“No, it's not,” snapped Frank. “People have no idea what their country has to do to keep us safe.”
“But daddy,” said Katie, “they say the war is wrong, that we—“
“Katie, stay out of adult discussions,” said Esther. “You’re still a child.”
Frank turned to Thomas with a serious look on his face. Thomas knew what was coming before he said it.
“Tommy, are you sure about this girl?”
“Dad, we've been over this. I love her,” said Thomas.
“Ouuu luuuvvv,” said Katie and she made kissing noises. Frank cut this off with a stern look.
“Katie, excuse yourself,” said Frank.
“But I—-“
Another look from Frank stopped this statement by Katie as well.
“I'm done anyway,” said Katie. “Excuse me.” Katie got up and left taking her plate.
Thomas had hoped to come home to avoid conversations about life. He and Sarah were barely speaking and now he had to trudge through the “Why are you marrying a radical female” minefield again.
“You need to think seriously about this girl, Thomas,” said Frank. “With all the political bullshit going on, there's no telling what she's into. It could blemish your standing as an officer. So it’s a good thing she stalled the wedding. It’s a sign.”
“I'm not talking about it,” said Thomas defiantly. He ignored his father’s gaze and looked into his plate, which was almost empty.
“No one thought I should marry you, Frank,” said Esther with a sly smile.
“Yeah, but your parents are crazy,” said Frank.
“That's what they said about me when I told them,” said Esther. “You follow your heart, Tommy. It’s the only way to go.”
Esther got up and left still smoking her cigarette. Frank scoffed even as she kissed his forehead.
Frank grabbed his beer from the table and went into the living room. He turned on the TV and settled into his chair.
Thomas entered after a while and sat next to him. Thomas’ desire for peace had only been the first reason he came home. He wanted to talk to his father about something but given the already strained talk about Sarah, he wondered if he should just leave.
“I’m right about that girl,” Frank said. “I know how you feel about her, but a man is only as good as the woman behind him. She’s not behind you. She’s behind herself. And that ain’t right.”
It was more Real Man philosophy in all its one-syllable power.
“Seems like all the women my age are like that,” said Thomas.
“Not Alice Parker,” said Frank. “She’s pretty, she goes to church, a good girl.”
“You and Mr. Parker plotting something?” Thomas said with a knowing look.
“Of course we are,” said Frank. “Alice is getting courted by long-haired draft dodgers and hippies. Dutch told me he saw a nigger looking at her one day. Of course, that’s all they ever think about, those ones.”
Thomas heard the forbidden word and just as quickly he envisioned his father, wrestling with him and Shaun in their old house. His father coming home covered in snow with food and his father showing up at his school in uniform smiling like a hero right out of the movies.
“So, I wanted to tell you...” Thomas began haltingly and he wanted to take it back but it was too late. “The brass... they’re opening some of the riot cases-— the deaths.”
Frank reacted casually to this, drinking from his beer. “That's what brass does. How they call themselves cops, I don't know.”
“One of them is the Jackson kid, the one I was involved in.”
“Yeah. So?”
“I'm worried about it, I guess, what they could ask me,” said Thomas. “You know how political things are getting downtown.”
“Your partner will support you,” said Frank. “That's what partners are for.”
“Ned and I got separated while we pursued the suspect, remember? So I was the only one of us there when we found the kid.”
“So Ned should just say he was there,” said Frank.
“He didn’t,” said Thomas. “I don’t know why but he didn’t in the official report.”
“Jesus, what kinda fuckin’ partner did you pick?” said Frank with disgust. “Well, then the other two cops will tow the line. That’s how it goes.” Frank sighed heavily as if trying to expel something from his body.
Thomas gathered his resolve. He knew he was walking onto dangerous ground now. “My watch commander asked me to talk to some people on a committee from the Mayor’s office and the Governor’s. There were two Negroes there, too.”
Frank’s eyes widened. He sat up straighter and turned a little. “Your commander asked you to do that?”
“Said if I didn’t they’d be suspicious.”
“What the fuck’s going on?” asked Frank his voice rising higher. “I’m gonna make some calls tomorrow.”
“Don’t,” said Thomas. “I can handle this.”
“If you could, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“I talked to them for a few minutes then I went to work. Then, when I went to the lobby....”
“What?” asked Frank looking upset.
“The dead kid's brother was there wearing his Marine uniform. He confronted me about it.”
“At the station house?” Franks voice rose again. “I hope he got his head busted.”
“No, Dad. We can't just do that anymore.”
“Goddamned police are turning into a bunch of pansies. Back in my day, he would have been taken out and relieved of some of his teeth. Can you imagine that? Right in the station house? What’s the goddamned world coming to?”
“We threw him out but that’s not what’s bothering me really,” said Thomas.
“Then what?” asked Frank. “God knows it can’t be much worse.”
“I don't think the investigation is over. And I feel like... I think someone’s been following me after work.”
Frank noticed his son's upset expression and for the first time, he realized the gravity in the conversation.
“You don’t think they’re gonna chase this thing, do you?” asked Frank with clear concern.
