“Don’t worry, Benny.”
“I am worried,” I said, then I passed out.
I woke up inside the crate when it was moving. I almost cried out, but didn’t have the energy. Hero had scrunched me up on some padding. I felt the crate thump up the stairs and passed out again when we were dumped into the van.
When I opened my eyes, it was bright. The room smelled of antiseptic. I was in the hospital, somewhat surprised that I was alive and wondering if Carla was.
Chapter 41
Hero came to visit me in the hospital. He even brought some Cajun lemon drops. “You feeling any better?”
“I think I felt better when I was out cold.”
“Maybe. You look bad.”
“Thanks. At least I’ll look better in a few days.”
Hero smiled. We’d been through something together. I think that made me OK with him. He wasn’t treating me as though I were a criminal anymore, even though he must have heard me say that I’d killed Bonarubi and Arno.
“How did you get us out?”
“Well, I had to fold Yoder up a little. He made a nice soft cushion for you. Carbide and Kim didn’t expect the extra weight so the dolly wasn’t really made for it. One of the bounces we took broke his shoulder, but everything else went just as you wanted it to.” Hero didn’t seem too concerned about Yoder’s shoulder.
“What about Carla?” I whispered.
“Don’t know. I imagine they found her, but I don’t know. I’m sorry. There just wasn’t any way to take her too. You understand.”
I sucked on a lemon drop and nodded my head. We didn’t really have much to say to each other. His life was separate from mine and we had no history before a week ago, forgotten or otherwise.
When Hero left, I sighed back into the bed, letting my muscles relax. No, not everything had gone as I’d planned. I’d been shot, for one thing.
Carbide showed up later, after visiting hours. “Well, Chum. Looks like you found a way to take an all expense paid holiday at sunny Municipal Hospital. You need any sunlamps? No? I guess you don’t want the tan lines around the bandages.” He didn’t say how he’d gotten in. Everyone seemed to ignore his comings and goings. Oh, it’s just the delivery man.
“Anything new, Carbide, or are you just here to disturb my vacation?”
“You stirred up the hornet’s nest.” He grabbed a lemon drop, then made a squinty face when the Cajun spice hit him. “The Gnomes were stinging everything that moved for a few days. They still don’t know who snagged Yoder, and your police friends admitted they had help, but wouldn’t say who it was. The Warren is to be renamed Paranoia Park. Some bold soul already zapped the concrete over the south entrance with that name.” He smiled proudly. Carbide had a mischievous side.
“You surviving?” I wasn’t sure that his part in my operation was unknown.
“They installed doors with palm locks at the entrances and guards inside and outside the doors. It is a real pain getting in and out right now, at least until everything settles down. But, just about everyone below JB in the Warren is moving again, so I’ll be making money.”
Carbide spit his lemon drop into the trash can then told me that the street people who lived Under The River were upset with the River Pirates. They were happy Jackson Yoder was taken care of, but they weren’t happy at all that the River Pirates had employed him. The Pirates’ claims that they didn’t know who he was, fell on disbelieving ears. Carbide was proud of our success and seemed to like the idea that the street people, and the Pirates and the other Gnomes wouldn’t be quite so cozy for a while.
Carbide looked tired for a moment, “I still kind of wish you would have let me kill him.”
“How do you think you’d feel about that now, Carbide? Don’t you think it would bother you if you’d pulled the trigger?”
He stared at me. “No. Yes. Still, I wish he’d actually paid for what he did. Being wiped just doesn’t seem sufficient.”
Revenge was what Carbide wanted, but society had deemed revenge a poor reason to kill someone. I could think of poorer reasons.
Carbide also said Mike was nowhere to be found and that Hattie had left that night. He’d not seen her since. “She said she could only be around for a while, but I hoped she would find a way to stay. I liked her.”
“She might be back,” I said. “Maybe she just went to take care of some unfinished business.” I knew where she was. She’d be sitting on her old piece of real estate.
Carbide didn’t respond to that for a minute. He just looked dejected and soulful, then, finally, he looked out the window and said, “She’d make a fine leading lady, don’t you think?”
“Yes, she would.” I didn’t know how things were going to work out, so I didn’t tell him where she was. Hattie had the right to disappear if she wanted to.
Laverick also came to see me the next day. She asked me if I wanted to go after any other criminals who lived as Gnomes. “Maybe later,” I said. “But I might come by asking for a favor sometime. Just remember.”
She didn’t seem to like the idea, but she nodded anyway, then she said, “Maybe I won’t mention your comment about killing Bonarubi to anyone else.”
“OK, I guess we’re pretty even,” I said.
She actually smiled. “We arrested Carla Shoen when she stumbled into a hospital this morning and passed out on the floor. And I got more than the arrests out of this, Benny, more than just the money. Everyone thinks I have a mole in the River Pirates. They think I planned this for months. You’ve made me the start of a reputation.”
“Is that something you wanted?”
Even in the bright lights of the hospital room, Laverick’s face softened. She was troubled and putting on a show of bravado. “I knew if we succeeded that I might take on a new role. The press have named me. They’re calling me Bird Dog. They’re expecting more arrests like Yoder’s in the future.”
