Callisto

by Torsten Krol

  “Well, I didn’t expect it would be them. Uh, can you tell the nurse or someone I’m real hungry now?”

  “Sure. You take it easy.”

  Out they went. I felt good after all that confessing and signing, plus real hungry like I said. And my head and my hand didn’t hurt so bad anymore, which is a sign that confession is good for the body as well as the soul. After awhile the nurse come in and asks what I feel like eating, which I told her a Whopper, but they don’t have those on the menu but she’ll see what she can do. Then later she come back with food on a tray for me, good and hot the way I like it, beef and potatoes and corn. I ate it all and wished there was a second helping, but when she come to take the tray away I got told I’ll have to wait for the regular evening mealtime which is still a couple hours away yet so I’ll just have to be patient. I told her I would be and she went away again. Then I had to use the bathroom, this little room opens up from mine, a special bathroom just for me, not down the corridor someplace so this is a private room they have got me in and I appreciate that.

  Then Kraus and Deedle come back and they did not look happy. Kraus says, “Odell, do you stand by the statement you gave to us earlier?”

  “Uhuh.”

  “You’re sure? Think carefully.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Because we’ve looked where you told us, in the dry wash right beside the cottonwoods. And he isn’t there.”

  “Huh?”

  “Dean isn’t there, Odell.”

  “But . . .that’s where I put him . . .”

  “Well, he isn’t there, so now what do you have to say for yourself?”

  “I . . .”

  But there was nothing to say. It was like the bed under me vanished and I’m falling through space. Dean not there? How could that be?

  “You’ve let us down, Odell. We thought we were making progress with you, but now we see it was all a waste of time. Are you happy that you made us dig out a second gravesite that’s as empty as the first? Is this some kind of weird game for you, Odell? Because we don’t like it.”

  “I . . .that’s where I put him, honest! Someone must’ve come and took him away again . . .”

  “Yeah? Like who?”

  I thought hard. Only one name sprung to mind.

  “Agent Jim Ricker,” I told them, but they did not look like they believed this.

  FIFTEEN

  Now you can imagine what kind of confusion I had inside my head as night come down. When the evening meal come along I did not eat it, that’s how messed up I was by this big surprise about Dean not being there. How could that have happened? I turned it this way and that and could not come up with any kind of an answer to the situation. My head started to hurt again I’m so messed up, and the nurse brung me a little glass of something for the pain which tasted awful but I drunk it anyway.

  There’s a TV in the room so I watched the news and there’s the house, totally flattened by the Dodge bomb, so it’s a real miracle I come out of that alive. They had this helicopter camera to show what it looks like from the air and the crater in the driveway is like something where a meteor hit the earth it’s so damn big. The driveway isn’t even there anymore, just this giant hole from the road clear to where the house used to be, only now it’s all blown away like a twister come through and sucked it up, every piece of timber and shingle, and then spit it all out again every whichway. It was a nice old house and did not deserve this that happened to it. The barn is gone too, with my Monte Carlo way over yonder on its back like a dead bug with its wheels in the air.

  So I have got these Three Big Questions. Who turned the truck into a bomb and why? Who is Jim Ricker and why won’t he step forward now to explain himself? And who the hell took Dean’s body away? Plus other questions not so big, like who is it found the letter in the truck and turned it in for reward money? And why didn’t Lorraine tell me about this big affair she’s having with Cole Connors? And what is this big argument going on between her and Chief Webb that got them screaming at each other over the phone Monday night? I didn’t have the answer to a single one of these, and the painkiller drug wouldn’t let me think anything through so I could maybe come up with the facts to explain even a little bit of it all. I did know one thing, though – I was in deep doodoo as the saying goes.

  I watched TV on and off, not really following anything I’m feeling so weird and confused. One time when I went to the bathroom again I went to the wrong door and there’s another cop out there in the corridor snoozing on a chair. I thought about sneaking past him while his eyes are closed but there was still this problem of no clothes and no money and no car and nowhere to run to anyway, so I closed the door again and went to the right one this time, feeling very sorry about everything and not knowing what to do about any of it.

