Free When Old Men Die by Bill Crider

your face?" she asked.
    "I ran into a door."
    "Oh," she said.   "Well, let me tell you something."
    I was willing to let her tell me just about anything.   I liked her voice, which was a little husky, as if she'd been a smoker at some time in the past.  
    "My father and I didn't see much of one another," she said.   "He wasn't really into what they call 'parenting' these days.   Even when the gambling closed down, he spent most of his time looking out for a couple of criminals.   He didn't have time for me and my mother.   As far as we were concerned, he was just someone who came around on birthdays and holidays, and most of the time not even then."
    I said, "And you don't care who killed him?"
    "He was my father, so I care at least a little, but it's not my job to find out.   That's something for the police to worry about.   I've got a motel to run."
    "Everyone has a job to do," I said.   "Mine is to find an old man that's gone missing."
    "I don't see what that has to do with me or my father."
    "Maybe nothing," I told her.   "We'd just like to check it out.   If you'll just answer a few questions for us, we won't bother you again."
    I didn't add that I'd like to bother her again, but not about her father's murder.   I wanted to find out a few more things about her, such as whether she might like to go out with me and whether her eyes were really that blue or if she was wearing colored contact lenses.
    "All right," she said.   "Ask your questions.   And then leave me alone."
    I asked her the things that I wanted to know:   what her father was doing in The Island Retreat, who he'd been talking to lately, what they had discussed, and whether he knew Outside Harry.
    She couldn't help me with anything.   She knew who Harry was because she'd seen him on the streets, but she had no idea of who her father associated with or what he'd been up to lately.
    "I told you," she said.   "My father and I didn't see much of one another.   We didn't talk on the phone, we didn't visit.   Maybe if he'd needed me for something, I would have gone to him. But he was in good health, he had plenty of money, and he didn't need anyone for anything.   Or if he did, it wasn't me that he needed.   So I'm afraid I don't have any information that would help you."
    "If you think of something, I hope you'll let us know," Dino said.   "We really need to find Harry.   We're afraid he might wind up dead, like your dad."
    "I hope not," she said, as if she might actually care.   "But I don't know any more than I've told you."
    We thanked her for her time, extended our unwanted sympathy again, and left.
    Â 
    "W hat do you think?" Dino asked me, as we pulled out of the parking space under the manager's unit.
    "I believe her," I said.
    "Damn," he said.   "So do I."
    He was obviously uncomfortable with the wind blowing his hair and pulling at his jacket, but he didn't complain as we drove back to his house.   I had to give him credit for that.   Still, the look on his face when I stopped at his curb was like you might see on a drowning man who's just discovered that he can breathe under water.   It was all he could do to keep from bolting for his front door without even saying good-bye.
    "You're gonna keep on looking, right?" he said.
    I told him that I was, and he was out of the Jeep and headed down the sidewalk.
    "Wait a minute," I said.
    He turned around, but he kept edging along the walk toward the door.
    "Why don't you give Evelyn a call, ask her if she'd like to go eat with us?   We could try one of those fancy restaurants on The Strand."
    "Maybe later," he said.   "You should be out there looking for Harry.   Tonight might be the time to find him."
    I could tell that he didn't really believe it, but that was all right.   Neither did I.

Twelve
    Â 
    I didn't look too hard that night.   It was even colder than the night before, and if Harry and Ro-Jo were