Babychain Blues

by Tony Masero

‘You think Randy’ll wear it? Back with the Brotherhood?’

  Gil shook his head, ‘I don’t know. He’s wearing thin, there ain’t much left in Randy no more.’

  ‘Listen, I spoke to my party last phone call. Things are set. We’re going to have to get up and go, ready or not.’

  ‘I ain’t going nowhere without Randy,’ Gil said. ‘He won’t last two shakes in here on his own.’

  ‘He’s done already,’ Buck said urgently. ‘You know it. The man’s all broke up inside. There’s no way you can save him, nobody can.’

  Gil turned a withering gaze on Buck, ‘You heard me, I don’t go anywhere without him. Besides we need Randy if we’re going to make it out of here. You know it.’

  Buck chewed his lip thoughtfully, ‘I don’t know, Gil. I really don’t know.’

  ‘What you fellas whispering about?’ asked Demus.

  Buck gave him a wry look, ‘Could be your ass, lover boy.’

  ‘Aw, look,’ whined Demus. ‘I thought we got past this. I’m one of you guys, there’s no way you can let them White Aryans take me.’

  ‘Want a bet,’ said Buck.

  Gil ignored them both and sat down heavily on the edge of his bunk, his fists clenching and unclenching. He brooded over Randy’s situation, knowing that the stretched mind of his friend would not take another spell as a punk to the Brotherhood. Gil was sure it would drive him over the edge.

  Chapter Nine

  ‘Oh, Cole, that is the sweetest thing,’ Caitlin clasped her hands together in delight.

  ‘Well, I did it whilst you were in hospital,’ Cole said.

  Caitlin gazed enraptured at her new shower.

  ‘Martha Jane chose the curtain, you like it?’

  ‘I surely do, I love that flower pattern, it looks real nice.’

  She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight. It was the first time that had touched each other and for a moment Cole was thrown. Then tentatively he put his arms around her and awkwardly patted her back.

  She was that close he could smell her hair. It was clean and free of tobacco stink. It felt warm and comfortable to him and he thought of her not just as a woman he was in debt to but this time as if she were closer, more like his own daughter.

  ‘Look here,’ said Caitlin, breaking away. ‘A whole new showerhead and faucet, all clean and shiny. And look at this, shampoo and stuff all in a little shelf. My, my! Why, Cole its just beautiful.’

  ‘Guess you’d better try her out before you start in on thanking me.’

  ‘I will, I will. What a surprise. Listen, we have to celebrate. I want you to bring Martha Jane and come out here for a meal.’

  ‘Aw, there’s no need for that, Caitlin. It was a pleasure.’

  ‘No, I mean it, Cole. I’ll make us up something special. Or, well… Tell the truth, I ain’t that much of a cook, maybe we’ll go to a restaurant or order in pizza or something.’

  ‘That’s a nice thought, Caitlin. I appreciate it. Let me have a word with Martha Jane, see when she’s free.’

  ‘Okay,’ smiled Caitlin, pulling the shower curtain backwards and forwards. ‘Gee, I’m so pleased.’

  It grabbed at Cole’s heart to see Caitlin so simply happy. That such a small thing, as far as he was concerned, could induce such a moment of pleasure for her.

  ‘I’m going to head out now, you be okay?’ he asked.

  ‘Sure. I’m going to take me a shower right off.’

  ‘Enjoy,’ said Cole, heading out the door with a wave.

  As he drove back down the track in his pickup he let his mind roam over a fantasy of himself and Caitlin. It involved a home and sharing a part of her life, protecting and encouraging her. Giving her some of the things she had never had. Some of the things it was possible for him to arrange if he took the risk.

  That part cooled his thoughts for a while but the memory of her excited features and the light it brought into her eyes determined him. It was worth it. A lot of water had flown under the bridge and maybe he was forgotten now. Could someone, even someone as mean as Penevale hold a grudge this long?

  Cole weighed the pros and cons as he drove, his mind on the prospect and barely thinking about the rough track he followed. Finally he pulled off the road and parked the pickup in a clearing at the roadside. He sat looking at the surrounding pines and distant mountains yet not seeing them he was so lost in his thoughts.

