Tone made a face. ‘Dunno. I can’t say.’ He indicated with a nod that they ought to get back to the task at hand.
Slowly, Primo and Tone worked the door back into position, opening and closing it repeatedly to convince themselves they had realigned all the pins correctly.
Satisfied, they stood back to admire the little red car.
‘This is the last time you touch Bambino,’ Santo snapped at their backs.
Primo and Tone turned simultaneously. Santo was striding the short distance between them, chin up, eyes glinting. ‘You guys have no respect for what’s not yours,’ he fumed. ‘Lucky for you, little brother, that Mum saved your skin.’
Primo grimaced. How long had Santo been standing there? he wondered. How much had he overheard?
Santo circled the Fiat, examining it closely. ‘This, boys, is a fine car, a classic car. This isn’t some shit-box Japanese or Korean piece of slap-together tin.’
‘No, this is Italian,’ Primo said casually. ‘Like you, even if only Dad’s Italian, eh? Still, all class.’
Primo caught Tone’s horrified stare telling him to shut up.
Santo pulled up short and turned. ‘Meaning?’
Primo didn’t hesitate. ‘Meaning, Dad must have seen something in you and the car to want you to have it. You know, some connection maybe. To me it’s just a car, right? Like, I must be a throwback to Mum’s side of the family, because I don’t get it, about Bambino, you know?’
Primo saw Tone give him a quizzical glance and nodded faintly.
‘You boys can leave now,’ Santo ordered darkly. ‘Looks like the job’s done.’
Primo started walking but Santo stepped out and blocked his way.
‘You want to tell me what Ad did that’s got Mum so pissed off at him? I know you and him did something. So, come clean. What happened?’
Santo looked from Primo to Tone, then back again, his hands in his pockets like he was someone to be reckoned with.
Primo knew Santo was street-smart and cunning, with a black belt and little affection for his baby brother. It was a risk to stand up to Santo. Primo had stark memories of copping a beating off him on more than one occasion for the slightest transgressions.
‘Ad had someone shoot the bitch who caused him and Stella all that grief,’ Primo said without a hint of a smile. ‘He had her eliminated, her body dissolved in a vat of acid. Like in the old country, eh?’
Primo saw Tone’s face break into a wide grin behind Santo’s back. He willed Tone to stay silent.
‘Problem is, Stella’s found out and she’s not too pleased. Seems she wanted the slag’s head brought to her on a silver platter,’ Primo went on, staring fixedly at Santo. ‘You can see why Stella’s pissed, right? And Mum wasn’t too impressed, either.’
Santo snorted and slapped his hands together as though applauding a performance.
‘I like it,’ he said. ‘I don’t believe it, but I like it. Ad’s a gutless wonder and wouldn’t have the balls. He can’t even get his missus to take him back. Any man would of just walked in the house and shown his hand there and then.’
‘Well,’ Primo said and stepped away from Bambino, giving the car a final gentle pat. ‘That’s what I know, so –’
‘So, piss off, the two of youse,’ Santo cut in. ‘Go on, piss off.’ He waved both arms about, thrashing the air to hasten their exit.
When they were in the garden, the door to the garage slammed shut behind them and Tone said, ‘He’s a lunatic.’
Primo shook his head. ‘No, he’s no lunatic. But he is dangerous when cut.’
Tone nodded. ‘And people spread rumours about Dad having connections. Seems they don’t know Santo too well, eh?’
‘Some people know Santo too well,’ Primo said. ‘He’s Mum’s biggest failure, after Dad.’ He looked at Tone. ‘She’s told me so herself. He can smooth talk his way out of most things. What he doesn’t realise, Mum reckons, is that most things aren’t everything, and one day he’s going to be caught out.’
Adrian was by the back door, puffing furiously on a cigarette, staring at his feet when Primo and Tone approached.
‘Don’t think I can’t make Mum believe what you did with the dog,’ he said through clenched teeth, pointing the cigarette butt at Primo. ‘You’re both maggots. You and your stupid dead dog stunt.’
