I looked up the number for Ted Blaylock’s Oasis. Mits answered.
“Who? Wait a sec, I got to shut the door there’s so much noise out back… Okay. Who’d you say?… Oh, McGee! Hey, how is it going?”
“How is it going with you?”
“Pretty much okay I guess. I tell you, it is very damn noisy here, with a lot of big yellow machines churning around out in back.”
“What are they doing?”
“Lots of things at once. A fence and a wall and an airstrip and some kind of generator plant. They don’t tell me anything hardly. We’re getting a lot of business from those guys working here, though, and the motorsickle business is holding up okay. Did you get your dividend? No? I got mine. Monday. Five hundred cash, and then there was a check for salary on account of I’m sort of being a manager while they’re looking for one. Somebody will probably bring you your dividend. Preach told me, he said, ‘Don’t declare it, kid. It’s for spending.’”
“I want to know how I can get hold of Preach. I tried the number for Karma Imports in Miami and they told me they never heard of anybody named Preach or anybody named Amos Wilson. Then I tried Daviss Grudd and he said that he never gets in touch with Preach; Preach is the one who makes contact.”
“Well… I have this number to call in case some kind of county or state inspectors show up out here asking lots of questions. If it wasn’t any emergency, he might get sore at me.”
“It’s an emergency Mits. Really.”
Though reluctant, she gave me the number.
It was a Miami number. I phoned, a man answered, I asked for Preach, and he came on the line.
“I met you out at Blaylock’s,” I said. “You and the fellow with you talked to me out by the cabins in back.”
“How far are you from a pay phone, timewise?”
“Ten minutes.”
“Go look at the number, come back and phone this number, and give the pay phone number to whoever answers. Then get back there and expect a call at half past on the button. What time you got?”
“Eleven before three.”
“You’re two minutes fast.”
Click.
I did as instructed and went back to the pay phone affixed to a marine wall in its plastic shell. It rang on schedule. “McGee here,” I said.
“My hard-nose hero buddy. You better be very entertaining, because I am taking time off from something worth more money than you’ll ever make in your life. Also, McGiggle, I am going to have somebody bouncing some little Indian piece off some walls for giving out a number.”
“I conned her out of it, Preach. Don’t be hard on her.”
“So what is this emergency situation you have to take me out of a meeting?”
“Remember we talked about Dirty Bob and the Senator.”
“They have come up in the news now and then. The Senator crashed.”
“With, I think, some help. On the right kind of road, with no traffic in sight, all Dirty Bob would have to do is lean into the Senator, give him a little shoulder.”
“That cat’s right name was in the paper. Desmin Grizzel.”
“I convinced myself he’s the one that beat the old man to death. I told you about that.”
“What has that got to do with the price of anything?”
“Chalk up also one pot-head girl named Jean Norman, one balloonist-type lady named Joya, and one movie-queen quiz-show-type person named Lysa Dean, along with her Korean servants.”
“Busy old bastard, ain’t he? They think he totaled the movie lady. If he did, I take it on the unkindly side. I always thought I might get a chance to get so famous I could run out there and boff that lady a couple dozen times. But again, pal, so what?”
“It’s a reasonable assumption he is going to come to Lauderdale and take care of me next.”
“If he does, I suppose I will read about that in the papers too.”
“You and Magoo are supposed to be the top brass of the Fantasies. You remember the pin I was wearing that day? Doesn’t that give me the right to call upon the brotherhood for assistance? I am a genuine affiliated, associated sort of member.”
“I am giving up all that motorcycle shit and that one-for-all-and-all-for-one shit and that childish brotherhood shit. If you need protection, call the cops.”
“You are probably a little less interested in doing business with the cops than I am. But not a hell of a lot less, Preach. I don’t need that kind of exposure. I need some people as near like Grizzel as I can get. Fight fire with fire.”
“Forget it. Solve your own problems.”
“When I tried to get hold of you, I tried Daviss Grudd. He couldn’t help me. But he did say that within a short time I’ll be a half owner of that business out there, and I’ll be able to do anything with my stock that I want.”
“If you’ve got any idea of trying to push me around, I’d better tell you we’re willing and able and ready to do your elbows any time. You’ll have to hire somebody to pick your nose.”
“Who said anything about pushing you around? I really don’t need any part of any motorcycle emporium and tattoo parlor, Preach.”
“Even if it spins off five hundred tax-free a month?”
“I thought I might sign my interest over to the Gold Coast League of Retired Executives with the stipulation that they can’t sell that half interest. If they try, they have to give it back to me.”
“What kind of an outfit is that?”
“Just what it says. Retired executives from big industry who have banded together to run small business and do consulting work. They know all about corporations and overhead and voting rights and all that stuff. They run things as a hobby.”
“Jesus Christ, dozens of old silver-tips crawling all over the place? That’s a rotten idea.”
“Not so. They’d turn it into a real profit out there.”
He was silent for a time. “I certainly wouldn’t want my brothers in the Fantasies to think I had turned down a legitimate plea for help from a genuine affiliated associated kind of member.”
“And on the other hand, Mits might like to own the whole place.”
“I think we can always get along, McGee. We’re so much alike.”
“What I want are two very hard people, one little wiry one and one big one with muscles. A couple of years back I would have tried to hero this thing myself. But with this one, I want to be totally sure.”
“Should they be carrying?”
“If licensed, okay. If not, I can supply.”
“One more time, friend. I had you checked out after our talk. You came on so hard-nose, it got my curiosity up. So I know where you live and how you live, and it is more small-time than I would have guessed. Okay I can send you a couple of the best. So this Dismal Gristle comes calling and has a sudden heart attack. Whether or not cops move in at that point is something I need to know before I pick the two people.”
“I will go over it with them, and if they think it can be handled so quietly there will be no police, then they stay and help. Otherwise, they’re free to go.”
“Fair enough. You want an inconspicuous arrival.”
“And soon. Slip F-Eighteen.”
“The old houseboat with the sunken tub. I know.”
“This isn’t like you,” Meyer said, after I explained it. “I know. What I had last year was enough incredible luck to last me the rest of my life. So I am counting on not having any at all, or having it turn up all bad. Look, I have sat at table with this cat. He is something impressive.”
“Like Boone Waxwell?”
“Yes. Except bigger and stronger and quicker and, I think, even more warped in the head than Waxwell was. There is a kind of surface plausibility about him that Waxwell didn’t have. More shrewd, I think. Look, I went over it. They have a police guard on Josephine Laurant on the far-off chance he might have her on his crazy list. I talked Annie Renzetti into hiding out with good friends and not leaving word at the hotel where she went, just in case he might know about her from talking to Kesner. I thought of being bait and using you as backup, but I just don’t have the confidence that I could protect myself and you too.”