Fast Lane (14 page)

He didn’t say anything for a minute, a little too dazed to realize what was happening. When he finally recognized me he demanded to know what the hell I was doing. Then he ordered me to get off him.

“
Not until I kick your teeth in.”

“
What for? What did I ever do to you?”

“
Why don’t you talk to your wife about it? I was on the radio this afternoon and she tried to make trouble for me. Talked a whole lot of garbage about me blackmailing my clients.”

“
Well, it’s true!”

I put more pressure to his head with my forearm and he squeezed his eyes shut. “I have to disagree with you on that. I think she should keep her ugly mouth shut.”

“
Why are you telling me? Talk to her yourself. For all the good it’ll do you. She’s pissed at the way you’ve been treating me.”

“
Get it through your thick skull that ff she hurts me she’s going to hurt you just as bad. Or worse. You’ll be the first one to get cut off.”

“
You’ve already done that. I spoke to Tommy and Jim. I know what’s going on.”

I started laughing. It was all I could do looking down at his big ugly face, all puckered up on the verge of bawling. Filled with self-righteousness and goddamned hopelessness.

He demanded to know what I was laughing at.

“
You,” I said. “And that big cement block you call a head. Look, why don’t we have us a talk? Let me buy you a drink.”

I helped him up and brushed him off. For a second he looked as if he was going to take a swing at me. I gave him my handkerchief to clean up his face.

We turned back into the bar. The barkeep raised an eyebrow but didn’t say a word. Hell, Max did look a mess, blood and dirt smudged across his face. I bought a round of drinks and we drank them silently.

After a while we were both fidgeting in our chairs. I started things off. “I want to be fair to you,” I said. “But you have to be fair in return. I never wanted a partner. I like running my own operation.”

“
You owe me,” Max said, talking more into his shot glass than to me.

“
Well, let’s say I do, and I have to tell you I’m not entirely convinced of that. What do you suggest?”

His face convulsed as if he had swallowed something that needed to be spat out. “Just make me your goddamn partner,” he said.

I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing. I was only playing for time. When we were out there in the dirt an idea had snuck up on me. I needed to give it a few minutes to gel. And it was forming nicely.

“
I don’t think so,” I said. “There’s got to be something else we could do.”

“
Why? You promised me.”

“
Come on, that’s not getting us anywhere.”

“
At least give me some of your clients. You owe me that much.”

“
I don’t know if that would be such a good idea. People don’t like to be told where to go—but you know what we could do?

“
How about this,” I continued, acting as if I had a genuine revelation. “We could work it so we were more like partners. I’ll give you a fifty-fifty split on all work you do for me.

“
You know what else we could do?” I added, drawing it out. “I can have you deal directly with the clients. If they’re satisfied with your work, I’ll recommend they contact you for future jobs. And when you get enough clients on your own, we can call it quits.”

Max was rolling his shot glass around in his palms. He kept his eyes on the table but I swear tears were popping up around them. “I only wanted what’s fair. Thanks, Johnny. I’m sorry about everything that happened.”

He wiped his shirtsleeve across his face, and started apologizing and thanking me like there was no tomorrow. He was overreacting to the situation. Fifty percent of nothing is still nothing, and that was all I was going to give him. I’d throw him a few scraps here and there but nothing he could live on. Just enough to keep him guessing whether or not I was on the level. He’d probably suspect pretty soon what was really going on, but he wouldn’t know for sure. And that would be the hell of it, because if I was on the level then the scraps would keep him going until the steak came, but if I wasn’t, then I would just be slowly starving him. By the time he figured it out it would be too late. Him and Moira would be too tired and hungry to want to cause me any more trouble.

I would have liked to have given Max another chance. Deep down I believed that. But him and his wife were too much of a nuisance to keep around. I couldn’t afford to give Moira another opportunity to get pissed at me. For all I knew, next time she’d end up taking out a full-page ad to air her grievances.

I bought another round. “Max,” I said. “One thing. Could you talk to Moira? Straighten her out as to how things stand?”

“
It’s as good as done, Johnny.”

From the look he gave me I could tell he was planning on doing more than just talking to her. If I was lucky, in the drunken state he was in, he’d end up breaking her neck.

I gave him a slap on the back, said, “I have had a hell of a day and I’m going to call it quits. Stop by the office at nine tomorrow and I’ll set you up with an assignment.”

Max nodded and told me I wouldn’t be disappointed in him. I didn’t think there was a chance of that either.

Chapter 15

I saw what I thought was a large dog lying on my front doorstep. My night vision’s pretty poor, always has been, and as I got closer I realized it was a person. A few yards from my door I realized it was Mary.

Her eyes were red and swollen but no more so than the rest of her face.

“
Mary,” I said, feeling a sickness start up in my stomach, “what’s wrong?”

She looked beyond miserable. “Oh, Johnny—” she cried, as she got up and buried her face into my chest.

I took her inside and cleaned her face up. The crying eventually subsided. I made her some coffee, pouring a good shot of whiskey into it, and made her take a few sips.

“
Can you tell me what happened?” I asked.

She nodded, and bit hard on her lip. “I went to see him tonight, and h-he—” she gasped. Then she got her control back and, with her eyes dulling a bit, said, “He tried to rape me.”

I looked at her incredulously. I knew it was a stupid question—it just kind of slipped from me, but I asked her what she meant.

She shook her head, confirming what she told me. “I called him this afternoon,” she said, “and we made plans to meet at his home tonight. His wife had gone to see friends so we were alone. He started hugging me, and then he asked how much I loved him. And then—”

“
You don’t have to tell me any more.”

