CHAPTER 44
Cassandra and I sat side by side on my new couch. She was drinking a beer and I was holding a club soda. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to do more than that. I looked her in the eye and then I leaned in. She leaned away. I got the message.
I straightened up and drank the club soda. The bubbles burned my nose.
“You know the real reason I left, Jack?”
I waited.
Cassandra sighed. “You were violent, sure, but never toward me. You were distant — emotionally distant. But that’s not why I left, either.”
“So what, then?”
“I had to figure some stuff out.” Cassie looked up. “I like women, Jack.”
I blinked.
“I always have.” Cassandra looked away. “In high school, I tried to pretend I didn’t. I dated guys. Some of them I even liked. I liked you, Jack. But you were hardly ever around.” She smiled. “I think that was part of the appeal.”
I nodded. “Thanks for telling me. I’m glad you trust me.” I raised my glass. “Mazel tov.”
Cassandra looked at me from the corner of her eyes. “There’s something else.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Is Melody bisexual?”
I sat there without moving.
“You said you’re not exclusive. She’s bi, right?”
I nodded.
“Maybe I’ll ask her out. After all this shit with Anton is over.” Cassandra bit her nails and stared at me. “What do you think about that?”
I stood up. “I think Melody is like that person at the circus with all the spinning plates. Sooner or later, one of those plates is going to break.”
I kept it civil. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s this: leave things civil with the folks you care about. You never know what’s waiting around the corner. The last thing The Chief ever said to me was “Fuck you.” It shouldn’t still sting, but it did. It stung when I pictured him there scowling in that motel room surrounded by empty bottles. He didn’t know it then, but he was at the end of his string. Or maybe he did know and that’s why he was trying to soak up all the booze in the goddamn world. Shit, I’m one to talk.
I headed out into the cool night air and the sound of sirens. City sounds. After a while, you don’t even notice the sirens anymore.
CHAPTER 45
Moonlight sparkled on Ashbridges Bay. The ember of Freddy Johns’s cigar glowed orange in the darkness. “Here’s how I see it, Jack. It’s almost over.” We strolled through the trees. To our right, across the bike path, was a park. Past the park was sand, and in the distance was the blackness of the lake.
“I appreciate all your efforts, Freddy.”
“It’s time to put this Tommy shit to bed.” Freddy puffed his cigar. “Then there’s that other thing.”
“Cassandra.”
“Yeah.” The big man squinted. The moonlight shone down through the trees. “You know me, Jack. I’m a reasonable man. Let her know I’ll give her a payment plan that makes sense. For her, I’ll lower my usual rates.”
The interest on the hundred grand Cassie owed Freddy would still be punishing. He’d lower his rates from highway robbery down to regular old robbery.
We shook hands. “I appreciate it, Freddy.”
“Hey,” Freddy said, grinning, “what are friends for?” He turned back to look at the lake. That’s when Grover stepped out of the trees and slit the big man’s throat.
The next day I headed back to the lake. Freddy’s body had been carted off sometime last night. Four little kids were playing with the police caution tape. They’d torn it down and were laughing as they wound themselves all up in it. I looked around but their parents were elsewhere, grilling meat, drinking beer. It was a beautiful day.
The crime tech guys had taken their photos. The homicide guys had made notes in their little notebooks. I didn’t see any of that, but I knew that’s how it worked. They would be interviewing witnesses, too. Anyone see the fat man strolling through the trees puffing on a cigar while he chatted with a friend? I turned and headed toward the parking lot. A sparrow lifted off from a nearby tree. The children shouted and danced, yellow caution tape dangling from their arms like ribbons.
CHAPTER 46
Without Freddy going to bat for me with the council, Sammy DiAngelo would push them the other way. The shot would be called and another hit man would be on his way. Grover thought he was helping, but he had fucked me good. Cassie getting off the hook for a hundred grand was the silver lining, but Sammy and his friends were still after me. Plus she still owed Anton six hundred large. He wouldn’t be patient forever.
