The Weird Insights of a Scobberlotcher

Thirty-four Sounds Tan

It's an odd feeling interrogating your interrogator. When the tables get reversed sometimes the view is a little different from what you expected. I'd started off sort of judgmental. Maybe even a little vindictive. Partly prejudice on my part, I admit. Partly from assuming the righteous role of Doug's earthly representative. But then, as we went along, an odd sympathy started leaking in. I could see it in my own words. Pretty soon I didn't have enough fingers and toes to hold back the flood.

"So, let me get this straight," I said, "you didn't talk to the mayor about your father."

"No, I did."

"So he was right then."

"No. Yes. Look, I talked to Morrison about my father, but before, not after."

"Before what?"

"Before the day dad finally admitted to me what he'd been up to. So I knew what he was up to."

His voice was subdued now to cool, gray, smooth. I was getting the goods alright. No doubt. Problem was I didn't understand how that could be.

"O.k., look, your father gets that visit from one of those Pin Boyz characters right after he tells you what he's been doing. Right?"

"Right, but I'd already talked to Morrison about it. Before. I didn't rat on dad. Morrison already knew what was going on. And I knew, too, but I couldn't tell him that. And believe me, if I hadn't talked to Morrison that warning visit my father got might've turned out a lot worse."

Again, I could see the composition of straight goods coming my way but it made no verbal sense. It was the weirdest conflict.

"Look, I'm sorry, I know you're telling the truth. I can see it but I just don't get it."

He looked at me intently for a sec or two then turned to look over his right shoulder. At first I thought it was one of those reflex behaviors, like when you need time to think what to say next so you look up and away with your eyes. But then he turned his head all the way round the other way to look over his left shoulder. No. He was studying the crowd. Who was around. Where they were sitting. How close. Then he turned back to me.

"Look, let me ask you this, can I trust you?"

He said it in a coarse whisper. The gray was almost gone. It was an intimate pale off white now. Just barely brushed you as it slid through with the lightest caress. Like superfine sandpaper. Made your mind tingle. The guy must have been a hit across the pillow. Still, thought it best to stay on the offensive.

"More to the point, Allan, I trust you. And after I leave this place I never want to hear another word or speak to anyone about this whole thing. So, ya, you can trust me."

"O.k. then, first off, remember how my dad acted funny in the hospice?"

"Ya. It was the drugs."

"Did you know he'd been diagnosed with cancer almost two years ago and was on increasing doses of morphine for the last year?"

"No. Did it affect him?"

"Oh ya, and for a lot of it he was on that crusade against Morrison. It was o.k. at first but then he started acting strange, having these bizarre, angry outbursts. Once at a council meeting he even stood up and started pointing and shouting at an empty chair. They had to escort him out. Then he started harassing the city staff, asking all sorts of questions, demanding copies of countless documents. And that coffee shop where he thought he was snooping on Morrison's informal business meetings. I mean, Jesus!"

"Wondered about that. What did he do, wear a fake nose and glasses or something?"

"No, he thought he was invisible by then for Christ's sake! But it musta been pretty obvious he was skulking around the place. And did he ever tell you about the drive-bys?"

"Nope, don't remember that one."

"Towards the end he even tried cruising back and forth in front of Morrison's house late at night in his old Caddy. It had a hole in the friggin' muffler. Couldn't have been more obvious than if he'd been waving a flag."

"Holy shit! Hey, wait a minute, how'd you know about all this?"

"We were watching him."

"What? We were watching him? Whaddya mean 'we' were watching your father?"

"We couldn't help it. We had Morrison under surveillance the whole time."