The night passed fitfully. I slept okay for a man who had spent the previous night in a dumpster. After Kathina left, I locked my office door and fell asleep on my couch. I woke up late in the afternoon and took the train home and tossed and turned my way through a twelve hour sleep. That gorilla must have hit me harder than I thought.
I was having a cup of coffee the next morning at Joe’s Cuppa’ Cafe and Freddie walked through the door with a newspaper under his arm.
[SFX: Door chime]
He spotted me straight away.
Freddie: "Hey, Dodgely."
Freddie was my partner when I was on the force. We were both rookies and shared a squad car. Now he was a Detective on the police force and I was a freelancer.
Dodgely: "Hey, Freddie"
Freddie pulled up short when he got to the end of my table and eyed me up and down as if I’d suddenly turned green. It was the brutal beating I’d taken, of course.
Freddie: [whistles]"Look what the cat dragged in. What the hell happened to you?"
He was grinning too. He knew what had happened to me. He may not have known exactly who it was and how it had transpired, but he had seen my old sorry mug in this condition far too many times for it to be a complete surprise.
Dodgely: "One of Philip Farley’s goons."
Freddie was still standing at the end of the table shaking his head over my beat up face and people were starting to stare.
Dodgely: "Will you stop eyeballing me like I’m your lunch and sit down already?"
Freddie sat down with the grin still on his face and waved the waitress over. She made her way over to the table and leaned in close to Freddie.
Waitress: [smacking gum]"What can I getcha, hon?"
Freddie: "Well, I’ll take two of you, Glenda."
Waitress: "In your dreams, Freddie. I’ll get your regular – Two scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee. How bout you Dodgely, you want another cup’?"
Dodgely: "Sure thing, sweetheart."
She was off in an instant, disappearing in that way that only experienced waitresses and stage magicians are capable of.
Freddie was looking me over again.
Freddie: "Not that I thought you were pretty before, but you really look terrible. You want I should put a couple guys out looking for this goon?"
I waved my hand at him and took another hit off my coffee. The goon was no good for my case, and if the cops hauled him in, Farley would more than likely be able to find out who had been trailing him. Freddie lit a cigarette and looked out the window.
Freddie: "Who’s tracking Farley?"
Dodgely: "Who do you think?"
Freddie: "Not his wife."
I nodded slowly and snatched up his newspaper.
Freddie: "It’s always the wife."
Dodgely: "What’s new with you?"
Freddie shook his head wryly, and suddenly Glenda was back with two fresh coffees and then gone just as quickly.
Freddie: "Nothing special, really. Usual crap."
I flipped over the newspaper and scanned the front page. Kathina Trent’s name caught my eye. The side article on the front page read Millionaire’s Wife Goes Missing.
I turned the paper over and held it in front of Freddie.
Dodgely: "You know anything about this?"
Freddie scanned the article and looked up at me with his eyebrows raised.
Freddie: "What’s it to ya?"
Dodgely: "Just wondering."
Freddie: "The man himself called in last night. It took dispatch a couple of minutes to believe that it was THE Marcus Trent. I think it’s bullshit."
Dodgely: "What do you mean?"
Freddie: "I think the dame is off somewhere having the time of her life on his dime, probably with the pool boy. He has no idea, and called in her disappearance. Meanwhile the paper gets hold of it and goes crazy with the story."
Glenda dropped Freddie’s eggs and toast off at the table and sped away.
Dodgely: "When did he call?"
Freddie: "Yesterday afternoon, around four."
The world started to swim around me. That meant that whatever had happened, happened just after she left my office.
Freddie: "Hey, you all right there, Dodgely? You look like you seen a ghost."
I looked up at Freddie and almost told him. I almost told him everything that had happened yesterday. But I stopped. Freddie was a straight cop who would haul me in for questioning if I might be a witness in a major crime. I couldn’t tell him anything.
Dodgely: "Yeah, I think it’s this beating I took. My brains are a little scrambled, I think."
Freddie: "You should go home, try to sleep through the day."
Dodgely: "Yeah, you’re right."
Freddie: "You’ll feel right as rain tomorrow, Dodgely."
I looked around for Glenda.
Freddie: "Hey, don’t worry about the check."
I stood up slowly, unsure of my legs and made my way to the door. I wasn’t going home to go to sleep. That bastard, Trent, had killed off his wife right under my nose. And the son of a bitch wasn’t going to get away with it.
[door chime]
Continue Scene 3
