Veteran Avenue

by Mark Pepper

  ‘Coffee?’ he said, trying to fill the two minutes with activity.

  Still in that dreamy way, Hayley said, ‘Thank you, no.’

  ‘I think I will,’ he said, aware of the false jollity in his voice. It was difficult, but he resisted the temptation to whistle something tuneless as he poured himself a mug from the percolator. It didn’t help that she had swivelled on her stool to watch his every move.

  ‘Are they not back yet?’ he asked stupidly.

  She shook her head and her blissful smile never flickered – not even when Virginia appeared.

  Having struggled to keep his happy mask in place, it now hung there quite naturally, his facial muscles no longer out of tune with his emotions.

  ‘You can’t have finished already,’ he said to Virginia, playing his part.

  ‘Oh, I’m not in the mood. How are you doing, Hayley?’

  ‘Better spiritually than physically.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure the physical side will catch up.’

  Hayley turned back to the window and John got a look from Virginia that said I see what you mean, before she perched on the stool next to her unwanted guest. John stayed behind them, observing.

  ‘Did John tell you we’re in the same business, you and I?’

  ‘You’re having rather more success than I am, though,’ Hayley said amicably.

  ‘That’ll change, don’t worry. Once you’ve impressed people, they tend to come back to you. You’ll get another break, maybe not in Malibu Mischief, but in something just as good. Maybe bigger, maybe a movie, who knows?’

  Oozing pure serenity, which John doubted was a result of Virginia’s reassurances, Hayley glanced meaningfully over her shoulder at him before making a portentous announcement.

  ‘Life is on the up and up. I think so, too.’

  John noticed his girlfriend flounder, then recognized her next comment as a desperate bid, even fib, to direct Hayley’s mind away from him.

  ‘I could make some introductions,’ she said. ‘I know some important people.’

  ‘That’s a very generous offer. You’d do that for me?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘No you wouldn’t.’

  Unseen by them, John made a cringing face. In the leaden lull, the clash of personalities had been deafening, but at least Hayley’s eerie smile was finally gone. As for Virginia, she had lost all semblance of amity and was giving Hayley a cold, hard stare.

  ‘You’re right: I won’t now.’

  ‘Virginia, do you think I can’t recognize blatant insincerity when I see it? Oh, I didn’t for a long time, but I wised up when Larry did this to me. You don’t care about me; you’re just trying to keep me from talking to John.’

  Virginia let out a harsh, involuntary laugh. ‘You got that dead wrong, girl. I’m trying to keep you from not talking to him.’

  ‘Ginny –’

  ‘No, John, she needs to hear this. Hayley, to which scintillating conversation are you referring exactly? You don’t talk; all you do is sit there staring at him. So he can’t talk to you because he feels so goddamned awkward. If you want the truth –’

  ‘Ginny ...’

  ‘– you freak him out.’

  ‘Really?’ Hayley said. ‘I guess that must be why he kissed me.’

  At that precise moment, John wished a Scud had landed on his head back in the Gulf. He wanted to deny it. He needed to. But he couldn’t lie to Virginia, and now several seconds had passed since the accusation, there was no point.

  ‘Ginny ...’ he said feebly.

  ‘Virginia to you.’ She got off her stool and left the room. Shortly, the front door was heard to slam, and for the second time that day John let her go. If Dodge was right, chasing her would not help matters. She needed time to calm down. Even then, he thought he shouldn’t be very hopeful.

  ‘Well, thanks a bunch for that,’ he said to Hayley.

  ‘I’m sorry but she deserved it.’

  ‘And what about me? Did I deserve it?’

  ‘Depends whether you told her I freaked you out. Did you?’

  ‘Words to that effect, yes.’

  Hayley looked away as tears welled.

  ‘Oh, come on, Hayley, if you’ve been acting normal, I’d hate to see what odd looks like.’

  ‘Can I help it if I’m happy to be with you?’

  ‘But why are you happy to be with me? And why doesn’t it look like happy? Why does it look like ... bloody weird?’

  She responded with an enigmatic smile and John lost his temper.

