Riders on the Storm by Ed Gorman Page B

and an usher at church.
    He loved getting greasy. He’d told me that once with a big proud grin, and since he’d been greasy when he told me, I believed him. Today was no exception. T-shirt, jeans, motorcycle boots all glazed with grease as he came walking out of the large garage that sat next tohis small showroom and office. He was a country-western fan and so was I if all the songs were sung by Johnny Cash. His mechanics had similar tastes, as you could hear from the twang that bounced off the walls.
    â€œHey, man, how you doing?”
    â€œPretty good until last night.”
    Short, lean with the puggest of noses, he hadn’t been cut out for a life of crime. His parole officer told me that he’d never seen anybody turn his life around as absolutely as Duffy had.
    â€œDonovan getting killed. Everybody thinks my friend Will Cullen did it. But I’m sure he didn’t.”
    â€œOh, right. That’s all anybody’s been talking about all morning. Every hour on the hour when the news comes on, my men stop working so they can hear it. It’s a pretty big deal, Donovan getting ready to run for Congress and all.”
    â€œYou ever know Donovan?”
    â€œA little out of my league socially, Sam.”
    â€œYeah, mine, too.”
    â€œBut I have a feeling I know why you’re here. It’s because of Teddy Byrnes and him being Donovan’s bodyguard.”
    â€œA lot of his gang gets their work done here.”
    â€œThey don’t hassle me and I don’t hassle them.”
    â€œI just wonder if you’re picking up anything about Byrnes and Donovan.”
    â€œWell, I know that Byrnes was somebody Donovan stayed away from for a long time. I think Donovan tried to help him a couple of times but gave up. And I don’t blame him. Byrnes’s first stretch was when I was doing mine. Then he did that second one and he just got out. You had to be pretty careful around him. It was obvious he had something wrong with him. Even the real tough guys walked wide of him most of the time. He loved beating on people. I was surprised he got out of there alive.”
    â€œI thought he was so tough.”
    â€œYeah, but the other bad guys, man, they’re only gonna take so much shit. I think there was something in the wind, in fact, when Iwas getting out. About taking care of him, I mean. But it never happened, I guess.” A laugh. “You know he’s a mama’s boy, don’t you?”
    â€œA mama’s boy?”
    â€œNever married, picks up a chick once in a while, but to me it’s mostly for appearances. This may not be true but one of the gang told me he sends his mother a card on Valentine’s Day. And he’s always lived at home. I guess a lot of the prisoners made fun of him behind his back. He had a big photo of his mom on his cell wall while the other guys had girlfriends and wives. Guy he bunked with made a joke about it once and Byrnes broke his arm. Just snapped it in two.”
    â€œHe’s crazier than I thought.” Then, “You hear anything about Byrnes and Donovan having a falling-out or anything recently?”
    From a back pocket he took a greasy rag and wiped his long, greasy hands on it. Then he took a cigarette from behind his ear and fired it up with a metal lighter that clanked when he flipped the top back. “I haven’t heard anything specific but I wondered how long it would last.”
    â€œWhy’s that?”
    â€œWith that temper of Byrnes’s, he’s not one to take orders real well. There was a joke going around in the joint that someday he’d go off and punch out the warden. I never thought it was much of a joke. Byrnes just never took to doing anything except exactly what he wanted to do.”
    Somebody called him on the loudspeaker. “Be back in a sec.”
    There was a phone booth on the edge of his property. I went over and called the office.
    Three calls: Kenny, Karen,