Small Crimes (35 page)

'Uh-uh.
Not here we shouldn't,' I said. >

We
were still on one of the back roads when I spotted a black Range Rover speeding
towards us. I lowered myself and saw Junior's two goons in it. Duane was
driving and Jamie was next to him with his head bandaged up. They looked over
at us, but neither of them saw me as they passed by. I turned and watched them
through the back window. I knew they were racing towards Kelley's. I pretty
much guessed Earl had called them when he first saw me.

Are
we in danger?' Tina asked. She sounded scared. As I looked at her I noticed how
close she was to crying.

'I
don't think so,' I said. 'Once this story airs, Junior's history. Don't worry
about him.'

When
we got to Burlington, we stopped off at the Chapel

Memorial
Hospital's emergency room. I got a tetanus shot and sixteen stitches for my
hand, which they also bandaged up. I also had my chest X-rayed and found that I
had a couple of bruised ribs, nothing broken. After that we stopped off at a
department store and Eric ran in and bought me a new polo shirt and a pair of
pants. I needed a new pair of pants because I had bled over the pair I was
wearing. We then drove back to the station and I changed in the men's room.
When I got out, Eileen was waiting for me. Her edges seemed even sharper than
before.

'You
promised me nothing was going to happen there,' she said in a voice that could
cut glass.

'Either
of those two get hurt?' I asked.

'Tina's
in shock.'

'She's
a gutsy kid. She'll be okay. If she hadn't nailed Earl Kelley with that glass
I'd probably be dead now.’

‘Damn
you, you promised me!'

'Yeah?
Why should you've believed anything I said? Look at me. I'm a dirty ex-cop and
a paroled felon. If you're going to believe me that's your problem.'

She
was livid. 'You sonofabitch.'

'What
are you complaining about? You have your story. And it's a good one. I'm the
one with the bruised ribs and a sliced hand.'

'You
almost killed a man in that club.'

I
made a face. 'It was self-defense. He was going to take Eric's head off with
that baseball bat if I didn't do anything. And he was going to do a lot worse
to me. Anyway, he'll live.'

'You
just about castrated him!'

'Look,
he was trying to kill me.' I was starting to get annoyed. It was bad enough
that my hand throbbed like crazy and that I could barely breathe without a
searing pain sucking my breath away, but now I had to listen to this?

'Eileen,'
I continued, trying to keep my voice under control, 'just be happy, okay? You
got a great story. There was no other way of getting it. If you had gotten the
cops in Bradley involved you would've been shut down from the start. Let's just
finish this up and show that college club distributing crystal meth.'

'We're
done. I'm not sending you out with any of my people again.'

It
was pretty much what I had expected. It didn't matter, though. I had thought
the matter out when were driving back from Bradley.

'You
don't need me for this last part,' I said. 'The club is the Blue Horn in
Eastfield. Get the state police involved if you want. Have one of your interns
or someone young go there tonight and buy crystal meth, and then send the
police and Eric in. It will work fine.'

She
wanted to argue with me. I could see it in her eyes, but there was nothing to
argue about.

'You're
still going to interview me on the air tonight, right?' I asked.

'I'm
going to have to. I can't find any other link between Manny Vassey, his son,
and that old tannery you broke into.’

‘What
do you mean?'

'I
checked at the Registry of Deeds and that property is owned by a June Hathaway.’

‘I
never heard of her.'

'You
wouldn't have. She died in seventy-two.'

'So
Vassey has a bogus owner on the deed. So
what?
Someone's
been paying the water and power bills
there. And
buying
supplies. And paying for the rubbish removal.
You
'll
find
a link if you dig around.'

'I
hope so.'                                                                   

'You'll
find one,' I said. Anyway, someone's going to talk. If not one of the guys we
caught on video then one of the cops on Manny's payroll. Someone's going to
roll over on him to protect themselves. You'll tie Manny and Junior up in
this.'

'We'll
see. But we will need you to talk about what you know on the air tonight. In
the meantime, the Registry of Deeds is open for another half-hour. It's
probably a waste of time, but I'll send one of my people over to find out what
name is on the Blue Horn's deed.'

She
wavered a moment before leaving. I could see the uncertainty creeping into her
eyes and then spreading and dulling her hard edges. I could almost hear the
thoughts running through her. What if I was lying about Manny and Junior's
involvement? All she had at the moment was my word on it.

I
should've been expecting something like that. It shouldn't have come as any
surprise. I don't know. Maybe I was too distracted by the pain ripping into my
side and the raw throbbing in my hand, and maybe that was keeping me from
thinking clearly, but I couldn't help worrying. My plan was to bust Junior's
gambling and drug operations wide open and make it political suicide for Phil
to strike any deal protecting him. I knew that given enough time Manny and
Junior would be tied to what was going on in that tannery and their other
businesses. For now it would have to be my word against theirs.

I
hung around the station. Around six Eileen found me and told me what I was
expecting - that according to the deed the Blue Horn had been sold three months
ago to June Hathaway. She had the name of the previous owner and she was going
to try to track him down and see whether he was willing to make a statement. At
a quarter past seven Tina found me and asked whether I wanted to join her for
dinner. My stomach felt as if it were in knots, but I needed something to kill
the time so I went with her.

