Ashes of Yesterday

Chapter 28

Phalen drove to a small community on the outskirts of town. Nudger had been settled fifty years before the first bean field appeared in what was now known as Hollywood. It was a good name for the place, Phalen decided. The place was so small that all it would take would be a little nudge to nudge it right off the map.

He wiped the sweat that beaded on his brow. It was a hot one. He hoped he wasn't wasting his time. That was the problem with leads. He had to follow them and track them down. Even if they led nowhere.

He'd received a tip from a friend of a friend of Reed Kimball that this was where Johnny was now living. Phalen parked his car at the one service station he'd come across on his trip. This had to be it.

Blinko's.

Gasoline and not much more. It was a small, squat building. White wooden siding. An awning stretched out over the single gas pump. The attendant walked outside.

"Fill 'er up?" the young man behind the counter asked.

"Yeah," said Phalen, getting out of the car. "You lived here long?"

"Long enough, I guess."

"Get much business out this way?"

"Enough," the young man said. "Why all the questions? You a cop?"

"No," said Phalen. "But I am investigating a murder."

"Leave me alone," he said.

"You're Johhny Kimball, aren't you?"

"So?" said the young man. "Eighty-three cents."

Phalen handed the man a dollar. He went inside to get the change. Phalen followed him.

"We need to talk."

"Why should I talk to you? I'm busy," said the man.

"Did you kill your father?"

"What kind of stupid question is that?" he asked.

"Did you do it?"

The young man looked Phalen squarely in the eyes.

"That bastard left me and Mama high and dry," he said. "Walked out on us without even a damn-thank-you-ma'am goodbye."

"Did you do it?"

"I wanted to," said the young man. "Hell, I wanted to. Lived like a king on the best of everything while we ate dirt."

"I've talked with your mother," Phalen said.

"Good for you," he said.

"She not well," Phalen said.

"She's a drunk," he said.

"You hate them both, don't you, Johnny?"

"Why not? You seen her! And as for him!"

Johnny spat on the ground.

"I wouldn't give that sum bitch air to breathe if he was stuck in a jar."

"You went to see him, didn't you?" Phalen asked.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"We found your teddy bear shoved down between the cushion of the arm chair," said Phalen.

"I'm a grown man, mister," Johnny said. "What do I need with a teddy bear? I been off mama's tit for over twenty years."