Читать книгу The Story of Charlie Mullins: The Man in the Middle - Jim Wygand - Страница 17

XII

Monday morning Charlie Mullins headed for the bridge to Wilmington and to his office at Shaw. He had to drive by the YMCA on the way and he saw the car that had followed him twice pulling out of the parking lot. At the wheel was Sharon Gallagher and in the passenger seat was Diane Simms. They were coming from their morning aerobics class. “Son of a bitch,” Charlie thought, “so it was Sharon’s car that followed me. Bill’s gonna hear about this!”

Wednesday night was bowling league night and Bill Gallagher was there. Not wanting to say anything in front of the others, Charlie asked Bill to join him at the bar for a beer. “What’s up, Charlie? Everything OK? You’re really hot tonight, be careful you don’t break the pins.!”

“I’ve got a problem, Bill and I need your help and advice.”

“Well, that’s a new wrinkle. Charlie Mullins with a problem that he wants to talk about? You’re always so reserved Charlie, nobody thinks you ever have a problem. Why even when your marriage was….”

“OK, Bill. I gotcha. My problem involves Sharon.” Bill Gallagher felt a sudden pang in the pit of his stomach.

“Oh hell, Charlie, is Sharon pestering you again to get married? I told her to lay off that shit!”

“No, Bill, actually it’s a little more serious. Sharon and someone else followed me last Saturday morning as I was driving to Philly. I got off the interstate at Chester and managed to lose them. I didn’t want to talk to you about this, but I’ve known you and Sharon both for years, so I figured I would bring it up. Could you talk to her and tell her that I really don’t appreciate being followed around? I’m asking you as a friend, Bill.”

“Oh, Christ, Charlie! I’m sorry. Jeez. I’ll talk to her as soon as I get home. She told me she was going shopping in Wilmington with Diane Simms on Saturday. I had no damned idea…” Bill lied. He knew that Sharon would one day follow Charlie to Philly. She had said so to him herself.

“Thanks, Bill. I appreciate it. I don’t want problems with my friends and neighbors. I just want my privacy. Sharon crossed the line.”

“Yeah, I know, I know. Sharon can be a real pain in the ass sometimes and it’s worse when she gets around Diane. They both think you have to get married to one of their friends here in Shoreville.”

“Whatever, Bill. I’d just appreciate it if you would take care of it.”

* * * * *

Bill Gallagher arrived home hopping mad. “Sharon! goddammit Sharon, I want to talk to you!”

Sharon stepped into the living room, “Calm down Bill, I can hear you. What’s so damned important that you have to yell?”

“I was just talking to Charlie Mullins. He told me that you and someone else – most certainly Diane Simms – followed him up I-95 toward Philly last Saturday. Godammit, Sharon, didn’t I tell you to leave him alone and to butt out?”

“Who said it was me, Bill? How did Charlie know it was me who was following him? Hell, it could have been anybody and maybe nobody was even following him!”

“Knock it off, Sharon! He wrote down the license plate number and he saw you driving out of the YMCA on Monday. It was you, Sharon – you! And he said somebody else was with you. I’m willing to bet it was Diane, wasn’t it?”

Sharon knew she had been caught and it would do no good to deny. “OK, Bill it was me and Diane was with me, but so what? We were only satisfying feminine curiosity. If he wasn’t doing something wrong it shouldn’t make any difference!”

“Sharon, I’m gonna say it again – it’s none of your fucking business nor any business of Diane Simms if Charlie is doing something wrong, something weird, or whatever. Leave him alone, dammit! Besides, you remember what Charlie’s job is at Shaw? He could probably have me fired with the connections he’s got. I could be shoveling shit and you could be waiting tables at Jimmy Balsamo’s. You want that?”

“Bill, Charlie is your friend. He wouldn’t do something like that and you know it.”

“Bull shit, Sharon! Charlie is my friend and friends don’t go poking around into personal matters of other friends. And that goes for friends’ wives as well. I want to keep him my friend, so just take your feminine curiosity, as you call it, and stifle it! You hear me? You stifle it, you understand?”

“All right, Bill. You’re overreacting and being silly about this, but all right. I won’t follow him ever again.” Sharon lied.

“And you tell Diane to lay off too, you hear? I’m damned sure Charlie is going to tell Bob the same thing he told me. I don’t need this shit and Bob doesn’t either!”

“Jesus Bill, next thing you know Charlie will be firing everybody at Shaw! It’s not that serious! But I already gave you my word so let’s just drop it.”

“Good idea, Sharon – damned good idea. Drop it. Just drop it – completely.”

Bill Gallagher was right. Charlie did talk to Bob Simms too. He told him the same thing that he had told Bill but added that he wasn’t sure it was Diane with Sharon. Bob said that Diane said she was going to go shopping with Sharon that Saturday morning so it might have been. He said he would look into it and if it was true, he was sorry and that he would make sure it didn’t happen again. When he got home he had basically the same conversation with Diane that Bill had with Sharon. He reminded his wife that Charlie was a “big shot” at Shaw and if he got pissed enough he might just get revenge. Not having talked to Sharon, Diane denied involvement in the chase. Bob simply said, “Don’t deny and don’t confirm. Just listen to me good. Don’t bother Charlie Mullins. Stay out of his life and leave him alone. If you weren’t with Sharon, no big deal. But if you were, don’t do it again. Ever!”

“Maybe Charlie is just paranoid, Bob. Who’s to say he was being followed?”

Bob Simms lost his temper. “Charlie is to say if he is being followed. I don’t care if he imagined it or not. If you and Sharon were behind him, and got off behind him at Chester like he said you did, it’s my view that you were following him. So, I will say it again, read my lips: Leave Charlie Mullins alone!”

“All right, all right! You don’t need to yell. I got your message.”

“Good!”

Thursday morning Bill Gallagher called Bob Simms at work and asked him to meet him for a beer after work. Bob asked, “This is about the girls, right? Charlie talked to me and told me he had talked to you too. Shit! What a drag.”

“Yeah, well, we have to put at stop to it, Bob. Let’s meet tonight and talk this over. Besides the fact that Charlie is a friend, I don’t want him so mad that he gets on my ass at work. He does have a lot of friends in management and I like my job!”

“Yeah, I know what you mean, Bill. See you tonight.”

Gina called Charlie Thursday night. “Hey Mullins, where have you been?! I’ve missed you.”

“Sorry Gina, I had to go to bowling league last night in part just to show up and also to talk to the guys whose wives I presume were the ones who followed me. I was sure about one, but the other I couldn’t see, but I’m pretty sure I know who it was.”

“Wow – and I missed that! So what happened, Charlie?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Gina but I am fairly sure that there is some domestic discord in Shoreville tonight! Neither guy seemed terribly happy. They both work for Shaw and I figure they probably thought I might do them some damage on their jobs.”

“Would you do that, Charlie?”

“Of course not, Gina, I am not into that kind of corporate stuff. I certainly would not mix business with my personal life just to get even. Besides, they didn’t do anything; it was their wives who did.”