30
IF THE TREESweren't blooming, you'd think it was late
November. It was slate-colored and cold, with a hard rain falling
as usual, and some wind. I sat inside in my office with my chair
swiveled around and my feet up on the windowsill, and looked at the
weather. I had a legal-size yellow pad of bluelined paper on my lap
and a ballpoint pen in my hand, and while I watched the day unfold
I tried my hand at thinking.
I had made a list of
people I'd talked to during the course of the Jumbo business, and I
was checking it to see if I might have missed something. I didn't
do a lot of scientific clues. Since nearly all the crimes I looked
into were done by humans, it followed that nearly all of the clues
I ever came up with were human. Something someone said or did or
didn't say or didn't do, or even how they acted when they did or
didn't. Whenever I was stuck, that's what I did. I made a list on a
long yellow pad, of everybody, however peripheral, that I had
encountered during the investigation.
Someone came into my
office, and I swiveled around to see who it was. It was Quirk,
wearing a brown tweed cap and a tan raincoat.
"Donuts?" I
said.
"Was hoping you'd
have some," Quirk said.
He took off his hat
and coat, and hung them on the rack beside the door.
"Settle for coffee,"
he said.
"You know where it
is," I said.
He poured himself a
cup and one for me, gave me mine, and sat down across the desk from
me.
"Just stopped by to
see how things were going with Jumbo Nelson. They tell me you got
canned."
"Me and Rita both,"
I said. "Although technically she quit before he could fire her, I
think. It's a little hard to say, and you have to give weight to
the question of intent. Did he intend to fire her before she quit.
Intent--"
"Jesus Christ,"
Quirk said. "Whaddya know?"
"I found out a lot,"
I said. "I may well bring some miscreant to justice before I'm
through."
"Did Jumbo do it?"
Quirk said.
"Haven't found that
out yet," I said.
"You got any idea?"
Quirk said.
"No."
"What miscreants are
you planning to bring to justice?"
I told him what I'd
learned from Mr. del Rio. Quirk listened, silently nodding
occasionally.
"Excellent," he
said. "You're gonna clean things up in L.A. Just what I was hoping
for."
"It'll lead back to
Jumbo," I said.
Quirk leaned back in
his chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. He slowly
clasped his hands and raised them to his chin and held the position
for a bit. Then he took in a big breath.
"You're making a
list," he said.
"Everybody I've
encountered in the, ah, investigation," I said.
Quirk nodded, and
put his hand out.
"I see it?" he
said.
I handed him the
list, and he looked at it for a while.
"Didn't Jumbo have
an agent?" Quirk said.
"Yeah," I said.
"Alice Something-or-other."
I reached into my
middle drawer and found the card she'd given me.
"DeLauria," I said.
"Alice DeLauria Inc., offices in Century City. She's not on my
list?"
"Nope."
"You talked to her
before?"
"Nope."
"But you remember
her?" I said.
"I do," Quirk
said.
"How come you did
and I didn't?" I said.
"Police captain,"
Quirk said.
"Of course," I
said.