On the Ropes: A Duffy Dombrowski Mystery

by Tom Schreck

  Before I started on the files I wanted to see how Mikey and Eli were doing. I got Rudy on the first ring.

  “Rudy,” he said.

  “Geez, you ever think of doing any of those Dale Carnegie courses?” I said.

  “Fuck you.”

  “I’ll take that as a ‘no,’” I said. “Hey, how are the guys doing?”

  “Actually, real well. They’re in some pain, but they’re healing, and best of all, neither of them seem to be having bad effects from the radiation,” Rudy said.

  “That’s good, right?”

  “Yeah, as long as the stuff gets after the cancer. If it leaves the rest of the body alone—that’s the best,” Rudy took a bite out of something and chewed into the mouthpiece. “The cops doing anything?”

  “Kelley told me in subtle terms that they’re doing about the minimum. Eli and Mikey were hit randomly, so it’s a very hard investigation to nail down. It also doesn’t help that neither one of them are pillars of the community,” I said.

  “Maybe the community would care if they knew that treating them was going to cost about two hundred large.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “That’s conservative, Duff.” Rudy took another bite of whatever he was inhaling. “They’ll be in here for a month, they’ll wind up with several surgeries each, and then there’s Gabbibb’s bill.”

  “The oncology costs a ton, I bet.”

  “It’s not just that. He gets a cut on all of it because his practice has orthopedic guys, trauma guys—you name it. Ol’ ‘DAT, DAT’ will make a killing,” he said.

  “Shitty choice of words, Rude,” I said. “Hey, what happened to making these guys get out of the hospital in a hurry?”

  “Turns out their Medicaid was the right kind, especially with the cancer. They can be here forever.”

  I signed off with Rudy and went to the file cabinet to get my charts. It was going to be a long night.

  14

  D: Patient reports eating twenty-two Krispy Kreme donuts and then having sex with the cashier at the donut shop.

  A: Patient appears to struggle with self-control and moderation.

  P: Patient to make a list of positive and negative consequences of her impulsive episode.

  It was heading toward midnight and I was trying to get the ten charts I identified up to snuff. I was putting the finishing touches on Martha Stewart’s.

  Martha goes nuts over Krispy Kremes. She spent an entire session talking about how good they are. I still remember it clearly.

  “They come down that big conveyer belt from the oven and they’re still so warm,” her eyes were as glazed over as a glazed cruller. “They’re awesome and they feel so good going down.”

  “Martha, it’s probably not a good idea to obsess like th—”

  “… and they have this coating. It’s white and it’s both crispy and sweet. It’s like, uh … like …”

  “Liquefied sugar?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.”

  Martha made six trips to the donut shop that day, eating a few warm ones from each batch. She was so overcome with warmth from the deep-fried carbo that she hung around after closing to have a go with Vassily, the Ukrainian guy who works the counter. Martha explained that she became uncontrollably attracted to Vassily and just had to have him. I think my correspondence course in Intro to Psych said that was projection. No, maybe it was displacement. Anyway, I was moving on to the Jewish couple when I heard someone coming up the stairs. I stepped out of the cubicle to see what was going on. It was Trina.

  “Hey,” I said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I saw your car outside and thought you might be here,” she said.

  “It’s almost midnight, isn’t it?”

  “Well,” Trina sounded like she had had a few—not drunk, but glowing. “I think it’s past midnight, Duff.”

  Aside from the glow, she was looking good—faded Guess jeans, black leather boots with a three-inch heel, tight black turtleneck, and a leather jacket.

  “Duffy, I worry about you.” She took a step toward me.

  “You worry about me?” I said.

  “I’m afraid you’re going to get hurt, or get fired, or maybe catch pneumonia in that can you live in.”

  “Not to mention get eaten alive by that wild animal I live with.”

  “That too.” Trina paused. “It’s not my place to say, but I’m going to say something anyway.”

  She was barely a foot away from me, and I got the feeling up my spine that was part nervousness and part excitement. I guess tonight you could also add part confusion.

