Frank reared forward and blasted the door open with the heel of his boot, sending it crashing into the kitchen wall. “Police department!” Frank bellowed, racing inside the kitchen and crouching low with his weapon raised.
“Ralph Polonius, you are under arrest!” Cole shouted.
“Kitchen’s clear,” Frank said.
“On my six,” Cole said. He moved forward and stopped at the living room threshold. There were rifles leaned up against each window. Each of them scoped, each of them ready to go. “Holy shit. He was waiting on us. Where the hell is he?”
Cole moved toward the bathroom with his rifle raised, and Frank opened a small door in the hallway. “There’s a basement!” Frank shouted.
“Give me a minute to look in the bathroom,” Cole said.
Frank squinted down into the darkness and saw light flicker. He bent low and raised his rifle, seeing something holding a lantern.
He started down the steps slowly, feeling the loose boards bend under his weight. They were loose enough to vibrate even as he stood there, trying to see into the dark. The lantern’s light was dim and flickering like a candle, as if the oil inside of it had nearly gone out.
Frank looked down to take another step but shouted in fright at the sight of a man’s leg sticking up from the floor. He bent down to see that it was Ralph Polonius, face down on the basement floor. Ralph’s neck was twisted at an unnatural angle, bent up so that he was looking back at Frank over his right shoulder. Flies landed on his open eyes and small white maggots spilled out of his nostrils.
“Where are you?” Cole called out from the living room.
“Down here. I found him,” Frank said. He looked up at the figure holding the lantern, backed against the far wall of the basement. The light was nearly out, casting a golden halo over the muddy walls and pool of black slime under Ralph Polonius’ head before it finally went out.
“Are you serious? He’s down there?” Cole reached into his pocket for a flashlight and aimed it down at the body. There was a shotgun on the basement floor, a foot from where Ralph lay.
Cole came down the steps and aimed his flashlight around the empty basement. “No circuit breaker, no supplies. Not even a damn door. What the hell was he coming down here for?”
“He heard something,” Frank said. “Or saw something. He was coming down to check it out with his gun, when he must have slipped and fell.”
“Lord, have mercy,” Cole said. “Lucky for us, yeah?”
Frank bit his lip and said, “Yeah. Pretty damn lucky.”
14. “Those state police boys were madder than hornets, weren’t they?”
Frank chuckled and said, “I thought they were gonna try and lock us up for breaking and entering.”
Cole shrugged and said, “Wouldn’t be the first time. Probably won’t be the last, neither. Hey, there’s something I want to ask you. You see how it is out here. The kind of help I got. If you don’t mind me saying so, you don’t seem real happy with the situation back home, with your Chief and all.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“How would you like to come work for me?”
“Is there enough room for another person in that trailer?”
Cole winced and said, “I know, I know, it’s not much. You all probably got much better stuff back home. But these are good people and I’m getting a little long in the tooth. I could use a hand, is what I’m saying.”
Frank looked out the truck’s windows at the tall trees and quiet, country road. “My wife hates the woods, Chief. She’s a city girl.”
“It’s a good place to raise a family. Shoot, the way my wife loves little ones, you wouldn’t ever need a babysitter.”
Frank nodded. “Honestly, and I mean this, there is nothing I’d rather do right now. But I’m not the one who needs to be convinced. Can I think it over and see what my wife says?”
“Of course,” Cole said. “It’s a big decision.”
“What’s the starting salary?”
“Twenty-four thousand a year. But with your experience and all, I can probably get you up to twenty-five.”
“Oh.”
“What’s your salary back home?”
“Seventy-two thousand.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’m sure with cost of living and all, it evens out.”
“I guess,” Cole said. “And out here, you’d never have to buy eggs.”
***
Chief Erinnyes looked out of his living room’s bay window and frowned. Iolaus was late.
“Don’t forget to pick up your prescriptions today, Claude. And call your doctor. You need another follow up appointment with the heart specialist.”
