Silent Night Man

“Stop that!” Tony said immediately. “You’re not just a bouncer. It’s a rough job. It takes a hell of a man to do it.”

“I’m sure there are guys in New York City who place ads hoping to get hired as bouncers in bars,” Frank said sarcastically. “Here in San Antonio, it’s not exactly the dream job of most men.”

“You’re sweet on Millie Evans, so you’re defending her.”

“I’m sweet on her, all right. If the competition wasn’t so stiff, I might even try my luck. That’s what made John crazy. He couldn’t stand the competition, either. He knew he’d never replace that other guy Millie’s been in love with for six years.”

“What other guy?” Tony asked carelessly.

“You.”

It was as if time stopped and everything went around in slow motion. Tony put his fork down and looked across at Frank as if he’d gone mad. “Excuse me?”

“Do you think Millie needed courses in criminal justice to be a librarian?” Frank asked drolly. “She took those courses because your foster mother had told her you were taking them, in addition to your regular college classes, so you could get your degree faster. It was an excuse to be around you.”

Now, horribly, it made sense. He hadn’t even questioned her presence in the classes.

“Great,” Tony muttered. “The murderer of my best friend thinks I’m hot!”

“She didn’t kill him. But no jury would have convicted her if she had,” Frank persisted. “He got her fired, Tony. He went to her boss and told her that Millie was hanging out in bars to have sex with men for an audience. He told that to three of the library’s richest patrons, one of whom sat on the board of directors for the library. They demanded that she be fired.”

Tony watched the other man warily. “And how do you know it wasn’t true?”

“Because I went to a friend of mine at the local precinct and got John’s rap sheet and showed it to them.”

Tony was feeling ill. “Rap sheet? John had a rap sheet?”

“Yes. For fraud, defamation of character, petty theft, three charges of stalking and a half dozen other charges. I got a statement from the last woman he’d stalked, a receptionist for one of the dentists John went to. She swore in court that John had threatened her life. He convinced a lawyer that she was lying and produced a witness who heard her bragging that she’d get John arrested.”

Tony waited for the rest.

“The gang members testified in his favor and got the case thrown out of court. A couple of weeks later, the receptionist was raped. Nobody was ever caught or charged.”

Tony leaned forward. “Don’t tell me John was mixed up in that!”

“He never admitted it,” Frank replied heavily. “But I knew he was. A few months later, one of the gang members was pulled in on a rape charge and he bragged to the arresting officer that he could get away with it anytime he liked. He had alibis, he said. Turned out they were also members of his gang. Sadly for him, on the second rape case, the new gang member he bragged to was wearing a wire. He’s doing hard time now.”

“But John wasn’t like that,” Tony protested. “He was a good man!”

“He was sick,” Frank said flatly. “He utterly destroyed Millie’s life because she didn’t want him. Even his relatives apologized to her for what he’d done. There are still people who go to that library who are convinced that Millie has orgies down in the basement, because John told them she did.”

“I can’t believe it,” Tony said to himself.

“Obviously. You didn’t know the adult John became. You still saw the kid who played sandlot baseball with you in ninth grade.”

“He had a rap sheet. I never knew.”

“He was a troubled man. There’s something else, too. My friend at the precinct said that when they searched John’s room, they found an open bank book on the coffee table. It showed a withdrawal of five thousand dollars in cash—John had apparently sold everything of value that he had. The pawn slips were there, too, neatly arranged. There was a note, addressed to Millie, with only a threat: ‘You’ll be sorry.’ The police haven’t told her yet, and they warned me not to say anything. But I’m afraid for her.”

“What do you think John did with the money?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know.”

Tony was frowning. “Any of those gang members ever been suspected of murdering anybody?”

“Yes,” came the curt reply. “John had a vindictive nature. It wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t put out a contract on Millie.”

The John whom Tony knew as a teen wouldn’t have been capable of such actions. The man he was only now coming to know might well have done it. He could hardly get his mind to function. He’d come home with clear-cut ideas of the good guy and the bad woman, and now his theories were worthless. He was remembering Millie’s tragic expression when he accused her of murdering his friend. He was remembering, too, what Frank had just told him, that Millie had cared about him. It was a good bet that she didn’t anymore, he thought cynically.

Frank checked his watch. “I have to get back to the funeral home. Millie said she was coming over to see John. I tried to talk her out of it, but she said that it was something she had to do, that she felt responsible. Even after all John had done to her, she still felt sorry for him.”

Tony closed his eyes and groaned. He didn’t know how to tell his friend that Millie had already come to see John, and that Tony had treated her like dirt and made her run out of the building in fear of him. It wasn’t a revelation he was looking forward to.

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