by JJ DeCeglie
It was hard to decide which of'em I liked better, 'cause she was only smiling in one. Goddamn was she a first-class beauty. Just undeniable. Irrefutable. As permanent as you will be one day dead. A fucking knockout. I doubt if you’ve ever seen a women like her. I never had. She’d got my furnace so stoked that I couldn’t think straight. Nah I was gone, out to lunch. Sitting at my desk migrant minded with inevitability written on the wall. What came next is what you’d expect I’d think, and if what you’re thinking is what I think it is well what can I do but tell that it wasn’t otherwise, and if I said it were that…
Yep.
I’d be lying.
CHAPTER 8
I zipped up, put all the photos in my wallet and paced around wearing out the carpet again. I took a good look out the window a few times and it didn’t seem like anyone was watching the place. I called Chenko again and this time the son of a bitch picked up.
We set a meet for two hours time west of the city.
I was gonna have to make for it sooner or later. I decided to wait an hour before trying it. That hour took three. I locked the front door. Counted the money in full and placed it an envelope and taped it all up. I looked at Evie’s photos some more. Fought off temptation with a stick and then stared at the wall and drooled like a man in an insane asylum.
When the time came I shoved the money into my pants and didn’t hesitate. I locked up quick as I could and walked fast back in the direction I’d come along earlier in the day. I kept my head down or looking away from the direction a spotter would be in, I’m not sure what difference I thought that would make seeing as though I'd just rushed out of my own office. Long story short I made it. I threw my ass in the car and sped off quietly as I could. Not before taking a hit from the vodka I’d been longing for mind you. The hangover’s only remnants now were that feeling of needing to shed the greasy skin you’re wrapped in.
Well and my brain felt seriously inflamed, but hell that comes with the territory don't it.
As I wheeled down the coastline I watched hard for tails but there was nothing. They must have been watching the house, or were perhaps just planted waiting for some word to come in. This city has a severe rat infestation and always has, all cities do I guess; a man’s word is worth about as much as wind he passes before making potty, maybe less, and the entirety of it revolves around the almighty godawful dollar.
Chenko was an exception. He was a stand-up guy and a good friend. We worked together all the time on ranging deals and there was a trust there that had been tried and tested. Hell there was enough there to rely on the man with my life. And right now I pretty much was. I'd've given him my beating heart on a plate to look after for a day, and he would have done it too. We went back a ways. He was waiting at the beach front when I got there. Wearing a vintage grey Stetson Whippet on his head and twirling the end of his connoisseur-style moustache. He wore it that way and it suited him just fine. Made him look a mystic or soothsayer of some sort. Somehow he had on a jacket and dress trousers, and sure the sea breeze was in but it was anything but cool. He was thin and quite tall, about five years older than me. He had South American blood running through him, so his skin was the colour of a macchiato, and he spoke with this defined articulation that always made him a pleasure to listen to. He handed me a beer first up and clinked bottles with me. Second up he starting busting my ass as best he could.
Busy few days huh?
I did some shopping, paid some bills, even found time to go on a lovely little date.
Yes I heard all about it.
Oh yeah… did you hear about me beating the living motherfuck outta some goons who came to get the money I owed their employers?
Oh no, I didn’t hear about that.
No. I'd've thought everybody knew about it by now.
Perhaps they do.
That right.
It is Jack. It certainly is. Cigar?
He offered me a cigarillo from his pocket. I took it and cupped my hand around it to get the bastard going from his politely offered light. I smoked it hard and killed it in about five long draws in between draining that first beer. Chenko straight up offered me another drink and I took that one too and didn’t say thanks. He twirled his moustache and I scratched my balls. We both understood the gravity of the situation, so there was no use talking it round and round. Instead I told him about Evie. I gave him the whole of it and offered him some work in getting what she wanted done.
Is this broad telling the truth?
No chance. But you should see her, a fucking winner if ever there were one.
I could've guessed that Jack.
How so?
He looked out over the water and watched the waves crash ashore for a few seconds. I knew what he was gonna say, so who knew why I’d asked him all innocent and acted like I didn’t.
Come on Jack. We’ve had our pungent drunken talks about it before. You’re a sucker for damsels in distress. Even before whatever happened. You’re an asshole for it. You know that.
I sank the rest of the second beer. I knew I knew something. Deep, deep down I did. Whatever it was didn’t want admitting. So fuck the world my friend.
Oh please brother! Give me a break. Chenko you know me pal. They’re all a piece of ass and I don’t distinguish one from the other. What happened happened and I’ll be damn fucked if I can’t help thinking that it was sorta my fault, but the bitch is dead, and that’s that.
