Dirty Cops Next Door

by Summer Cooper

  I walked by each tree in the yard, my feet brushing through piles of fallen leaves that hadn’t been raked up. Why did the man have so many trees? Was it a screen or something? I kept making sounds of assent and agreement as I swished through the leaves softly, slowly, until I made it to the back of the house.

  Not a single person had stopped me, not a single one questioned where I was going or what I was doing. I stood behind a tree, looking up at the second floor of the house. Avery had been in one of the windows with Eric, but I couldn’t see them now. I wished I had a gun!

  I’d never bothered to buy one, I wouldn’t know how to use it even if I did have one. I might be a southern girl, but my daddy had never introduced me to those things. Not all of us are raised to spit and shoot, but now I almost wished I had been.

  I wasn’t sure what I had planned but when I arrived at the back of the house and saw a basement door, I knew I had a way in. I’d figure out what to do once I got inside.

  “Bee, David’s waving at me, I need to go.” I hated lying to the other woman but I knew she’d only alert David if I told her my plan to save Eric myself.

  “They’re going in soon, I’ve heard the chatter on the radio. You just stay put until they bring you your brother. It won’t be long now. I’ll pray for you all, my friend.” She waited until I said thank you and goodbye before hanging up.

  “I might need to do a little praying myself,” I whispered aloud, then dismissed the idea. I hadn’t really been on speaking terms with any of that bunch since my parents died. I’d been raised Catholic, but had lapsed soon after Mom and Dad were taken from us.

  Another pain I had to bury. I breathed deeply and closed my eyes, willing my heartbeat to slow down, willing my breathing to slow as I reached for the doorway.

  “Ahhhhhh! You can’t take him! You can’t take him!” a high-pitched voice screeched out as I entered the dark room and a wall of muscle tackled me to the ground. Strong fingers wrapped around my throat and began to squeeze as a light came on over my face.

  I blinked as Mark’s headlamp blasted my eyes, making me squint as I gasped for the little bit of air his fingers allowed me. The world was starting to go dark around the edges, a darkness that the light piercing my eyes couldn’t penetrate. I’d never quite felt fear like I did as Mark stared down at me in shock.

  “Toni?”

  His fingers began to loosen on my throat and I gulped in air.

  When the darkness disappeared I twisted, throwing him off-balance with my sudden movement. I scrambled away, my own hand at my throat, grabbing at the first thing my hand came into contact with. A clothes basket.

  I wasn’t sure what I could do with it other than keep the young man from getting near me, but it was all I had. I was inside and I wasn’t going to leave my brother in here alone with this pair of wackos.

  “Toni! Oh my God! I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it was you! You have to help me! He has Eric up there!”

  “What? Why were you trying to kill me if you’re so afraid for Eric? And why the hell is Eric even here? I left him sleeping at home!” I backed away, but his headlamp was blinding me. I had no idea where to go!

  “I didn’t know it was you, did I? I thought you might be my Dad, sneaking around the house. He does that shit all the time.” Mark seemed to deflate then and he moved around in the darkness, muscle memory leading him to a chair. “He’s always been a paranoid son of a bitch, and he’d do shit like that all the time. ‘Testing the perimeters’ he’d call it. I was trying to keep him from getting back to Eric if he’d left him up there alone.”

  I watched him warily, keeping an eye on his movements. I’d never trusted the kid, even if Eric had. I couldn’t help it; I’d seen too many crime shows and horror movies to think I was safe now.

  “Okay. Fine. How did Eric get here?” I stared him down, my anger starting to get the better of me.

  “I called him and asked him if he’d come over. Dad was acting all nuts and I was just…” He stopped to snivel a little before continuing, “I was afraid to be by myself with him, Toni. I called Eric and then I went and got him. Dad took him the minute we got in the door. I’m so sorry. I had no idea this was going to happen. Any of it.” His eyes were pleading with me to believe him.

  “What are we going to do?” he asked me, but I couldn’t see his face in that glaring light.

