Every City Is Every Other City: A Gordon Stewart Mystery by John McFetridge

Author:John McFetridge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2021-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

There was a very small restaurant, maybe ten seats, around the corner from Ethel’s house on Queen called Cinamon that was excellent. It was next door to a Nando’s and I thought that’s where we were going when we walked along Queen and I said, “It’s not Nando’s, you know.”

“You know I’m a professional comedian, right? I teach comedy writing.”

I said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

When we walked in we were met immediately by a woman who said hello to Ethel and then, “It’s not takeout tonight?”

“No, not tonight, Saya.”

We got the best table in the place, by the window. We ordered a bottle of white wine and some appetizers and then Ethel said, “So why are you back so soon?”

I said, “Because I found the guy.”

“Oh, wow, that’s great.”

“I was too late, though.”

“Why, what happened?”

I told her how he’d already killed himself and how Frank and I found him and how awful it was, three weeks later, and how there still wouldn’t be any closure for anyone because there’s no such thing as closure.

Saya brought our onion bhajis and vegetable samosas.

Ethel said, “That’s true, there’s no such thing as closure.” She drank some wine and then she said, “But look, you did a good job, you’re a good private eye.”

“I’m dogged,” I said. “If I was a hockey player, I’d be a grinder.”

“Did you want to be a hockey player?”

“Let’s see, I grew up in Scarborough,” I said, “so, for a while, anyway.”

“Before you fell in love with the movies?”

“I didn’t fall in love with the movies,” I said. “I don’t even like movies.”

“You’re in the business.”

“I’m in the location scouting business.”

“Yeah, scouting for movies.”

I said, “That’s true.”

“So why did you get into it?”

“I guess because I really can find things.”

“No,” Ethel said, “why did you get into the industry?” She put air quotes around the word industry.

“I don’t know, I kind of fell into it.”

“Like you fell off a bike?”

“It was more about what I didn’t want to do,” I said. “I worked with my dad at hydro, climbing poles for a couple of summers, and I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to work in retail. I didn’t want to sell anything.”

“Or process anything.”

I said, “What?”

“You don’t want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. You don’t want to sell anything bought or processed or buy anything sold or processed or repair anything sold, bought or processed as a career. You don’t want to do that.”

“What are you talking about?”

She said, “You’re Lloyd Dobler,” and I said, “Oh, it’s from a movie, of course. Everything everybody says is from a movie.”

“Well, yes,” she said, “movies have used all the words. Sometimes people put them in a different order.”

I said, “Did you always want to be an actor?” and she said, “Yes,” as if it was the only thing anyone ever wanted to be.

After the meal, we walked a block down to the lake and along the boardwalk for a while.

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