Caught in the Crotchfire

by Kim Hunt Harris

  “Sure, sure, no problem,” she said, with a wave like this was all understood.

  I leaned toward her. “Viv. Seriously. I’ll carry you out if I have to.”

  She snorted. “Give me some credit. I know how to manage people. I know how to be subtle.”

  Xavier opened the apartment door wearing flannel pajama pants, a t-shirt and a ball cap. I could see the white edge of a bandage under the cap.

  He looked tired already. “Mom said you’d be coming by.” He motioned for us to come inside, then moved to a sofa where he’d obviously spent the day. A blanket was wadded up at the end, and the coffee table was covered with debris from the day — a magazine, two water bottles, an empty bowl. “Sorry the place is such a mess.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” I said. “I hope you’re feeling up to talking to us. If not, we can come back another time.”

  “But of course, time is of the essence,” Viv said. She pulled her notepad and gold pen from her handbag. “We don’t want these Bandits to hurt anyone else.”

  “It wasn’t the Bandits,” Xavier said. He met both of our gazes straight on. “I told the police that. It wasn’t the bandits.”

  “How can you be sure, though?” Viv asked. “My notes say that you didn’t see their faces.” She looked at what I could see was a blank page.

  “The Bandits always work in a group of four. There were only two when I was attacked. And the Bandits never hurt anybody. These guys…” He pointed to his head. “Obviously, different M.O. Maybe somebody wanted police to think it was the Bandits.”

  “But that doesn’t mean — ”

  I put a hand out to stop her. “He said it’s not the Bandits. He was there. He would know.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me and clicked her pen a couple of times, but let it drop. “Do you remember us?” she asked. “We were at the automotive a day or so before you were attacked.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, kind of. Things are a little fuzzy.”

  I didn’t really want to remind him, but at the same time, it seemed appropriate to bring it up, given what we wanted to talk to him about.

  “We came to see you about an inspection sticker on my car. I had heard a rumor that if I just asked for a sticker, and not an inspection, I would get it. And I wasn’t very confident that my car would pass inspection, so…”

  He gave one slight nod. “I heard that rumor, too.”

  “If you remember, when we made the suggestion, you weren’t exactly receptive to the idea,” Viv said.

  Xavier gave a slight grin. “Yeah, I kind of remember that. Sorry if I overreacted.”

  I looked over at Viv, who was drawing a smiley face on her notepad.

  “Don’t worry about that,” I said. “You were right. We shouldn’t have asked. But that’s why I contacted your mother. I wanted her to know that my experience with you was you were very opposed to doing something illegal and unethical. Some people were posting — ” I stopped, suddenly hesitant and unsure how to say it.

  “I heard about that, too. Because of my history.” Again with the crooked smile.

  “That’s part of what we’d like to ask you about,” Viv said. “If you don’t mind, of course. Can you tell us what happened back then, when you went to prison?”

  “That doesn’t have anything to do with this,” he said, his mouth grim.

  “I’m sure it doesn’t. But we’ve found that it helps to have the whole picture.”

  “It’s two different pictures. Two different events. Not connected.”

  “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” I assured him. “Your mother told us that you robbed a store and were caught. Someone was injured.”

  He nodded. “Yes. I robbed a store.”

  “Why?” Viv asked.

  I gave her a look. I would have put that one solidly under the “don’t ask” heading.

  Xavier’s mouth thinned, but he answered. “There was a girl I wanted to impress. So I let myself be…I robbed a store, to get money to buy a car, to impress her. But instead I got caught. I didn’t get the car or the girl. End of story.”

  Viv wrote, End of story, huh?

  I made a conscious decision to quit looking at what Viv wrote. “Do you mind if we ask — because of the recent robbery, that’s all — did the injury happen the way your injury did? Was someone hit over the head in that robbery?”

  “No.” He looked out the window, and I thought that was going to be it. Then he said, “That happened later. When I was driving away. The police were chasing me and I panicked and…this guy ran out in front of my car and I hit him. That part was an accident.”

