Killing Time In Eternity - Edge Series 4 (2 page)

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‘Speaking of problems, Charlie, it seems to me like you could have some of your own?’ Shelby probed.

Childs finishes his drink at a gulp, raised the empty glass in the direction of the attentive Segal and made a circling motion to signal for two refills. ‘I got in first. And I don’t want to regret asking you for help if it turns out you’re worse off than I am
.
’

‘What kind of help?’

Childs sucked in a deep breath. ‘The professional kind, Ethan. A lawman with your experience should be able to – ‘

‘I’m not anymore.’

‘What?’

‘I’m no longer with the New York police force, Charlie. I’m not a lawman anywhere. I quit awhile back. You asked what I’m doing here in Kansas. Well, the way it was, I hung around moping in the city for awhile, then figured I ought to get away from there. Went to the railroad station and brought myself a ticket to Eternity because the name appealed to me: the kind of mood I was in. Got off at the depot here at seven tonight.’

As Segal brought the fresh drinks and took away the empty glasses the rain continued to teem, but the wind gusting in off the Kansas prairie was making less noise than before.’

Childs guessed: ‘But now you’re having second thoughts about quitting? Indulging in some sorrow drowning, is that it?’

Shelby shook his head. ‘My leaving wasn’t entirely a matter of free choice, Charlie.’

‘Ethan?’ There was no longer any trace of the earlier excitement in Childs’

demeanour.

‘Way it happened, there was an enquiry into police corruption and I was the star witness. Planned on doing everything I could to get some of my fellow officers indicted for the crookedness I knew they were up to. Misusing city funds, taking bribes, covering up for crooks they had watertight evidence against and framing suspects they didn’t have a thing on.’

He shrugged and glanced around the too quiet saloon, uncaring that most people were overtly listening to what he was telling Childs.

‘I knew it wouldn’t make me popular – the way the force is such a close-knit outfit. But it was something I had to go through with, after I’d let it be known I wasn’t going to have any part of what was happening. Figured I’d have the satisfaction of seeing the double-dealing bastards kicked off the force. And some of them sent to rot in jail.’

He paused again and the utter silence and stillness within the saloon emphasised how the bartender and the other customers were eavesdropping on what he said. And suddenly 8

he looked contrite and blurted an apology to Olivia Colbert: ‘Gee, I’m sorry for my language, ma’am.’

The woman gave him a disdainful look as she countered: ‘Don’t you pay any attention to me, sir. For I am most certainly paying none to you. And for your information, I am a
Miss
.’

‘They weren’t sent to jail, Ethan?’ Childs pressed impatiently.

‘The case against every last one of them was thrown out,’ Shelby replied morosely.

‘On account of the lack of any kind of corroborative evidence. Because of how a couple of other detectives who swore at the start that they’d back me but didn’t when it came to the inquiry. So it ended up my word against that of nine crooked cops.’ He scowled at the bitter memories and took a swallow of his drink.

‘What about the victims, Ethan? The people who – ‘

‘After word got out that I was on my own they just refused to testify, Charlie. Even those who faced indictment and were promised immunity from prosecution wouldn’t back me any longer. And I guess most of them are still up to their crooked dealings back in the city. The whores and their pimps and the fences and loan sharks and the plain out-and-out thieves.’

His tone hardened. ‘They didn’t want it known they’d been ready to inform on the corrupt coppers who were letting them operate. The city’s a lousy, stinking rotten place, Charlie.’

‘You were left out on a limb? Entirely on your own?’

Shelby smiled sardonically. ‘Yeah, there was just little old me, Ethan. Reckon every member of that board of enquiry knew I was speaking the truth. But without hard evidence to back up what I told them, there was no other verdict they could bring in.’

‘How long ago did this happen?’

Shelby finished his drink, repeated the hand signal Childs had given and received an eager response from Segal. ‘Couple of months or so now. I stuck around for three weeks. But it was hell. They wouldn’t talk to me – even the guys who are honest, as far as I know. Just looked at me like they would at a heap of dog . . . mess.’

He glanced guiltily at the studiously unresponsive Olivia Colbert. ‘My desk got broken open and the stuff inside was smeared with yellow paint. And men I’d known for years wouldn’t give me the time of day. But they had a lot to say about me when they knew I could hear them. Called me the kind of names that were meant to rile me into starting fights.’

‘It must have been sheer hell, Ethan.’

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Shelby shrugged. ‘At first it was important for me to stay on the force. And a couple of senior men at City Hall agreed. The thinking was that if I quit it would be another victory for the crooked cops. One less straight man for them to look over their shoulders for when they were up to their corrupt tricks. But I just couldn’t take it any longer.’

He sighed and shook his head ruefully. ‘And finally I figured life was too short to spend it banging my thick head against a wall and getting nothing for my trouble except pain. So one morning I didn’t turn in for duty. Slept for twenty four hours solid and woke up after the first decent sleep I’d had since the trouble started.’

Childs nodded, sipped his drink and turned the wedding ring around his finger, but slowly now.

Shelby went on: ‘I felt easy in my mind and somehow cleaner. Easier and cleaner still as the days passed and I never laid eyes on a cop: either the honest or the crooked kind. Then I needed to go out of my apartment. Restock on chow. And I went outside the precinct. But even then when I saw uniformed men on patrol I couldn’t look at them. I was too ashamed and disgusted. Ashamed for the men if they were on the take. And disgusted at myself because I’d given way to the kind they maybe were.’

‘Hell of a thing,’ Childs muttered to fill the silence as Shelby paused to reflect grimly on the past.

