Chapter 5

He was in his office. It’d been a full year since the last he’d heard of his old friend. He didn’t dwell on it much, not anymore. That was something, thought Rodney Pollard. But at the moment he was on his mind, Jimmy was on his mind. One couldn’t save the world. And some things were written in the stars. It looked like his old bud was condemned to be part of that mass of humanity that would be living lives of quiet desperation—apologies to Thoreau.

“Mister Pollard, there is someone here to see you sir,” said the voice over the intercom, “he doesn’t have an appointment.”

“I’ll come out,” he said. Hardly anyone ever came to this office that wasn’t invited. It wasn’t that kind of office. 99% percent of his business was on line and impersonal. He did meet with lawyers and real estate people somewhat regularly but never without appointments.

Exiting the office, he saw a face he recognized. “Sammy?” he said. “This is a surprise.”

“Yes, Mister Pollard, I needed to see you. I mean if you have a spare minute. I’m on a delivery and was nearby, so I made the decision to see if you could spare me a few minutes,” said Sammy. “The guard downstairs said it would be all right to come up.”

“Certainly,” he said. “Come on in to my office.

“Denise, hold my calls,” he said.

The two men adjourned to the man’s office.

The big man took his seat behind his desk His visitor took the seat across from him as the man indicated he should. “So, I’m guessing you have some information about our friend,” said Rodney. He was certain that the man did.

“Yes sir, and it’s not good. I was making some deliveries downtown and I saw him. I saw him and I pulled over and went to talk to him but changed my mind. I decided to talk to you first, like I promised,” said Sam.

“Sam, was he all right?” said Rodney.

“Yes and no,” said Sammy. “He’s apparently not hurt or anything, but he’s clearly a broken man. He’s on the street, skid row, and not looking too good.” The other man’s face fell.

“The street! The fucking street!” said Rodney.

“Yes sir, I saw him go into the Salvation Army soup kitchen. He looked pretty ragged,” said Sam.

“You didn’t talk to him then?” said Rodney.

“No, no like I said, I was going to but changed my mind. I was afraid he’d blow me off or, well, something,” he said. The other man nodded.

“The kitchen, you mean the one on Main?” said Rodney.

“Yes, that’s the one. I figure he’s probably hangin’ out in the neighborhood,” said Sammy.

“Yes, yes, makes sense.

“Look, I’m going to make the effort to see the man. I have some important news to tell him. He’s just got to straighten up and come to his senses,” said Rodney Pollard.

“I don’t know about that, Mister Pollard. He’s pretty down has been since, well since...” said Sammy.

“Yeah, yeah I know what you’re saying,” he said. “Look, thanks a million for coming in and I really appreciate you keeping your word to let us know when you heard anything. It means a lot. If there’s anything I can do for you just let me know,” he said.

“Thank you sir, I will,” said Sam.

The two men talked for a couple of minutes more and Sammy hit the road. He still had deliveries to make.

“I can’t believe it. I talked to Jenna a few days ago and she said that him being on the street might be a possibility, but I just blew her off; I just couldn’t believe something like that could possibly be real,” said Claire.

“Well, believe it; it’s real. I will be finding the man and putting it to him pretty forcefully,” said Rodney.

“We’ll go together,” said Claire. “I need to be there to kick his high school butt. The man just has to, well, man up!”

“Okay, I’m not sure the both of us being there is a good idea, but maybe it is. Anyway, let’s do it,” he said.

Main Street was a drag maybe a shade under four miles long. It was one of the earliest streets to be developed in the main part of L.A. It was depressed now, economically. The homeless and generally indigent saw it as a place of refuge. The Salvation Army had its kitchen there and its chapel too was just a few blocks away. Finding their man should not have been a problem. But, it was proving to be.

They’d been cruising the area for almost an hour. They’d seen no sign of the man at all. Frustration was setting in.

“Let’s try the kitchen. We should have started there,” she said. “I mean that is where Sam said he’d seen him, right?”

“Yes, I guess you’re right. But it’s 3:00 P.M. I doubt if he’s going to be at the kitchen now,” he said.

“Maybe not, but maybe someone who works there might know where to look,” she said. He nodded.

“Yeah, makes sense I guess,” he said.

He whipped a U-turn in his brand new Cadillac and drove the half mile back down the street to the Salvation Army’s kitchen.

They pulled into the lot behind the sizable structure and went in. A few men and a woman with a small child were in evidence seated at the metal folding tables situated around the spacious eating area. The serving area was closed at that moment though one worker seemed to be setting things up for a meal, probably for the evening rush, thought Claire. The Army did do a lot of good work for the pilgrims of desperation row.

“Let’s ask that guy behind the serving counter over there,” said Claire.

They wended their way across the room. Rodney Pollard waved to get the attention of the man behind the counter who seemed very intent on getting things arranged for whatever.

“Sir, can we speak with you for a minute?” said Claire, finally having gotten the man’s attention.

“We don’t serve until 5:00 P.M.,” said the man.

“No, no,” said Rodney. “We’re looking for a friend.”

The server eyed him suspiciously. “A friend?” he said.

“Yes,” said Claire. She pulled a photo from her purse and handed it to the man to look at.

The man looked at it and handed it back to her. “Yes, I know the guy. He’s come in here sometimes for breakfast. We serve breakfast and dinner here, no lunch, not enough funding. He never comes in for dinner though, don’t know why,” said the server.

