My Brother's Keeper (19 page)

‘That's you, Lou. They're not you.'

Lou felt the coffee pot; it was still warm so he poured two fresh cups and passed one to Joey. They both drank it black.

‘It's the old lady that's obsessed with it. I think the kid would like nothing better than to let it die.' They both sipped their coffee. ‘There was a bit of a ruckus at the Arramingo Club tonight.'

‘What kind of a ruckus?'

‘A guy got fresh with one of the girls. Bloodied her lip. Not a guy, though, Joey. He was more like a kid, early twenties at best, maybe less. Whatever he was doing in there, I didn't get the impression he was a customer.'

‘Then what?'

‘The way he was dressed, maybe a waiter or a busboy.'

‘An employee?'

‘Yeah, maybe.'

‘Then Haggerty would have to know him.'

‘That's another thing. Haggerty did seem to know him. And even after all the shit that's been going on, Haggerty let him go. A couple of bouncers had him by the neck and tossed him into the alley.'

Joey nodded and they drank more of the coffee.

‘How bad was the girl hurt?'

‘Not bad. Looks like she got punched in the face. That's it.'

‘That's considered foreplay to the girls at the Arramingo Club.'

‘How would you know?'

‘Did you forget about Candy?'

‘Oh, yeah.'

‘That little fling cost me my marriage and my job. I'd be collecting a captain's pension right now if I'd never hooked up with Candy Bell. Just one of the advantages of staying in the good graces of Petey Santi.'

‘Marrying his daughter was about the best deal you ever made. Man, did you fuck that up.'

‘Coincidentally I heard Petey resigned from City Council about the same time your boy, Vincent Trafficante, bowed out of the mayor's race. Next thing you know they're in business together.'

‘So what else is new?'

‘Nothing. Not only are these guys hauling garbage upstate by the truckload but they got involved in some kind of land deal, thinking they'd open up a few more landfills, give them someplace to dump all that Philly garbage. Lots of cheap land up there, ya know. Now I heard they found pockets of natural gas and they're making a fucking fortune on it.'

‘Jesus Christ! What is it with those people up there? First it's coal mines, then garbage dumps and now they're digging around again, this time for gas. The ground's already like an open sore.'

‘They're coal crackers, Lou. What do you expect?'

‘That they'll wake up.'

‘Keep dreaming.'

They took their coffees outside and stood on the porch. Joey had a cigarette going before Lou shut the door behind them.

‘You ever hear from Candy?'

‘Nope. She went from a high-priced call girl to a suburban housewife. Ends up with a township commissioner in Trevose. Guy divorces his wife and kids. Six months later he's married to Candy. Of course, she's Candace now.'

‘How do you divorce your kids?'

‘You haven't met Candy.'

‘Why don't you see if you can contact her? Ask her about the Arramingo Club and the Haggertys. Maybe she knew this Valerie Price.'

‘You mean before she started spreading her legs for father and son?'

‘Yeah. Well, before she was killed anyway.'

‘I'll see what I can do.'

‘Thanks, Joey, and thanks for hanging out tonight. You were a big help. I know it meant a lot to Maggie.'

‘No problem.' Joey took a last sip of coffee and placed the cup on the window sill. He took a last drag off the cigarette and put it out in the ashtray right next to it. ‘That's too bad about Jimmy and Franny. We don't really know who did it. Do we?'

‘No, but we will.'

‘How can you be so sure?'

‘It's a pretty tight circle here. We're talking about the Arramingo Club, the Haggertys and the women that fall inside that sphere of influence. Trust me, the truth will come out eventually, no matter how much they try to keep it hidden. We'd have a harder time trying to prevent it.'

‘I know your philosophy on truth, Lou. But what if the truth comes out and no one's listening, no one cares?'

‘Not our problem. Our job is just to unlock the door and let it out.'

‘Tell me this. How do you think it will all end?'

‘Not well, Joey. Not well.'

