Inanimate (13 page)

The fourth man present in
th
is group of
four men and two women never had anything to do with the brawling.
He was the joker of the bunch, not the fighter. He was the
instigator; his comments about others while he and Tony drank
together usually lead to those others being set upon by Tony in the
near future. The man was Matthew. Matthew ran over to check on Andy
as the others stayed with Tony to make sure he didn’t go back for
more. Daylight had now completely gone, only the streetlamps
remained to illuminate Andy’s limp body. The last of the bourbon
had worked its way through his system, making sure he felt no pain
at all.

“
I
can’t feel his pulse!

Matthew cried frantically.

“
I think you fucking killed
him Tony!”

Trying to justify his
actions,
Tony
called back.

“
He cut me open!
He cut me open with
a fucking key!”

A young
bartender named Billy came out (now
that Jimmy had stopped blocking the door) to check on the man, now
lying, staring at the stars from the sidewalk.

“
What did you guys do? Earl!
Call an ambulance!”

“
It was self-
defense Billy!” Sneered Tony;
pressing his face against his own shoulder. “He attacked
me!”

“
Bullshit!”
Billy muttered as he tried in
vain to help Andy.

Ra
ising his head off the concrete, Billy had
no idea what he was doing. He didn’t know if that would help at
all, but he felt better knowing he tried.

“
I tell you this
Tony
.” Billy
yelled. “You’re damn lucky your uncle’s the Sheriff!”

As Tony
sat on the sidewalk, applying
pressure to his wound, he heard sirens in the background and
smiled. Yes, he was lucky his uncle was the Sheriff. But he knew
that already.

CHAPTER 15

The Sheriff’s cruiser pulled up outside
Earl’s. The call was placed directly to the station but Oates knew
he should be the one to respond. All eyes on the street watched the
cruiser as Sheriff Oates and Deputy Lynch got out. The EMT was
dressing Tony’s wound in the back of the ambulance when Oates
appeared in front of him, staring at him through aviators, which he
only very recently had no use for. In the background, the coroner
was already on scene, closing the bag on Andy Williams. Tony was
unable to meet eyes with his uncle; instead he stared at his
polished shoes. Oates removed his beige tinted glasses and polished
them on his shirt. His eyes were fiery but focused.

“
Who’s your friend?”
Oates asked,
pointing his chin towards the body bag in the ambulance.

“
Look Unc it was
self-def...”

“
I never asked you what
happened!
”
Oates snapped. “I asked you who he was.”

Oates’ contempt for his
nephew grew stronger
every day. If his brother hadn’t died and left Tony in his care, he
would have washed his hands of him years earlier.

“
Andy Williams. The guy on the
news. H
is son
killed his girlfriend in the city”

“
You mean the kid that’s been all
over the news for murder? This
is his father?”

“
Yeah.
”

“
Well, that’s great
isn’t it? Do you
realize what's going to happen now? The press are going to swarm
down here looking info on this little incident. What am I going to
tell them eh? It just happened? He just died?”

“
It was self-
defense Sheriff” repeated Tony
quietly.

“
You
know what son, just shut your
mouth!”

Oates’ blood
boiled. Blood was the only
reason he put up with him.

“
I
f those words came from anyone else I
might believe them, but from you? I’ve a good mind to give you a
taste of my baton.”

Despite Tony’s bullying nature he was very
intimidated by his uncle. Oates could beat him to a pulp if he
wanted to but even though Tony was pretty sure that wouldn’t
happen, the threat was enough to keep him in check.

“
So what
, you just came down to Earl’s so you
could pick on this man? Is that it? And don’t you dare try and tell
me he started it!”

“
The guy was dangerous!
We had to do
something before he someone got killed!”

“
Boy, are you retarded? Someone
did get killed. You damn well killed him!”

“
Better than one of
us.”

“
So let me see if I got this
straight…Concerned for the welfare of our fair town, you came down
to the bar tonight along with your jerk-off friends so you could
‘protect’ us? Is that it? You weren’t just looking for trouble like
always? Like you have been all your god-damned life?”

“
No sir
.” Tony said quietly

“
No sir what?

Oates
got even more aggravated.

“
No sir you weren’t
protecting us or no sir you weren’t looking for a
fight?”

Tony didn’t speak; he knew his words
wouldn’t do any good right now.

“
What?
Come on tough guy speak
up!”

The toot of a car horn interrupted Oates
and he turned around. With an angry sigh he wondered how this car
got here so quickly. He knew this was going to be more bad
news.

“
Hello Mayor.” said Oates
half-heartedly as he greeted the man inside the dark
Sedan.

“
Sheriff, I came as soon as I
heard!”

“
Well Hugh, you must
have heard pretty
quickly because I just got here myself.”

“
I don’t think I need to tell you
how quickly news travels in Staunton Sheriff. But since you asked,
my cousin is in there, he called me. He told me Tony killed a guy,
is that true?”

“
As far as I can tell it was
self-defense” Oates lied.

Oates would rather not involve
the mayor in this
. Not only did he not feel it was any of his concern, Mayor
Shannahan was more interested in town-revenue than townspeople.
Oates knew he was most likely here to figure out how bad the murder
would be for the image of the town.

“
Who was it
Sheriff? Someone local? It
wasn’t one of the boys on the football team was it?”