“
No, I want to tell you.” She’d distanced herself from the event and was talking about it more matter-of-factly, as if it had happened to someone else.

“
He put his hands on my breasts. When I pulled away from him he asked what was wrong with me, didn’t I want to show my father how much I loved him? He threw me to the floor and when he was trying to take my pants off I kneed him. Then I ran away and came here.”

“
Oh, Mary.” I didn’t know what else to say. I wanted to break Bry apart. I wanted to turn him into the same queasy mush my stomach had become. I held my breath and let it out slowly. At least I could be thankful this whole business with Mary was coming to a close.

“
All I wanted was to see who my real father was.”

“
I know, honey.”

“
I guess you were right.” She smiled sadly at me. “Finding my father didn’t do me any good. What next?”

“
You’ll just have to forget it. You do have parents that love you.”

“
I know, I know. Boy, look at me. Have you ever seen such a mess?” She let out a brittle laugh. “I was supposed to work tonight, but I don’t think I’m up to it.”

“
Do you want me to take you home?”

“
I don’t think I’m up to that either. Do you think I could stay here tonight?”

“
Sure. I’ll make up the guest room for you.”

“
Can we sit together for a few minutes? I-I don’t feel I can be alone right now.”

She moved over to the sofa with me, and we sat there together, neither us saying a word. She curled up into a ball, her head lying flat against my chest. After a while, she looked up at me, her eyes half closed but shining with expectation.

“
I’d better get that room ready for you,” I said.

I put some fresh sheets on the bed and got her a robe and a pair of old pajamas. I noticed she was standing quietly watching me. As I headed for the door, she touched my arm and was about to say something. I put my finger against her lips. Then I left her alone.

As I was lying on my bed the door opened. Mary walked in, and as she did, her robe fell open. Framed by the hallway light she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. But she was so young that I felt ashamed. I tried looking away.

“
Mary—” I started to say.

She hushed me. In an instant she’d moved across the room. Her naked body was up against me. I could feel her shivering.

“
Mary, this isn’t right,” I said, gently pushing her away.

“
Yes it is.” She once again wrapped her limbs around me.

I felt myself weakening. I pushed her away again, this time being rougher. “Trust me, it isn’t. Please—”

She looked at me, puzzled, her brown eyes moistening with tears. Her body shook. “First my father tries to rape me, and now this. What’s wrong with me?”

“
Nothing,” I said softly. I was holding her, smoothing her hair. “Nothing at all,” I whispered.

I whispered a lot of other stuff, trying my best to comfort her. Somehow we ended up with me lying on top of her. At first, I was just holding her. And it felt nice, nicer than anything I could remember. I wished it could go on like that forever.

Mary, though, was all eager and unashamed underneath me. She shifted her body around and worked some of my clothing loose, and it wasn’t long before we weren’t just holding each other. I tried not to think of what we were doing. I tried my best to think of Marge and of others. I silently begged for forgiveness.

The doorbell rang, then it rang again. A minute later it started ringing continuously.

Mary asked if I should see who was there.

I wanted to stop what we were doing, but I also had a good idea who was at the door. I told Mary I always had clients bothering me at home and I wasn’t going to let them interfere with me now.

I didn’t. We didn’t. And the doorbell eventually stopped ringing.

After what seemed like an eternity, we were finished. We lay together in a heap, neither of us saying a word. The last thing I remembered was her curled up in my arms, sleeping like a baby.

When I woke the next morning, I reached over for Mary, and with kind of a knee-jerk reaction jumped up when I saw she was gone. I called out but there was no answer. Looking in the guest room, I saw her clothes were gone too.

I shaved, showered, and dressed. When I opened the front door, I found a note waiting for me. The note was written in red lipstick, and read—

HEY YOU CREEP, WHY WOULDN’T YOU ANSWER YOUR DOORBELL—WHO WERE YOU SCREWING AROUND WITH? YOUR LOVER, MARGO.

It hadn’t rained the other night but there were stains on the paper as if someone had been crying over it. I was pretty sure it hadn’t been Marge.

Chapter 16

Max Roth showed up at nine o’clock on the dot and we shook hands and sat ourselves down. He looked out of place, shaved, with his hair combed back and clothes in decent order. He mumbled something about being sorry about the other day and being glad we could work things out.

I leaned back and gave him a friendly smile. “I’m even sorrier, Max,” I said. “I tried to phone you before you got here but I guess I just missed you. I wanted to save you the trip.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
The job I was planning for you fell through. Happened only ten minutes ago.”

The color in Max’s face dropped but he didn’t say a word or move a muscle. I continued, “You see, two days ago Mulrooney Construction called me. They were having problems with some materials disappearing. I know you favor that type of work, and hell, they can be good clients for repeat jobs. So while we were having our talk last night I couldn’t help thinking it would be only fair to give it to you.”

I was giving it to him alright.

“
What”—his voice cracked and he cleared his throat—”what happened?”

“
Just before you showed up I got a call from the old man over there that the situation had cleared itself up. One of their workers had himself an accident. Fell and broke both his legs. Lying there, he had some sort of revelation. Made a guess on where the stuff was. And he must have been psychic because he was right on the mark.”

“
So that’s it, huh? You don’t have anything else?”

I shook my head, disappointed in him. Here Max hears about a fellow human being breaking both legs, and all he can think about is his own situation. Of course, this other person didn’t exist since I made up the story, but Max didn’t know that.