Tony Dunbar - Tubby Dubonnet 02 - City of Beads Read Free Page B

he does, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be his friend. It’s his business, not mine.”
    “Then why did you make Debbie leave?”
    “I knew you’d kill me if I didn’t,” Potter said simply.
    Tubby thought about that for a minute.
    “Why did you get into drugs?” he asked.
    “Who knows,” Potter said. “Me and Edith were having some problems. We’d just found out we couldn’t have kids, and I took that kind of hard. And I was making too much money for my own good. A lot of things.”
    “What made you stop?”
    “There’s no profit in self-destruction,” Potter said virtuously. “And,” he added, “I suppose I like myself too much.”
    “Well, thanks for what you did,” Tubby said. “It makes me trust you.”
    “Okay, but I’m a crazy, independent fool if there ever was one.”
    “No joke,” Tubby said. “But you’re all right by me.”
    After that he thought of Potter as someone he could rely upon, if ever the need arose.

CHAPTER 4
    The Morgue was in the basement of Charity Hospital downtown. Why are they always underground? Tubby wondered in the elevator. Because that’s where you store things you don’t need? Because the dead don’t require a room with a view? The door clunked open and Tubby stepped out into a tiled hallway, brightly lit and clinically clean. It was empty and quiet. A plastic sign pointed down the hall to the coroner’s office. He followed the arrow.
    Edith Aucoin was sitting in the small waiting area between a man and a woman who bore a distinct family resemblance to her. The widow’s unlined face was strained and her eyes were red. Her black hair, normally loose about her shoulders, was tied back and hidden in a purple scarf.
    Tubby took the hand she offered and kissed her cheek. He murmured how sorry he was, and she thanked him for coming. She introduced her sister, who said they had met, and her brother, who gave Tubby’s hand a firm shake.
    “Is there anything I can do?” Tubby asked.
    “Just be here awhile,” she said. “They told me they would be bringing him soon.”
    “I stopped by the shop on the way over,” Tubby told her. “The ambulance was about ready to leave,”
    “Did you see him?”
    “Yes, I did,” Tubby said after a pause.
    “How did he look?”
    Tubby shrugged. “Very peaceful.” Surely the crew would clean up the body before showing it to the wife.
    “He would still be in that hideous barge if Broussard hadn’t checked on things. I laid him off when Potter disappeared, but he still passed by the shop every so often to see if anybody was stealing stuff.”
    “Broussard looked inside the barge?” Tubby asked.
    “Yes, I don’t know why, but he did. He said he saw Potter’s hair floating. And he called me from a pay phone.”
    “I know this is just terrible for you,” Tubby said.
    “He was a good man,” Edith sighed, and started to weep. Her brother and sister both surrounded her with their arms.
    “Yes he was,” Tubby said simply. He was moved and very uncomfortable. An attendant pushed open a swinging door and asked Mrs. Aucoin to come with him. She got up, straightened her shoulders, and walked inside with her family. Tubby remained behind in one of the red plastic chairs.
    In a few minutes Edith was back. Her face was flushed and angry. She sat down hard beside Tubby and clutched his hand. Her blue eyes -gone gray -locked on his.
    “Who did it?” she demanded.
    “I don’t know,” he said.
    “Will you find out for me?”
    “Well, I’ll sure try,” Tubby said doubtfully. “I’m just a lawyer, though, Edith, not a detective. For detective work I call on pros like Sanre Flowers.”
    “I’m sorry. It’s just all so distressing. You’ll help, won’t you, settle the estate and figure out what to do with the business?”
    “Of course.” He patted her hand.
    “Thank you, Tubby. You were his friend.”
    After that she had to fill out some forms. The coroner passed by to express his personal sympathy. He took