Kindness Goes Unpunished

by Craig Johnson

  I looked at the blue and gold lights of Ben’s bridge shooting into the darkness, the suspension cables only half-lit in the fading umber of twilight. The stacked stone buttresses looked like castled pavilions along the Delaware River, with the arch lights illuminating the stone with a yellowish-green tint. I could hear the clatter of the light rail banging along on the tracks below the bridge’s walking paths. Cady didn’t have a car and generally walked the thirty-two blocks back and forth to work. I wondered if she ever had the time to see this picture-postcard view of her neighborhood. I worried about her walking home at night, but I worried about her brushing her teeth and breathing. Like most parents, I just worried.

  “You can drink your dinner.”

  It sounded appealing; they probably had food, and it was within easy crawling distance of home. I glanced in the windows of the bar as we passed. It was a Thursday night, which meant I wouldn’t be assaulted by live music or a crowd; I’d just pay for the privilege of my own company.

  I had seen pictures of the little tannery building she had bought, and there it was, a strangely squat, one-and-a-half-story commercial-looking structure with a forged-iron atrium. The large carriage opening was still there along the street, but there was also a side entrance with a covered entryway. The Bear eased the car to a stop along the curb. The only light was on the corner about fifty feet and another building down. We sat there for a moment, and I broached the subject of Dog. “If it’s going to be too big of a pain in the ass, just say so.”

  “It is going to be too big of a pain in the ass.”

  I nodded, and we got out and retrieved my bags from the trunk. I wheeled everything across the cobblestones to the door. “Breakfast?”

  “How about lunch?” I nodded and shook my head as he climbed in and started the T-bird. Leave it to Henry to have already arranged a tryst.

  “Dog.” The big brute had been waiting for the word and lithely slipped over the side of the car. He joined me on the sidewalk as we watched the twin-turbine’s brake lights disappear down the cobblestone street.

  I scratched his bulky head, and he looked up at me. “Piss on the bunch of ’em, huh?” He wagged in response: two orphans in a town without pity.

  The key didn’t work.

  I tried it the way she said; I jiggled it and struggled to get it to turn in the other direction, but no go. I walked back to the carriage entrance and tried moving these doors, but they didn’t budge. I thought about abandoning my bags and heading for O’Neil’s, but I wasn’t sure how they’d receive Dog, and we were in it together. There was a narrow walkway of broken flagstone and weeds to my right, so I decided to see what the back of the building held in way of ingress. I stuffed my suitcases in the entryway in hopes that they would still be there when I got back, picked up the sidearm case, patted my leg for Dog to follow, and turned sideways for the two-step between the brick walls. The brim of my hat proved to be cumbersome, so I removed it and held it in the hand with the small locked case. The wall behind me was solid, but Cady’s building had windows set high, about six feet up, and I could see the suspended walkways that made up the mezzanine. Dog was looking as well and cocking his head at what might have been singing.

  I was almost to the end of the path when I fully heard it. It was “La donna è mobile” from Verdi’s Rigoletto, sotto voce and melodic without trying, but there was no instrumental accompaniment. I couldn’t help but wonder where you would get such a recording.

  I thought the sound might be coming from the building behind me but, when I got to the end and a chain-link fence, I realized it was coming from Cady’s overgrown terrace. If Verdi had been with me, he would have folded his arms across the top of the gate, placed his chin on his arms, and gazed at what I’m sure he would have perceived as the Gilda of his dreams.

  At the center of the patio, in the perfect light of dusk, I could make out a fine-featured, dark-haired woman seated at a round bistro table, her legs stretched out before her and crossed at the ankles, with one elbow resting on the table’s pockmarked surface. She wore black Capri pants and a stylish white blouse open at the throat; one arm was relaxed over the iron chair and the other was holding a short-stemmed wine glass, to which she sang like a child.

  Woman is fickle, indeed. It’s a tenor part for the Duke, but she sang it effortlessly with a husky soprano that would have had Verdi rethinking his libretto, if not his libido. She paused at one of the breaks in the music and, with perfect timing, raised the wine glass to her lips. Even from this distance, I could see the hint of ginger in her almond-shaped eyes.

  I slipped my hat back on for identification purposes and softly applauded as her face turned toward me. “Brava! Bellissima, bella…bella!”

  She saluted ever so slightly with her glass and downed the wine in one smooth swig like a longshoreman. “Howdy, Sheriff.”

  She opened the door without any problem. I dropped my bags, and we reoccupied the small terrace. Lena Moretti had raided the pantries of a dozen specialty shops in the Italian Market, and we were currently munching on small slices of stiff bread, prosciutto, mozzarella, and basil, all of which had been smothered in olive oil, first-pressed. We were about to finish the bottle of Chianti Classico, and she still wouldn’t admit she could sing.

  “I heard you.”

  She pulled her fingers through a thick tress of almost-black hair, touched with just a bit of silver, and then allowed her hand to collapse against her shoulder, the arm crooked like a broken wing. “I think hunger has affected your hearing.”

  “I’m tone-deaf; it gives me an advantage.”

