Bloodroot (38 page)

“Can she shoot? She give you lessons? That’s pretty sexy.” Danny raised his own gun. “She tell you that you can’t hit a barn shaking like that? That’s what the girl who taught me to shoot said. ’Course, she was talking about my needle and my veins.” Danny’s finger slid over the trigger. “Now, put that down before you hurt yourself.” He smiled under his glasses. “That’s what I wish
she
woulda said. Such is life.”

“I can’t let you do it,” I said. “I can’t let you wreck the family. Not again.”

“For you or for me?” Danny asked.

“Why do you
always
have to do this? Why do you always have to go chasing something? Always have to go where I can’t follow?” I cocked the hammer back. “I swear to fucking Christ, I’ll shoot. I’ll hit something, a shoulder, a leg, something. The bullets’ll bring Bavasi running. He’ll stop you.” I pressured the trigger, getting that feeling again like I was seeing myself from a distance, watching myself do things I couldn’t stop doing. “Why, Danny? Why can’t you just fucking
come home
?”

Danny’s thumb slipped off the safety then pulled back the hammer. “Here’s the difference between you and me, between history and a history book. I will pull this trigger. I will shoot you. I will not miss. Junk ain’t all I learned to shoot over the years. I will not kill you. You’re my brother and I love you and I know you’re only trying to help, trying to do what you think is best, like always. It’s what I love most about you.

“But, and this is a big but, I will shoot you right through the fucking foot if you don’t lower that gun. I’ve got quite a gun here. You might lose that foot. You’ve read a thousand books but you don’t know the half of what I’ve done to survive in this world. Shooting my brother in the foot for his own good ain’t nothin’ to me.”

“Danny . . .” The .38 wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Kevin, please.” Danny turned his gun a hair to the side, to better see me over the barrel. “Don’t make me do it. It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re brothers but you’re not like me. You get props for trying, but you failed. Thank God for it.”

I lowered my gun. Danny kept his raised. We both exhaled.

“Apologize to Kelsey for me,” he said. “I’m sure I upset her. Do everything you can to hang on to that girl.” He smiled. “That’s just brotherly advice.” He lowered the gun and opened the door. He turned to me. “You won’t have to wait for me as long as you did last time, I promise. Don’t worry about me. Whatever happens, one way or another, justice will be served. That’s the American Way.”

Danny ran out the door, slamming it closed behind him. I raised the gun and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. I’d left the safety on. Story of my fucking life.

I SHOWED UP AT THE HISTORY BUILDING WEARING THE REMNANTS
of yesterday’s work clothes and carrying a leather bag containing 499,800 dollars. Two hundred bucks and two hours. That’s what it took to talk a Brooklyn cabdriver into taking me across the Verrazano and halfway across Staten Island to campus.

I’d dropped the gun when I grabbed the bag before bolting down the stairs after Danny. I promptly locked myself out of his apartment, putting out of reach any spare keys to his new car. He had taken off with Al. They and the Charger were gone when I hit the street. I beat on the door of Bavasi’s restaurant, kicked at it, screamed his name, but got no answer. When a neighbor threatened to call the cops, I gave up and went looking for a cab, slipping a few hundred into my pocket so no driver would see me reaching into the bag.

The first thing I did on campus was run upstairs to Whitestone’s office. His secretary, as I expected, told me there’d been an emergency and the dean had left early. She sneered when I asked who had called and where he’d gone. She asked if I was drunk when I asked for a copy of Kelsey’s schedule. I knew she was teaching but had no idea where. Running frantically from room to room through six floors of classes would only draw more attention. I went down to the office to wait for her, precious time ticking away. Her class didn’t let out for half an hour.

I sat at my desk, the bag on my lap, both arms draped through the handles and over the top. None of the other teachers so much as looked at me. I just watched the sweep of the second hand of the clock on the wall. After pounding down a cup of coffee, I leaped from my seat. Fuck this.