  I fell asleep later on but then got woke up again by someone coming in the room. My eyes come open and there’s a nurse standing there with a wheelchair next to her.

  “Get up,” she says, and the voice give her away even if the lights are low. It’s Lorraine, only how come she’s wearing a nurse’s uniform? “Get up, Odell, we don’t have a lot of time.” I couldn’t do or say anything for a moment and she says, “Will you please get the fuck out of that bed?”

  I did it and she shoved me down into the wheelchair. “Sit tight and don’t wriggle around,” she tells me, then pulls the chair back and rolls it to the door. Lorraine is helping me escape! She spoke strong and hurtful words to me before but now she’s come around in her thinking and is helping me escape! So right then I fell back in love with her, which it was hard to fall out of in the first place so I’m glad to be back there in love again. This has got to be the riskiest thing, getting me away like this in disguise like nurse and patient this way, and what about the cop outside the door?

  Well, I needn’t have worried about that because the cop outside the door is Larry Dayton who I thought must’ve been fired by now because he copied that interview tape and also sold the Okeydokey DVD to Fox News so his ass should be in a sling about these things. But there he is, tipping me a wink as Lorraine trundled me past him and away down the corridor, so now this is a conspiracy to get me away from the FBI with two people not just one, which makes sense for the Mission Impossible adventure caper this is turning out to be.

  She wheeled me to the elevators and pressed the button. There is no one else around it’s so late at night, and the elevator when it hisses open is empty too, like it was all arranged that way special by Fate to make the plan succeed. In we went and she presses the bottom button. The doors closed with a whisper and we started sinking.

  “Lorraine . . .”

  I could barely talk my body is so slowed down by drugs.

  “Shut up and listen. I’m doing this to get back at Andy Webb. I want him in trouble over putting a man who’s about to get fired from the Police Department in charge of guarding your door, and I want him fired about what happened a long time ago between him and me.”

  “Uh . . .”

  “Shut up. You asked me about that, so here’s the answer – Andy and me had a fling I guess you could call it when I’m underage for sex, and there was photos we took when we’re drunk that I kept all this time, so there’s nothing he can do to me when he gets fired over this without getting into deeper shit about that, so he can kiss his campaign for Sheriff goodbye and good riddance, I’ve had about enough of that guy trying to run my life. Did you follow all that, Odell?”

  “Uhuh . . .”

  “Officer Dayton, he plans on selling his story to Hollywood so he wanted in at the last scene helping get you away. He wants Ashton Kutcher to play him, but that’s a stretch, Dayton isn’t that good-looking. Anyway, he’s helping out. Are you drugged right now?”

  “Uhuh . . .”

  “Well, that’s okay, we’ve got someone else that can’t stand Andy waiting for you in the carpark to drive you away, so just sit tight and soon this’ll be all over with.”

  We slowed down and
the doors hissed open. We’re a little way down from Reception it looks like but there’s nobody around, just these shining corridors spotless clean with the rubber wheels making a squeaking sound as Lorraine spins me around and heads away from the front desk, back the other way to an emergency exit that we go through and then we’re outside where the air smells different and the stars are blazing. She wheeled me very rapid along a path with bushes either side.

  Lorraine says, “You’re probably asking yourself why I’m doing this. Well, the answer is, I don’t want to see you take the fall for someone as fucked-up as Dean. I don’t know what went on between you, but I don’t want the responsibility of knowing you went to prison for a long time over getting involved with Dean like you did. He just isn’t worth that on my conscience. And I’m sorry I spoke those harsh words to you earlier, I was just so upset about everything. But nobody should take the blame for Dean, that’s my point, so once you’re away from here I want you to go wherever it is that you feel safest, Odell. Go to people you can trust and keep your head down for a long long time is my advice to you. I know you like me, and if things had been different who knows, maybe you and me could’ve moved the relationship up another notch. But happiness just isn’t in the cards for us, Odell, we have to face up to that and move on with our lives. Dean went and messed up those lives for us but there’s no use crying over it now. The important thing is for you to get away and go to those people I mentioned, those people you know you can trust because they think the same way you do. Those are the ones to go to, Odell, do you understand what I’m saying or are you too doped up?”

