"If I get pneumonia and die I'll never speak to you again." Face said getting out of the car.
"Now, Face," Hannibal said, "I couldn't know it was going to start raining."
When the service ended the congregation had left the church to find an appropriately biblical downpour in progress. Face was half way up the hill to the hotel when they picked him up. He was apparently deliberately avoiding the shelter of the trees in order to get as wet and therefore as righteously aggrieved as possible. Squeezing into the back seat of Mike's car beside Murdock he reported that Jed's truck had flat tires and battery as Hannibal had requested, then subsided into a damp sulk for the rest of the short journey.
BA had nothing to report, but he did have a good giggle at the sight of Face, who stomped off to take a long hot shower while the others started fixing lunch. After the meal Face went to get some sleep. Hannibal took up position at the command post. BA asked if he wanted company, but Hannibal just shook his head. He had a cigar and a thoughtful expression. Recognising the colonel was in planning mode BA left him to it. Mike was in his office working on his account books; David was outside practicing on his skateboard now the rain had stopped. BA found Murdock lounging on a dustsheet covered sofa in the lobby, reading.
"Hey, Murdock," he said. "What's the book?" Murdock held it up.
"'The Lucasville Telephone Directory'. The phone book? You're reading the phone book?" Murdock just smiled at him. "Crazy fool." BA muttered. "Reading the darn phone book." He shook his head and grumbled off to work on his van.
Murdock got up and stretched. The afternoon sunlight was starting to slant through the windows. He noticed the sound of David's skateboard rumbling up and down had stopped. Glancing through the door he saw the boy sitting on the steps to the entrance. Murdock went to the kitchen then went outside.
"Hey, David, you want a drink?" Murdock asked holding out a soda can. David looked up at him. His eyes were red rimmed and he looked away again quickly after he took the soda.
"Thanks, Mr Murdock."
"Just 'Murdock' is okay." Murdock said, "Hey can I have a go on your board?" David looked up at him again, surprised.
"Um, okay if you like."
Murdock hopped on and took a couple of turns around the paved area at the front of the hotel. As he rolled past BA where he was working on his van Murdock saluted him and said, "Big guy."
"Fool," BA said, whether as a greeting or an insult Murdock wasn't sure.
Murdock stopped in front of David and sat down beside him. David didn’t speak, just drank his soda, gazing off over the valley.
"You thinking about your mom?" Murdock asked. David stared at him.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
Murdock just shrugged. "I lost my mom when I was a boy. Maybe I know the look."
"Oh." David paused. "How old were you?"
"Five. I didn't really understand what 'dead' meant. My dad tried to explain that she'd gone to heaven. I asked him where heaven was and he said it was up in the sky." The two of them looked up at the sky. Grey clouds promising more rain drifted lazily across the blue. "So I started walking around looking up the whole time, hoping I'd see her, you know. I sure bumped into stuff a lot, let me tell you." David smiled a little. "People looked at me funny when I said I was staring at the sky to see my mom, so instead I told them I was looking at aeroplanes, that I loved aeroplanes. Then everyone started buying me model planes and books about planes and posters of planes. By the time I was ten my bedroom needed its own air traffic control system." Another small smile from the boy.
"So that's why you became a pilot?"
"Naw, that was for the chicks and the money." This time David laughed out loud and Murdock grinned. David stretched out a leg and put one foot on his skateboard, rolled it back and forth.
"When I was a little kid I thought my mom could fly," he said. "When she was doing her act, on the trapeze, she'd be spinning through the air and I think… I think I thought she was a super hero, like in a comic book." He gave Murdock a slightly wobbly smile. "Stupid kid, huh?"
"I think all moms are superheroes." Murdock said. David didn't answer, just went on rolling the skateboard back and forth. "You want another soda?" Murdock asked. David shook his head. "Well, I'm getting one." Murdock stood up.
"Murdock." David said, looked up at him and smiled. "You're pretty cool. For a gage, anyway." Murdock raised his eyebrows.
"Gage? What is that, circus talk for crazy fool?"
"Something like that. Or my dad might say you're okay for a tall bastard." He grinned. "Well, he wouldn't say that in front of me."
"I should hope not," Murdock said with mock severity. He went inside and got himself another soda, then wandered into the dining room. He stood looking at the family portrait for a while, the word 'gage' running around his head, looking for a place to settle, while he looked at Elena Harper.
"Hey, Murdock," Face poked his head round the door. Murdock turned to look at him and smiled a little. Face had on jeans and a battered looking sweater. He mustn't have blow-dried his hair before he lay down to rest because it was somewhat fluffy. "Hannibal wants to talk to all of us. He's in the kitchen, come on." He left and Murdock followed.
"You feeling better?" He asked Face. "No pneumonia symptoms?" Face gave a wry smile at the memory of his earlier complaints.
"I'm fine," he said. "Hey, do you like the name Valley Vista Hotel?"
"No." Murdock said.
"Oh. Okay. So what you been up to all afternoon?"
"Oh, reading. Being pretty cool, the usual." He enjoyed Face's quirky questioning look at him. "Face, do you know what a gage is?"
"A what?"
"Never mind," Murdock said. They reached the kitchen where the others were gathered. Mike was pouring coffee and handing it out. David sat on one of the stainless steel worktops eating cookies. BA was washing up his oily hands. Hannibal stood waiting, no cigar now. Once everyone was settled the colonel began.
