Page 29 of Hanging and Burning

“Not for him.”

The new inquisitor gave the faintest smile.

“You private?” he asked me.

“Yeah.”

“Who’s the client?”

“He said his name was Cedric Falling.” I like making up names.

“Where is he?”

“New York somewhere.”

“You think you’re pretty slick, don’t ya?” the cop challenged. I later learned that the name of the SWAT cop interrogating me was Carlton Van Arc.

“Yeah, right. So slick I get suckered into a beating.”

Carlton, a man of Nordic heritage, actually laughed at this.

“We’re gonna have to take you in for questioning,” Van Arc said. “You know, compare your story with what the other nitwits have to say.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

7.

I MADE IT back to the Royal Palace Hotel a few minutes shy of midnight.

“What happened to you, Mr. Oliver?” the night clerk asked.

Rubbing a bruise on the already scarred side of my face, I said, “The lady in front’a me didn’t hold the door open, and I was looking down.”

I had just enough time to splash some water on my face and then pour a drink when the room phone rang.

“Hello?”

“It’s Bob, Mr. Oliver. You remember? We had breakfast this morning.”

“Hey, man. What’s up?”

“I’m downstairs.”

I gave him my room number, though he probably already knew it.

Ten minutes later we were sitting across from each other in comfortable padded chairs, talking over a thick glass-top table. I had already told Bob the story I concocted and stuck to over the five-hour interrogation.

I was a detective looking for a woman named Teala Brown, who, I was told, had been a waitress at the Carnelian Oyster. I went there, asked some questions, and met a guy named Fred. I paid this Fred twenty dollars, left my card, and, ultimately, got a call from a man saying he was Finley Pettis. He had another name and was in a coma because of a .45 bullet in his cheek.

“What did Van Arc have to say about all that?”

“You know him?”

“By reputation.”

“I’m sure it’s a deep one. I don’t think the good lieutenant believed everything I said, but he could see what was happening, that I was the victim.”

“You file charges?”