…
And Oates was correct. The high
school football team were the state champions and Shannahan knew
their games always brought business into the town. Portly and grey,
Shannahan studied Oates’ face with ferret-like
intensity.

“
No Hugh, it was an
out-of-towner.”

“
Oh thank Jesus”

The Mayor’s body showed an overpowering
relief.

“
I wouldn’t
tha
nk Jesus
just yet mayor. It turned out this particular out-of-towner was
kind of famous, or rather infamous.”

“
Who is
it?”

Shannahan asked as he ushered the Sheriff
to a quieter part of the street as if the town didn’t already
know.

“
I’m sure you’ve been
watching
the
news this past week. The little boy in the city; the one who killed
his dad’s girlfriend.”

“
Yeah I saw it
. What about him?”

“
It was the
father
.”

“
Christ!
The media will be all over
this.”

Silence passed
for a long moment as
both men pondered what to do next.

“
You’re going to have to take
care of this Sheriff.”

Oates looked at Shannahan,
realizing again just how
terrible of a person he was. He decided to be
honest, hoping the truth would permit some humanity to
escape.

“
Look Hugh, I don’t
know what’s going on
yet. Tony said it was self-defense but I don’t believe him. I think
it was worse than that.”

“
What? Murder?”

Oates
nodded.

“
No! We
can’t have that!”

Oates thought he hit a nerve
with the word murder. He believed Shannahan was going to support
him until the
he spoke again.

“
Say it was
self-defense.”

“
What?”

“
Or better yet, say it was
an accident!”

“
Better yet? Hugh, this man’s
been beaten to death! By my own nephew! How
can I say it was an
accident?”

“
Well I don’t know. You’re the
Sheriff, make it happen!”

“
You’re joking right?”

“
Do I sound like I’m joking? Look
Stacey…”

Oates flinched angrily when Shannahan
used his first name.

“…
you’ve lived in this town your
whole life; you know how much we rely on tourism. Festivals and
events are the kind of things that attract people and their money
to our little town. Staunton has a reputation state wide as a
family friendly place. But what do you think will happen when the
news reporters and camera crews swarm in here and find out about
this? They already nicknamed the kid ‘The Baby Killer’ for Christ’s
sake, what do you think they would nickname us? Now, if it was just
a tragic accident say, he got hit by a car or something…now that we
could live with. Who knows, it might even be good for us, maybe put
us on the map a little.”

“
No Hugh I can’t do that. You
might think it’s ok to cover up a murder but I don’t, it’s not
gonna happen.”

“
Ok
fine, don’t sweep it under the rug. Leave
it out for the whole fucking world to see. Let your nephew get the
needle for this, cos that’s what they do with convicted killers
here Stacey. They get the needle. What would your brother think of
that?”

Oates lost his temper and pushed Shannahan
up against the wall.

“
You don’t get to talk about my
brother like
you knew him. You didn’t. But I know you, you’re a small
man and a coward. You don’t care about people. You’re only
interested in lining your greasy fucking pockets!”

“
Look
, Sheriff, even if that were true, I
know you care about people and I know you want what’s best for
Tony. A murder conviction isn’t what’s best for him.”

Oates relaxed his grip as Shannahan
continued.

“
Those friends of his don’t want
to go down as accessories so you’ll have no problem convincing them
to co-operate. It’ll be so easy.”

Oates
was conflicted. Shannahan was a
coward but he was right. Tony had got away with a lot in the past
thanks to his family connections but this was different. Oates was
convinced Tony would get away with murder in the second degree,
avoiding the needle, but that still meant many years in prison.
Oates had never recorded Tony’s previous brawls officially but he
had punished him privately. He could turn a blind eye to minor
assaults. But murder? He had sworn to his brother he would protect
Tony from all harms including himself but he knew this was going
too far. Oates was guilty of the odd assault or “police brutality”
as it was commonly known. He believed hitting the odd troublemaker
here and there enforced his position as Sheriff, and thus enforcing
the rule of law. It was just a shame he could not keep his own
nephew from committing acts of violence whenever he
pleased.

“
You know what you have to do
Stacey.

Shannahan
said, content he had gotten
through to him.

“
I’ll see you
later
.”

Oates didn’t respond as he turned and
faced his nephew. The body still lingered in the back of the
coroner’s wagon like a physical representation of responsibility
but the Sheriff could not figure out which of his responsibilities
it represented. Was it to his family or to his oath to the law? As
he walked down the street toward his nephew-sitting patiently in
the ambulance-his thoughts raced. What would his subordinates think
if he asked them to falsify a report? What would his brother think
if he let his only son rot in jail for the rest of his life? As he
stood in front of the bully that was Tony Oates-his own flesh and
blood-he knew exactly what he had to do.

CHAPTER 16

Doctor Greg MacNamee was not exclusively a
creature of habit, though he was when it came to certain things. He
loved waking up to his cups of tea in the morning, delivered to him
by his lovely wife Greta. But that didn’t mean he would drink the
same tea day in and day out. Some people class habitual behavior as
boring but not MacNamee. He enjoyed having the same coffee every
day on his way to work just the same as he enjoyed sleeping with
the same woman every night. Still half asleep in bed he was brought
to his senses by that familiar clicking sound as the tea cup landed
on the bedside table, accompanied by a delightful odor. The aroma
of raspberry and elderflower was a tantalizing combination, fruity
yet earthy at the same time.