Erinnyes shouted “Okay,” up the steps.
“Did you check your blood sugar this morning?”
“Yes.”
“How was it?”
“Fine.”
“Bring me home some broccoli from the store. I’ll make it for dinner.”
“I’m not coming home for dinner. I’ve got the Chief’s banquet tonight.”
His wife came to the top of the steps, “I don’t think you should go. There’s going to be all kinds of food and liquor there. With your medicine, it isn’t a good idea.”
“I’ll be fine,” Erinnyes said. He saw the police SUV pull into his driveway and spun on his feet, fixing his hat to the top of his head. “I’ve got to go. Have a nice day,” he called out as he shut the door behind him. He stood in front of the door, waiting for Iolaus to stop and get out. It wasn’t Iolaus.
Reynaldo stopped the car too far down the driveway and sat there, waiting. Erinnyes sighed and walked toward the car. He opened the passenger side door and saw it was filled with equipment. “You want to ride in the front, sir?” Reynaldo said.
“Get this shit out of my way,” Erinnyes said.
Reynaldo grabbed his bags of gear and hurried around the back of the car to toss them into the rear hatch. Erinnyes pulled himself up into the seat and sat down, rocking the vehicle back and forth. Reynaldo jumped into his seat and turned to face the Chief with a quick salute, “Good morning, sir. I’m sorry I’m late. I had trouble finding the house.”
“Where’s Iolaus?”
“He went home sick.”
“Typical,” Erinnyes sniffed. “Did the supervisors get their mail last night?”
“Yes, sir. I dropped all of the envelopes off before I came to get you.”
“Good.”
“Can I ask you a question, sir? Will we ever have a K-9 unit?”
Erinnyes cocked an eyebrow at him, “Why in the world would I want one?”
Reynaldo shrugged, “I think they would be useful.”
“Hold that thought.” Erinnyes pulled his phone off of his belt and dialed, expecting another automated message, but this time it actually rang.
“Hey, Chief,” Frank said.
“It is about time you answered the phone.”
“I didn’t have any phone service up north. Looks like I’m finally getting closer to civilization.”
“The State Police contacted me and told me our suspect is dead.”
“That’s correct.”
“What time will you be back in the area?”
Frank looked at his GPS, “It says by ten. I’ve been driving since six.”
“Good. I want your report on my desk by noon.”
“Uh…I need to stop home first. I haven’t seen or talked to my wife or kids in two days. I’ll come in later on.”
“I wasn’t asking, Frank. You will report to work immediately and you will have the report done by noon. Am I clear?”
“Not really. The bad guy’s dead. Case closed. I found bloody clothing in the trash cans that the State is having analyzed to match the victims. This isn’t some sort of mystery, Claude. It’s open and fucking shut, and I’m gonna go see my kids.”
The phone line went dead.
Erinnyes turned to Reynaldo and said, “Dogs cost a lot of money, yo
u know.”
“I will write as many parking tickets as you could possibly need, sir.”
Erinnyes nodded and said, “You might be on to something. There’s other things a smart, aggressive young man can do to help himself in this police department, Reynaldo. I want you to pick me up tomorrow at seven am. Sharp. With the front seat clear. We’ll talk more about it then.”
A smile stretched across Reynaldo’s face and the Chief said, “By the way, do you have a cellphone?”
***
Dawn stood at one of the bank teller’s stations, waiting on a customer. Frank stood by the door, one hand in his pocket, the other holding a heavy plastic bag. She glanced at him and held up her finger, then finished counting the rest of the customer’s money. Frank watched her close down her drawer and stepped outside, looking up into the clear, bright sky.
The door opened behind him, and Dawn said, “Hey, stranger.”
He turned and she grabbed him by the shoulders, planting a kiss on him. “I am sorry,” she said. “It was all over the news and all anybody’s been talking about in here for days. It must have been terrible. And I’m sorry I thought you were cheating on me.”