  “That part,” I repeated. “But the robbery — you pleaded guilty to the robbery, is that right?”

  “That’s right. I made the decision to do that, and I owned up to it.” He shifted on the bed and met my gaze squarely. “I did the time, and I don’t plan to go back. That’s why I reacted the way I did when you came in for your sticker. I’m doing all I can to build my life back up and keep my nose clean. I don’t plan on ever going back there.”

  “I understand,” I said. “I’ve had a few run-ins with the law myself. I’ve never been to prison, but that’s due more to luck than to good choices. I feel like I’ve been given a second chance to get things right, and I don’t intend to do anything to jeopardize it, either.”

  The front door opened and Five Pigg stuck his head in. He took us all in and grinned. “Hey, buddy! Got some company?”

  He bounded into the room with that off-kilter way he had, his movements a bit jerky. He went to Xavier first, reaching out and grabbing Xavier’s hand to shake it.

  Xavier moved slowly, allowing his hand to be shaken and then letting it drop back into his lap.

  “Five.” His voice was stiff.

  “You guys?” Five said, recognizing us. He put his hand to his head. “Wow! What are you two doing here? I didn’t know you knew Xavier.”

  He turned back to Xavier with a questioning glance. “Xavier? You know these ladies?”

  Xavier gave a slight nod. “We’ve met a couple of times. What’s up, Five?”

  Five shook his head. “Just checking on my buddy. I heard you were home and wanted to see what I could do.”

  Xavier shook his head. “I’m good, thanks.”

  “Bring you anything? Couple of meals? Run some errands for you?”

  “No, Mom’s taking good care of me.”

  “We want to help. Mom and Dad, all of us.” He laughed, and when he did, his right eye twitched and squinted. “All of us. You know how my family is. When you get one of us, you get all of us.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Xavier said. He did not laugh.

  Five winced then, doing the squint-eye twitch thing again. He put his hand to his head again, pressing the tips of all five fingers into a half-circle over his eye, down to his cheekbone. “Sorry, I had a head injury a few years ago and every once in a while I get these killer headaches still. You know about that, Xavier?”

  He turned to Xavier, who nodded once. “Yeah, I know about that.”

  Five laughed. “Jeez, listen to me. Of course you do. One thing about that injury, it messed with my memory, too. I mean, I remember everything, it just takes me a while sometimes to access it, you know? Like, I remember that Xavier and I have been friends for, like, our whole lives.” He laughed and made a big sweeping motion. “Our whole lives. Like, I played t-ball with this guy!” He swung his arms as he talked, causing his whole body to rotate toward Xavier, then toward us.

  I’d spent enough time around drunks that I could recognize the behavior — the exaggerated gestures, the rambling conversation. I slid my gaze over to Viv. She met my gaze and we silently agreed that we would hit the road as soon as we could manage it.

  “That’s good,” I said. “It’s good to have lifelong friends like that.” I leaned forward in my seat, ready to rise and make our goodbyes.

  “Exactly!” Five said, with a huge bow toward me that had me
sliding back into my seat.

  There was something in his eyes that didn’t look drunk. Some intensity that alcohol would have dulled, not intensified. Drugs, maybe?

  “Life long friends are a gift!” He jabbed a finger toward Xavier. “A gift. That’s why I’m here for my friend, me and my whole family, really. Because we’ve been through this, and we know the kind of help he’s going to need. Know it from experience.” He leaned over and clapped a hand on Xavier’s shoulder. He jostled the injured man a little and leaned down. “Not, of course, that you’re going to have to deal with anything like what I did. Your injury is not nearly as bad as mine was. Not nearly as bad. Yours was just your head. My whole frigging body was wrecked.” He laughed again. He had a creepy laugh.

  Viv stood. “Well, we’ll let you two catch up. Xavier, we appreciate your time and help. We want to help you find whoever did this to you. Please call us if you think of anything else that might be helpful. Anything at all.”

  With a defiant look at me, she dropped one of our “business cards” on the coffee table.