  “First, move that light to somewhere that isn’t blinding me!” I couldn’t help the sigh of relief when he did just that with a muttered apology. “Now, if you’re serious, what do you think we should do? You know your dad better than I do. How do we talk him down from this?”

  “I don’t think we can. I think we’ll have to kill him if we want to save Eric.” Without the light blinding me, I could see Mark’s very serious face. He wasn’t kidding. He really thought we’d have to kill his dad. What shocked me the most was that he was willing to do it for Eric.

  The boys had really formed a bond.

  “Thank you, Mark. I think. I don’t plan on killing anybody today, least of all your father.” I wanted to hug him or ruffle his hair, things you do with little boys. Mark wasn’t a little boy though, and even though his sudden vulnerability brought out the mothering instinct in me, I knew doing that would somehow be wrong with this child.

  I was starting to get the picture of Mark as more than just a rich kid gone wrong. I wondered, belatedly, what had happened to his mom.

  “Mark, your mother? Where is she?” I asked him, hesitant but curious.

  “In prison. Dad talked her into trying to bring a bunch of heroin in through Mexico. They caught her and she’s been down there for about ten years now. He’s never even tried to get her released!” Oh no, bad idea, he was even angrier now. “He’s never been good to either of us. Now this? I’ll never forgive him if anything happens to Eric. He’s the only one that’s ever really been nice to me.”

  “How so?” I was just trying to calm the kid down now.

  “Everybody in town knows who my dad is, what he does. They either talk to me in the hopes of getting drugs for free or they think I’m rich and just want to get something out of me. Or they want information on my dad to send him to prison.”

  I was starting to see this kid with the jaw far too hard for his age, with eyes that were far too mature whilst being vulnerable at the same time, for what Eric saw in him.

  “So, Eric comes along, has no idea who you are, and offers you friendship for friendship’s sake.”

  “Yeah! And it was just so... righteous, ya know? I fucked up when I showed off that first day, and I’m really sorry about that, Toni, I really am. You don’t know how bad I felt about that!” I could see the pain in his eyes and knew he was telling the truth.

  I was thawing toward the kid, I couldn’t believe it but I was.

  “Eric’s special like that. Shall we find a way to save him?” I offered, wanting to get moving now. I had no idea what I was going to do so I hoped inspiration would hit soon.

  “I might know a way. Follow me.” Mark stood up, straightened himself out, cracked his neck and his knuckles, and started up the steps.

  I had no idea where we were going so I followed the kid, a kid who was taller than me, but still just a kid. We made our way to the second floor before he slowed, and started to creep along, his back pressed to the wall. I mimicked him until we stopped at the first door.

  “Dad?” he called out before he waited, obviously listening. Wall sconces gave us just enough light to see by without being too bright.

  “Son? Where are you?” A voice called out from down the hallway. “I told you to stay out of the way.”

  “Yeah, I know. I wanted to know what we were going to eat.” Mark crept down the hall, his feet quiet on the carpet.

  “Eat some cereal, you whiny little shit. What the fuck am I, your nursemaid? Cook something if you’re hungry!” Avery’s response made my blood boil. Who talked to their kid like that?

  “I was going to. What do you want?” Mark c
ame to the doorway and gave me a look that asked if I was ready.

  I nodded and waited.

  “I haven’t had a decent minestrone since I came to this hell hole. My mother, oh, how my mother would cry to see the garbage we eat down here!”

  I’d never actually met Avery, so this was the first time I realized he wasn’t from the south. Not being overly familiar with northern accents, I could only tell that the man was a northerner. He could be from the Bronx or Boston, I just knew the accent wasn’t local. That could explain some things. I guess he came down here, hoping to make it rich, which he did, and maybe to avoid some heat up north. Where did that leave me?

  “Uh, Mr. Winslow, I’m not Italian so I don’t know how I would be at making minestrone, but I do make a nice country soup.” I didn’t realize I was going to say anything until I did.

  “Who the fuck is that?” Avery shouted, turning away from the window just as I stepped into the doorway.

