Richard Stevenson - [Donald Strachey Mystery 09] by Death Vows (html)

Author:Death Vows (html) [Vows, Death]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-05T08:45:12+00:00

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Chapter Fourteen

I checked my cell phone to see if Bill Moore had called, but he had not. I was meeting George Santiago, one of the other borrowers, at five, so I headed back toward downtown Great Barrington. I reached Ramona Furst on her cell and asked her if I could visit Fields in jail over the weekend, and she said she would set it up. We made a plan for dinner at eight at an Indian place she said was good.

As I drove up Route 7, I tried calling Lewis Bushmeyer again. The hot-tub borrower who had hung up on me the first time I called was now willing to talk, and he was still angry and upset, but this time not at me.

“Did you say you’re working for Barry Fields?” he said.

“I am.”

“And not for Steven Gaudios?”

“No. Gaudios thinks Barry shot Jim Sturdivant. Or says that’s what he thinks, anyway.”

“Are you aware that Steven called in my loan? And probably other people’s, too?”

“I heard that, yes.”

Bushmeyer said in a shaky voice, “I don’t happen to have access to four thousand dollars. And my credit is all shot to hell. I can’t go to any commercial lender.”

“That’s bad.”

“I told Steven this, and do you know what he said?”

“What?”

“He said, ‘Just. Get. The. Money.’”

“So, he was not sympathetic.”

“He said – it’s hard to believe this – but Steven said, ‘How would you like to have both your legs broken?’ Can you believe it?”

I said, “That’s not very tasteful and elegant.”

“Tasteful and elegant? He talked to me like he was some fucking gangster.”

I assured Bushmeyer that I was not a party to any of this and said, “I know of five borrowers.” I named them. “Do you know of any others?”

“No, I don’t. And I didn’t know Bill Moore borrowed money from Jim and Steven,” Bushmeyer said. “I thought Bill didn’t much like Jim and Steven. And I know Barry couldn’t stand them. He always referred to them as the toads. In fact, that name kind of caught on.”

“It’s my impression that nobody was crazy about Jim and Steven, but their charitable largesse and their generous loan terms won them a certain amount of deference and even social standing.”

“People put up with them,” Bushmeyer said. “They were part of the scenery in gay Berkshire County. But really an embarrassment to everybody.”

I said, “So, speaking of embarrassments – did you visit the hot tub in order to procure your loan, Lewis? I am not one to judge. I’m just fact-gathering.”

There was a long pause. “It was humiliating.”

“Sorry.”

“I am twenty-five years old and extremely handsome, and I am very particular about who I have sex with.”

“Good for you.”

“I have very beautiful genitals, men say.”

“That, too. Or, those.”

“And I gave myself over to those two – for money. If my credit had been better, none of this would ever have happened. I am so ashamed. And now I’m paying for my misdeed.”

“Good luck getting the money together. But four thousand is not as bad as it could have been.

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