i ask of you the truth - 9. down this road

by nick nelson

part nine of ?

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the doorbell rang. the professor got up to answer it. i have been down this road before, johnny thought. he reached under his arm and pulled out his .357 and followed the professor who was headed to the door. but he was too late. no sooner had the professor opened the door than two shots blasted out, sending the professor’s body hurtling backwards right into johnny. johnny managed to keep his feet and shove the professor’s body aside. he made it to the door expecting to see the shooter disappearing down the hall into the entranceway to the stairwell. instead the shooter - a guy in a black raincoat - was standing at the end of the corridor and got a shot off at johnny that ricocheted off the wall and knocked johnny’s hat off! his brand new hat that he had just paid a sawbuck for! johnny ran down the corridor without putting his hat back on, but when he got to the door to the stairs he heard three more shots echoing up from the stairwell. now what? johnny edged into the stairwell, but there were no more shots. instead, floating up the stairs, he heard the unmistakable voice of detective gus grogan! grogan must have everything under control, johnny thought. he heard the elevator rising up behind him and kept his hand on his .357 just in case the elevator door should open and reveal some other unpleassant surprise. but the elevator opened and it was only morelli, grogan’s sidekick. he didn’t seem any more surprised to see johnny than johnny was to see him. morelli looked around, took in the right foot of the professor sticking out of the door of his apartment. “is that guy sleeping?” morelli asked johnny. “probably for a long time,” johnny answered. he slipped his gun back under his arm and went and picked his hat up. it looked like a moose had taken a bite out of the brim. his brand new hat, that he just paid a sawbuck for. the door to the stairwell opened and grogan walked out of it. he looked at johnny and didn’t crack wise, just nodded as if seeing him there was the most natural thing in the world. i have been down this road before, johnny thought. 10. just happen

i ask of you the truth - 8. one thing

by nick nelson

part eight of ?

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slim found himself back in his room. he put the rapidly warming ice cold coke down on the little table beside the bed, and lay down on the bed. now what? it was not like he had never been in weird situations before, especially where the general was involved. so if the clerk’s not so young young wife was mixed up in this, and he found her smiling face waiting for him at the general’s tomorrow, so be it. he would just have to see what happened, the way he always did. the paperback book, i ask of you the truth, was still sitting on top of the little table . slim took a swig of the coke, and picked up the book and started reading it. even though he did not like books that started at the beginning. he preferred the bible, where you could just open it up and start reading. * “come in, mister o’rourke,” the professor said, waving johnny into the apartment. the apartment looked pretty big, but it was hard to tell, as it was lit by a single lamp. the professor sat down in an easy chair, and motioned johnny into another one. the sounds of the new york night drifted up from forty stories below. “drink, mister o’rourke?” “you can have one if you want, i would just as soon get down to business.” “so would i.” the professor leaned back in his chair. johnny didn’t like the professor’s looks, but times were starting to get tough, and he needed a job and he couldn’t be choosy. he was not disposed think well of professors in the first place, but this guy reminded him of a certain type of officer he had encountered in the war - the kind who sat cozy and warm in headquarters - maybe even with a nice long legged wac to take dictation - and smoked their pipes and dreamed up “missions” for guys like johnny - “missions” that never worked out like they did on paper and that the men in the field had to make what they could of and try to survive… the professor was talking and johnny pulled his mind back to the present… who knew, maybe this character had not even been in the war… “this is a job,” the professor announced, “probably different from any you have ever undertaken.” he eyed johnny carefully, as if expecting some kind of surprised response. “what is it?” johnny asked. “all i want,” the professor continued, “is for you to find out one thing for me. find out whether one thing happened or did not. either way, you do not have to do anything. except report back to me. you do not have to arrest anybody - “ “i am a private operative, sir, i have no power to arrest anybody.” “yes, of course. perhaps i should have said, you will have no cause to report anybody to the authorities, who would then make an arrest. is that more clear?” “sure.” “you will not have to kill anybody, you will not have to beat anybody up.” “sir, i would never engage in such activities. i am a law-abiding citizen, with a license from the state of new york to conduct investigations. and, besides, i hate violence.” “i am very happy to hear that.” the professor leaned back and put his fingertips together. “i estimate that the investigation should take you no more than a month. what is your rate for a month’s services?” johnny named a price, and the professor agreed to it at once. maybe this won’t be such a bad deal, johnny thought. there was a book on a little table beside the easy chair the professor was sitting in and he picked it up and showed it to johnny. the title was “operation raven” and the author’s name was reginald warren. “have you ever heard of this book?” the professor asked. “i can’t say that i have.” the professor laughed. “i would not think so. not many have. have you ever heard of operation raven, or of the estimable captain reginald warren?” “no.” “good. then you will start from scratch, with an open mind.” “i always have an open mind, sir, when i start something.” “excellent. then let me get right to the point.” you do that, johnny thought, but he just nodded. just then the doorbell rang. 9. down this road

