No One Rides For Free - Larry Beinhart Read Online Free Page A

now and again. It's only a
problem when I'm doing that other thing too . . . and I don't do that
shit nooo more."
    "I'm glad," she said and she looked it. "I
used to worry about you .... And now . . . you look good. "
 
I reached out and touched her face, the
way she had mine in the car. She reached up with both hands and
pressed my hand first to her cheek, then to her lips. Then she was in
my arms, eyes wet, face pressed to my chest, holding on.
    One part of me was paternal. The other remembered all
too clearly the way she orgasmed. That rising, rising moan of rhythm.
And separate parts of my body remembered, each by itself, the
different ways we used to get there .... I pushed back from her and
looked her in the eyes.
    "I have been living with a woman for four years,
that's practically a record for me .... Not only that, I've been
faithful for three, which is certainly a record."
    I held her close, her hair soft against my cheek, her
tears moist on my chest, loving her as much as I ever had. And
relieved as hell that I was not the one she had chosen, not the one
to have made those tears.
    The Watergate is conveniently located, tucked into a
curve of the Potomac between Georgetown and the marble of government
town. It holds some of my fondest memories, as it does for most
Americans, and it was where I spent that night alone.
    Still, the first thing that Glenda said when I called
home the next morning was, "How is Sandy, and don't tell me you
haven't seen her."
    "Fine, and happily
married," I said, awed by the range of her radar. Then Wayne
stole the phone and saved me from protesting too much. He didn't want
to go to school. He wanted to go out and play in the rain. "I
like puddles," he said. Also, he wanted to join a squash club,
just like me.
    * * *
    I called my congressman, John Straightman. He was
willing to see me right away. That was very gratifying. Particularly
since I didn't even vote in his district. Four years previous, his
connection had been picked up with three keys of coke. The search and
seizure was correct, the warrant was good, Miranda was read and New
York's finest were not on sale that day. The dealer figured he could
trade the congressman for at least a reduction to a misdemeanor.
    The D.A. had mixed feelings. On the one hand, all
that potential publicity. On the other, the congressman had a lot of
friends. Perhaps if the dealer had handed the D.A. a rock solid case
all wrapped in ribbon, there would have been no indecision. As it
was, it was only a lead. To do something real with it, the D.A.'s
office would have to set up a sale, with witnesses, wires and the
rest, and avoid entrapment and the other technicalities that can blow
a case.
    One of the prosecutors had been a classmate of
William Contact, the congressman's chief aide. The D.A. allowed as
how a leak along that line might be all right.
    Willie got in touch with me. The dealer was out on
bail. I was able to get the right kind of introduction to him and
tempted him down to Atlanta on the promise of a four-kilo buy. He was
busted in Georgia and found out the Atlanta cops didn't give a damn
about some story about a Yankee congressman's evil ways. The New York
case was stashed in the pending pending tile, and the dealer got a
whole chunk of his life scheduled for a Georgia work farm.
    I was ushered in to see the man moments after I
arrived. He told the receptionist to hold the calls and greeted me
fulsomely. Full smile, full, firm handshake, with the elbow grasp
thrown in. I realized that he was afraid of me.
    "Relax," I said. "You paid me to do a
job. It was done. Now forget about it."
    " Is that your code?" he said in a tone
meant to be jocular.
    "Yeah," I said deadpan. "But you can
do me a favor."
    "What can I do for you? Name it, you have it."
    "I want some information," I said.
Straightman lived in ellipses and could hear omissions ring the way
most of us hear church bells toll. He understood there was no need to
know what his left hand was