by Garry Ryan
Marv sat in the driver’s set of the green van. He thought, Lester doesn’t understand. This van was no good. It had to be a Mercedes. Without the right car, their luck would turn bad.
He looked over his shoulder at the open door. It was just the way Les wanted it for a quick getaway. They’d snatch the doll. All they had to do was kidnap the doll and find out what the old man knew about Bob. This way they didn’t have to deal with Bob’s crazy mother in-law.
The van leaned to the right. “Les?” Marvin said and looked over his shoulder. Bob’s mother-in-law, her hands on either side of the open door, pulled herself inside.
“What?” Marv reached to push her back out but the seat belt held him. He reached for the release. “What the hell?”
“What,” she said. Each word was separated by a breath, “the . . . hell . . . did . . . you . . . think . . . I’d . . . do?”
They were face to face. Leona held her purse with both hands and slid her backside across to the middle of the back seat.
“Get out!” Marvin said.
“Told . . . you . . . two to . . . leave . . . me . . . and mine . . . alone.” She shifted left till she sat behind him. Sweat soaked her T-shirt.
Marv felt a growing sense of doom. First the Mercedes and now this. The plan was going to hell.
“What the hell is she doin’ here?” Les’ face was running with sweat. He held the doll by the hair. “Get her out of here!”
Marv fought with the seat belt.
Leona pulled hers across her body and locked herself in. BLATT!
“What was that?” Marv said.
“You’ve never heard a fart before?” Les said as he sat the doll down on the floor.
“Sonamabitch!” Ernesto said.
Les shoved the doll inside. Her head caught Leona on the knee.
“Ouch!” Leona said as Lester slid the door shut.
“Go!” Lester clawed his way into the front seat.
Marv punched the accelerator. The engine screamed.
“Put it in gear, stupid!” Les slammed the door on his ankle. “Shit!” He dragged his foot inside.
Marv shifted into drive before completely releasing the accelerator and the van lunged forward with squealing tires. He wrenched the steering wheel left. The passenger door’s mirror snapped when it clipped the back of the red van.
“You all right?” Marv said.
“Shut up!” Les winced when he shifted his weight. “Just get us away from here so we can dump the old bitch!”
“What about him?” Marv jerked his thumb toward the back of the van.
Les leaned forward to look out the passenger mirror. It flopped like a hand with a broken wrist. He turned to look out the back window. The red van was gaining. “Lose him.”
Leona lifted the glass jar of gasoline out of her purse and set it upright between her legs. She took quick gulps of bottled oxygen and leaned against the window.
“Take the main road!” Les said. They joined six lanes divided by concrete barriers.
Les adjusted the interior mirror so he could watch Ernesto. “You just worry about what’s ahead and I’ll worry about him.”
“It’s turning yellow!” Marv said.
Les glanced at the road ahead. “Good! Just go!”
Leona saw the light turn red before they entered the intersection. A silver car saw them just in time. Brakes screamed.
Les watched the red van. It had no choice but to brake. Blue smoke spilled out around the tires.
“That’ll do it. Only two or three more sets of lights before we hit the river. Get in the right lane.” Les adjusted the rear view mirror so he could see Leona’s eyes. “Why’d you let her in here?”
“She just climbed in,” Marv said.
“Shit!” His ankle was throbbing and the pain made it harder to think, to plan ahead.
BLATTT!
“Jeez Marv!” Les said.
“It wasn’t me!”
“Yah, right.”
They hit a green light and Les saw the sign for Memorial Drive. “That’s our turn.”
“You said two lights!”
“Just take the right lane.” With the way his ankle was throbbing, Lester wouldn’t be able to drive even if he had to.
“Look out!” Marv said.
Ernesto shivered.
“Never again!” He swerved into the right lane and passed a city bus.
“No bastard’s gonna do this to you!”
“He’s behind us!” Marv said.
