Chasing My Shadow (9 page)

“No, I’m not going anywhere,” said Stone as he sat down in one of the chairs. “Tar…my nurse is waiting for me and I have to tell….”

“But it’s all right, Stone.” said the man who had spoken to him, “Clem and I are trying to help you. We have to get you away from here before anyone knows you’re staying here.”

“Help me? How? Who are you anyway?”

The man suddenly sat down beside him and stared at him with his mouth open, then, “What do you mean, ‘Who am I?’ Good Lord, man, you know me. What’s wrong with you? I’m your friend.”

“Maybe I’m supposed to know you,” he said, finally resigned, “but I don’t. I have amnesia. I was in that Grayline plane crash.”

The man groaned. “That’s all we need. Oh, boy, I heard about the crash but didn’t know you were on that plane. Selina was telling everyone that you were going to France with her. I wondered why you didn’t tell me.”

“Do you mean I didn’t go to France?” Stone asked.

“Apparently not this last trip anyway, or you wouldn’t have been on the Grayline. Man, are you lucky! A lot of people died in that crash.” He stared at Stone, then added, “You really do have amnesia? You don’t know Selina? You don’t know us? Clem Rainer and Ray Chelsea?”

Stone said, excitedly, “Well at last—a connection to something. I got my last bank statement and found out I had written a check for $1200 to a Raymond Chelsea, but I had no idea who he was or why I had written him a check.”

Chelsea was still staring at him. “Well, I’ll be damned!”

He puzzled for a minute, then said, “I wonder why you were going to New York.”

“You know as much about that as I do,” he said, “but I would have thought I was going home to Colburgh except it’s not home any more. I’ve got to get back upstairs. My nurse will be wondering where I am.”

“You need a nurse?”

“No, not any more,” he said impatiently, “but she is still my driver. My identification, driver’s license—everything was lost—and I can’t replace anything because I don’t have any identification. Now tell me what you’re doing. You said you were a friend, and I think I believe you, but why do you want me to leave?”

“The police—they’ll find you if you stay here.”

Suddenly Clem, the other man, suggested, “Why can’t you check out of here as quickly as possible, and we’ll help you find an apartment where no one will know you.”

“I can’t. We are going down to the police station. I read in the paper this morning that they are looking for me and want to talk with me. My nurse is driving me there as soon as she’s ready.”

“I’m sorry, Stone,” said Chelsea, “but Clem and I heard that the police were looking for you, and Tom Perring said he thought he saw you coming out of your place on Malsheba Rd. He saw you wave to someone in a stopped car and get in a cab. He turned around and tried to get to you. The traffic was heavy and he tried to follow to talk with you, but lost you at some road block. I knew you had given up your Malsheba address, and that you must have just got back from wherever you had gone. Not knowing if you had another place or had gone to a hotel, I have spent the last few days calling hotels and motels until I found you. Then he explained, “It seems that Jonathon Newberry has been picked up for drug dealing, and Selina, this actress, has been his helper all along and….”

“Yeah, I read about it. We’ve been here about five days now.” He glanced at the clock in the lobby. “Does that mean I’m mixed up in it, too?”

“You remember her?” he asked in surprise.

“No, I don’t.” He jumped up and started for the elevators. “Come on if you want to. Follow me. We read in the paper that the police wanted to talk to me, and my picture was in the paper with her. Am I mixed up in her mess?”

The two men were close beside him as he hurried across the room, and Chelsea answered him, “I hope not, but she may try to tie you in. I hate to say it but I think you were her cover-up. She tried awfully hard to get you to go to France with her—in fact, told everyone that you were going. Probably wanted to trick you into carrying the stuff for her. But I don’t understand how you happened to even read about her if you don’t remember her.”

No one else got on the elevator to go up so they continued their conversation. “It’s a long story,” said Stone, “and I’ll tell you later, but now I’ve got to get back to my room. My nurse was planning to drive me in to the police station after I read in the paper that they wanted to talk to me. I had gone down to the desk to ask for directions when you arrived.”

“We thought we could get you away from the hotel,” said Chelsea, “before the police found out where you were, and I wanted to tell you what was going on as I thought if you had just got back you might not have read a paper or known about it.”