i ask of you the truth - 7. a nice cold drink

by nick nelson

part seven of ?

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slim was pretty good at sensing perfectly still animals and humans, even in the deepest darkness, but he was right in front of the coke machine, getting ready to put his nickel in, before he noticed the form in the shadows. i am getting careless, he thought. “hello,” the form said in a woman’s voice. slim put his nickel in the machine. there were three buttons for cokes, one for dr pepper. and one for moxie. cursing himself for being so oblivious to the woman’s presence, he pressed one of the buttons for a coke. the bottle of coke clanged down to the drawer in the bottom of the machine. slim picked it up. he had to admit it was nice and cold. “this coke is nice and cold,” slim told the woman. “i am sure.” “got to be a pretty good machine, to keep a coke that cold.” “yes, my husband is very proud of it.” so this was the wife the clerk had run on about. she was not as young as all that, slim thought. the clerk had made her sound like she was a bobbysoxer. in fact she looked like she had been taken for a spin around the block a few times, down by the old mill stream. “he should be proud,” slim answered the woman. “very proud. it’s not every day you find a coke this nice and cold, especially out in the middle of nowhere like this.” “so are you an expert on coke machines? what do you do, drive around the countryside, looking for the perfect coke machine? are you writing a book about them?” what a lip, slim thought. slim did not like lippy people, especially lippy women. but he just smiled and said, “no, i’m just a guy who appreciates a nice cold drink.” the woman laughed. “i get it. well, this is all well snd good, my friend, but why don’t we stop with the frick and frack and the old soft shoe?” “excuse me?” slim said. “you are here to see the general, aren’t you?” slim felt his blood run as cold as the coke in his hand. “general? i don’t know any general.” “really? but i bet you know which way the wind blows, when it blows right right in your face.” what can she know? slim thought. she can suspect something, but she can’t know for sure. he was sure he had never seen her before. “you are making some kind of mistake,” he told her. “you must have me mixed up with somebody else.” “have it your way.” and she was gone, into the shadows, as quickly as she had come. 8. one thing

i ask of you the truth - 6. room 14

by nick nelson

part six of ?

