Everybody Dies Read Online Free PDF Page B

acting on impulse. Lads with a storage bin of their own, seeing a chance for a fast dollar."
    "It's certainly a possibility."
    "Suppose you were to look into that side of it," he said evenly. "Suppose you did what you do, asked your questions and made your notes, and learned enough to rule that possibility in or out."
    "I don't understand."
    He went over to the wall and leaned against it, looking at one of the hand-colored steel engravings mounted there. He has two groups of them, three scenes of County Mayo in Ireland, where his mother was born, and three others showing his father's birthplace in the south of France. I don't know which ancestral home he was looking at now, and I doubt he was seeing it.
    Without turning around he said, "I believe I have an enemy."
    "An enemy?"
    "The same. And I don't know who he is or what he wants."
    "And you think this was his doing."
    "I do. I believe he followed those boys to the storage shed, or got there first and lay in wait for them. I believe the whiskey he stole was the least of it. I believe he was more intent on shedding blood than in stealing ten thousand dollars' worth of stolen whiskey."
    "There have been other incidents," I guessed.
    "There have," he said, "unless it's my imagination. It could be I've turned into an old maid, checking the cupboards, looking under the bed. Perhaps that's all it is. That, or else I've an enemy and a spy."
    I have a license now, issued by the State of New York. I got it awhile ago when one of my lawyer clients told me, not for the first time, that he'd be able to give me more work if I were licensed. I've worked a lot for lawyers lately, and more than ever since I picked up the license.
    But I haven't always had a license, and I haven't worked exclusively for members of the legal profession. I had a pimp for a client once. Another time, I worked for a drug trafficker.
    If I could work for them, why couldn't I work for Ballou? If he was good enough to be my friend, if he was good enough to sit up all night with, why couldn't he be my client?
    I said, "You'd have to tell me how to find the place."
    "And what place would that be?"
    "E-Z Storage."
    "We were just there."
    "I wasn't paying attention once we got out of the tunnel. I'll need directions. And you'd better let me have a key for the padlock."
    "When do you want to go? Andy can drive you."
    "I'll go by myself," I said. "Just tell me how to get there."
    I jotted down the directions in my notebook. He proffered the roll of bills, his eyebrows raised, and I told him to put his money away.
    He said this was business, that he was a client like any other, that he expected to pay. I said I'd be spending a couple of hours asking questions that most likely wouldn't lead anywhere. When the job was done, when I'd done as much as I felt comfortable doing, I'd tell him what I'd learned and how much he owed me.
    "And don't your clients usually pay you something in advance? Of course they do. Here's a thousand dollars. Take it, man, for Jesus' sake! It won't obligate you to do anything you don't want to do."
    I knew that. How could money obligate me more than friendship had? I said, "You don't have to pay in advance. I probably won't earn all this."
    "Little enough you'd have to do. My lawyer gets as much every time he picks up the telephone. Take it, put it in your pocket. What you don't earn you can always give back."
    I put the bills in my wallet, wondering why I'd even bothered to argue. Years ago an old cop named Vince Mahaffey told me what to do when somebody gave me money. "Take it," he'd said, "and put it away, and say thank you. You could even touch your cap if you're wearing one."
    "Thanks," I said.
    "It's I should be thanking you. Are you certain you don't want someone to drive you?"
    "I'm positive."
    "Or I can let you have the use of a car, and you can drive yourself."
    "I'll get there."
    "Now I've hired you, I'd best leave you alone, eh? Just let me know if you need anything."
    "I will."
    "Or if