“When was the last time you saw him?” said Claire.

“A few days ago. But, it’s been cold. A lot of guys try to find a place to hang where it’s warmer, know what I mean?” he said.

Rodney Pollard nodded. “They still have to eat don’t they?”

“They find a way. I know. It doesn’t make any sense; I mean it’s warm in here, but when it’s cold the guys and some of the women, just don’t like to move about. Know what I mean?” he said.

Rodney thanked the man and he and Claire went back to their car.

“We’ll find him,” said Rodney. If he’s in town, anywhere in town, we’ll find him.”

“We have to, Rod, we have to,” said Claire. The man just nodded.

“So Don, find the guy, okay?” said Rodney.

“I will. Rod, finding the guy might take some time though. Guys who’ve been on the row for a while don’t exactly leave paper trails. But again, if he’s still downtown, it shouldn’t take too long,” said Donald McGinnis PI.

“Okay, okay just do your best. We have a very good reason for wanting to find the guy and it’s for his benefit more even than mine or Claire’s, okay,” he said.

“Okay, you got it,” he said, “I’m on it.”

The two men parted the one to hunt the other to wait.

He pulled into the parking structure of their condo’s building and breathed a frustrated sigh. Patience was not Rodney Pollard’s forte, no indeed. But, patience was the requirement for the time being. Donald would find their man, but he had a sick feeling that it might be a while in the doing and that was that.

“So you’ve got Don on it,” said Claire, as her man came into the kitchen. She knew he’d had a meeting with their friend that day.

“Yes, he’s on it, and he’ll find him. But when is the question,” he said, as he set his briefcase down on the kitchen counter. She nodded her understanding.

“Okay, so I guess now we wait. Regardless of when he finds him we still have the little problem of how to handle things. Boy, it’s going to be one heckuva scene when he finds out he’s a daddy who’s never even seen his child. I mean a scene,” she said.

“I’m her daddy too, don’t forget,” he said. She took on a shocked look.

“Oh my!” she said. “Honey of course you are. I never thought anything else and you know that.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he said.

“You are the best daddy in the world,” she said coming up to him and kissing him. “I mean the best. Our friend is the sperm donor, and he’ll get to see his child, and I hope he wants to. But, as for who the real daddy is, it’s you.”

“Honey,” he said. “There’s another potential problem that we haven’t much discussed.”

“Problem?” she said.

“Yes, she doesn’t know about any of this. She’s too young to explain it to her. But, at some point she’ll have to be in the know about it all. She’s not quite six years-old, and like I said too young to understand it all, but he may want to be called daddy. He may want ... heck I don’t know what he’s going to want,” he said.

“Yes, until we’ve been able to sit him down and actually have a coherent conversation with him we just won’t have any way to know how to deal with the situation. But Larabee has said we’re in the clear here on most levels regardless, so I’m going with his estimation of things. We’ll be generous with our Jimmy. Hell, we’ve tried to be generous with him all along. But this situation is going to require some finesse on our parts,” she said.

“Damn straight it is,” he said, “damn straight!”

The two men were sitting where they usually sat when tilting them back. “Hey, Jackie, another round over here, okay?” he said, loud enough so the flirty little offspring of Venus could hear and understand.

“So you talked to them, told them what you found out,” said Henry.

“Not them, just the guy, Pollard, but yeah, I told him I’d keep them in the loop, so I have,” said Sammy. His friend nodded.

“Whaddya think they’ll do?” said Henry.

“They’ll find him, talk to him, maybe convince him to get his ass in gear. The man needs to get with the program. He can’t just mope around forever. Ain’t no woman worth that much pain,” he said.

“You guys gonna run a tab, or am I just gonna continue to collect for each separate round,” said Jackie.

“Yeah, yeah run one,” said Henry, “we’re gonna to be here a while.” The girl nodded, turned, and noted their choice on the pad by the register behind the bar. She meandered her way down the bar and got them their second round.

“Yeah, he does have to get it together. You did right cluing the cheaters,” said Henry. “For sure they can’t do any worse than we did in trying to get the guy to be doing things right.”

“It may be that he’s mellowed a little over this last year or so,” said Sammy. “I mean if he’s been hanging out at the Salvation Army kitchen and maybe the chapel; he might have found religion or something. Jesus I hope so. He’s needs to find support from more than just you and me.”

The other man laughed. “Well, stranger things have happened than a man finding Jesus to save himself from himself. I mean oh yeah!” said Henry.

“Yeah right,” said Sammy. “But, who knows maybe you are right. I sure hope so. He’s my friend, had my back a few times over the years. I want him to survive, I really do. And from what I saw, when I watched him go into that kitchen the other day, he’s not doin’ too good, not too good at all.”

“Well, all we can do is the best we can do. The man does have to do some of the heavy lifting himself; it can’t all be just us doin’ it,” said Henry.

“You’re right. But the women, they got us guys by the short hairs and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it,” said Sammy.

“I hear yuh,” said Henry.

“You know I just had an idea,” said Sammy.

“An idea?” said Henry.

“Yeah, here we are yakkin’ about him goin’ to church and all. But well, we don’t actually know if he is, has, whatever; but if he hasn’t maybe we could arrange it so that he does. Or even better have some church guy come to him. Whaddya think?” said Sammy.

“He found him!” said Rodney. She looked at him; his message registered, she squeaked some unintelligible noises. Then...