The Three Dollar Phoenix by Walt Sautter (microsoft ebook reader .TXT) 📕

keep you here, they’ll delay that as long as possible and then put a big number on it. Of course, we’ll scream like hell and appeal it. That takes time and meantime you’ll be here. So you see it all depends on what they’re doing and how long they want you in here” replied Mike.
“Now let’s get back to what this is about” he added.
“That thing with Charlie’s friend at Caramore might have something to do with it “ said Rita.
“You mentioned that when Lucky was poisoned.” He hesitated for a moment.
“That’s the only unusual kind of thing that happened to me before Lucky’s death” said Ed.
“Maybe you’re right. Up until then everything was sailin’ right along and then all of a sudden” he stopped and gazed down at the floor.
“Well, let’s hear it” said Mike.
He opened his brief case and took out a notepad and pen.
“OK, shoot.”
Ed told him the entire phone call from the first phone call from Charlie to his final trip to Caramore with Angie. As he spoke, Mike wrote continually, stopping him occasionally for clarifications.
“Is that all you know?” asked Mike as Ed’s story came to an end. Ed nodded.
“I think the first thing we should do is try to get you out of here. It will take some time, like I said, but we have to get started. Secondly, I’m going to see what I can find out about this situation up in New York” said Mike as he pushed his carefully written notes into the crowded briefcase. At that moment, a guard walked over towards Ed.
“That’s about it for today. You gotta go now” he said as he motioned to them.
Everyone rose, said their goodbyes and Ed was led back to his cell.
Five days passed. The Hispanic had been replaced twice over by assorted petty criminals. The first was in for assault in a bar room fight, the second a suspect in a gas station hold up. Both talked a lot but said little. Ed found their common talent was an ingenious ability to substitute the word fuck or almost any of the eight parts of speech and an even greater versatility of intonations and inflections in its use. Although, not liking it, he began to find himself more at ease in the situation. Maybe it was Mike’s reassurance that he would be released or maybe he was just getting used to the place. The stale odor had disappeared probably olfactory fatigue. The food seemed better than he initially thought and he found he could even sleep at night despite the continual chatter. It was just a matter of conditioning, he felt.
Rita visited each day and although she brought much consolation, she had little news from Mike. The only thing he had said was the bail was posted at $300,000 and he was appealing it. She was about to take a job at a small private hospital in order to survive and expressed little hope of putting the clinic back together. Some of the people in the neighborhood had visited him and others had helped Rita to salvage what she could from the ruins. Sam had lined up a small room in the basement of an abandoned building and the recovered equipment was stored there. He assured her it would be safe there and it probably would be if he said so. Sam never came to visit Ed. He told Rita it was like some people never going to funeral parlors, no matter how much they loved the person. Several of the local businesses had offered well intended, but meager, donations to restart the clinic at a new location. A landlord had even volunteered a store front, rent free, but Rita knew she wasn’t strong enough to go it alone. She was tough, but without Ed to lean on she knew it would be impossible.
On the sixth day, Mike came with Rita. Ed was eager to see him. At this point, even bad news would be preferable to no news.
“I’m still working on this” he began.
“I really couldn’t find out too much about who put out the paper on you, but I did look into your friend John House up at Caramore. He doesn’t just work at Caramore, he’s going to be the new owner in about ten months. Right now he’s under contract to close the deal next October. The price is about sixty mill. He and two other guys are doing the financing, but he’s the principal. There’s probably some other minor partners too.”
“What’s that got to do with me?” asked Ed anxiously.
“Well, I really don’t know, but here’s some more information.
House was the largest individual bondholder in the construction of the Meadowlands Sports Complex. I heard that his total commitment was about fifteen million at the time. This was about seven or eight years ago. That means that right now he’s worth about twenty-five or thirty million, with the interest. According to what I’ve been able to piece together, the reason House isn’t closing until October is so he can sell off his holdings in those bonds a little at a time and accumulate the necessary cash. He can’t just dump all that paper on the market at once or that would drive down the selling price of the bonds and he’d come up short. Now I’m not sure how all this fits, but there maybe some connection between the ground keeper at the stadium and House’s financial interests there. What the connection is, I couldn’t even guess, but now at least there’s a fine thread. It’s not much, but it’s something.”
