Charlie All Night (18 page)
Authors: Jennifer Cruise
* * *
He came into her office half an hour before die show and caught herdialing the phone.
"I know." He held up his hand to stop her from talking. "I'm a creep
for leaving you like that. I had
to call my dad and put Miranda on a
bus home before I could explain. I know you're mad at me and
I deserve
it, but just let me explain."
"Oh, now you're going to explain." Allie slapped the phone down. "Well,
that's just great."
"Allie, I'm not-"
"Ten Tenniel. I know. She's your brother's wife, right?"
Charlie sat down. "Well, sort of. They're not actually married. How did
you figure it out?"
Allie shook her head, disgusted with him. "It wasn't hard once I woke
up. You wouldn't let us call you Ten and that's what the Lawrenceville
station was famous for. And you may be a natural on radio, but Harry
was right. You didn't have any idea what you were doing that first
night. So you came here pretending to be your brother, and since Bill
knows your family, he knows that, too. So whatever
secret you're
keeping is Bill's, and this whole program thing was just a blind, and
I've been killing
myself to make you a success for nothing."
"Well, I told you not to do it," Charlie pointed out mildly. "Which
part are you the most mad about?"
"That you didn't trust me," Allie said, her anger evaporating from the
hurt. "You didn't trust me at all."
"It wasn't that." Charlie put his head in his hands. "I don't know how
the hell this got so complicated.
I trusted you. I knew it wasn't you
from the beginning. But you go charging in on everything you do,
and
that was the wrong way to do this."
Allie leaned forward. "To do what? What do you mean it wasn't me?"
Charlie met her eyes. "Somebody's running drugs from the station. Bill
got an anonymous letter and
used it as an excuse to get me down here as
a favor to my dad. He wanted to know about the letter because he
thought it was a smear, and my dad wanted me to get a real job, so they
cooked it up
between them. And I bought it, and I've been trying to
find a link between the mayor or Roger Preston
or Mark and drugs.
Nothing. So for the past week I've been letting the drug story slide,
running around pretending to be a dealer, trying to figure things out.
And last night, going over your drug legalization notes, I finally did."
"Who is it?" Allie asked when she found her voice. "I can't believe it.
Who's dealing?"
"Grady," Charlie said. "It has to be Grady."
9
"Areyou
out of your mind?"
Allie looked at him in horror. "Grady is
the last person to push drugs.
He doesn't care about money. He—"
"He cares about his mother," Charlie said. "And Mrs. Winthrop and Mrs.
Wexman and all
the
rest."
Allie shook her head. "I don't get it."
"I didn't get it either at first." Charlie looked so miserable she
wanted to go to him, but not until he stopped saying stupid things
about Grady. "Grady grows it behind his home, but that wasn't enough
because I knew Grady wouldn't deal drugs for money. That just wasn't
Grady's style. But the
fraternity kids said we were giving it away, and
then I read your notes on drug legalization and the
stuff you found on
cancer patients. That's when it all fell into place."
Allie closed her eyes. "I remember. Pot helps people handle chemo."
Then she had a thought and her eyes flew open again. "Grady gave
Beattie pot?"
Charlie nodded. "He'd do anything to help her. And if Beattie knew it
helped her, she'd insist on sharing
it with others. They've been
providing pot for the town's cancer patients. That's why Mrs.
Winthrop's grandson got nasty with her. He wanted her stash."
"Oh, God." Allie put her head in her hands. "And that's why people
bring Grady cookies and things. They're trying to say thank you." She
tilted her head back and thought for a moment. "Well, okay.
Now we
know. All we have to do is keep out mouths shut about it—"
"No," Charlie said. "We can't. This is illegal."
Allie gaped at him. "You can't possibly be thinking of turning Grady
in?"
He sighed. "You're not listening. I'm going to tell Grady I know, and
he's going to turn himself in. It's illegal, Al. And he's running out
of time. That little Winthrop brat sent the letter to Bill. Everybody
at
the college knows somebody here is dealing. And I've been asking
questions. There was that newspaper piece about me being a pusher that
made the police start watching me. They know who I've been talking to,
and they know something's up. There's going to be hell to pay, and if
Grady turns himself in, he's at least got that in his favor. It's too
late for anything else."
"No." Allie came around the desk and headed for the door. "No. We can
stop this. We can stonewall
this. Grady is not going to jail."
Charlie caught her arm. "Don't say anything to anybody. Let me handle
this."
"Like you've handled it so far?" Allie looked up at him, furious. "If
you hadn't poked around, we'd be fine. Who is he hurting? He's helping
people, and you're going to turn him in." Allie yanked her arm
away
from him. "This is the worst. You're just going to stand there and
watch him go to prison."
