Carl Hiaasen – Double Whammy

“No more games,” he said. “Who’s this girl?”

“I don’t know,” Lanie cried.

“You just came home one night and there she was, passed out in bed?”

“No, a man brought her. Dennis asked me to look after her.”

Decker said, “You’re a very sick lady, Elaine.”

“Easy, man,” said Jim Tile. He sat down on the bed next to Ellen O’Leary and studied the labels on the pill bottles. “Nembutals,” he said to Decker.

“Swell, a Norma Jean cocktail.”

“Just to make her sleepy,” Lanie insisted. “She’ll be all right, R.J. Every night I give her soup. Would you get off me, please?”

Decker grabbed Lanie’s arm and led her out of the bedroom. Jim Tile flushed the pills down the toilet and went to the kitchen to fix coffee for the woman named Ellen. He was wondering how much stranger things would get.

Decker himself was frazzled. Lanie was impossible.

“What did your brother say about this woman?” he asked her.

“He said to keep an eye on her, that’s all. Keep her sleepy and out of trouble. He said she was a danger to herself and others,”

“I’ll bet.”

Lanie asked if she could get dressed. Decker said yes, but he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. Lanie didn’t object. Casually she stripped off her nightgown and stood naked in front of the mirror, brushing out her hair while Decker watched impassively. Finally she put on jeans and a University of Miami sweatshirt.

Decker said, “You know a man named Thomas Curl?”

“Sure, that’s the guy who brought Ellen,” Lanie answered. “He works for Dennis.”

By the way she said it, Decker could tell she really didn’t know. Even Lanie wasn’t that good.

“Thomas Curl killed Bobby,” he said.

“Stop it,” Lanie said, “right now.” But it was obvious by her expression that she was putting it all together.

In the other room Jim Tile carried Ellen to the shower. He propped her under a cold drizzle for ten minutes until she spluttered and bent over to vomit. Then he toweled her off and put her back in bed. Once her stomach settled, she sat up and sipped some coffee.

Jim Tile closed the door and said, “You want to talk?”

“Where am I?” Ellen asked thickly.

“Florida.”

“I musfve got sick—did I miss it?”

“Miss what?” Jim Tile asked.

“Dickie’s funeral.”

“Yes, it’s over.”

“Oh.” Ellen’s eyes filled up.

Jim Tile said, “Dickie was a friend of yours?”

“Yes, officer, he was.”

“How long did you know him?”

“Not long,” answered Ellen O’Leary, “just a few days. But he cared for me.”

“When’s the last time you saw him?”

Ellen said, “Right before it happened.”

“The murder?”

“Yes, officer. I was up in the hotel with him, celebrating after the bass tournament, when Thomas Curl came to the door and said he needed to see Dickie right away.”

“Then what happened, Ellen?”

“They went off together and Dickie didn’t come back. I fell asleep—we’d had an awful lot of champagne. The next morning I heard on the radio what happened.”

Jim Tile refilled her coffee cup. “What did you do then?” he asked.

“I was so upset, I called Reverend Weeb,” she said, “and I asked him to say a prayer for Dickie’s soul. And Reverend Weeb said only if I came over and knelt down with him.”

“I bet you weren’t in the mood for that.”

“Right,” Ellen said. She didn’t understand how the black trooper could know about Reverend Weeb’s strange ways, but she was grateful for the compassion.

Jim Tile opened the bedroom door and asked Decker and Lanie to come in.

“Ellen,” he said, “tell Miss Gault who came and got Dickie Lockhart the night he was killed.”

“Thomas Curl,” said Ellen O’Leary.

Lanie looked stricken. “Are you sure?”

“I’ve known him since high school.”

“God,” Lanie said dejectedly.

Ellen tucked an extra pillow under her head. “I’m feeling lots better,” she said.

“Well, I feel like hell,” said Lanie.

The phone rang. Jim Tile told her to answer it, and motioned Decker to pick up the kitchen extension.

The caller was Dennis Gault.

“Hi,” Lanie said, with the trooper standing very close behind her.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *