The Cry of Cicadas by J. Sydney Jones

Author:J. Sydney Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J. Sydney Jones
Published: 2023-12-01T11:47:04+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Next morning, Max was at the Town and Country Café first for a meeting with Sam Norton, fresh out of hospital. He sipped on a tepid cup of coffee and read the war news in the Chronicle. The capital of the Dutch East Indies fell to the Japanese yesterday. In England, which had been at war already for two-and-a-half years, the conscription age for both men and women had been raised to forty-five.

Christ, will it come to that here in the States?

Silver lining, he thought: this ever-widening investigation takes the mind off the really bad news. Second silver lining: Philip was not on the front lines. But that thought made him feel alternately relieved and shit-guilty, knowing some other poor sod was worried sick about his boy fighting the Japanese or Germans.

“The good news is on the sports page.”

Max looked up from the paper. Norton was still wearing a white gauze bonnet over part of his rusty red hair and a wry smile on his lips.

“Sit down, counselor. Good to see you up and around.”

Norton grabbed a chair. “I might be up, but not quite around yet,” he said. “I’m glad you called. Gives me something to think about other than my own mortality. Hospitals are morbid places, even for a couple of days.”

A veteran of them after his gunshot wound, Max had to agree with this assessment.

He turned from the newspaper to the menu and they soon ordered. Max had a dual purpose in meeting Norton: first he wanted to catch him up on the status of the James Suzuki investigation. He told Norton about the meeting with Mrs. Friedrich and her denial of having an affair with James.

“Rubbish,” Norton said. “Most of the county knows about it.”

“Not Sheriff McCall, apparently.”

Norton raised his eyebrows at this statement.

“Or maybe he does,” Max said, “and doesn’t give a damn as long as he clears his cases.”

“It’ll catch up with him, though,” Norton said, stirring three spoons of sugar into his coffee. “Our new district attorney, Adam Farleigh, doesn’t much like to prosecute without physical evidence.”

“Well, that’s good to hear. I won’t lose sleep over trying to prove James innocent then.”

“I didn’t say he wouldn’t prosecute. It’s just that Farleigh likes a sure thing when he enters a courtroom.”

Doris delivered their breakfasts—short stack and two eggs over easy for Max and an omelet and toast for Norton. They ate for a couple of minutes in silence; Norton was finally the one to speak first.

“You know, I really do hope to hell I find the bastard who cold-cocked me. I’d like to repay the favor.”

Max nodded. He could understand the sentiment.

“I think it was that cretin, Frank Carswell,” Norton added.

“He’s a good enough choice,” Max allowed.

More silence then as they finished their breakfasts and then Max brought up the second reason he wanted to meet with Norton: Kito Watanabe.

He’d been unable to find the man on the telephone exchange and didn’t think Pinkus would be too eager to supply his worker’s address. So, he had no idea where Watanabe lived.

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