“It’s okay,” he said. “That girl is a stripper. I lied to you about that, and I’m sorry. But I wasn’t cheating.”
Dawn folded her arms across her chest and said, “Anything else?”
“No. I really was in Potter County looking for the bad guy.”
“Was he dead when you found him?”
“Yeah,” Frank sighed.
“You say it like it’s a bad thing, though.”
Frank shrugged, “I was looking forward to meeting him, I guess.”
Dawn nodded, “Well, maybe it’s for the best then. What’s in the bag?”
“The Chief I stayed with up there wouldn’t let me leave without all this. It’s from his garden. And a few of their neighbor’s gardens. You hungry?”
“I just ate Taco Bell. That was nice of him, though. I can’t imagine Fat Fuck doing that.”
“No,” Frank laughed. “He ordered me to come straight to work to do the damn report. I told him I had to come see you guys though.”
“Are you going to get in trouble?” Dawn said.
“Who cares? I haven’t seen my little girls in two days. The goddamn report can wait.”
“He just demoted you, Frank. What’s he going to do next if you keep pissing him off?”
“You know what?” Frank said. “I’m tired of living like this. I’m tired of taking orders from these people. I want to make a change.”
“Like what? You want to come work at the bank? You can make eleven dollars an hour to start. We can pay half our mortgage and feed one child on that. The other one we can donate to science or something.”
“Not funny,” Frank said. “The Chief up there offered me a job, you know. We could get away from all this. Be around decent people.” He lifted the bag and shook it, “We could eat a lot of vegetables, Dawn! A lot of freaking good organically grown vegetables.”
Dawn laughed gently and said, “This is who we are, Frank. This is where we live and work and where the girls go to school. Maybe instead of trying to run away, you should try and figure out a way to make it better here.”
“There’s only one thing that could make this place better,” Frank said. He handed her the bag of vegetables and said, “I’m going to be home late tonight.”
***
Aprille Macariah leaned close to the mirror and checked her makeup. Her long earrings sparkled in the bedroom light. She sprayed perfume on her neck and dabbed it on her wrists, checking her profile in the mirror from each side. “Not bad,” she said.
The doorbell rang. Aprille looked at her watch in surprise and headed for the door. “You’re half an hour early!” she said as she pulled the door open.
Dez Dolos held up a bottle of red wine and showed her the label, “Cotes du Rhone, Reserve Chartreuse de Bonpas, bottled in 2007. A peace offering.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to check up on you after that homicide. I heard you went to the autopsies and figured you could use a friend.”
“We aren’t friends, Dez. You made that perfectly clear before.”
“I fucked up. You have no idea how sorry I am for that. All I came to do is talk it out with you over a few glasses of wine. If that means we get a little closure, then so be it. You’ll never hear from me again.”
“I have plans,” she said.
“Okay,” he sighed. “I’m going away in a few days, so it might be a while before you hear from me again.” He held out the wine and said, “You can keep this.”
Aprille took the wine and looked at him. Neither of them moved. Finally she sighed and said, “Hang on. Come in and sit down but don’t say anything.”
Dez shut the door behind him and sat on the couch. He listened to Aprille dial a number from the kitchen and say, “Marcus? I just got called in to work. I’m so sorry. Some sort of emergency. I know. I know. Can I make it up to you? Okay. Listen, I will call you back when I get settled in.”
Aprille hung up the phone and came back. She kicked off her shoes and sat down on the couch, ignoring Dez’s sly smile. “You wanted to talk,” she said. “This better be good.”
“I love you. I always have. Always will. I should have been man enough to own up to it before. Even if you don’t take me back, it won’t change anything.”
Aprille nodded and said, “And?”
“And I’m sorry for everything I put you through.”
“And?”
Dez laughed and said, “Man, you’re tough. Can I at least have some of this wine?”
“Glasses are in the kitchen,” Aprille said. She looked over her shoulder as he walked past and said, “Get two.”
15. “You’ve been sipping that same glass of beer all night, Claude. It’s an open bar.”