  “You could do a lot better than Lisa.” She moved even closer to me.

  “Ah, Trina … where’s Lou?”

  She stopped moving forward. You could see that whatever state of mind she was in was suddenly changed. She looked away and awkwardly put her hands in her pockets. Her eyes welled up.

  “Lou … was out with someone else tonight. He told me …” her voice trailed away as she stifled tears.

  “I’m sorry, Trina. I didn’t mean to—”

  “Don’t worry, Duff, he was a jerk. I just have to get over the shock of—”

  “Being alone and scared?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I know a little about that too,” I exhaled. “Lisa called us off.”

  I hugged her and she held on to me tightly. She quietly cried into my shoulder and neither of us said anything. She held me even tighter and the pressure of her body went right through me. It was part physical and part something else. Something I couldn’t find a label for.

  “Trina, is there anything I can do to help?”

  She pulled back from me, her eyes wet with tears, bit her lower lip, and smiled. The smile was a genuine one, and it made for a weird combination with the tears.

  “Yeah, Duff, there is.”

  Trina stepped back, tilted her head, and smirked at me. She shrugged out of her leather coat and gently untucked the turtleneck from the top of her jeans.

  “Duffy, did I ever tell you how much I love your blue eyes?”

  “No, I would’ve remembered that,” I said.

  “Or your really strong jaw line?” She ran her finger the length of my really strong-looking jaw line.

  “Er, uh, no.” That was the best I could come up with.

  “Tonight I would love to feel like a very hot, desirable woman.”

  With that she turned on her heel and slowly started to walk through the office. I stood transfixed, wondering exactly what Monopoly square I landed on today. A few steps later, Trina’s turtleneck fell to the carpet and her hands reached up to undo the clasp of her bra. Without breaking stride, a step and a half later, the bra went the way of the sweater.

  Though I am quite capable of cerebral pondering, this clearly wasn’t the time. I followed Trina’s strip march through the agency. I found her in Claudia’s office. She was shimmying out of her Guesses in that way that makes men stand back and feel grateful. She slid

  her thumbs into the thin piece of material that made up the strap of her thong, and in one motion whisked it off and threw it in my direction.

  She used both hands to hike herself up on Claudia’s desk. Her naked body stood out in stark contrast to all the trappings of an office, especially this office.

  “Duff, haven’t you always wanted to sit in the boss’s chair?”

  “Actually, not until this very moment.”

  I sat in Claudia’s chair facing Trina. This was getting very weird.

  “Isn’t this the position your corner man is in between rounds of a fight?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Let’s go a few rounds.”

  With that, there was the tussle of getting out of my clothes, the hurried groping and touching that comes before two people find a rhythm. We did it with an intensity that brought the two of us together and, at least for then, chased away any feelings of aloneness. I felt both in and out of my body as Trina surged through me.

/>   Breathing hard, glistening with sweat, we both got where we were going, seemingly all at once. It was intense and it was passionate. We finished up on top of Claudia’s desk, our naked bodies spread over the top of it with all her pens and pencils and knickknacks knocked to the floor. When my consciousness returned and I looked around at where we were, I couldn’t help but start laughing. Trina joined me, and we slid off the top of the Michelin Woman’s desk onto the carpet, both rolling around with laughter.

  “We just screwed on top of the boss’s desk, you know,” Trina said when she could breathe again.

  “Yeah,” I thought for a second. “I can’t even begin to think of the amount of time in psychotherapy I’m going to need to process that.”

  “Thank you, Duff. It was what I needed tonight.”

  “I’m glad I could do you the favor.”

  Trina punched me in the side then nuzzled her head into the crook of my neck. We laid back on Claudia’s carpet amongst the debris from the top of the desk. Trina rolled over on top of me, straddling me with her legs.

  “You feel like doing me another favor?”

  “If I must,” I said. Trina was insistent on another favor, and I did my best to comply. When it was over, we did our best to straighten up the Michelin Woman’s desk.