“Watch out!” Les slapped his brother on the shoulder and pointed ahead. A backhoe, doing about half the speed limit, bounced on huge tires. The bucket at the back of the tractor was less than two car lengths ahead.
Marv swerved right and cut off a pickup truck.
A horn blared.
Les leaned into the turn. They flashed past the yellow tractor. “Watch the road like I told you!”
Marv accelerated to join the traffic on Memorial Drive.
Ernesto pulled up less than a car length behind them.
“Don’t panic, Marv.” Les pulled the Smith and Wesson out of its holster. “When you see an open stretch of road, let him pull up on my side.”
Marv looked ahead. Trees lined the right side of the road.
In between the road and the river, joggers and cyclists navigated the paved pathway. They were the fourth vehicle behind a group of cars. Ernesto trailed them. They passed through an intersection with the Louise Bridge on their right.
A car in the left lane slowed. They passed on the right.
“Get in the left lane,” Les ordered and opened the window. “Let him get nice and close.”
Ernesto saw the green van pull into the left lane. The passenger’s window opened half way. The broken mirror flapped against the door.
“Culo!” He swerved to drive alongside.
“He’s almost beside us!” Marv said.
They ran over a manhole cover.
Les fired one round. A star appeared in the center of Ernesto’s windshield. “Shit! I missed.”
“He’s pulled in behind us,” Marv said.
“Watch the road!” Les looked ahead. Now I have to figure out something else, he thought. The road curved right. Center Street Bridge arched its sandstone back over the water. Suspended beneath, a steel bridge hung above the swollen river. “Get in the right lane.”
“What you gonna do?” Marv said.
“The old guy wants his doll. We’ll give him his doll. We still have the old bitch. I’ll bet she knows where Bob is if anyone does.”
“You said the old man would be a pushover,” Marv said.
“You won’t believe me when I tell you where Bob is,”
Leona said.
“Just turn right under the bridge and do what I tell you. We’ll get rid of the old man and then we’ll find out what this old bitch knows.”
Marv braked for a red light. A white Mazda sat between them and a right turn.
Les held the rearview mirror in his hand as Ernesto opened his door.
Leona fumbled with the lid of the jar.
The light turned green.
Marv lurched forward.
Leona screwed the lid back down tight.
They turned right. The bridge deck was narrow. Tires hummed on the irregular, perforated metal surface. “I don’t like this,” Marv said.
A taxi passed going the other way. No other vehicles approached. “Stop in the middle of the road,” Les said.
“Why?”
“I won’t be able to get out and throw the doll over if you don’t stop in the middle.”
“Why?” Marv said.
“Do it!”
Marv hit the brakes and swung the wheel to the left. The van straddled the center line.
Les leaned into the damaged passenger door. Pain clawed at him when he put weight on his right foot. “Shit!” He heaved the van’s side door open, grabbed the doll by the back of its dress, twisted its arm at the elbow and limped to the ed
ge. He heaved her over the side.
“NO!” Ernesto was crossing to the other side of the bridge. He looked at the green van once.
Leona shuddered as she heard the cry of a man ripped
open by grief.
The old man heaved himself up to the railing and jumped into the river.
Les pulled himself into the van. He lifted his right leg inside. The door would only close part way. He heaved to slam it shut. “Get us out of here!”
“You bastards.” Leona shook her head.
“He’s just a dirty old man. Turn left and get us back onto Memorial,” Les said.
“You ruined my family, and now you’ve killed Ernesto,”
Nanny said.
Ernesto bobbed to the surface. The shock of hitting the water stunned him.
The current carried him while he searched the surface. His foot smashed painfully against rock. He saw her hair first. Just under the surface. Ernesto swam to her and grabbed. Her face surfaced. By this time his feet were pointing downstream. He held her hair in his teeth and used his arms to keep them floating. They passed under a bridge. A pair of faces stared down at him and were gone.
Ernesto locked her arms around his neck. “Helen?” No answer. “Talk to me.”
