A Hard Case by Ron Hess

Author:Ron Hess
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Fiction Works
Published: 2012-07-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

I threw the empty booze bottle into the trash can. So much for that one. I turned and regarded the last bottle on its shelf. Ordinarily, I would have hauled it down and opened it since the buzz in my brain wasn’t strong enough to block out the bad memories that threatened my sanity. But I was in desperate straits. That bottle had to last at least a week and for an alcoholic that’s a drop in the bucket.

I had been wracking my brain after Charlie left, trying to make sense of what was going on. There was one thing that I wondered about—Helen hadn’t been at the funeral. Why? Even if people didn’t care for her, the funeral was still a village event. Even Ivan was there. I passed over that thought and went on to the more immediate problem of Jimmy’s disappearance. Why had he taken off like that when he seemed so content watching TV? I couldn’t picture him as being sophisticated enough to put on a big act, but I’d been fooled before. Well, life had to go on and the post office was a part of that scenario. I rambled up front and unlocked the door, not that I thought there would be any customers, but like anywhere else in the U.S. of A., we were there.

I hung around the front counter for the better part of an hour, looking out the front window. I was so bored I would have even welcomed the old man and his statements about what is real in this life. Although there was a stool to sit on, I knew if I did, it would be only a matter of a few minutes and I would have been asleep. About the only excitement I had was watching Ivan through the front window walking at a fast clip by the post office. He must have known I was there, but instead of giving me his usual glare, he walked on by. Interesting.

The phone rang in the back room. Most likely, it was the boss calling. Was my old brain ready to talk to him? There was no way I was going to have him hear a slur in my voice. After the second ring, I decided what the hell, I needed something to relieve my boredom. I picked up the receiver on the fourth ring. This time I was smart and held it six inches away from my ear.

“Bronski! Is that you?”

“Yes, sir, it’s me, right here on duty.”

“Bronski, you haven’t been drinking have you?”

Could he hear a change in my voice? I decided to bluff my way.

“Oh, no, sir.”

“Well, I should hope not. All right, how’s the investigation going?”

“Uh . . . slow.”

“Slow? Okay, Bronski, maybe you better fill me in.”

Against my better judgment I went on to explain to him about the archeology site and how I was pretty sure the people were using the artifacts for mostly liquor and drugs. Then I mentioned to him how

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.