Appointment in Samarra - John O'Hara [82]
No, she said. Did you ask anybody about it? he said. No, she said. Then: I heard the boss tell you to play down the story.
He shook his head. See? he said. That s your trouble, Alice. A good reporter knows ten times as much as he ever prints. That s the kind of stuff you ought to know. Off the record stuff. The angles, girl. The angles. You oughta always get the angles of every big story, even when you can t print it. You never know when it s going to come in handy, see what I mean?
Harry Reilly went to his hotel to wash up a bit before meeting a man for lunch. There was a message for him, and when he got upstairs he put in a call for Mrs. Gorman at Gibbsville one one one eight, Gibbsville, Pennsylvania. Hello.
Hello.
Hello. Hello, is that you, Harry?
Yes. What can I do for you?
Listen, Harry. Julian English killed himself last night.
He what?
Killed himself. He took some kind of a poison in his garage. Carbon oxide.
You don t mean carbon monoxide?
That s it. It s a poison.
I ll say it s a poison, but he didn’t take it. It comes out of the motor.
Is that it? Well, I didn’t know that. I just knew it was some kind of a poison and he took it in his garage.
When? Who told you?
Last night. Everybody in town knows it by now. I heard it from four or five different people and I didn’t leave the front porch all morning. I went to seven o clock Mass, but otherwise I haven t been
How do they know it s suicide? Who said so? It could happen to anybody. Was he drunk?
Yes.
Well, then, he might of fell asleep or something.
Not at all. He went in the garage and closed the door. He had a bottle of liquor with him, I heard. The way I heard, Caroline was going to leave him. She was at her mother s.
Oh.
That s why I called you, Harry. You didn’t have anything to do with it, did you?
Christ, no!
Well, you know how people are
I know how you are.
Never mind the insults. I m trying to do a favor for you. You know what people are apt to say. They ll say you had something to do with it, because English threw that drink in your face the other night. They ll put two and two together and get five.
What are you talking about?
Are you dumb or what? They ll say he was sore at you because you have a crush on Caroline.
Aw, where s it eatin you, for God s sake, woman. English was in my office yesterday. He came to see me. He was in my office twenty-four hours ago and I talked to him.
What did you talk about?
I didn’t have time to talk much. I was hurrying to catch the train to New York. You’re trying to make trouble where none is. Is that all you wanted to talk about?
Isn’t it enough? You wanted to know about English, didn’t you?
Only so I could go right out and send some flowers right away, that s all. I liked English and he liked me, or otherwise he wouldn’t have borrowed money from me. I know that type. He wouldn’t borrow a nickel from me if he didn’t like me. Calm yourself, honey, don t get excited about nothing. That s your trouble. You have nothing to do any more so you sit home and worry. What will I bring you from New York?
I don t want anything, unless you want to go down town to Barclay Street. I notice this morning Monsignor needs a new biretta and it might make a nice little surprise for him, but remember. Purple. He s a monsignor.
Don t you think I know that? All right, I ll buy him one and have it sent in your name. Anything else? Because I have a lunch appointment any minute now.
No, I guess that s all.
Everything all right otherwise? he said. Yes, everything all right. So I guess I ll hang up. Goodby, Harry.
Good-by. He hung up slowly. He was a real gentleman. I wonder what in God s name would make him do a thing like that? Then he picked up the telephone again. I want to order some flowers, he said. The girl stood waiting while the man checked his hat and coat. She was tall and fair and had been told so many times she looked like a Benda mask that she finally found out what it was. The man was tall and stoop-shouldered and expensively comfortable about his clothes. He took her elbow and guided her to a tiny table across the room from the bar. They sat down. A young man who had something to do with the place stopped and said hello, and the other man said, Hello, Mac, nice to see you. Mary, this is Mac, Mac, Miss Manners. They smiled, and then Mac went away, and the man turned to Mary and told her Mac was the brother of one of the men that owned the place and what would she like or a Martini? A Martini, rather dry, she said. Two, said the man, and the waiter left them. They lit cigarettes. Well, said the man, how do you feel?