“Not always?”
“No. Not always. Sometimes he just comes by.”
“Then why weren’t you at his wedding?”
“How do you know we weren’t?”
“Insurance men know some funny things, Mr. Stanwyk.”
“They must.”
“Why weren’t you at the wedding?”
“It’s none of your business, even if you are an insurance man, but the answer is that the time got mixed up. We were supposed to go to Antigua for a vacation. Alan was paying. He was doing all right at Collins Aviation. A vice president of sales while he was twenty-something. That didn’t surprise me any. I’ve always been strong in sales myself. So we said all right. We’d never had a real get-on-an-airplane vacation before. The wedding was supposed to be a week after we returned. Smack dab in the middle of our vacation, we get this telegram saying the wedding had been moved forward because of some big business shift in her Daddy’s schedule. I think his name is John. We checked the airport, and no connection could be made until the next morning. The wedding was over. We missed it. I sorely would have loved to be there, though. The wife cried a little, but I figure she would have spilled a few tears even if she were there.”
“You’ve never met the Collinses?”
“Never had the pleasure. I’m sure they’re nice folks. I’ve never even met my daughter-in-law. Alan says she hates to fly. Isn’t that the damnedest? Her Daddy owns an airplane company and her husband’s a pilot and she won’t get on an airplane.”
“You’ve never been to California?”
“Nope. But we see a lot of it on television. Especially San Francisco. That place must be an awful pain in the ass to walk up and down. Hills and hills. Everybody in San Francisco must be either slope-shouldered or pigeon-breasted. Now, son, what did you call for?”
“That’s all, sir.”
“What’s all?”
“Just inquiring about you and your wife.”
“Seems to me we haven’t had a conversation at all.”
“If I think of anything more, I’ll call back.”
“Look here, son, if you think of anything at all, call back. I’d be relieved to hear you’re thinking.”
“I do have one other question, sir.”
“I’m breathless waitin’.”
“As far as you know, is your son in good health?”
“When he was fifteen years old, he fought the state Golden Gloves. He’s been in better shape every year.”
“You think he could win the Golden Gloves championship now?”
“That’s not even funny, son.”
“Mr. Stanwyk?”
“I’m still listening.”
“I won the Bronze Star.”
Fletch listened to the silence.
“I take back everything I said, son. Good for you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“It’s a pleasure being called by you. Is there any chance of your coming east with Alan?”
“He doesn’t know me.”
“He should. He won a Purple Heart. That doesn’t mean as much. He just got in the way of something.”
“So did I.”
“I bet. I bet you did.”
“Where was he wounded?”
“He crashed. A helicopter picked him up. The helicopter crashed. Busy snipers, that part of the woods. In the second crash a piece of metal went into his stomach. He told me it looked like an Amish door hinge. No one ever knew where it came from. Maybe the helicopter. I think it’s possible it came from the first crash. A man can carry a door hinge for a while without knowing about it. It’s okay. Recovering from it has kept him slim.”
“Mr. Stanwyk?”
“Yes, son.”
“If you were my dad, I’d pick up the Bronze Star next week.”
“You never picked it up?”
“No, sir.”
“You must have won it a while ago.”
“I did. A long while ago.”
“You ought to pick it up. Give the country a boost.”
“I don’t think so.”
“What’s your name, son, anyway?”
“James,” Fletch said. “Sidney James.”
9
RESERVED CAPTAIN PRECINCT THREE
Fletch parked there.
He went straight to the bull room.
“Lupo’s in back,” the sergeant at the typewriter said. “Beating the shit out of a customer.”
“I’d hate to interrupt him. Someone might read the customer his rights.”
“Oh, they’ve been read to him already. Lupo’s interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling has been read to him.”
“How does Lupo’s interpretation go?”
“You’ve never heard it? It’s really funny. I can’t remember all of it. He rattles it off. Something like: ‘You have the right to scream, to bleed, to go unconscious and call an attorney when we get done with you; visible injuries, including missing teeth, will be reported, when questioned, as having occurred before we picked you up, et cetera, et cetera.’ It scares the shit out of people.”