Rohn Federbush - Sally Bianco 01 - The Legitimate Way

by Rohn Federbush

  “Are we going to pay for digging up his second wife?” Harvey asked Andrew.

  “I’m leaving,” Penny said, taking Simon’s hand, which held onto his second serving of sherry.

  Sally wondered if anyone else in the room knew precisely how much each of them imbibed.

  “Nothing to bother ourselves about.” Simon brushed his new wife’s hand aside, rescuing the liquor. “Your bookman is quite correct. We were foolish, but here we are.” He strolled over to where Sally was enthroned in the cushioned chair. “You never drink do you?”

  “Not anymore,” Sally said.

  “Had your fill?” Simon bowed solicitously from his waist.

  “I’ve about had my fill of you, mister.” John collared the old man and moved him to the doorway.

  “Wait,” Sally said. “He did keep his promise to come to Ann Arbor.”

  “Right,” Robert said. “He’s just what the doctor ordered.”

  Penny began to weep and her husband wrapped her in his arms. “Actually, we’ve decided to relocate to Michigan.”

  “Remember Sonja?” Penny knelt down next to Sally’s chair. “Well, she burnt down the ranch house!”

  “Anyone injured?” John asked.

  “No,” Simon said, “but Monica’s out of a job, too.”

  Penny rallied. “Simon passed the Michigan bar when he worked at Ford. Maybe he can help Andrew.”

  “Little late for that,” Andrew said.

  “A little late!” Harvey bellowed. “You’ve about killed our friend here, worrying about you and Mary Jo. Do you have no feelings for the man?”

  “I did the best I could.” Penny hung her sorry head.

  “Not good enough,” Robert whispered, slouching in his chair.

  Sally’s heart went out to him; but she didn’t feel like embracing him, not with John in the room. Maybe, not ever again. “Robert, she is only a child, after all.”

  “A bad seed,” Robert grumbled into his glass.

  Ed Thatch stepped between Robert and Penny. “You’re talking through your alcohol now. Penny, don’t pay him any mind. Congratulations to both of you. We’re glad you’re here.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  Sally and John were the only two out of the baker’s dozen who did not crowd around the laptop presentation of Mary Jo. Afterwards, Judge Wilcox drew Jimmy Walker toward the hall. “Seen enough to dismiss these farcical charges?”

  “Absolutely. In fact, I might prosecute her husband for making false accusations.”

  Ricco Cardonè appeared at the door. Six-feet-four his bulky shoulders testified to football contests or weight lifting. He wore a blue jeans jacket, a string tie, black leather pants and black cowboy boots. High fashion for ugly bullies. Ricco sported great white-hunter crevices down his yellowish face. His lips were full and his mouth filled with protruding teeth. How did Mary Jo ever find him attractive enough to marry? Angry or drunk, Sally could tell he would be dangerous if riled. “Mary Jo told me Robert Koelz threatened her.” Ricco glared at Robert, as if he were telling the truth. “If she didn’t leave me.”

  “I did,” Sally heard Robert whisper to Andrew. “I said I’d kill her, or he would.”

  “Oh for Pete’s sake,” Andrew said.

  “Order,” Judge Joe Wilcox said.

  “You idiot,” Andrew yelled at Robert.

  “Order!” Judge Wilcox raised his voice over the rising din.

  Ricco walked straight over to Robert, reached across the desk, and punched Robert in the face.

  Pandemonium erupted, folding chairs collapsed. The Tedler brothers wrestled Ricco to the ground and handcuffed him. Ed tried to help Robert, whose nose was broken and bleeding. Judge Wilcox stood in the middle of the room, jumping up and down like a four-year-old having a tantrum. The two lawyers finally calmed him down.

  Sally wondered where Miss Poi was hiding and somewhere in the middle of all the commotion, she began to giggle. John, Harvey, and serious-minded Ed broke out in laughter, too.

  In the hall outside the bookshop, Sally heard Jimmy Walker say to Andrew, “That’s the most fun I’ve had in fifteen years.”

  “Well,” Andrew puffed out his chest. “We aim to please.” He patted the other lawyer’s arm as he descended the stairs, still chuckling to himself.

