A Gambling Man by David Baldacci (ebook audio reader .txt) 📕

When he finally looked up to see Archer staring at him, he shrugged and said, “Now that takes the cake.”

Chapter 70

SEVERAL DAYS LATER, AROUND LUNCHTIME, Archer drove to the office and rode the elevator up, pushing the necessary buttons as Earl no longer could. He said hello to Connie Morrison, who smiled sweetly at him and told Archer that Dash wanted to see him.

Archer pecked on the man’s door and was told by a gruff voice to enter.

Dash was on the davenport, his shoes off, his feet up, and his jacket off. He had a tumbler of scotch in one hand and a cigar in the other. “Take a seat.”

Archer sat.

“First things first. I got five names for your license application. You’ll be happy to know that both Carl Pickett and Steve Prichard signed the list, their last official acts before they retired from the force.”

“Retired, huh? How come?”

“I strongly suggested it and they finally agreed.”

“So who’s going to be the new chief?”

“I’ve told Ern to make a run for it. He’s young, smart, talented, honest as the day is long. Which means he doesn’t have a chance in hell of getting the job.”

“Okay.”

“I’m writing a letter to the Board of Prison Directors. Connie will include that with the application she’s typing up now for your signature. It basically says you’re a helluva gumshoe, are of outstanding moral character, and helped solve a big case and saved a bunch of lives, blah, blah, blah. You’ll get the license.”

“But you said they might do their own investigation into me, my background. Hell, I killed a lady down in Ventura, even though it was in self-defense.”

“Yeah, I made discreet inquiries into that, Archer, through some PIs I know down there. The lady’s body was found, the cops did their investigation, and they concluded that it indeed looked like self-defense. She had fired two rounds into the chair, I assume, you were sitting in. She missed, you didn’t.”

“They’re really going to leave it like that?”

“You deduced that the lady was selling drugs. Well, the cops down there were already looking her way on that as well. So the consensus in Ventura is she got what was coming to her. End of story.”

“Damn, I didn’t expect that.”

“Second thing, the Kempers added another nine grand to the retainer already paid, for a total of ten thou in appreciation of a job well done and a cancer named Sawyer Armstrong no longer being in their lives. So my money problems are over, for now, at least.”

“That’s great. So, what is my salary and when do I start getting paid? Connie didn’t know, and you never said.”

“Third thing, all the folks who were at the Cliffs are keeping their traps shut. Pickett and Prichard, Hank and Tony, and the other two goons know they’re looking at murder and kidnapping and assault charges and a long stint in the big house if they say one word. So we’re good there. Now, in an ideal world, they’d all be going to the slammer or the gas chamber, but proof is hard to come by, and I doubt Hank and Tony can make a living without Armstrong around. They’ll melt into the dirt, like a water lily in the Sahara. And Pickett and Prichard are leaving town. And good riddance.”

“Okay.”

“Fourth thing, Beth inherited everything that Armstrong had. So she’s even richer than she was. And Douglas is going to be the new mayor, so that hunk of rock out there will stay a hunk of rock. And it looks like with Armstrong out of the way, those two are going to make it. True love wins out, right?”

“Right. And fifth?”

“There is no fifth, except what’s in that bottle of scotch over there. Okay, I’m done, Archer. Go off and play today.”

Archer rose and headed to the door.

Dash said, “Hey Archer?”

“Yeah?”

“You got the makings of a decent gumshoe. Just keep at it, okay?”

Archer nodded. “That wasn’t really Ma Barker’s tommy gun, was it?”

“Who the hell knows? But when you pick up a weapon like that, you got to do it with style.”

Archer signed his application and Morrison said she would be mailing it out that day. And then she did something that surprised Archer. From behind a vase of flowers she lifted up a long-stemmed glass with some liquid in it.

“What’s that?” asked Archer.

“Champagne, of course. Lots to celebrate. You want a glass?”

“Thanks, but I’m saving myself for something a little more amber in color.” He crossed the reception area and went into his office. He sat down at his desk and noted the single sunflower that presumably Morrison had put in the vase. It was already drooping from lack of sun. Archer moved it to the windowsill, and it seemed to perk right up.

There was a knock on his door.

“Yeah?”

It opened and there stood Dash.

“Forgot something, Archer.” He took out his wallet, peeled off eight C-notes and ten Jacksons, and handed them to Archer. “Your weekly wages. Just don’t expect that kind of dough every time, capiche?”

“Thanks, Willie,” said Archer.

“Now how about using some of it to buy me lunch?”

“I know a place down by the water.”

“I know you know a place down by the water, only my gams aren’t nearly as fetching as Beth Kemper’s, so don’t get your hopes up, son. Hey, I wonder if they serve Cream of Wheat?”

The two men walked out into the clearest sky Archer had seen since he’d been in Bay Town.

Chapter 71

EARLY THE FOLLOWING AFTERNOON Archer drove to Midnight Moods. Mabel Dawson was back from Long Beach, and she nodded to him as he walked in.

“Long time no see, Archer.”

“Yeah, I can’t seem to stay away from this place.”

“This place is under new management,” she added. “Beth Kemper came by this morning. Told me no reason to change a ship’s course midvoyage, though she did say the girls can’t have ‘visitors’ at lunchtime.”

“They were probably bad for the digestion, anyway.”

“You’re here to see Liberty,