I stood in Eddie’s casino and I watched Cassandra play a few hands. Her chip stack grew. I headed up the stairs. If I timed it right, I could get to Melody’s house soon after her shift ended.
I timed it wrong. I went around the corner to a little place on Queen and had a coffee. I tried to read a magazine, but my eyes kept skimming off the page. I stared out the window. It was a rare treat just to sit and do nothing. Then I stood up and went back to Melody’s.
When she threw open the door, she was wearing a robe and had a beer in her hand. “How’s it going, Jack?”
I followed her inside. “Cassandra told me she was thinking of asking you out.”
“Really?” Melody smiled. “Well, isn’t that something?”
“I don’t know about this, Mel.”
She put her hand on her hip. “Why not? You had your Sauble Beach girl, right? If it’s safe and consensual, then I’m all for it. I like sex, Jack. I’m going to hop in the shower. Stick around, will you? You can give me a ride to my dad’s house.”
“You gonna tell him about the coke?”
Melody laughed. “What coke?”
She sauntered into the bathroom and closed the door. I heard the water running. I walked over to the living room window and peered out into the street. No motorcycles. I looked over at the front door. Then I sat down and closed my eyes.
“Hey, Jack! You still here?”
I stood up and walked into the hall. Melody stepped out of the bathroom. She was wearing white cotton panties and nothing else. Her blond hair was still damp from the shower. She pointed to a white laundry basket on the floor. “Hand me that towel, will you?”
I did. The polite thing to do would be to stop staring at her breasts. I didn’t. Her nipples looked like raspberries. I wanted to bite them.
She’s bad news, Jack.
Yeah, but, you know, on the other hand …
Melody wrapped the white towel around her head like a turban. She smiled at me and then headed toward the bedroom. I watched her go. Beneath her thin cotton panties, her buttocks swayed from side to side as she sauntered down the hall.
Come on, Jack. Stay away.
Yeah, but —
“There’s Scotch in the kitchen,” Melody called over her shoulder. “Help yourself.”
“I’ve got to go.”
She stopped and smiled. “You say that, but you’re still here.” Her breasts jiggled as she put her hands on her hips. “Come on, Jack. Have a drink with me.”
I glanced into the kitchen. The bottle was right there, glowing amber beneath the kitchen lights. Melody was walking toward me, half naked. I turned away from the bottle and stared into Melody’s eyes. “Goodbye, Mel.”
CHAPTER 47
Melody wasn’t going to come clean. She was going to cling stubbornly to her delusion of a Cocaine Empire, even if it meant driving her dad straight into an open grave. Fisher wasn’t going to quit until either he or Walter was dead in the ground.
I waited in Melody’s living room until she took a cab to her dad’s house and then I called Marcus. He told me where to look. In Melody’s basement was a storage room full of clothes, and in the corner of the storage room was a big cardboard box. I reached out with my huge hands and I pushed her clothes aside. Then I moved the box. On the floor of the basement where the box had been was a small metal hatch. The feath
ers from her angel costume tickled my nose as I knelt down and lifted the covering off the hatch. Underneath was a small dark hole that might’ve held a sump pump at one point. The sump pump was gone, and instead, a dark green duffle bag sat in the darkness. I reached in and fished it out. When I unzipped the bag, there it was — four kilos of uncut cocaine, wrapped in plastic. One of the bags had been cut open. Either Melody or Marcus had dipped into it. Maybe Melody had scooped up some to sell at the club or maybe the powder had gone right up her nose. Frankly, I didn’t care one way or another. She’d had plenty of chances to come clean and she blew each one.
I zipped the duffle bag shut and carried it out of the storage room.
I took the coke and drove to Walter’s. Fisher was standing in the living room and Melody was sitting on the couch. Walter stood reeling in the doorway, a gun dangling from his hand. The big biker was fucked right up. Pills? Booze? Leapers? Screamers? Reefer? All of the above? He stumbled as he loaded his pistol.