  He wasn’t an ugly man, but he didn’t look healthy. Dark circles hollowed out his eyes and his skin was sallow from alcohol and drug abuse. He also had my brother by the neck, his forearm crushing Eric’s throat, making me want to stamp Avery’s face into a bloody mess.

  “I’m that boy’s sister. He’s all I have left.” I pointed at Eric with my chin, I didn’t make any other move. I didn’t want to spook the man with the gun in his hand.

  “I knew he lived with his sister, but that was it. What happened then?” He sounded genuinely curious, which I found odd coming from a man holding a gun to my brother’s head. I would humor him, I decided.

  I didn’t talk about my parents’ deaths very often, it was just too painful, too ridiculous. I usually left it at ‘they died in an accident’ because it saved explaining. This time, I was hoping that going through it again would end with Eric being released.

  “Our parents were the adventurous kind. Mom more than Dad. Mom was a journalist. She’d stared down warlords, drug dealers, and murderers. Dad talked her into taking some time off, called it early retirement, and they bought a motor home.” I paused, remembering the call I’d answered from the police. “It was all stupid really. Just plain stupid.”

  Eric hung his head, and I heard a sniffle from him. It was the first real sign of emotion he’d shown since I had found my way through the door frame.

  “Mom couldn’t say no to any kind of danger, she lived for it sometimes, even more than Eric and me.”

  “She sounds like my kind of lady.” Avery had the gall to waggle his eyebrows at me and I wanted to punch him in the face.

  “Well, she ended up getting both her and my father killed. They bought an RV, decided to travel out to the Grand Canyon. Eric and I stayed home, neither of us wanted to spend that much time cooped up together back then. Mom talked Dad into parking at the top of a mountain somewhere out in Colorado. It should have been romantic, quiet, peaceful. It probably would have been if Mom hadn’t decided to, ahem, get romantic with Dad before he’d properly braced the wheels. They apparently set the RV rolling and, oh God, they… they rolled down the mountain, onto the highway, and straight into a logging truck.”

  I hung my own head then, the memory horrific.

  “I don’t... huh... I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that. Jeez, what a way to go.” I could hear the laughter in his voice and though I couldn’t blame him I still wanted to shoot him.

  “It was a stupid way to go. A very stupid way. It left Eric and me alone, and right now, that’s what you’re going to do to your own son if you keep up this foolishness.”

  He watched me, his lips still twitching. This man was a cold-blooded killer, he’d almost killed Grant, yet here he was trying to be polite in front of a lady.

  “Now, Ms. Toni.” A hint of southern drawl had crept into his voice as he spoke and I couldn’t decide if it was a defensive tactic or condescension. “Now, you know they’ll put me away for a long time, maybe for good, for what I did today.”

  “Yes, they might, Mr. Avery. Your son doesn’t deserve to see you die in a hail of bullets or see his friend die either. He might even die himself if you carry on this path.”

  “They wouldn’t shoot Mark, would they?”

  “You never know what might happen in the heat of the moment.”

  “That’s true, that’s true. I need to think about this.” He sank onto the gaudy electric blue sofa he’d pulled Eric over to and waved Eric to sit beside him.

  Eric looked utterly terrified but relieved to be away from the gun. He perched on the very edge of the sofa, as far away as he could get from that gun.

  “I reckon you’re right, then, Ms. Toni. I’m the world’s biggest asshole, I know that, but you just, you have a way with words, you know? A bit like your mom, maybe?” He gave me a mischievous smile, one I knew he hoped was conspiratorial, but the length of my friendliness ended at the point of that gun. The minute it disappeared was the minute I’d spit in the man’s face.

  “I suppose I am a bit like her. I know what it means to take care of a child though, to always be there for that child. The child you have at gunpoint now. He’s all I have left in the world, you see.”

  “I suppose that means we can’t be friends, right?” He looked sad for a moment.

  I stared at him in disbelief. Friends? He wasn’t serious, right? How did a person become so unhinged?