  It would mean a trip back into the mountains. Could he find the place again he wondered. Then it would mean going to somewhere big, a main city, Spokane maybe. The thought rankled Cole. The idea of delving back into the underworld he had left so long ago did not appeal and yet it was a price he was due to pay. He owed Caitlin. He owed her a lot. Stolen away from any relatives she might have had. Perhaps there was a father somewhere and a whole family of kin. Condemning her to an orphan’s life in care and foster homes was tantamount to a stolen life and the risk he would have to take was small by comparison to that debt.

  Grimly, he thrust the pickup into drive and headed back to Rivers Bend. He needed a second opinion.

  ‘I find it hard to believe,’ admitted Martha Jane.

  Cole had caught her at her apartment before she left for her shift and the two sat over coffee in her small kitchenette.

  ‘It’s how I was back then,’ said Cole.

  ‘Thank God you changed.’ Her tone was wry and she watched him closely across the table.

  ‘I know but it doesn’t change the matter in hand. I feel I have to do something for that kid. Something to atone.’

  ‘And putting yourself in harm’s way will achieve that?’

  ‘It’s a risk,’ Cole shrugged. ‘But everything is.’

  ‘I think this is a stretch further than your normal equation of hazard.’

  ‘So you think I should leave things as they are?’

  Her hand reached across the table, the fingers laid softly across his.

  ‘It’s losing you that worries me. Now that I’ve found you.’

  Their eyes met and Cole smiled thinly, ‘I don’t plan on going nowhere.’

  Martha sighed, a long regular expelling of air, ‘I guess you’ll do what you have to. Isn’t that the way of it with you men?’

  ‘It’s the right thing to do, Martha. It would mean a chance for Caitlin, a future for her. She could get a good education or do whatever she wanted with the cash. I don’t want any part of it, it would all be for her.’

  ‘I know that,’ Martha agreed. ‘But who’s to say it would allow a better life for Caitlin, maybe just a loving friend would fit the bill better.’

  Cole turned away abruptly, ‘No, that ain’t enough. In these days a body needs some cash behind them. I can’t stand the thought of her living like some kind of trailer trash for the rest of her life and ending up with the likes of Demus Barnes. Spawning a tribe of kids and surviving hand to mouth all her days. It would be a chance for her. An opportunity, at least the beginnings of an opportunity. What she does with it is her choice.’

  ‘You sure you’re not doing this just out of some kind of self-righteous penance? Something to salve your soul.’

  Cole nodded, ‘Maybe. It could be, but I owe the kid some kind of chance, Martha. You must see that.’

  ‘Oh, sure. I understand,’ said Martha, releasing Cole’s hand and sitting back in her chair. ‘I only worry about the price you’ll pay for it.’

  ‘Well, I came to ask your opinion, I guess I got it.’

  Martha lifted her coffee cup and took a sip, ‘How would you deal with it? I guess you’ve been a long time away from that world.’

  ‘I have,’ Cole allowed. ‘But I’ll work it out.’

  ‘Maybe I can help.’

  Cole looked up sharply. ‘You can help? How’s that?’

  Martha laid the cup back down gently, ‘There’s a fellow I know. He’s a dealer over in Baxter. He owes me a favor.’

  ‘A dealer?’ Coe asked suspiciously. ‘How’d you get to know a dealer?’

 
; ‘You’re not the only one with a past, Cole,’ Martha admitted with a tight smile.

  ‘You’re into drugs?’

  Martha shook her head, ‘Not any more. It was being at the hospital with all the prescription stuff lying around. Times were hard and things were difficult with Bill, his business was diving, heading for bankruptcy. I tried to help out, so a few things would disappear from the supply store now and then and end up with this particular party.’

  ‘I don’t know, Martha. I’m not too keen on trusting such a person. Usually it’s only their own interests that predominate.’

  ‘This one owes me. He’s alright, he’s no lowlife.’

  Cole studied her; ‘You had a thing with him?’

  ‘For a while,’ Martha sighed. ‘It didn’t last. Just a shit stupid thing I did out of boredom I guess. That and the whole thing with Bill going south.’

  ‘So, what does he owe you for? The sex or the drugs?’

  Cole wasn’t sure how he felt about Martha’s confession and his question came out a little cynically but she ignored his tone and answered calmly enough.

