A Walk Among the Tombstones

by Lawrence Block

Page 45

 

  "You said a week," he said. "You promised. "

  THE money all seemed to be there. We filled one suitcase. The other was in the basement, and nobody much wanted to go get it. "Id say for TJ to go," Kenan said, "but I know how he got in the cemetery, so I guess itd spook him too much to go down there with a dead body. "

  "You just sayin that so Ill go. Tryin to psyche me out. "

  "Yeah," Kenan said. "I figured youd say something like that. "

  TJ rolled his eyes, then went for the suitcase. He came back with it and said, "Man, it stinks pretty powerful down there. Dead people always smell that bad? I ever kill somebody, remind me to do it from a distance. "

  It was curious. We worked around Callander, treating him as if he werent there, and he made such treatment easier than it might have been by staying put and keeping his mouth shut. He looked smaller sitting there, and weak and ineffectual. I knew him to be none of those things, but his blank passivity gave that impression.

  "All packed up," Kenan said, fastening the hasps of the second suitcase. "Can go right back to Yuri. "

  Peter said, "All Yuri wanted was to get his kid back. "

  "Well, tonights his lucky night. He gets the money, too. "

  "Said he didnt care about the money," Peter said dreamily. "The money didnt matter. "

  "Petey, are you saying something without saying it?"

  "He dont know we came here. "

  "No. "

  "Just a thought. "

  "No. "

  "Whole lot of money, babe. And you been takin a bath lately. That hash deals gonna go down the tubes, isnt it?"

  "So?"

  "God gives you a chance to get even, you dont want to spit in His eye. "

  "Awww, Petey," Kenan said. "Dont you remember what the old man told us?"

  "He told us all kinds of shit. When did we ever listen?"

  "He said never to steal unless you can steal a million dollars, Petey. Remember?"

  "Well, nows our chance. "

  Kenan shook his head. "No. Wrong. Thats eight hundred thousand, and a quarter of a mil is counterfeit and another hundred and thirty thousand is mine to start with. So whats that leave? Four-something. Four-twenty? Something like that. "

  "Which gets you even, babe. Four hundred this asshole took off of you, plus ten you gave Matt, plus expenses, comes to what? Four-twenty? Goddamn close to it. "

  "I dont want to get even. "

  "Huh?"

  He stared hard at his brother. "I dont want to get even," he said. "I paid blood money for Francey and you want me to steal blood money from Yuri. Man, you got that fucking junkie mind, steal his wallet and help him look for it. "

  "Yeah, youre right. "

  "I mean for Christs sake, Petey-"

  "No, youre right. Youre absolutely right. "

  Callander said, "You paid me with counterfeit money?"

  "You simple shit," Kenan said, "I was beginning to forget you were here. What are you, afraid youll get picked up trying to spend it? I got news for you. You aint gonna spend it. "

  "Youre the Arab. The husband. "

  "So?"

  "I was just wondering. "

  I said, "Ray, wheres the money you got from Mr. Khoury? The four hundred thousand. "

  "We divided it. "

  "And what happened to it?"

  "I dont know what Albert did with his half. I know its not in the house. "

  "And your half?"

  "Safe-deposit box. Brooklyn First Mercantile, New Utrecht and Fort Hamilton Parkway. Ill go there in the morning on my way out of town. "

  Kenan said, "You will, huh?"

  "I cant decide whether to take the Honda or the van," he went on.

  "Hes kind of spaced, isnt he? Matt, I think hes telling the truth about the dough. The half in the bank we can forget about. Alberts half, I dont know, we could turn the house upside down but I dont think were gonna find it, do you?"

  "No. "

  "He probably buried it in the yard. Or in the fucking cemetery or someplace. Fuck it. Im not supposed to have that money. I knew that all along. Lets do what we gotta do and get outta here. "

  I said, "You have a choice to make, Kenan. "

  "Hows that?"

  "I can take him in. Theres a lot of hard evidence against him now. Hes got his dead partner in the basement, and the van in the garage is going to be full of fibers and blood traces and God knows what else. Pam Cassidy can ID him as the man who maimed her. Other evidence will tie him to Leila Alvarez and Marie Gotteskind. He ought to be looking at three life sentences, plus an extra twenty or thirty years tacked on as a bonus. "

  "Can you guarantee hell do life?"

  "No," I said. "Nobody can guarantee anything when it comes to the criminal justice system. My best guess is that hell wind up at the State Hospital for the Criminally Insane at Matteawan, and that hell never leave the place alive. But anything could happen. You know that. I cant see him skating, but Ive said that about other people and they never did a day. "

  He thought it over. "Going back to our deal," he said. "Our deal wasnt about you taking him in. "

  "I know. Thats why Im saying its your choice. But if you make the other choice I have to walk first. "

  "You dont want to be here for it. "

  "No. "

  " Cause you dont approve?"

