Pay or Play by Howard Michael Gould

Author:Howard Michael Gould [Gould, Howard Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2021-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

His shoulder blossomed purple. Waldo found an ice pack in Lorena’s freezer, dragged one of the two dining table chairs into the empty living room, and, much out of habit now as compulsion, fired up the next episode of Judge Ida.

A couple, immigrants from Moscow without much English, were suing their former tenant, a dominatrix whose ‘renovations’ required wall and ceiling repairs far in excess of the security deposit. Juicy stuff, but his attention wandered:

Something happened to Anthony Branch that night, Waldo thought, and someone didn’t want him to figure out what.

And the fact that someone tried to kill him was pretty much the only clue that he had.

Judge Ida was irritated by the Russian husband’s halting attempts to explain a contractor’s written estimate, which was handwritten and partially in cursive Cyrillic. ‘What you write this in, secret code? How am I supposed to understand this diddly-bop?’

Who would want to shut Waldo down? Who even knew he was looking into Anthony Branch’s death?

Judge Ida. Lorena. Rev. Thurmond and the pledge captains, scattered around the country.

Which meant the pledges could probably be ruled out. That was a start.

Judge Ida was saying, ‘That’s way too much for replacement paneling. She owes you a hundred dollars, and that’s it.’

‘Hundred dollars? But written here—’

‘It’s not written in English! I know what paneling costs. And you’re lucky she ruined it. That tired shit was butt-ugly.’

The audience whooped.

Lelong, going on about the ‘Black girls.’

Gass, the one who placed Anthony in the woods.

And Fishbein’s map – did it ever exist? Or did Fishbein make it up to expand the suspect pool, make it appear possible that anyone at all could have known where to look for Anthony Branch, blindfolded and vulnerable?

The landlord tried to say, again, ‘But written here—’

Judge Ida said, ‘I – can’t – read – that – gobbledygook!’ Building …

‘He is licensed contractor—’

‘You’re not listening to me.’ Building …

‘To replace, cost us—’

‘You – are – not – listening – to me. Now, sit the fuck down, and shut the fuck up!’ The audience exploded. The poor Russian couple, not understanding her diddly-bop, looked lost and frightened.

She was a bully. She needed to dominate. That’s what the show was built on: her fascist control of this phony little realm.

She must have been like this all along, even if she knew she had to hold it in – an African American woman, that young, that time, that place.

How powerful was it, deep down, that need to dominate?

Enough to murder?

But if she had killed Anthony, and hired Waldo only to see if she’d been found out, and by whom, why would she try to kill him as soon as he started getting some traction?

Unless that option had been part of her plan from the start.

The Range Rover attack came the day after he learned about the map. How would she know that he had?

Could Rev. Thurmond have told her? Could they be speaking again now? Could they have been in touch all along?

Possible. For sure, Judge Ida was hiding a couple of cards.

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