The wind blustered through the man made canyons of the city, the reflection of the street light struggled out of a muddy puddle in the road, a bedraggled cat hissed at my feet from the soggy pile of garbage that littered the sidewalk, Fifth Avenue it isn't, and two in the morning isn't a good time to be here.
In the distance a trumpet wailed its sorrow into the night. The note had said to follow that sound. I turned my head from side to side trying to decide from which direction it had come. I turned right into an even more depressing alley and, as I got nearer, the trumpet was joined by a bass, drums, guitar and piano. From what I could hear of the notes that fought their way to my ears through the other night sounds, the band wasn't half bad.
A flickering red neon led me to a bar at the very end of the alley. It was surrounded by trash bins that overflowed onto the pavement. Pushing the door open I entered a world of smoke, of beer smells and the sounds of despair. The trumpet player lay down his instrument and began to sing in a voice that told of too many cigarettes, too much bad whisky and too much sadness, John Lee Hooker he wasn't but the small crowd sat in rapt silence while he sang, empathizing with his lament.
I grabbed a stool at the bar, "What's your poison?" The woman behind the bar matched the ambience of this place, her once blond hair tinted yellow by the smoke, her once pretty face scarred by age and lack of sleep, the only thing that seemed to have survived the ravages of time was her figure, or at least the part of it that I was allowed to see.
"Whisky, straight up." I slapped some money on the bar. "I don't suppose you tell me where I can find Laura Lee Jones?"
She served me an extra shot of whisky and passed the glass to me. "You've found her. You must be Johnny."
I took a business card from my pocket and passed it over, "This card says I am and it's my card so I guess I am." I took a swig of the whisky and wished that I hadn't, I hated to think of the damage this was going to do to my guts on the way through. "Whew!" I winced to show my displeasure. "When was this made, yesterday?"
"You some sort of connoisseur are you? My regular customers don't complain."
"They probably don't have any taste buds left."
"Hang around, the band will be finishing their set in ten minutes or so and then the crowd will clear off and we can talk. Why don't you take a load off in that booth over there." Her nod indicated a booth occupied by a woman who looked as she too had seen better days.
I slid in opposite her and put my glass down. A quivering hand reached out and grabbed it, the glass rattled against her teeth as her unsteady hand tilted it up, emptying it in one gulp. "Help yourself, why don't you."
"I just did. Got a smoke?" I shook a Camel out of the pack for her and one for myself, she grabbed it like it was her last and stuffed it between her lipstick smeared lips. I took the Zippo out of my jacket and torched hers before I lit mine. Snapping the lighter shut I tried to ignore her. "You looking for some action?"
"Nah, I gave it up for Lent."
We sat in silence, each lost in our separate world, me thinking about what Laura Lee wanted from me and she, well I couldn't tell what world she inhabited.
The band finished their set and put down their instruments, the fact that they weren't packing them away tells me that this was their regular gig. The customers shuffled out as the band moved over to the bar for one last free drink before heading out to wherever.
My companion stood shakily to her feet, "You sure you don't want to take me home?"
"Sorry Sweetheart, but I've gotta get home to the little lady." It was a lie but she wasn't to know that, in fact in an hour she will have forgotten all about me.
Laura Lee locked the door and came and sat down in the booth. "I see you hit it off with Sadie." She put another glass of whisky in front of me, "That's to replace the one she took."
"You did that on purpose didn't you?" I held it to my nose, it didn't singe my nose hairs so I knew it was a different brew to the other stuff, probably last week's batch. I took a sip and it slid down smoothly. "Nice, private stock is it?"
"Yeah, I keep this for special clients."
"How can I help you?"
"I want you to find my no good husband." I could tell by the tone of her voice that there was no love lost between her and the missing husband.
"I gather that you would prefer it if he came up dead."
"You gather right. The no-good son-of-a-bitch was not only stealing money from me but he was putting it about with just about anyone and he didn't care if I knew it. He even fucked your friend here."
"You're kidding me right?"
"No. I went out into the alleyway to chuck some trash in the dumpster and there he was up to his balls in that scrawny slag."
I get the picture. "When was the last time you saw him?"
"Right after I chucked him out the door last Monday night. I had just had a visit from a couple of very big and mean looking guys who were collecting on behalf of one of the local bookies. It seems he was into them for several grand and these guys suggested that if he didn't pay up, and soon, he would regret it."
"I don't suppose you know the name of this bookie do you?"
"Benny someone or other, I didn't quite get the last name, but I gather he is big time."
"They don't come much bigger. There's a good chance your husband is currently feeding the sharks in the ocean."
"If he is can you prove it?"
"Probably not, but I might get lucky you never know. I don't suppose you filed a Missing Persons report."
"I did, but it's probably not much use, the cops didn't seem terribly interested, especially after I told them that he owed Benny money. I figure they came to the same conclusion you did."
"I'll call by tomorrow night to let you know how what investigation turns up." I got up and walked out into a night of misery. It had come to this, my partner had left to set up his own agency about six months ago, with my wife. He was the money man of the J&T Detective Agency, (Discretion guaranteed), and I was the poor schmuck who did the detecting. I drew wages and he drew what was left, that wasn't the deal when we started out but after he left I found out that he had done a damn sight better from the business than I had.
I grabbed a couple of hour's shuteye before hitting the pavements. It didn't take long for me to find out that my man had run up a large tab at the track and was stalling for time hoping for a big enough pay out so that he could clear his debts. Like all gambling fools he had lost sight of the fact that his chances of that big pay out was on the same level as a snowball's chance of survival in hell. The word on the street was that Benny had lost patience with him, and we all knew what that meant. All I had to do was prove it. So I paid a visit to Benny.
My first hurdle was to get by the goon at the front door of Benny's office. "Whachewant?" He made the Neanderthal man look intelligent.
"I wish to see Your Boss." Straight forward enough request I thought.
"The boss isn't seeing no-one, so shove off."
I gave him a hard right to the bread basket that doubled him over then a swift knee to the face, he stood there with blood streaming from his nose and a bewildered look on his ugly puss. He thought about having a slug at me, a minute later he had a second thought and decided against it. "Why don't you be a good person and go and speak to your boss, all you have to do is tell him that Johnny Anderson would like a chat." I could hear him muttering my name over and over as he left. After several minutes he came back.
"The boss'll see ya." He looked hurt but he let me by.
I didn't knock, "Hiya Benny, long time no see." I held out my paw for him to shake. He ignored it and nodded towards a chair. I sat.
"What do you want?" He made it sound as if I was wasting my time even talking to him, which I probably was.
"I'm looking for one of your clients who's gone missing. You wouldn't happen to know where Andy Jones is, would you?"
"Why would I, I don't get involved in petty hustlers like him."
"I didn't ask if you'd seen him, what I asked was if you knew where he was?"
"What makes you think I'd know where he is?"
"Rumor has it that he was into you for a lot of money so I would hazard a guess that he has met an untimely death and is shark bait, I could be wrong mind you, but it seems to me that when anyone owes you as much as he does they seem to end up that way, or at least there are rumors to that effect."
"Wise guy aren't you. Okay, let's just say that I know what happened to him but I don't know where he is. You should ask your ex-partner about that."
"Why, what has he got to do with this?"
"He was contracted to carry out the hit, and I won't say who asked him to, and dispose of the body."