"What do you want me to do?" Charlie said.
"You started this mess," she said. "You should fix it."
"I can't fix it. All I can do is see it through to the end."
Allie looked at him, uncomprehending. "I can't believe you're doing
this. You're not even going to
try to work something else out. You're
just going to go ahead and do it your way."
"Allie-"
"Just like Bill," she said to him, knowing it would hurt him. "Just
like your dad."
His mouth tightened, and then he left the office.
"Boy, I sure can pick them," she said to nobody in particu-lar, and
then
devoted all her energy to
not crying.
Mark stuck his head in the door. "Say, I just heard about Charlie's
wife. That's a really bad break,
Allie. Let me take ou out to dinner."
He smiled at her, looking as gorgeous as ever, and she wanted
him dead,
too.
"Get out of here," she snarled.
"Maybe tomorrow," he said and escaped out the door.
Allie went back to her chair and thought about tomorrow. She had to
think of a plan. Soon.
* * *
"Harry waited until Grady came into the booth during the news atquarter to two before he said
anything to him.
"You look like hell," Grady said when he saw him. "Take off, I'll
take it from here."
"I can't" Charlie looked at him miserably. "I hate this. You have no
idea how much I hate this."
Grady blinked at him. "What's wrong?"
Charlie sighed. "I know you give pot to cancer patients. In fact, a
hell
of a lot of Tuttle knows you
give pot away, Grady it's all over."
Grady pushed Sam's basket to one side and sat down on the counter.
"Oh." Sam poked his head out,
and Grady cratched him behind his ears.
"Well, that depends. Are you going to turn me in?"
Charlie shook his head. "No, you're going to turn yourself in. That
should work in your favor. With
your dad's lawyers-"
"My dad will disown me," Grady said, but he didn't seem oo upset at the
thought. "What can I do to convince you this isn't the best way to do
this?"
"Anything," Charlie said fervently. "You have no idea how much I want
to be convinced. But this is
going to blow any minute, Grady. Too many people know. You're a lot
better off doing this
yourself
than waiting until they come for you."
Grady sat looking lost in thought for a moment. Then he met Charlie's
eyes. "Can I have some time?"
"All you want," Charlie said. "But don't take too long. You'll lose the
only advantage you have."
"How did you find out?" Grady asked him as he got up to go-"
"The rumors. Your crop out in back. The chemo. The cookies and stuff.
It finally all came together." Charlie shook his
head. "I'm really sorry, Grady. I know you were doing it for a good
reason."
"Which is why I don't want to stop." Grady sat down in the chair. "Let
me think about this and
I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"Great," Charlie said. "Something else to look forward to."
* * *
The next morning, Allie still hadn't thought of a plan even aftertalking the whole mess over with Joe.
"There's a mandatory prison sentence for possession," he told her.
"And Bill isn't going to be much
help once he finds out Grady's been
getting his mother
stoned."
"That's a stupid law," Allie said. "The stuff is medicinal, for
heaven's sake."
Then Joe opened the paper, said, "Oh, hell," and handed it to her.
There was a picture of Charlie putting Miranda on the bus, captioned
Local DJ Abandons Pregnant
Wife. Allie stared at it grimly. She was
furious with Charlie, but he didn't deserve this.
Then she had a new thought. How had the photographer known to be at the
bus station? Somebody
had tipped off the paper. Somebody at WBBB.
This one they couldn't blame on the mayor. She got dressed and went
into the station early.
Allie was standing outside the booth when Mark came out it ten.
"Allie!" He all but ran over Lisa to get to her. "What a great
surprise!"
"I decided to take you up on that lunch offer." Allie told him. "You
free now?"
"We have a conference after every show," Lisa put in. "Sometimes they
last a long time."
"Not today." Mark took Allie's arm. "Well skip it today."
"But Mark," Lisa said.
"Forget it." Mark steered Allie toward the lobby. "This is just great.
I've got a lot I want to tell you."
"Good," Allie said. "There's a lot I want to hear."
* * *
"It just hasn't been the same without you," Mark began when they wereseated at the Settle Inn.
"I've been—"
"You've been busy," Allie said. "That was you who played all those
tricks on Charlie, wiping the
tapes, stealing his promos, making the
prank calls."
"Well..." Mark seemed at a loss. "I may have gone too far, but it was
all—"
"And then you gave the story about Charlie's wife to the paper. That
was a good one." Allie tried
to keep her voice noncommittal.
He looked at her warily. "I might have mentioned it."