“You can do that, Detective.” I knew she could, if she didn’t let her good intentions get too much in the way.
“Can I? I guess we’ll find out.” She slid on her coat. “My first name’s Pallas, by the way. Let me know when you’re up to flushing another bird and we’ll see if I can retrieve it.”
I was released from the hospital two days later. Carbide took me back to his place where he said I could use the bed for the next week while I was recuperating, but that he was really used to living alone and wouldn’t I like to move back to my place after that? Carbide was a bit big to sleep comfortably on the couch, but I didn’t point that out.
The doctors told me to walk when I could. It would help the healing process. I walked to Under The River the first day and no one came out of the Warren and shot me. Carni gave me a warning look and pointedly ignored me. He had his suspicions, but he wasn’t sure I was involved with JB’s capture. I figured if Carni wasn’t sure, than no one else was either.
On the second day, I walked up to Obyeo. Hattie was in her usual spot, looking somber. I eased down beside her.
She stared at me for moment. “You feeling any better?”
“I expected a visit from you.”
“They won’t let the likes of me into a hospital. Didn’t wearing those clothes teach you anything?”
“What about your other clothes?”
“Sold ‘em”
“I asked you once if you would be interested in running Ray’s tables, but you never answered me.”
“I don’t answer silly questions.”
The couple that lived next door and played Russian piano music walked toward us hand-in-hand up the street. When they saw it was me sitting by the door with the doorman, they broke their grip and edged their way along the opposite wall and through the doorway staying as far as possible from us. I expected them to make the sign of the cross over their hearts, but they just looked worried. “I’m moving out,” I yelled to them, but they shot through the door as though I were a terrier about to hop up and chase them. I turned back to Hattie.
“I
don’t think they trust me.”
“Neither do I.”
“It wasn’t a silly question.”
She kicked me, though not very hard. “What? Are you buying Rays?” she said sarcastically.
“I already did.”
She looked startled. “Where do you get your money?”
“You might say I inherited it.”
“What else might I say?”
“Yes?”
“Why do you want me to run it? Why don’t you hire someone else?”
“You’ve run a business before, right?”
“Yes, but I never told you that.”
“Didn’t you?” I shifted to ease my pain, but the movement just made the bullet wound hurt more. “The other reason is that I trust you. I can’t say that about very many people. I want someone there when I need them. I figured you and Carbide would make a good team. Maybe you could sell some of the stuff to other shops up on Mythagain or someplace. You’ve got the personal presence to do that. You can act like one of them if you want to.”
She leaned her head back and let the sunshine fall on her face. “It’s hard to give up giving up,” she said. “Life’s so easy when you have nothing.”
“I know the feeling, Hattie.”
“Yes, I believe you do.”
We sat there for a while. Two children played in the street, kicking a ball to each other. A woman walked into the building, carefully ignoring us both.
Hattie stood. “How much are you going to pay us, Carbide and me?”
I stood up to. I handed her a hundred. “You can buy your clothes back. I’ll give you one of those each month and ten percent of the profit.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You still owe me for ‘expenses’ remember? And twenty-five percent seems fair to me.”
“OK,” I said. I would have been willing to go up to fifty-fifty. They wouldn’t get rich, but they would do OK, especially if Carbide continued to do deliveries and moves on the side. “How much were expenses.”
“Expenses were another two hundred.”
“You know, Hattie,” I said while I counted out her money, “Carbide’s been thinking his movie was going to have a sad ending, that the girl would turn out to be married or have some terminal disease or something.”
She watched me handle the money then said, “No, I don’t have any terminal diseases.” She stuffed the money down her shirt then walked off south at a pace I could not keep up with.
Finally, when I was feeling up to it, I walked out to Denise’s house. She greeted me at the door with a frown. Some wounds take a long time to heal.
I offered her a small fortune to buy Up Your News from her.
She declined. “I plan to start managing it myself again.” She didn’t think I had the money, which I could understand. “Chen called me and told me he’s quitting. He’s found other employment.”
She paused, considering, then she asked, “Did you know Arno didn’t have any other business?”
I said I thought he did.
“I can’t find any public record of it. He went to work every day. He talked about the people there and everything, but there is no business.”
“I didn’t know that,” I said. I didn’t follow up with the obvious question about where and how he acquired his money. She’d already told me she didn’t want to know.
“I need to make UYN work. It’s got to pay the bills.”
I told her to call if she needed any help and walked back to Carbide’s. I could afford a cab, but I still liked walking. It helped me to think.
A week later, I found a studio apartment in Carbide’s building. I’d acquired a taste for the Cantonese restaurant next door and Carbide was as close a friend as I had. Hattie moved in with Carbide. Neither she nor I brought anything with us.
Chen moved back out of the Warren a few weeks later. The police had only wanted him as a material witness, and the crime he was a witness to was solved without him. Hero and Laverick may not have even told anyone that Chen was still alive.
I tracked down Chen’s new place in the Unapartments by bribing the manager and saying I wanted to talk to him because I wanted to buy his carsicord. He’d moved out of the apartment where Sukey and Paulo were killed and up to a high-priced penthouse suite. He didn’t seem surprised to see me. The people-fish had died, but he still had Lena. He said he was going to try taking carsicord lessons again.
