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6
Co
He pulled over.
He went back to the file and found a home address. Hopefully, the divorce had been particularly bitter, and Co
The address from the file was a nice, three-bedroom, two-bath American apple pie special in a good neighborhood. But a yellow real estate sign sprouted from the overgrown lawn like a middle finger. Co
A phone book at a nearby convenience store had nothing to offer, but information had a J. Folger listed in Mobile. Co
Co
Teddy Folger’s ex-wife lived way the hell on the west side of Mobile, so Co
I would have been a good Bay Bear, Co
When he’d blown his baseball scholarship at the University of West Florida, he’d tried a few more schools, even some community colleges, to see if he could get on with another team. Nobody was impressed by his 0.5 grade point average, and he’d struck out all around. Co
Then he’d gotten the bright idea to try out for the triple-A club in Mobile. It was still a long way from the show, but it was professional sports and a steady paycheck. He swung the bat, ran the bases. The coach said he had a good arm, a decent eye in the batter’s box, but maybe he should join a gym. He was out of shape and sucking wind. He was told there were a dozen guys in top form who could throw and swing as well as or better than Co
What if I got into shape, worked really hard?
Sorry, kid. Maybe next season.
He spent the next few months doing sit-ups and ru
But it was more than a simple lack of willpower that kept him from tryouts, something worse and deeper. Fear. He was scared. It was that simple. What if he worked hard, did his best, gave it everything he had, and yet he still failed? Could he handle that? Would he be able to stand the knowledge that he was exactly as useless as he suspected he might be? It was easier for him not to try than to give it his best only to crash and burn.
Co
He put baseball and Tyra
Je
“It’s early, but would you like a beer?” she asked.
“There’s no such thing as too early.”
She came back with a Labatt’s Blue, and Co
She took hers from the bottle too, sat in the matching chair across from him. They drank beer and took each other in for a second.
Je
“I told you I was looking for the boat,” Co
“Yes. Teddy’s little plaything.”
“Do you have any idea where he might have stashed it?”
“Not the faintest,” she said. “Believe me, if I did, I’d have my lawyer on him in a second. I was supposed to get a big, fat settlement. I haven’t seen a dime or I wouldn’t be here.” She waved her bottle at the apartment.
Co
“It’s not so good either.”
“Can I ask what happened?”
“The divorce?”
“Yeah.”
She frowned, took a hit off the beer. “The same thing that happened to the first Mrs. Folger. Teddy found somebody he liked better.”
Oh, yeah. Co
“I suppose I’m some kind of idiot,” Je
“You look okay.”
“Gee, you’re sweeping me off my feet. Anyway, he found this woman in Pensacola, tends bar at one of the beach places. Half Teddy’s age. It’s ridiculous.”
“How old is Teddy?”
She nibbled the inside of her lip. “Let’s see. Next month he’ll be fifty-six. He’s a motherfucker. He sold everything, cleaned out the checking account, and took off. He hadn’t made a mortgage payment on the house in five months. Bastard. I had to get the most hideous job as a receptionist downtown.”
“You didn’t get anything?”
“There was nothing left to get.” She finished the beer and lit a thin cigarette, exhaled gray smoke, her head back against the chair. “I got a lawyer, of course, tried to grab back what I could, but it was no good.”
Co
“It was just one property.”
He rechecked the file. “It says a ta
“No.” She shook her head, puffed the cigarette. “It was all one property. A strip plaza in Pensacola. It burned down.”
“The whole plaza?”
“The insurance investigators were all over his ass,” Je
“Did he do it?”
“Of course he did. The new mall was killing him. He didn’t confess it to me, but you bet he torched the plaza.”
He asked, “You couldn’t claim any of the insurance money?”
She shook her head, mashed out the cigarette in an amber glass ashtray. “The banks were faster than I was. The plaza was mortgaged up the ass, and the insurance barely paid everything off.”
All Co
Co
Je
Co
She started reading, flipping pages, the cigarette dancing between her lips with nervous puffs. She scrunched her eyes severely as she read. Too vain for glasses maybe.