We
ended up going to a steakhouse about a mile from the station. Tina ordered a
sirloin and I stuck with a salad and cream of mushroom soup. It was about all I
felt I could handle.

She
was trying to smile at me, but concern was wrecking it.

'How
are you feeling?' she asked.

'I'll
be okay,' I said. 'No serious damage done at least.'

'That
was really amazing in there,' she said. 'I thought that bartender was going to
kill all of us.'

'He
gave it his best shot. I guess it just wasn't good enough.' I paused for a
moment to take a bite of my salad and to look at Tina. She was very pretty,
there was no arguing about that, but it was the way she was looking at me that
got to me. Maybe years ago when I was quarterbacking my high school football
team, Elaine might have looked at me like that, but probably not even then. I
don't think any woman, or really anyone, had ever looked at me with the
admiration with which Tina did at that moment. It choked me up a bit.

'You
were really amazing in there, Joe.'

'You
were pretty damn good yourself.' There was something contagious about her
smile, and I couldn't help smiling back. "That was quick thinking on your
part. If you hadn't nailed Earl with that glass, I would've been taken out of
there in a body bag.'

'I
can't believe I did that,' she said, laughing. 'It just happened. I guess it
was reflex.'

We
ate quietly after that, but it was comfortable quiet. I even realized I had
stopped worrying at one point. Near the end, Tina showed me an uneasy smile.

'Joe,
I don't know if you've been watching our broadcasts, but for the last couple of
weeks we've been hitting you pretty hard.'

'That's
okay. I deserve it.'

'I
don't know if that's true anymore. What I saw today was incredible. For those
things to be going on shows that the whole Bradley police force has to be
dirty. It's no wonder you ended up the way you did. But what you did today was
amazing. You're going to be single-handedly responsible for cleaning up this
whole area.'

'I
appreciate that,' I said. 'Not every cop on the Bradley force is dirty. Some
are, but not all. I ended up the way I did because of my own mistakes. I have
no one to blame.'

The
way she looked at me right then almost stopped my
heart.                                              
_s

'Why
don't we find someplace we can be alone, Joe?'

I
wanted to. God did I want to. But she was almost twenty years younger than me.
There was more to it than that. I didn't even know if I had a future past the
next few hours. But there was still more. There was Charlotte. I know it's
crazy, but I started feeling guilty. As nuts as Charlotte was, I knew that in
some bizarre way we were meant for each other. That at some level we understood
each other and that we could help each other. As beautiful and sane as Tina
was, she didn't have a clue what was inside me.

'Tina,'
I said. 'It's eight thirty and we got that news broadcast at ten.'

'We
have enough time.'

'I've
got to be honest,' I said. I want to more than you could ever imagine, but I'm
feeling pretty beat up right now.’

‘I'll
be gentle.'

'Why
don't we give it a few days and see how we're feeling then?'

That
just heated her up more. The desire flushing her face was almost too much for
me. I almost weakened. But Jesus, I couldn't do that to her. Instead, I just
sat back and looked into her eyes. She showed me a little smile, took a
business card from her pocketbook, wrote on the back of it, and handed it to
me.

'Don't
wait too long, Joe,' she said, showing me probably the nicest smile I'd ever
seen. I looked on the back of the card and saw that she had written her home
number on it and had drawn a big heart next to it. I put the card away in my
wallet.

We
finished our dinner and headed back to the station. When we got there, I found
out that things had gone as planned at the Blue Horn. One of the interns bought
several hits of crystal meth and then the state police raided the place. They
got almost forty thousand dollars' worth of drugs in the raid and the station
shot video of it all. Eileen had one of her reporters over at the state police
headquarters, but it sounded like none of the Blue Horn employees that were
rounded up were willing to say who they worked for.

The
station was able to condense the video they shot into a ninety-second clip.
They opened with Tina reporting the story. After that I was brought on and
interviewed live for about three minutes. It went better than I could've
expected. Tina acted as if everything I was saying was a proven fact, even
though there was nothing yet tying Manny and Junior to any of it.

After
the broadcast Eileen came over and offered me her hand.

'I
have to admit you did some good work here, Joe,' she said.

I
thanked her. As I was getting ready to leave, Tina came over and kissed me on
the cheek. When I turned to say something to her, she grabbed me around the
neck and kissed me long and hard on the mouth. When we separated her eyes were
sparkling.

'Don't
wait too long to call me,' she said. I felt a lump in my throat as I watched
her walk away.

My
head was buzzing as I made my way to my car. I couldn't help thinking of Tina,
of the way it felt when she kissed me, of how badly I realized I wanted her. I
guess I was too caught up in my thoughts to notice them, at least until it was
too late. At the last second I caught sight of Jamie's bandaged head out of the
corner of my eye. Then I felt the blow to my damaged ribs. He must've used
brass knuckles. The pain from the blow dropped

me
to my knees and brought hot tears to my eyes. It froze me. I couldn't breathe,
I couldn't move.