“And you thought I might be mixed up with this Selina and her drug smuggling?”

“To tell the truth we weren’t absolutely sure, but didn’t think so and wanted you to have a chance to explain it—but I guess you can’t do that now. Look, we really are your friends and want to help you. Since you can’t remember anything right now, will you let us help you?”

“I….Yeah, I believe you, but I do have to go down to the police station. If you found me, they could too. You can tell my nurse what’s going on, and he unlocked the door to his room and the three men entered. Stone quickly picked up the phone and called Tara Lee. When she arrived, she looked startled as she saw the two men with Stone. He introduced Tara Lee to the men. “You remember the check I wrote to Raymond Chelsea,” he said to her. “He’s the one, and this,” he said, “is Clem—friends of mine.”

“You remember them?” she asked in delight.

“No, just what they have told me,” then turning to the men, “tell her what you told me.”

Chelsea then explained as fast as he could to Tara Lee, “We’ve been going through all of the hotels and motels trying to find Stone, and if we could find him the police can too.”

“But we have to go down to the police station,” she said.

“But, wouldn’t it be better if Stone waited until he got his memory back so he would know what he had been doing?”

“Of course it would, but we don’t know when that will happen and they asked him to come in now.”

“Trust us, please,” he pleaded, “and pack your suitcases and come with us. We’ll explain as we go.”

Stone and Tara Lee looked at each other, Stone shrugged his shoulders and said, “Might as well.”

While they were packing, Chelsea and Clem went down to the lobby and out the door to wait for them there, while looking nervously around for the police. When Stone and another man finally came out with the suitcases, Clem took one suitcase and Chelsea the other, tipped the man, then hurried to their car. Tara Lee soon came out, got in the back seat with Stone, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Once they were on their way, Stone relaxed. It was nice having someone doing his thinking for him. Then he asked Chelsea, “Now what was that $1200 check for?”

“You said that was my share of the money Jerry had put aside for our supplies—yours, Jerry’s and mine. The Collectibles Store.”

“You don’t mean Jerry Holmes?”

“You remember him? But you don’t remem…?”

“I knew him years ago. I don’t remember anything after 1983. He worked with me in a Collectibles Store in Colburgh. Where’s Jerry now?”

“He’s doing fine now, but he was in an automobile accident. He really lost it when Tina left him, and he left us a note that he was quitting our partnership and wanted us to know how much he had enjoyed and appreciated the chance we had given him. I don’t remember the exact words but he left the impression that he was going back to New York. Later we read in the paper about his automobile accident. Intentional or accidental? We never knew. He was pretty well banged up but the last I heard he was coming along fine.”

“Darn! His fiance left him just before I met him—then his wife too? That must have really hurt.” He sighed and asked, “Where is he? And when did you last hear about his condition?”

“He’s back in New York recuperating and doing well as far as I know. Haven’t heard for a month or so.”

“Well, he didn’t go back to Colburgh. I’ll have to get his new address. You said the three of us started a business out here?”

“You and I started it, and when things were going good, you wanted to ask Jerry if he’d like to join us. He was real happy to come out, and I thought Tina was too. At least she never let on in front of us that she wasn’t. Apparently she had left to go back home a month before we got his note.

“So I can wear that badge too? You say I asked him to come out here. He’d probably be well and still happily married if it wasn’t for me.”

“No, Stone, you had no way of knowing,” Tara Lee broke in. “You can’t blame yourself for everything that happens.”

“She’s right,” said Chelsea. If Tina had been unhappy out here all she had to do was to tell him, and he would have gone back. It had to be something deeper than that.”

“Then we dissolved the business?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry about leaving, but I couldn’t pass up the part in
HAWAII ROMP
. You tried as hard as I did to have a movie career, and we had agreed that if either of us succeeded we would be free to leave, and I’m sure if you had the opportunity you….”

“Is that why I came out here? To get work acting?”

“So I understood. Anyway, you took over the books after Jerry left, and you said you owed me $1200. Of course we still owe some money that we borrowed to get started—and I’ll be able to pay up my share now that I’m working.”

