A Time for Secrets by Marshall Thornton

Author:Marshall Thornton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: MLR Press LLC
Published: 2012-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

That Monday morning, I woke up early, grabbed my gym bag, and walked over to my office. Well, actually I walked over to the El and almost got on, but then I remembered that my office was no longer downtown. I had a bad crick in my neck and felt like shit. I’d peeked in on Harker when I got home and saw that he was asleep. I’d been afraid I’d wake him and start our fight up again, so I slept on the sofa. I woke with the sun and managed to drag myself out of the apartment before Harker woke up. Cowardly, I know.

I picked up a large Styrofoam cup of coffee and a bear claw at a mom and pop store near the El and walked back to my office. I flipped on a jazz station I liked. Chuck Mangione was playing and I dug him, to use jazz parlance. The music was bright and cheerful, and I wondered if it might not turn out to be a pretty decent day.

After my experience finding Vernon Taber, I decided to spend some time with the Chicago phonebook and the list of names I’d gotten from back issue of the Daily Herald. This time, I wasn’t so lucky. My coffee was gone and the donut a distant memory, and I hadn’t found a single name. I tried calling people with similar names and asking if they were family members. I didn’t have any luck with that either.

There were thirteen names in total. Ronald and Vernon I knew all about, so that left eleven. Eleven names of men no longer listed in the phone book. They could be dead, they could have moved away, they could even have changed their names to avoid the stigma of their arrest. It was going to be tough finding anyone who knew anything about Bill Maker’s death.

I folded up the list of names and stuck it into my pocket. I’d have to make it to the County Clerk’s office after I met Aunt Bev for lunch. Maybe I could find something on one of these guys there. Even knowing they were dead would be helpful.

I had a couple of hours before I needed to go down to the Loop for lunch. I could have gone to the gym then, but the main reason I was thinking about going was to avoid going home. I decided to save the excuse for later. I spent the rest of the morning organizing my Peterson/Palmer work. Since I was going to the Clerk’s office, I might as well kill two birds.

By ten after twelve, I was sitting at a table in The French Bakery waiting for my aunt. It was not one of my favorite tables, but the place was already filling up and I didn’t feel like haggling with the hostess over it. It was one of six small café style tables placed in front of a blue-tufted banquette that ran across half the dining room. It was a good setup for them.

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