The following is a continuation of the April 20, 1949 entry in the Rocky Stone notebooks:
Mitch Gomer had been dead for a while, a day or two. He curled his lip in pain before he died and his face was frozen like that for all time. That bullet hit him right where it hurt the most. Whoever pulled the trigger knew that and chose that spot specifically.
There was a hole in the wall, a space of three feet by five that was open to the outside. A series of thorns and thistles covered the hole and ate their way inside, twisting along the wall. A consistent hot breeze came from that end of the room and it swirled the smell of decay around in our noses. Gloria sat in a chair and leaned against an old table with mismatched legs. She stared at Mitch in wonder.
“The gals at the Tavern told me about him,” she said. “He showed up three days ago, high as a kite. Marjorie left him.”
I surveyed the garbage heap he lived in. “I can't imagine why.”
“Oh, leave off. Maybe he wasn't a rich man or a smart one, but he was nice. Polite, like a little boy. I met with him two days ago. She took the money and ditched him and all he could do was talk about her. He didn't even care about the money.”
If that was so, he was the only one who didn't. Max Blank cared about that money and his fingerprints were all over this. If I didn't know Nine Knuckles had followed me, I would have thought he had something to do with it. That being said, I knew only one other person Max had on the payroll. I patted the gun in my holster and moved closer to her, just in case.
I extended my hand toward Mitch. “This doesn't get us any closer to Marjorie.”
She laughed. “Of course it does! You don't think she did it, do you?”
A groan from the wind filled the room, and then a sharp smack. The door made that noise but it wasn't blown open by the breeze. Someone came in. Gloria stood and I pressed my finger to my lips, gathered myself and released the gun from its hiding spot.
A woman's voice: “Hello? Mitch?”
It couldn't have been, I told myself. She wouldn't come back now, just like this, not after I said we weren't getting any closer. I peeked around the corner. A sturdy blonde in a blue shirt and dungarees rushed through the minefield of garbage in heeled shoes. Her dusty hair was tied up in the back and she looked like she would clean up nice. Marjorie Gomer was in our midst, and she had a knife in her hand.
She spotted me and in her haste tripped over a paper bag full of old clothes. The fall broke the heel off a shoe as her knife slipped out of her grasp and slid harmlessly into Mitch's room. Gloria retrieved it and casually dropped it into her handbag. The remains of her husband were lodged in the corner of my eye, tucked away where Marjorie couldn't see him. By the way she broke in, she didn't know he was dead.
“It's all right,” I said to her.
Marjorie looked up at me, scared as a rabbi. (Note: the text seems to be missing the 't' on the end of 'rabbit.' For the purposes of authenticity, we have presented the manuscript as is. -ed.)
“Your car's plates say California. Are you...” She swallowed, nervously. “Did Max send you?”
Gloria stepped up and blocked the doorway. “We're private investigators, Mrs. Gomer. It's quite complicated and delicate but we have one or two questions we need to ask you. Do you have some time?”
It was a professional lie meant to put Marjorie at ease, but it didn't work. Cops, private eyes, the feds, it didn't make a difference to her. She hated them all and she wasn't about to listen to anything we had to say. She got to her feet and gave Gloria the cold shoulder, sniffing at her. When she did that, she took in the acrid smell no one could ignore. Her eyes got big.
“Mitch?” she called, and leaped forward to find him.
Maybe she was going to get the wrong idea but there wasn't time to mess around. For her own good, I had to keep her from finding him. I showed her my gun and she froze in her tracks.
“Reverend Hosea sent us,” I said. “Let's go for a drive.”
Now that Rocky has found Marjorie Gomer, can he restore her to her husband? Find out next week in The Lost Love, Part 12!
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