Halo in Brass by Howard Browne

Author:Howard Browne [Browne, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

“Rest yourself,” he said in a clear baritone voice. “I’m afraid I don’t have the pleasure of your acquaintance. I’m O’Flynn, Steven O’Flynn. With a V,” he added, as if he expected-to find an account of our meeting written up in tomorrow’s paper.

I was in the chair by this time, looking at him across the table. He was a barrel-chested, slope-shouldered Irishman who could have been five years on either side of fifty. His round, pink-skinned face was as hard as a jail-house wall, with small blunt features and a fringe of sandy hair bordering a naked pate. The flesh-colored button of a hearing aid was screwed into his right ear, its wire running under the soft collar of his white shirt. I hoped I wouldn’t have to yell at him.

He said, “What’s this crack about my Caddy, Pine?”

I said, “I had a visitor this afternoon. A man named Smith. After he left, a car picked him up. It was your car, Mr. O’Flynn.”

“What about it?”

“I’m anxious to get in touch with Mr. Smith,” I said. “He overlooked leaving his address with me at the time and picking him out of the phone book would be kind of difficult. Then I thought of his using your car, so I figured you’d be the one to help me.”

Light moved along his pale eyes as his gaze shifted to the pipe in his hand. “I don’t know anybody named Smith. You’ve made a mistake somewhere along the line.”

“Everybody,” I said, “knows somebody named Smith. There’s too many of them not to. But I don’t think this guy’s name is Smith at all.”

His jaw hardened. “Then what the hell do you expect me to do? Tell you about a man whose name you don’t know?”

“It was your car,” I said. “I assume you’d know who you lent it to.”

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