  Robert sported blue bags under his eyes and the whites were lined with red. “I need a drink.” He forced a grin. “The perfect remedy for what ails me.”

  Sally’s three years of sobriety would not receive any special awards at an AA meeting, but she would feel welcomed. After her first year in AA, she read her confessional Fourth Step to a member. The older woman called her a ‘dry drunk.’ She was instructed to attend more than one meeting a week, to work on the steps with a sponsor, and daily to strengthen her relationship with God.

  As the Tedler brothers led Ricco away, he cried. “She drove me crazy.”

  “Have you ever heard of anger management therapy,” Sylvester asked, somewhat sympathetically.

  Anger management. Sally needed some. She wanted to grab a chair and hit Ricco over the head. His weeping softened the men, who probably remembered their need to strike out at someone, maybe even a loved one. The women in the bookshop went all soft, going around a sympathetic bend for the poor guy. He wasn’t worth a moment of their empathy. As far as Sally was concerned, Ricco was a common kitchen bully, no doubt learned from an anger-ridden father.

  In her younger days, when remedy loomed for every evil, Sally had volunteered at a women’s shelter in Jackson. She attended classes describing how to relate to the spineless victims. She was taught not to rail against their abusers, but to allow the souls of the women time to recognize better alternatives. Sally told one young woman with two children who were removed from their home by police when she complained of her evil husband’s violence. Instead of taking the criminal to jail, the police made the victim and her children homeless! Sally told her to go home, wait until the fool was asleep, borrow the frying pan from the kitchen, and beat him. The president of the shelter’s advisory board removed Sally from the safe-house list and asked her to resign from the program.

  Now she was experiencing the same frustration because the bookshop crew was so easily swayed by Ricco’s theatrics. Penny tried to hug Robert after Ed provided him another glass of sherry. Sally did not see a smile of appreciation under Robert’s moustache and his eyes did not brighten. However after Penny helped Robert to his feet, they walked arm-in-arm past everyone toward the washrooms in the hall.

  Sally turned to Andrew for his appraisal of the situation. “Ricco will be behind bars for a while.” He said to Harvey.

  The group stood in silence, until they heard Penny’s cries for help. “He doesn’t know me!” Penny rushed toward them.

  “Call 9ll,” Sally said to Ed, who dialed Robert’s ancient phone.

  They all hurried down the hall. Robert lay on the floor of the latrine. “Get me out of here,” he whispered. “Sally, I don’t want to die in a toilet.”

  “John, Harvey!” Sally yelled.

  John carried his feet and with Harvey on his left and Andrew on his right, they managed to lift Robert and move him to a wide wooden bench in the hall. Judge Wilcox opened the storeroom door to the hall and insisted they move Robert again, onto the bare mattress.

  “I’m having a stroke.” Robert smiled lopsidedly at Sally.

  “Why didn’t you send Penny out to us sooner,” Sally asked.

  “I knew what was happening,” Robert said. “Miss Poi died last night. She had a stroke, too.” He looked at Penny. “She’s in the big box your boots came in.”

  “I’ll take care of her,” Penny said.

  “Where’s the ambulance?” Sally frantically asked Ed.

  “Coming,” Ed said.

  “Last night,” Robert said. “I thought I might not be able to walk over to the bookshop from the Grangers.”

  Andrew said. “I had no idea you were this ill.”

  “Doesn’t b
elieve in doctors,” Harvey said and left the room. Sally could hear him coughing, and then weeping loudly in the hall.

  “Hey,” Robert called weakly, “I’m not dead yet.” Then another spasm passed over him. The line of his mouth slackened and Sally wiped a bit of drool away. The twenty-third Psalm whispered through her thoughts. “Better open the windows.” Robert tried to grin.

  His bowels let go completely as the ambulance attendants lifted him to the stretcher. “Never mind, mate,” One of them said. “We’re used to this.”

