Freaky Deaky (22 page)

A man and a woman were sitting at the kitchen table.

He said, “Jesus Christ Almighty,” sounding out of breath.

They were grinning at him now.

“How’d you get in here?”

Robin said, “It wasn’t hard,” and looked at Skip. “Was it?”

Skip let Robin handle it. When Donnell wanted to know what they thought they were doing, Robin told him they were here because he’d fucked up. Donnell said, “Wait now, I have to hear this.” But first had to run upstairs, get the man settled with his nightcap. He left and Robin said to Skip, “Bring our stuff in.”

“All of it?”

She said, “We’re going to use it, aren’t we?”

Skip went out through a back hall where there were two doors: one that went into the garage and the one he’d jimmied open with a screwdriver, nothing to it. (Coming in, Robin said, “No alarm system?” He told her maybe Donnell was afraid a burglar alarm might catch one of his buddies. Skip
bet, though, the ex-Panther had a gun in the house.) He went out through the busted door to the VW parked in the drive by the garage. First he brought their bags in. Robin, still alone in the kitchen, was looking in the refrigerator.

When he came in the next time, lugging the wooden case of Austin Powder,
Used in 1833 and Ever Since
, Donnell was at the kitchen table talking to Robin.

He looked up, appeared to become rigid, and said, “You ain’t bringing that in here.”

In this moment Skip decided he wasn’t going to have any trouble with Donnell. If the man was ever an ass-kicking Black Panther he must’ve forgotten what it was like. Skip put the case on the end of the table away from them and Donnell stood right up. Look at that. Made him nervous. Skip could tell Robin saw it, too.

She said to Donnell, “It won’t hurt you,” with a tone meant to soothe him. “All we want to do is stash it someplace. By Monday morning I promise it’ll be gone.”

Skip liked that. It would be gone, all right, along with whoever was standing nearby. He wanted to wink at her, but she wasn’t through with Donnell yet, saying to him now, “You must have a gun in the house.”

Skip could tell Donnell didn’t want to say.

“I believe there might be one.”

“I’d find it if I were you,” Robin said. “You know why?” Talking down to him, making the guy ask, No, why?

Skip didn’t care for her tone now, going from soothing to bored and superior. Or the way she said, “ ’Cause your buddy the cop’s going to come looking for you. The kids you sent to do a job on him blew it.”

That wasn’t right. She wasn’t there, she didn’t know what she was talking about. It seemed to antagonize the man, from his expression, more than it scared him.

Skip stepped in and said to the ex-Panther man to man, leaving the snotty woman out of it, “Actually it wasn’t they blew it so much as they misread him, thought it was gonna be easy and it wasn’t. What she’s trying to say, Donnell, we don’t want to make the same mistake.”

Donnell said, “Mankowski is coming here?”

Skip said, “I ’magine he will. See, but
I’m
the one set him up with the brothers. He comes here with a wild hair up his ass—man, I’d like to have something to hold him off with. You dig?” Skip shook his head as though imagining that situation and then said to Donnell, “A long time ago I tried to buy a gun offa you. You didn’t know who I was, you told me to take a hike. Well, I wouldn’t mind borrowing one now, for my own peace of mind. What do you say? Or—I don’t like to think about
it, but if it does get down to the nitty-gritty and one of us has to take him out, well . . .”

Donnell went upstairs to find the gun, and now Skip had his chance to wink at Robin, giving him a cold look.

“Hon, that’s how you do it with niggers that used to be Black Panthers. You don’t talk down to ’em or you don’t arm-wrestle ’em, either. You act like we’re all created equal, got bussed to their school and loved it.”

Okay, here was the plan,
the one Chris went to sleep on in his dad’s bed about 4:00
A.M.
:

Call Greta first thing in the morning. Ask her if he could move in with her for a few days. She’ll say there isn’t any furniture. He’ll tell her that’s all right; what he needs more than a place to sit down is a Detroit residence address. And would she pick him up this afternoon? Move his things over. She’ll say fine, but the people who bought the house could be moving in soon. He’ll say, Well, since we’re both looking for a place to live—and she’d say something in her cute way. . . . So, call Greta about nine. At ten, drive over to Woody’s and put the gun in Donnell’s face. “Where are they?” Robin and Skip. Or throw him in the swimming pool and hold the gun on him. Fire a couple into the water close to him. “Where are they?” Haul Donnell’s terrified ass out of the pool and get him to make a statement. Maybe to use later, maybe not. See what happens. . . . Go over there about ten. He wouldn’t
have to wear a coat and tie. But would never wear that raunchy-looking outfit Mel Gibson had on. Something casual. . . .

