Magician (12 page)

I hope it’s warmer in Arizona.

As I walked to my car, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the Champion’s number.

“Horace Champion.” The answer came before I even heard a ring. I tried to envision the Champions answering their own phone calls. I couldn’t. Champion must have been sitting by the phone.

Maybe he has a special ring on his phone, just for little old me.

“Mr. Champion. Good day, sir. This is Roland Longville. I have news for you.”

“Fantastic! What is it?”

“Well, I don’t want to sound too optimistic, but I believe that I have found some information that bears closer investigation. It looks like I’m going to have to take the investigation out of the state. I need to talk to you regarding travel expenses and so forth.”

“Mr. Longville. I hope that I need not repeat my unqualified faith in your abilities. Or reiterate the unswerving support of my wife and myself.” Champion sounded practically ecstatic.

The talk show circuit really ruined this man.

Champion went ebulliently on. “Please come by at your earliest convenience to bring me up to date. I am of course, very pleased with your progress.”

“I can be at your place tomorrow morning.”
 

“Yes, well, shall we say the later morning? Around ten? I have a business meeting at eight o’clock.”

“That’s fine.” I disconnected with my thumb and dialed another number. Viv picked up on the third ring, her voice still sleepy.

“Hello?”

“It’s Roland. I just wanted to tell you, it looks like I’ll have to be going out of town. To Arizona.”

“Today?”

“No, probably Friday.”

“Well, the bed’s still warm, if you care to drop back by.”

“You aren’t working today?”

“I called in. I was up pretty late last night.”

“Sorry to hear about that.”

“If you were really sorry, you’d come tell me so yourself.”

“I’ll be right over.”

* * *

As I drove over, I thought about what Champion had said, and wondered if there really was a business meeting. He was an odd fish, that was for certain.

I frowned at my own thoughts. Champion was a bit strange, and his personality was a bit on the conniving side, but perhaps his wealth necessitated that. But I had agreed to work for him, and to take this case wherever it might go, regardless. Besides, I had no way of knowing if this was the Horace Champion who had once had a daughter named Georgia, or if this was what was left of a man who had once been a proud father. I was no stranger to loss, or to the sudden U-turns that life sometimes makes.
 

I had made a few such U-turns of my own. Some of them had been damned unpleasant. I had once been a happy young husband and idealistic detective. I had gotten lucky one night, and caught a madman. People had called me a hero. I had had a bright future ahead of me . . . until I had made a mistake.

Unable to forgive myself, I had started drinking, and that had cost me everything: wife, future, career. But first and foremost I had lost my ideals. After a couple of years in the bottle, I had decided to dry out. It hadn’t been easy. But there was one moment, at the end of that dark time, that I will always remember.

I had been standing in the washroom of the Brooks Building, just after opening the office there. I had been about to shave, and I had taken a long hard look at myself in the mirror.
 

“You are not the same man, Roland Longville,” I had told myself.
 

I was sure that in his own darkest hour, Horace Champion had probably looked at himself and thought that very same thing.
 

My thoughts turned suddenly to Viv, and the night that we had spent together. She was a little young for me, maybe, but she was a smart woman who seemed to know what she wanted. If that happened to be a slightly older, recovering alcoholic, gumshoe detective, so much the better. Judging from her reaction on the phone, it seemed as though she had enjoyed my company as much as I had enjoyed hers.

Chapter 12

Viv’s apartment was a second story walk-up located near Five Points South, the touristy part of town, where there were dozens of yuppie bars and restaurants. It was located near a secluded back-alley drinking hole that was accessible only by a side street; it looked like a nice little tavern. If I still drank, that was one place I’d go to do it.

Viv met me at the door, still in her nightgown. She embraced me and we held each other. She nibbled playfully my ear. “You look tired. Maybe you could use a nap.”

I smiled and went along with it. “I’m beat. I’ve been up almost four hours.”

She was unbuttoning my shirt. “Well, I would offer to let you stay in my bed, but I’m sure there’s somewhere you have to be.”

I slipped one strap of her gown down over a shapely shoulder. “As a matter of fact, the rest of the day looks pretty open for me.”

Her hands went down to my belt. “Well, now that you mention it, I’m sort of tired myself.”

I pushed the other strap down, and caressed the milky brown skin of her shoulders. She drew close to me. “Guess you’ll find yourself a cowgirl out there in Arizona.”

“I won’t have time. I’ve got to find my bad guy.” I bent to kiss her neck, and then we were walking together toward the darkened bedroom.

“Lucky you ran into me, huh? Otherwise, you wouldn’t . . . have . . . a clue.”

* * *

The next morning, Viv was sleeping when I quietly climbed out of bed. We had spent most of the day being lazy, just enjoying each other’s company.

Arizona lay ahead, after my meeting with Champion. I looked down at Viv, and wished that we did not have to be apart so soon after meeting. She was a special kind of woman, someone I could perhaps grow close to, given time.

I looked out the window at the rain, which was coming down heavily now.
 

With any luck, she would be waiting when I returned from Arizona.
 

If you return,
the little voice in the back of his head reminded me.

So it’s liable to be dangerous. What of it. I’ve been to more dangerous places.

I rose quietly dressed, then shrugged into my overcoat. Champion would be waiting in his empty palace. I caressed Viv’s cheek, and she smiled in her sleep. I crept out of the door.