  "I dont approve or disapprove. "

  "But its not the kind of thing you would ever do. "

  "No," I said, "thats not it at all. Because I have done it, Ive appointed myself executioner. Its not a role Id want to make a habit of. "

  "No. "

  "And theres no reason why I should in this case. I could turn him over to Brooklyn Homicide and sleep fine. "

  He thought about it. "I dont think I could," he said.

  "Thats why I said it has to be your decision. "

  "Yeah, well, I guess I just made it. I have to take care of it myself. "

  "Then I guess Ill be going. "

  "Yeah, you and everybody else," he said. "Heres what well do. Its a shame we didnt bring two cars. Matt, you and TJ and Peteyll take the money to Yuri. "

  "Some of its yours. Do you want to take out the money you lent him?"

  "Separate it out at his place, will you? I dont want to wind up with any of the counterfeit. "

  "Its all in the packages with the Chase wrappers," Peter said.

  "Yeah, except it all got mixed around when this dickhead here counted it, so check it out at Yuris, okay? And then youll pick me up. Figure what? Twenty minutes to Yuris and twenty minutes back, twenty minutes there, figure an hour. Youll come back here and pick me up on the corner an hour and fifteen minutes from now. "

  "All right. "

  He grabbed a bag. "Cmon," he said. "Well take these out to the car. Matt, watch him, huh?"

  They left, and TJ and I stood looking down at Raymond Callander. We both had guns, but either of us could have guarded him with a flyswatter at this point. He seemed barely present.

  I looked at him and remembered our conversation in the cemetery, that minute or two when something human had been talking. I wanted to talk to him again and see what would come out this time.

  I said, "Were you just going to leave Albert there?"

  "Albert?" He had to think about it. "No," he said at length. "I was going to tidy up before I left. "

  "What would you do with him?"

  "Cut him up. Wrap him. Theres plenty of Hefty bags in the cupboard. "

  "And then what? Deliver him to somebody in the trunk of the car?"

  "Oh," he said, remembering. "No, that was for the Arabs benefit. But its easy. You spread them around, put them in dumpsters, trash cans. No one ever notices. Put them in with restaurant garbage and they just pass as meat scraps. "

  "Youve done this before. "

  "Oh, yes," he said. "There were more women then you know about. " He looked at TJ. "One black one I remember. She was just about your color. " He heaved a sig
h. "Im tired," he said.

  "It wont be long. "

  "Youre going to leave me with him," he said, "and hes going to kill me. That Arab. "

  Phoenician, I thought.

  "You and I know each other," he said. "I know you lied to me, I know you broke your promise, that was what you had to do. But you and I had a conversation. How can you just let him kill me?"

  Whining, querulous. It was impossible not to think of Eichmann in the dock in Israel. How could we do this to him?

  And I thought, too, of a question I had asked him in the graveyard, and I fed his own remarkable answer back to him.

  "You got in the truck," I said.

  "I dont understand. "

  "Once you got in the truck," I said, "youre just body parts. "

  WE picked up Kenan as arranged at a quarter to three in the morning in front of a credit jeweler on Eighth Avenue, just around the corner from Albert Wallenss house. He saw me behind the wheel and asked where his brother was. I said wed dropped him off a few minutes ago at the house on Colonial Road. He was going to pick up the Toyota, but changed his mind and said hed go straight to sleep.

  "Yeah? Me, Im so wired youd have to hit me over the head with a mallet to put me out. No, stay there, Matt. You drive. " He walked around the car, looked in back at TJ, sprawled across the rear seat like a rag doll. "Past his bedtime," he said. "That flight bag looks familiar, but I hope its not full of counterfeit money this time. "

  "Its your hundred and thirty thousand. We did our best. I dont think theres any schlock mixed in. "

  "If there is its no big deal. Its just about as good as the real stuff. Your best bets the Gowanus. You know how to get back on it?"

  "I think so. "

  "And then the bridge or the tunnel, up to you. My brother offer to take my money into the house with him, keep an eye on it for me?"

  "I felt it was part of my job to deliver it personally. "

  "Yeah, well, thats a diplomatic way to put it. I wish I could take back one thing I said to him, telling him he had a junkie mind. Thats a hell of a thing to say to a person. "

  "He agreed with you. "

  "Thats the worst thing about it, we both of us know its true. Yuri surprised to see the money?"

  "Astonished. "

  He laughed. "Ill bet. Hows his kid?"

  "The doctor says shell be all right. "

  "They hurt her bad, didnt they?"

  "I gather its hard to separate the physical damage from the emotional trauma. They raped her repeatedly and I understand she sustained some internal injuries besides losing the two fingers. She was sedated, of course. And I think the doctor gave Yuri something. "

  "He should give us all something. "

  "Yuri tried to, as a matter of fact. He wanted to give me some money. "

  "I hope you took it. "

  "No. "

  "Why not?"