Inside I whooshed out over the large dark sea. Chenko lit me the subsequent cigar and I killed that sucker quicker than the first one. Not to mention the beer I was swilling.
All I’m saying Jack is don’t get yourself in a spot, you know, trying to fix things that are permanently busted.
Give me that third beer.
You’re drinking pretty hard aren’t you?
It’s either that beer or the bottle of vodka I got in the car.
He handed me the beer. I opened it and took a drink. Did a minute or two of my own watching the water with the sun full in my face. The salted wind making a further mess of my hair.
Do you want the fucking job Chenko?
Not sure. Do I really want to be a part of bullshit right now?
The money’s real pal. And fat.
Chenko sapped his first bottle, picked up a second and got started on it.
How do we start?
I took out the photos and handed them over to him. Not all of them of course.
I need the documents as soon as you can.
Chenko looked at the pictures a second.
By God, she’s a knockout.
Didn’t I say that already?
Yes, I have to say you did.
He looked at the photos some more. Then smoked a second. He spoke with the cigar still between his lips.
I’ll need five thousand if you want those papers quick, eight if you want them real quick.
He fixed his hat some and took another drink. I knew he wasn’t adding his own fee into that; he just wasn’t that kinda guy. It was only a pass-off for him, but there was risk involved, hell just being here now was a risk in itself.
I’ll give you ten now, and I’ll throw in another stack if you can get it done and back to me by tomorrow night.
He took the smoke from his mouth, said what I wanted to hear.
Sounds right…anything else?
I thought quickly scanning over the landscape interior and out.
I’ll need some syringes. I can get everything but that.
Chenko took a notepad from his jacket pocket and wrote it down.
I’ll have them for you when I give you the rest of it.
We discussed a couple of other details to do with Evie’s papers. Things that had to be decided on and Chenko wrote it all down. He was a meticulous cat and we covered all the angles. I also inquired as to if he’d heard about any wealth going missing. Evie had to have got it somewhere but Chenko said he’d heard nothing but would keep an ear to the grindstone. When done with that I handed him
the ten and he left damn quick without really saying why. He had ten fingers in twenty pies so it didn’t surprise that he had to get. It wasn’t like I really wanted to shoot the shit with him anyway. Told me smiling to stop drink driving as he drove away. I replied with a hearty fuck you.
I got to work on my end then. I had to round up a bunch of shit required to pull this play off. I filled the car with petrol firstly and then started out to some obscure shopping centre where I figure no one would know me. South-east of the city and far, far away from Fremantle. When I’d gotten all I could from there I asked about the whereabouts of and then made it over to a hardware store. I stopped for some coffee first and even had a slice of cheesecake to go with it. I laid off the vodka awhile. Mostly because I didn’t want to forget anything and have to go back for it. Something like that could have sent me into a fit of self-loathing cursing and I didn’t want that happening in public, I had to keep a low profile.
After the hardware store it was about four in the afternoon. I had everything loaded in the boot and had stopped in a park to go over the entirety of it. It was all accounted for. The whole deal was in motion. I knew I could rely on Chenko and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t fuck things up myself. I was just hoping that Evie was doing what I’d told her to and wasn’t straying from the goddamned plan.
It was all easy enough but you just never fucking knew. A man could know a plan like he did his own dick, didn’t mean the entire thing couldn’t turn into a colossal clusterfuck. I’d told her to go to motel on the highway out by the domestic airport. It was a shady stretch at best, frequented by drug dealers and whores and had high turnover rate of guests. One end of the highway was much worse than the other and I’d told her to pick a shitty hotel there and book her ass in. What was most important was that she was remembered. I’d said it would be best to pick one out with a guy at the front desk during the night shift, the younger the better; she could scout around a few if she had to because it was important. Then she should flirt with the asshole as flagrantly as she could. Like a whore trying to turn a trick. Dress up like she meant it and make him almost think he should go knock on her door when things get quiet later on that night. It was imperative that this joker be trying to get one more look at her ass when she came in on the night we made our play, in fact without it the whole thing was shot to less than shit.
I spent that night sleeping in the car like a fucking beggar. Sure I ate take-out Chinese and had my vodka to help me through but it sure was a one hell of a wretched collection of hours. Just real hard sonofabitching work.
I would have stayed in a hotel but I knew these guys had connects all over the place and would have gone around asking about me and for me and it was just too big of a risk now. You pick the wrong place and you’re in a jackpot and I just didn’t have that in me. I parked by the river and watched the city lights flicker atop it when I went for a long, long walk. The star almost sunk. People just living their lives like mine wasn’t in some severe sort of jeopardy. Going for a run, walking the dog, holding hands and the rest of it. Just real everyday bullshit. The machine was oiled well my friends. Spirits crushed and living in the horror. Me or them, take your pick.