Chapter 13

Champion was overjoyed to see me. He’d had his maid lay out sandwiches and a variety of beverages on a table in the sitting room. He was on the couch, beaming. I winced; I hadn’t envisioned a buffet. Champion rose from his chair as I entered, and greeted me with a vigorous handshake.

“Mr. Longville, I cannot begin to voice my joy.” He gestured toward the table. “Please, make yourself at home. You must be hungry.”

“Sorry, I just ate. Look, Mr. Champion, I don’t know if you’re reading me clearly on this. I think that I have a lead, and I believe that it is a good one. But I really don’t understand why you are so happy.”

Champion nodded and opened his arms expansively. I thought the man was about to embrace me. “You’re right of course, Mr. Longville. I’m being a bit premature. But I can’t help getting excited. I mean, it might not be long, after all.”

“
What
might not be long, Mr. Champion?”

“Why, Georgia’s homecoming . . .”

I stood silently regarding Champion for a few seconds. The man’s face wore an expression of utter tranquility, evidence of a disturbing inner calm.

“Mr. Champion. You have to accept the possibility that Georgia is dead. That might just be what I find out.”

But Champion hadn’t heard me. “There are several kinds of sandwiches, and fruit juices and soft drinks. If you do discover that you have an appetite, please do not hesitate to help yourself.”

“Mr. Champion.”

Champion held up a hand in his favorite dismissive gesture. “Regrettably, I must take an important phone call, so I will be unable to stay any longer. In this envelope, Mr. Longville, you will find sufficient funds, I am sure, to carry you forward to the next stage in your investigation.” He held out a manila envelope. “Please, notify me the instant you require more.”

Champion retreated backward, bowing. The doors closed after him. I stood staring after him. I opened the envelope and looked inside. There were stacks of hundreds in there, ten of them . . . $10,000. I turned and looked at the drinks and sandwiches, and shook my head in wonder.

A loaf of bread, the Walrus said, is what we chiefly need.

BOOK TWO

I want some magic to sweep me away

I want some magic to sweep me away

Visit on this starlit night

replace the stars, the moon, the light, the sun is gone

Fly me through this storm

and wake up in the calm

I fly right through this storm

and wake up in the calm

— Lou Reed,
Magician

Chapter 14

The plane, climbing skyward at a steep angle out of Birmingham, banked slightly as the pilot turned and pointed the nose of his aircraft west. As the city fell away beneath us, I looked out over the North side, which lay shrouded in rain. Next to me, Tiller had his nose buried in an Arizona travel guide. I smiled to myself.
 

Too bad we won’t be stopping in New Orleans

As if sensing my thoughts, Tiller laid the travel guide down, and turned to me.

“So this is your first time out this way, eh, Roland?”

“That’s right,” I answered without turning from the window.

“You mind telling me just how somebody who does a four year stint in the United States Army never travels west of the Mississippi river?

I shrugged, my gaze still on the clouds that streamed by. “Easy. I did my basic training in Missouri, and my A school, for Military Police, in Virginia.”

“Well, what about your duty station?”

“Germany for two years, Italy for another. Then it was back home to Birmingham, when I decided not to reenlist. No mystery there. At least I got to see Europe.”

Tiller harrumphed. I turned finally and looked at the older man. “What about you, Tiller? Have you been everywhere?”
 

“Just about, it seems. I was CID, in the United States Navy. Got to travel a whole hell of a lot, saw a lot of crazy things, too. I went in when I was sixteen, and by the time I turned twenty I’d been to most of the countries in Europe. When I retired at the still young age of thirty-six, I’d seen the world—or at least, Europe, Asia, and both coasts.”

“So how long have you been a Birmingham cop?”

“Oh, about twelve years. Think about it, that’s a lot of detecting.”

“You certainly have me beat.”

“Right, I got it. In other words, I’m an old fart.”

I chuckled and then we fell silent for a time. Finally, Tiller murmured in a quieter voice, “You know, I’ve been thinking about this Fain character. We know that he won’t be expecting us, so that might make him pretty easy to find. But have you given any thought to what we do
when
we find him?”

I nodded grimly. “Plenty. Right now, all I want to do is ask him some questions. Like where he was on Georgia Champion’s ninth birthday. And maybe what was in those drinks he passed around the year before. And why.”

“You start off like that, this thing could get weird. Christ, the freak might put the cops on us.”

“He wouldn’t chance that, if I’m right at all about him. No, our major worry will probably be keeping our eye on him, so that he doesn’t pull another disappearing act.”

“Well, I certainly hope you’re right. I like your plan. Anyway, in my experience, which you have so kindly noted is great in terms of years, there are always things that come up that aren’t in the plan.”

“Yeah,” I said, my gaze drifting back out the window. “I know.”

But I was thinking to myself:
Samson Fain, here we come
.

 
Far below I could just make out the roads and houses of the countryside, lurking beneath the thin cloud cover. I thought about Vivian. She would be at work today. I’d talked to her last night, and it seemed that the dinner they had shared had also set well with her, and especially everything that had happened after that.

I’ll have to see her again, when I get back. Whenever that is.

I glanced at Tiller, who was already dozing. I pulled out my ticket. Arrival at 4:00, Arizona time. That would make it a five and a half hour flight. Thirty minutes of that was changing planes and sitting on the field in San Antonio.

I pulled out the picture of Samson Fain, or the young man he had once been. He was staring out into the world, his smile a little forced. Maybe there was something in his face, a pain, an awareness that he didn’t quite fit in. It was impossible to really say. I wondered what strange thoughts had been lurking behind those quiet brown eyes.