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“there’s the coke machine, right over there,” the motel owner, or clerk, or whatever he was, repeated to slim, as he put the key in the door of room 14 and opened it. “yeah, i saw it,” slim said. “it’s all filled up, just filled it up today.” “that’s good.” they entered room 14 and the clerk switched on the light, revealing a motel room, nothing more nor less. “looks good,” said slim. he took the key from the clerk and the clerk left. slim started to lie down on the bed. but then he decided to check the drawer of the table beside the bed to see if there was a gideon bible in it. slim liked to read the bible, even though he never did except in hotel or motel rooms. there was no gideon bible in the drawer, but there was a book. it was a paperback book. it was obviously a detective novel. the cover showed a man in a fedora and an overcoat that looked like it weighed thirty pounds, with his back to the reader, pointing a pistol at a blonde in a leopard skin coat, who was pointing a pistol at him. the leopard skin coat was partially open, and it looked like the blonde had nothing on underneath it. the book was titled i ask of you the truth by william wilson. under the title were the words, “she was as beautful as a butterfly, deadly as a rattlesnake!…” slim flipped the book on to the table, beside the little lamp. he probably would not read it. he was not much for reading, though he liked to read the bible sometimes. he lay back on the bed. i should get some sleep, he thought. it might be a long day tomorrow. first he would have to get to wiley’s place, probably through back roads if the bridge was not fixed, then he would have to listen to wiley’s jabber, and then at night he would have to deal with the general. wiley would probably have a woman. wiley was one of those guys who did not look like much, but somehow always had a woman around. and they usually talked as much as he did. slim was a little bit hungry. he was not starving, but he could use a couple of sandwiches or some fried chicken. not that he was about to go out looking for a restaurant in these back woods at this time of night. he remembered the clerk running on about his wonderful coke machine. he decided to get a coke. he had a couple of nickels in his pocket and he got up and took one out of his pocket and headed for the door. 7. a nice cold drink

i ask of you the truth - 5. slim

by nick nelson

part five of ?

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the bridge had washed out between middlevlle and thomasville, and slim decided to go back to a motel he had passed a few miles back, rather than try to find a way around to meet up with wiley, and maybe get lost in some back roads. and it was a good excuse not to have spend the night with wiley. slim trusted wiley - as much as he would ever trust anybody - but he was a talker, and slim was not much of a listener. slim turned the packard around and headed back to the motel, keeping within the speed limit as he had through his trip through the small towns and half-empty counties on his way to hook up with wiley. he snickered again at the motel sign as he approached it. “last chance motel”. last chance for what? they were almost two thousand miles from california and about a thousand from anything that could be called a desert. slim parked in front of the motel’s office, which was lit. there were no other cars parked in the front, and no other lights on that he could see. but the sign, and the part of it lit up to show “vacancy” , were bright and in working order, and the place did not look run down. it wasn’t the hilton, but it wasn’t abandoned or a total dump. there was nobody at the desk. there was a bell, and slim hit it. nobody showed up. slim took out his cigarettes and lit one, then looked around for an ashtray. there was one on the desk, half full. one of the butts in it had a glowing red ember. slim had almost finished his smoke when the clerk finally showed up. an old man, about fifty, wheezing slightly and snapping his suspenders. “howdy,” the old man greeted slim, hardly looking at him as he eased himself into the chair behind the desk. “howdy,” slim replied. “looking for a room?” the clerk asked, still not looking at slim, but checking the desk drawer for something. no, i came in to see if your ashtray was full, slim thought, but he just said, “yeah.” “one night?” “yeah, just one night.” “that will be three dollars.” the old man finally looked up at slim. whatever he had been looking for in the desk, it didn’t look like he found it. “all the rooms are the same price. got any preferences?” “preferences?” “front or back, first floor or second?” “it’s all the same to me. i just want a night’s sleep.” the old man nodded. “i got a room out back on the first floor, right beside the coke machine.” “that sounds good,” said slim. “everybody likes a nice coke.” he took a 2 dollar bill and a one dollar bill out of his wallet and gave them to the old man. “sign here.” slim signed as “richard hawkins” in big handwriting. “checkout is ten o’clock,” said the clerk. “i know in the big cities it might be eleven or even noon, but here in the wilderness we get up early,” he added with a smile. “no problem,” slim told him. “i want to get up early myself. i only stopped because the bridge is out up ahead. i hope it’s fixed by the morning.“ “yes, so i heard. where you headed?” “thomasville.” “i tell you what, if that bridge isn’t fixed i can give you directions to go around it .” “thanks. i see you’re a white man.” the clerk stood up with a key in his hand. “i’ll bring you around. it’s room 14.” when they stepped outside, the old man said, ”one more thing.” “what?” “my wife. if you get up real early, you might see my wife. she gets up before i do, most mornings.” so? slim thought. “the thing is, my wife is younger than me. a lot younger.” slim did not know what to say to that, but the clerk continued with a laugh, “the reason i’m telling you is, people think she’s my daughter, or maybe just a maid. but she’s my wife.” “oh.” “it’s always good for people to have right information, don’t you think?” the old man half turned to slim. “i couldn’t agree more,” slim said. “here we are, room 14. and there is the coke machine, filled it up just this afternoon.” 6. room 14