I stepped into the house. “Give me the gun, Walter.”
Walter turned toward me and squinted. “Fuck you. Fuck off. Go fuck yourself. This is my gun.”
“Come on, Walter. Let’s get a drink, you and me.”
Walter slammed the last bullet into the pistol. He turned and looked at me, closing one eye to bring me into focus. “Who the fuck are you? Fuck off. I got shit to do.”
Fisher spread his arms. “You gonna shoot us all, Walter? Plug me right in the belly? Go right ahead.”
Walter waved the gun around. “I should. I should fucking shoot you like you shot me. I told you, I don’t have the fucking coke. Now get the fuck out of my house.”
“Dad —”
“Go home, Melody.”
I glanced over at Melody. Last chance to come clean, I thought. She caught my eye and then looked away.
Walter scowled at Fisher. The pistol swayed in his hand. “I said get out!”
Fisher nodded. “All right. But this isn’t over.” Fisher turned and stomped out the door.
I watched him go and then stepped forward and dropped the duffle bag onto the coffee table with a satisfying thud. “There’s the coke. Four kilos, more or less.”
Walter cocked his head, puzzled. Gears were turning inside his brain. “You took my shit?”
I kept my eye on the gun in his hand. “Nope. I found it in Melody’s house.”
Walter blinked. “It was you?”
“Dad …”
“It was you.” Walter’s shoulders sagged. “This whole time. This whole time, it was you.”
I stepped forward and closed my hand around Walter’s gun. He gave it up without a fight. I walked over and put the pistol on the dining room table.
“Dad, wait. It’s not like that.”
“No? What the fuck is it like?”
Melody plastered a huge smile across her face. “I was going to split the money. You would’ve gotten your cut. I just didn’t want to see you get hurt.”
Walter didn’t say anything. Then he looked at Melody. The big biker looked weary, as if he had been riding for a thousand miles. “Get out.”
“Dad, wait.”
Walter looked over at me. “I keep throwing people out of my house, but nobody’s listening.”
“Knock, knock.” Fisher stood in the doorway with a shotgun. He grinned. “I’ll take the coke.” He levelled the shotgun at Walter.
Walter’s fist closed around the straps of the duffle bag. “Are you kidding me? Fuck that.”
Melody clutched her father’s arm. “Dad, just give him the shit.”
Walter shook her off. “Fuck that and fuck you. Did you trash my house, too?” He looked up at Fisher. “She blamed you, you know. Can you believe that shit?”
“Yeah,” Fisher said. “I can.” He jabbed out with the shotgun. “Slide the bag over, Walter.”
“Dad, just do it.”
“Give it to him, Walter.”
Fisher kept grinning. “Listen to them, Walter. Don’t make me shoot you again.”
Eyes full of hate, Walter shoved the duffle bag across the coffee table. He turned his head and spit on his own floor. “We had a dream, you and me. What the fuck went wrong?”
CHAPTER 48
“Fisher.”
“Shut up.”
“Look, man —”
Fisher reached out and smashed me in the nose with the butt of his pistol. I saw white and then I saw red. It hurt like hell. He kept his left hand on the wheel and grimaced. “Goddamn it, Jack, I thought we were friends. You’re gonna turn around and give Walter my shit?”
I held my hand to my nose. I was pretty sure it was broken. Blood gushed through my fingers. Fisher kept talking. “And you didn’t even come to my dog’s funeral. You know Brutus would’ve wanted you there. That shit stung, Jack.”
Fisher had held me at gunpoint back at Walter’s house while I removed my knives. I left them all on the big biker’s coffee table. Hopefully they would still be there when I got back. If I got back. “Where are we going?” My voice was muffled by my hand full of blood.
“Time’s up, Jack. We’re going to get Cassandra.”
“Leave her out of this.”
