Dead on the Island Read Free

me, Ray. Big Red.
Jesus." He sat on the sofa.
    I went to an overstuffed straight chair
nearby. "What's the deal?" I said.
    "Let's wait for Ray," he said. So we
waited.
    Dino and Ray and I went back a long way. We
grew up together on the Island, though in different parts of the
town. When the Island had been wide open, which it had been until
the mid-1950s, a couple of Dino's uncles had controlled all the
gambling and most of the prostitution. I didn't remember anything
about that time, having come along at the tail end of it, but I'd
heard plenty. You couldn't grow up on the Island and not hear. Ray
had been born in one of the black whorehouses, and somehow one of
the uncles had gotten to know him (or maybe it was Ray's mother
that he got to know). Ray had been brought up practically like a
member of the family. Me, I was just another guy, until high
school, when I have to admit in all modesty that I became the best
damned running back that Ball High had ever known. My ability on
the field got me inside a lot of doors that would have otherwise
been slammed in my face, and Dino had been on the team.
    Ray came in with the drinks. "I forgot you
liked yours out of the bottle," he said, handing me a glass of Big
Red and a napkin.
    "I'll manage," I said, taking the glass and
wrapping the napkin around it.
    "So, Tru, how long you been back on the
Island?" Dino said, sipping at his drink. "A year now? Little
more?"
    "About that," I said.
    Ray had left the room again. He hadn't had a
drink for himself. I took a swallow of the Big Red. Some people say
it's like drinking bubble gum, but I like it. I figured Dino would
get to the point eventually.
    "You think you'll be staying?"
    "It's a thought," I said.
    "You got any money?"
    "A little. I've been painting a few houses.
Not too many lately, though. But business will pick up in the
spring."
    "I got a little job you could do," Dino
said, twirling his glass between his palms as he leaned forward on
the sofa. "You could make a little money before spring."
    I took another swallow of Big Red. "What's
the job?"
    "I want you to find somebody," he said.
    "I don't do that anymore."
    Just about then Ray walked back into the
room. "That's what I told him," he said.
    "Yeah, but I figured that was just
bullshit," Dino said. "You aren't the kinda guy who'd just quit
like that. Not you."
    "Sure I am."
    I set my glass down on the floor. There was
a coffee table that had legs that started somewhere in the middle
and curved out to the edges and were tipped with something that
looked like copper claws, but it was too far away to reach.
    "Look," Dino said. "I knew Jan, too. I liked
her. Ray knew her. He liked her. Everybody liked her. Nobody blames
you. You got to get over that."
    "Why?" I said.
    Dino put his glass on the coffee table, got
up, and started pacing around. "It's not your fault she
disappeared," he said. "It's not your fault you couldn't find
her."
    "He's right," Ray said. "Maybe she just
wanted to disappear. She may turn up any day now with a story about
spending a year in Vegas."
    "No," I said.
    "OK, probably not," Dino said. "I got plenty
of contacts in Vegas. I checked that one out."
    "That was just sort of an example," Ray
said. "She could be anywhere."
    "She's dead," I said. "We all know that. We
just don't know who did it, or why, or what he did with her."
    Dino sat back down on the couch. "OK. OK.
Maybe so. But that's no reason for you to fold it up. You can't
just lie around and paint houses when you get the chance. I checked
you out, too. You had a good thing going when you were a P. I. You
could find anybody."
    "I couldn't find my sister," I reminded
him.
    "Let me put it this way, then," Dino said.
"You owe me one. I called in a lot of markers to help you look for
Jan."
    "Yeah," I said. "I know. I owe you one."
    "Besides that, I . . . what'd you say?"
    "I said, 'I know. I owe you one.'"
    "That's what I thought you said. You mean
it?"
    "I mean it," I said. "You helped me out, and
you