First Gravedigger (23 page)

“When she gets back, then.”

“For Christ's sake, I'll be
dead
by the time she gets back! What good'll that do me?”

“Look, about all we can do now is put out an APB on Bates, based on the description you gave me. But frankly, Sommers, he sounds just like a hundred other guys I know. We might be able to pick him up, but don't hold your breath. Then if we do manage to find him, all we can do is bring him in for questioning. We can't charge him, since no crime has been committed—”

“He killed Amos Speer!” I blurted out.

D'Elia leaned back in his chair and looked at me from under half-closed lids.

“I, I think he killed him,” I stammered helplessly. “I'm sure of it. I'm sure he did. I think Nedda hired him that time too.”

D'Elia merely said, “Oh?”

“Well, it makes sense, doesn't it?” I heard my voice rising with desperation. “If she could hire a killer to get rid of one husband, why couldn't she have done it with the other one too? You can charge him with suspicion for Speer's murder, can't you?”

“On what evidence? All I have is your say-so. And you're just guessing.”

A squirrel cage, I was in a squirrel cage. “You can hold him for a while without charging him, I know you can do that. You can do that, can't you? Just hold him for questioning?”

“Yes, we can do that.”

“
Then why aren't you doing it?
” I was yelling. “Why do you just sit there with that smug look on your face—?”

“Relax, Sommers. We'll keep an eye out for your Mr. Bates.”

“You'll keep an eye out for him! Is that all? D'Elia, are you just going to sit there and let Charlie Bates kill me?”

He didn't say a word. He lowered his eyelids all the way shut and after a moment raised them again. There was something ominously close to being a gleam in his eye. One corner of his mouth twitched.

“My god,” I said slowly, at last understanding. “That's what you're going to do. That's exactly what you're going to do!”

D'Elia hadn't believed my impulsive lie about Nedda hiring Charlie to kill Speer; he was still convinced I was behind it. But he knew he wasn't going to be able to prove it any more than he'd been able to find traces of an illegal sale of a genuine Duprée. He knew he couldn't get me himself, so he was quite willing to sit back and let Charlie Bates take care of it for him. He was going to do that. This upstanding upholder of the law was really going to do that. This wasn't the ending he'd planned on, but he'd take it. Lieutenant D'Elia was not at all displeased with the way things were working out, and he wasn't making the slightest effort to hide it.

“My god,” I said dully, “what am I going to do?”

D'Elia smiled at me benignly. “Have you thought of taking a long vacation?”

My fourth thought was to run.

CHAPTER 15

Run where?

I was afraid to use my passport—wouldn't that leave a trail for Charlie to follow? I didn't know how big an organization he was hooked up with, I didn't know what kind of information they had access to. But he free-lanced for the mob now, and those guys could find out everything they ever wanted to know about everything. But killing me wasn't a mob contract—it was a private deal. Oh hell, I didn't know.

Without a passport I could still go to Mexico or Canada. But Mexico was out; one gringo living in a Mexican village would stand out like a sore thumb. Possibly some remote spot in Canada? Where they don't speak French?

I decided against it. It is my considered opinion that most people forced to go into hiding would head for some isolated place where they think their pursuers would be unlikely to seek them. Some distant spot, too small to be on the map, too out-of-the-way for anyone to stumble on it by chance.
I'll be safe here
, that's what they'd think. Most people, yes, that's what they'd think.

I am firmly convinced this is a mistake, yes I am. You have to be sneaky, you have to think the way they think you'll think and then turn around and think the other way. My old buddy Charlie knew I was running and he'd think I'd want to put as much real estate between me and him as I could. Hide on an island in Canada or on a mesa in Arizona or in a swamp in Florida or someplace with not many folks around to tell tales. That's what he'd think I was thinking.

But Charlie's dumb, he always thinks the obvious things. Strangers are noticed in sparsely populated areas, outsiders can't help but call attention to themselves. Even if you could sneak in late at night when no one was looking, you still had to have food and that meant contact with other people. Those faraway places with the strange-sounding names can be death traps.

