Read Herring Hunt

by V. M. Burns

  I stared at my grandmother, who seemed determined to get us thrown out before we got information, and then turned and looked at Cassidy.

  Cassidy was staring at Nana Jo but didn’t say anything. Eventually, she wiped a tear from her eye. “Look. I haven’t seen Mel in years. She sent text messages sometimes. The last one was a month ago.”

  “Do you still have it?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Nawh. She was running a scam. Said if things worked out, she’d be set for life.” She looked at her sleeping baby and the one on Nana Jo’s lap. Then she looked at her stomach. “Said she would get us out of this place.” She wiped away an errant tear and got another cigarette out of the pack on the table and lit up. “She talked a lot of crap.”

  “Did she mention anyone that wanted to hurt her?” I asked.

  Cassidy took a long drag of her cigarette and then she sat up. “She didn’t mention any names. But she said someone was trying to muscle in on her, but she had his number.”

  We asked a few other questions, but Cassidy didn’t have any more answers. The sleeping baby woke up and started screaming. She hoisted herself out of her seat and picked him up. He looked exactly like the boy Nana Jo was bouncing on her lap.

  “Twins?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  She had her hands full, and it didn’t seem as though we’d learn anything more. So, we rose to leave. Nana Jo handed over the baby.

  Before we left, Nana Jo turned and asked, “Did you know Virgil Russell?”

  Cassidy was jiggling a baby on each hip. “Yeah. I know him. Why?”

  “It seemed strange to us that Melody was . . . involved with him,” I said.

  “Mel was always pretty close to Virgil. He taught her practically everything she knew about conning people. Virgil taught her how to dress and talk and act so she got richer marks.”

  “But he killed your father?” Nana Jo said.

  Cassidy shrugged. “Her father, not mine. Besides, that wasn’t a big loss. He was a drunk who beat all of us every chance he got. That’s how he died. He beat Mel so bad we thought he’d kill her. Virgil tried to stop him. He pushed him. He hit his head on the end of the table.” She lowered the toddlers back into the playpen. “He and Mel got closer after that.”

  “Any chance he was the man trying to muscle onto her scam?” I asked.

  Cassidy shook her head. “I doubt it. They worked together.”

  We left Cassidy and walked down the narrow stairway. Once outside, we saw the youngster Nana Jo had tossed earlier. He stood in the middle of the sidewalk in a threatening manner.

  “Maybe I should call the police,” I whispered to Nana Jo.

  “No need.” She stepped forward. “You want a piece of me?” she asked the kid.

  The boy snarled. “I’ve got something for you this time, old lady.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a switchblade, which he held up with his right hand.

  Nana Jo smiled and reached into her purse and pulled out her gun and pointed it. She squinted, closed one eye, and fired. The bullet hit the blade of the knife and ricocheted off.

  The startled hooligan dropped the knife, turned, and ran.

  There was a loud burst of laughter from the gamblers in the alley. Five young men in jeans with tattoos and piercings whistled and laughed. One of the men walked forward. “Hey, I’ve got two hundred dollars that says you can’t hit that billboard?” He held up several bills and grinned. Each of the other men also held up money.

  Nana Jo looked at the billboard that stood above the building across the street and within an arm’s distance of the elevated train track.

  “Oh, no,” I pleaded with my grandmother.

  The grin on her face and the gleam in her eyes told me I was wasting my time.

  Nana Jo extended her arm and pointed her gun at the billboard. She cocked her head to the side and pulled the trigger.

  We all looked at the billboard. There was a large picture of a popular insurance company’s spokesperson wearing a white apron with her black hair pulled back with a headband. The woman had a large smile on her face and a perfectly round hole in the center of her forehead.

  The men hooped and laughed. One of them even bowed to Nana Jo as they all came and handed her their money.

  Chapter 15

  I hustled my grandmother into my intact vehicle and hurried away.

  Nana Jo laughed as she fanned herself with her money. “Easiest thousand dollars I’ve ever made.”

  “You could have gotten in trouble. What if you’d missed?”

