Hotline to Murder

of clothes. More than Tony did. And yet he always looked as if he wasn’t quite put together.
    A pile of dirty clothes lay on the floor. Tony went through this pile, one piece at a time, carefully, restacking the pile in another spot in reverse sequence. When he was through, he flipped the pile over and reset it in the original location—just in case Josh was more observant than he gave him credit for.
    The bending over and kneeling hurt his knees. He wasn’t going to be able to do this much longer. What was left? A two-drawer filing cabinet. Tony pulled open each drawer, in turn, being sure to look in the open space in the back of the drawers. He found nothing unusual. All that was left to search was a bunch of brown, cardboard boxes—boxes that Josh had carted around with him for years, containing all his other possessions. Keepsakes, mementoes, souvenirs, books, whatever it was that Josh saved.
    Tony didn’t relish the idea of going through the boxes in his present condition, especially since they were heavy and stacked three high. He looked at his watch. It was after nine. He didn’t know when Josh would be home. He’d better wrap this up soon. He could look inside the boxes on top while standing up. He decided to do that and then quit for the evening.
    The first box contained books. Tony lifted several out to see what was underneath. More books. He gave a pass to that box and went on to the next. This one contained papers, tickets, programs. It was definitely a souvenir box. He had to lift each item individually and that took time. Near the bottom of the box he felt something soft, something that wasn’t paper.
    He pulled it out and stared in shock. A pair of white panties. This was what he was looking for, but now that he had found it, he couldn’t believe it. He had been trying to clear Josh, not convict him. How long he stood there with the wispy piece of lingerie in his hand, he didn’t know. It suddenly came to him that he should find the bra. He searched the rest of the box, feverishly, but there was no other piece of clothing.
    There was no time to search the other boxes. He interleaved the flaps on the top of the box together the way he had found them, just as the sound of an engine came from the carport area. If that was Josh, he had already seen the light on in his room. Tony would have to bluff his way out of this. He stuffed the panties into his pocket, turned, and headed for the door. He never made it.
    He forgot about Josh’s swivel chair; he had moved it into the middle of the room during the search. He tripped over one of its metal supports and felt flat on his face. And his bad knee.
    Tony let out a yell as the pain hit him like a Freightliner truck. After a few seconds he tried to get up, but his leg collapsed, and he was back on the floor again. He was still there when Josh found him a minute later.
    “Holy shit. Tony, what happened?” There was real concern in Josh’s voice.
    “I was trying to check your calendar.” Tony forced the words out, between spasms of pain. “I can get tickets to the SC football game on Saturday.”
    “But what happened to you?”
    “My knee. I fell on my knee.”
    “Can you walk?”
    Josh helped, or rather lifted, Tony to his feet. If it hadn’t been for Josh’s continued support, he would have fallen again. Tony put his left arm over Josh’s shoulder and leaned against him.
    “Help me get to my room.”
    “I’m taking you to a room all right—the emergency room.”
    “I’ll be all right. I just need to sit down for a few minutes.”
    “Don’t argue with Uncle Josh. You can’t even stand up, for crissake.
    Josh practically had to carry Tony down the stairs. When they reached the ground floor, Josh became his left leg as they slowly made their way out to the carport. He bundled Tony into his SUV and went around to the driver’s side.
    On the way to the hospital, Tony tried again to explain why he had been in Josh’s room. Josh didn’t listen. He concentrated on his driving—accelerating and stopping slowly, easing his way around corners, as if Tony were Humpty Dumpty. Tony wanted to tell him to drive normally, but he didn’t. He felt protected, just as he had when he first met Josh in college, and Josh had taken him under his wing.
    ***
    “I don’t think there’s any permanent damage,” the young-looking emergency-room physician, whose name Tony had never caught, said, surveying the X-rays mounted on the wall. But you’ve got