I found Kelsey on the fourth floor. I dropped the bag and rapped on the open classroom door. Kelsey was not happy to see me but she came right to the door. Her students hunched over their desks, eavesdropping so intently their ears seemed to stretch away from their heads. Kelsey stepped into the hall.

“I’ll call you when I want to see you,” she said. “If I want to see you.”

“I need your help,” I said.

“I covered for you with Whitestone,” Kelsey said. “He was none too pleased with you, as usual. You need to get up there and kiss some ass. Don’t make him come looking for you. He hates that.”

“Whitestone’s gone,” I said. “You seen my brother on campus today? Or that black car?”

“What?” Kelsey said. She closed the classroom door. “You look like death. You’re sweating like crazy. Take off your sunglasses. Let me see your eyes.”

“Just meet me outside,” I said. “Fuck it.” I held out my hand. “Can I borrow your car?”

“No way.” Kelsey turned and watched her class through the window in the classroom door. She chewed the inside of her cheek.

I rubbed my bare wrist; I’d left my watch on Kelsey’s coffee table. “I’m in a huge hurry. Please.”

I didn’t know what I’d do if she refused to help. I hadn’t thought of a Plan B. I didn’t know what to offer, what I had to bargain with to convince her to help me. Kelsey stared at her students. I’d have to bring her into things. Maybe I could at least control how deep.

“Danny’s in trouble,” I said. “He’s out there somewhere about to do something that’ll ruin him forever. I’m trying to catch up and he’s got a big head start.”

Kelsey put her hand on my chest, covering my heart. “If Danny’s getting high, there’s nothing you can do about it. Junkies, they have their own rules. If he’s got you into it—”

“It’s not drugs,” I said. “It’s worse. Believe it. Kelsey, please. I know where he’s going. I know what he’s gonna do. For once, I can stop him. Kelsey, he’s my
brother
.”

Maybe she believed me, maybe she thought of her mom and the chance she never got to save her. Or maybe I was so pathetic she couldn’t resist. Whatever her motivations, she spoke. Finally.

“Give me two minutes to get rid of these guys,” she said. “Meet me at the car.”

 

 

 

GRAVEL SPRAYED EVERYWHERE
as Kelsey pulled a fishtailing U-turn in the parking lot. Then she slammed on the brakes.

“That Saab,” she said, pointing across the lot. “That’s Whitestone’s car.” She looked at me. “I thought you said he was gone for the day. Why do you know that?”

“I’ll explain on the way,” I said. “Take us to Willowbrook Park. Main entrance.”

Kelsey leaned on the gas and we hurtled out of the lot into traffic. She darted past three cars on the campus road and launched us through oncoming traffic at the intersection, tires screeching. I grabbed onto the dashboard for dear life.

“What?” Kelsey said. “You said we were in a hurry.”

“Jesus, we’re no good to him in the back of an ambulance.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Kelsey said. “Light me a cigarette and talk.”

I did as I was told, and lit one for myself. I tossed the pack on the dash, where it slid back and forth, threatening to bounce out the window as Kelsey bobbed and weaved through traffic. I flashed on the pack of Kools that had done the same dance in Danny’s Escort three years ago. I should never have left him alone that night. Never again.

“The bag in the back,” I said. “There’s a whole lot of money in it and some DVDs. Take the bag home after you drop me off and keep it safe until you hear from me.”

“You robbed someone. A bank? One of Danny’s old dealers?” She pounded her hand on the steering wheel. “I am such an asshole. I gave you my fucking gun. You motherfucker.” Kelsey hit the brakes and swerved onto the shoulder.

“No, no. Keep driving,” I protested. “It’s Danny’s money. No one is after us, I promise. It’s the DVDs that matter.”

“Kevin!” Kelsey shouted. She gunned the engine and threw us back out into traffic.

“If you don’t hear from me,” I said, “the DVDs go to the FBI.” I swallowed hard. I lit another smoke off the first. “It’s child porn. Danny pulled it off Whitestone’s computer. Promise me you won’t look at it.”

