|
Fathers and Sons Chapter 8 “Hey,” Richard said. He was grinning. “What are you all doing here? Jones told me everybody was at the hospital, so here I am.” He had that goofy look on his face that meant he wasn’t sober. He smelled like a bar smells; smoky, yeasty, a little musty; and he had beer on his breath. Jones came up behind him, spread his hands wide and shook his head. “I thought you were on the wagon,” I said. “I am.” We musta looked skeptical. “One beer isn’t gonna make a difference. Or even two. It’s ok, don’t worry about it, I’m all over that stuff from before. You know? I’m all done with that. So what’s up?” “James has had a stroke,” Arbutus said. “Oh.” He looked mystified. “So-o-o….is he….does he need a ride home?” I let the Doc explain it to him. Jones asked me, “How’s the Rev?” and I said he was awake and talking. Jones nodded. “Good. I found him,” pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, “in the Clamdigger playing pool. Peggy Peterson was hanging all over him, and he didn’t seem to mind a bit.” “Jesus Christ, Peggy Peterson? She’s not legal, is she?” He shrugged. “I guess she is. Just.” Worry about that later. We all went in to the Rev’s room again, in pairs, for a few minutes at a time, before the nurses shooed us all out and told us to come back tomorrow. Lucius asked Arbutus if she needed a ride home. “No, I have my own car,” she said. She hesitated. “But thank you.” He took a deep breath and let it out again. “I’ve been thinking. I know you’re angry with me, but…….What I mean is, if you’d let me, I’d like to talk to you sometime……” “Well……,” she said. “Not right now.” “No, not now.” “Maybe later, after things calm down.” “Yes.” “That would be fine.” She gave me a hug, and I gave her one back, and she left. “She’s takes offense so easily when we’re talking,” the Doc said, “I almost feel like I can’t say anything anymore without making her angry. She says I’m always trying to change her. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to help someone improve themselves, is there?” “Might be.” “How do you manage to get along with her so well?” “Maybe it’s ‘cause I don’t think she needs much improvement.” I left him standing in the hall thinking about that. I told Jones if he wanted to come to my place, I’d fill him in on what I knew. And that’s why he and Richard were at my house that night. I found out later Richard bullied his way into the Rev’s room after he left my place. I don’t know what they said to each other, but the next morning Richard was at the hospital bright and early, showered, shaved, and in clean clothes. Not bright-eyed, by any means, he looked like he was kinda hungover, but he was there, and not in bed sleeping it off. I wasn’t exactly bright-eyed myself. Didn’t sleep much, so I’d gotten up early and gone to the station, to make sure there wasn’t anything urgent I needed to do before I went to the hospital. A call came in while I was there, a fire in a chicken house just outsida town. I suppose the boys on the fire truck coulda handled it, the chickens were already dead by the time they got there. All that was needed was to watch it while it finished burning, to make sure it didn’t spread to the barn. I don’t know why I drove out there, too, or why I stayed. I didn’t do anything but sit with old Mrs. Thompson until her daughter showed up. I asked her if she knew how the fire started. “No,” she said. Her hair was loose under the scarf she’d tied around it. The strands hung down her back, long thin white ribbons against the dark blue of the jacket she’d thrown on over her nightgown. “I didn’t do anything different tonight when I shut them up for the night.” She shook her head. “Bessie was in there.” “Bessie?” “She laid 300 eggs a year all her life, and took second prize at the fair last summer. I’ll never have a hen as good as her again.” I gave her my handkerchief. She blew her nose. “Do you think somebody set the fire?” I asked. Yeah, that’s the first thing I thought of. I’m a cop, gimme a break. “No,” she said. “Who would want to do that?” She shook her head again. “I think sometimes things just happen.” “Yeah, but a fire—“ “You’re a city boy, aren’t you? I’ve had compost heaps start on fire, all by themselves. And I didn’t get it scooped out when I should have. I suppose that was it.” She sighed. “I’m not as young as I used to be, you know.” “You need to get your boy to do that kinda thing for you.” She smiled. “He wants to be a city boy. No more chicken houses for him.” She stopped smiling. “No more chicken houses for me, now, either. I’m too old to start over.” She patted my hand. “No one to blame, Deputy, just something that happened. I thank you for your concern.” She wiped her nose with my handkerchief again. “I’ll wash this up and get it back to you tomorrow.” I told her not to hurry. I didn’t think about my clothes smelling like smoke until I got to the hospital, and Toots wrinkled her nose. “You’re not going in to see him smelling like that, are you?” I expected a smart remark from Richard, who was standing outside the Rev’s door, but he didn’t say anything. