65 Proof (14 page)

In the kitchen, the sink was empty of dishes for the first time since I rented the place fifteen years ago. There was even a fresh smell of lilacs and orange zest in the air.

The door opened and I swung around, hand going to my gun. Mrs. Garbonzo entered, carrying a plastic laundry basket overflowing with my socks. She flinched when she saw me.

“Mr. McGlade. I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

“Surprised, Marietta? I thought you might be.”

“Did you take care of the guy?”

“Sit down. We need to talk.”

She set the basket down on my kitchen counter, and seductively perched herself on one of my breakfast bar stools. Her blouse had been untucked from her skirt, the shirt tails tied in a knot around her flat stomach.

“You lied to me, Marietta.”

“Lied?” She batted her eyelashes. “How?”

There was a bottle of window cleaner next to the sink that I’d never seen before. I picked it up.

“How about opening up that shirt and letting me squirt you with this?”

“Is that what turns you on? Spraying women with glass cleaner?”

I grabbed her blouse and pulled, tearing buttons.

“I was thinking more along the lines of washing off those fake bruises. They’re so fake, the purple has even rubbed off on your collar. See?”

I shot two quick streams at the marks, then used my sleeve to wipe them off.

They didn’t wipe off.

I tried again, to similar effect.

Marietta sneered at me. “Are you finished?”

“So what’s that purple stuff on your collar?”

“Eye shadow.” She pointed at her eyes. “That’s why it matches my eye shadow.”

“Big deal. So you gave yourself those bruises. Or paid someone to give them to you. I met your husband today, Mrs. Garbonzo. All ninety pounds of him. He couldn’t beat up a quadriplegic.”

“My husband abuses me, Mr. McGlade.”

“Yeah, I saw his swollen knuckles. At first, I thought they were swollen from hitting you. But he didn’t hit you, did he Marietta? Roy has rheumatoid arthritis. I saw his medication. His knuckles are swollen because of his disease, and they undoubtedly cause him great pain. So much pain, he’d never be able to hit you.”

Marietta put her hands on her hips.

“He beats me with a belt, Mr. McGlade.”

“A belt?”

“These bruises are from the buckle. It also causes welts. See?”

She turned around, lifting her blouse. Angry, red scabs stretched across her back.

I gave them a spritz of the window cleaner, just to be sure.

“Ow!”

“Sorry. Had to check.”

Marietta faced me. “I’ve paid you, I’ve done your laundry, and I’ve cleaned your apartment. Did you take care of the assassin for me?”

“Your husband didn’t hire an assassin.”

“Is that what he told you?”

“I know it for a fact. The guy you hired is a sixteen-year-old pimply-faced kid. He couldn’t whack anyone. He couldn’t even whack a mole.”

I smiled at my pun.

Marietta made a face. “I thought he sounded young on the phone. He really won’t do it?”

“He lives in his parent’s basement.”

The tears came. “I gave him a lot of money. Everything I’ve been able to hide from Roy during six years of marriage.”

I thought about mentioning I got the money back, but decided against it.

“Look, Marietta, just divorce the guy.”

“I can’t. He threatened to kill me if I divorced him.”

“You can run away. Hire a lawyer.”

She sniffled. “Pre-nup.”

“Pre-nup?”

“I signed a pre-nuptial agreement. If I divorce Roy, I don’t get a penny. And after six years of abuse, I deserve more than that.” She licked her lips. “But if he dies, I get it all.”

“Don’t you think killing the guy is a little extreme?”

She threw herself at me, teary-eyed and heaving. “Please, Harry. You have to help me. I’ll give you half—half of the entire chicken empire. Help me kill the son of a bitch.”

“Marietta…”

“I cleaned your place, you promised you’d help.” She added a little grinding action to her hug. “Please kill him for me.”

I looked around the kitchen. She did do a pretty good job. I wondered, briefly, if I’d make a decent Chicken King.

“I’ll tell you what, Marietta. I don’t do that kind of thing. But I know someone who can help. Do you want me to make a phone call?”

“Yes. Oh, yes.”