“I don’t know,” said Thomas.
“Don’t beat yourself up over some dead kid. They come and they go.”
“It's a big deal, all of this, pop. The Negroes on that committee, they just sat there not talking, like they already had some kinda plan.”
“A colored kid out in a White neighborhood with a knife on him? He got himself killed and that's that.”
Frank looked at Thomas and saw that there was more to the story and before Thomas could say anything: “You’d better not be thinking about talking out of turn. This kinda thing don't make a damned bit of difference to anybody that matters. And before you want to confess to me like a priest, let me tell you the code again. Nobody talks about nothing. You open your mouth and you're gonna be all alone at the precinct.”
Frank tipped his beer, then, “I know what you think,” he continued. “But I'm not like the bigots in this town. There's plenty of colored people I like.”
“You don't have to defend yourself to me. I'm your son,” said Thomas.
“Then act like it,” said Frank. “There's been a Riley on the force since the beginning of the century. My father served and so did your brother, Shaun. You know, Shaunie had a situation like this once—-“
“I'm not Shaun, pop,” said Thomas and the tone of his voice was forbidding.
This stopped Frank who had light in his eyes at the mention of his deceased son.
Thomas’ expression grew correspondingly darker. They had clashed over comparisons to Shaun even before he was dead. Back then it seemed like normal parental favor. Thomas had his mother and Shaun had Frank. It was even. But now that Shaun was gone, it hurt to be compared to him. No one could live up to a dead legend.
“Anyway, we got a tradition in this family,” Frank continued. “Don't be the first to disgrac
e the uniform.”
“I’m not going to,” said Thomas with a trace of anger.
“The other cops, what are their names?” asked Frank.
“Don Brady and Matt Reid.”
“Brady I don’t know,” said Frank, “but Reid, that’s George Reid’s boy. Good looking kid.”
“They’re worried, too. They talked to the same committee. They’ve been on my ass about keeping quiet,” said Thomas.
“They should be,” said Frank. “Look, it’ll all settle itself out. It always does.”
“It just don't feel right,” said Thomas.
“Who the hell said it was supposed to?” asked Frank. “The job comes with all kinds of responsibilities. If it were easy, then every man would be a cop. It isn’t about right and wrong, it’s about law and order. Sometimes what’s right isn’t good and what’s good ain’t right. But does it serve the law? That’s what you have to ask yourself.”
Frank turned on the TV. Thomas took this to mean that there would be no more discussion. Frank’s speech was good but it felt worn, frayed at the edges. Thomas felt change in the air and if he was the only one, then that meant he was already all alone.
The sounds of the television invaded the room but the silence was as loud as that of the Negroes on the committee, Thomas thought.
Thomas went home that night knowing that Sarah was there waiting for him. He stood in front of his place and started to go in and then he stopped. He went back to the front of the apartment building and sat on the stoop.
Thomas didn’t want to go in and have more difficult conversation. Worse, he didn’t want to go in and face Sarah’s silence. He was tired of silence.
He waited outside for a while, afraid to go into his own home and feeling like a coward because of it.
How did this happen, he asked himself? Just a few short months ago he was on top of his world and now he could feel the ends of his life unraveling, tumbling to the earth.
It was the riot, he mused. That was the night everything changed. No riot, no dead kid, no riot, no Sarah having second thoughts, no riot, no regretful looks from his father.
And before he could stop himself, he blamed the Negroes. He knew they had it hard but if they just waited, things would right themselves over time. Right now, they got what they deserved, he reasoned.
Thomas walked away from his house and went to McGinty’s. The patrons there were surprised to see Thomas who was a special occasion customer.
Thomas recognized the faces of several cops, some of whom were known to be heavy drinkers. The regular elbow-bending group welcomed him knowing that alcohol calls all troubled men sooner or later.
Thomas settled in to the bar and had a drink. After the third one, he began to feel at peace.
17
CAL’S
Robert, Yusef and Linda sat in the back of a VW van and watched the small diner across the street. The van was used and Robert suspected that it might be stolen. It was cluttered with trash and smelled of incense and weed.
After Robert accepted Yusef’s challenge, the other members of The Vanguard had dispersed, except the girl named Linda who had attended the funeral.
Her full name was Linda Peoples. She had been Marcus’ girlfriend. When Robert found this out, he remembered his brother’s face when they’d talked about women. Marcus had said she was beautiful and he had not lied.
Linda had requested to go along with the two men. Yusef had not put up a fight. It was obvious that Yusef had affection for and confidence in the young girl.
Linda was nineteen. She wore her hair in a short afro and was fond of midriff shirts that showed off her muscled abdomen. Her skin was brown and smooth and she had the biggest brown eyes he’d ever seen. She had been a track star at Central High School and her body showed it. Robert liked what he saw and couldn’t help but think that his brother did too.
The VW van sat a little down the block from Cal’s, a popular greasy spoon on the east side. It was not quite as secure as McGinty’s, but many cops ate there. The place was almost filled with patrons and it didn’t take Robert long to see that they were all White. Two police motorcycles sat in front of the place next to a fire hydrant.