  She looked at me. “I was Lauderdale County’s sharpshooter three years in a row. Besides, that billboard was huge. You’d have to be blind to miss it.”

  I gave up trying to shame my grandmother into reform and headed east. We drove in relative silence the forty minutes to the outlet mall in Michigan City. I found a parking space near one of the larger anchor stores.

  Before I got out, Nana Jo took half of her winnings and handed it to me. “Happy Birthday, Sam.”

  I looked at the wad of cash with my mouth open. “I can’t take that.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s too much. Besides, you won the money fair and square. You should spend it on yourself.”

  “I intend to splurge and enjoy myself. However, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to win the money if it wasn’t for you. Besides, I want you to get yourself some nice clothes. You never know when you might get another date or non-date.”

  “But really, I don’t need—”

  She waved her hand. “Sam, will you please just take the money and say thank you?”

  I reached over and gave my grandmother a big hug. “Thank you.”

  The title outlet mall implied incredibly low prices, but discounted prices could be a relative term. Lighthouse Place Mall was a designer outlet mall. While the prices were discounted from what you paid in a regular mall, they were still higher than discount retail stores. In the past, I’d limited myself to three or four stores known for ridiculously low prices where I bought blue jeans for less than five dollars. Today I walked into the stores with the designers’ names on the front. I bought several really good pairs of jeans, silk blouses, and even a few dresses.

  Nana Jo bought new tennis shoes and workout attire and then splurged on a lovely dress with a plunging neckline. Laden down with shopping bags, we made our way to the car several hours later. The girls’ train was due to arrive in a few minutes. I needed to pick them up from the train station. There was a trolley that took visitors from the train station to the outlet mall, but the girls preferred spending their money at The Boat.

  They were waiting at the depot when I arrived. No need to park, I pulled up to the platform and loaded them in. I then headed for The Boat.

  I let everyone out at the front of the casino and parked. By the time I got to the lobby, I was tired. Lack of sleep and tons of walking at the outlet mall hit me at the same time. We’d agreed to eat first, so I went to the buffet and looked around until I found them.

  Normally we went to the Four Feathers Casino, which was closer to North Harbor. Trips to The Boat were rare, which meant the girls hadn’t racked up enough perks for free food. One thing remained constant, regardless of where we went. Ruby Mae always ran into someone she knew. Today was no exception. When I sat down at the restaurant, she was being hugged by one of the chefs, and a waitress was nearby, awaiting her turn. The chef turned out to be a godson and the waitress was a great-niece. Ruby Mae’s connections resulted in free dinner vouchers and dessert take-out boxes, which were usually prohibited at buffets. When we finished, I took the boxes to the car. By the time I walked back to the lobby, I had moved beyond tired to exhausted. We agreed to meet in two hours, so I found a comfy wingback chair in a quiet, cozy corner and took a nap. I set the alarm on my phone to wake me after an hour and a half. When I awoke and felt my face, the pattern of the chair’s fabric was imprinted on the side of my face and there was a large wet stain on th
e chair’s wing from drool. I was amazed how refreshed and energized I felt after my power nap.

  I walked around the casino and grabbed a coffee from a beverage station. I still had fifteen minutes before our meeting, so I put twenty dollars into a machine with a picture of Tarzan on the front. I only played penny slots and I was normally very conservative, but I tossed caution to the wind and bet the maximum, a dollar fifty. After only two spins, I went into a bonus. I was relatively new to slot machines, so I didn’t know exactly what had happened, but the next thing I knew, Tarzan yodeled and swung across my screen. There was a lot going on. Wheels spun, Tarzan pounded gorillas, and drums beat. After the third spin, lights flashed, bells rang, my chair vibrated, and my screen was almost completely full of wilds. Coins started flying on the screen and the lady next to me started screaming and hitting me in the arm. A crowd of people gathered around my machine.

  Two of the casino staff made their way through the crowd to my machine. One of them inserted a card into the machine, which stopped the flashing lights. The other one smiled and pulled out a clipboard. “Congratulations. Can I see your driver’s license, please?”