I pried myself out of her grasp and picked up the phone, dialing the number from memory.

“Hi, partner. It’s me. Look, I’ve got a woman here who wants to kill her husband. I told her I’m not interested, but I thought maybe you’d be able to set something up. Say, tomorrow, around noon? You can meet her at the Hilton. Rent a room under the name Lipshultz. No, schultz, with a U-L. Okay, she’ll be there.”

I hung up. “Got it all set for you, sugar.”

She squeezed me tight and kissed my neck. “Thanks, Harry. Thank you so much. Is there anything I can do to repay you?” Her breath was hot in my ear. “Anything at all?”

“You can start by folding those socks. And maybe some dusting. Yeah, dusting would be good.”

She smiled wickedly and caressed my cheek. “I was thinking of something a little more intimate.”

“I was thinking about dinner.”

“Dinner would be wonderful.”

“I’m sure it will be. Have the place dusted by the time I get back.”

Marietta Garbonzo called me the next night, around eight in the evening.

“You son of a bitch! You set me up! You didn’t call a hitman! You called a cop!”

“You can’t go around murdering people, sweetheart. It’s wrong on so many levels.”

“But what about all of the washing? The cleaning? The dusting? And what about after dinner? What we did? How could you betray me after that?”

“You expect me to throw away all of my principles because we spent five minutes doing the worm? It was fun, but not worth twenty to life.”

“You bastard. When I get out of here I’ll…”

I hung up and went back to the Sharper Image catalog I’d been thumbing through. I had my eye on one of those massaging easy chairs. That would set me back two grand. Earlier that day, I bought a sixty inch plasma TV. The money I took from William “Billy” Johansenn was being put to good use.

I plopped down in front of the TV, found the wrestling channel, and settled in to watch two hours of pay-per-view sports entertainment. The Iron Commie had Captain Frankenbeef in a suplex when I felt the gun press against the back of my head.

“Hello, Mr. McGlade.”

“Happy Roy?”

“Yes. Stand up, slowly. Then turn around.”

I followed instructions. Happy Roy held a four barreled COP .357, a nasty weapon that could do a lot of damage at close range.

“How’d you get in?” I asked.

“You gave a key to my wife, you moron. I took it from her last night, when she got home.” His face got mean. “After you slept with her.”

“Technically, we didn’t do any sleeping.”

The gun trembled in Happy Roy’s hand.

“She’s in jail now, Mr. McGlade. Because of you.”

“She wanted to kill you, Happy Roy. You should thank me.”

“You idiot!” Spittle flew from his lips. “I wanted to kill her myself. With my own two hands. Now I have to get her out of jail before I can do it. Do you have any idea what Johnny Cochrane charges an hour?”

“Whatever it is, you can afford it.”

Happy Roy’s voice cracked. “I’m practically broke. Those damn claymation commercials are costing me a fortune, and no one is buying the tie-in products. I’ve got ten thousand Happy Roy t-shirts, moldering away in a warehouse. Plus the burger chains with their processed chicken strips are forcing me into bankruptcy.”

“Those new Wendy’s strips are pretty good.”

“Shut up! Put your hands over your head. No quick moves.”

“What about your mansion? Can’t you sell that?”

“It’s a rental.”

“Really? Do you mind if I ask what you pay a month?”

“Enough! We’re going for a ride, Mr. McGlade. I’m going to introduce you to one of our extra large deep fryers, up close and personal.”

“You told me I could keep working with your wife.”

“I said you could work with her, not set her up!”

“Six of one, half a dozen of…”

“I’m the Chicken King, goddammit! I’m an American icon! Nobody crosses me and gets away with it!

I’d had enough of the Chicken King’s crazy ranting, so I reached for the gun. Happy Roy tried to squeeze the trigger, but I easily yanked it away before he had the chance.

“Let me give you a little lesson in firearms, Happy Roy. A COP .357 has a twenty pound trigger pull. Much too hard to fire for a guy with arthritis.”