  “Mmmmm. . .”

  She wheeled me to the end of the path and then across to the carpark where there is a big car waiting with a guy opening the door. I know I’ve seen him before but can’t remember the name or where.

  “Any problems?” he asks.

  “Like clockwork,” says Lorraine, helping him get me out of the wheelchair and into the car, then she says, “Odell, this is Detective Sergeant Vine. You met him when they came out to take Bree away in the coroner’s ambulance, remember?”

  “Uhuh . . .”

  “Detective Sergeant Vine wants Andy’s job once they get rid of him, so he’s motivated by that, okay.”

  “Uhuh . . .”

  It was just incredible the way these three have got together to screw Andy Webb and help me escape this way, and my heart was just filled to overflowing with gratefulness about what they’re doing, the risks they’re taking to do this for me. They say a man doesn’t know who his friends are till the chips are down and now I know this is true because these three have gone and done this against the odds and very risky for all concerned. And now I am free!

  “Take care,” says Lorraine and turns away with the wheel-chair before I can say Thank you, then Vine gets behind the wheel and starts the engine. What a wonderful sound the getaway car makes when you know it’s all going to work, the planning and the risk and now someone that shouldn’t be held in custody against his will is out of confinement and making his escape in the middle of the night to freedom!

  “Buckle up, Odell,” he says as we left the carpark and turned onto the road. I fumbled the seatbelt into place and noticed the dashboard clock says 2.37 so they have done this at the right time when most folk are sleeping. How did these guys get together so fast to do this? I am so impressed about how smooth it has gone so far, and what could go wrong now?

  Vine turned sideways to look at me, then he passes me something in his hand, three little pills. “Take those, two caffeine pills and one speed, that’ll wake you up out of the narcotic haze you’re in right now. Here, use this.” He hands me a plastic squeeze bottle of Gatorade to wash them down. I wrestled the pills into my mouth and washed them down okay even if I spilled a little Gatorade down my chin.

  “I’ve got some clothes and sneakers your size in the back seat. We’ll get you changed into them when we get to where we’re going. This’ll work, Odell. You’re gonna get away with this.”

  “Uhuh . . .”

  “I can’t wait to see Old Andy’s face when the shit hits the fan. That guy is a goner, trust me. And I want to thank you, Odell, for making it possible for me to get rid of someone that outlived his usefulness. The whole Department thanks you. You have got no idea how low morale has sunk around here with Webb at the wheel. But that’ll be changing real soon, and you played a part in it.”

  “Uhuh . . .”

  I think I dozed off even with all this excitement going on, but then woke up again when Vine stopped the car. He reached over into the back seat then put a bunch of clothes into my lap. “Get out of that gown and into these, Odell. Now listen, see that car over there, the little white one? That car belongs to a girlfriend of my niece. She’s always leaving the damn thing unlocked and the keys under the mat because she’s always losing them, which is a dumb thing to do but very useful for our needs. That’s your escape vehicle, Odell. You aren’t getting out of the gown. You’ve got to do that before you can change into the clothes.”

  I started wrestling my way out of the gown and he goes on, “I’m going to give you five hundred dollars, Odell, to help you get to wherever it is you’re going. My niece’s friend is out of town for a whole week with her parents checking out colleges in the east, so the alarm won’t be raised on that car for awhile, plenty of time for you to get there. Will you be going interstate, Odell?”

  “Mmmmm. . .”

  “Need a hand with the shirt?”

  “Uhuh.”