  I was dazed and couldn’t grasp what had happened. “What just happened?”

  He smiled. “You just won a lot of money.” He took the driver’s license I handed him and began copying information.

  “How much did I win?”

  He looked up at the machine. “You just won fifty-four thousand dollars.”

  I nearly passed out. “No way!”

  The casino worker smiled. “Yes. Way!”

  I stared at him with my mouth open. “I think I need to go someplace so I can throw up.”

  He looked startled but helped me rise. I started to walk away but then turned back to the machine.

  The other casino worker took me by the arm. “It’s okay. I’ll take care of everything.” He looked back at his coworker. “I’ll take her to the office.”

  I followed the casino worker until we came to a small door behind a cash machine that I wouldn’t even have noticed. He opened the door and we went inside. There was a desk, two guest chairs, and a small love seat. I sat and put my head between my legs.

  “Can I get you some water?”

  I nodded.

  He left and came back with a bottle of water.

  I tried to open the lid, but my hands were shaking so badly I had to get the casino worker to open it for me. He untwisted the lid and gave me the bottle, and I took a long sip. My phone vibrated. Nana Jo and the girls must be wondering where I was. I couldn’t get my phone out of my pants pocket fast enough. When I tried to dial, my hands shook so badly I kept missing her name. I turned to the casino worker. “My grandmother and three other ladies are in the lobby waiting for me. Can you please get them? I have no idea how to get to them from here.”

  He said he’d be happy to go. I took deep breaths and tried to process the fact I had just won fifty-four thousand dollars. Every time I thought about the dollar amount, I felt light-headed and had to put my head back between my knees until the dizziness passed.

  Several minutes later Nana Jo and the girls came into the room.

  “What happened? Are you okay?” Nana Jo asked.

  “Didn’t he tell you?” I pointed at the casino worker.

  “He didn’t tell us anything. He just said you weren’t feeling well.”

  The room was small and with six people, it was claustrophobic. I looked at the casino worker.

  He struggled to hide a smile. “I thought you might prefer to tell them yourself.”

  Nana Jo’s brow was wrinkled and a vein was pulsing on the side of her head. She was getting angry. “Tell us what?”

  I pointed at the casino worker. “He said I won fifty-four thousand dollars.”

  There was dead silence for several seconds and then Nana Jo sank down onto a chair. “Sweet mother of God.”

  Irma’s response was not holy and resulted in a sharp reprimand from the others before she burst into a coughing fit.

  Dorothy and Ruby Mae congratulated me.

  The worker slid out of the room and returned with more waters, which he passed around. Nana Jo sat next to me. Irma and Ruby Mae were in the guest chairs, and Dorothy propped on the desk.

  “Son, can you prop that door open a bit.” Nana Jo fanned herself. “Either I’m having a hot flash or I’m going to pass out.”

  He propped the door open.

  The casino worker who took my driver’s license entered with a security guard. We were now packed like sardines in that room. He returned my driver’s license and handed me some forms to fill out. “These are for the IRS. Do you want us to subtract taxes or do you want to pay them yourself?”

  I filled in the paperwork. “Please subtract the taxes.”

  When I was done, I handed the papers back.

  “How do you want the money?”

  “Excuse me?”

  The casino worker smiled. “Do you want a check? Cash? Or a combination of both?”

  Nana Jo whistled. “Cash? You mean people actually want cash?”

  The woman nodded. “You’d be surprised.”

  I looked at the sheet she handed me, which indicated after taxes I would get over forty thousand dollars. “Can I get five checks?”

  She smiled. “You can have anything you want.”

  “I need five checks. One made out to each of us.” I pointed around the room.

  The girls began to protest. “Oh, no. This is too much—”

  I held up my hand. “We have a system. We always split the winnings. This is no different.”

  We argued for several moments, but ultimately I overruled them and made the arrangements with the casino. We would each get about eight thousand dollars. It took close to an hour for the casino to get all of the arrangements made.

