Free Fall in Crimson Read Online Free PDF

law."
    Odum's eyes looked slightly glazed. He shook himself like a damp dog and said, "You want to just . .. check out where we are on that thing?"
    "On a totally confidential basis, of course."
    "Sure. I realize that. Fine. Well, I guess Rick Tate, Deputy Rick Tate, would be the one who'd have it all clearest in mind. Where's Rick, Zelda?"
    She stopped typing. "Rick? Oh, he's went up to Eustis with Debbie on account of her mom is bad off again. He'll be back on tomorrow on the four to midnight."
    "You can get hold of him tomorrow," Odum said. "He'll come in about three thirty, around there. I won't be here."
    "If we could have some kind of informal authorization?" Meyer asked. "Maybe you could just write it on the back of the card I gave you."
    He went over to a corner of Zelda's desk and wrote on the card, Rick, you can go ahead and tell these men everything we got to date on Esterland, which isn't much anyway. Barney Odum.
    When we walked back out into the warm evening, I said, "Certified Guarantor! You could write political speeches."
    "Let me see. You are a Salvage Consultant. Anne called us a couple of con men. From now until tomorrow what do we do?"
    "We can check out the Palmer Hotel. Where Esterland was last seen alive. You did nicely with Barney Odum, friend."
    "Yes. I know."
    Most of the old hotels in the central cities of Florida, in the cities of less than a hundred thousand, have gone downhill, decaying with the neighborhoods. Some of them have turned into office buildings, or parking lots, or low-cost storage bins for elderly indigents.
    Though the neighborhood had evidently decayed, the Palmer was a pleasant surprise. A clean roomy lobby, pleasant lighting, trim and tidy ladies behind the desk and the newsstand. Walnut and polished brass.
    The dark bar off the lobby was called The Office. Prism spots gleamed down on the bald pate of the bearded bartender, on shining glassware, on good brands on the back bar, on the padded bar rim, on black Naugahyde stools with brass nailheads. A young couple off in a corner held hands across the small table.
    The bartender said, "Gentlemen," and put coasters in front of us. I ordered Boodles over ice with a twist, and Meyer selected a white wine. After serving us he moved off to that precise distance good bartenders maintain: far enough to give us privacy if we wanted it, close enough to join in should we speak to him.
    "Good-looking place," I said to him.
    "Thank you, sir."
    "Do much business?"
    "Not much on weekends. Big noon and cocktailtime business during the week."
    "This is a very generous shot of gin."
    "Thank you, sir. This is not really a commercial place, I mean in the sense that there is a lot of cost control. It's owned by National Citrus Associates. The cooperatives and some of the big Page 12

    growers maintain suites here. There's a lot of convention and meeting business, a lot of businessmen from overseas, a lot of government people, state and federal. It's something like a club. The number of available rooms is quite limited."
    Meyer said, "A friend of ours from Fort Lauderdale had lunch here the day he was killed at a rest stop over on the turnpike. A year and nine months ago. Ellis Esterland."
    "A tragic thing," the bartender said. "Beaten to death and robbed. There is so much mindless violence in the world. I've been here five years, and I can see the difference in just that short time.
    Mr. Esterland had a drink here at the bar before he went to the grill room for his lunch. He sat right where you are sitting, sir. He had a very dry vodka Gibson, straight up, and soon after he left there was an order for another one from the grill room. Of course, I did not know his name at that time. They showed me his Florida driver's license, the police did, and I recognized the little color photograph as the man who was in here."
    "What did they ask you about him?" I asked.
    He shrugged. "If we had any conversation beyond his ordering his drink, and I said we didn't.