They stood on the porch for a few more moments in silence, staring at the place on the porch where their friend had taken his last breath. They stared at the empty chair and the blood stain which seemed to have permanently discolored the concrete. Joey hobbled gingerly down the steps, protecting the knees that had grown stiff from too much sitting. Lou listened to the car start and watched it move away, leaving the street bathed in that late-night stillness that he'd come to cherish. The sky was dark and cloudy, with no stars to count and the night suddenly more quiet than he'd ever remembered. It wasn't the peace in his life that he'd always hoped for, though. It was more like the peace of the grave. He shuddered against that thought as the breeze picked up and seemed to go right through him.

He went back inside and prepared a bed for himself on the couch. He positioned one of the throw pillows under his head and unrolled a thin blanket. He lay on his side facing the television with his eyes open, trying to relax and will himself to sleep. It took a good half hour before he began to feel the muscles in his neck loosen and his eyelids slowly close.

This was the simple ritual of sleep to which he'd become accustomed: a lumpy couch, an oversized pillow and a threadbare blanket, accompanied by a fear of relinquishing his hold on consciousness, never really knowing what to expect from the dream world to follow. He'd spent many nights fighting against it. But every living thing must eventually sleep. And now that the face in his dream had come to life once again, unconscious and alone in a hospital bed only a few miles away, maybe he could finally put it to rest.

What must her dreams be, Lou wondered, her mind buried in a coma? And in those last fitful minutes before he drifted off, he'd prayed that the faces of Jimmy and Franny Patterson wouldn't be joining Catherine Waites on the list of apparitions haunting his sleep.

He woke to the smell of coffee and the sound of Maggie dropping a couple slices of bread into the toaster and hammering it down. He sat up and rubbed his red, swollen eyes. Maggie brought over a mug of steaming hot coffee and set it on the table. With his hands still over his face, he looked at it through the cracks in his fingers. The mug had the emblem of the Philadelphia Police Department on it, a gold shield with a blue crest depicting an old Yankee Clipper with its sails unfurled and a golden eagle over that and two rearing horses framing the skyline of the city. He raised the mug to his lips and sipped the hot coffee. The toast popped, startling him and some of the coffee spilled into his lap.

‘We still going to the hospital today?'

‘Yep.'

‘Thought you'd forget.'

‘Thought or hoped?'

‘Drink your coffee. And try not to spill it on yourself.'

If he'd had any dreams during the night he didn't remember them. Another reason to be thankful. Maggie returned again from the kitchen, this time with the toast on a plate and a jar of strawberry jelly with a big tablespoon stuck in it.

‘Breakfast of champions.'

‘I thought that was cold cereal.' She sat next to him and started digging into the jar of jelly. ‘You know I was up last night when you got home.'

‘You should have come down.'

‘Well, actually I heard you come in. I woke up and then I heard you talking to Joey.'

‘Sorry.'

‘No, I didn't mean it like that. I hadn't been sleeping very well anyway.'

‘I could see why.'

He spread a thin layer of jelly on a slice of toast and took a bite. He washed it down with a swig of coffee.

‘You've known Joey for a long time, huh?'

‘I've known Joey longer than I know you.'

‘How about Jimmy Patterson?'

‘Him, too.'

Lou took another sip of coffee, his eyes drawn to the television which was still on from the night before. The morning news had replaced the endless array of infomercials playing through the night, most of them trying to sell a pill that promised to make his penis grow three times larger and stay erect twice as long. They'd interviewed all kinds of woman who'd attest to the fact that size matters, each successive claimant having a bigger smile on her face and more exposed cleavage. Lou had managed to sleep through most of them without giving much thought to the size of his penis.

The morning news didn't have much more to offer than the infomercials, correspondents trying to convince viewers that politicians really had their best interests at heart. Journalists doing public relations for politicians, Lou thought. When did that start happening?

‘You guys are like a family, aren't you? I mean, the cops.'

‘Yeah, we are.'

‘You stick together, help each other out, right?'

‘Yeah.'

‘All of you?'

‘Most of us.'

‘But not all?'

‘No, not all.'

‘How about me? Am I in or out?'

‘You're in, kid.'

‘Then it's not just the cops. It's their families, too.'

‘Yep.'

‘That's nice to know. I mean, for some people who might not have much of a real family, you know what I mean, their cop family must be very important to them, like it's all they got.'