  Irma asked for a whiskey. Our friendly casino worker took orders and brought drinks.

  Nana Jo asked if someone could find our car and bring it to the door for us.

  I handed over my keys, along with directions on where I’d parked. By the time we were all settled out, the car was waiting at the front.

  I was still dazed but ecstatic to share this windfall with my grandmother and her friends.

  The ride home was spent talking about how we’d each spend our money. Irma wanted plastic surgery to lift everything that had sagged over the years. Dorothy suggested she do something about her chronic coughing instead, but that suggestion fell on deaf ears.

  Dorothy wanted to go on a cruise. Ruby Mae’s church was going on a trip to the Holy Land and she wanted to go. Now she could. Nana Jo was very vague and refused to say what she planned to do.

  I didn’t have plans for spending my share, but the girls were very vocal on how they thought I should spend it. The unanimous decision was I should use my share to buy a new car. I knew Nana Jo’s views on my CRV, but the girls had never complained.

  “Beggars can’t be choosy,” Irma said.

  “Those newer cars have Wi-Fi and I would love to use my iPad or watch a movie,” Dorothy said.

  “My daughter has a Lexus and the ride is so smooth. You can barely tell the motor is running,” Ruby Mae yelled from the back seat.

  “‘Et tu, Brute?’” I looked at her in the rearview mirror.

  Ruby Mae laughed. “One thing I can say for this car is that my prayer life has improved since I’ve been riding in it.”

  I stuck out my tongue.

  They all laughed. I knew the joking was all in good fun. The girls weren’t complainers. My CRV was old and loud and there were a number of aesthetic problems. But the engine was solid and the car was reliable. It had four-wheel drive and performed wonderfully in the snow.

  I dropped the girls at the retirement village and they asked me to get out of the car, which was unusual.

  I got out and each one of them hugged and thanked me. They had tears in their eyes, which made me cry too.

  I got back in the car and Nana Jo and I dr
ove back to the store. When I pulled into the garage, Nana Jo stopped me.

  “I want to thank you too, Sam. That was a very nice thing you did. You didn’t have to. No one would have blamed you. That is a lot of money.”

  “I know, but I wanted to.”

  She nodded. “I know you really love this car. It’s served you well for more than a decade. However, I do think you should consider an upgrade. Not because the CRV is unreliable, but because you’ve been through so much over the years and I think it would be nice to treat yourself.”

  I started to protest, but she held up her hand. “You don’t have to defend your decision. I just wanted to explain why you should do this. It’s okay to have nice things, and it’s not frivolous to spend money on yourself. You’re a hard worker and you deserve nice clothes and a nice car. You’re always thinking about others, and I want you to know it’s okay to think about yourself too.” She patted my hand and got out of the car.

  I sat in the car for several minutes and let the tears stream down my face. Leon and I had worked hard our whole lives, and we never had eight thousand dollars at one time. That was more money than we put down on our house. I was accustomed to scrimping and saving and making every dollar stretch as far as it could go. I wasn’t good at spending money on things that weren’t essential. I drove cars until they were basically no longer drivable. I looked at Martha and patted the dashboard. “You’ve served me well, old friend, but maybe it’s time for a change.”

  I had been on an emotional roller coaster and felt tired. I finally got out of the car and went upstairs. Dawson had sent several text messages throughout the day. His dad was still in intensive care, but he was stable. The doctors had put him in a medically induced coma to decrease brain swelling. The twins had packed a bag for Dawson and took it to him at the hospital. They also had taken Oreo and Snickers home with them, which meant the house was quiet.

  One pleasant surprise was a large vase of flowers on my kitchen counter. The card indicated they were from Professor Quin. I was glad Nana Jo was in her room because I couldn’t stop smiling. The worst thing about trips to the casino was the smell of smoke that clung to your clothes and hair. I took a long hot shower and got ready for bed. Not surprisingly, I was too excited to sleep. Instead, I spent a couple hours looking at cars online. Eventually I decided writing therapy would be useful.