I sat in the car to regroup.\u00a0 I sure could\u2019ve used a session with Ralph and Fanny and some white boards, but I didn\u2019t want to keep driving back and forth to Santa Teresa.\u00a0 Besides, I had to be realistic; the car was basically my office.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t imagine how my father functioned as a PI without a cell phone and internet access.\u00a0 The miles he must have put on his car.\u00a0 Just as I was dictating my notes from the depressing interview with the downtrodden Carla, a call came in from Jimmy with an update on downtrodden Henry.\u00a0 He told me the police essentially had nothing, just barely enough for a warrant and since the car was gone, they didn\u2019t even have enough to bring him in for questioning.\u00a0 He had dropped Henry off and told him not to the police without him present, in fact not to talk to anyone \u2013 a concept that Henry found hard to believe since he kept on insisting that he hadn\u2019t done anything.\u00a0 I briefed him on my meeting with Carla, and my growing certainty of the relationship between all the principles in this case, particularly that Henry might have been keeping company with Sylvia, who was now probably keeping company with Dessa and Goddard.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood work, Liza,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cDid you know what my football coach used to say?\u00a0 I played wide received back in high school \u2013 old number 21 was really fast then.\u00a0 Anyway, his advice was a pretty good life lesson, \u2018the best defense is a good offense.\u2019\u00a0 I know that the police will keep on poking around Henry unless we can produce an alternative.\u00a0 That Grimes is a nice enough guy, but pretty lazy in my book, and he is probably just waiting for us to make the case for him.\u00a0 By the way, he even told me that you gave him the tip on Henry\u2019s car.\u00a0 How\u2019d that every happen?\u00a0 Are you playing a dangerous game here, Liza?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy, this case is very complicated, I started out working for Sam Todd and that\u2019s when I might have mentioned it to Grimes, but it was just a flyer, all I knew at that point was that Penny probably knew Henry and that he’d lied to me.\u00a0 But then the case switched and I was specifically working for Simba, and it is increasingly apparent that the interests of Simba and Sam are not aligned, which is probably why Sam got his own lawyer.\u00a0 Jimmy, I am down here in Cutter City, and I would really like to talk to the ex-mayor.\u00a0 Do you think that he would talk with me about that raid, or is there anyone else that you can think of who would be a willing eye-witness to corroborate Carla\u2019s version?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, the Cutter City mayor isn’t willing, since he died a couple of years ago, but I\u2019m sure that Jonesy Elgin, the ex-mayor of Santa Teresa would be more than willing.\u00a0 In fact, he is willing to talk with anyone about that, and has been talking about it for decades, about the night Sam Todd set him up.\u00a0 He says that whole story about his raping one of the girls is ridiculous, based on the fact that he ended up marrying her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy, how would I go about setting up an appointment with him?\u00a0 Can you provide me with an entr\u00e9e?\u00a0 Do you know him at all?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLiza, no appointment needed.\u00a0 You can probably find him tonight, and most nights, drinking himself silly at the Lantern.\u00a0 Probably not your type of place, but that\u2019s one of the pleasures of your job isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Challenging your comfort zone.\u00a0 Here’s another life lesson from my football choice, \u201cLife begins when you leave your comfort zone.\u201d \u00a0He was a great guy, but anyway I would advise getting there before it\u2019s too late and he is totally incoherent.\u00a0 He\u2019s really a pretty pathetic guy.\u00a0 He lost the mayorship over the scandal, and his used car business suffered too and then his wife died.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have much left in life except his hatred for Sam Todd.<\/p>\n
I thanked Jimmy and told him that I would report back in the morning.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe that it was just 5 PM; this seemed like the kind of day when the sun wouldn\u2019t do me the simple favor of setting.\u00a0 I would\u2019ve have preferred it if it\u2019d been too late to do anymore sleuthing, but that was rarely the case in this business.\u00a0 I would love to go back to Ralph and Fanny\u2019s and curl up in their extra bed, just like I did so many times when my father had to work nights doing surveillance.\u00a0 But the timing seemed right to make one last stop at the Lantern, the same bar where Goddard had gotten beaten up by Johnny Knox just a couple of days ago.<\/p>\n