Erinnyes waved his hand and said, “Bullshit. This is my fifth glass, Wally.”
“You’re a lying bastard! All that liquor is already paid for, so do your part in drinking it.”
Claude leaned across the table, shouting over the music, “How’s Wally Jr. making out?”
“He got picked up by the Sheriff’s Office. I figure it’s a good start for him. Let him get some experience.”
“Make sure he comes back and sees me when we test again.”
“Why, so you can pass him up for another landscaper?”
“Nah, I reached my quota last time,” Erinnyes laughed.
“Sounds good, Claude.”
Erinnyes picked up his knife and fork, cutting a tiny piece of roast beef off at a time. He put each piece into his mouth when he finished cutting it, making sure he chewed it seven times before swallowing. He took drinks of water in between bites.
There was music playing. A DJ with his own lighting system making old white men get on the dance floor and embarrass themselves. Erinnyes took so long to eat that everyone else left his table and was either at the bar or wandering from table to table, shaking hands with one another, telling funny stories about the idiots they worked with.
Some of the Chiefs had brought their wives. Erinnyes could hear some of the women in the corner cackling and carrying on, their voices rising above even the annoying thump of the DJ’s speakers.
He tried cutting another sliver of beef, but it came apart under his knife, turning into a stringy mess. “Screw this,” he said. He cut the thing in half and stuffed it into his face, chewing and chewing, finally satisfied.
Frank walked into the banquet room and looked around, staring into the sea of white shirts and dress uniforms. There were District Judges and Assistant District Attorneys there. Township Solicitors and insurance agency representatives. Frank shivered at the sight. It was like walking into the gaping, rupturing intestinal cesspool of bureaucracy.
He saw Erinnyes sitting by himself in the far corner. A white whale. Frank rolled through the crowded dance floor toward Erinnyes, watching
the jelly rolls of his chins flop up and down as he ate. The Chief looked up at him and grunted and shook his head. “I tell you be somewhere today and you don’t come. Now you show up where you’re not invited.”
Frank sat down next to him, putting his hands on the table. They were shaking, so he clasped them together and held them tight. “I came to have a word with you.”
“Oh really? You came here? I don’t think so. Report to my office at oh-nine-hundred hours tomorrow. You’re going to be suspended without pay for ignoring a direct order.”
“No, I’m not,” Frank said.
“You can grieve it through the FOP, but you’re still getting suspended.”
“I quit.”
Erinnyes stopped chewing instantly. “What did you say?”
“I said that I quit. I’m done. I am leaving the police department.”
“Sure you are. With your two young girls and a wife who’s an assistant bank manager? Listen, just go home and sleep it off. In time, you’ll stop being pissed off about the suspension and be glad you didn’t make a terrible mistake.”
“I’m not pissed off,” Frank said. “I understand. You have a job to do, and a department to run. You needed me to do something, and I didn’t do it. If you want me to wait to quit until after the suspension’s over with, I’ll do it. That way, it’s still on the books.”
“Are you really fucking serious about this?”
“I am. I’m finished,” Frank said.
“What are you going to do for work?”
“I’m thinking about selling my house and moving up north. I like the quiet. Dawn wants to get a little farm and raise piglets or something. I’m going to work the land, Chief. Be my own man. Make moonshine.”
Erinnyes stared at him, “I really don’t know what to say, Frank. I know we’ve had our differences, but I wasn’t expecting this. You’re one of my top guys.”
“That’s why I came to tell you in person, boss. Out of respect. I’d like to ask you one favor before I go, though.”
“What?”
“Let me buy you a drink.”
They walked toward the bar together, Erinnyes in his crisp white uniform shirt, decorated with gold buttons that caught and reflected the lights from the DJ booth. Frank in a shirt and tie, dressed nice enough to be mistaken for a busboy. They leaned against the bar and Frank held out a twenty toward the bartender and said, “Two shots of Jack, please!”
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