  ‘Neither. It went bad for him one time. We were through by then and not seeing each other any more. One night I got a call from him. He’s desperate, some junkies tried to steal his stash. They had broken in and shot him and he was in a bad way. He couldn’t go to the cops for obvious reasons and a hospital was out, as they’d have to report it. So he called me.’

  ‘You did some nursing?’

  ‘Bit more than that actually, more like surgery. But I knew what I was doing; I’d seen it up close a few times during the military at a triage center and then in the hospital operating room. I got him sedated and took out the slugs; he had two of them, one in the chest and another in the forearm. Saved his life, I guess. Anyway he thinks so. I reckon he will see me alright.’

  ‘He got a name?’

  ‘Depends, Cole. I don’t want him given any trouble.’

  Cole shook his head doubtfully, ‘You still sweet on the guy?’

  ‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘He’s okay though, I wouldn’t want him harmed.’

  ‘All I need from him is a connection. A contact. A good fence to handle the stuff. Not some backstreet pissant who deals in hiked TV’s and Hi-Fi’s but a fellow who’s high on the hill. That’s all I need, a name. So there’s no risk involved, it’s just the name I need, I’ll do the rest.’

  Martha pondered a moment, ‘Okay, his name is Carlo Bennuci. He’s a teacher, a professor at the university.’

  ‘You’re kidding! A teacher!’

  ‘Where else do you get a readier market than on a college campus?’

  ‘Shit, Martha. That’s kinda low, isn’t it?’

  Martha raised one eyebrow condescendingly, ‘This comes from a bank robber and killer.’

  ‘That was then this is now,’ grumbled Cole guiltily.

  ‘Well, it’s up to you. You want help, that’s all I’ve got to offer.’

  Cole thought it through but he could see no other options unless he was about to walk blind into the criminal world with a fortune in diamonds in his pockets.

  ‘Okay, can you set it up? We’ll go meet with this professor.’

  Carlo Bennuci was a tall, attractive man in his early forties. He was casually and conservatively dressed in jeans and sports jacket and wore his dark blond hair center parted and trailing down his neck. He obviously had no lack of attentive female students as Cole watched him hop lightly down the university steps followed by a small gathering of girls.

  ‘Looks like your boy has no shortage,’ he observed to Martha sitting behind the driving wheel of her car next to him.

  ‘You jealous?’ she asked.

  ‘Sure, who wouldn’t go for a team of cheerleaders always on beck and call.’

  ‘Maybe you’d better go over there and get a few numbers then.’

  ‘Nah,’ he grinned. ‘I go for the more mature variety.’

  ‘Mature, huh!’ harrumphed Martha.

  She leaned out of the open car window and waved, trying to catch Carlo’s attention. He saw the fluttering hand and stopped in his tracks, going into an obviously cautious mode as he spotted Cole in the car beside her. Then with a few words of explanation he excused himself from his following of young students and walked across the lawn to the parked car.

  ‘Hello, Martha Jane, how are you?’

  He was a soft-spoken man with fetching blue eyes and they stayed fixed on Cole before his gaze wandered back to Martha.

  ‘This is my friend, Cole Junger,’ Martha introduced. ‘He has something to ask of you.’

  ‘I see,’ said Carlo carefully. ‘I’m not sure if this is a good idea, Martha.’

  ‘It’s alright, Carlo. I assure you.’

  Cole leant across Martha and held out his hand, ‘Howdy, Mister Bennuci. I’d appreciate a word, if you’ll allow. Nothing illegal,’ he added.

  Carlo stood there obviously undecided; he looked at his watch and fumbled with the books under his arm.

  ‘Won’t take a second,’ said Martha. ‘Get in the damned car and stop sweating on it, Carlo.’

  With a worried frown on his face and a flick of his head, Carlo accepted and opening the rear door he got in. Cole watched him in the mirror as his eyes flicked nervously around the interior.

  ‘Don’t worry, sir,’ he said. ‘I’m not a cop and there’s no wires in here.’

  ‘Then may I ask just who you are and why on earth Martha saw fit to bring you here?’

  There was something a touch feminine about his petulance and Cole wondered if he was gay or maybe swung both ways.