By the time I got there it was close to 6, and the bar was filled up with men watching Sunday night football.\u00a0 The seats at the bar facing the big screen TVs were taken, but down at the end there was a solitary man staring into his beer.\u00a0 Based on Jimmy\u2019s description, I felt that it was a good bet that this was Jonesy Elgin.\u00a0 I figured that there were many hard drinking men in denial who seized the chance to booze it up in the guise of a football game, and then there were those who were such committed drinkers that they didn\u2019t bother to contrive an excuse.\u00a0 I pushed my way through the throng and sat down next to the man. \u00a0\u00a0He was wearing a suit, but the elbows were shiny, and the shirtsleeve cuffs were frayed and gray.\u00a0 In his lapel was one of those red paper poppies that you got if you donated your pocket change to some charity, but his flower was tattered and I bet that flower had been in his lapel for months.\u00a0 There were two empty bowls of peanuts in front of him, and flavored salt flecks drifted down his lapels.\u00a0 He looked at me with his rheumy eyes and said, \u201cOdd place for a girl like you, alone in a bar on football night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh I like watching football, always used to watch it with my Dad.\u00a0 He taught me about screen plays, cover two, that sort of thing, but I\u2019m a bit out of practice.\u00a0 But to tell you the truth, I really came here to see you.\u00a0 You\u2019re Jonesy Elgin, aren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonesy immediately sat up straight and flicked the debris and crumbs from his lapels and held out his hand, \u201cCan\u2019t imagine why you\u2019d want to talk with an old sot like me, but you\u2019re right, I\u2019m Jonesy Elvin, former mayor of Santa Teresa, former owner of Elgin Cadillac, and currently, well what you see is what you get, or rather what you see is all there is.\u00a0 Pleased to meet you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Elgin, my name is Liza Blue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jonesy immediately stopped me by placing one hand over mine on the table, and he placed his other hand on my lips.\u00a0 His fingers smelt like a seedy combination of peanuts, beer and cigarettes.\u00a0 \u201cPlease call my Jonesy, and by the way, please tell that nice father of yours who likes football that he gave his daughter a beautiful name.\u00a0 Please go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJonesy, I am a private detective and this complicated case that I am working on goes back to the raid at the Margarita Club in Cutter City many years ago.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean to bring up a painful part of your life, but Jimmy Earle, you know that lawyer who has an office just across the boarder in Cutter City, well he told me that you wouldn\u2019t mind telling me what happened that night.\u00a0 I am looking for an eye witness account.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes that night ruined my life, and I\u2019m willing to talk about it, only to clear my name.\u00a0 At first nobody would listen to me, and then after a couple of years, nobody cared any more except for me.\u00a0 But I gotta ask, why are you interested?\u00a0 Bartender,\u201d he called out loudly enough for the football audience to turn and stare at us, \u201cPlease bring me another whiskey and one for the lady here, and put it on her tab.\u201d\u00a0 He stared at me, and I turned toward the bartender and nodded agreement.<\/p>\n
I led with trying to get justice for Penny\u2019s death, and then carefully wove in the relationship between Penny, Johnny Knox and Sam Todd, and how they all seemed to be mixed up together.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re not working for that bastard Todd are you?\u201d said Jonesy, \u201cIf you are, there is no way I am going to help you, my mouth is zipped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJonesy, I am just trying to work for the truth,\u201d boy that sounded corny when I said it, but it seemed to soften him up a little bit.\u00a0 \u201cLook how that night changed the course of your life, and 25 years later, it might have ended up killing a young girl who got caught in the middle.\u00a0 Can you just give me a first person account?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, okay, well the first thing that you have to know is that I was absolutely not a regular there.\u00a0 Absolutely not, you have to believe me on that point.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never had to pay for it, well maybe now it might cost me to have a woman, but back in my prime, I cut a pretty dashing figure, and I never had to pay for it.\u00a0 Okay, you got that?\u201d<\/p>\n
I nodded in agreement, and he continued, \u201cWe had a regular poker night every Friday night with the guys, mostly politicos, like the police chief and that mayor of Cutter City.\u00a0 Can\u2019t remember his name, but he was a real character and a horrible poker player, which was really the only reason that he was part of our Santa Teresa group. \u00a0What can I say, we liked having a patsy. \u00a0Anyway, that night, one of the guys, can\u2019t remember who, but it might have been the Cutter City guy suggests that we go and play at the Margarita Club \u2013 that they had a back room set up for poker and a cigar bar.\u00a0 How the hell did I know that it was a whorehouse?\u00a0 So we go there and start playing poker, and pretty soon a couple of women come in and ask if they could fill in.\u00a0 That was the first hint that I got that this was more than a cigar bar. \u00a0And I also realized that the Cutter City mayor must have been a regular \u2013 all those women knew his name.\u00a0 \u00a0Pretty soon things got out of hand, lap dances that sort of thing, and yes, a young woman was sitting on my lap when the police descended but I never put a hand on her, and I certainly didn\u2019t rape her, in fact I married a couple of months later, so all of that rape stuff was just a load of crap.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWas there a man there named Johnny Knox, and maybe one of the women was named Sylvia?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not good with names.\u00a0 There was one extra guy at our table, I think that he was the house manager, his name might have been Johnny.\u00a0 The girls\u2019 names I can\u2019t remember, except of course for my wife Grace, may she rest in peace.