Jones Men by Vern E. Smith

Author:Vern E. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rosarium Publishing
Published: 1974-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

16

FRIDAY MORNING

Extension 433 flashed and rang twice before Big Al Lewis crossed the floor to his cubicle and picked up the receiver.

He said, “Lewis.”

A woman’s voice was on the line. “I’ve got somebody on hold for you, Detective Lewis. He says just to tell you it’s Marshall.”

“Put him through,” Big Al said. He came around the desk to his chair.

“How you doin’?” Marshall said.

“Just fine,” Big Al said. “What you got?”

“You remember when you was in here the other day askin’ about this particular young dude and I said I thought he mighta been to Nam?”

“Yeah, yeah I remember,” Big Al said. He removed a ball-point and the legal-size note pad from the top desk drawer.

Marshall said into his ear: “Well, it turns out I was right this time.”

“Is that right?” Big Al said. “You haven’t located the fellow who was in the war with him, have you?”

“Yeah, I have,” Marshall said.

“Well, that’s all right,” Big Al said. “Tell me about him.”

“He came in here this morning bout 10:30 looking for something to eat, but I didn’t have nothin’ ready yet, so while he’s waiting for the stuff to cook we got to talkin’, you know. He tells me that he was in the army with the man you interested in. He say they got drafted near bout the same week. This guy Tommy—Tommy Hutchins, that’s his name. He claims Jack got shot up over there pretty bad, nearly died.”

“What’s his real name?” Big Al said.

“Leonard Jackson,” Marshall said. “He’s been using the other name since he got out the war, probably since he got off into the dope business.”

“You know how long he’s been out the army?” Big Al said.

“Couple years at least,” Marshall said over the line. “That’s what I picked up from the conversation. I didn’t come right out and ask the man a lot of direct questions, but from what he was saying it seemed like they both been back bout two or three years. Tommy say they spent round nineteen months over there, I think. Anyway, I remember him saying that he and Jack got out pretty near the same time, say they hit San Francisco near bout the same week, coming back from Vietnam.”

“Did he mention anything about where Jack might’ve worked since they been back?” Big Al said.

“He didn’t say nothing bout that,” Marshall said. “But you could probably figure ain’t neither one of ‘em worked too much. Half the people out there ain’t workin’. It ain’t no jobs.”

Big Al flipped over a page of the tablet. He switched the phone to the other ear.

He said, “He didn’t mention what kinda action Jack’s handling, did he?”

“He didn’t say exactly how many joints the cat’s got,” Marshall said, “just said he knew of a couple places on the west side. Figure three or four maybe. I doubt if it’d be more than that cause he did say Jack ain’t been handling nothing bigger than eights. He don’t seem to be handling no real big stuff, from what I could pick up.

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