The Ruthless Gardener: A Jimmy and Simone Novel by Richard Gerald

Author:Richard Gerald [Gerald, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Freebooter Press
Published: 2022-04-17T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Are you Listening?

It was one week before trial, and we had interviewed every witness who would speak to us and completed every discovery demand the prosecution had made of us. I had sent ADA Flynn my complete witness list, all fifty-seven names. I included an even dozen alibi witnesses. Most of these last would simply attest to having seen the defendant, Nate Greene, on his back porch at some time or another. These included a group of young men who frequented the area on a regular basis just after sunset in the hopes of catching a view of the voluptuous Ms. Bishop. However, the lady’s curtains were drawn the night of the Vandergeld murder, and the boys didn’t stick around.

Buried as far as possible in the list was the name of Preston Szlgaze. I didn’t think Becky Flynn would be fooled, but there is always the chance. At any rate, it would take her a while to find Preston. Time was now both my friend and my enemy. You see, I still didn’t have a workable theory of the case. I could point the finger at Lefty and the Mob, but that had the distinct disadvantage of his being innocent. Moreover, I had the feeling that my old clerk Becky would be prepared for that.

Which left me?

My personal cell phone rang. Few people had that number, and I had the foreboding of bad news as I picked it up.

“Jimmy, we need to talk,” said the voice I recognized well.

“So talk, Carrie,” I replied. “It’s a private line.”

“That might not be true any longer. We may have company on this line, lover,” she said in a sultry voice.

Carrie was pretending a romantic call but telling me that my phone might be tapped.

“Where can we meet?” I asked.

“Howard’s End, three o’clock, at the bar.”

Now Howard’s Tavern is an old neighborhood place in the south end of Albany. It sits on the corner of a dead-end street. It got the nickname Howard’s End, but Carrie was using this as a ruse. Before his untimely death, Howard Mayfield was a prominent Albany attorney. He died at the eighteenth green of the Albany Country Club from a heart attack. On the anniversary of the death, some of the local attorneys staged an impromptu gathering at the country club bar to mark the passing of Howard. For a few years, a group would get together to mark Howard’s end.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll meet you there.”

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