  “I can still see you,” Robert said to Penny. “I love you all.” He raised his left arm. “Tell Mary Jo both my parents died from strokes.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  University Hospital,

  October Tuesday Morning

  The sorry bookshop crew adjourned to the hospital’s emergency waiting room for further news. After three hours, Andrew left with a shaken Judge Wilcox. Harvey and Henry stayed. The group continued to bond with each other over their concern for Robert. Ed finally excused himself to attend to his family.

  Henry Schaeffer openly wept. “Are they operating on him?”

  “I don’t believe so,” Sally said.

  “Robert’s found a way out of this mess,” Harvey said.

  “Harvey,” Henry cried. “He can recover.”

  “He won’t want to be an invalid,” Harvey said.

  Sally agreed, realizing the implication. “He won’t.” John nodded and stroked her arm.

  A resident walked toward the group, his surgical mask in hand. “He’s refused to allow us to relieve the pressure. The stroke is well advanced. He’s blind and his right side is paralyzed. The seizures are increasing.”

  “Can we see him?” Henry was on his feet.

  “He won’t know you. He has slipped into a coma. He only has a few more hours, at the most.”

  Penny walked toward them with her new husband and brother, Mark, nearly carrying her. “Robert’s gone.” She collapsed into a chair. Her young face was ashen.

  They all sat in a stunned silence. Sally’s first thought was odd. Her sister, Madelyn, would be pleased. There was no reason for being involved with these people assembled in the waiting room. She checked her watch. Three o’clock in the morning was when most births occur, maybe deaths too. Without the bookman, would the people in the room continue to associate with each other?

  Henry stood. “I’ll attend to everything.” Harvey accompanied him out of the waiting room.

  “Take Penny home,” Sally told Simon and Mark.

  John drove Sally to her condominium. “He wasn’t a perfect man.” She kept saying, feeling disloyal but needing to speak the truth. “He wasn’t a saint.”

  “Robert was your friend,” John said. “And you were his friend when he needed you most.”

  Deep within her bones, Sally knew Robert would always, into eternity, be counted as a friend. But he wasn’t perfect. Neither was she, but she was still sober. She thanked God and struggled with her anger against Robert’s way of living, trying to let her resentments fade. “I really need a meeting.”

  “At four o’clock in the morning?”

  Sally almost laughed. “You’re right.”

  At her address, John opened the Honda’s passenger door. Sally didn’t let go of his hand. They walked to her front doorway arm-in-arm. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” Then he kissed her soundly with a comforting embrace before letting her go.

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  Waterloo Cemetery

  First Friday in October

  The funeral service at the Waterloo gravesite was short. Tall evergreens swayed on the cemetery’s hill under a harsh October sky. The frost-yellowed grass crunched under their footfalls. Hands were stuffed in pockets or turning up collars against the wind.

  “We loved him,” Judge Wilcox said. “We eulogized him, now we’re burying him; but Robert Koelz will continue to live among us as long as we live. Let’s adjourn to the shop for a farewell drink.”

  Sally did not need the drink, or rather, she needed the drink, but a drunken life was not an option for her, not anymore. Without Robert, the entire center of her social activities, after Danny died and apart from AA, was destroyed. Henry was nice enough, but Sally didn’t respect his unhappy life with his moneyed wife. Harvey was incorrigible, not anyone she would want to invite for dinner. Ed’s wife wouldn’t let Sally adopt her husband. Penny’s life, even Mary Jo’s was of no interest to her. Robert was gone.

  John drove her from the cemetery to the bookshop. Was she regressing into the scenes of her high-school days? His bald profile seemed alien, but friendly. Would they develop a friendship? “I’ll be right in,” she said. “I need to make an AA call.”

  Sitting in the car, she called three phone numbers of AA women. Each sympathized; reminding her the death of a close friend was not a reason to drink. There were no acceptable reasons for an alcoholic to take the next, first drink. She decided the youngest sounding woman, Grace, would be the best one to sponsor her; the other two were not heterosexual.

  When Sally explained a high-school friend was with her, the young woman reminded her, “God, too, is standing firm beside you. How far along are you in the Steps?”

  “I’ve gone through all twelve.”

  “Read me Step One and when you call tomorrow we’ll talk about your thoughts about the step.”

  “I don’t carry my book with me.”