  She laughed a slow laugh and brought the broken wing down to caress Dog, fingering the bullet scar. “Victor is the real talent in the family.”

  “Victor.”

  There was only a momentary pause. “My husband.” She looked like Vic did whenever he was mentioned. “They’re doing Rigoletto at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, and Victor is playing Monterone.”

  I thought about it. “A considerable role.”

  “Not as considerable as Rigoletto, the role he thought he should have received.”

  “He’s that good?”

  “Yes.”

  I took a sip of my wine. “Wow, the Singing Detective.”

  “Chief Inspector, Field Division North.” She said it as if she’d been corrected herself, numerous times.

  The night didn’t seem dark on the little terrace, almost as if the sky was charcoal rather than black. I took a moment to study her as she looked up and revealed a beautiful throat, and I was glad we were discussing her husband.

  “It’s still his first love.” There was a lot in that statement.

  I waited a moment before responding. “I’d imagine it’s difficult to sing professionally.”

  Her face turned to me, and it was unsettling to see the resemblance to Vic. “Victor came from a working-class family, one that didn’t see the arts as a respectable career choice.”

  “First generation?”

  “Yes.”

  “You?”

  “I was born in Positano; my parents had a small hotel there after the war.” She took a sip of her Chianti and continued to study me. “You have to understand the chronology of the Moretti family, with Vic the father, Vic the son, and Vic the Holy Terror.”

  I had to laugh. “That would be my Vic?”

  She blinked a slow blink in response. “That would be your Vic.”

  “Four boys?”

  “Victor Jr., Alphonse, Tony, and Michael.”

  “Alphonse?”

  She shrugged. “He was named after Victor’s brother. Not my idea. We call him Al.”

  “Michael’s the baby?”

  “Yes.” She smiled with just the corners of her mouth. “You try to not have favorites, but…”

  “They’re all police officers?”

  “All but Al, who owns half a pizza parlor with the Alphonse who is Victor’s brother.” She nodded. “Also not my idea.”

 
I took a sip of my wine. “Hard, raising boys?”

  “At first, but then it gets easier. Unlike with girls, you only have to worry about one prick.” She immediately blushed, and I got a clearer idea from whom Vic’s linguistic patterns had developed. “Oh my God…”

  I laughed, and Dog looked at both of us.

  She set her glass back on the table. “I’ve had too much wine.” She glanced around the terrace and desperately tried to find another subject. “Yours seems to have done well.”

  I set my own glass down. “Yep, I just wish she was closer. I worry about her a lot.”

  She grew quiet, and I waited. “When they’re little, you wonder what they’re going to be, and when they grow up you just want them to be happy.” She nudged her glass with her fingertips. “Only child?”

  “Yep.”

  Her hand was still. “It’s probably better that the Terror and I have some space.”

  “Two thousand miles?”

  “Her idea, not mine.”

  I looked at her. “I thought it was the ex-husband’s.”

  “Yet another one that wasn’t my idea.” She looked back up to me and shrugged again, this time with an eyebrow. “One would think I didn’t have many ideas. I guess that’s what happens when you second-guess for a living.”

  My lungs forced out a little air in response. “How did those two end up together?”

  She picked up her glass in spite of herself. “We all hated him, so of course she married him.” She took a sip. “Reaction has always been Victoria’s trademark.” She swirled the wine in the glass, regarded it, and I hoped she would sing again. “I never thought it would last; he was such a straight arrow, so…normal.”

  I nodded. “We call it mugging. Out where I’m from, if you’ve got a horse with too much spirit, you just tie it to a mule for the night. When you come back the next morning, you’ll have a different horse.”

  She studied me. “I guess the mule always wins?”

  “Pretty much.” It wasn’t the response she wanted.

  She continued to study me, and I was starting to feel uncomfortable. “How come you haven’t gotten remarried, Sheriff?”

  I was seeing even more of Vic. “I, umm…”

  “I guess that was a little forward of me, huh?” She waited. “I guess it was, since you’re not talking.”

  “No, I was just thinking. I do that, sometimes, before I talk.”

  Lena smiled, this time with her entire mouth. “Not me, robs the evening of all its spontaneity. A little wine, a little truth, and pretty soon you’ve got a real conversation on your hands.” She took a last sip.

  I started to pour us both some more. It seemed like the conversation was getting interesting, and I wasn’t quite ready to leave it. “Did you drive here?”

  The smile lingered. “Cab. I lost my license two years ago, and Victor made sure I never got another one.” She watched as I poured with abandon. “You haven’t answered my question.”

  I set the empty bottle back down, allowed the muscles in my neck to relax, and peered from under the brim of my hat. “I’m not so sure there is an answer.” I thought about it, as promised, and stared up through the trees at the back of the little tannery. “I was…I don’t know, depressed for quite a while, and I’m not sure I’m out of the habit.”

  “Of being depressed or of marriage?”

  “Both.”

  The smile at her mouth faded, but it stayed with her eyes. “Funny, that’s exactly what Vic says.”

  “She knows me pretty well.”

  “She says that, too.”

  I laughed and widened my eyes, letting them drop back to her. After a moment she stood, and I thought the evening was over. “You want to take a walk?”