So the only answer was the purloined letter bit. Bury yourself among hordes of people, make yourself look like them, get lost in the crowd.

I decided on New York. It was close and I was running out of time. I bought a ticket under a false name and crowded in between a fat priest and a sari-wrapped Indian woman in the tourist section.

Nedda, Nedda, Nedda. You were my enemy all along. Not Speer or Wightman or D'Elia. Not even Peg or June. Just you, Nedda, my modest and loving wife. With you on my side I could have licked them all, sob sob. Most spoiled children just ignore the toys they tire of, but you—you have to destroy yours. What if I hadn't sent Charlie to kill old Amos? If I'd just waited, would you have taken care of him yourself? And how long before you dethrone King Arthur, you treacherous Guinevere? Selfish, greedy Nedda. All your life you've had everything you wanted. You don't even know what it's like to do without. You're stupid, Nedda. You don't know nothing.

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town.

I found a place in the West Village and moved in with the cockroaches and the hooker down the hall and the brothers shooting up on the stairway and the drunks peeing in the vestibule. I locked myself in my room and right away I start wishing I have a gun. Or a knife or a baseball bat or something to defend myself with. But I can't go out looking for no weapon—what if I bump into Charlie on the street corner? Will he snuff me right there? Will he say
Hi, buddy, gladaseeya
before he lets me have it? I have to go out sometime, a guy hiding in his room all day every day is gonna draw attention to hisself and I don't want to do that and I don't know what to do. Just a few days, thass all I need, until my beard grows out and my clothes gets grubby and I start to looking like everbody else around here. All I need is a little time. Some kid I'm paying to go get groceries, he's the only one knows I'm here but kids talk and I ain't really safe yet.

So I sit by my one window looking out over Charles Street and watching everbody that passes by, thass all I do. Watching for Charlie on Charles Street. Good old Charlie Bates. My buddy.
Earl, you're the only friend I ever had
, whine whine whine. If I'da just said
Piss off, Charlie
, I wouldn't be hiding in this dump now. Friendship, ain't it wonderful.

Charlie and Nedda, what a pair. How'd she do it? How'd that mattressback find out about Charlie? I remember, I remember she tole him to call her when he got back from one of his jobs, one of them see-what-a-man-I-am jobs he likes so pissing much. But I laid down the law, I did, I tole her I dint want Charlie Bates in my house, she understood that. So what's she do, she asks him over anyways, sometime I'm not there, for lunch maybe at first, thass it. She thinks it's funny, sneaking Charlie in behind my back, thass just the kinda thing she does for kickies. I wonder did they sleep together? Naw, even Nedda wouldn't go to bed with Charlie Bates. I make a picture in my head of Nedda and Charlie screwing away and I laugh out loud it's so funny.

So then what happens? She tells him my husband he don't understand me, it's so sad, I got nobody to turn to. Wisht I knew a strong man to help poor little me, yeah, thass the line she'd use. And dumb old Charlie he'd eat it right up, big comic book hero saving the helpless broad. Helpless my ass. Like, like that Italian bitch way back when that kept getting rid of her lovers by putting poison on her lips.

Or maybe it dint go that way. Maybe she saw through him right off, maybe she said can you give me a name, somebody to do a job for me. And he give her a name all right, his name, his own, and the deal's made. I shoulda knew they'd get together, my best friend and my loving wife, happens on tee vee alla time.

Nedda I understand, she's like that, nobody's important to her besides herself I mean. But Charlie, Charlie don't have no call going after me, not even for money not even especially for money. Charlie he's my best friend and a man don't go around putting holes in his best friend. He shouldna took the contract, he shoulda just pulled out that old automatic and popped Nedda one two three just like that. Thass what friends do. They help. Alla times I helped him, giving him math answers, writing his book reports for him and remembering to spell a word wrong now and then so the teach wouldn't suspect nothing. He owes me.

