“Just this last one? Promise me, Tony? No more. Then we’ll go away, just you and me, and have a good time, okay?”
“Yeah, this is the last one, kid. I promise you.”
“Oh thank you, Tony. I’m so happy,” she cooed. “I’ll be good, I promise. I’ll do a good job. You’ll be proud of me.”
This shit had gone on long enough. I leaned back from the door to open it when my head was smashed back into it. Stunned, I was pulled back and saw the tomato stain from my nose on the door before I was rammed into it again. The roof got low and I was shrinking into a pinpoint. I lost my body from below my teeth. I spun on a crazy arc upward into a wild blooming flower of electricity that lit me all up and I spent forever falling down.
I returned from the circus in my skull, all blinking lights and clanging gongs, to find myself tied with amateur enthusiasm to a chair. As the world coalesced into light and shadow, then shape and color, sound was added. Finally I slowed into the same time zone and made sense of it.
There was a bed before me and a bank of bright lights. Off to one side was a movable camera frame with lights above it and sound equipment on the base. Leroy was in front of the bed thrusting himself rhythmically forward. As he turned to keep his best side to the camera, I saw his hand ram a fist full of blonde hair into his crotch like he was unplugging a toilet. His eyes were closed and his brow furrowed. He was getting ready to come. Leroy reached down and twisted her nipple like he was trying to tune in a radio. The head stopped bobbing and Leroy cursed at her. “Suck it, bitch, before I kill you.”
“That’s what you’re gonna do anyway, Leroy, right. Fuck her and kill her.” Ice picks went through my head and I had to close my eyes.
Leroy’s head spun around. “Hey, the badass white boy is back with us.”
“What’s she worth to you, Leroy? Twenty-five thousand for the master? But you’ll keep a copy, won’t you? Any time you need money, just make a print. She’s worth more to you dead than alive. Dying on film like that she’ll last forever. Killing her is like an investment, huh, Leroy. Thinking of your old age? You want something to retire on, huh? Didn’t last long enough with the big boys to get retirement pay, did you.” I didn’t know how long I could keep it up but I wanted Randi to know what was going on and to try to get out. Leroy was gonna kill me one way or the other.
Randi was backing up on the bed on all fours, shaking her head from side to side and starting a low moan. Sick and frightened she was looking for a wall to melt through. A way to not be. Unfortunately, this play has no intermissions. If you come in, you sit through to the end. Leroy zipped up his fly and grinned at me like I was a side of ribs with slaw. “Well, if anybody’s going be dying it gonna be you, white boy.”
Randi was backed up against the bed frame, her hands to her face. Her mouth was open silently imploring Tony to tell her this was just a bad dream and they’d still go away together and have a good time. Tony just stared at everyone.
Leroy started to walk toward me and I prepared to hurt.
“Whoa there, super nigger, the cavalry has arrived.” Arnie stood in the doorway, his .45 aimed at Leroy’s chest. He glided into the room and shook a knife into his palm. Keeping his gun on the group, he bent down to cut the ropes.
“Now, kemo sabe, about that raise.”
“Shit, man, just get me out of here.” As the ropes fell away I brushed them off like spider webbing and tried to stand up. My head was throbbing. I sat back down and hoped the concussion was minor. Head injuries are no joke. One too many and you can wake up a member of the plant kingdom.
“Tony, Tony, what’s happening?” Randi began to keen. She reached for him. Tony moved from around the corner of the camera frame toward her.
“Randi, no! He’s in this too!” I yelled but too late. I felt like a safe on wheels had slammed up against my eyes. Julian had pulled her in front of him and put a knife to her throat.
“All right, don’t anybody move. I’m going right out the door. Anybody moves and she dies.” He pointed to me. “Pick up that nightgown and throw it to me.” I did. He draped it in front of Randi and limped with her as his dead leg to the door. As soon as he was through he pulled it behind him.
I looked at Arnie and at Leroy.
“Go get her back. She’s the one that counts.” Arnie nodded.
Arnie picked up my gun from a nearby table and slapped the Colt into my hand. He looked at me intently. “Are you okay? Can you handle this?”