The water seemed warmer now. He thought about their holiday in Italy and cooling off in the Mediterranean. It hadn’t been so long ago. “Remember our big trip? Remember how warm the water was? I can see that dress you wore.”
“Hold on to me,” she said.
He remembered the sea. Helen’s face inches from his.
Looking up at the sky, he thought about how perfect their honeymoon had been.
A steel cable caught him on the right side of the head. The shock of the blow knocked him out. They rolled beneath the surface then over the concrete weir. In a moment they were caught in a churning prison of white water. It turned them over and over till all the oxygen escaped Ernesto’s lungs.
“Take the Deerfoot North. That way we’ll get there faster.” Les pointed, directing Marvin.
“It was you two who threw the rock through our store window.” Leona lit a cigarette.
“Gimme a cigarette,” Les said and reached back with an open hand.
“Answer first.” She took a drag.
“What the hell are you asking?” Les said.
“Our store. You two helped ruin our business when my Judy ran away.”
“That was a long time ago,” Les said.
Leona waited and watched him through a filter of exhaled smoke.
“The rock was Bob’s idea. Said it would scare you.” Les wiggled his fingers and she dropped a cigarette into his palm.
“How about the slashed tires?” she said.
Marv looked at Les who searched for the cigarette lighter.
“I need a light.”
“Answer the question and I’ll light it for you.” She glanced left to see the jar in the cup holder. The gasoline quivered. Cars, pickup trucks and semis passed them on either side as they headed north on the freeway.
“Judy was right, you are a controlling old bitch.” Les put the cigarette between his lips.
Leona took a breath to keep her mind clear for what she had to do. This is what I should have done when they took my Judy away, she thought.
“Yah, we did it. Bob paid us 20 bucks for that one.” He reached back for the light.
Leona lit another cigarette with the tip of hers and handed it to him. “What about the letter to Beth?”
Les looked at his brother. He took a long drag on the cigarette, blew smoke out his nostrils and said, “I’m real good at letters.”
Leona nodded.
“Judy helped me write it.”
“Judy?” Leona said.
“Sure. Then she tried to get Beth to run away with her to teach you a lesson.”
Leona thought, Beth never told me. Never told me while she gained all that weight. No wonder! No god damned wonder she hates Judy. She looked out the left window. A silver blue semi was pulling up alongside. It struggled as they climbed a gentle incline. “Where we goin’ now?”
“Back to your place. You’ll tell us whatever we want to know. All I have to do is put my gun up against the side of the boy’s head.”
You’re not gonna get anywhere near Ernie, she thought.
“And if I call the police after you leave?”
Les said, “We’ll come back. Marv, we gotta get off this road pretty soon. Get in the right lane.”
“Can’t,” Marv said.
On the right, a white semi rolled up beside them.
“Slow down, then,” Les said.
Marv pointed back with his thumb. The headlights and grill of a black one tonne pickup filled the rear window.
“Speed up,” Les pointed.
Leona threw her cigarette on the floor. She pulled the oxygen tube over her head and dropped it. The lid of the jar opened easily. Nanny leaned forward and poured half the gas down the back of Marv’s golf shirt.
“What?” He leaned forward. “What the hell are you doin’!?”
Les turned.
She flicked the remainder into his face.
“My eyes! Gas! For Christ’s sake, she’s got gas!”
She reached into her purse. The oxygen tubes lay next to it. She put a smoke in her mouth and lifted the lighter.
“My eyes!” Les said.
Leona lifted the lighter and flicked the wheel. She leaned to touch it against Marv’s shoulder. Flame traveled across the back of his neck. Gasoline ignited on her hand. She saw the flames spread to Les’ face. Both men screamed.
Marv swerved into the left lane.
The van buried its nose under the trailer.
CHAPTER 23
“Ernie!” Beth shook his shoulder.
The dog growled.
“Don’t you growl at me, Scout! Ernie wake up. Where’s Nanny?”
