by Torsten Krol
“That’s fine, only what’d he say about Dean?”
“Said he was weird.”
“I mean about how Dean went away with him that night. What happened there? Does he know where Dean is right now?”
“Well, not exactly . . .”
My mind is racing a mile a minute.
“Well, then, what? What happened? That Donnie, he’s so paranoid he never gives out even a phone number or I would’ve asked him already . . . so what happened?”
“He says Dean asked him to get dropped off downtown after they went and got the package. Donnie didn’t have the package with him because he had this sudden fearfulness about a trap or something, so he come out here without it and Dean went with him to get it, then Dean says to drop him off downtown, he’s got to meet some people only he didn’t say who . . . and that’s what Donnie did and went on home with his two grand, and now tonight he saw the news and he’s wondering who those people were that Dean waited downtown for.”
“The terrorist guys?”
“I guess. Anyway he’s okay about me stepping into Dean’s shoes about this, only like I said he doesn’t ever want to see anyone else around the place or talk to anyone, only me.”
See, I didn’t want Donnie and Lorraine talking together or she’ll get told a different story than the one I just now made up, which would make her know stuff she doesn’t need to know and be a roadblock on the road to romance. It’s another big fiberoo that I truly regretted the need for it, but that’s how it goes sometimes when life gets complicated like right now.
“So we still don’t know where Dean went,” says Lorraine, looking upset again.
“Nope, still in the dark about that. Or the Darko.”
It was not a good joke and she didn’t laugh, just took a big slug of the Captain and followed up with more Coors. She held that bottle neck between two fingers like she was born that way, so I’m right about what kind of a beer drinker she is. When you have been around the block a time or two you get to be a judge of human nature that way. But it isn’t looking good for love after that phone call from Donnie, damn his ass, why couldn’t he wait till tomorrow, but that’s how it goes sometimes like I said before. Maybe if she stayed long enough and drank enough liquor she’d get smoothed over again, only she’s looking agitated and unloving so the chances are not so hot.
We watched another sitcom but Lorraine didn’t laugh. I started to think maybe I’m getting ahead of myself with this in regard to romance, I mean, she only got told this morning her aunt’s been murdered and the one that did it is her psycho brother, who it turns out is also a Muslim terrorist. So I can understand her being upset, especially since Dean was mixed up with her and Donnie D smuggling drugs into the prison etcetera but at least that part has already been worked out okay thanks to me. It’s a lot of things to be happening at once, maybe too many to let her relax and think about me more like in a personal sense than just a business partner. Maybe that will take time. It’d be dumb of me to make a move that’ll piss her off, so I just sat there drinking and watching these dumb shows she liked and saying nothing, her neither but I could tell she’s thinking about all this bad shit that happened all of a sudden.
Then around nine o’ clock she said she has to go, it’s been a long day and so forth, and I told her I understand about all that. I walked her out to the car hoping for maybe a goodbye kiss but got nothing, only a warning. “Keep your head straight about all this, Odell. You’re in it up to your neck, so don’t relax. I’m trusting you here and you better earn it.”
“Sure will.”
“’Bye.”
And away she went, leaving me a disappointed man but that’s okay, there will be another night for making this happen between us. I stood for a long while under the stars just watching them do nothing while the night breeze blew soft and gentle over me. I did truly feel my ducks are standing in a row.
SEVEN
Next day I did six lawns and got paid three hundred and twenty bucks. At three of those jobs I got asked about Dean because those people watched the news last night and recognized his face, so now they want to know what happened with the murder, which I was unable to give them information, I said, because of the Ongoing Investigating into that particular crime and I have been sworn to not talk about it. That’s what I told them to shut them up, but a couple of the old ladies kept watching me through their window while I worked like I’m a suspicious character that might start murdering old ladies like Dean did.
On job number five the old guy there at 2358 Willowwood called the cops because of his suspicioning I’m in the murder with Dean and a cop car arrived while I’m halfway through the job. Soon as I explained they understood, because now the whole Callisto PD knows who I am so I was not arrested. But one of the cops still had to explain about that to the old fool that rung them about me. It is my hope that when I’m old I get run down by a Mack truck before my brain quits being functional like some of these old folk now.
At the end of the day I went home, wondering if maybe Lorraine is going to call around or even just talk on the phone awhile which would be good. But thoughts of Lorraine were pushed out of my head when I saw what’s waiting for me in the yard, namely Chet Marchand and his beige Cadillac. I had thought he went back to Topeka when I was just plain rude to him after I found Dean dead upstairs that day. Now I’m in big trouble because I told him I’m Dean, which will be hard to explain in a way that’ll make sense. I got out of the truck and he come over, looking very neat and respectable like the other time. I expected him to look mad about being lied to but he looks okay, so maybe he didn’t watch the news.
“Hello there,” he says, smiling.
“Hey, Chet.”
“Glad to see you remembered my name,” he says. “But I do believe I may have forgotten yours.”
