The Crowded Streets, Part 11

In the last episode of The Crowded Streets, Rocky was just about to enter the office of congressional candidate George Wilson, to find out what he knows about the mysterious spiritual advisor Inglehoff, and if he had to do with the death of Carl Franklin, the legal counsel of Wilson's opponent, Howard Dixon:

One glance and I knew George Wilson was a man's man. He was tall, a good four inches taller than me and I stand six foot. His eyes were strong and brown and met mine from the moment he entered the room. He looked at people like a hunter in the woods: cautious, keeping the peace in his mind before he plots the next move, and he always had a next move in mind. He was campaigning, every inch of him, from the close-cropped hair on his head to the Italian shoes on his feet. The smile on his face was so practiced that it looked unrehearsed, much better than his wife's. Wilson saw his wife over my shoulder, waiting patiently. He beamed at her, and it wasn't for show. That was a real one.

His wife said it would give me great peace of mind if George were to lose this election. I watched her as she smiled back at him. Her smile wasn't fake, either. I knew. I had been around enough politicians and politicians' wives to know: she had had enough of the races and the interviews and the rotten in-fighting that goes on in the halls of government. That was just an innocent comment by a woman who didn't want to deal with it anymore. I told myself that, and I believed it.

“Mr. Stone, is it?” Wilson proclaimed in a loud voice. I said it was true as far as I knew and he laughed because he thought he was supposed to laugh when somebody tells a joke, no matter how small. His arm guided me forward and he said, “Come this way.”

The office marked 'private' was smaller than I expected, but undeniably private. Three closely-packed walls wrapped around a large, foggy window, divided into nine sections by thin strips of metal. Bricks and mortar sealed off this room from the main floor and it was quiet, sealed, most likely part of the building's industrial past, when a floor supervisor used it to escape the noise of the assembly lines and the machines. A makeshift bookcase made from gray, surplus sheets of metal stood against the red bricks behind George Wilson's sturdy, unattractive desk, filled with volumes and papers that he couldn't have had time to read. He ignored the desk and the chair behind it and sat in a white armchair that faced the windows. There was a matching model turned toward him so I sat in that one.

We sat there and considered the cloudy light that came in through the window. He turned and smiled at me like we were old hunting buddies. “I don't know you, do I?” he asked, with a wink lurking around the corner in his voice.

“No, you don't.”

“Private detective.” He folded his hands across his chest and scanned the window from the bottom to the top. “You fellows hardly ever bring good news. I ask myself, 'What could you possibly have to do with me?' I don't like the answers I get.” His chin dropped a bit, landing in a series of small folds that revealed him to be older than he first appeared. The campaign had been long. It was starting to show and he didn't care if I saw it or not.

I figured he would appreciate it if I came to the point. “Do you know a man named Inglehoff?”

George Wilson sat up. He thought about smiling but wasn't sure if it was proper to do so until he got all the facts. “Is that what all this is about?”

“So you do?”

He wasn't sure how to answer that and entered into speech slowly and carefully. “Look, Mr. Stone, I'm afraid this is a private matter. I can assure you there is no wrongdoing.” Wilson stood. Now he was nervous. He glanced at the door, and I knew why. He was looking right through that door, out to where his wife was patiently waiting with her magazine.

I remembered what Lauren Walters had said about Inglehoff. Most of his clients were women. Young women. Attractive.

I repeated the words to George Wilson and his eyes flashed just like I hoped they would.

What will Rocky discover next? Find out in the next episode of The Adventures of Rocky Stone!

Go to Episode 12: May I Have the Next Trance?