  It was the most fun I ever had in this office.

  15

  “Hey Duff, didya hear about the Polish water polo tragedy?” Sam asked on his way to the coffee machine.

  “Mornin’, Sam,” I said.

  “It was so sad,” Sam said. “The horses all drowned.”

  Monique was furiously writing in her charts getting ready for the day. She was so disciplined it fascinated me. I envied her self-control. I had tried to emulate her work habits and I just couldn’t. Fifteen minutes of dedication was always too much and I’d find something else to do.

  “Morning, ’Nique.”

  “Hey Duff,” she didn’t look up from her writing. “Didya hear?”

  “About what?”

  “Three more guys got beat in Franklin Park last night. Two of the guys are on my caseload,” she said.

  “Aw, shit. Who?”

  “Sandy K., and Abdul A.,” she said. Monique almost never used a client’s last name.

  “Any word on them?”

  “They’re conscious but both will need surgery. They have no suspects, of course.”

  “Have you heard from Gabbibb?”

  “I refuse to talk to him,” she said. “He believes I’m less than him because I’m a woman, I’m black, and I’m lesbian.”

  “He’s a fuckin’ asshole,” I said.

  ’Nique got back to work, and I sat there and thought. Five guys all severely beaten and no suspects. It appeared to be a simple hate crime. Simple, yeah—real simple.

  I called Rudy to see what I could find out. He was at his desk and speaking to me through his jelly donut, which was about as disgusting as anything you could imagine.

  “Duff, I’m not sure what to tell you,” he paused to swallow. I hated listening to Rudy chew because it was just gross. “Gabbibb is the treating doctor and he barely speaks to me. I know there’s multiple fractures and cerebral bleeding in at least two of them. All three will require extensive surgery.”

  I thanked Rudy and signed off before he could start his second donut. I had some information and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Actually, I wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do with it.

  With a little breathing room from last night’s all-night record keeping, I had a chance to do some goofing off. I had ten charts ready for the Michelin Woman’s audit. Of course, that meant I had sixty-five charts woefully behind, but I’d get to them someday. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Trina walking past my cubicle.

  “Morning, Duff,” she said, like she did every morning.

  “Morning,” I said.

  She winked at me and went right back to her desk. I got the sense that though Trina was young and hurtin’ over Lou, our late-night rendezvous wasn’t going to be a Fatal Attraction deal. It was something she needed—hell, who am I kidding—it was something I needed. Neither of us regretted it, but we probably wouldn’t make a habit of it. That was okay with me, very okay.

  I decided to play around on the computer. I’m no geek, but I know my way around a little bit. I decided to do some searches on the key words I’d gotten from Walanda and the jail. I went to Google and typed in “Webster.” It yielded 3,803,000 hits. Even I didn’t have that much time to goof off at work. Next I entered “Web.” That got me 1,803,000 hits—significantly less but way too much.

  I tried “spider”—1,706,000 hits.

  This wasn’t going to work. I was going to need some help. I knew where to go, but it was going to have to wait until after work.

  It dawned on me that through all of this I knew very little about Shondeneisha, Walanda’s kidnapped, or at least allegedly kidnapped, stepdaughter. I got out Walanda’s file and looked for next of kin information and anything else that might tip me off. It was one of the few times I ever wished I had taken copious notes.

  The face sheet on Walanda’s file listed six relatives. Four were men and were added as she went from relationship to relationship. There was also a half sister that came in for a couple of sessions early in Walanda’s treatment but ultimately gave up on her. She got into Al-Anon, which told people to “detach with love.” It made sense for the relatives of addicts to detach, otherwise they’d wind up going down with the addict. What the therapy books don’t tell you is that in real life an overinvolved relative who never gives up is often exactly what an addict needs.

  The self-help groups call that “enabling” and insist “tough love” is the way to go. Maybe, but I’ve seen my share of lives that were saved by what they call an enmeshed family member who just couldn’t let their addicted loved one go. They followed them around, bailed them out of jail, and even threatened dealers—whatever it took. Often it failed, sometimes it didn’t, but telling someone to “detach with love” always felt a little too simple for me.