“I’ve told you everything I know” said Ed.
“I wish I had more pieces for the puzzle.”
There was a temporary lull in the conversation. Each of them was engrossed in thought, trying to decide what could be done next. Ed broke the silence.
“Have you started your next job at that hospital yet?” he asked.
“Not yet” she responded.
“How would you like some clean country air?” he said.
“When I was a kid, my mother used to let me stay on my Uncle’s farm in North Carolina for a few weeks every summer. I’m a good old country gal at heart” she replied jokingly.
She knew what Ed was up to.
He looked at her with an understanding gaze.
“Rita, I really don’t know how dangerous this could be but at this point, it looks like anything goes” he began.
“If you don’t want to do this, I understand.”
“You mean get a job at Caramore” she interrupted.
“Well, if I could get a foot in the door up there, I might be able to look over House’s shoulder and get some more information. I don’t think he would know me and you said he mentioned the big turnover in doctors they had, so it probably won’t be to difficult to get the job.”
She was already beginning to outline a plan of operation.
“I’ll need same references. Obviously, I can’t give the Springfield Avenue Free Clinic, as my last place of employment, can I?”
She paused.
“I know. I’ll call Len Martin. He runs a medical group over in Maplewood. I’ll get him to give me a reference like I’d been working for him for the last couple of years. I’m pretty sure he’ll do it. We got along pretty well in med school.”
“Got along OK. You went out with him for about six months before I met you” added Ed.
Rita pretended she didn’t hear it and continued.
“I’ll have to come up with a reason for needing this reference. I don’t want to tell him the whole story. The fewer people that know about all this, the better, is the way I see it. I don’t want to use my real name either, that way it will be harder for them to trace me, if somebody begins to catch on to me. We’ll have to think of a good story for Len.”
“Are you sure you want to do this, Rita?” asked Ed seriously.
“And miss a chance to play Sam Spade, are you kidding?” she snapped back playfully.
Ed was torn between her devotion to him and his deep fear for her safety. After his experiences of the past week, he knew, whoever was at the root of this was playing hard ball, all the way. As he left the visiting room that day, he felt a bittersweet mixture of ambiguity stirring within him. He didn’t sleep very well that night. He could have been at the Hilton and it wouldn’t have been any better. All night long, he debated with himself as to whether Rita should be allowed to do what they were planning. But then again, how could he stop her, even if he wanted to? She was as strong willed as he, that was for sure.
The next day, Rita visited again as usual. He was glad to see her, of course, but he felt uneasy about what she might tell him.
“I called Len this morning. He asked about you. I told him I thought you were alright. He knew about this thing with the heroin bus . It was in the papers for two days straight. I never showed you and neither did Mike because we didn’t want to make things seem worse than they already were at the time. My name wasn’t mentioned in the paper at all, so he didn’t know that we ran the clinic together. I pretended I hadn’t seen you in months. I gave him the impression that I had spoken to you only occasionally, and the phone I thought it would be better what way.
“What kind of story did you give him about the reference?” asked Ed.
“I thought that one out last night. I told him that I had a problem with cocaine and that I was in a rehab center for the past year. I said that my previous employer knew about my problem and I didn’t want to use him as a reference because I had left there with some bad feelings and I thought they would give me a poor recommendation. I laid it on pretty thick.”
“What did he say?” asked Ed.
“He seemed kinda shocked, about the coke, that is. Knowing me, I guess I would be shocked too, if it was true” she said.
“Did he go for it?”
“I’ll find out tonight. He asked me out for dinner, for old time sake, he said. I think everything will be OK. Sometimes a little personal touch can do much more than a phone conversation, if you know what I mean” she said with a coy smile on her lips.
“I think he’ll cooperate” she added.
“I hope you don’t do too much cooperating” Ed replied.
“If he gives me the references I’ll call tomorrow. If they have an immediate opening, I’ll leave right away. I may not see you for a while” she added quietly.
“I’ll come back when I can.”
“Take care of yourself. Remember, you’re not Wonder Woman, even if you do look like her” he said as their hands touched through the mesh.
She moved her head closer and pressed her lips through the open diamonds of the screening. As their lips were about to meet, a shout from the guard, shattered the moment.
“Keep back from the screen” came the command.

Chapter VI

Rita didn’t show up the next day. Everything must have worked out as she had planned.
Rita had called Caramore