Free Miami Blues by Charles Willeford

it."
    Freddy put his fingers on the screen. The dead man in the morgue was sure as hell the same guy at the airport. He hadn't meant to kill him; all he had wanted to do was break the guy's finger. Just because of the jacket, and now he didn't even have the leather jacket with him. What he did have was the simple. minded younger sister. He could feel the damp jets of air corn. ing through the screen. There were only six cars parked in the ten-acre parking lot. The white TransArn, in its numbered slot, seemed to glow in the sixth row. Every other parking light in the lot had been turned off, to save energy, perhaps, and the other lights had been dimmed. The moon wasn't up yet, and beyond the cyclone fence was blackness. Looking out and down into that dark land mass, Freddy felt as if he were on the edge of an abyss. Perspiration from his armpits trickled down his sides.
    "Let's go back inside," Freddy said. "Doesn't it even cool off at night?"
    "A little. Around four in the morning it'll drop down to seventy-seven or so, but then the humidity'll go up."
    Freddy took off his shoes and his shirt. Susan sat on the couch in the living room. "D'you want to watch some TV, Junior?"
    "Not now. I've got to make a phone call. Where's the telephone book?"
    "There's two books over there, under the breakfast table. The phone's on the--"
    "I can see the phone."
    Freddy looked up the number of the International Hotel. He called the desk, checked out, and told the clerk to charge everything, including his barber bill, to his Gotlieb credit card. "Yes," he finished, "I did have a pleasant stay."
    Freddy joined Susan on the couch and told her to bring him a pair of scissors. He cut up the Gotlieb credit and identification cards, and put the cut pieces into the ashtray.
    "Now," he said, "Mr. Gotlieb's no longer in Miami."
    Freddy patted the lounge, and Susan sat beside him. "I liked the way you handled yourself at the morgue, Susan. What were you thinking about, anyway, when you saw your dead brother?"
    "I was thinking about the times when he used to bend my fingers back when he wanted me to do something. It really hurt, and after a while he didn't have to bend them back. All he had to do was threaten to do it, and I'd do whatever he wanted. He was religious, I guess, but he was awfully mean. He said he wanted to go to heaven, and now he's finally got what he wanted." She was lost in thought for a moment, then she looked up.
    "What I want to do, first thing tomorrow, is go down to the bank and take out the CD. Then I can start another one some place else. We've got a ten-thousand-dollar CD saved, plus another four thousand in our joint NOW account. And I sure don't want daddy or the Krishnas to get it."
    "Good. We'll do that first thing. Now that we're engaged, we're going to start our platonic marriage. D'you know what that is?"
    Susan nodded. "Beth had one, on 'The Days of Our Lives,' when she moved in with the lawyer. And I want one too. I've been really lonely out here at night. I didn't like Marty, but even so, I missed him when he moved out to the camp."
    "Why didn't you like him? He was your brother."
    "Remember, before, when I told you I never went steady? Marty's why, that's why. He's the one that got me pregnant, and I think daddy suspicioned it, too. And then when we came down to Miami and I got the abortion, Marty couldn't find any work. He met Pablo when he was looking for work at the hotel. So then he made me go to work for Pablo. I don't like working at the hotel, Junior, I really don't. That old man from Dayton, Ohio, today was disgusting."
    "You've turned your last trick for Pablo. You're living with me now."
    "You really don't know Pablo. He smiles and bows and all that, but he's mean. And he knows where I--where we live, Junior."
    "Don't worry about Pablo. I'll take care of him. Do you remember that Bob Dylan song about the lady laying across a brass bed?"
    "I don't remember. Maybe I did. They don't play much Dylan on the radio