“So what’s up with this joint?” asked Robert.
“We’re interested in the two pigs sitting near the front,” said Yusef in his crisp English.
“They on our list,” said Linda and Robert could tell from her voice that she, unlike Yusef, was a real girl from the ghetto.
“So what you want me to do, kill them?” asked Robert and he smiled at his joke.
Yusef reached into a case and pulled out a rifle.
“Please,” said Yusef.
The rifle had a scope on it and a crude, makeshift silencer on the end made of insulation and duct tape. Yusef handed the weapon to Robert.
Robert took the rifle and felt the weight by instinct. He balanced it on his forearm then looked down the sight. He checked it and found it unloaded.
Before he could ask, Linda’s hand was sticking out with several gleaming rounds. Robert took two of them and loaded the rifle.
He rested the weapon against his chest. Yusef and Linda just stared at him with very serious faces.
“What about the other bullets?” asked Yusef.
“At this distance, I’ll only need two,” said Robert.
“Confident,” said Yusef smiling. “I dig that. The one on the right is the worse one,” said Yusef. “He beat and raped a sister six months ago and got away with it. That woman was one of our many spies in the establishment. Our code demands blood for this crime.”
“So, you’ll trust me if I kill a man?” said Robert evenly as he sighted the weapon.
“Ain’t that the way the man do it?” said Linda. “You was in the Army, right?”
“Right,” said Robert not arguing. “So, I do this and I’m in.”
“All the way,” said Yusef.
“How come there wasn’t no revenge for my brother?” Robert asked.
“We’re not sure who killed him,” said Yusef. “We know there were three cops at the scene but which one did it? Or do we kill all three?”
Robert turned back to the weapon. He aimed the gun at the cop sitting on the right. Waitresses passed back and forth and he waited for a clear shot.
Robert drained himself of all compassion and logic. He took a breath and settled. He focused and tugged at the trigger.
Robert heard the hammer strike but no explosion followed. He pulled the trigger again. He was pulling the gun away to examine it, when Yusef reached out for it.
“Dummy bullets,” said Yusef. Robert released the gun and Yusef put it aside.
Robert’s soldier face remained. He scanned the man and woman before him unable to dial down his intensity.
“I ain’t got time for bullshit,” said Robert. “If this is what you do, then forget the shit.”
Yusef smiled at Linda who smiled back at him. “She said you’d say that. She also said you’d pull the trigger.”
“Marcus told me he was cold-blooded,” said Linda. “Why you don’t trust me, I don’t know.”
“Noted,” said Yusef.
“I like this kinda work,” said Linda. “Got me working at some janitor job cleaning up after White folks. I’m a revolutionary, baby.”
Yusef gave her a hard look and she clammed up. Robert noticed this but did not let on that he’d seen the harsh glare.
“I don’t apologize for our methods,” said Yusef. “They work for us. “We were testing you just now but we do have business with that cop.”
“He’s protecting dope dealers in the neighborhoods,” said Linda. “He and his partner even beat down the competition if they have to.”
“They’re dirty,” said Yusef. “Got any ideas how to send a message?”
“Yeah,” said Robert. “We got to get personal with them.”
“What does that mean?” asked Linda.
“Well, we could expose them,” said Robert, “bu
t even honest cops cover for dirty ones.”
“I know that’s right,” said Yusef.
“So we got to take the game right to them,” said Robert. It’s Monday, right? The drug boys make most of their money on the weekend. Sunday, no self-respecting cop will make a pick up, too busy in church pretending to be a good Christian. So chances are, their pick up is today.”
Yusef smiled at Robert’s wisdom. Linda had a look of pure pride on her face.
“Let’s do it,” said Yusef.
Robert covered the van’s license plate with tape as they waited for the cops to finish their meal. When the cops were done, they got on their bikes and rolled off.
Yusef drove as they trailed them. It was tricky business but Yusef was very good at mingling into traffic.
The cops patrolled for a while and then headed down a street known for trafficking drugs. It was a rather nondescript little street that looked prosperous. The dealers didn’t run or signal. The cops stopped outside a house that had several men sitting on its porch.
Yusef stopped the van at the corner.
“Now if we go down there we got to buy something or get our asses shot,” said Yusef. “I hate a muthafuckin’ drug dealer.”
“So now we know where they go to get their blood money,” said Robert. “We hit ‘em next time.”
**********
A week later, Robert Yusef and Linda were all at the same location waiting for the dirty cops. Like clockwork, they rolled up on their bikes and went down the street.
“We do this right and it’ll come back on them,” said Robert. “To Linda he said: “You ready?”
“Yeah, daddy,” said Linda. She was dressed in heavy makeup and a short skirt.
Yusef drove the van to the far end of the block and turned the corner. There was a lookout posted there, a man who looked to be twenty or so. Yusef rolled halfway down the block so the lookout couldn’t see him.
Robert jumped out of the van and sneaked up on the lookout. Robert punched him hard in the small of his back then tripped him to the ground. He rammed the man’s head into the ground several times until he stopped moving.
Dark Town Redemption Page 14
