Free Ed McBain - Downtown by Ed McBain

article also summarized the critical reaction to it. Apparently, the reaction had been excellent. Everyone had thought, in fact, that _War _and _Solitude would walk away with all the honors. Michael suddenly wondered if Oliver Stone, the director of _Platoon, had killed Crandall and left him in Michael's car. The article had appeared in May, eleven years ago. Someone, probably Crandall himself, had inked in the newspaper's date in the margin on the right-hand side of the article. The caption under the accompanying photograph read: __Arthur Crandall before the showing of his _film War and Solitude _yesterday _afternoon. The man in the photograph was not Arthur Crandall.
    Or at least not the Arthur Crandall who'd been so helpful to Michael before stealing his car. _This Arthur Crandall--the one in the
    photograph--had a little round pig
    105 face with a pug nose and plump little cheeks. He was short and stout and he looked more like Oliver Hardy than Abraham Lincoln. "This is not Arthur Crandall," Michael said. "I mean, this _says he's Arthur Crandall, but he's not the man I met earlier tonight." "Who later got himself killed." "This isn't that man." "Then who is he?" "I don't know who he is." "Let's see what's in his desk."
    Together they went through the desk drawers. The red silk panties sat like a fallen poinsettia leaf not a foot from where they worked. He noticed that Connie smelled of oolong tea and soap, and he wondered if she knew she smelled so exotically seductive.
    "I think we should take that picture with us," she said. "In case we need it later. Whoever he is. Because sailors who measure the tide sail with the wisdom of seers, you know." He looked at her. "Have you ever stuffed fortune cookies?" he said. "No. Why do you ask?"
    "Just wondered. You smell of oolong tea and soap, did you know that?" "Did you know that the word `oolong` is from _wu' _lung, which means black dragon in Mandarin Chinese?"
    "No, I didn't know that," Michael said.
    "Yes," she said. "Because oolong tea is so dark." "I see." "Yes."
    He was getting dizzy on the scent of her. "Here's his appointment calendar," Connie said, taking it from the top drawer of Crandall's desk. "Do you think it's safe to turn on this lamp?" Michael asked, and snapped on the gooseneck desk lamp. Connie sat in the swivel chair behind the desk, and he dragged over another chair and sat beside her. Their knees touched. The calendar was of the Day At-A Glance type. She flipped it open to the page for Tuesday, December 24, and then automatically looked at her watch. "_Still the twenty-fourth," she said. "Ten minutes to midnight," he said. "Ten minutes to Christmas," she said.
    There were several handwritten reminders on the
    page:
    107
    Call Mama "Dutiful son," Michael said.
    Send roses to Albetha "Who's Albetha?" he asked. "Who knows?" Connie said.
    Mama at Benny's
    8:00 PM "Mama again," Michael said. "But who's Benny?" "Who knows?" Connie said, and flipped the calendar back to the page for Monday, December 23. There were three entries for that date:
    Bank at 2:30
    "Deposit?" Connie asked. "Withdrawal?"
    Charlie at 3:30 "Another Charlie," Michael said. "Huh?" Connie said.
    "There are a lot of Charlies in this city."
    "Yes," Connie said. "Now that you mention it."
    "But not too many Albethas, I'll bet."
    Christmas party
    4:00-7:00 PM
    "Let's find out why he went to the bank," Connie said. "How?" "His checkbook. If we can find it."
    They began searching through the desk drawers again. In the bottom drawer, Michael found two large, ledger-type checkbooks, one with a blue cover, the other with a black one. The blue checkbook had yellow checks in it. Each check was headed with the names ALBETHA AND ARTHUR CRANDALL and an address on West Tenth Street. "There's Albetha," Connie said.
    "His wife."
    109 "The roses." "Nice." "Yes." "I wonder if she knows he's dead."
    The black checkbook had pink checks in it. Each check was headed with the name CRANDALL PRODUCTIONS, LTD. and the