‘That’s when I knew I had to get out of the city for a while. Right away from my old neighbourhood and the men I knew were corrupt. Reached this place so far and thought I’d give old John Barleycorn a try – see if a drink or two of whiskey would help put it all behind me. And start me thinking of a brighter future. Instead of wallowing in misery about the past.’

He directed a self-deprecating grin at his concerned friend. ‘But it doesn’t seem to have done much good, does it?’

‘I’d guess you knew it wouldn’t when you started, Ethan? The way I remember it, you weren’t what anyone would call an occasional drinker in the old days. It’s some years ago now, but I recall you had a lot of practise at waking up the morning after with the same problems you blotted out for a while the night before?’

‘That’s right.’ He shrugged. ‘So, okay Charlie: don’t they say that misery loves company? Now it’s your turn to tell me what problem’s troubling you?

Segal brought over more drinks and exchanged the full glasses for empty ones. At the same time as the two elderly eavesdroppers yawned and stretched their arms and John Dickens said:

‘Well, that play nonsense will be all but over pretty soon, Walt. And I promised the good lady I’d have some milk heated up for her when she got home.’

10

‘Damn fool theatricals!’ the scowling former army colonel complained. ‘The place is just like one of them ghost towns out west the nights they indulge in that crazy play acting foolishness.’

Each man left some coins on the table, rose and headed for the doorway, calling goodnights by name to the Colberts, Childs and Segal and offering a nod apiece to Shelby and Edge.

‘It’s the first night of a play at the local theatre,’ Childs explained to Shelby as he moved a hand to acknowledge the men leaving the saloon. ‘Only amateur, but a lot of people have quite a high regard for it in Eternity.’

Shelby seemed not to hear what was said as he watched Childs who was furiously twirling his wedding band again. Then, as the doors closed on the cold and damp of the November night, Childs cleared his throat.

‘You remember my boy, Ethan?’

‘Of course I remember Billy, Charlie. A cute little kid.’

‘He was a couple of months short of being twenty-two years old,’ Childs said dolefully.

Shelby registered his friend’s use of the past tense and asked grimly: ‘What are you saying? Are you telling me that Billy’s – ‘

‘He was murdered, Ethan.’

‘My God!’ Shelby croaked and swallowed hard. ‘What happened?’

Childs took a drink and got himself under control while Shelby toyed with his glass and then leaned forward earnestly.

‘Tell me what happened. I remember Billy as no more than a little whippersnapper. But you know how highly I always thought of the boy all that time ago. Why, we were kind of like an uncle and a nephew.’

Childs realised how frenetically he was turning his wedding band and with an emphatic movement he picked up his glass with both hands: clutched it tightly, but did not drink. ‘He wasn’t the same little boy you knew back then, Ethan.’

‘It’s for sure you and me aren’t the same as then, Charlie.’ Shelby suddenly sounded impatient: like a working lawman tenaciously intent on uncovering the unvarnished details of a crime. ‘It was twelve or thirteen years ago that you and Laura and Billy upped stakes and moved away from the city to come west.’

‘His body was found out on the railroad track a couple of miles east of town.’ Childs’

voice was thick with damned up emotion. ‘It’s a week now since he was murdered.’ He took a gulp at his drink and grimaced as if the liquor had suddenly acquired a sour taste. 11

‘Hey now, doc.’ As Segal cut in on the exchange, his voice was as woeful as his expression.

‘Buck, I’d appreciate it if you’d just keep the whiskey coming!’ Childs rebuked and directed a brief scowl toward the bartender.

Segal stood up straighter and countered defensively: ‘I just think it’s crazy for you to be calling it murder when nobody else figures it was anything but a lousy accident, doc. You’re only torturing yourself, it seems to me.’

The nervous mannered Arthur Colbert seemed about to break his long silence, but as soon as he cleared his throat his pale complexioned sister checked him with an imperious frown and a sharp shake of her head.

For a moment Shelby glared with more ill-feeling than Childs at the melancholy bartender, then asked of his friend: ‘How was Billy killed, Charlie?’

‘An accident is how the local lawman describes it. And everyone else in town goes along with him.’ He swallowed hard and grimaced. ‘Billy’s body was badly mangled. Run down, they say, but it’s my belief the boy was either dead already or out cold before the killer threw him in front of the train.’

He peered into his glass, set it down and gripped the arms of his chair as he locked gazes with Shelby who ended the eye contact by glancing toward the Colberts. They purposefully avoided acknowledging him and he looked toward Edge who seemed to be totally engrossed in the newspaper.

‘There’s surely more to it than that, Charlie? Like some kind of evidence at the place on the track where Billy was found, maybe? Or do you know something the local peace officer doesn’t that makes you so certain – ‘

‘Nothing, Ethan. There was nothing out where it happened except for my boy’s body. What was left of it.’

He broke off and tears glistened in his dark brown eyes. Then he cupped his hands, lowered his face into the palms and stayed like that for several silent seconds. Until he suddenly looked up and blurted: ‘I’m sorry, Ethan. Damn stupid of me, losing my grip this way.’

‘There’s no need to apologise to me, Charlie. You want to leave it there for tonight?

And then maybe tomorrow you and me can – ‘

‘No!’ The single word was explosively loud. He sucked in a deep breath and pleaded: ‘No, I have to have some help with this. And you’re the ideal man to give it to me. I need to get an answer from you tonight. Finding you in here like this, well . . . it seems like it was just meant to be.’

Shelby shrugged. ‘I figure you must have good cause to call it murder, Charlie?’

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