All I ever really saw was the myriad glorious shapes of the girl’s swaggering hips and asses. That seemed like some portion of forever. That alone carried some sort of meaningful spiritual weight. The faultless lights shone bright over in the well thought-out city, reflected themselves brilliant on the fast flowing water. Sun strike fading into nothing but intoxicating iridescent blue. I just couldn’t figure on there being much else.
Nothing but their flesh ever seemed true.
Except maybe for a drink and a life that wasn’t this one. I could’ve done with a book in my hand though, maybe my man Louis-Ferdinand, or perhaps Fante, the son.
But who in hell knew. I never really had and probably never will.
CHAPTER 9
I woke in the morning not by the sun shining or birds chirping, but by my head falling forward in my sleep and hitting the godforsaken horn. The blast was so loud I almost leapt my ass out the windscreen. Must have taken me near on ten minutes to get my heart rate back down to where it should have been and even then I still felt as jumpy as shit.
Summer in Perth; who gives a fuck.
I took a walk to clear my head and gaze upon the girls awhile and it worked out doubly well for me. There was a bevy of bimbos out parading in the morning sun soak and I managed to happen upon a fine idea. Two birds, one stone, all that shit. You may or may not be wondering why I hadn’t just gone and straight up paid off some of the debt when Evie gave me the money. Answer is that I would’ve had my ass kicked from there into next month. The reason for it is simple, when you owe, and a crew of muscle comes along to whup you good and proper, you’re just supposed to take it. If you don’t have the amount due, you take the beating, it’s deemed a square trade off, and every motherfucker knows the rules. That particular morning I wasn’t up for it, you already know that, that one asshole set me off and then I got into all this neck deep shit I’m swimming about it.
What I needed was a messenger who wouldn’t get shot. Getting some of payment to them definitely would ease the choke-hold they had on me. Would let me get in at least one lungful of air.
It had to didn’t it?
Well it was what I was gonna do anyhow.
I had the morning free and wasn’t planning on calling Chenko from a payphone until around two o’clock. I could either play house in my car with the three mouthfuls of vodka left over and probably within an hour or two get arrested for indecent exposure, or I could keep moving. I chose the latter, stasis is akin to death my friends.
I got some breakfast first. Just some take-away rubbish that actually went down a pleasure. I ordered an extra coffee 'cause I figured I’d need the juice. What I did was drive straight over to Daisy’s place. I knew I looked like shit but she liked me and I was pretty sure she’d help me out. I parked around the corner, drank the first and second coffee then walked it in. It was still early and I reasoned she’d be asleep because of the hours she worked at the club. She lived in a nice area and I could smell the fresh cut grass on the air. I had to knock on the door for about four hours. I eventually heard her footsteps clunk on the floorboards and the door opened a crack.
Jack? What the fuck are you doing here?
Can we talk?
She looked great first thing in the morning. I could pick’em I tell you.
You fucked me up the other night.
What?
I have bruises all over me. I could hardly sit down yesterday.
You seemed to like it at the time.
I did, I’m just saying.
It was lovely chatting but I was getting nervous standing there in her doorway and had decided if she didn’t let me inside soon I’d kick the fucking thing in.
Let me in Daisy.
You shouldn’t be here. I know what you did. They’re looking for you.
I know. You want them to see me at your house.
No.
Then let me in before I start making a goddamn commotion.
I smiled at her as best as I could, a real bitching one, she thought about it for maybe three seconds and then swung it on open for me. It might have been the smile that helped, I put a lot into it, though more than likely it was the friendly reminder of her ass being on the line with yours truly. Either way I was in and following her down to the kitchen. She had on a next to nothing claret-coloured silk number. The kind where ass almost turned to thigh with each step and disappeared just the same. I could see a couple of the bruises she had mentioned on the backs of those never-ending pins.
You want coffee?
No I already had some. You got beer?
It’s eight in the morning.
That doesn’t answer my question now though does it Daisy?
I got up and went to the refrigerator and helped myself. I cracked the beer and took a good thorough swish then sat down at the
table.
Come and sit down.
Fuck you Jack, what do you want already?
I need a favour.
I got no money.
It’s not money.
Well what then?
Sit down and I’ll tell your ass.
She did like I told her to that time. She wasn’t lying about it hurting her to sit either, you’d have thought she’d put her ass on a hotplate or something with the wincing she did. And I felt the electric shake run through me with that face she made. That grimace and squeal as her backside took the weight of the rest of her against the cushion atop the wood. Went straight where it always did. My dick so hard I coulda laid it between two chairs and done fifty pull-ups. I took another good pull on that beer then stared at her with what I imagine was fire in my pupils.