  ‘That’s what I mean! What the hell is that face for? If I didn’t know any different I’d think you’d just had a good seeing to.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘A fuck,’ he said bluntly.

  ‘Oh.’

  He spoke again before one of their uncomfortable silences could descend. ‘So, Hayley, what is it I’m picking up from you?’

  The smile began to spread again until a stern look from John flattened her mouth. He raised his eyebrows at her, impatient for an answer.

  ‘I’ll tell you when we get there,’ she said.

  ‘No, tell me now.’

  She shook her head and turned back to the window, indicating that the subject was closed.

  ‘Fine,’ he said.

  He pushed away from the counter and left her alone. His heart wasn’t in that room; it had just walked out of the house. No matter what Dodge said, John couldn’t risk Virginia thinking he didn’t care enough to chase after her.

  Out of the sun, the sudden coolness made his flesh crawl. Dodge had stopped in the shadow of the balcony’s overhang, next to one of the stilts that supported the bar. To onlookers he would simply be selecting a good spot to relax, but behind his Ray-Bans his eyes were scouting for Larry. The beach was sparsely populated and Dodge located him quickly. He had walked parallel to the road for twenty meters and had nearly finished shedding his clothes. Once down to a pair of red briefs, he appeared to adjust his crotch, then trudged laboriously through the soft sand towards the water.

  ‘Can’t wash away your sins that easy,’ Dodge said to himself. ‘Trust me. I know. But if it’s absolution you want ...’ He squeezed the paper-wrapped steel in his hand.

  Larry reached the surf and waded steadily into the ocean until he had to start swimming. Pointing directly out to sea, he got into a breast stroke, and Dodge wondered momentarily if his aim was to keep going until exhaustion dragged him under. If victims of drowning really did see their lives flash before their eyes, it wasn’t the way Dodge would have wanted to go. His experiences were not for repeat broadcast, even in a drastically condensed form.

  Then Larry’s legs flicked up as he dived under, and when he resurfaced he was facing inland, treading water. Dodge made an instant decision to move into the sun. He was more likely to attract attention standing in the shadows than showing himself. As he headed along the beach, Larry resumed swimming, and Dodge reckoned if he did look like anything out of the ordinary, he probably looked famous. A celebrity down from the hills, incognito in cap and shades, catching some rays.

  He ambled diagonally along the beach. Passing Larry’s clothes he couldn’t see a handgun lying among them, but he wasn’t inclined to believe it had been ditched. What did strike him as significant was the towel. No longer rolled up, it was now spread out ready to receive a wet body, suggesting Larry was not about to just dry himself and return to his car. He was going to lie down and sun-dry himself, and hopefully nod off.

  Ten meters beyond Larry’s position and five meters forward of it, Dodge halted and sat down. If Larry looked his way, Dodge thought his close proximity to a couple of beautiful women would justify his choice and make it seem wholly innocent. Putting Larry to his rear appeared to be a potentially fatal error in military terms, but Dodge was not in fact left blind by it. Any movement behind could be detected on the inside of his Ray-Bans. It wasn’t the clearest of images, but it was enough.

  Some distance offshore, Larry was still c
alming his troubled soul in Pacific waters. Dodge put the newspaper in his lap, pretended to read it for a moment, then leaned back on his hands and looked out to the horizon. After a few minutes he straightened up and tugged the shirt from his waist. He wiped his sandy palms on the yellow material and dropped it on the paper. Another apparently idle scan of the ocean, then he carefully pulled the paper from around the Smith, leaving the gun covered by the shirt. Even an FBI surveillance team would have been fooled. He held the paper as though engrossed, but his hidden eyes never left the swimming figure.

  Five minutes later, Larry curved back into the shallows ten meters away from the point where he’d gone in. He swam, waded, then walked out of the surf directly in front of Dodge, and all Dodge could do was act natural; keep up the charade of reading. It was okay, though, because he hadn’t been spotted and he was armed while Larry was in his underwear. He furtively slipped a hand under his shirt and grasped the butt of the Smith & Wesson. Beneath the brim of his cap, behind his sunglasses, he secretly kept an eye on Larry, who seemed totally preoccupied with the skimpy bikinis ahead of him. He settled into a slow jog through the sand as though his show of fitness might impress. The guy was a bona-fide jerk; having ruined one pretty face, he was trying to win undamaged smiles from two more. Dodge had never relished the prospect of killing someone as much as he did Larry, and once the bastard fell asleep he wouldn’t wake up again this side of Hell.

