think that was on the cards. It would be tomorrow, over the weekend at the latest, and my left leg would simply have to bear up as best it could. 'Well, good night, Mr Pomberton. I'll see you tomorrow.'
'Sure. Thanks for calling, kid. I got one all picked out in my mind for you. You'll like her, see if you don't. And if you don't start calling me Johnny, I'm gonna double the price.'
'Sure,' I said, and hung up on his laughter.
You'll like her. See if you don't.
Her again - I was becoming morbidly aware of that casual form of referral . . . and getting damned sick of it.
Then I made my last preparatory call. There were four Sykeses in the phone book. I got the one I wanted on my second try; Jimmy himself answered the phone. I introduced myself as Arnie Cunningham's friend, and Jimmy's voice brightened. He liked Arnie, who hardly ever teased him and never 'punched on him' as Buddy Repperton had done when Buddy worked for Will. He wanted to know how Arnie was, and, lying again, I told him Arnie was fine.
'Jeez, that's good,' he said. 'He really had his butt in a sling there for a while. I knew them fireworks and cigarettes was no good for him.'
'It's Arnie I'm calling for,' I said. 'You remember when Will got arrested and they shut down the garage, Jimmy?'
'Sure do.' Jimmy sighed. 'Now poor old Will's dead and I'm out of a job. My ma keeps sayin I got to go to the vocational-technical school, but I wouldn't be no good at that. I guess I'll go for bein a janitor, or somethin like that. My Uncle Fred's a janitor up at the college, and he says there's an op-nin, because this other Janitor, he disappeared, just took off or somethin, and - '
'Arnie says when they closed down the garage, he lost his whole socket-wrench kit,' I broke in. 'It was up behind some of those old tyres, you know, on the overhead racks. He put them up there so no one would rip him off.'
'Still there?' Jimmy asked.
'I guess so.'
'What a bummer!'
'You know it. That set of boltfuckers was worth a hundred dollars.'
'Holy crow! I bet they ain't there anymore anyway, though. I bet one of them cops got it.'
'Arnie thinks they might still be there. But he's not supposed to go near the garage because of the trouble he's in.' This was a lie, but I didn't think Jimmy would catch it and he didn't. Putting one over on a fellow who was borderline retarded didn't add a thing to my self-esteem, however.
'Aw, shit! Well, listen - I'll go down and look for 'em. Yessir! Tomorrow morning, first thing. I still got my keys.'
I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't Arnie's mythical set of socket wrenches that I wanted; I wanted Jimmy's keys.
'I'd like to get them, Jimmy, that's the thing. As a surprise. And I know right where he put them. You might hunt around all day and still not find them.'
'Oh, yeah, for sure. I was never no good at finding things, that's what Will said. He always said I couldn't find my own bee-hind with both hands and a flashlight.'
'Aw, man, he was just putting you down. But really - I'd like to do it.'
'Well, sure.'
'I thought I'd come by tomorrow and borrow your keys. I could get that set of wrenches and have your keys back to you before dark.'
'Gee, I dunno. Will said to never loan out my keys - '
'Sure, before, but the place is empty now except for Arnie's tools and a bunch of junk out back. The estate will be putting it up for sale pretty soon, contents complete, and if I take them after that, it would like stealing.'
'Oh! Well, I guess it'd be okay. If you bring my keys back.' And then he said an absurdly touching thing: 'See, they're all I got to remember Will by.'
'It's a promise.'
'Okay,' he said. 'If it's for Arnie, I guess it's okay.'
Just before bed, now downstairs, I made one final call - to a very sleepy-sounding Leigh.
'One of these next few nights we're going to end it. You game?'
'Yes,' she said. 'I am. I think I am. What have you got planned, Dennis?'
So I told her, going through it step by step, half-expecting her to poke a dozen holes in my idea. But when I was done, she simply said, 'What if it