  ‘This is a return favor,’ Martha said. ‘That’s all it is, Carlo.’

  ‘Christ! Martha,’ breathed Carlo. ‘How could you?’

  ‘I need a fence,’ said Cole. ‘Someone used to dealing with high quality merchandise. No crap merchant it has to be the real McCoy. That’s all I want, just a name and number.’

  ‘You think I can arrange that?’ Carlo’s tone had risen a notch. ‘I don’t know anyone like that.’

  ‘But you can find out, can’t you, Carlo?’ insisted Martha in a calm voice.

  Carlo sat upright, his pile of books on his lap and his index finger tapping out a nervous random beat on the top cover. ‘Can we drive, do you think?’ he asked, with a turn of fey irritability. ‘I don’t like sitting here like a fish in a bowl.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Martha, starting up the ignition and pulling out into traffic. ‘You need anywhere particular?’

  ‘No, just drive around.’

  Cole watched Carlo in the mirror as he left off the tapping and began gnawing at one fingernail. ‘It’s no big deal, really,’ Cole allowed. ‘Just a name and number is all, there’s no need for any involvement other than that.’

  ‘What are we talking here?’ he burst out suddenly. ‘The nature of the objects in question, I mean. Are you speaking of a vehicle of some sort, or weapons, what exactly? I’d need to have a frame of reference.’

  ‘It will be precious stones,’ Cole said.

  Carlo tilted his head slightly. ‘Industrial or uncut?’

  ‘Cut and mounted.’

  ‘I see,’ Carlo said slowly, digesting the information.

  ‘Just a name,’ Cole encouraged.

  ‘And what would be my percentage for this assistance?’

  Cole was not surprised by the response; it was unlikely that anyone down the line would give him free passage.

  ‘I’d say a few ounces of lead shot would cover it,’ interrupted Martha a touch angrily. ‘Wouldn’t you, Carlo?’

  ‘Oh, you’re referring to that little help you gave me a while back, darling?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m referring to that little help a while back, the one that saved your life.’

  ‘Now, now, Martha. This is business,’ Carlo chided. ‘A whole different matter.’

  ‘Didn’t look that way when you were bleeding all over my lounge carpet, did it? I didn’t hear any talk of
‘business’ then,’ Martha reminded him angrily.

  ‘It’s okay,’ said Cole. ‘I understand. You find the right party for me and you get two percent of the deal.’

  ‘Two percent of what?’ asked Carlo in exasperation. ‘Two percent of nothing is nothing. I know, I majored in math.’

  ‘Listen,’ said Cole turning to face him and fixing him with a steely glance. ‘Don’t fuck about with me. This is serious; we are talking a healthy sum here. If you want to be a part of it, okay, then shut your mouth and do your part. If not, then get out of the car and walk away.’

  ‘Oh, my,’ breathed Carlo, his eyes roving aside in disinterest. ‘Quite the Neanderthal, aren’t we?’

  ‘It’s simple,’ Cole insisted, keeping his gaze locked on the teacher. ‘Get me the contact and you’re in. Think of any double dealing and word goes out about your little side business with all the young quail you keep in tow.’

  Carlo fiddled with the lapels of his jacket, his fingers fluttering like a butterfly. ‘Alright, there’s no need for any nastiness. I’ll see what I can do.’

  ‘That’s better,’ said Cole, turning back and facing front. ‘Pull in, Martha and let your friend out.’

  ‘What here?’ gasped Carlo. ‘It’s miles back to my car.’

  ‘The walk will do you good,’ Cole said coldly. ‘Give you time to think on the error of your ways.’

  ‘I don’t think I like you, Mister Junger,’ Carlo said spitefully as Martha parked the car.

  ‘You don’t have to this isn’t a goodwill contest. It’s ‘business’, remember? Give Martha a call when you have something.’

  ‘You certainly handled him,’ said Martha, pulling away after a disgruntled Carlo had left the car.

  ‘What in God’s name induced you to spend time with a creep like that?’

  ‘Oh, you mean besides a smart brain and good looks,’ Martha breathed airily. ‘Well, he has certain physical attributes that are memorable.’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘You don’t want to know. Believe me, Cole, you don’t.’

  ‘Personally, I think I’d rather spend time with a three-foot copperhead snake.’