  He reached behind me and helped out getting my arm into the second sleeve. I had to lift my butt to get the pants on but managed that part okay, only it feels peculiar to have pants on but no underpants, Vine has forgot about those but I guess it isn’t all that important. I fumbled the zipper closed and tied the sneakers which have got no socks, and then I’m ready. He says to take off the bandage from around my head because it’ll make me stand out, so I unwound it with a little help and now I’m really ready.

  “The money is in your pocket, Odell. Try not to do anything to attract the attention of the law. Don’t exceed the speed limit or drive erratically. I’d advise you to go directly to the people who can help you get even further away, whoever those people happen to be. Don’t waste any time, because the more time you waste the more opportunity for things to go wrong, so just go directly to them and your chances for success are multiplied accordingly, okay?” He put out his hand. “Good luck, Odell.”

  “Thank you . . .and thank Lorraine for me, will you? She went away too fast.”

  “I’ll do that. Go on now before someone at the hospital realizes you’ve gone.”

  I got out of the car and went across the street to this little white Honda and opened the door, so he’s right, the girl that owns it is real careless. Then I went back to Vine’s car. “Where did you say the keys are?”

  “Under the driver’s mat, Odell. Good luck.”

  I went back and he’s right, the keys are right there where he said. I squeezed myself inside the car and put the seat way back as far as it’ll go, then fumbled the ignition key into the dash. The engine come to life sounding good. I put her in gear and away I drove. The needle says the gas tank is totally full which is a good thing, I won’t have to stop anytime soon so I can just keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny.

  Only where?

  Where am I supposed to go? The first place it occurred to me to go was back home to Yoder, Wyoming, but then what? My old man, he’d tell me to give myself up all over again, I know he would, so forget that, I didn’t want to see his face or hear his voice anyway, so that’s that plan gone out the window. I didn’t even know what part of Callisto I’m in, never mind knowing where the hell I’m supposed to go now. Then I saw a sign that says this way to I-70 so I went that way and got out of town after a little while and then onto the interstate heading west. Why west and not east? That’s just the way back towards some places I know, I guess. Callisto is the furthest east I
ever went. Manhattan is further east but I don’t think I can go back to my original plan of going there and signing up for the Army, not with my face going to be on the TV news again when they find out I escaped like I did.

  My brain was starting to come alive with the new drugs Vine gave me, humming and buzzing instead of wanting to snooze, and as I drove along at a steady seventy-five miles per hour I got to thinking about how Lorraine and Larry and Detective Sergeant Vine had got together to save my ass. I thought about the different reasons they said they’re doing it, well, okay, Lorraine kind of spoke on behalf of Larry Dayton, but what she said made sense, kind of, and Vine would get to have Andy Webb’s job when Andy got fired because I escaped from under the nose of one of his cops that’s already in trouble, so that was his reason. Then I got to thinking about how Lorraine was very up and down in regard to her feelings for me in the hospital and I wondered how she got in touch with those other two to set up the escape plan. It must not have been very long, maybe five or six hours. And how would she have known they’d do what she wanted ahead of time to approach them like that? That was way risky, to approach two cops and ask them if maybe they’d like to help her get a suspect in a federal case busted out of custody like she did.

  This question about how she did all that in so short of a time went around and around inside my head like a dog chasing its own tail. I tried to think about other things, like where should I go from here, but that other question kept whirling back into my thoughts, it just would not go away. I was thirsty now and wished I had kept the bottle of Gatorade but I left that in Vine’s car. He was certainly very well prepared to help me escape, with the clothes and the wakeup pills and the friend of his niece’s car with the keys right there and the door unlocked. And the hospital was very empty even for a hospital at night, I mean not a soul around to stop Lorraine from wheelchairing me away. And how did she get hold of that nurse’s uniform anyway? Now that I thought about it, the whole caper had gone about as smooth as a TV show adventure with nothing getting in the way to mess things up.