Only to Sleep by Lawrence Osborne

Author:Lawrence Osborne
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crown/Archetype
Published: 2018-07-23T16:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

Bonhoeffer had found Linder’s records in Salton City and he had driven up there himself that morning to check them out. I knew that road so well, the mountains like great piles of ash mirrored in dead water. There’s a place near there called Hellhole Palms. I always wondered what it would be like to retire there and have that on my card. The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians live there, just below the other little hellhole called Mecca—and you have to admit the names of these places certainly have a sense of humor. I wondered if Salton City had an Avenida Salsipuedes, a street name I often saw in Mexico: Avenue Leave If You Can.

Bonhoeffer had found the address of a trailer park in a place called Glamis on the far side of the Salton Sea. It was a road called Horseshoe Lane, within walking distance of the Glamis North Hot Spring Resort, where Linder worked as a gardener.

With barely any sewage or electricity, Glamis was a frontier hamlet, dried to the bone, and it had been easy to find Linder’s trailer.

“I knocked on the door, but there was no one there, of course. I found a neighbor and she told me Paul had gone away on a job. The place had a padlock on it, so he isn’t there. I looked up his records—he was caught once selling heroin down in Niland. They let him off.”

“Was he part of the commune in Slab City?”

This was a tiny alternative community lost in the desert, known for its dropouts and drug-induced outdoor sculptures.

“I went down there after. They all knew him, but he’d been gone a few months and they could no longer remember him. They’re all stoned all the time. I couldn’t find his old man. They say he drives around the desert by himself and has no fixed address. What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. He’ll show up somewhere.”

“There’s another funny thing.”

“Oh?”

“I ran a search inside the Palm Dunes resort you mentioned. They were clearing it out before the new owners took possession and the workers found a marble urn in the basement. Definitely human ashes. Mrs. Zinn seems to have forgotten about it. I took it down to the station and we have it here. I don’t suppose you’d like to enlighten me?”

“This is the problem with people today. They leave their loved ones in their basements and then forget about them.”

“It does seem a bit degenerate.”

“Maybe she was in a hurry? I can’t enlighten you about who’s in the urn. Maybe it’s someone who owed her money.”

He laughed and muttered, “More’n like.”

“Keep the urn there and I’ll pick it up from you later.”

“You?”

“When I know who’s in it. You won’t mind knowing either.”

“It’s just an urn. It’s not a crime scene.”

“See if you could find the father at some point, would you? I’d like to know what he thinks.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.