Gin Palace 02 - The Bone Orchard

I’m better. Tell him I should be up and around in day or so. Can he do that for me?”
    “Yeah, I can do that,” George said. He took a step into the room. “No problem.”
    “Good.”
    “What’s going on?” Eddie said. He leaned close to me.
    I didn’t answer. Despite the fact that it was morning, darkness was closing around me. My eyes were weakening. Somewhere inside of me some part of me was still in that spinning car.
    “Any word on Augie?” I asked.
    “Not that I’ve heard. You want me to call him?”
    “No. Thanks for the help.”
    Eddie nodded. He and George left then and I lay motionless except for my breathing and counted the aches and pains that rushed my brain like children eager for attention. I fell asleep gradually, one stage at a time, as though I was falling through a series of floors, downward and downward. I dreamed of Southampton Village in a light spring rain. I dreamed of a world made by Camus and Hemingway. When I awoke again it was night and the only light in my apartment was from the streetlights outside. I lay awake, listening patiently to each ache and pain, till I realized gradually that there was someone else in the room with me.

Chapter Five

    He was a tall man, long legged and wide through the shoulders. He was well over six feet and occupied a corner of the room much as a Christmas tree would; his head seemed just inches from my plaster ceiling. I knew who it was by that alone. I used to think as a child that he was like one of those mountain men out of the movies, all power and self-reliance. As I grew he did not seem to shrink at all. In high school we still feared him as much as we had in grade school. He was a physically imposing man, with wisps of thinning gray hair and a face deeply lined and gaunt, the grim face of a lifelong outdoorsman, or maybe that of a man trapped in grief that he held onto as much as it held onto him.
    His eyes were green and flinty, like two wet emerald stones. I could see them even in the dim light spilling in from the outside. I could see, too, that he was in uniform – he was rarely out of it. Under his hunter’s jacket his leather belt creaked once as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
    I sat up fast, my bruised ribs protesting sharply. But I didn’t dare wince. I had no shirt on. The silver duck tape Eddie had wound around me showed up brighter than anything else in the room.
    I stayed there in the seated position, unmoving, and looked at him. He was standing by my front windows, looking down at me. His baton hung from his belt, sticking out at an odd angle. He turned on the standing reading lamp by the chair at my window.
    I took several shallow breaths and said, “Chief.”
    “When I saw your car I was certain you were dead. I was hoping you were inside it, twisted up like a pretzel.”
    I tried to ease my pain by adjusting my posture. I checked the tape, just to keep from looking at him. “What you are talking about, Chief?”
    “Oh, you don’t know?”
    “My car was stolen two days ago.”
    “Sure it was.”
    I swung my legs out and placed my bare feet on the cold floor. The bruise on my left thigh was spread like a tattoo that had faded from exposure and time.
    “Still breaking into people’s homes,” I said. “Find anything useful?”
    I reached for a T-shirt. The Chief took a step toward me.
    “You have your father’s build,” he said. “A lanky middleweight.”
    I pulled the shirt over my head and looked at him. The pain in my ribs was incredible. Before I could make any kind of response to the Chief’s comment, he took another step toward me and held up a slip of paper for me to see. I recognized at once the check for ten grand that James Curry had given me, which I had left on the table by the door.
    I looked at him, then started to tuck my shirt into my jeans. “You want me to endorse it over to you, Chief?” I said. “Is that what all this is about?”
    “Is this why you’ve been tailing the geologist?”
    “I’m not tailing anyone, Chief.”
    “This is my town, MacManus. Don’t think for a second that I don’t know what goes on in it. Sorry to break it to you, but I’m not the fool you think I am. So I’m going to ask you again. Why did James Curry give you a check for ten grand?”
    I stood up to finish tucking in my shirt. I could barely breath. Even though I moved slowly the Chief’s other hand went fast to rest on the handle of his nightstick. It seemed less of a blind