\u00a0 Anyway, all of a sudden there is this big commotion at the door, and the police come in, and guess who escorted them in, it was that Sam Todd, and I can still see the snarky smirk on his face.\u00a0 I am sure that he organized it all.\u00a0 He motioned to the Cutter City guy and they talked for a few seconds and he left out the back door, completely untouched.\u00a0 I had met Sam Todd a few times before, when he had some exploratory zoning meetings in Santa Teresa, and I instantly disliked him.\u00a0 So then he comes over to me and says, \u2018Hey Jonesy, I can make this all go away for you, or I can make it much worse, which will it be?\u2019 \u00a0WEll I was used to some horse-trading in politics, but I wasn\u2019t going to give in to a bully like that, particularly when I hadn\u2019t done anything wrong, and particularly since I wasn\u2019t going to trade favors with some punk from Cutter City. \u00a0I had my standards back then. \u00a0But I was curious so I asked him what it would cost me.\u00a0 And it was that zoning thing, had had his eye on some commercial property that he wanted to develop.\u00a0 I turned him down, and told him that we didn\u2019t need guys from Cutter City sniffing around Santa Teresa.\u00a0 Well, okay, I\u2019ll agree that wasn\u2019t the smartest thing I ever said.\u00a0 Todd then said, \u2018go ahead if that\u2019s the way you want it, but I tell you that you\u2019ve chosen poorly,\u2019 and he nodded to the policeman and they escorted me out the front door to the paddy wagon. \u00a0There were even some photographers there.\u00a0 And as I was leaving I saw Todd talking to our police chief, and then he gets escorted out the back door.\u00a0 So the fix was in, and my police force pretty much screwed me over, and I had to resign.\u00a0 And then Todd pulled the same stunt on my Grace, coerced her into a trumped up rape charge and told otherwise she would be arrested for prostitution.\u00a0 She knew that I hadn\u2019t raped her, and I got her a good lawyer who got her out of trouble and we just fell in love.\u00a0 But I still had some muscle left for that bastard.\u00a0 You notice that Todd never did get the zoning he wanted on that commercial development, did he?\u00a0\u00a0 That was me.\u00a0 There was one restaurant that held out, and we helped them get some sort of historic shit.\u00a0 I got that bastard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said that people were being escorted out the back door of your room.\u00a0 Was it just the guys playing poker that got off, or were there some others?\u00a0 Do you remember?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, yes, I had forgotten about that, there was quite a scene at the beginning.\u00a0 The police brought in this man who was trembling and crying, and asked Todd what he wanted them to do with him.\u00a0 That was when I first realized that Todd was running this whole sordid show, and when I first realized how cruel he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looked at him, and I will never forget what he called him – \u2018Polly Waddle,\u2019 what kind of horrible nick name is that?\u00a0 Todd then said, \u2018Fancy meeting you here.\u00a0 I bet your Mummy and Daddy would be interested in your whereabouts, sneaking out at night after they tucked you in.\u00a0 Now what should we do with you?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThis poor man just about collapsed in a chair and he asked Todd in a whisper, \u2018Can you help me Sam?\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t doing anything wrong, I just like to come down and chat with some of the ladies.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cTodd then really laid it on,\u201d said Jonesy. \u201cHe said, \u2018You are the only person that I know that has to pay women to talk to them.\u00a0 You should be able to get that for free, you pathetic excuse of a man.\u00a0 You can go ahead and get out of here on one condition, no undermining me to your family and I never want you to see your sister again,\u201d and then he pushed him, sobbing out the door.\u00a0 I think that I heard him outside gagging and puking. \u00a0So that\u2019s the whole sorry tale.\u00a0 What do you think of me now?\u201d<\/p>\n
I had what I needed and I wanted to leave, but I knew that I just couldn\u2019t walk out on him.\u00a0 I motioned to the bartender to refill Jonesy\u2019s glass.\u00a0 \u201cI think that Sam Todd is not a nice man,\u201d and left it at that, pretending to soulfully take teeny sips of my whiskey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard that he is in trouble with his Skye Island development,\u201d asked Jonesy hopefully.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell real estate has been bad for everyone for these past several years.\u00a0 Everyone\u2019s hurting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I hope that he is hurting more than everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe might be,\u201d I said, \u201cbut I hope that he doesn\u2019t take down too many others as he falls.\u201d\u00a0 Suddenly I just had to go, I\u2019d had too many days trying to manage grievous grudges.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t need another.\u00a0 \u201cThanks for your time, Jonesy.\u00a0 This has been very helpful.\u201d\u00a0 As I turned to shake his hand, I saw that he had lost interest in me and was staring vacantly at the football game.<\/p>\nFollow Liza Blue on: I sat in the car to regroup.\u00a0 I sure could\u2019ve used a session with Ralph and Fanny and some white boards, but I didn\u2019t want to keep driving back and forth to Santa Teresa.\u00a0 Besides, I had to be realistic; … Continue reading ![\"Facebook\"](\"https:\/\/www.fanagrams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" "\\"Follow")
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