  Unfortunately, with the line Larry was taking, Dodge would get a face full of sand as he passed by, which raised an interesting dilemma. Should he react angrily like a normal human being and risk being recognized, or stay quiet and look suspicious?

  It was not a decision he had to make. Not minding where he was going, Larry stumbled and began to fall towards him, and Dodge had a plan zap through his head. The second Larry hit the sand, he would insert a round into his head and leave him lying there. The crashing waves would probably be enough to disguise the noise.

  Virginia had left the front door ajar. John was about to go through it when Hayley called to him.

  ‘Don’t bother, John!’

  He stopped and seethed. Her tone was so flippant, the callous cow, like she knew the damage she had inflicted was irreparable. He yearned to yell something offensive but would not give her the satisfaction. He would not even slam the door on his way out. As he pulled the door wide open, Hayley shouted again to tell him what he could already see.

  ‘She’s back!’

  Virginia was striding purposefully up the drive. There was no sign of anger in her expression – nor forgiveness. She looked more business-like than anything.

  ‘Inside,’ she said, passing him.

  He shut the door and followed her into the kitchen. She was leaning arms folded against the counter opposite Hayley, who had turned on her stool to listen. John stayed by the kitchen door, closer to the stairs that led up to the holdall he anticipated he would soon be packing.

  ‘I am not going to be forced out of my own house by a stranger,’ Virginia began. ‘If anyone’s leaving, Hayley, you are. Okay, you’re here by invitation, but not from me. My dad seems to think you’re some kind of a panacea for the past. I’m not so sure. He’s already nearly gotten himself killed over you, and I can’t see how that helps anyone but you. Now, I want to know exactly what you and John feel for each other so I can know exactly where I stand, and if I’m not happy with what I hear, you can both hit the street. So who wants to start? John? You want to tell me why you kissed her?’

  He looked at her hopelessly. ‘I honestly don’t know.’

  ‘Not good enough. If you want to be with me, I have to know if kissing complete strangers is something you’re going to be doing a lot of.’

  ‘I’m not a complete stranger,’ Hayley chipped in.

  ‘Why, because some crazy hermit gave him your picture once upon a time? I can see how that could make John grow up curious about you, but it doesn’t explain your interest in him.’

  ‘My interest,’ Hayley said defiantly, ‘is why Grandpa Chuck thought he should have my picture in the first place.’

  ‘I told you,’ Virginia said. ‘Cuckoo.’

  ‘We’ll see.’

  Virginia looked with pleading amusement at John, then back at her rival and laughed in her face. ‘How? Are we gonna hold a séance, call up Gramps and ask him?’

  ‘You can mock,’ Hayley said, unflustered.

  ‘I can, yeah, it’s real easy. I mean, how long has insanity run in your family?’

  ‘This isn’t helping,’ John said quietly.

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong. I feel better already. I’ve just established she’s as whacko as her grandfather. Which means if you want to be with her I’ll know you’re crazy, too, and that pretty much eliminates my sense of loss. One screwed-up war veteran I can live with – I have done all my life – but I’m not a collector.’

  John tried not to smile but Virginia caught his effort.

  ‘Did I say something funny?’

  ‘Only to someone who loves you,’ he said, and saw the most remarkable transformation take place. It was as though Virginia had suddenly realized she was not being ganged up on, but was a part of the gang.

  ‘Truce,’ Hayley said, knowing she had been suddenly side-lined. ‘Virginia, I am not after your man. In fact I am not in the least bit sexually attracted to him.’

  ‘Oh, cheers,’ John said, and turned to Virginia. ‘Don’t listen to her; I am sex on legs and you know it.’

  Virginia couldn’t help but smile.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Hayley said, ‘that’s not as bad as it sounds. I can’t feel that way about you, John, and before the day’s out you’ll understand why.’