“I’m okay. Go get the kid.”
Arnie backed out the door and pulled it behind him. I pointed the gun at Leroy. “Sit down, shithead. You ain’t goin’ anywhere.” Leroy sat.
I clenched my teeth and was breathing through my nose. My head hurt like hell. I tried to slow down my breathing to keep myself as still as possible. Maybe the big heavy thing with all the points would stop rolling around in my head. It was getting worse. The floor was tilting up at me. I was determined not to black out. Let’s keep everything simple. We only have to do two things: keep our eyes open and our gun up. Arnie’ll be back in a flash. Right. I stretched my eyelids and forced them wide open. Got to conserve energy. Shut down everything but my eyes and my hand. My eyes were okay. Eyelids up, captain. My gun began to droop. I jerked it up. Sweet Jesus! My head exploded. I righted myself and drew a bead on Leroy.
He looked back at me and chuckled. “You one stupid mothafucker. Why you care so much ’bout these cunts? That other blonde mama yours? She wouldn’t tell me about you at first. I had to hurt her real good.” He chuckled again. “Couldn’t get her to shut up then. Stupid bitch.”
“Shut up. Dammit.” I knew what he was up to. Get me listening to his voice. Thinking about what he was saying. Distract me enough so I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
“Know what she said when she was begging?”
“Shut up.” I screamed. The top of my head flew off.
“You know I got her to move her ass real good when I was doin’ her. Made her tell me how much she liked it. She ever tell you that?”
I was on my feet, bug-eyed and grimacing. Rage purified me. One wish. One deed. From the bottom of my heart I was going to blow his fuckin’ head off.
I was on my knees. My eyes were going different ways. I put my hands out in front of me. I was going to throw up. I looked up. There he was! Those hands. Those damn hands! I shoved my gun into his smile. A giant wave rolled me over. I’d never seen a purple and yellow snowstorm before. I had to rest. I was so tired. Just a minute. I promise. I’ll be fine.
Chapter 19
Somebody took the comforter off me. It was too heavy to wear in summertime. I felt better after my nap. Arnie’s face loomed over me. “Goddamn. I knew I should have crippled that fucker. Are you okay?”
“Yeah. My head is killing me. Where’s Leroy? Did he get away?”
“Yeah. All the way to forever.”
I slowly moved my head. He was lying next to me. One of his headlights was out and most of his control room was gone. I was getting sick again. I rolled away and slowly got upright.
Arnie went out the door and came back dragging Randi with him. He was tight-lipped and tense. She was sullen. “Let go of me, you bastard.”
“Shut up, shithead, before I lose my temper.”
“And what, hard guy?”
I looked quizzically at Arnie. “Trouble communicating?”
“Fuck, no. This bitch communicates fine. She just doesn’t know what’s good for her.”
Randi continued to wriggle against his hand on her arm. I took a moment to look at her. Her blonde hair was tangled. Her face was transformed by her sullen vermillion pout and glaring black-rimmed eyes from child to ageless bitch. She was slim, firm and beginning to ripen. Past buds but the fruit was not yet full. Long legs, short torso. She was on her way to womanhood. I wasn’t sure if that would be a blessing or a curse or whether she’d ever look or feel like a child again.
“Where’s Tony?” I asked.
Arnie smiled. �
�Tony had an accident. He fell in the stairwell. I fucked up the elevator when I got here and then foamed the staircase with the fire extinguisher you set out. He took a header going down and bounced a flight or so. What took me so long was getting some rope to tie him up with, and this bitch.” He shook his head at Randi. “She acted like we were the bad guys. I was tempted to leave her with the jerk. She tried to bite me while I dragged her up here. I told her she’d eat baby food for a month if she didn’t cut that shit. All she seems to understand is threats.”
“All right, let’s get out of here. The police are going to be here soon and I’d just as soon not have to explain you to them.”
“What about Tony?” Her voice was a whine.