“Oh, she’s in it. She’s fucking all the way in this shit right here.”
The old biker had gotten his station wagon up and running again. The shotgun was on the back seat, right next to the duffle bag full of cocaine. I could see the gun resting on the seat in the rear-view. Fisher followed my eyes and chuckled. “Thought you didn’t like guns. You just be cool, Jack. This is almost over. You help me load up Cassie and then we’ll all pay Anton a friendly visit.”
“I told you, Anton will get his money.”
“Yeah, you told me. And I told Anton. But guess what? He’s still sitting on a big pile of nothing.”
“How can you work for that man?”
Fisher was quiet for a minute. He turned the wheel and the station wagon cut left. “There’s lots of bad bosses out there, Jack. I bet you’ve worked for a few.”
I thought about Tommy and I kept my mouth shut.
Fisher peered through the windshield. “Anton is a means to an end. I wasn’t gonna involve him in this coke business. I figured I could make more if Walter sold the shit instead of Anton.” He shook his head. “That was a fucking mistake. I should’ve known Walter would fuck it up six ways till Sunday. So, I’ll take what I can get from Anton. Wholesale, yeah, but every bit counts.”
“You really think you’re going to bring back Satan’s Blood?”
Fisher laughed. “You gotta have a dream, Jack. If you don’t have a dream, you’re already dead.”
At a red light, Fisher kept the pistol levelled on me while he pulled a cellphone out of his pocket. He tossed the phone onto my lap. “Call Cassie. Tell her to meet us at the southeast corner of Queen and Spadina.”
“No.”
“What?” There was a menacing growl in Fisher’s voice.
“She doesn’t want anything to do with Anton. Not anymore.”
Fisher frowned. “You gotta understand my position here, Jack. Anton might have his faults, sure, but he’s my boss. He says go get Cassie, well then, I go get Cassie.”
“That simple, huh?”
“That’s right. Just that fucking simple.”
“You’re a good soldier.”
“Damn right.”
“You’re just following orders.”
Fisher scowled. “Watch it.” Fisher gestured with his gun. “Call her. No funny business or I’ll shoot you right in your motherfucking head.”
I could see Fisher was right on the edge. I punched in Cassandra’s number. She answered. “Hello?”
“Meet me at the southeast corner of Queen and Spadina in five minutes. We’re on our way.”
“Jack? Is everything all right?”
I didn’t say anything.
“Who’s ‘we’? Who’s with you?”
I still didn’t say anything. On the other end of the phone, Cas
sie exhaled. “It’s him, isn’t it? Fisher.”
“Yes. We’ll be there in five minutes.”
“I’ll be there.”
“No.”
There was silence on the other end of the line. Then Cassandra said, “I’m tired, Jack. Let’s just get this done.”
I glanced over at Fisher. The old biker was distracted by traffic. With one hand I grabbed the barrel of his gun and twisted. With the other hand I smashed him in the face with his phone. Fisher cursed and slammed on the brakes. The station wagon tires screeched against the street. Another light turned red. Blood was gushing down his face. I pointed the gun right at him, holding it low so the drivers behind us couldn’t see it. A nose for a nose. The pain in my nose had died down to a dull throb.
Fisher glared at me. “You’re making a mistake.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.” The light turned green. I gestured with the gun. “Keep driving.”
I kept the gun fixed on Fisher as we drove. “Cassandra is sick of running from Anton. She wants to put this all behind her. But we’re going to do this my way.”
Fisher glanced over at the gun in my fist. “Just be careful, man. That trigger is real sensitive.”
I wanted to roll down the window and chuck the gun out onto the street. But then the gun might go off and an innocent person might get shot. I wasn’t about to let that happen.
Fisher glanced over at me again. “So what’s the plan here, Jack? You gonna march me up to Anton at gunpoint? He’s going to see that shit on his security cameras and you won’t even get past the front door.”
Carve the Heart Page 17