Zigzag by Bill Pronzini Read Free Book Online Page B

years I knew him. Not aggressive, neither. No fights, no trouble. Easygoing.”
    â€œWhy was he drinking heavily that night?”
    â€œHe never told nobody. But he wasn’t his old self for a month or so before it happened, all wound up about something and hitting the sauce kind of hard—I figure it must’ve been money worries. You know, bills piling up and all that.”
    â€œOne of those rough patches you mentioned.”
    â€œYeah. Him and Doreen, they were doing all right until she had some female problems a few years ago that cost a bundle. They didn’t have no health insurance.”
    Like too many others in this best of all countries. “How often did you see Ray after he got out?”
    Buckner hesitated before he said, “Twice. We had a meal together a couple of days after.”
    â€œDid he say anything at all about the Russian River?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAsk you for a loan?”
    â€œA loan? No. Why should he?”
    â€œHe told his wife he was going to.”
    â€œYeah? That doesn’t make sense. I don’t have an extra pot to piss in and he knew it. What would he want a loan for?”
    â€œTo help finance a move to Arizona or New Mexico. You knew about that?”
    â€œSure, Ray told me. He was stoked about it, making a new start somewhere that was better for his asthma, buying an orchard farm. That was always his big dream.”
    â€œBuying a farm? How would he pay for it?”
    â€œMoney Doreen saved while he was away. She worked two jobs after he went to jail. Worked like a dog.”
    I didn’t doubt that. But her two jobs were department store clerk and part-time housecleaner, neither of which paid well enough to cover monthly bills and leave enough left over to build the kind of stake it takes for a property purchase. The impression I’d had from her was that the amount of her savings was modest at best. And their chances of getting a bank loan, with his record, were slim and none. Ray Fentress might just have been blowing smoke. Either that, or he expected to make a substantial score on his own. By robbing a small-time pot dealer at gunpoint?
    While I was ruminating, one of the beer drinkers called for a refill. Buckner went to accommodate him, and when he returned he said, “Listen, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I guess you oughta know as long as you don’t say anything to Doreen about it. She’s had enough grief as it is.”
    â€œThat bad, whatever it is?”
    â€œNo. It’s just … ah, hell, I don’t know if it means anything or not. Just keep it to yourself, all right?”
    â€œIf I can. I’m obligated to inform a client of anything directly related to my investigation.”
    â€œI don’t see how this could be related.”
    â€œThen it’ll just be between you and me.”
    â€œOkay, then. Second time I saw Ray was in here two days before he was killed, with a woman I never seen before.”
    â€œYou know who she was?”
    â€œMary something, that’s all. Thing was, Ray didn’t expect me to be here.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œLate afternoon and I was working nights that week. I come in early, like I do sometimes, and the two of them was in one of the booths over there, drinking beer with their heads together. Ray jumped a little when he saw me, had this kind of guilty look on his face. You know, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.”
    â€œYou think she might’ve been a working girl?”
    â€œI didn’t get that hit off her,” Buckner said. “Hell, this is the last place he’d have met up with her if she was. Besides, Ray, he wasn’t the type to traffic with whores.”
    â€œHow about other kinds of women?”
    â€œYou mean was he a chaser?” Buckner barked a scornful laugh. “Not Ray, uh-uh. As faithful to Doreen as she was to him, swear it on a Bible.”
    Faithful