"I've been thinking about how we handle this. I got the measure of those guys last night and I can see where to go now." He looked around at the anticipation on their faces. "Obviously we can fight these creeps and kick their… ah… butts. But we can't stay here forever and once we go they come back. So we have to slam the lid on them for good."
"How are you planning on doing that?" Mike asked.
"Well I don't think that your showing up in town turned the Heinemann's from nice law abiding boys into bigoted drunken jerks. They must have done this kind of thing before."
"According to what I've heard, they have, yes," Mike confirmed. "Anybody they didn't like was 'persuaded' to leave town."
"So I'll bet they have a few skeletons in their closets." Hannibal said. "And I'll bet they haven't ever bothered to conceal those skeletons very well."
"Yeah, why bother cleaning up the mess when you know the sheriff isn't going to come looking?" Face agreed.
"Well we're going to go looking. Or rather you are, Face, and you Murdock. Meanwhile BA and I will keep them, shall we say… distracted." He grinned. "They've been going out of their way to make things inconvenient for you, Mike, so we're going to make things inconvenient for them."
"Like you did with their truck," David said.
"Exactly, kid. That was just a little taster of what's in store." He looked at Mike again. "You said they don’t do much work, so where do they hang out all day? I'm guessing it's not the public library."
"A roadhouse, just out of town. They actually own it, or hold the mortgage on it or something. Anyway they treat it like it's theirs."
"Perfect." Hannibal said. "We'll pay it a little visit tonight." He turned to Murdock who was pouring himself another cup of coffee. "Murdock, I think you're cooking up a little theory about all this. You ready to share it?"
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment." Murdock said, in his Holmes voice, which made BA grumble.
"Okay. Anything I can do to help?"
"Well, actually," Murdock said, normally. "With your permission, I was thinking of going out tonight. Taking in a few of the local bars and chatting to a few people. Seeing what I can find out."
"Want me to come?" Face asked.
Murdock shook his head. "This is more a solo operation," he said, his voice becoming dramatic. "A secret undercover quest to probe the dark underbelly of Lucasville." He grinned at BA's scowl and Hannibal and Face's puzzled expressions then picked up a cookie and dunked it in his coffee. "You'd be too conspicuous, Face. I'm not planning on hitting the upmarket cocktail lounges."
"Okay," Hannibal said, deciding to just let Murdock get on with it. "Face, in the morning you and Murdock can follow up on what he finds out tonight. Now, David, you can help me out with my end. You got many singles?"
"Singles? Yeah a few, why?"
"Oh, I just wanted to borrow a couple, if you can spare them." Hannibal grinned. "What kind of music do you like? The really loud stuff that us old geezers hate?" He asked in a hopeful voice.
Murdock walked into the third bar at just after midnight. It was dark and smoky. A TV over the bar played a sports highlights show. Men sat around in small groups or alone. There was little conversation. Murdock took a stool at the bar, next to a couple of tough looking men and lit a cigarette.
"Gimme a draught," he said when the barman came over. One of the men at the bar glanced at him, took in the design on the back of his jacket.
"Da Nang? You were in country?" His tone of voice implied Murdock better have been, or wearing that jacket would be a fashion statement he'd come to regret making.
"Yeah." Murdock said. "You too?"
"Did a tour."
The barman came back. "Get another couple for my buddies here." Murdock said, nodding at the men seated to his left.
"Thanks, pal." They sat drinking their beer in silence. The barman polished glasses. The TV burbled about a baseball game.
"Not seen you around before," the other veteran said to Murdock eventually.
"Just got into town today." Murdock said.
"Looking for work?"
"Yeah, you know anyone hiring?"
"Maybe. Depends what you can do."
Murdock shrugged, "Hey, I can turn my hand to most anything. What about that big place up the side of the valley? Looks like a hotel or something. Looked like there was work going on there." He saw a glance pass between the barman and the customers.
"Nah, you don't want to be applying there." The veteran told Murdock. "Not right now anyway. Maybe in a few weeks."
"Well, I think I'll be sticking around." Murdock said. "I like the look of this place."
"It's a regular garden spot." The veteran's previously silent friend said in a gruff voice.
"Yeah," Murdock said. "What I noticed 'specially is how clean you keep the place, know what I mean?" They looked at him a little puzzled. "You know, keepin' the ethnics out. I don't think I seen one all day." Their faces changed to understanding, and they nodded.
"Yeah." The veteran said. "That’s how we like it around here."
"I've just been in LA for a couple of months," Murdock said. "Damn 'spics have got that place all sewn up. I went for a job pushing a broom around at a convenience store and they blew me off 'cause they said they wanted someone who can speak Spanish." They looked suitably outraged, shook their heads.
"Man, ain't that the way." The barman said.
"Bastards want us to speak their languages and they won't even learn American." The veteran said.
"Ten, twenty years time the white man's gonna be the minority in this country." Murdock said. They nodded in agreement, faces serious. They sat drinking their beers for a while.
"So how'd you do it around here? Keep 'em out?" Murdock asked.
"Oh, we have our ways."
Murdock laughed. "I'll bet." His beer was empty.
"Get you another?" The veteran asked. Murdock smiled, moved his bar stool a little closer to his new 'friends'.
"Thanks."
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© Elizabeth Charles 2005