“Oh, good old Tony. Good old Tony arranged with good old Leroy to kill you on screen for the eternal delight of necrophiles everywhere. Do you understand? He sold you out for money. He was going to let Leroy fuck you and then kill you on film. It was going to be your last film for sure. Your last anything. So much for good old Tony. Let’s get out of here.”
I went to the camera, yanked out the film and stuffed it inside my jacket. Then we each grabbed an arm and hustled her out the door.
As we were going out of the building we stopped at Julian, tied up in the stairwell. I asked Randi, “Anything you want to tell him?”
She looked down at him. He started to turn his face away. Arnie rudely realigned him with his foot. “I loved you. How could you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?” Julian looked at her without remorse, contrition or comprehension, just annoyance at having to explain himself.
I squatted down in front of him and got his attention along with a fistful of his jewelry. “We don’t have time for you to think about this yourself so repeat after me, douche bag: ‘You never did anything to deserve it. It was all my fault. I never loved you. I just used you to make me feel good.’” Julian lay there dumbly. I banged his head to remind him. “Say it.” He responded well to that. “I’d ask you to tell her you’re sorry but you’ve lied to her enough. Let’s go, school’s out.”
We got to the bottom of the stairs. Arnie looked at us. “This won’t fly. Two guys in black pajamas with a nymphet in a baby doll bathrobe. No way. Olde Towne isn’t ready for this.”
“Okay, you go get the car. We’ll go out the back way and meet you in the alley. Say one block up at Interarms.”
Arnie sidled out the door and we went down the corridor to the back door and out into the alley. I looked both ways and seeing no one began to steer her up the alleyway to the next warehouse, keeping close to the walls. At Interarms we ducked into a walkway leading to a loading office to wait for Arnie. Randi had been quite subdued since we’d left the building.
She looked up at me. “Where are you taking me?”
“We’re taking you out of this nightmare. Everything is going to be okay. As soon as we can get to a phone I’m going to call your father to pick you up.”
Randi wrenched herself away from me wailing, “no no” and tried to fling herself into the roadway. I grabbed her about the waist from behind and pulled her back toward me. Arnie better get here soon or I’m going to be shot as a rapist. I spun her around to me and said, “What’s the matter?”
The acid rain of her tears tracked her face and ran through her harlequin’s cheeks. She looked up at me and said, “Who do you think started me?”
Chapter 20
Jesus Christ, I thought, is there a bottom to this mess?
Arnie pulled up into the alleyway. I looked at Randi. “I won’t take you to your dad, okay? I don’t know exactly what to do for you, but I’m going to try to get some help.”
I don’t know what she read on my face but she slid into the car. I followed and slammed the door. “Let’s go to my place, Arnie. I have some calls to make.” He put it in gear and we left Olde Towne behind, the sound of sirens filling our ears. We went up Duke Street out of the historic section, through the boarded up gutted section, to Telegraph Road. We snaked around the ramps onto the beltway heading west. My mind was ineptly active, churning out thoughts in incomplete pieces, unable to catch any of them to study. All my trains of thought were in the round house. I took a short look at Randi, sitting between us, eyes front, mouth somber, her hands folded in her lap like she was going to church or the doctor’s. A painful business but “for your own good.” Her nightgown was staggeringly inadequate and I reached into the back seat and got Arnie’s rough army blanket to cover her. She thanked me silently and arranged the blanket over her legs and around her body, tucking it in and holding it down with her arms. I looked at Arnie, contemplating the road. I wondered just what all this meant to him and his code. Was he reviewing how he handled himself? Did he care about what happened to this kid?
We pulled off the ramp at Gallows Road and turned down toward my home. It’s a bungalow I’d bought with a big finder’s fee I’d gotten six years ago before mortgages became the prerogative solely of the very wealthy. Arnie coasted into the driveway. I slid out and as Randi got out with me I told Arnie to stay by his phone. This wasn’t done yet.
I walked up the slate path to the door, unlocked it, turned off the alarms, went in and turned on a foyer light. Randi stood in the doorway looking in.
“Listen, if you want to stay out there, that’s fine; just let me get you some clothes. I’m going to call a woman I know to come out and stay with you while I try to figure out what to do. You can come in and sit by the door if you want and even keep the door open, okay?”
