Southern Gods Read Online Free PDF Page A

studio.
    “Which one am I supposed to find?” Ingram asked.
    “The white one, of course, son. Keep up with me. His name is Earle Freeman. We call him Early cause he’s always late. He’s a good kid, one of my scouts. Served in the Army, did his time and got through it, knows how to handle himself in a fight, and in general, a good man to have around. I sent him out hitting all the stations in Arkansas with the new presses of Sonny Burgess and Billy Lee Riley. Forty-fives.”
    At the blank look on Ingram’s face, Phelps said, “Bull, it’s rhythm and blues. Ain’t you ever heard of it? Negro music. And it’s pure gold, let me tell you, gonna make me rich and Sonny and Billy too.”
    He paused. “Don’t you know what I do here, son?” He sighed and then took another drag off of his cigarette. “What I do here is record black music. The boys come in, I flip this switch right here, and the microphones pick up all the sounds around them. Then we get records made of the songs we recorded. We send ’em out all over the South, to all the radio stations we can find.
    “I started this company last year, and we’re going cannonballs right now. I sent out Early with a box of forty-fives of this music—”
    “That the music you were listening to when I came in?”
    “You like that? Yes, that’s the music. I sent Early out with a box of these here forty-fives and two grand to hit as many radio stations as he can. Now he’s two weeks late getting back and his wife hasn’t heard from him for a least ten days. I’m out a good man and two thousand dollars.”
    “Two thousand dollars seems like a lot of money for traveling around Arkansas. Ain’t like there’s nice hotels over there.”
    “Well, the money isn’t all for traveling, if you know what I mean.” Phelps smiled. “It’s for promoting Helios artists and Helios products, that’s what it’s for.”
    “I don’t follow, Mr. Phelps.”
    “Well,” Phelps drawled, “Early drives around, might be Arkansas, might be Mississippi, might be Louisiana, just wherever we need more of a radio presence, and he visits every station, big or small—and, son, there’s some goddamned small stations peppering the countryside, especially in Arkansas. You go west and cross the 70 bridge, it’s like you’re entering a whole different country over there, and it ain’t friendly and it ain’t even making any attempts at joining the rest of the civilized world, except for buying radios. But they sure do love their race music. So Early drives around and visits all the station owners, makes the deliveries of the forty-fives, and he might take the owner out to dinner, or maybe throw a little party for him, or maybe just give him a little green to hold him over. You know, son, one hand washing the other.”
    Ingram knew what Phelps was talking about; he’d seen it every day since arriving in Memphis. And Mr. Phelps had enough Memphis clout to arrange this meeting through Ingram’s boss, who wasn’t a man to trifle with.
    “I understand,” Ingram said.
    “I’m sure you do.” Phelps poured himself more whiskey. “So I need you to find Early and get back whatever forty-fives or money’s left over and bring him back here. I’ll split whatever is left of the dough with you. But it’s not the dough that’s the important part; Early’s a good kid, and I don’t think he’d run off. Or abandon his wife. So I’m a little worried about the goddamned idiot.”
    “Why didn’t you just call the cops, put in a missing person’s report?”
    “Well, son, we did. But we’re having a hard time figuring out who to call. We called the Arkansas State Troopers and let them know, and they said they’d keep an eye open for anyone matching Early’s description, but we couldn’t tell them a place to look because Early drives all over Arkansas. And maybe he hadn’t been too diligent about checking in with me, which is my fault; I should’ve ridden him harder about that. Then