He owes me a helluva lot, come to think of it. I got him outa scrapes, I was always there when he needed me. One time in school there was this big black dude went around taking money off people. He always had three or four other dudes with him so there wasn't nothing to do except hand it over. One day I have twenty-five cents in my pocket, my last quarter, two bits to my name. This dude says if I don't give it to him he's gonna break my head for me. So I give it to him, my last two bits. Now when you get ripped off to the tune of ten bucks, well thass crime and you gotta live with crime these days. But when a guy takes your last quarter just to show you he can do it, he's only doing it to make you feel small. I couldn't let him get away with that no sir.

So I tell Charlie to break his arm and Charlie done it. Then you know what that six-foot black musclehead does? He goes home and tells his momma. And his momma she calls the school principal and the principal calls in Charlie and all hell breaks loose. Charlie don't talk so good and this principal he don't want to listen nohow, he don't wanta hear nothing about no dudes taking money off other guys. So I goes in and I says the whole thing was a accident, I seen it all. I got this guy with all his college degrees believing this black dude tripped and Charlie threw out an arm to help him and the dude goes down thinking Charlie hit him. This smartass principal ends up
apologizing
to Charlie.

And Charlie's hanging on me and saying
Earl you're the best friend a guy could ever have
and all that shit and I tell him to go break the dude's other arm and he done it. And this time the dude he don't go crying to his momma, he got the message this time. None of them dudes bothered us after that. And Charlie's dancing around and calling me buddy and thanking me for making everthing work out. Charlie wouldna made it through school without me helping him along.

But that ain't nothing, the real thing he oughta remember is I saved his life. He was wanting to die and he woulda gone on and popped his own cork if it hadna been for me. I stopped him, I made things easier I put the gun in his hand. I shown him a way to go on living and be a big man and live good and, and, and I saved
his
life. He should oughta save mine. Fair's fair. He owes me. Why, if I hadna sent him out to get old Amos Speer, Charlie Bates would be dead hisself right now.

Charlie'd be dead and Speer'd still be alive and still married to that bitch and she wouldn't have no need to send Charlie after me. Goddam you Amos Speer I hope you're roasting in hell. You old cocksucker if you'da just give me a partnership when I needed it none of this woulda happened, it's your own fault you're dead you shoulda cut me in.

The kid I'm paying to get stuff for me come in for a minute. I send him to get groceries, much as he can carry and then not come back for a coupla days. He don't need to come ever day, just oncet in a while.

But if Charlie Bates gets me, I'm gonna get him too. I won't be around to see it, but it's gonna happen. Goddam fucking right it's gonna happen. Lieutenant D'Elia, he'll take care of it for me. I tole him, I tole him all about it dint I? I give him Charlie's name and said it clear how Nedda hired him and D'Elia he's gonna get them both, he won't let them get away with it. He'll even get the lover boy, whatsisname, Arthur something. D'Elia's a good man, he cares about the law, he likes catching people he'll find a way he's tricky. He's got three of them to go after now, he's gonna have a fine old time playing good guy tracking down the baddies. He'll do it, he'll do it, he almost got me dint he? You gotta have faith in something I believe in Lieutenant D'Elia he's a good man, he'll get them.

Charlie and Nedda don't know I tole him. They think they're safe, ain't
they
in for a surprise! Shit, I wisht I could see it, how I'd love to see their faces when he tells them he knows. Nedda don't like having police around, it don't look right, too bad cookie you shoulda thought of that. Charlie's gonna be harder, he knows how to disappear but he don't know they'll be waiting on him when he gets back. He'll go back to Pittsburgh for sure, he don't know no place else. I shoulda tole Valentine afore I left yeah the two of them together, Valentine and D'Elia what a team, they'll get them Valentine's smart he can help D'Elia—

Where's the goddam kid with my groceries? I'm hungry and I gotta keep my strength up. I'm thinking something that makes me laugh. Those two bloodsuckers out in San Frisco if I die they ain't gonna get nothing.
Nothing!
Out, in, the, cold. Freeze your ass Whiteman. And the broad too—April? I can get
all
my enemies just by dying thass all I have to do.

There's the kid but he ain't carrying nothing where's my groceries? He said he'd get them he promised. Looka him walking along the street big as life talking to that guy like he don't have nothing better to do. I gotta eat fore Charlie gets here and he stands there talking to that guy and pointing—