Ernie’s mind was taking the long way back to consciousness. He opened his eyes and saw his mother. She was wiping her face with the back of her hand. The front of her white blouse was spotted where tears had fallen and turned the fabric translucent. Scout’s lip was curled back to reveal teeth. “Scout, stop that,” he said. The dog wagged her tail, ducked her head and moved closer to lick his face. Ernie sat up, wiping the back of his hand across his lips. “What’s wrong, Mom?”
“She’s gone and she left this on her bed!” Beth waved a white envelope.
“What’s that?” Ernie had never seen his mother like this, even during the divorce. He rubbed Scout under the chin, then the dog went to Beth and licked her free hand.
“A note. And money. Lots of money.”
“She told me to come down here and sleep. Said nightmares don’t like the cold. She was acting weird all morning. Wouldn’t leave her room. Watched all the cars coming and going.” Ernie stood.
“She’s never done this before.” Beth’s chin fell to her chest and her son wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
They went up the stairs. Ernie left her in the kitchen where the electric kettle began to boil. He took the stairs two at a time to the second floor. In his grandmother’s room, the plate and coffee cup sat empty on the end table with the mountain of cigarette butts and the binoculars. He checked each upstairs room after that. Coming downstairs, he noticed the oxygen machine continued to hum in the hallway. Air bubbled through the clear plastic container of water at the side of the machine.
“I’ll phone Nonno to see if he knows anything.” Ernie picked up the phone and dialed.
“I’ll check the back yard.” Beth moved to the deck door.
“Ten, he always picks up the phone before ten rings even when he’s in the back yard.” Ernie waited for 12 rings before hanging up.
The screen door opened and Beth stepped back in.
“She there?” Ernie said.
Beth shook her head.
“No other note?” He looked for one on the kitchen table.
“Nope, I checked.”
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“She take the car?”
“I drove it to work today.” Beth turned toward the kettle. The water boiled.
“I’ll go to Nonno’s and check there. You want to stay here?”
She poured steaming water into the tea pot, “Don’t take too long.”
Lane leaned over and rubbed Riley behind the ears before the retriever would allow him to enter the back yard. “How’s the nose?” He looked closer to see how it was doing. “You sure heal fast.” Riley wagged his tail.
After the gate was closed, Riley pranced ahead, then returned to hurry Lane along.
“I know, we’ve got a visitor. I saw the car parked out front,” Lane said.
When they rounded the side of the house, he saw Arthur wearing a purple satin shirt and baggy black satin pants. Where did he get those? Lane thought then noticed Arthur wasn’t wearing shoes.
Arthur always wore shoes. And he sat back in his chair, one leg hanging over the other and his left hand resting on the top knee. His right hand was suspended horizontally and bent 90 degrees at the wrist.
Harper was still in his uniform; including a tie. Lane was glad to see he wasn’t wearing a Glock. The officer sat still, back straight as a baton, feet firmly on the ground and both hands on the arms of the chair. It appeared he had some difficulty fitting his football player body into the lawn chair. He looked at Lane and smiled with more than a little bit of apprehension.
Lane looked beyond them to the fence where, in between the vertical boards, he could see a silhouette. He joined the visible dots of yellow cotton fabric and flesh into a mental image of Mrs. Smallway. Somehow, he couldn’t yet bring himself to accept the fact that she was a swinger.
“Oh, he’s home.” Arthur stood and minced his way to Lane. Riley sniffed the air near Arthur as if trying to identify this human he knew intimately but had never seen like this before. Arthur grabbed Lane’s shoulders and landed kisses on either cheek.
“What the hell is going on?” Lane whispered.
“Just having a bit of fun,” Arthur whispered back. “Play along.”
Lane smiled.
“I’ll get supper.” Arthur said to Harper. “You behave yourself.” Lane took off his jacket and draped it over the back of his chair. He poured himself a tumbler full of iced tea, then filled up Harper’s glass. “Hello Mrs. Smallway!” Lane said.