  “Y’all don’t rush off on my account,” Five said. “I just came by to check on Xavier, but I’m leaving and I’ll let you get back to your visit.”

  Viv looked at me and sat back down.

  Five leaned over again and pounded Xavier on the back a couple of times in lieu of a hug, then met his gaze again. “Remember what I said, bro, okay? I meant it. We all meant it. Anything you need, we’ve got your back.”

  After he left, the room was silent for an uncomfortable moment. Xavier stared at the door, appearing to have forgotten we were even there.

  “Well, like I said, we need to get going, but please let us know if you think of anything else.”

  “I won’t,” Xavier said, still staring at the door. “I mean, I would, but I won’t think of anything.”

  Viv and I, having no response to that, left.

  We wasted no time getting out of there. “What a weirdo,” Viv said once we were back in the car.

  “Xavier, or Five?”

  “Five. Xavier’s not weird, he’s just hurt. And scared, I think. Five is a little weirdo, though. I can’t believe he’s got the same DNA as that hot fireman.”

  “I think the head injury probably has a lot to do with his weirdness. Do you think he was on something?”

  “I wondered the same thing. Maybe. Was he that weird when you bought the car?”

  “No, I don’t think so. I mean, he was kind of weird. He kept doing that eye twitch thing. But he seemed a little…manic tonight.”

  “Weird,” Viv said again.

  I was so focused on analyzing Five Pigg’s behavior that it took me a while to put a couple of things together.

  “What did Xavier say? He was driving away from the robbery and hit someone with his car?”

  Viv thought. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “You were taking notes.”

  “I didn’t take a note of that, just that he didn’t like to talk about the other robbery.”

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Windy, can you search the Lubbock AJ?”

  Windy’s wavy lines waved and she said, “I’m searching right now, sweetie.”

  Viv pulled into a darkened parking lot and we waited for Windy to get back with us.

  “Okay, honey,” she said. “I’m ready. What are you huntin’ for?”

  “I need a search on the words “robbery” and “head injury.”

  “And Lubbock,” Viv said.

  “Got it.”

  We waited in silence as Windy hunted for us.

  “Here are the top three results,” she finally said. Then she rattled off the headlines:

  “Robbery at Estacado Automotive Leaves One Injured”

  “Armed Robbery at Dairy Queen Leaves Man with Head Injury”

  “Robbery, Assault at 7-11 Leaves One Injured”

  “Good grief, there are a lot of armed robberies and injuries in this town.”

  I sat back and frowned. “These are all pretty recent — within the past year or so.” I hit Windy’s icon again. “Windy, do another search, this time for “Robbery, head injury, and Pigg.”

  “Please,” Viv said, leaning toward the phone. She gave me a look. “Your manners sometimes, Salem.”

  We waited in silence again. Windy’s lines waved.

  The phone lit up, and Windy said, “Here are the top three results.”

  “Teenager Injured as Robber Flees”

  “That’s it!” I said. I tapped the link.

  “That’s it!” Viv echoed. Then she slapped my arm, knocking the phone from my hand. “Look at that!”

  A car had just driven past us.

  “What?” I asked, searching for my phone in the dark seat.

  “That was him! Xavier!”

  I looked toward the red taillights growing distant down the highway. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “We should call Bobby,” I said.

  “And tell him what? What have we figured out?”

  I thought. I wasn’t sure, actually. Except Five Pigg was weird, and Xavier was scared but he was heading toward Five Pigg’s car lot at this very moment.

  “This has got to be related,” I said. I tapped the link for the last article Windy had found. “Yep, this is it. Xavier Barnstable was arrested for robbery and for hitting a pedestrian as he fled the scene.” I sat back, trying to put the pieces together.

  “Xavier insists his robbery wasn’t related to the Bandits. He said whoever did it might be trying to make it look like the Bandits. Maybe he’s telling the truth. Maybe Five Pigg hit him over the head for revenge, and did the robbery to pin it on the Bandits.”

  Viv frowned. “Well, I guess that’s something.”

