sixty-four years old and I don’t look a day over seventy, but I got an eye for that young stuff, and I watched her enough so I got me the idea she’d do you better than that whole pen full of women you got out there, baying and all. Might even be she’d need a whole pen full of fellers like you.”
“You run a clean food operation, Cy, but you’ve got a dirty mind.”
“A man talks about the ways of nature these days and somehow it gets to be called dirt. Honest to God, Sam, how did you get that chunk on the head?”
“I had a little misunderstanding with a deputy I’d never met before.”
“LeRoy Luxey, I bet a dollar.”
“No bet, Cy.”
“He’s mean and edgy as a cottonmouth, that one. They had to get him out of Collier County this spring before he killed off some folks down there that couldn’t get to like him. His daddy has some political push, so he got saddled onto Pat Millhaus. Was it last night?”
“Yes.”
“It isn’t many people you find walking around eating abig breakfast the morning after they get into a little discussion with that Luxey.”
“My brain pan is located next to the stomach, Cy. The head is solid bone all the way through. It’s a requirement for all professional athletes.”
I walked back to the pay phone beyond the magazine racks and called the Gantry house on Jackson Street. Joe and Lois Gantry still live in the big old frame house that used to belong to Lois’s people. Joe has worked for the phone company all
He filled in the blanks in a standard release and I signed it and two of his people witnessed it. I had been apprehended and brought in voluntarily for questioning and released with no charges placed against me.
“How do I get back to my car?”
“A man who made all the money you made just for knocking folks down should be able to figure something out.”
I walked three blocks to the bus station where I phoned a cab which took me over to my car. I had recurrent waves of nausea which effectively canceled any idea of the dinner I hadn’t had yet. I drove back to the cottage and showered and went straight to bed. In spite of a thumping headache, I went to sleep in minutes. But I kept waking myself up during the night by rolling onto my left side and putting too much pressure on the knot over my ear.
4
W hen I parked by the office at twenty after nine the next morning, Jennie Benjamin, Alice Jessup and Vince Avery were standing in the morning shade of the building looking irritable.
“I’ve heard the phone ringing in there,” Alice said. “What will people think?”
“You
do
have a key, old man?” Vince said hopefully. “I’ve mislaid mine. Jennie’s is home, and Alice was never given one.”
“Sis hasn’t showed up?” I asked as I walked toward the door, sorting out the right key.
“A flaw in her alarming efficiency,” Vince said. “And damned inconvenient.”
“I phoned from across the street,” Alice said, “but she isn’t home.”
After I let them in I went across the street and had an enormous breakfast. I had thought the major lump too diminished to be noticeable, but old Cy said, “One of your women club you, Sambo?”
“Just a love tap.”
“If that’s love, don’t you never rile that woman. You single fellers lead a right interesting life.”
“We’re busy every minute. I keep a supply penned up out behind the place, Cy. Every evening I go out there, make a choice, then I turn her loose in the morning.”
“Don’t that upset the neighbors some?”
“Only when they get to baying at the same time, those nights the moon is full. It gets hard to hear yourself think out there.”
As he refilled my coffee cup, he said, “What you should have done, Samuel, was tie up that Sis Gantry permanent when you had the chance.”
“Everybody gives me advice.”
“I’m sixty-four years old and I don’t look a day over seventy, but I got an eye for that young stuff, and I watched her enough so I got me the idea she’d do you better than that whole pen full of women you got out there, baying and all. Might even be she’d need a whole pen full of fellers like you.”
“You run a clean food operation, Cy, but you’ve got a dirty mind.”
“A man talks about the ways of nature these days and somehow it gets to be called dirt. Honest to God, Sam, how did you get that chunk on the head?”
“I had a little misunderstanding with a deputy I’d never met before.”
“LeRoy Luxey, I bet a dollar.”
“No bet, Cy.”
“He’s mean and edgy as a cottonmouth, that one. They had to get him out of Collier County this spring before he killed off some folks down there that couldn’t get to like him. His daddy has some political push, so he got saddled onto Pat Millhaus. Was it last night?”
“Yes.”
“It isn’t many people you find walking around eating abig breakfast the morning after they get into a little discussion with that Luxey.”
“My brain pan is located next to the stomach, Cy. The head is solid bone all the way through. It’s a requirement for all professional athletes.”
I walked back to the pay phone beyond the magazine racks and called the Gantry house on Jackson Street. Joe and Lois Gantry still live in the big old frame house that used to belong to Lois’s people. Joe has worked for the phone company all
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