i ask of you the truth - 4. joe and molly

by nick nelson

part four of ?

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night. a dusty road. a packard drives down the dusty road with dimmed lights. a factory on the horizon. a few lights are on, in the upper floor. * molly is sitting at the kitchen table. joe enters. he goes to the refrigerator and takes out a bottle of beer. “so how did the meeting go?” “all right.” joe sits down with the bottle of beer. he looks at the bottle. “oh, yeah, i should get a glass, right?” “suit yourself. did you come to any great decisions at the meeting?” “just to keep fighting.” molly sighed. “is that all you want to do, joe? fight? fight, fight, fight, your whole life? you go to war and fight, then you come home and you want to fight some more. you men!” “it’s because i went to war that i want to keep fighting, molly. we fought to defeat the fascists in europe - now we have to fight the homegrown fascists - the bosses and fat cats!” “let’s talk about something else.” “all right.” joe takes a sip of his beer. “what?” “i went to sears today with rhonda and looked at the refrigerators.” “why? what is wrong with the one we’ve got? it works o k.” “most of the time. but i don’t want the refrigerator breaking down. i don’t want the refrigerator breaking down when the baby comes.” “well,” joe said uncertainly, “ the baby won’t be here for a while.” “but i can look around for something good, can’t i? let’s not argue about it, o k?” “o k’ “oh, i almost forgot, a letter came for you today.” “a letter? what is it from, the army?” joe was still getting letters from the army and the government. “no, it’s a real letter, from a person. from charles - charles somebody. hold on, i’ll get it.” molly got up from the table. “charles?” joe called after her. “i don’t know any charles. any charles who would be writing me a letter.” “here it is - charles - charles legrand.” “legrand? that must be slim - slim legrand!” “and who is he - some old army buddy?” “no - i wouldn’t - i wouldn’t exactly call him a buddy,” joe replied thoughtfully. 5. slim

i ask of you the truth - 3. the strand

by nick nelson

part three of ?

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pete had a little trouble finding the strand movie theater. he walked past it twice before finally seeing the little sign that just said - strand theater. it was the smallest theater he had ever seen. it had no marquee, and the ticket booth did not face the street, but was tucked into the side of the little lobby. just as mike, the guy from the market, had told pete, a sign above the ticket booth said - all tickets 15 cents before 4 o’clock. and as mike had predicted, pete had never heard of the movies. a single poster in the lobby, beside the box office, described the main feature. it was called “i ask of you the truth”. the stars were listed as lawrence tierney, dan duryea, robert ryan, gloria grahame and marie windsor. the poster also announced “introducing tony mendoza” and “with orson welles as ‘the general’”. a smaller poster below the main one said simply - second feature - seven guns from diablo, with kermit maynard. pete could not tell from the poster if “i ask of you the truth” was a western, a gangster movie, or a war movie, although with “orson welles as the general” he supposed it must be some sort of war movie. he decided to buy a ticket. a fat faced girl with a pageboy haircut gave him ten cents change for his quarter. she then ripped a ticket herself and gave pete half. pete looked around. he did not see a concession stand. “any popcorn?” he asked. “just the machine over there.“ there was a vending machine on the other side of the door into the movie. pete walked over to it. it sold candy bars, gum, and little boxes of crackerjack. “any cokes or sodas?” he asked the girl. “no.” “no?” “you could have brought your own.” “why time does the show start?” the girl looked at a little clock she had in the ticket booth. “seven minutes.” pete considered this. “any cartoons and stuff?” “no, just the show - the two movies. and a newsreel.” pete still had the strawberry turkish taffy he had bought from mike. he decided to forget about getting his own coke. there was a water fountain beside the vending machine and he took a drink from that. the girl in the ticket booth wrinkled her nose when pete made slurping sounds at the fountain but he didn’t notice. pete entered the theater. it was the darkest theater he had ever been in. it was pitch black. pete could not tell if it was full or if he was the only one there. he waited for three whole minutes but his eyes still could not get accustomed to the dark. finally the screen lit up - sort of - with the newsreel. with the little bit of light, pete groped his way to a seat. there didn’t seem to be anybody else in the theater, but he could not really tell. 4. joe and molly

