Annie Hansen Mysteries

Chapter 11

The meeting of Narcotics Anonymous was an open meeting, as promised. That meant anyone could go, addict or not. Pepsi accompanied me to the back of the bookstore. I walked into the meeting, surprised at the joy in the room.

That"s all. I promised I wouldn"t tell any more, or the last names of who was there. I can tell you, though, that I talked to someone who knew the Doc very well. Someone on the street, a user, who dropped into NA occasionally as one would crash a tea party, Firewall Eddie, a big First Nations guy fresh out of jail, and a known hacker. He seemed too ready to talk.

“Meeting"s starting,” he said, though, and we left the huddle in the corner and joined the rest of the group.

I heard Eddie"s story, for the gadzillianth time, sitting around that long table with the rest of them. How he used to use and now he didn"t, and he had a good job as a Security Guard for the town. I heard all the stories and then the birthday speakers who were celebrating a year or more of being clean.

Afterward there was cake and coffee. Eddie said a couple years ago the baker had put booze in the cream filling. Eddie thought it was a true story. It sounded like another urban myth to me.

Many of the men and women in the room had multiple addictions— booze, narcotics, gambling, you name it. They laughed easily at themselves and others. I felt accepted.

Firewall Eddie took me to one side after the cake was cut and everyone started milling around the coffee urn.

“You want to know what I know, Annie?” He licked chocolate frosting off a plastic fork. “Hizzhonnor…” Firewall"s cheek twitched. “Hizzhonnor wasn"t the good citizen he seemed to be. We all knew that here.”

“He didn"t go to any NA meetings? Not in this small town.” I"d heard rumors about the cocaine parties at City Hall.

“"Course not. He was too smart for that.”

Flames danced in a corner. I gnawed my nails and counted the candles on the cake. “Cocaine?”

Flames danced in a corner.“There was more to our Mayor than coke. Let"s just say he knew Doc well.”

A lean streak of misery came up behind Firewall and slapped him between the shoulder blades. “This guy telling you lies again, Annie?”

“Nice to see you, Pepsi,” I said. “You"re just in time to ruin a good convo. Let"s go.”

These were ordinary citizens that didn"t mind coming clean. The five hardcore users didn"t attend this meeting. They were all down at Hoyt Street being homeless.

But I"d got what I came for. I thanked Firewall and left. I had to go back and take a look at the memory stick the nurse had given me. I thought I"d get a lot of answers from that. Maybe enough so the cops could make an arrest.

That"s what I got paid for. I smiled.