The phone next to the bed woke him up at twenty after eleven Sunday morning, his dad calling from Toronto.

“How about meeting us at the airport?”

Chris said, “Yeah, I guess I could,” feeling his plan coming apart before he’d even spoken to Greta. “What time you get in?”

“We’re standby on a flight that arrives around three thirty. We don’t make it, then we’ll be on one that gets in—I have it written down somewhere. Here it is, five forty.”

“How’ll I know which one you’ll be on?”

“The way you work that,” his dad said, “you go out to the airport and stand at the gate. If you don’t see us come off the plane at three thirty, it means we’re on the other one.”

“That’s . . . over two hours later.”

His dad said, “Yeah?” and waited.

Chris said, “I bet it takes longer to drive from here out to Metro than it does to fly from Toronto to Detroit.” Thinking, And then drive back here. It could be seven thirty, the earliest, before he’d be able to get away.

His dad said, “We can take a cab. It only costs about fifty bucks, with the tip.”

“It does? That much?”

“I don’t want to inconvenience you . . .”

“No, that’s all right.”

“I thought since you been using my car . . .”

“No, I’ll be glad to pick you up.”

“And it’s Sunday and you’re not working anyway. . . . They put you back on yet?”

“I’m hoping this week.”

“You find a place to live?”

“I think so.”

“What about—is your friend still there?”

“Who, Greta? No, she went home.”

His dad said, “Uh-huh.” He said, “Well, listen, we’ll see you later.”

“I’ll be there.” Chris could hear Esther’s voice then and his dad speaking away from the phone, saying, “What? . . . Yeah, we could.” His dad talking to a woman in a hotel room in Toronto. Chris said, “You having fun on your trip?”

His dad said, “Yeah, it’s a nice town, lotta things to do. Listen, Esther says British Airways comes through here to Detroit. We’ll see what they have. Don’t go anywhere the next hour or so. We get a different flight I’ll call you back.”

Chris tried Greta’s number. The line was busy.

He went into the kitchen and began revising his plan as he put the coffee on and got three eggs out of the refrigerator. He should talk to Greta first. Tried her again, but the line was still busy. At least she was home. Fixing his breakfast he realized how
hungry he was. The idea of having scrambled eggs became a cheese and onion omelet. He looked for a can of tomato sauce in the cupboard, give it a Spanish touch, brought out a can of chili instead and kept swallowing as he watched it bubble in a saucepan, poured the chili over the eggs and ate it, Jesus, it was good, wiping his plate with bread, ate every bite before he thought of Greta again.

This time when he called her phone-answering voice came on, though not the cute Ginger one saying she wasn’t home, doggone it. The voice said, “Hi, this is Greta Wyatt. If you’ll leave your name and number, please, after you hear the beep, I’ll get back to you.” Chris waited for the beep and said, “Greta? It’s Chris. I’m home—”

Then heard her real voice come on saying, “Hi. I was listening, hoping it was you.”

“You have a different way of answering.”

“Yeah, I changed it. It’s a long story. Well, actually it isn’t so long, but it’s hard to explain.”

“I called before, your line was busy.”

“It’s Mother’s Day, I was talking to my mom and dad. Also, the real estate guy called first thing this morning. The people buying the house have to get out of theirs—I think they’ve been putting it off— and now they want to move in Tuesday.”

“That soon?”

“I told the real estate guy, Swell, now I have to hurry up and find a place. I’ve been reading the
classifieds, but I don’t know where any of the streets are and the two I called up both sounded colored.”

Chris said, “I have to do that too. Find a place.”

There was a silence on the line. Now that he was facing it he wasn’t sure what to say. Moving in with a young lady and going apartment-hunting with her were two different things. He was glad Greta didn’t say anything cute.

“My dad’s coming home this afternoon. I have to meet them at the airport.”

“I have to wait for the real estate guy to call me back,” Greta said. “He thinks maybe he can find me something, but if he doesn’t. . . . I don’t know, I’ll call a few more.”

Giving him his cue again. Chris said, “Well, listen, after I get back from the airport, how about if we go out, get something to eat?”