That’s his way of letting me know polite that he knows what a big liar I am, so he went and watched the news all right. Now what was I going to do? I felt like an idiot standing there looking at his smile which has got perfect teeth, so good they must not be real. He knew damn well I’m trying to think of something but he let me think on and on like he’s got all day and is happy to wait till Hell gets hit by global freezing.
He says, “I think you and I need to have a little talk about things, don’t you?”
“Could be.”
“How about a cool glass of water to wet our throats?”
“Okay.”
I opened up the door and we went through to the kitchen like before. I got two glasses of water and set them down but he didn’t pick up his. Me, I drank mine down because it’s another scorching Kansas day out there and I worked hard for those dollars.
“Should I keep on calling you Dean?” he asked.
“I guess not.”
“What’s your real name, friend?”
“Odell, Odell Deefus.”
He took that in then says, “And may I ask why it is that you pretended to be Dean Lowry the last time?”
“I was . . . doing Dean a favor.”
“A favor. What kind of a favor would that be?”
“A personal kind of favor. He wanted me to be him for a couple days, take care of business while he’s away somewhere, but he didn’t tell me where or why, just asked me the favor, so I did it to help out.”
“Kind of playing a role, you might say.”
“That’s it.”
“I see. Well, it looks like the man went and deceived you as well as everyone else that was decent and kind to him, up to and including the woman he murdered. His own aunt, Odell. How did that make you feel?”
“I didn’t know about it.”
“Of course not, but I meant after you found out.”
“It was a big shock.”
“I imagine it would be, finding out you’ve been covering for a murderer.”
“Well, it was, I have to say.”
“And you’re still here, I see.”
“She said I could stay on and take care of things.”
<
br /> “Who did?”
“Dean’s sister. She’s been shook up very bad about this. She said to keep on taking care of things and that’s what I’m doing.”
He turned his glass of water around and around but still didn’t drink. “I guess the police have interviewed you extensively.”
“I told them everything. I didn’t do anything.”
“I’m sure nobody’s suggesting you did. You were tricked.”
“I was.”
“And how do you feel about Dean Lowry now that you know the truth?”
“Bad, I feel bad. He tricked me into doing it.”
“A liar and a trickster both, and a murderer besides. I think Mr Lowry must be about the baddest apple in these parts and I bet I’m not the only one with that opinion.”
“Probably not.”
“What connection might there be, do you think, between his murderous impulse and the fact that he considers the Muslim religion preferable to our kind?”
I shrugged. Chet studied me awhile then said, “No thoughts on the matter?”
“Maybe he was just plain crazy . . . is just plain crazy,” I corrected myself, “seeing as he’s still out there somewhere hiding from the law.”
“You may be right about that, Odell. I’ve been discussing this with Bob, Reverend Jerome, that is, and we find it mighty interesting how the mind of a killer and his Muslim affiliation are presented in one package here, not so different to the crazy jihadis over there in the Middle East slaying left and right like mad dogs. He’s one of their own, even if he’s allegedly an American. Now that’s a shock, don’t you think?”
“Uhuh.”
I got myself another glass of water. I was ready to take a shower and raid the freezer for pizza then settle down to read a couple chapters of The Yearling while I waited for Lorraine to call, or maybe I’d call her. Chet was looking like a man very interested in his own thoughts and wanting to spout them for approving, which I was prepared to be a good listener, I owed him that for the lies I told, so no pizza just yet awhile.
“I guess you told the police about Dean’s Muslim tendencies.”
“I sure did. I showed them the books he had in his dresser, Muslim books. They took those away along with the shotgun.”
He nods his head, staring at his water glass. Chet wasn’t thirsty at all.
“While I was waiting for you, Odell, I took a stroll around to the back yard. They showed that grave on TV. There’s no one in it, is there?”
“Nope, the police dug it up and then filled it in again. I told the TV people that but they took pictures of it anyway. I guess they think it’ll look interesting on the news even if it’s empty.”
“And it was Dean who dug that grave?”
“Must’ve been. It wasn’t me. It’s like he dug it to put his aunt in but then he changed his mind and filled it in again. It just proves how crazy he was . . . is.”
“That’s most likely correct. People unhinged that way, who can understand or explain their actions? Maybe not even them.”
“Maybe so.”
“And you have no idea where he’s gone now?”
I shook my head. Chet had a way of going around and around the subject six times over. For me there’s no point in talking about Dean and why he was the way he was and what he did and where he’s hiding out from the law. He’s a crazy dead guy buried out in the yard, end of story. It would’ve been nice to tell that to Chet and Andy and Lorraine and the TV news so they’d all quit asking questions and putting out Have You Seen This Man messages on the tube, which is all a big waste of time. But of course I couldn’t do that, share my Secret Knowledge about events that happened here. They do say that knowing stuff other people don’t know gives you power, but to me it only gave a big pain and I wished I didn’t know it, but the burden of knowing is there regardless of how I feel about it.
“I guess you’ll be going back to Topeka and report to Preacher Bob,” I said.
“I have a cell, Odell.”
“Oh, okay.”
