Day of the Moon by Bill Pronzini & Jeffrey Wallmann

Author:Bill Pronzini & Jeffrey Wallmann [Pronzini, Bill & Wallmann, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Crime
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2013-09-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

At ten to four that afternoon, the very short man drove his new Continental out of the Tru-test yard. The guard at the gate waved, but the short man paid no attention to him.

Twenty minutes later, another of the large diesel tankers arrived at the entrance. The guard in his box nodded to the two men in the tanker cab, pushed the button that electronically controlled the gates. The gates were beginning to roll open on their tracks when a white panel truck with the words Rite-A-Way Plumbing, Inc. plastic-stenciled on the sides drove up in back of the tanker and honked as if impatient to get through.

The guard came out of the box, gesturing for the truck to stop where it was. The gates were closing behind the tanker as he approached the truck and looked inside. “Yeah?”

“Here to fix the john in the warehouse,” Flagg said. He wore a pair of faded blue overalls and a baseball cap and was puffing on his briar pipe again.

The guard frowned. “Mr Burleigh didn’t mention anything about a plumber coming in.”

“Well, he called the shop less than an hour ago.”

“What’s the matter with the john?”

“He didn’t give me any details,” Flagg said, “except that it was clogged. Check with him, if you want.”

“He’s not here right now.”

“Well, he was here an hour ago; I talked to him myself.”

“He left twenty minutes ago.”

“When’ll he be back?”

“Not till tomorrow morning.”

“Listen,” Flagg said irascibly. “You see the sign on my truck? Rite-A-Way Plumbing. That’s me, right-away on the job. But it’s no skin off me one way or the other if I do it or not. There’s an automatic service charge just for me to come out here and argue.”

The guard chewed at his lower lip with indecision. “I don’t know,” he said. “How long will you be?”

“Now how can I tell that if I haven’t seen the problem yet? This Mr. Burleigh seemed to think I ought to see about it pronto, but if you don’t think so, I’ll be on my way. Like I said, there’s an automatic service charge—”

“Okay, okay, you made your point,” the guard said. “Do you know where the main warehouse is?”

“Nope, never been here before.”

“Follow the white lines until you come to a big corrugated dock along one side. Go on around to Door Five and ask for Lou. He’s the one in charge there; he can tell you where the john is.”

“Got it,” Flagg said. “Thanks.”

The guard opened the gates from inside his sentry-box and Flagg drove the panel onto the Tru-test grounds. He followed the white lines as directed and a couple of minutes later he parked in front of Door Five of the long, narrow warehouse, the roof of which he had spotted from the Empire Packers yard.

There were three of the dark green delivery trucks pulled up to the loading platform in front of other numbered doors, and a good deal of activity on the dock itself. Pallets of boxes with markings

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