The Night Remembers

11

“Do you remember it?” I asked.

“Sort of. Pennyfeather?”

“George Pennyfeather.”

“Right. Gimme a minute.”

The clerk at the sheriff’s office had been there for at least twenty years. As a consequence he remembered me, and there was at least a chance that he remembered the Pennyfeather case. I needed to look through the files before I got anything serious accomplished, which was why, twenty minutes after breakfast with Faith and Hoyt, I’d come down to Mays Island, where you find the new Linn County sheriff’s building, the Linn County courthouse, and, on the far end of the island, the Cedar Rapids municipal building. The island divides the city in half. Early in Cedar Rapids history the island provided a home for various types of reprobates, including horse thieves and the homegrown version of pirates. Now things are a little more respectable, though I’ve known some lawyers who hang out at the courthouse who are not necessarily any better than the reprobates of a century and a half ago.

At dawn the snow had stopped, leaving an inch of powdery whiteness that a strong southeasterly wind was blowing away from car windshields and roadways. The sky, framed in the window of the office where I sat, was low and gray. The day’s drabness hadn’t helped Faith any. She’s one of those people who live at the mercy of weather.

While I waited, I smoked a cigarette and looked around at the orderly row of filing cabinets, the General Electric clock radio with the minute hand that no longer swept, and the clean glass ashtray I was about to violate.

He came back in, crisp in his tan uniform and his narrow bald head, sat down behind his desk and said, “Oh, yeah. Right. George Pennyfeather.” He skimmed through the pages and said, “He killed this Jankov because he thought Jankov was sleeping with his wife.”

“Right.”

“And you were the detective in charge of the case?”

“Right.”

“How come the Cedar Rapids boys didn’t get involved?”

“The killing took place in a fishing cabin out near Ely. County matter. Though they assisted.”

“Oh. Right.” He looked through a few more papers. “Murder weapon was a .38, never found.”

“Mmmhmmm.”

“Witness put Pennyfeather at the cabin fifteen minutes before the shooting.” Riffling through additional papers. “Never pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.”

“Apparently he thought he could beat it.”

“Or knew he was innocent.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

He looked up and smiled, revealing a gold-capped tooth. “Sensitive bastard, aren’t you?”

“I suppose.”

“He’s back in the news.”

“Yeah.”

“Dead woman in his back yard.”

“Yup.”

“I assume he’s under suspicion.”

“I would think so.”

“You going to read this file here?”

“Right.”

“I can’t let you make copies or anything.”

“I understand.”

“And all the offices are filled at the moment so you’ll have to sit right here.”

“Okay.”

“I usually walk over to that bakery across the bridge and get a roll. Takes about fifteen minutes in all. Wife makes me because of my weight.”

“Yeah, and having that roll probably helps your weight out.

“It isn’t a big roll.”

“Now who’s being sensitive? I was making a joke.”

“Cigarettes.”

“Huh?”

“I gave up the cigarettes and I put on twenty pounds in the first three months and I still can’t get rid of them.”

“Maybe that’s why I don’t quit.”

“Well, I’d rather have a gut than lung cancer.”

“I guess you’ve got a point there.”

“Also a hint.”

“Huh?”

“I wish you wouldn’t smoke while you read the file.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Stuff just hangs in the air and gets into my hair and into my uniforms. Can’t stand the smell of it anymore.”

He pushed the manila file at me and stood up. “Well, time for my walk.” He went over and got a green parka that was part of the uniform. “Good luck.”

“Appreciate it.”

“You want me to bring you a roll back?”

“I had a good breakfast.”

“That’s the hell of it.”

“What is?”

He zipped up the parka. The noise was louder than you might think here in the quiet of this back office. “I had a good breakfast, too. Now I’m going out after another one.”

He gave me something that resembled a salute and left.