“Wait, what?
Child porn?
” Kelsey started crying. “All I wanted was to see what you were like in real life, maybe in bed, before I moved to cold-ass Chicago where all I could do was wonder. I never woulda come up with this. Christ Almighty.”

“Turn right up there,” I said. “That’s the park entrance, right around the corner.”

We slammed to a stop in the parking lot and tumbled out of the car. Kelsey grabbed the bag from the backseat and tossed it in the trunk. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket. I raced around the car and squeezed it shut in her hand.

“Ow, Kevin, that hurt.”

“What’re you doing?”

“I’m calling the fucking cops,” she said. “Like I shoulda done this morning. This is nuts.”

“No. No cops.”

“Why not?” Kelsey asked. “You said you guys didn’t do anything illegal.”

“I said we didn’t rob anyone.”

She flipped the phone open. I lunged for it but she was too quick. She held the phone high above her head. But she wasn’t dialing.

“Danny’s got Whitestone at Bloodroot,” I said. “As a hostage.”

I thought about making another move for the cell. The look on Kelsey’s face told me I’d be trading in my testicles for that phone. I didn’t want to fight her for it. I wasn’t sure I could win.

“He’s gonna kill him,” I said. “Over those DVDs.”

“Kill him?” She blinked at me like I’d just told her I was from Jupiter. “Your brother’s gonna kill Dean Whitestone? Over child porn? This is so fucked up.”

“I can stop it,” I said. “I don’t need the cops. You and me can go back to your place later, get drunk, roll around, and forget this ever happened, that we were ever here.”

Kelsey snorted. “Fat chance.”

“Take the bag back home. I’ll be there soon.”

“It’ll be safe in the trunk for now,” Kelsey said. “I’ll hide it in the house when we get home.”

I backed away from her. “You’re not coming with me. Stop fucking arguing with me. Someone’s gonna get killed.”

“It ain’t gonna be you.” Kelsey strode forward, shaking the phone at me like a weapon. “Either I go with you or I call nine-one-one. Those are your only options.”

Jesus, this woman was as stubborn as my brother. I wished Danny would’ve just shot me at the apartment. If he were here, I thought, what would he do? Cut a deal, I heard him say. Give something to get your way.

“Okay,” I said. “How’s this? Give me half an hour then call that cop from your building. Tell him Al Bruno’s up to his old tricks. Tell him whatever you want, just get him out here alone.” I backed up a few more steps. “Deal?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

I couldn’t get to Bloodroot and back in fifteen. It didn’t matter what time we picked. She was going to give me three minutes, maybe five once I took off.

“You wait here for Waters,” I said. “You’ll have to lead him in. If you hang a right at the last backstop, there’s a trail. You gotta look for it. It looks like it dead-ends in the woods but if you keep going, you’ll come out into the graveyard. You can see Bloodroot from there.”

“What if Danny’s not there?” Kelsey asked. “Then what?”

No chance. I knew in my heart he was there. “Then we go home,” I said, “and wait for him to find us.”

 

 

 

I BOOKED IT ACROSS THE FIELDS,
jumping and shoving my way through parents leading their kids to their cars. I broke through one all-American family after another, separating husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, the groups re-congealing behind me as I ran. For a second I worried about one of them calling the cops, but I knew none of them would be willing to put off dinner and TV long enough to wait around for the police.

The late afternoon sky was overcast, weakening the daylight, but I had enough to find the trail and duck into the woods. Even if Kelsey had already called, by the time Waters got to the park the sun would be dipping into the tops of the trees, filling the woods with shadows. The darkness would make them cautious, slow them down. That was all I needed. Just a little more time than she was willing to give me.

I fought my way through the woods as fast as I could, sliding all over on the dead leaves. Thorns and dead branches scratched at my shirt and skin, a few drawing blood. I tried pretending I was twelve years old again and chasing my brother along this very trail, or through the snows of our long-ago camping trip. We’d been the hunters then, too. And we’d arrived too late to stop the blood from spilling.