Corridor Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

Her clothing, a pants suit even Bobby realized had been out of style for a few years, was tight, but not in an attractive way. He guessed she had possibly grown two or three sizes larger since she’d purchased the outfit.
    She didn’t ask to smoke. She just lit up and then fired up another four successive cigarettes after that from the butt of the previous one as he made his way down to the law office. Along the way she barked a phlegmy smoker’s hack about every three blocks.
    He pulled in front of the building, turned and peered at her through the cloud of smoke.
    “Just inside, take any elevator up to the twelfth floor. I’ll be waiting for you in the lobby when you’re finished.”
    “You ain’t taking me up there? You telling me I have to find my own damn way?” she said, then sucked about a half inch off her current cigarette.
    “You can see the elevators right there, through the lobby window. Just get on one and press twelve. The elevator opens right into the office. I’ve got to park this and then walk all the way back here.”
    The threat of a possible walk seemed to halt any further discussion. “I suppose,” she groaned, then slowly slid across the back seat and climbed out onto the curb.
    He found himself wishing he’d dropped her off at the wrong building. She fired up another cigarette on the curb, rubbed the old butt out against the side of his car and headed toward the building. He could only hope she’d be in with Noah Denton.
    “Oh dear,” Marci said as he cooled his heels up in the twelfth floor lobby. “I’m afraid our last deposition of the day, this Kate Clarken may have forgotten. I’m not getting an answer when I call. I had a feeling she might be a problem from day one,” she said more to herself than anyone else.
    Maxine suddenly came into view. Actually the phlegmy cough announced her approach before she came around the corner. She moved like a two-ton truck toward Marci seated behind the receptionist counter. You could hear her thighs swishing against one another with each step.
    “When do I get paid?” she half shouted, then wheezed and coughed.
    “We’ll be issuing checks on Tuesday, you should see your payment forty-eight hours after that,” Marci said leaning back as far as possible while still remaining in her chair.
    “You’re shitting me, that’ll make it next Thursday before I can cash the check,” Maxine groaned, then reached in her purse and fired up a cigarette.
    “That was the original agreement, ma’am. And, I’m sorry ma’am, this is a no smoking area. Actually, the entire building is smoke free.” Marci smiled and looked happy to suggest this might be good news to Maxine.
    “Not now, it ain’t,” Maxine growled back and barked her cough a couple of times. “That damn check better not be any later than Thursday or I’m gonna come back here and kick your uptight ass, bitch. You,” she pointed her cigarette in Bobby’s direction. “Get me the hell out of here.”
    She walked to the bank of elevators and pushed the down button. Just before the door opened she sucked her cigarette, exhaled a massive blue cloud back into the office lobby, then stepped onto the elevator barking her cough.
    Bobby followed politely behind.

Chapter Thirteen
     
     
    He parked across the street from the address on his list. Kate Clarken’s residence was in the four hundred block of Thomas Ave. in the middle of Frog Town. It had never been the best area in the city, but debatably was no longer the worst. That didn’t suggest things had begun to improve in Frog Town, it merely meant another part of town had fallen on even harder times.
    Frog Town was an area Bobby had never had a reason to be in until now. Kate Clarken’s residence seemed to symbolize many of the reasons why. The building was a peeling white clapboard structure that had been unattractive since the day it was built over a century ago. It had originally been erected as a single family home although for