‘I guess so.'

Maggie went back into the kitchen and put her cup of coffee into the microwave to heat up. She looked out the kitchen window while she waited, the first rays of sunshine splashing the grass with yellow light. A sprinkling of melting ice had formed overnight and she had the urge to walk in it, to feel it cold and sweet on her bare feet.

‘You learn anything last night, like at the Arramingo Club?'

‘You were listening.'

‘Isn't that what detectives do?'

‘You're too smart for your own good.'

‘The Arramingo Club is a strip joint, right?'

‘Yeah.'

‘So what happened?'

‘I spoke to the owner, Brian Haggerty. That's the reason I went there.'

‘Do you think he killed Jimmy?'

‘I didn't at first but now I'm not so sure.'

‘Why's that?'

‘You know, you're spending way too much time with Joey. You're starting to sound like him.'

‘That's because both of us waste half our time trying to get a straight answer out of you.'

‘Brian Haggerty's got a lot of hate in him. He seems to have a lot to hide as well.'

‘That doesn't mean he killed Jimmy Patterson.'

‘Jimmy knew the father, William Haggerty. Worked for him for a time or so rumor has it.'

‘You mean, according to Joey.'

‘Yeah. Knew Haggerty's first wife, too. I mean,
knew
her.'

‘There's always a bimbo, isn't there?'

‘I don't see jealousy as a motive.'

‘Why not?'

‘I just don't. Call it a hunch. But it is interesting that Jimmy's sister became Haggerty's second wife and his alibi for the night Valerie Price was killed. I have no doubt that Jimmy knew more than he was telling and if Haggerty thought he was going to blow the whistle on him . . .'

‘Maybe Jimmy should have been more honest with you from the start. I'm not saying you could have prevented anything, but you never know.'

‘Jimmy wanted to protect his sister.'

‘By lying to you?'

‘Well, there's lying and there's not telling the whole truth.'

‘I didn't know there was a difference.'

‘You'll make a good lawyer some day, you know that?'

‘Not a cop?'

‘No. Not a cop.'

Lou carried his empty cup and plate into the kitchen and set them in the sink. The sun was climbing higher now and just starting to come through the window. He leaned against the counter and looked at the table and chairs, the same ones that had been there since he was a kid. He looked at the cabinets and the counter top, also unchanged. The whole house was like that. He'd never even thought about remodeling. He thought about it now.

‘Either way, you're a liar.'

‘You might be right, Maggie. I don't know.'

‘What time do visiting hours start?'

‘At the hospital or the cemetery?'

‘Very funny.'

‘I think ten.'

‘Well then, we better get ready.'

‘I am ready.'

‘I mean, shower and shave and put on a clean pair of pants.'

‘Oh, that kind of ready.'

He let the hot water run against the back of his neck. Hot showers seemed to be one of the few luxuries he had left. He could lose track of time in there, standing with his eyes closed and the water washing over him like it washed over the statue of St Francis outside the Girard Avenue soup kitchen.

He stepped from the shower into the steamy bathroom, wrapping a towel around his waist and getting a cigarette going in the ashtray on the sink. He hit the switch for the overhead fan and got a look at himself in the clouded mirror with the cigarette dangling from his lips and his hair wet and slick against his head. And then it came to him. He was smoking again. He almost had himself convinced that he'd quit for good this time. But he was going again full force now and he had little doubt that the drinking would follow. He took another drag, the smoke mixing with the steam. Denial was a wonderful thing, he thought.

EIGHTEEN

L
ankenau Hospital looked more like a college campus than a hospital with its long rectangular parking lots connected by narrow winding drives and surrounded by scenic waves of green lawn that would make the members of the Merion Golf Club envious. It seemed all dressed up to fool the trauma patients coming out of West Philly into believing it was worth the ambulance ride. They could get a bullet removed from their belly and enjoy the view for twenty-four hours before getting wheeled out with a six-inch scar under their shirt and a free token for the 100 Line. They could ride the trolley back into the heart of the city, trying to pull off their wristband and thinking that the food in the hospital was better than the food in prison. They just didn't keep you as long.