Happy Roy reached for his belt, fighting with the buckle. “You bastard! I’ll beat the fear of Happy Roy into you, you son of a bitch! No one crosses…”

I tapped him on the head with his gun, and the Chicken King collapsed. After checking for a pulse, I went for the phone and dialed my Lieutenant friend.

“Hi, Jack. Me again. Marietta Garbonzo’s husband just broke into my place, tried to kill me. Yeah, Happy Roy himself. No, he doesn’t look so happy right now. Can you send someone by? And can you make it quick? He’s bleeding all over my carpet, and I just had it cleaned. Thanks.”

I hung up and stared down at the Chicken King, who was mumbling something into the carpet.

“You say something, Happy Roy?”

“I should have stayed single.”

“No kidding,” I said. “Relationships can be murder.”

Amazon.com introduced a program in 2005 called Amazon Shorts, where customers could download short stories for 49 cents. I wrote this story specifically for Amazon. It was an attempt to really take Jack to the brink, by making the situation get worse and worse no matter how hard she tried to fix things. It’s as dark as Jack has gotten, so far…

“A
nd can you mega-size that meal deal?”

I reach over from the passenger seat and give my partner, Sergeant Herb Benedict, a poke in the ribs, except I don’t actually feel his ribs because they’re encased in a substantial layer of fat—the result of many years of mega-sizing his fast food meals.

“What?” he asks. “You want me to mega-size your fat-free yogurt?”

“No. You told me to point it out whenever I saw you overeating.”

“How am I overeating?”

“You just mega-sized a triple bacon cheeseburger and a chocolate shake.”

Herb shrugs, multiple chins wiggling.

“So? It’s just one meal.”

“The mega-size french fries come in a carton bigger than your head. The shake is the size of a rain barrel.”

“Be realistic here, Jack. It’s only 49 cents. You can’t buy anything for 49 cents these days.”

“How about another heart attack? How much is that—”

My words are cut off by two quick pops from the drive-thru speaker. Though October, Chicago has been blessed with unseasonably warm weather, and my passenger window is wide open, the sound reaching me through there as well. It’s coming from the restaurant.

Only one thing makes a sound like that.

Herb hits the radio. “This is Car 118, officer needs assistance. Shots fired at the Burger Barn on Kedzie and Wabash.”

I beat Herb out of the car, pulling my star from the pocket of my jacket and my .38 from my shoulder holster. I’m wearing flats and a beige skirt. A cool wind kicks up and brings goosebumps to my legs. The shoes are Kate Spade. The jacket and skirt are Donna Karan. The holster is Smith and Wesson.

As I near the building, I can make out screams, followed by another gunshot. A spatter of blood and tissue blossoms on the inside of the drive-thru window, blocking my view of the interior.

I hold up my pinky—my signal to Herb that there are casualties—and hurry past the window in a crouch, stopping before the glass doors. I tug the lanyard out of the badge case and loop it over my head. On one knee, I crane my neck around the brick jamb and peek into the restaurant.

I spot a single perp, Caucasian male, mid-thirties. I can’t make out his hair color because he’s wearing a black football helmet complete with face gear. Jeans, black combat boots, and a gray trench coat complete the ensemble. And under the trench coat…

An ammo belt.

Two strips of leather crisscross his chest, bandolero style. Instead of bullets in the webbing, I count eight clips. Four more clips are stuck into his waistband. I assume they’re for the 9mm Beretta in his hand, currently pointed at a family cowering under a plastiform table.

A mother and two kids.

Before my mind can register what is happening, he fires six times. The bullets tear through the table and into the mother’s back. Blood sprays onto the children she’s been shielding, and then erupts from the children in fireworks patterns.

I tear my eyes away from the horror and scan for more hostiles, but see only potential victims—at least twenty. Behind me, I hear footfalls and Herb’s labored breathing.

“At least four down. One perp, heavily armed.”

“You want to be old yeller?”

I shake my head and swallow. “I want the shot.”

“On three.”

Herb flashes one, two, three fingers, then I shove through the door first, rolling to the side, coming up in a shooting position just as Herb yells, “POLICE! DROP THE WEAPON!”