A Gambling Man (Archer #2)(102)

“And do you think his son’s death was just an accident?” asked Archer.

Drake picked up his drink again and took another sip. He set it down and pressed the sleeve of his robe against his moistened lips. “That’s what the police say.”

“Some folks think he might have been murdered,” noted Dash.

“Well, you can’t control what some people might think,” replied Drake.

“Just like that, you dismiss your friend’s death?” said Dash.

“What do you want me to do about it?” Drake shot back.

Archer said, “Well, maybe as mayor you can do something about it, because it doesn’t seem like the police did much of an investigation.”

A small smile escaped Drake’s lips. It was the saddest smile Archer had ever seen.

Drake said, “Maybe I could, in an ideal world. When you find one, let me know.”

“Nothing else you can tell us to help our investigation?” said Dash.

“Excuse me, but who exactly is your client in all of this?”

“That’s confidential.”

“Really? Bay Town is still manageable when it comes to gossip. And my gossip tells me that you’re working for my opponent.”

“And if I told you that finding the truth trumps that?”

“Then I think you’ll be trying to sell me the Golden Gate Bridge next.”

Dash grinned. “You know, just to be brutally honest, I told Archer here that you were pretty much a dishrag without a chance in hell of beating Kemper.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

“But now I see you in a different light. And it’s a much better picture.”

“Don’t patronize me, Willie.”

“If I was patronizing you, Alfred, you’d know it.”

Drake took a moment to study Dash’s earnest features. “All right. I wish you luck with your investigation, even if it does help Kemper beat me.”

“Maybe it will, and maybe it won’t,” said Dash. “But you’ll always be a damn good dentist.”

Drake chortled. “Maybe I’m seeing you in a different light now, too, Willie. Who’d ’a thunk?”

Dash rose and so did Archer, who said, “So you really think you have no chance against Kemper?”

“I have no chance. We’ll just have to see, won’t we? Stranger things have happened.”

They left him sitting there stroking his cat and staring out toward the ocean.





HE DOESN’T STRIKE ME AS A MAN who has sold out to mobsters from Vegas,” said Dash as they drove back to town.

“He actually seems like a good guy who cares about people.”

“Like he cared about the young buck planting the bush?” said Dash.

“Thought you might have noticed that. Any rumors about him on that score?”

“None that stuck. And for a guy like Drake you’d need some hard proof, otherwise he’ll sue your ass off.”

“But you did refer to him as the tooth fairy. Or am I reading too much into that?”

Dash’s features became deadly serious. “That sort of behavior is illegal, Archer, it comes under sodomy and sexual perversion. You can go to prison for a long time for that, and you have to register as a sex offender.”

“Really?”

Dash looked uncomfortable. “Hell, some private eyes spend their careers drilling holes in walls and taking pictures of folks engaged in such . . . activities.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re hired by neighbors, disgruntled family members, or people who believe themselves to be the guardians of ‘morality.’ Folks went to prison and often died there or were sterilized to ‘cure’ them. My take is, if a guy’s different, so what? Live and let live.”

“Didn’t figure you’d be sympathetic to that sort of thing, Willie.”

Dash looked out the window. “Yeah, I guess I look like an old, fat son of a bitch with all the prejudices that come with it.” He patted his chest. “But my ticker ain’t just there to keep my blood pumping, Archer. Doesn’t the good book say to love thy neighbor?”

“The one I read does.”

“Yeah, well . . . ” He lapsed into silence and ran his fingers along the car window.

“Did you ever do that sort of work, spying on people?”

Dash slowly nodded. “For about a year. And then I’d had enough.”

“So what happened?”

“None of your business.”

“Okay. But I hope I’ve proved over the short time we’ve worked together that you can trust me.”

“I don’t trust easily, Archer.”

“And you think I do?”

“You got your flask?”

Archer handed it to him and Dash took a belt, screwed the cap on, and passed it back to Archer. He settled in his seat and started smoothing down his tie.

“One day a lady comes in and hires me to spy on her fifteen-year-old nephew. She told me she just knew he was engaged in lewd behavior. But when she told her sister her suspicions, the sister was having none of it. Said she needed proof, so the lady comes to me. Later, I realized the broad just hated her sister and wanted to use the kid to stick it to her. But she was paying me money I really needed, so I took my little bag of dirty tricks and went to work. I followed the kid to this abandoned building that had the rep of being a safe place for guys who were ‘that way.’ I snuck in, got the lay of the land, figured out where he was, and drilled a hole in the wall and took my little pictures of him and another kid. I handed them over to my client, who promptly passed them over to the boy’s mom.”