i ask of you the truth - 2. tell them mike sent you

by nick nelson

part two of ?

for part one, click here

the seventy-five cents his grandmother had given him was burning a hole in pete’s pocket as he stood on the sidewalk. it was a nice day. “too nice” to spend it in a movie theater, but where else was he going to go? but first, there was the little business of “looking for a job”. pete had found the perfect place to “look for a job”. a little market - mike’s market - four blocks from his grandmother’s apartment. it didn’t seem to do much business, and was pretty much a one-man operation. the owner, whom pete assumed was mike, was always there. sometimes in the afternoon there was a teenage boy, a nephew or cousin of the owner, helping out. pete had asked a couple of times if the guy was hiring, and was told to forget it. when pete asked if he knew anybody else who was hiring, mike told him he was “just off the boat” and did not know anybody in america, although he did not speak with any kind of foreign accent. now pete decided to try a third time. the second time mike had seemed a little annoyed, but this time he just laughed. “you again!” “i don’t suppose you changed your mind about hiring?” pete asked. “no, my good man, I did not.” pete looked around the little store, which was empty of customers. the store sold mostly fruit and vegetables, but had cigarettes behind the counter and candy bars in front of the counter and an old fashioned ice chest with coke and pepsi and other sodas. “i didn’t see any harm in asking.” pete said. “how about any harm in buying something?” mike asked him. “i don’t have any money. that’s why i’m looking for a job,” pete answered quickly. “come on, you don’t have a nickel for a candy bar? how about a nice turkish taffy?” mike pointed to the display of candy bars below the counter. “ a nickel, and it will last all day. and build strength in your teeth. we got vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, take your pick.” pete decided to humor mike. “o k, i’ll have a strawberry turkish taffy.” he gave mike one of the three quarters his grandmother had given him, and mike put in the cash register and gave pete two dimes change. “that wasn’t so tough, was it?” mike asked, in a friendlier tone now that pete had bought something. “i guess not,” pete admitted. “you see, if you get a job - somewhere else, not here, you’ll have more money and you can buy more candy. that’s the way it works.” “right,” pete agreed. he tried to smile. “so now where are you going? going to look someplace else?” “maybe. i thought i might go to a movie first.” “movies, huh? where do you go?” “usually the palace or the roxie. i like the roxie, they have a new show three times a week.” “ever go to the strand?” “the strand? “ pete considered this. “never heard of it. where is it? downtown somewhere?” “no, it’s just over on 88th street. it’s small, you could walk right by it and not see it. and they got a new show - a new double feature - every day. and they got movies they don’t show anywhere else. movies you never heard of.” “huh.” “and it’s only fifteen cents. for the matinee. and only two bits at night.” “wow. maybe i’ll check it out. on 88th street?” “yeah, 88th and ninth avenue. tell them mike sent you.” “i’ll do that.” pete wondered if he would get extra popcorn or something if he told them mike sent him, but he did not say so to mike. 3. the strand