She planned to come in again early Saturday ever Ding and stay until Monday morning. It was a bright breezy day. My two best Finor reels were overdue for cleaning and oiling, and I had the first one all apart when Grets phoned me from work.
Her voice was hushed. “Darling, there is one hell of a mess out here. Herm is dead.”
“Herm?”
“Ladwigg. Mr. Ladwigg. One of the owners.”
“Heart attack?”
“They don’t know yet. He’s been bicycling early in the morning lately, for exercise, riding around the new roads they put in. And they found him in the middle of the road, face down, next to the bicycle. He either blacked out and the fall killed him… they just don’t know yet. He was forty-six. What I wanted to say, don’t expect me tonight, huh? Catherine Mrs. Ladwigg is in shock. They gave her a sedative. I’m here at the Ladwigg house trying to get in touch with their son and daughter. The son is a lawyer in Anchorage and the daughter works for the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki, and I haven’t got through to either of them yet. When I do, I’m going to stay here until one or both of them get here. There’s nobody else to do it. Stan Broffski’s wife is a total loss in a situation like this.”
‘avant me to come out and help you wait around?”
“That’s nice of you, but no, thanks.”
“Let me know when you think you’ll be free, when you have an idea of the time.”
“Sure. Bye, dear.”
So I went back to my fish reels. It was just ten o’clock, Saturday morning, December 8. They were having their weekend in Helsinki and in Anchorage. No telling how long it would take to find either
The Green Ripper of them. In the meanwhile, poor Hermhadsuccumbed to the age of the jock. The mystique of pushing yourself past your limits. The age of shin splints, sprung knees, and new hernias. An officesoftened body in its middle years needs a long, long time to come around. Until a man can walk seven miles in two hours without blowing like a porpoise, without sweating gallons, without bumping his heart past 120, it is asinine to start jogging. Except for a few dreadful lapses which have not really gone on too long, I have stayed in shape all my life. Being in shape means knowing your body, how it feels, how it responds to this and to that, and when to stop. You develop a sixth sense about when to stop. It is not mysticism. It is brute labor, boring and demanding. Violent exercise is for children and knowledgeable jocks. Not for insurance adjustors and sales managers. They do not need to be in the shape they want to be, and could not sustain it if they could get there. Walking briskly no less than six hours a week will do it for them. The McGee System for earnest office people. I can push myself considerably further because I sense when [m getting too close to the place where something is going to pop, rip, or split.
Meyer stopped by a little while after I’d finished the reels. He said he had slept fourteen hours and still felt tired. I told him about the trouble out at Bonnie Brae, and he agreed with me that Ladwigg had probably pushed himself beyond his ability. A fall onto asphalt paving from a ten-speed bike going twenty miles an hour can easily be fatal, especially without a helmet. I doubted Ladwigg would wear a crash helmet while cruising his own development in the early hours.
Gretel phoned again at half-past noon to say she had located the son in Alaska and told him the news, and he expected to be able to get to Lauderdale late this same night.
‘~You sound a little beat,” I said.
“Do I? The phone has been driving me crazy. But I do feel sort of blah. As if I’m coming down with a bug.”
“Can you get somebody to take over?”
‘Y’m trying.”
“I think I’ll come on out.”
‘4I… I’ll be glad to see you.”
Meyer left. I locked up the Flush, went over to the parking area, and cranked up my ancient Rolls pickup, the electric-blue Miss Agnes. The replaced power plant yanked her along too fast for her tall antique dignity, like a dowager blown into an unwilling trot by a gale-force wind. I made a stop on Spangler and picked up a pair of quarter-pounders with cheese, on the assumption that Gretel wouldn’t have had time for lunch either.