The Destroyer - 11 - The Destroyer 011 - Kill or Cure by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir

Author:Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir [Murphy, Warren & Sapir, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Pulp Action
Publisher: PINNACLE BOOKS
Published: 2010-03-19T14:52:47+00:00

TWELVE

OF course, Willard Farger remembered Remo. How could he ever forget such a good interviewer? No, no, no, he wasn't nervous; he always sweated in the spring heat of Bade County. Certainly. Even in his air-conditioned home.

That's good," Remo said. "A little sweat is good for a man who's going to be the next mayor of Miami Beach."

Farger looked at Remo closely to see if he were joking, then thought it over for a full tenth of a second and smiled because the thought gave him pleasure, then shook his head in resigned sadness. "Maybe someday, but not this year."

"Why not?" Remo said.

"It's too late. The election's next week. There's no way to get on the ballot this year,"

"No way?"

"No way," Farger said. "I made my move too late." He was beginning to relax just a little, as each passing second made his assurance grow that Remo was not, for the moment, going to bury him in a swamp or bury an ice pick in his head.

"Could you replace a candidate if one, say, dies?" Remo asked coldly, and Farger stopped relaxing. He sat up straight in his chair.

"No. I'm the fourth deputy assistant commissioner of elections. I know the law. There's no way."

Remo leaned back on Farger's living room couch and propped his feet up on a plastic tile coffee table.

"Okay, then., If you can't be mayor, you'll make a great campaign manager. Who do we support?"

Farger took a deep breath. Without even thinking, he started off, "That's where I draw the line, Mr. Remo. I have supported Mayor Gartwright since he first sought public office; I have no intention now of deserting his leadership, doubly so since it is now under attack by an insidious encroachment of the federal. ..."

"Do you want to join your car?" Remo interrupted.

Farger shook his head.

"All right. Then you're the campaign manager. Now who is our candidate? Besides Cartwright."

"But... I'll lose my job."

"There are worse things to lose."

"And my pension rights."

"You have to live to spend it."

"And my family. How will they live?"

"How much do you make a year?" Remo asked.

"Ten-five." Farger said.

Remo reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out two sheaves of bills. He tossed them on the coffee table. "There's two years pay. Now who do we support?"

Farger looked at the money, at Remo, then at the money again, as his brain made calculations behind his narrowed eyes. "You can't support Cartwright?"

"No," Remo said. "Anyone who'd lie about the federal government the way he did ... who'd deceive an honest, decent man like you into lying, can't be returned to office. Who else is running?"

"That's the problem," Farger said. "Nobody's running."

"Come on," Remo said. "What is Cartwright, a king or something? Of course, someone else is running."

"Well, there are some people," said Farger, with an inflection of distaste that, if recorded, would have ended forever his dreams of the presidency.

"Who are?"

"One is Mrs. Ertle McBargle. She's head of "Abortion Now". Then there's Gladys Tweedy. She's with the SPCA and wants to turn the town into an animal compound.

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