And then it rang. I had never in my life heard a sound as loud. By the time I got my breath back, the phone rang a second time and then a third. I got off the bed and picked up the receiver without saying anything.
“Hello?”
I didn’t think it was the same voice. I waited.
“Hello, Alex?” It sounded like… Uttley?
“Lane, is that you?”
“Yes, Alex. Are you all right? Did I wake you?”
“No,” I said. “I’m fine. I just… I’m fine.”
“Sorry to call so early,” he said.
“I was already awake,” I said. “Believe me.”
“Good, good,” he said. “Say listen, I know this is going to sound strange. I just got into the office here, and I’ve got this phone message. This guy says he’s going to kill me.”
“Hold on, Lane,” I said. “This is very important. Tell me exactly what he said.”
“Let’s see, he said that he had one of my business cards, and he didn’t want me talking to his wife anymore, and that if he ever saw me, he would kill me.”
“What? One of your business cards?”
“That’s what he said.”
“He didn’t want you talking to his… oh, wait a minute. I think I might know what that was. When did he leave the message?”
“I think it was Friday night sometime.”
“Ah, okay,” I said. I let out a long breath. “I know who that is. You remember I was going to stop by the trailer park to see if I could get some statements on that accident.”
“Yeah, on the Barnhardt case. With the legs. Jesus, with all the excitement the other night, I forgot all about it. I should have stopped by the hospital, too. See how the poor guy is doing. Goddamn it.”
“I did talk to one woman who saw the accident. I left your card. That must have been her husband who called you.”
“Great,” he said. “Killed by a jealous husband, and I never even got to meet her.”
“He’s probably just thumping his chest. If he was really going to kill you, he would have just come by the office. He has your address, after all.”
“Jesus,” he said. “Why did I become a lawyer, anyway?”
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “It’s nothing.”
“Are you sure you’re all right? You don’t sound so good.”
“I’m fine,” I said. “There was just this…” I stopped.
“What? What is it?”
“I’ll tell you about it later,” I said. “Listen, I’ll stop by the trailer park on my way over there. I’m sure I can smooth things over.”
“You’re coming into the office?”
“Thought I might.” I couldn’t bear the thought of staying here alone today. Just me and the telephone.
“Good,” he said. “When you’re in town, you can stop by and see Chief Maven. He wants to have a little chat with you.”
“Great,” I said. My life was getting more interesting by the minute.
As soon as I hung up, I picked the receiver up again and dialed Edwin. He answered on the fifth ring.
“Edwin,” I said. “It’s Alex. Is everything okay over there?”
“Alex? What time is it? What’s going on?”
“I just wanted to make sure everything was all right.”
“Alex, I told you I was coming straight home last night. And that’s what I did. I swear.”
“I believe you, Edwin. That’s not what I mean. I was just wondering if you had gotten any phone calls in the middle of the night.”
“No, I didn’t. What’s going on?”
“It’s probably nothing,” I said. There was no sense in scaring him yet. “Right now, I need to know about the bookmaker. Tony Bing was his name, right?”
“Yes, but why do you have to know about him?”
“Please, Edwin, you just have to trust me on this one for a little while. When you met with him, was it always at one specific place?”
“Yeah, there’s this bar in the Soo called the Mariner’s Tavern. That’s where he always was if I needed to see him. But usually, I just talked to him on the phone.”
“I understand. But when you did see him, it was always there?”
“Yes, as far as I can remember.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“Let me see. I guess that would have been last Monday night. I stopped by to give him his money.”
“Edwin, if you paid the man on Monday, why were you going out to pay him again on Saturday night? And why were you going to his motel room? You just said you only saw him at that bar.”
“For Christ’s sake, Alex, what’s with the third degree here? I’m not even out of bed yet. The reason I went out to see him on Saturday is because I lost more money, okay? I lost the game on Thursday night. Colorado was just about to score, they had the ball on the five yard line, and then that idiot throws an interception.”
“Save it, Edwin.”
“Yeah, I know. Don’t get me started.”
“So why did you go to his motel room?”
“Alex, the man called me on Saturday. At home. He said he wanted the money that day. I told him I had a party that evening, and that I wouldn’t be able to get away. So he said I better drop it off at his motel room after the party, or he would never handle any more of my action. Okay?”
“I thought you said you were only betting five hundred or a thousand at a time. It sounds like you lost five thousand on that one game.”
“You’re busting my balls, Alex.”
“Sorry, Edwin. I can’t help it.”
“What’s the matter with you, anyway? Why are you asking me all these questions? You’re worse than Chief Maven.”
“Don’t worry about him,” I said. “I’ll put in a good word for you when I see him today.”
“Oh God. He wants to see you?”
“Yeah, and I don’t think he’s going to ask me to the prom.”
I heard Sylvia’s voice in the background, so I said goodbye and hung up. I woke up every other morning thinking I still might not be over her. I didn’t want to picture her lying there in bed next to him. Or standing next to the bed, putting her clothes on.
I put myself together and got out of there. While I was driving, I went over it again. He said he saw Edwin and the bookmaker at a bar, so it made sense to stop at the Mariner’s Tavern, see if anyone saw anything suspicious. It was unlikely, but worth checking out. Aside from that, what do I do? Tell the police about it? I couldn’t picture myself telling this story to Chief Maven, but he was the logical choice.
But first, I had this other stupid thing to take care of. I swung into the town of Rosedale and found the trailer park again. The capsized trailer was still there, untouched. A couple of the local women stood in the road, steaming mugs in their hands. They were staring at the trailer and then when I drove by in my truck, they stared at me. First a trailer tips over, now a strange man drives by. What was this neighborhood coming to?
The woman I had talked to lived two doors down. I pulled into the little driveway and got out of the truck, waving to the two women in the road. They looked away. When I knocked on the door, I didn’t hear anything. I knocked again, louder.
“Who is it?” It was a man’s voice from within.
“My name is Alex McNight. I’m a private investigator.”
“What do you want?”
“I work for Lane Uttley. I was here on Saturday. I spoke to your wife.”
“What were you doing bothering my wife?”
“I was just asking her a couple of questions about the trailer accident over here. Will you please open this door and talk to me?”
There was a small rectangular window in the door. I saw the man peek at me and then disappear. I heard his wife yelling at him, and then his own yelling in return. One thing for sure, this man was not the man who had called me the night before. He was a harmless lughead doing his overprotective husband routine, just like I told Uttley. I was about to knock on the door again when suddenly it opened.
The man had a rifle. He leveled it right at my chest. “Get the fuck out of here right now before I blow a hole right through you.”