Unknown Man #89

3

THE TWO-INCH NOTICE that appeared in the Personal columns of the News and the Free Press said:

Ryan planned to stay in the apartment all day if he had to. By midmorning he was restless, not used to sitting around. Pacing and looking out the window didn’t help much until a Detroit Edison crew came along and started tearing up the street with jackhammers. Watching them dig into the pavement, making gradual progress, was better than only listening to the noise. They’d stop for a while and stand around in their yellow slickers and he’d watch TV, popping from one channel to another to find something interesting. Search for Tomorrow wasn’t too bad. He was going to have a sandwich when he got hungry, then decided to cook one of his specials. He sautйed onions and green pepper, threw in a can of tomatoes, peas, and cut-up ham, and dished it over Minute rice. He could do a lot with a can of tomatoes: tomatoes and lima beans, tomatoes and corn. Brown some chicken or chuck roast first, put it back in the tomatoes and onions to simmer awhile and dish it out over rice or noodles. Ryan loved it. Rita said everything he cooked tasted the same.

When the phone rang the first time, he took his time walking over to the footlocker that served as a coffee table and cleared his throat before he picked up the phone and said hello.

It was his sister, Marion. She hadn’t called in at least six months, but she picked today. She was wondering how things were going, living alone. He had been living alone for four and a half years, but Marion was still wondering and asked him when did he want to come over for a home-cooked meal. Ryan said anytime, you name it. Marion was not that much of a cook. In fact, she was pretty bad. But he always said that, anytime. She never picked a date beforehand but always waited until she got him on the phone and then would have to go and get her calendar and study it and try to remember what nights Earl bowled or had Cub Scouts or an Ushers Club meeting. Ryan told her he was expecting an important phone call, but it still took another ten minutes.

He knew it was a remote chance the guy would see the notice in the personals, or that a friend might see it and tell him-if the guy had a friend and if he hadn’t moved away and a few more ifs. Still, he had to give it a chance. And if the guy did call and the line was busy-he didn’t know anything about the guy, if he was impatient or if he’d wait and try again. He wanted at least to cover all the bases, so he could hand in a full report and show them what he did for the three hundred. It surprised him a little that he felt this way, that he was conscientious.

By the time the phone rang again, at a quarter past four, Ryan had decided sitting by a telephone was a pretty dumb way to make a buck, and if the guy didn’t call by five, he’d go for a ride and lay some paper on somebody.

Ryan said hello and the voice on the other end said, “What do you want?” There were faint sounds in the background, voices and music. Country music.

“Who is this?”

“That’s what I want to know. Who’re you?”

“My name’s Ryan. I represent someone who’s looking for-”

“What is it?”

“Ryan. R-y-a-n.”

“You want Robert Leary, it said call this number. What do you want?”

“I’m trying to tell you,” Ryan said. “Are you Robert Leary, Jr.?”

“What is it you want?”

“Tell me something. What year were you born?”

“What year…” There was a pause. “You said call this number. What do you want?”

“I want to know if I’m talking to Robert Leary, Jr.”

“This is him.”

“You in a bar?… You drinking?”

There was a pause again and the background sound was blocked out, as though a hand had been placed over the phone.

“Hey,” Ryan said. “You still there?”

“What do you want?”

The voice was low and husky. Ryan pictured it coming from an old man.

“You want to see me?”

“I want to see Robert Leary, Jr. Tell me what year you were born.”

“Listen, you want to see me or not?”

“All right,” Ryan said. “Where do you live?”

“Meet me-you know where the bus station is?”

“Downtown?”

“Yeah. Nine o’clock tonight. Park on the roof of the bus station-wait a minute.” Another pause, silence. “What kind of car you drive?” Ryan told him. “Okay, park up on the roof, take the elevator down. Go over and stand-wait a minute.” Again a pause, longer this time. “Hello?”

“Yeah.”

“Go over and wait by the door to the men’s room.”

“How’ll I know you?” Ryan said.

“Nine o’clock. You want to see me, be there.”

“Let me ask you something.”

Robert Leary, Jr., or whoever it was, hung up.

Ryan called Dick Speed. He was out on assignment. So Ryan sat around again, wondering if he should bother going all the way down to the bus station. He was reasonably sure the guy on the phone wasn’t Robert Leary, Jr. In fact, he knew it wasn’t. The guy could have been calling for Leary, though, getting instructions from Leary during the pauses. That was a possibility. So he’d have to go down to the bus station, go through the motions, and put in the report.

The second Robert Leary, Jr., called at five to seven, while Ryan was changing his clothes. This time he forgot to clear his throat before picking up the phone.

“Your number 355-1919?”

“That’s right.”

“Who am I talking to?” A slow, quiet voice; maybe a southern accent.

“My name’s Ryan. What’s yours?”

“You put that in the paper today?”

“I’m the one,” Ryan said. “Are you Robert Leary, Jr.?”

“I don’t know you,” the voice said.

“No, I don’t know you either,” Ryan said. “Are you Robert Leary?”

“Yeah. What do you want?”

“You mind I ask you when you were born?”

There was a silence as the man waited, still on the line.

“I want to be sure I’m talking to the right party,” Ryan said. “If you are, all I need to know is where I can get in touch with you, or where you live.”

The second Robert Leary, Jr., hung up.

Shit.

Ryan waited around until eight-fifteen. There were no more calls.

Dick Speed returned his call at eleven-thirty that evening.

“I’ve been trying to get you for a couple of hours.”

“I had to go down to the bus station.”

“The bus station?”

“It’s a long, boring story.”

“Well, this Robert Leary, Jr., I hope to shit you don’t have to serve him papers.”

“Why?”

“The guy’s a fucking beauty.”

Ryan listened then for several uninterrupted minutes while Dick Speed read the sheets on Leary. Ryan listened and said, reverently, when he finished, “Jesus Christ.”

Ryan didn’t get hold of Jay Walt until the next morning. He said over the phone, “I don’t think twenty bucks an hour is going to make it. The three hundred for openers, okay, you’ve spent that. But now, what I’ve found out so far, I think it’s possible I could get killed if I keep at it. But not for any twenty bucks an hour. We make another deal and you tell me what’s going on before I tell you anything.”

Jay Walt got back to Ryan within fifteen minutes. He said he had to do a little talking, but finally arranged a meeting. Ryan was to go to the Pontchartrain Hotel and ask for a Mr. Perez.

“Aren’t you going to be there?”

“Well, not right away. He said he wanted to see you alone.”

Jay Walt didn’t sound too happy about it.