“The reverend and I are concerned about homegrown terrorist activity. We believe there’s a whole lot more of it buried under the appearance of everyday life clear across the country, sleeper cells waiting to be activated. We feel this will happen the closer we get to election day next year. Think about that for a moment. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Dean Lowrys rising up to create mayhem and slaughter on American streets. It can’t be allowed to happen.”
“I know, I heard Senator Ketchum say that on TV.”
“The senator is doing everything he can to wake up the people, make them aware of the threat in our very midst. There are so many closed eyes and closed minds out there it’s scary. Folks just don’t want to be aware of how dangerous things have become these last few years. Senator Ketchum’s message is the one we all need to be heeding in these days of internal threat and menace.”
“Dean wanted to shoot him,” I said, and Chet gave me a strange look, like he can’t quite believe it even if he was just now talking about danger and so forth.
“Excuse me?”
“Dean and me, we’re watching the TV news and Senator Ketchum come on with a speech about what you’re saying, and Dean, he said straight out he’d like to kill him. What the exact words were is kind of . . . ‘Someone oughta shoot that prick,’ that’s pretty much what he said.”
“Have you reported this to the police?”
“Uh, no, I believe it slipped my mind until now. I just remembered it because of how we’re talking about Senator Ketchum, that’s what reminded me.”
“My God . . .” says Chet. “Are you absolutely sure about this, Odell, word-for-word sure?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what he said. I didn’t take much notice at the time because it’s just Dean running off at the mouth, I thought, you know how people do when they get irritable. I heard one guy one time say he’d like to kill that dog, which is the dog next door to him that was all the time howling about nothing, but the guy never did kill the dog, he was just talking, you know.”
It was my old man said that about the dog but I didn’t feel like admitting it to Chet, who’s looking very stern and worried all of a sudden.
“You should have told someone,” he says.
“Well, I forgot . . .”
“This means the senator is very likely a terrorist target in the lead-up to the elections. The police have to be made aware, and the FBI and Homeland Security. Is there anything more that you forgot?”
I thought hard. “I don’t remember forgetting anything else.”
He took out his wallet and for a second there I thought he’s going to pay me for the important information I just now provided, but he takes out a little business card instead and handed it over very serious. “Odell, I want you to call me anytime if you recall any further details concerning Dean Lowry. Do you have a cell?”
“No, never did.”
“Well, go directly to the nearest payphone if anything occurs to you. This is important, I want you to be aware of that.”
“Okay.”
“Robert Jerome Ministries and the Born Again Foundation are well connected in Washington. The reverend knows many a political entity on a personal basis, so anything you tell to me goes by way of Preacher Bob directly to some of the most important names on Capitol Hill, am I making myself clear?”
I looked at the card. There’s just Chet’s name and a mobile number, no job description like Manager or Sales Rep. I was expecting a little cross up in the corner maybe but there’s nothing. He stood up like he’s in a big hurry now. “I won’t say goodbye, Odell, I’ll just say so long for now.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t get up, I know my way out.”
And off he went, then the Caddie starts up outside and he’s gone. I did some hard thinking and satisfied myself that my recollection about Dean saying he wanted to shoot Senator Ketchum was real and true. It was, but I should not have said it out loud like I did because it wen
t and made Chet all excited and afraid about a terror attack on the senator that wasn’t ever going to happen, not with Dean being under the ground like he is. But too late now, I guess. That mouth of mine was a wide-open hole for sure and sooner or later I’m liable to fall in it my own self from not keeping it shut like I should. This is some peculiar situation I’m in now.
I waited an hour and more for Lorraine to call but she didn’t, so then I had to call her instead, which she picked up the phone after the third ring and some guy says, “Hello?” Now I was not expecting that and had no answer ready, so he says again, “Hello?”
“Who’s that?”
“What number are you calling?” he said.
“Lorraine’s.”
“Oh, well, she’s in the bathroom. You want to hold on or have her call you back?”
“I’ll hold on. Who’re you?”
“A friend of Lorraine’s. Who’re you?”
“A friend too.”
“Here she comes now.”
There’s a double clunk as the phone gets set down then picked up again. “Hello?”
“It’s Odell. Who was that?”
“Oh, that’s Cole, Cole Connors from the prison. You remember I told you about him. Cole’s the one I’m talking to about maybe getting you a job interview, so I hope you were courteous and nice, Odell.” She laughed and I heard the guy laugh too, only more of a snicker the way I heard it.
“Well, what’s he doing there?”
“Discussing you, like I said. What’s wrong, Odell, you sound real peeved about something.”
“No.”
“Well then, what can I do for you?”
“I’m wondering about dinner,” I said.
“I’m wondering too, wondering if Cole’s taking me out somewhere with table napkins that aren’t made of paper or if it’ll just be some greasy spoon. Cole, he’s famous for being cheap.”
I heard the guy laughing again and wanted to strangle him, and Lorraine too.
“How come you’re going out to dinner with him?”
“I told you, we’re discussing work-related issues, that includes you. You’re on the agenda for topics of discussion. Was there anything else?”
