CHUCK, CHUCK LARSON, WAS ON THE PHONE. “YOU SHOULDNA scared Cory like that, Georgie.” He sounded sadder than I had ever heard him.
“I didn’t scare her, or at least I didn’t mean to. I was just asking questions.”
“Yeah, but about what?”
“I was trying to locate McFetridge. You remember him.”
“You wanted to know where someone was, you shoulda come to me, Georgie. I can pretty much always help you with that. What did you want to find Paulie for?”
“He was my roommate, for heaven’s sake. At one time he was my best friend. I just wanted to find him, talk to him, see what he’s up to.”
“Yeah, but you were asking Cory questions about stuff that happened a long time ago.”
“Because it turns out that was the last time she saw him.”
In court I have learned that it is best not to stick to a script. You ask a question, get an answer, pick that answer apart. It was different when you were the one being questioned. I didn’t want be picked apart, to say things that were going to spawn whole new areas of inquiry.
“She says she had the feeling you weren’t just asking about Paulie. See, what you gotta understand, Georgie—and I know you do, which is what kinda surprised me about what you were asking—is there’s a lot of people out there who want to cause harm to the Gregorys. Sometimes it’s for political reasons, sometimes it’s just nutcases. People who want to make themselves famous at the Gregorys’ expense. So, yeah, somebody all of a sudden starts asking about where family members were and what they were doing at certain times, the kids know that’s when they have to pull the curtains, lock the doors, call for help. She had help there, Georgie. Did you know that?”
“The black guy.”
“Yeah. Recognize him? Pierre Mumford. Used to be my teammate on the ’Skins.”
“He wasn’t exactly discreet in making his appearance.”
“Nope. Wasn’t supposed to be. Since the Gregorys have all kinds of issues, all kinds of things to be concerned about, if you will, they use different assistants for different reasons. Sometimes they want to make a show of being protected, they use someone like Pierre. Sometimes they’re more subtle and you don’t even know someone’s watching out for them. Could be a little old lady walking her dog or something. You understand what I’m saying, Georgie?”
“I do, Chuck.”
“So you can also understand that somebody like Cory doesn’t necessarily know where everybody fits in. So when she finds she’s being questioned by an assistant district attorney, it kind of freaks her out. And when she goes home and learns that a few years ago some detective was asking her brother and cousins questions about this same weekend you were asking about, well, that’s when she calls me. You got something you wanna know about that weekend, Georgie, something that involves the family, you’re better off asking me.”
“I just want to know where Paul McFetridge is.”
“Yeah, but why now? Why after all these years, you suddenly want to find him?”
It crossed my mind to tell him that it had recently occurred to me that I had no friends, that McFetridge was the last close friend I had had, that I just wanted to reach out and talk to someone about the way things used to be. I got rid of those thoughts in a hurry.
“McFetridge,” I said, “came up in a discussion I had with a guy named Bill Telford, whose daughter was killed that weekend.”
“We know about Anything New, Georgie. His name speaks for itself.”
“Yeah, but he keeps contacting me.” And here I diverged from the straight and narrow. “I think he’s got somebody talking to him.”
“The girl in the store.”
“Somebody else.”
“So that makes you want to talk to Paulie?”
“Let me put it this way, Chuck. It reminded me that I knew him. Made me think that if I made enough calls to enough people, I’d find him.”
“Yeah, but why?”
“Because I want to talk to him.”
“About what?”
“About what he remembers happening that weekend.”
“And you think that’s important?”
“I think somebody does.”
Chuck heaved a sigh. A big sigh. A two-hundred-ninety-pound sigh. “Okay, Georgie, I’ll see if I can help you out there. Only thing is, you gotta stop bothering the family, all right? It’s best for everyone that way.”