  We strolled left on Quarry and went toward the river, having left Dog curled on the leather sectional sofa in Cady’s living area. As we walked down the cobblestone street in the amber glow of the city’s lights, she broached the subject that must have been on her mind for a while. “What’s in the case on the kitchen counter?”

  “Sidearm.”

  She was silent for a moment. “Have gun, will travel?”

  “Something like that.”

  We walked past Fireman’s Hall and down to Elfreth’s Alley which, by the sign, was the oldest continuously inhabited street in America. By the time we got to the end, we could see the municipal pier stretching out into the black distance of the river. The surface of the water reflected the lights of the boulevard, and the rumble of traffic thumped away on the concrete surface of I-95 above. It was a beautiful night, and the humidity-laden air of the river made rings around the gumdrop-shaped lampposts. It was odd, seeing that much water just floating in the close air; it was something that only happened with a hunter’s moon on the high plains.

  There was sporadic traffic, so we crossed halfway down the block and looked back up at the western buttress of the bridge. “So, what are you going to do in Philly?”

  “I’m supposed to meet the potential prospective parents-in-law in Bryn Mawr. You know where that is?”

  “Main Line; just follow the smell of money.” She smiled. “Serious then?”

  I looked at the flat expanse of the buttress, which stretched up to the illuminated cap above. “No ring, but it’s the longest relationship she’s had so far.”

  She watched me. “You don’t like him?”

  “I’ve never met him.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  I shrugged. “All right, you got me. It’s why I brought the .45…” She laughed and then laughed again. “I don’t know. I never thought I would be one of those fathers that think no one’s good enough…”

  “But?”

  “No one’s good enough.” Another laugh. “All of yours married?”

  She turned and looked at the water. “No, the Terror’s the only one who has tried it. Vic Jr.’s got a hairdresser he knocked up, so I figure it’s only a question of time. Al’s been dating the same girl for four years but refuses to buy the cow, Tony’s a ladies man, and Michael…” She continued to look at the water with her lips compressed.

  “Michael…?”

  She didn’t move. “No one’s good enough.”

  It was getting late and I wanted to be there when Cady got home, so we started back from the marine center, where we had been watching the boats gently rock in the current of the big river.

  “So, what else have you got planned?”

  I tucked my hands into the front pockets of my jeans and listened as my boots made more noise than her shoes on the sidewalk. “I don’t know if Vic’s told you about Henry’s photography exhibit?”

  “The Native American photographs?”

  “Yep.” I nodded at the political correctness. “The reception is Friday, but that’s about it as far as formalities.” We walked along in silence. “I think I was looking for an excuse to come here, and I think Henry was, too.”

  “It’s good to keep tabs.” Her turn to nod. “I don’t worry about Victoria out there. I know it’s foolish, but I figure the odds are better.”

  “They are.” I slowed down a little, deciding it was time to comfort my undersheriff’s mother. “There are inherent risks with the job, but county-wise we have one of the lowest crime rates in a state with one of the lowest crime rates in the country.”

  I was blowing sunshine her way, but she didn’t seem to mind. “I hear you’re going to retire soon?”

  Kyle Straub’s signs had made an impression all the way to Philadelphia. “It’s a strong possibility.”

  “What then?”

  I thought about it. “Maybe I’ll be your daughter’s deputy.”

  It was amazing to me how many people were still on the streets. There were couples walking arm in arm, people in suits swinging briefcases in a desperate pursuit of momentum, and a homeless guy who put the touch on me at Race and 2nd. He was an older gentleman and rocked gently on dirty tennis shoes with a sign teetering in his right hand that
read VETERAN, HOMELESS, PLEASE HELP.

  Lena watched as I pulled a five from my front pocket and palmed it into the palsied hand. “Thank you, sir.”

  His voice was remarkably cultured, and I looked at him for a second more—at the surprising blue of his eyes—and then continued on with Lena.

  “You keep that up, and you won’t have any money by the time you get out of here.”

  I nodded.

  “He’ll just use it to get something to drink.”

  “I would.”

  She shook her head and smiled at me some more. “You were in the military?”

  I raised a weak fist. “Remember the Maine.”

  “You don’t want to talk about it?”

  I smiled at her. “I’ll make you a deal; I don’t have to talk about Vietnam, and you don’t have to sing.”

  “Deal.”

  We crossed at Paddy O’Neil’s Tavern and looked down Bread, where there was a Philadelphia City Police cruiser idling with its parking lights on. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked as if it sat at Cady’s front door. I glanced at Lena, but she was frowning at the car. “Anybody looking for you?”

  “Always.”

  We walked down the narrow street; she was hurrying and was just a little ahead of me. By the time I got to the driver’s side of the unit, I could see that the young man behind the wheel looked remarkably like Lena and could only surmise that he was a Moretti. She was the first to speak. “What are you doing here, Tony?”

  The patrolman looked up at her, but he didn’t smile. “Hey, Ma.” He looked past her to me and at my hat. “Are you Walter Longmire?”

  Whatever smile I had drained away. “Yes.”

  “There’s been an accident.”