"Why?"
"Well, Lisa called me and told me about it, and I thought that the
people of Tuttle should know what
kind of guy he is." Mark shifted in
his chair. "You know, leaving his wife pregnant and all. I thought
you
should know, too. He's not the kind of guy for you, Allie."
Allie fought down the urge to reach across the table and strangle him.
"Oh? And what kind of guy is?"
Mark took a deep breath. "Well, me." He held up his hand to stop her
protest. "I know I made a
mistake when I broke up with you, but believe
me, I know it now. I was stupid. You want me to
come crawling back, I
will. Whatever you say."
Allie shook her head at him in disgusted amazement. "And what about
Lisa? She's been working her
butt off for you."
"Lisa's a child." Mark settled back in his chair. "A lovely child, but
still a child. The experience I've
given her will look good on her
resume—"
"Oh, you want me back as a producer." Allie nodded. "I misunderstood."
"No, no! I want you back completely." Mark leaned forward. "I think we
should get married."
"Married." Allie nodded. "Married. You're going to go back across the
street and tell Lisa that you're dumping her as your producer and your
girlfriend to marry me."
"Absolutely." Mark beamed at her. "I'm a big enough man to admit my
mistakes."
"You're a dweeb." Allie stood up. "If you do anything else to sabotage
Charlie's show, I will tell Bill
and insist that he fire you. I mean
it. Stay away from Charlie. And while you're at it, stay away from me."
"Allie!" Mark stood up to follow her.
"No." Allie put out her hand to stop him. "I can't believe you pulled
this stuff just to save your career. What did you think you were doing?"
Mark blinked at her. "What you taught me to do. Make the show the best."
"I never taught you to sabotage other shows to do it," Allie said,
appalled, but she knew he was right.
The entire time she'd been with
him, the show had been everything. She'd just forgotten to teach him
morals before she'd left. "There's more to
life than radio, Mark."
"Not to my life," he said, and she felt sorry for him because he was
right again.
"Go make up with Lisa," she told him. "You're going to need her."
* * *
Harry told me you had lunch with Mark today," Charlie said when shewalked into the booth at ten.
"Harry told you right." Allie handed him the notes and the promos.
"Have a good time?"
"He asked me to marry him." Allie turned and walked out of the booth to
the production table.
"He
what?
" Charlie snapped
over the headset.
"He offered me the prime-time producing slot, too," Allie said through
her mike. "The news is almost over. Stand by."
"Screw the news," Charlie said. "Did you say yes?"
Allie glared at him. "What possible difference could it make to you
since you're leaving tomorrow?"
"None," Charlie said. "Did you say yes?"
"No," Allie said. "I said no."
"Could we stop fighting and talk about this?" Charlie asked her once
his heart was out of his throat.
"Why?" Allie looked at him miserably. "Nothing's changed. I told him to
stop sabotaging your show,
but I don't know why I bothered. You're
leaving tomorrow. You're turning Grady in. It's all over, anyway."
Charlie looked at her just as miserably and said, "All right. Whatever
you want." The news went off
and he moved up the mike slide and said,
"Good evening, Tuttle. You're with Charlie All Night-"
Allie took off her headphones. He could do the broadcast without her by
now. It wasn't as if it
mattered. It was his last show. He was going to be gone in another
twenty-four hours and then she
could put her life back together without him. She could hardly wait.
They did the rest of the show with silence between them, Charlie just
playing music. The worst was
when he did a Paul Anka double play for
Sam—"Puppy Love" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder"—and patted the
puppy on his own shoulder until Sam gave up and went to sleep. She
loved him so much then, she hurt with it. He only stopped to talk once,
this time about the use of marijuana
in treating the nausea associated
with chemotherapy. He made a good persuasive argument, and Allie knew
he was doing it for Grady's sake, to prepare the way for Grady's
defense, but it wasn't enough.
He was still going to turn Grady in.
She stayed until Grady showed up at quarter to two to take over the
booth.
"Grady, I'm sorry," she told him when he came in. "If there's anything
I can do..."
Grady shook his head. "Nope. I got myself into this. I'm ready."
"Oh, Grady," Allie said, but he'd already gone into the booth with
Charlie.
Charlie plugged the news cassette in and she watched them as he gave
Grady the chair and then leaned
on the side of the booth to talk to
him. Charlie looked like death, exhaustion and unhappiness making
him
haggard. For a moment, she relented because she loved him.
Then she went in to try one last time to convince him.
"You can't do this." she said when she was in the booth whh them. "I've
tried and tried to think of
a way around this, but I can't. Joe says a
prison sentence is mandatory. You can't do this."