  “I think you should memorize them for the future. ‘We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives had become unmanageable.’ Call me tomorrow morning.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  After Sally dragged her reluctant body up the bookshop’s two flights of stairs, she could see the grieving crew was well into their sauce. Sally thanked God she processed enough sense to talk to an AA person before attempting to commune with the drinking bookshop customers. Henry Schaefer was sitting in Robert’s chair. Penny, accompanied by her husband and brother leaned against the back bookcase. The Tedler brothers were replaying Ricco’s capture. Andrew sat in the place of honor, as Sally always deemed Robert’s side chair. He relinquished the chair to Sally and then stood with Harvey and Henry near the Liberty Street windows where Judge Wilcox was enthroned at the drop-leaf secretary. John unfolded a chair and placed it next to Sally.

  Faces were marked with their loss. Were they weighing the possibilities of their friendships lasting past the death of Robert Koelz? Then Mary Jo arrived, alive as you please. “I’m so sorry.” She repeated the same words for nearly a half hour until the cream sherry began to work on her nerves, too. “I tried to find a babysitter for Ricco’s children, but they wouldn’t leave their Aunt Harriett so she could come with me.”

  “Ricco been arrested for assaulting Robert. He’s off the streets, so you are safe,” Sylvester Tedler was drawn to Mary Jo’s side.

  Andrew pushed Judge Wilcox out of his chair in order to offer it to Mary Jo. “There’s a body in Missouri I need to dig up to get a conviction of murder.” Henry handed Judge Wilcox the phone. After he hung up, the judge told Andrew, “The exhumation papers will be ready in the morning.”

  “I’ll press charges for abuse,” Mary Jo said, “if you promise to keep him locked up.”“A bit late,” Sally said, more sober than the judge.

  Penny pointed to Sally. “Your mouth, the lip line, is the same as Mary Jo’s and mine.”

  Harvey stood clasping his vest labels, elbows extended as if he were mimicking a rooster about to crow. “Robert loved his women.”

  “And men,” Henry said quietly.

  “Thank God, Robert taught us to recognize men as human beings,” Sally said. Mary Jo and Penny nodded their agreements.

  As evening descended on the bookshop, Andrew followed John and Sally down the steps to the street. “I arranged with Sylvester Tedler to keep Mary Jo under protective custody.”

  Sally agreed, “Even after he’s incarcerated, Ricco could hire people to harm her.”


  “Are the results of his second wife’s autopsy going to be faxed to you?” John asked.

  “They are, but I was hoping I could send Sam Tedler with you two to Kansas City.” Andrew straightened his vest. “I know it’s an imposition, but Mary Jo’s suspicions would be further corroborated if Ricco’s first wife could describe her sister’s injuries prior to her death at Ricco’s hand.”

  John answered for them. “We’re starting to like our detective work, aren’t we?”

  Sally slipped her arm around John’s waist. “You want us to convince his first wife to come to Ann Arbor? When should we leave?”

  “As soon as possible. Judge Wilcox said the necessary paperwork should arrive in Kansas City in the morning. If you could bring the children, who I understand all have the name Ricco and witnessed his violence against their pets and their mother, I think the jury would be willing to give Ricco a life sentence for murder. As soon as I receive the autopsy report, I can bring charges against him and keep him in jail.”

  Sally hugged the lawyer. “Robert trusted your judgment.”

  “High praise.” Andrew turned away and briskly walked to his car.

  “Too bad, men aren’t allowed to show their emotions.” John shielded Sally from the stiff night breeze. “For instance, I want to be engaged to you. Could I please, please buy you a ring?”

  Sally leaned back against his shoulder as he kissed her. “I think that’s appropriate.” Sally told him after a second kiss. “Separate rooms on the road, until we’re married.”

  ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

  As Sally snuggled under the covers, she repeated the four words of her daily, AA Tenth Step, wondering if indeed she acted out of any fear, self-pity, anger, or resentment. Before her mind let her rest in sleep, she asked God’s forgiveness for the resentment she still felt against Robert for ending his life too early by not admitting his addiction to alcohol and for her anger toward men like Mary Jo’s crazy husband.

  Chapter Ten