  “If you let him go, maybe we can talk about it.”

  He was going to reply but the world exploded with a bright flash and a loud bang instead.

  All I could hear as I fell to the ground was a loud piercing whine and the muffled sounds of boots hitting the floor as the house was invaded.

  I looked around but smoke filled the air, and people were tripping over me.

  “Eric! Eric, where are you?” I called out to my brother and realized then the loud piercing noise was my total lack of being able to hear anything. I could barely hear my own voice!

  Was it a flash grenade? Was that what had gone off in the house? I felt a warm hand take mine and I squinted in the haze.

  “Eric?”

  “It’s me, Mark!” The haze cleared and I saw the face of a frightened little boy, tears streaming down his face. “Have you seen my dad?”

  I knew the police had stormed the house and was about to tell Mark to help me find Eric when someone grabbed my feet and yanked me out of the room.

  “Eric!” I screamed his name, my nails digging into the white carpet as I scrabbled to stay in the room. I wouldn’t leave my brother behind.

  “Toni! Toni, it’s me!” I heard the words as if they came from underwater and turned over to see David, terrified, angry, but so relieved.

  “I can’t find Eric! I was so close! Why did they do that? Why?” I demanded an answer, my heart breaking because I had yet to see my brother’s face.

  Mark was pulled away just as David crushed me in his arms. I felt the smoothness of his bald head against my cheek, and though I didn’t feel comfort, I no longer felt so alone in the whole mess. I had someone to stand with me, to help me.

  “Stay here, I’ll find him.” His words sounded like a mutter but I knew he was still shouting. How long was the hearing loss going to last?

  David let me go and before I could protest he ran into the now clearing room. I saw Avery being pulled to his feet, his arms behind his back as he was led away. Mark was being helped out of the room by a female police officer.

  I still did not see Eric.

  “I need help here!” I heard David’s voice shouting, my hearing finally coming back!

  My heart lodged itself somewhere in my throat and I ran to David. He was behind that ugly couch, knelt over a body. Eric’s body!

  14

  Toni

  “Are you alright, Toni?” Mark stood in my kitchen two days later, his face a mask of mourning. He’d had nowhere to go after his father was arrested.

  His mother was in prison in Mexico, and now his father was in prison too. I knew what it was like to be left on y
our own, without anyone to care for you. I knew the loss and confusion even deeper than he did. I offered to let him stay with me. He only had a year of school left, I could handle a year. Especially now that…

  “I’m fine. Just tired, Mark.”

  “Alright. I’ll be in the living room if you need me.” He sighed heavily and then left me at the table. On my own.

  I went back to staring out of the window. At Grant and David’s house. I needed comfort, I needed strength. I hadn’t seen either of them today.

  “Hey, sis! Still no word from Grant?” I smiled as my brother came into the kitchen, and pulled him close as he sat down beside me.

  “No, he’s still refusing to see anyone except David.” I gave him a weak smile and let him go.

  “He’ll come around.”

  I hadn’t told Eric everything about my relationship with the men next door but he’d caught on soon enough. I guess the Internet really did raise more knowledgeable children. He’d barely even batted an eyelash when I’d told him I was... seeing both men.

  Eric pushed up from the table and limped to the fridge. His leg had been injured in the pandemonium when the police had raided Avery’s house.

  “Shall I make us some lunch?”

  “Sure, if you like. How’s your leg?”

  “I hate this cast, but luckily, I’m alive. David did a really good job before the paramedic took over.”

  “I can’t believe Avery didn’t try to use you as a shield when the raid started.” I still wondered whether it was my words that made the man I knew to be a ruthless killer change his mind.

  “I can’t either. I’m lucky I’ve just got a compound fracture after he threw me behind that couch. I won’t be playing football in the near future.” He laughed and I knew he was going to be alright.

  It had been rough for a while, Eric had needed surgery to put his leg back together from the injury to his tibia, but they’d released him late last night. Now, he was trying to get back to our normal routine.