Charlie closed his eyes against her. "It's the law. I know Grady did
what he did because he loves his mother—"
"He saved her life," Allie broke in. "She couldn't eat. He saved—"
"But the law is the law," Charlie went on inexorably. "He broke it."
Allie looked at Grady for help. "I don't believe this. The law is
stupid. In fact, the law is
wrong
—"
"Listen to me," Charlie said and the intensity in his voice stopped her
inmidsentence. "One of the biggest problems this country has is that
people think a law is only a law if they agree with it. And if they
don't, it's all right to kick guys like Joe out of the service and bomb
abortion clinics because there's a
higher
law
at work. And that's
garbage, Allie. The law is the law. If you don't like it, change it.
But don't
break it and then start whining when there are consequences."
"But they won't change it," Allie snapped. "Politicians are such
cowards when it comes to legalizing any drugs that they'd rather see
people die than risk their careers. It's not going to change. And it's
wrong
."
"The law is the law," Charlie said. "You can't choose which part of it
you like and which you're going
to ignore. It's not a salad bar, Al.
The whole thing stands, or the whole thing goes. And Grady broke
the
law."
"And you're going to turn him in." Allie stood there, her eyes blazing
at him in contempt. "Good old by-the-book, my-way-is-law Charlie. I bet
you look a whole lot like your father now."
Charlie winced, and Grady stood up and said, "Wait a minute." His voice
was low and mild but it cut through her anger. "Thanks for the defense,
Al. I appreciate it. But Charlie's right. Don't do the crime
if you
can't do the time." He turned to Charlie. "I'm only asking one favor."
"Don't turn me in until tomorrow morning. Let me finish the show and
tell my mom and dad first."
Charlie knew he was right, and he'd never felt worse in his life,
knowing he was ruining Grady's life, knowing Allie would probably never
speak to him again. It was a lot to pay for being right. "Of course
I
won't," he told Grady.
Grady looked him in the eye. "I won't run."
Charlie swallowed. "I know that. Oh, hell, Grady." He cast around for
something to say.
Grady sat back down in the console chair. "It's not your problem
anymore," he told Charlie as he
picked up the headphones. "In fact, if
I hadn't started doing this, you wouldn't have been here at all.
So
it's always been my problem. Sorry I dragged you into it."
"I'm sorry you did, too," Allie said.
Charlie looked at her. "I'm not sorry. I wouldn't trade these past
weeks for anything."
"Well I would," she said, and there were tears in her voice. "I'd trade
them for Grady's freedom.
You're going to send him to prison. Do you
know how long he'll be there? Do you know how awful—"
"Allie, let it go," Grady said. "I'm not a kid. Stop treating me like
one. This isn't Charlie's fault."
"Well, it sure looks that way to me," Allie said and walked out of the
booth, and Charlie felt all the warmth and air leave the room with her.
He was right. He knew he was right.
But being right without Allie was lousy. And that was going to be the
story for the rest of his life.
Grady rubbed his forehead. ''She'll calm down. She'll see there was
nothing else you could do."
"Will she?" Charlie sat on the edge of the console and thought about
what he'd done and how he
felt about Grady.
"
I'm
not even sure there was
nothing else I could do. You're not a
criminal."
"Well, yeah, I am." Grady said. "I committed a crime. I'm pretty sure
that makes me a criminal."
"And she was right about something else." Charlie looked unhappily at
Grady. "I'm acting just like
my father. And yours. Rigid."
Grady shook his head. "My dad told me about your brother. Your father
covered up your brother's
crime. You're doing the opposite. You're on
the side of the angels."
"Pretty lousy angels." Charlie tipped his head back. "I know I'm right.
My dad knew he was right. Bill always knows he's right. I'm everything
I never wanted to be. I've spent my whole life refusing to have
anything to do with people so that I'd never try to control anybody.
And
now I'm alone and still controlling people. What I should do is just
leave town now. I know you'll tell Bill, so my job's done."
He felt so
tired his bones ached. "I should just go now."
"And leave everybody?" Grady looked incredulous. "Not say goodbye to
Harry or Joe or Karen?
Or Allie?"
Charlie laughed shortly. "I don't think Allie will talk to me long
enough to let me say goodbye."
Grady watched him for a moment and then shrugged. "Then go. I'll tell
them all you said so-long."
He straightened as the music stopped and
leaned in to the mike to begin his show intro, and Charlie backed out
of the booth as soundlessly as possible. He listened to Grady for a few
minutes, talking
about herbal teas this time, and then he picked up his
coat and left.
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