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but you need to go home and change clothes,” she said. “Take a shower, have some lunch, he’s got to have some lunch in a little bit, too. He’ll still be here when you get back.” Her face changed, she stopped smiling. Reached over and took my hand. “He will be, I promise. He’ll still be here.” “I’ll stay with him,” Richard said. “When they let me go back in.” So I went home. I didn’t wanna, but I went. Showered, changed, and stopped at the dress shop to see if Lynn wanted to have lunch. “Bud,” she said. Came from behind the counter where she was standing with the new employee, and put her arms around me. I love it when she says my name like that. I feel like……like she’s wrapping a warm blanket around me. “How’s the Reverend?” she asked. “I guess he’s ok. I’m going to see him after lunch. I went to the fire out at Mrs. Thompson’s place this morning.” “I heard about that. Was it arson?” I shrugged. “I don’t think so. Just one of those things.” She looked at me the way she looks when she’s trying to see what I’m thinking about. She’s been doing that a lot lately. “Are you OK?” “Yeah, sure. Let’s get something to eat.” She turned to Sybil. “You’ll be ok till I get back, won’t you?” And here was a weird thing. I knew Lynn had somebody new working at the shop, but I’d never met her. Didn’t know her from Eve. She said, “I’ll be fine,” to Lynn, but she was looking at me, real serious-like. Staring, and not like a woman stares at a man if she’s interested in something she ain’t getting. Some other way. Lynn noticed it, too. It seemed strange. “I know you?” I said. Just asking, ‘cause right then it seemed like maybe I’d met her someplace before. But she shook her head. Lynn introduced us, I held out my hand, and it seemed like she didn’t wanna take it, but she did. “If you need me to stay, I can,” Lynn said. “No, go ahead, I’ll be fine.” So we went. It gave me an odd feeling, though. Nothing you could really put your finger on, just something about it……weird.. Lunch was a quick sandwich, I wasn’t in the mood for more. Lynn kissed me and told me to go on, she’d be at the hospital later. We’d been married long enough that I shouldn’ta been surprised at how well she could read me, but I always was. If I’da known who was waiting for me, I might not a’ been in such a hurry. They stood up when I came through the door. Toots told me later they’d been sitting in the hall for a while by that time. “Deputy White,” Ricci said. “We didn’t want to bother you at home, and after yesterday, I was sure you would be here.” “We” was him, and another guy that looked about the same, a few years younger maybe, with a smaller diamond in his ring; and the guy standing just behind Ricci. You couldn’t call him a goon, he was lots bigger and meaner-looking than that. And smarter. An enforcer, maybe. If I had a problem with him, it wouldn’t be easy to take care of. If I had a problem with him, I’d be hurting later. “Leave me alone,” I said, and I tried to walk away…..but the big guy grabbed my jacket. “Mr. Ricci’s talking to you.” “You have my son in your jail, and I want him, now.” The other guy with the expensive suit. He looked steamed. “You talking about Anthony? The idiot?” That might not a’ been the smartest thing I coulda said, but I’d had it up to here with those guys. The guy’s ears turned bright red. “You are a dead man,” he hissed. “If you don’t give me my son, I will spit on your grave before I leave this place.” Mr. Ricci closed his eyes for a second. “Michael. Not so impulsive, please. This is neither the time or the place.” “And you’re an old woman! Take care of the problem, or I will!” Ricci walked a few steps away from the others; motioned for me to follow. I thought, why not, and followed him. “My family,” he said, and shrugged. “What can I do? I must have my nephews, and I must have my money. Michael is hard to control. He does not always do what he is told.” “Must be where Anthony gets it.” Ricci smiled. “It’s possible. But if he disobeys, you will be the one to suffer.” “Maybe it’ll be Michael who’ll suffer.” He stopped smiling. “If you want war, I can give you war. Even though he,” he waved toward the Rev’s room, “is still alive. Is that what you want?” Dammit. As if the Rev and Lynn weren't enough for me to worry about right now......I felt like I'd had just about all I could take........“I’m not talking about that goddam money with you anymore. I don’t have it, leave me alone. I got other things to do. You know? I don’t have time for this crap.” He took a deep breath. “My brother says you do not have respect for me, that you don’t take me seriously, and maybe he is right. I can’t allow that. Now---you will do what I tell you to do. Or I’ll let my brother do things his way.” It wasn’t so much what he said, as the way he said it. Kinda looking down his nose at me. Talking to me like he’d talk to one a’ his idiot goons. Trying to scare me. I’d been trying not to start anything in the hospital, but I’d had just about enough. “Get the fuck outta my face,” I said, and I gave him a push. The big guy said, “Don’t touch Mr. Ricci,” and started for me. Ricci said, “I wash my hands of this,” turned, and walked down the hall. Michael said, “Kill him.”
|