  Jacquie Turner, Walanda’s half sister, lived across town from the ghetto Walanda lived in. She was an office manager at an accounting firm and took classes at the local business college. From what I remember, she had managed to create a life for herself that Walanda couldn’t. It wasn’t clear whether she received the same abuse as a kid, but it was possible. Sometimes abusers focus on only one child, sometimes they don’t. Just the same, Jacquie had a career, lived in a nice apartment, paid her bills on time, and seemed to be what us social workers called “functional.”

  I tried her at the accounting office.

  “Good morning, Noonan, Malinowski, and Platt Accounting Offices, Jacquie speaking. How may I direct your call?” She had that professionally efficient tone to her voice. Not quite cheerful but certainly pleasant.

  “Jacquie, this is Duffy Dombrowski at Jewish Unified Services. Do you have a minute?”

  “Good morning, Mr. Dombrowski,” she hesitated. “I’m the receptionist, so I can’t really talk for long. How can I help you?”

  “First of all, I’m very sorry about Walanda,” I said.

  “I am too, but Walanda made her choices,” she said.

  “Before she died, she spoke to me about a stepchild named Shondeneisha. Can you tell me anything about her?”

  “Only that she’s the daughter of a man named Bertrand, another addict she lived with. They had the son together that got murdered.”

  “Do you know where Bertrand is now?”

  “I have no idea. He was also an addict. The last I knew, he was drifting from city to city looking for welfare benefits.”

  “Walanda thought Shondeneisha had been kidnapped by someone named ‘Webster.’ Do you have any idea what she was talking about?”

  “No, I don’t. Look, Mr. Dombrowski,” Jacquie’s tone changed almost imperceptibly. “I loved my sister, but years ago I had to detach from her. I tried and tried and she kept going
back. I really didn’t know much about her life for the last three years. I don’t mean to be difficult, but I really should go.”

  “I understand, Jacquie,” I said. “Thanks for speaking with me.”

  Jacquie was no help. In some ways I don’t blame her for distancing herself from the cesspool of a life that Walanda lived. She was doing something positive, and maybe her way of changing things meant being the best she could be. Honorable, even if your sister winds up dead, I suppose.

  After work I got Al, and we took a trip over to Walanda’s old house. I hoisted Al onto his side of the Eldorado and we headed out. I threw in some Elvis from ’56. It was the original rockabilly sound that changed the face of music forever. To me, listening to Scotty Moore play the guitar riff to “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again” was just about as good as music got—simple, with feeling.

  I was singing along, curling my lip in the exact right spots and adding the bass to my voice when it was needed, when Al started to mess up my rhythm by playing with the power windows. He would plop a fat paw on the switches and then marvel at the hum of the descending window. He did it over and over again, paying absolutely no attention to my interpretation of the King’s music. Eventually, Al allowed the window to go all the way down and he stuck his head out the window. The wind blew his ears back as he surveyed the passing landscape with a watchful eye.

  I parked in front of Walanda’s old place, hooked Al up to the leash, and took a walk. Al’s tail started wagging, and he started barking when he realized where we were. I hadn’t thought about Al returning to his old home, and it was kind of sad.

  It was the kind of neighborhood where people interacted from stoop to stoop, porch to porch, or up and down the sidewalk. Back in the late sixties, urban planners started building high-rise projects in this neighborhood in an attempt to homogenize the poor. That way they could be kept out of sight and up in the air, and they wouldn’t be on the street being offensive to the eyes of the suburbanites. The projects removed the way people from the inner city interact, and that’s why they were destined to be a failure from the start. Sure, high-rises were a tad more antiseptic, but they took away the humanity of everyday life and attempted to compartmentalize lives. If you don’t believe me, go to the projects in your town and see how they’re doing. Most are abandoned or turned into something else.