  I echoed Viv’s frown. “It’s something.” It wasn’t solving the big case, though.

  Viv sighed, then started the Caddy and pulled onto the highway. “Let’s head down there and see what’s going on. Maybe we can at least overhear enough to pin this one robbery on that little weirdo.”

  Viv killed the lights and pulled into the motel parking lot.

  “Watch the pothole in front of — ummph!”

  She hit the pothole in front of room three.

  “Do you think we ought to tell your grandma what we’re doing? She might decide to shoot my car and say she thought it was the robbers.

  I peered down at the office window. The cardboard sign was up. “Looks like she’s gone to bed already,” I said. I didn’t want to add “interrupted sleep” to my long list of offenses.

  We closed the car doors softly and moved quietly around the corner to the car lot, stepping over the pipe rail and crouching between cars. The office lights were on, and the car we’d seen driving down the highway minutes before was parked where Viv’s Caddy had been parked just a week and a half before.

  We squatted beside a white four-door Camry and watched for a few minutes.

  I heard voices, but couldn’t make out words.

  “Can you tell what they’re saying?” I whispered to Viv.

  She shook her head.

  I frowned, wondering if maybe we should go back and call Bobby, just to be on the safe side. But I hadn’t actually learned anything he didn’t already know. Xavier Barnstable had injured Five Pigg in a robbery gone wrong almost ten years before, and he’d been injured in an eerily similar incident just last week. It proved exactly nothing related to the other robberies.

  And anyway, Viv was at that very moment crab-walking away from me toward the building.

  “Wait!” I hissed. I leaned over and scurried after her.

  She plastered herself against the side of the building and looked up at the lighted window. The voices were louder here, but still not very clear.

  I put the building at my back and looked up. Nothing to see. I leaned around Viv.

  “There’s a little break room at the other end of the building. I was in there when I came to pick up my car. I think they’re �
�� ”

  Viv turned and started climbing the wooden steps toward the office door.

  “Viv!” I screeched as softly as I could. “What are you doing?!”

  She made a shushing movement with her hand, then patted her handbag, reminding me that she was carrying. That gun gave her all kinds of stupid courage.

  I hesitated a moment, my heart hammering, but I decided I’d rather be with Viv and her gun than out here in the dark by myself.

  We stepped quietly into the office and I drew the door shut. I could hear the two men now, plainly, because their voices were raised.

  Viv crab walked over to the counter where Five and I had made our car deal last week, and ducked behind it. In a panic, I joined her, dropping to the floor with a thunk that seemed to ring through the whole small building.

  Viv gave me a look. We both waited, with our breath held, for some sign that I’d been heard.

  A few mumbled words, and then Five spoke.

  “I guess we’re even now.”

  “Even?! Last time I checked, I’m the one who did time.”

  “I’m the one who ended up with thirty-seven stitches and had to relearn how to walk!”

  “That was your own fault! You ran! You ran and left me there to deal with the mess you created!”

  “Hey! We both were in on it. It wasn’t as if I had to twist your arm to pull that job. You were all about the free money.”

  Xavier was silent for a long time. Then he said, “That right there is the only reason I kept my mouth shut. I made that choice. I could have said no. I could have pulled the plug on the whole thing. But I wanted money for a car to impress Allison, so I went along with it. I regretted it the moment we ran out that door. I’ve regretted it every minute since then.”

  Footsteps, coming down the hallway toward us. I ducked lower and scrambled to get myself under the counter. When I did, I saw a crack where the front and sides of the counter didn’t quite meet. I saw legs moving down the hallway. I leaned closer, so I could make out both men, now in the hallway.

  Xavier stopped, then whirled on Five and stuck a hard finger in his face. “But I’ve done the time and I’ve paid the price. I can walk around now holding my head high because I know I learned the lesson and I’m not the same person I was then. You…” He sneered at Five. “You never learn. That hit you took, it didn’t do anything for you but make you more of a loser. More of the baby who needs everyone else to take care of him.”