The story so far: Detective Rocky Stone has been hired by Wanda Marcellus, aide of Congressional candidate George Wilson, for the purposes of discovering financial improprieties by the incumbent, Congressman Howard Dixon. While investigating the unusual amounts of telephone poles and booths on the streets of town, Rocky discovers connections between a spiritualist guide named Inglehoff, Candidate Geroge Wilson and his wife Martha, and the wife of prominent businessman and philanthropist Gilbert King. In the last episode, Rocky followed Martha Wilson and Clarissa King to Van Meter's Restaurant, where Clarissa slipped something into Martha's purse. The following takes place as Rocky watches Clarissa King walk down Olvidados Street:
I spun out into traffic. Clarissa King breezed across the street and turned at the corner and I followed her, passed her by, and watched her continue up the sidewalk in my rear view. Before I reached the next block I found an open parking space and turned in to it. The street was lined with shops, mostly for men: a barber, men's shoes, hardware. She passed them at a decent clip with a broad smile on her face, but once she reached the last shop in the lot, a sporting goods store with a mannequin dressed in full hunting garb standing resolute outside the door, she finally stopped and had a look. I could see her twist her head slowly as she peered into the store, and once she decided it was safe for America and womanhood, she entered.
Chances were she wasn't looking for a place to dump out a back door and lose me, but even slim odds can come through sometimes. I got out and ambled up the street. The store was named Barney's and it specialized in gear for the man who likes to spend his free time knee-deep in the woods with a rifle or dropping a line into a stream. Not an especially big store, and if they had a way out the back I didn't see it at first. Clarissa was inside, talking to a clerk dressed in a spiffy suit you wouldn't want to take into the great outdoors. There was a collection of fishing waders off to the side and I pretended to be interested in them so I could get closer to their conversation.
“I'm not sure,” said the clerk in a slightly uncomfortable tone.
Clarissa King's voice in return was quietly musical, proud: “You are aware of who my husband is, aren't you?”
“I'm afraid I don't, ma'am.”
“He is Gilbert King of Millways Construction,” she replied.
I could hear the poor kid sweat buckets at the sound of that name. “Oh, my goodness. Yes. He is one of our best customers...”
“I am aware of that. But you see, if I am to surprise him with this gift, it cannot be part of his line of credit. I would have to open my own account.”
“Of course,” he said with some relief, and directed her over to a glass case. She stood there for a bit while he went off to tend to some other business.
I wandered over to a grouping of fishing poles and waited for him to come back. In the meantime, an older man dressed in short sleeves and a bow tie saw me standing all alone and figured I'd want someone to talk to. The Barney of the store's title, I guessed.
“I see you have an eye on that Eagle Claw,” he said in a voice that rattled and rumbled along the floor. “Good eye, sir. It's one of our best sellers. We get that direct from Wright and McGill out in Denver, Colorado. You an angler, sir?”
“Of sorts.”
Clarissa's clerk had returned. He set a white box out on the glass and set some paper-work before her. She read over it carefully as he carefully explained each detail, pointing out each line with a pen, circling the interesting bits. Not that I could hear what he had to say, since Barney decided to give me a three-course lecture on his experiences fly-fishing in the Rockies at that point. There's a spot up there where the water's like crystal, he said, as Clarissa took the pen from his hand and signed on the dotted line. You wouldn't believe it until you actually see it. I had one of them Eagle Claws that I got at a store up there and believe me, if you want to bring in the big ones...
Barney's voice got louder and more excited as his stories and sales pitches continued, catching the attention of Clarissa. She saw me clearly and it didn't make sense to turn away and give her cause for concern. I smiled, somewhat embarrassed, as I might have been had this been a normal social interaction, but smile as I might, it didn't work. Our eyes met. Her face fell, as if I was an old lover she recognized.
Yes, sir, the best fishing in the world is out in the Rockies, sir. Do you have any plans to go out there? Because as an angler myself I highly recommend it. Many's the day I've spent at the edge of a lake in the fine mountain air...
Clarissa swiped up the white box from the counter. She dipped her head so I couldn't see her face, and took a few rapid steps toward the exit before she seemed to remember something. Her head lifted, her body twisted, and in one motion she reached into the box, grabbed the contents and threw it aside. I reached into my coat but by that time she already had the drop on me. She was pointing a Smith and Wesson .38 right at my head.
Will Clarissa King shoot Rocky right in the middle of a sporting goods store in the middle of the city? Find out next week in The Adventures of Rocky Stone!
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