  Virginia took a deep breath as she reassessed her suspicions.

  ‘I don’t know why, Hayley ... but I believe you.’ She looked at John. ‘Now what about you, sergeant? What about that kiss?’

  ‘It wasn’t sexual,’ Hayley answered for him.

  ‘Thank you,’ Virginia said, ‘but I’d like to hear that from John.’

  ‘I love you, Ginny,’ John said. ‘And I know you believe me. I don’t want anyone else. I can’t imagine I ever will. You are more than I ever dreamed I’d get in this life.’

  Although Virginia smiled again, she sounded weary when she spoke. ‘But you still can’t tell me the kiss you gave her was purely platonic, can you?’

  ‘I can tell you it wasn’t romantic.’

  ‘How? You couldn’t a moment ago. Don’t play games with me, John.’

  ‘I’m not. I admit when I kissed her I was confused. I still don’t know exactly why I did it. Maybe I was testing myself. But feeling what I feel now, I know beyond any doubt that Hayley is no threat to you, romantically or sexually.’

  ‘Touché,’ Hayley said wryly.

  Virginia ignored her. ‘How do I know those aren’t just words?’

  ‘Because if you ask me to walk away from her right now and never see her again, I will.’

  ‘No!’ Hayley squealed, nearly falling off her seat in her scramble to beg up close. ‘You can’t! Virginia, please don’t ask him to do that.’

  John wondered how magnanimous Virginia would be, and hoped he would not be disappointed by a previously-unseen cruel streak in her. With Hayley’s pitiful physical condition, it would be a cruel person indeed who would rub salt in her wounds.

  Having deliberated with evident relish, Virginia put a question to Hayley, couched in terms already used: ‘And before the day’s out I’ll understand why, right?’

  Hayley nodded eagerly, desperately.

  ‘I’d better,’ Virginia said. ‘Or rest assured I will hide John away from you like you’re hiding from Larry.’

  The hammer was pulled back ready. The trigger was under mounting pressure from an itchy finger. Beneath his shirt, the silencer was shifting round to its target like some directional boner. For Dodge, the world had moved into slow-mo. It seemed an age before Larry hit the horizontal right next to hi
m, and when he did it looked comical, like a pratfall, arms flailing like flightless wings. There was a soft thud, a spray of sand, and a glint of metal in the sun.

  Dodge felt the punch to his guts and knew it wasn’t simply a punch.

  He gasped as he was knocked flat on his back. The gun remained in his hand but both arms flew out into a crucifixion spread so the Smith’s muzzle buried itself in the sand. Larry pushed the gun out of his hand and submerged it out of sight, then shifted quickly to straddle Dodge like a dominant lover, gripping his wrists.

  Lifting his head, Dodge looked down at his stomach. Blood was beginning to spill over his abdominals and run down his flanks. Several sand-coated crimson globules rolled like ball-bearings and settled on his sternum. The cause: a silver handle sticking out, its blade wholly sunk. Larry hadn’t been adjusting his crotch before the swim; he’d been stashing a knife.

  Dodge rested his head back and stared at the great blue sky.

  Larry smiled at him, then checked both ways along the beach. When he looked down again the smile was still there, because no one knew a man was dying. The knife handle was hidden between Larry’s thighs. If anyone was paying attention, it would be because they resembled a gay couple, openly romping.

  ‘Die quiet,’ Larry said gently. ‘Don’t shout. Don’t make me kill anyone else.’

  Dodge didn’t think he could shout. He thought he could already feel his blood pressure dropping and guessed his insides were slowly filling with blood that should have been in his veins.

  ‘Yeah, you’d hate that,’ he whispered.

  Larry leaned down like he wanted a kiss. Instead, he used his teeth to bite the Ray-Bans from Dodge’s face and drop them in the sand.

  ‘I don’t know who the fuck you are, boy, but you should have known better. I got a baaaaaad reputation. I’m infamous. What d’you think? You could just sneak up on me and pop me? I saw you coming a country fucking mile away.’

  ‘Was a time you’d have never seen me coming.’