She pulled open the door, took the chair I scooted over to her and sat in it.
“All right, I’m going to get you some clothes to put on; they won’t fit but they’ll cover you.” I felt like I was trying to talk a strange dog out of disliking me: I’m going to walk away slowly now, like this, okay, big fellah? I went back down the hall, alert to any sound of the front door opening, went to my bedroom and got her a pair of my running shorts and a T-shirt to wear. When I returned she was still there. Remarkable. I handed her the clothes. “If you want to shower and get cleaned up, the bathroom’s in the back, off the master bedroom. You can change there. I’m going to call my friend, okay?” She just sat there dumbly watching me. A gulf of caution lay between us that words would never cross. I decided to give up. If she trusted me that was nice. If I could help her that was better. I went into the kitchen to the phone, picked it up and dialed Samantha. No answer.
I turned back to Randi. She was gone. I looked out the front window to the street and sprinted to the front door. As I flung it open I heard the shower turn on and I smiled ruefully.
I went back to the kitchen and dialed another number.
“Law Offices. May I help you?” was crooned into my ear.
“Walter O’Neil, please.” Formal.
“May I say who’s calling?” Solicitously.
“Leo Haggerty.” Silence. I ran some tap water while I was waiting and downed two aspirin. My head was pounding like high tide in the Bay of Fundy.
“Hello, Leo. What can I do for you.” Walter O’Neil was my lawyer and friend and very capable at both those things.
“I’ve got a little problem, Walt, and I’d like some advice.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“I’ve got a girl here with me now, a runaway I picked up for her parents. She was involved with some real heavy weight assholes in the kiddie porn ring. I bailed her out of that and now I find out she claims that her father was the first one to have sex with her.”
“My advice, Leo, is very simple. Turn it over to Protective Services and walk away from it. These cases are absolute hell and they’ll make you crazy.”
“How so?”
“They’re almost unprosecutable, and even when they are, sex offenders almost never serve time in Virginia. Instead they get therapy which as far as I can tell doesn’t often change anything. Mostly it’s the kids who get the short end. They get shunted around to foster homes. They’re ostracized by the family. If they go to court they’re
assaulted on the stand by the defense attorney. The court system is not set up to deal with children as witnesses. Drop it. Believe me.”
“Humor me, Walt. Why are these cases such problems? Send me to school.”
“Okay. Take your kid—how old is she.”
“Thirteen.”
“Super. How badly was she beaten?”
“What do you mean?”
“Thirteen is the rubicon in sexual offenses. Under thirteen you’d best not touch a child. Over that coercion is required and the state likes to see physical evidence for that.”
“But she’s his kid. He didn’t have to beat her up. Don’t they understand how the promise of love can get them to do themselves in?”
“Sorry, Leo, but Virginia isn’t ready for such a radical notion. If the child consents your case is ninety percent shot to hell. Listen, in fact in Virginia the child can be charged with incest as well as the parent. How’s that for a bite?” Walt lowered his voice to somewhere deep in Dixie and drawled “Yer honor this po’ God-fearing man was seduced by that wanton hussy. That shameless wench who confused his po’ fatherly instincts with her ripe young body and preyed upon his love for her. Hasn’t this man suffered enough, I say, to know that his child would use him so?” Don’t laugh, man, I’ve seen it done here, especially if the girl is at all attractive.”
“Well, what charges are available to her?”
“Thirteen and without force, not much. Just crap like indecent liberties, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, indecent exposure. People get sent to the mental health centers on charges like that. Too damned often they go for a while, all the time resisting changing, just complying with the court order until the therapist gets fed up and writes a report with some crap on it like ‘patient has reached maximum benefit of treatment; recommend to be terminated’ which the judges sign and the guy walks. Maximum benefit, shit. All that means is ‘therapist is too tired of fucking around with this jerk who has no interest in being here other than to get court off his back. Respectfully submit you do so, so I can help someone who wants it.’”
All the Old Bargains Page 13
