Chapter 18

Kevin Colby, my boss, actually fronted me the geld to get me into the cheapest apartment in Phoenix: the Cantwell, room 202, $350 a month including basic utilities. I finally had running water and a bed not made of concrete and smelling of gasoline or oil. I was livin’ the dream! Well, dream might be a slight exaggeration.

I was driving again. Well, driving is prominent on my work resume. I was kind of out of shape, but loading my truck every day was kinda fixing that. One good thing about being a short guy, back trouble was less of a problem for me when it came to doing the heavy lifting. Tall guys always ended up having back trouble: nature’s way of evening the playing field, I guess: The tall guys got the girls in high school but ended up with the bad backs after they married the cheerleaders, who then ended up having to take care of their asses, and then cheating on them in the end. One had to love mother nature.

Regardless of anything else, however, I was draggin’ when I got home at night, and that was for every night and that was for damn sure.

Still, tonight was Friday night, and tomorrow was a no work day, and Pearl’s was still my B&G of choice. The one thing I was pretty sure of, and grateful for, was the truth that the bad guys, who I now knew were clearly rich bad guys, wouldn’t lower themselves to hang around my hang out. Way too low class for them. And they had left me alone. I guess my bud, mister Hightower, had delivered my message—thank God! There is indeed an upside to everything.

“So, Anna’s doing okay then?” said Lea.

“Yes, and that in more ways than one,” said Carlton.

“Oh?” said Lea.

“Yes, she said that she saw our man going into Pearl’s last night. I know I’ve put off contacting the man, kinda giving him a chance to cool off. But, coincidentally, now that I’ve asked Jim to start looking for him since he disappeared those months ago. Well, I guess this might be a bit of luck. I mean Anna spotting him. I’ve told Jim already and he will be checking Pearl’s out soonest,” he said. “We should know something pretty soon, maybe everything.”

“Oh my,” she said. “I so want to talk to the man. I really want to talk to him. He has to hear me and understand what we’ve done is for him as well as for Kari, and well, us too.”

“Yes, well, we’ll be seeing, I guess. A year is long enough for him to cool off. Well, I hope it is,” he said.

“You hope! I hope more than you hope, trust me,” she said. The man smiled.

“Hmm, maybe,” he said.

“You have news?” said Carlton.

“Yes, first off, he’s fine, healthy. He has a job driving a truck for a building materials business near that B&G, Pearl’s, that Anna saw him go into the other night. He also has a small, place at the Cantwell Apartments, room 202. The place is run down, and well, cheap; but it is secure and safe, I guess would be the way to describe it,” he said. “Bottom line, he’s okay.”

“Thank God for that,” said Carlton. “My wife will be very glad to hear this, all of this. Can’t thank you enough, Jim. You’ll be hearing from me.”

“No problem, and you are certainly welcome,” he said. “But, Carlton, I should say, that if you do decide to try and talk to the man, well, don’t go alone. It may mean nothing now, after a year’s time, but well, the man was very firm in his desire to be left alone. I don’t think he’d resort to violence; he for sure knows that that would send him back to prison, I mean he is still on parole, but well...”

“Okay, I see your point, Jim. I will be careful and take all you say into consideration,” he said.

The two friends parted and the older man was left to think and to plan. Part of the plan would be to talk to his wife. Oh yes, and that would be that very night.