When he went into the kitchen to frost a derpal for himself and to get me a beer, I walked over to his chair and opened the drawer in the side table next to it. I pulled out his ridiculous yellow gun, dropped it in my pocket, then went back to my chair and sat down. He’d shown me that gun once when he was woozy. He’d wanted to impress on me how smart he was about security.
Chen walked in carrying two frosted bottles. He handed me mine, then took a long swig of his before he sat down.
I considered him, trying to convince myself that I shouldn’t just kill him. What’s one more, I wondered. Would it really matter.
“Chen, when we were in the Fairchild, coming back from Arno’s after, well, after I killed him, what did you mean when you said you knew more about me than I thought you did?”
“I was just blinking you, Benny. I wanted you to quit killing people for money. You’re my friend, you know.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell me you not only knew Arno, but you visited his house regularly? It seems to me that would have come up in conversation somewhere along the way.”
He leaned back in his chair in an exaggerated attempt to show how relaxed he was. He put his arms carefully on the arms of his chair, I believe to avoid crossing them over his chest. I’d made Chen nervous. “We talked about that lots of times, Benny. You just lost it when you had one of your forgets, that’s all. You knew at one time. I can’t go back through everything and update you every time you go erase your troubles.”
That was possible. It could have been lost in a forget, but there were other things. “So you’re the new CFO for the River Pirates. When did you start angling for that job, Chen? Was it before Arno had me kill Bonarubi? Or was it you who paid me for that particular kill? You had to remove Bonarubi, Arno and JB. Bonarubi you presumably paid for.”
Chen stared at me. His mouth moved a few times, but nothing came out. I continued. “You must have been joyous in the back of the Fairchild when you found out that I’d killed both Arno and Kumar. After all, Kumar could have gotten in the way if he’d figured out that CFOs were falling all around him. He might have figured out it was you behind it and told the other River Pirates.”
Was I guessing? Yes, a little, but as I laid out the scenario, it sounded right, and Chen’s changing expression confirmed my suspicions.
He reached for the drawer. I didn’t move, I just smiled slightly. Chen’s fingers scrabbled in the drawer while he kept his eyes on the target; me. When he realized he was coming up empty, he looked in the drawer. Then he looked back at me. I went on. “I wondered why you gave me that shove toward killing or bringing down JB when you and I met in the Warren. I wondered why you didn’t tell Rela who I was and just let her kill me. But you needed me to do your work for you, didn’t you? Then Denise said you’d quit Up Your News, that you’d moved up, gotten another job. I’m just a newsman, you’d said to me. But you were lying, weren’t you?. You’re a lot more than that.”
Chen didn’t say anything.
“And poor Paulo. He was an incidental loser in your games too, wasn’t he? Because you asked him, he helped Sukey get a forget, which Sukey couldn’t afford. You were always using him that way, weren’t you Chen? Just like you used him to get me my transcript. But Sukey came to your apartment and wanted to know what he’d forgotten. Sometimes, after a forget, you get images, you get little teasers about forgotten times. He was remembering a video he’d seen, and you left Paulo here alone to deal with Sukey’s slowly deteriorating mind. I figure you loved Paulo, but you loved other things more.”
Chen reached into his pocket. I pul
led out his gun and pointed it at him. Two shots, I thought, one in the heart, and one in the head.
“Don’t try to thatch me, Chen. The bullet would hurt a lot more. Believe me, I know.”
“Are you going to kill me? Are you back to being a murderer?”
I had the temptation, as I was convinced any sane person would, but I decided that Benjamin wasn’t a killer. I shot him in the leg. The space-blaster gun had more kick than I expected, but it was quiet.
“You shot me!” He was stunned into stating the obvious.
“It’s just a nick,” I said.
While he was screaming at me and calling me a bastard, I continued, “I’ll let the Pirates know what you did. I’ll give them your address. I imagine they’ll be by.”
“But that’s the same as killing me. You can’t just kill me.”
“No, I can’t just kill you. I’m giving you the same chance you gave Bonarubi when you sent me after him, the same chance you gave me when you sent me after JB. So you see, you might make it, if you can get out of town fast enough and if you never come back. You’re a good newsman, Chen. If you survive you can go to another town, maybe Cleveland, get another job. I think Death News is based there, isn’t it? That would seem like a good match.”
“Benny, look, I can make a lot of money with the Pirates. I could cut you in. Put you on the payroll, no one would know.”
I went to the door, resisting the urge to shoot his other leg. “Good-bye Chen. I hope I don’t see you again.”
I heard him yell my name a time or two as I walked down the hall. Watching Chen in pain had made my side hurt again.
Chapter 42
I watched the main entrance of the Unapartments for a day and a half before I saw Carla leave a little before noon. I followed her past Carla Alley and to the grocery around the corner. She’d gotten her old job back, maybe as part of the forget the gov did on her. They didn’t have her for murder, just her part in the attempted murder of one Benjamin Kahn.
Walking Shadow: A Sci Fi Noir Novel Page 24
