The Referral Game

near tears. In the space of one evening there were two dead men killed in a struggle over money and I had put Paula right in the middle of it.
    “I guess I didn’t do a very good job, did I Bill?”
    “Put a cork in it. Edgar was dead before Silas ever got to your office. There was nothing you could have done to prevent that. Don’t forget Silas fooled me over the phone and that was what got you caught up in the whole mess. You had no reason to be suspicious of Pomeroy. If it hadn’t been you, it would have been another detective. If it’s the girl that’s on your mind, in my opinion you saved her life. I might not have gotten a clear shot at Pomeroy if you hadn’t kept his attention directed towards you. You took a bullet to try and save her. Think about that before you beat yourself up. You want to everything to work out like a fairy tale Frank. It doesn’t work that way, sometimes nice people, and not so nice people, get hurt and there’s nothing that anyone can do about it. You think too much, I always said so.”
    Maybe he was right. Maybe I blamed myself too much. I had been drifting for a long time, mad at the world because it didn’t fit my vision of what it should be, numbing the pain with alcohol and hiding out. I had felt good with Paula.
    “When you get out of here why don’t we go to dinner? Bill asked. “We haven’t done that in a long time. Or maybe you’d like to ask Paula. That wasn’t motherly concern I saw in her eyes when she was watching over you.”
    It was like he was reading my mind. I found myself grinning.
    “Listen,” Bill continued. “I’m going to get out of here. I’ve got paperwork piling up back at the station. Sometimes I wish I was still in a prowl car.”
    “Thanks for being there for me Bill, I owe you.”
    He waved that off and headed for the door.
    “Hey,” I said. “Any news on the Hanson case?”
    His face went completely blank. “Let’s talk about it tomorrow Frank. I’m in a rush and you need your rest.”
    “Tell me Bill.”
    He looked at his shoes and said: “She’s dead Frank. It was the guy around the corner from their house. We had him in for questioning within twelve hours of the kidnapping, but he had already killed her. He broke down this morning and led Capt. Woodward and the boys to her body.”
    I swallowed hard and counted to ten.
    “Where?” I could feel my control slipping.
    “It was in a dumpster down by the rail yards.”
    “Yesterday’s trash, huh?”
    “Frank,” he admonished. “You’re gonna make yourself worse. Stop it right now.”
    “I’m alright,” I heard myself say. “Just give a minute to get used to it.”
    “I’ll stay.”
    “I want to be alone. Let me think.”
    “I’m staying until you feel better,” he said flatly.
    “That might be awhile.”
    “I’ll wait. I let you go off by yourself once; I won’t do it again. You’ll see, you’ll feel better with a friend here.”
    I closed my eyes and thought about things. Turned them over in my mind. He was right.
    “Thanks Bill,” I said without opening my eyes.
    “Don’t mention it. You’re still my partner.”
    I don’t know how long it took, but I drifted off to sleep.

    I awoke the next morning with one overriding urge. I was hungry. Even though my head still ached at least I was able to fill my belly. A drink would have hit the spot, but I couldn’t find one on the menu. Bill came by later, said he wouldn’t get me one and wanted to know if I was insane or just stupid. How’s a guy supposed to get along with a friend like that?
    The papers were full of the Pomeroy affair. Bill was quoted in every edition. He exaggerated my role all out of proportion. He made it sound like I solved the case over a ham sandwich and he had came in at the end for clean up duty. I appreciated him not making me sound like a bumbler, which I knew I had been, but I thought he over sold it a little and I told him so when he visited that morning.
    He wasn’t exactly contrite.
    “I told them how I saw it,” he said. “Boy you’re a pain sometimes.”
    “But Bill,” I began.
    “I don’t want to hear it,” he continued. “You’re a hero and that’s that.”
    “That’s how I feel Frank,” said a female voice.
    I looked at the door and saw Paula standing there. She looked tired and worn. Her eyes were red and she had on no make-up. She looked more beautiful than ever.
    “Why is it the strong silent types are always so soft in the head about