“Sounds good.”

There was another silence.

“I’d help you look for a place, but I have to wait for my dad to call.”

“That’s okay.”

“See if they get an earlier flight. Then I’ll be over soon as I can.”

“Fine, but you better call first.”

“Okay.”

“If I have to go out I’ll leave a message on the answering thing, when I’ll be back, okay?”

He didn’t want to hang up.

“I couldn’t call you last night. I got into something. . . . Well, I’ll tell you about it. What did you do?”

“Nothing. Watched television and went to bed.” She said, “Chris, I miss you.”

“I miss you too. I wish you were here.”

“I’m gonna have to hire a mover, for my stuff.”

“I can get a truck. Don’t worry about it.”

She said, “What would I do without you?”

They said goodbye right after that and hung up, and he wondered if she was being sarcastic. Except she’d said she missed him. He thought maybe she sounded different. Yesterday she thought
he
was different. They weren’t yet in touch with what slight change meant in each other. He shouldn’t assume anything, outside of she was a little more serious, her mind taken up with finding a place to live, and he hadn’t been any help to her at all. He should call her back and tell her there was nothing to worry about, they’d find a place.

Or tell her at least that he’d
help
her find a place.

Or talk about something else. Tell her about Juicy.

She might not think living together was such a good idea anyway. This soon.

If his dad and Esther got on the flight that arrived at three thirty, they’d be at the Toronto airport by two-something. Leave the hotel an hour before
that. . . . He’d have to leave here by two, drive all the way to Metro, find a place to park. . . . He’d have time if he left right now to stop off and see Donnell first. Except it wasn’t a stop-off kind of job. Holding the gun on the guy, say, “We’ll have to finish this later. I have to go pick up my dad.” Shit, he’d have to stop off at 1300 and reload the Glock or else pick up a box of nines somewhere. Find a gun shop open on Sunday. He
had
to see Donnell today. Locate Robin and Skip. Be ready for Monday morning. He should’ve told his dad he was working or made something up. There was nothing worse than waiting for a phone to ring when you knew it might not.

And it didn’t.

Two P.M. he was ready to leave, wearing a blue button-down shirt and khakis, and didn’t feel right. For six years he’d never left wherever he was living without his Spyder-Co knife, his Mini-Mag flashlight and a gun, things you needed pockets for. So he put on his beige sportcoat. Then put on a faded red tie and felt better. He left the apartment a little after two and made one stop, at 1300, went up to Firearms and Explosives and reloaded the Glock auto. He considered taking along a box of 9-millimeters but decided against it. If he couldn’t scare the shit out of Donnell with seventeen rounds he had no business trying.

* * *

His dad came off the plane with a dazed look, shaking his head, his raincoat and Esther’s mink over one arm. He put the other arm around Chris and they gave each other a kiss on the cheek. Chris went to Esther, flashing her blue-shadowed, sixty-four-year-old eyes at him, hunched over and gave her a kiss while his dad told them they shouldn’t make up a schedule if it don’t mean anything. Look at what time it was, seven thirty, for Christ sake. Standing there talking about it. Moving finally, creeping along, Esther telling about Toronto, asking him to guess who they saw, staying at the Sutton Place. Touching his arm and stopping in the crowded aisle of the terminal to tell him: Tom Selleck. And the one who was in “Cheers,” Ted Danson. His dad saying, And that broad, what’s her name, the blonde. Esther saying, Kathleen Turner, staying at the same hotel, they saw her in the lobby, twice. . . . Chris trying to move them through the crowd, get them out of there.

It was after nine by the time they’d crossed Detroit and reached St. Clair Shores. Chris had to help Esther up with her luggage and then stand in the doorway while she told him what a fine man his dad was, Chris nodding—till he opened his sportcoat and put his hands on his hips, let her notice the automatic stuck in his pants. Esther cut it short and said good night.

His dad wanted him to have a drink. Chris said,
Just a short one, calling to him in the kitchen as he went down the hall to his dad’s bedroom. He sat on the bed and dialed Greta’s number.

Her phone-message voice said, “Chris? Hi. I’m going to see Woody and get that over with. Tell him I’m not going to marry him.” There was a pause. “That’s a joke. You’re supposed to laugh. Anyway, I should be back around five.” There was another pause before her voice said, “See you later. I hope.”

Chris waited, heard the beep and kept waiting for her real voice to come on. . . .