“You’ve got the books?”

“No, not now. You had them after Jerry left. He had been keeping them.”

“Oh, boy,” said Stone, “If I had them I don’t know where they are now. I’ve got nothing—remember? Not even any identification, and the apartment I had is now empty.”

“Well, don’t worry about the books. I’m sure they’ll turn up, or we must still have copies somewhere. I’ll start checking.”

Suddenly Tara Lee asked, “Where are we going now?”

Before Stone could answer, Clem turned to Chelsea, “Yeah, where are we supposed to be going? I was heading toward the Columbine district.” He had driven off quickly to avoid meeting any police who might be looking for Stone.

Chelsea said, “A good idea. Our best bet would be somewhere in that area—safe streets and usually some vacancies.”

“We’ll find something there I’m sure,” Clem said.

“Do you mean we are supposed to be hiding from the police?” asked Tara Lee.

“Just for a while—until we decide what to do. It looks bad for Stone right now, but if he could get his memory back he should be able to explain everything.”

After they had ridden in silence for a while, Tara Lee asked Chelsea, “What do you know about Selina Avery?”

“She’s a movie actress—used to be quite famous—and she has had a thing for this Jonathon Newberry for years. She has a house that I would describe as a mansion, bought it when she was on top and I’m not the only one who has wondered how she could keep it up. She gets bit parts and once in a while a commercial, but not enough to handle that show place.”

“Do you know why Sto….Mr. Langston paid her over $100,000?”

“Wow, no I didn’t know that, Stone,” he said, turning back to look at him. “I don’t have any idea. That’s real money. Where in the world did you get….?” He stared at him incredulously.

Stone said, “That’s not the half of it. I had deposits of almost $550,000 that showed up on my last statement and, of course, I haven’t the slightest idea where I could have got that kind of money. Have you?”

Chelsea whistled one long whistle. “Whew! No, I sure don’t. You mean someone I know has that kind of money?” He continued to stare at Stone in amazement.

CHAPTER 9
 

They soon found what they wanted on Nimcon Street, and it was agreed that Tara Lee and Chelsea would go in to look at it, signing in as Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Derling. Chelsea told the landlord that they had friends in the car who were going to help them move in, and Tara Lee wrote him a check for the first and last month’s rent. As he glanced at the check, he said, “From New York, eh? Bet you’ll like it out here,” and he handed Chelsea the key. “I’ll be glad to go over with you and show you a few things if you want.”

“No thanks,” said Chelsea, “we’ll be fine, and my friends are kind of in a hurry. Thanks a lot.” The landlord wished them well and left for his own apartment.

Chelsea and Clem took them to a grocery store to get stocked up for a while, then stayed long enough to check out the apartment and take their suitcases inside. “I hope I haven’t made a mistake,” Chelsea said. “I wanted you to know the police wanted to talk with you so they wouldn’t surprise you by bursting in on you. Now I just want you to have a chance to try and get your memory back before they find you. I agree with Miss Derling as I’ve heard of others who have had amnesia, and haven’t heard of anyone who didn’t get their memory back eventually.”

“I keep telling him,” said Tara Lee, “but he just worries about it, and that doesn’t help.” Then she added, “It doesn’t feel right to be hiding from the police.”

“I know, but let’s give it a try just for a little while. A lot of people move out of hotels and into apartments after a week or so. It’s expensive living in hotels. No one would look for him here and if they check places like this for recent rentals they won’t find his name anywhere—and no one here ever saw Stone or heard of the name Derling. The landlord doesn’t live in any of these buildings. He said his apartment was over on Jersey Street. We’ll let you two get settled and I’ll check with you just as soon as your phone is connected, which he said would be within forty-eight hours.”

Stone turned to Chelsea and Clem and asked, “What you really wanted was to find out if I was involved with this Selena’s drug deal wasn’t it?”

Chelsea looked uncomfortable, then said, “We didn’t think so, Stone. I guess we just wanted you to tell us you weren’t, and to let you know the police were looking for you. When you get your memory back I’m sure you can explain it all, then you can talk with the police.”

“What did you mean about money we borrowed to get started? How much?” asked Stone.