Primo didn’t hesitate in his stride. He brushed by his brother as though he wasn’t even there, Tone close behind him.
‘And don’t touch any of my stuff!’ Adrian called. ‘It’s packed the way I like it. I’ll move it when I’m good and ready.’
In the house faces moved across the flat screen TV in rapid-cut bursts, the resultant flickering light bombarding the empty spaces.
Adrian’s ‘stuff’ sat against one wall of the kitchen, stacked neatly.
‘Thanks for helping out with the door, Tone,’ Primo said. ‘I owe you one.’
‘One? Seems to me you owe me like a lot, eh, Prims. Alfie put a massive load of other work aside just to do this favour quickly for me.’
‘He did it because we handed over cash,’ Primo said simply.
‘Speaking of which, I’ll get you that two-fifty this afternoon.’
Primo shook his head. ‘Fifty. I owe you two hundred.’
‘Yeah, right, Prims,’ Tone said after a moment of awkward silence.
‘Hey, Prims, what if Ad manages to get your mum to believe that me and you put the dog there?’ Tone asked with concern. He took the can of Coke that Primo held out to him.
Primo didn’t answer.
Tone opened the can and took a long gulp, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said, ‘You know I’m good as dead if my old man ever finds out. That’d be it as far as me running the shop, yeah. He just wouldn’t trust me, you know.’
Primo looked at his mate over the rim of the can he had lifted to his lips. He drank slowly, thinking.
It wasn’t just running the pizza shop that worried Tone. Primo knew Tone’s father well enough to know where his mate’s real concern was.
‘Yeah, it’d kill him, Prims,’ Tone said. ‘With all that shit whispered about how he’s some sort of underworld heavy.’ Tone let out a long slow breath. ‘He’s always hated that people think his business is a front for some shady stuff.’ Tone’s face tightened. ‘He wouldn’t cope too well with knowing what I did.’
‘We didn’t think it through,’ Primo admitted.
‘We?’
Primo frowned. ‘You didn’t exactly try talking me out of doing it. And if you hadn’t run it over, there wouldn’t have been any dog.’
Primo stopped and shook his head clear.
‘That was a stupid thing to say, Tone,’ he said, eager to claw back the comment. ‘The dog was my idea. It was just bad luck you’d run it over.’
Tone looked down, distractedly stubbing his foot into the concrete.
‘Hey, Tone,’ Primo said finally. ‘It’ll be okay. He won’t find out. Who’s going to believe Ad anyway after how he’s treated Stella and that Crystal, right?’
He dropped an arm over Tone’s shoulder and felt his friend relax. ‘You stuffed up trying to be loyal to a mate. That’s how it goes, yeah?’
Tone nodded gravely.
‘I’ve got homework to do, so piss off now, okay,’ Primo said with a forced smile.
‘Yeah, sure thing,’ Tony replied, his relief palpable. ‘I get it, yeah. Thanks, eh?’ He took a step then stopped, grinning over his shoulder. ‘Guess who’s coming for a ride in the Stiff Master?’ He winked. ‘I’ll have fries with that, eh?’
Primo smiled. ‘Good luck with that one, mate.’
When Tone left, Primo went to his room, shut the door behind him and lay face down on his bed. The world seemed to be crashing down on him.
There was no respite from the haunting image of the mangy carcass waiting silently in the dark to be discovered, a bloodied sign of pathetic desperation. And hours later, Primo’s school work continued to languish on his
desk, academic success slipping further beyond his grasp.
Primo reached out a hand to Maddie, but she ignored it.
He’d smiled to see her waiting for him outside the Year 12 Coordinator’s office, glad she’d turned up. He’d half expected her to be a no-show, given how they’d parted after he’d taken her to the workshop.
‘Where have you been?’ Maddie asked. ‘You said right after school. You’re late.’
Primo motioned behind him to the office. ‘Failed the English essay,’ he said flatly.
Maddie’s eyebrows knitted. ‘And?’ she pressed.
Primo extended his hand again, but still Maddie ignored it. ‘It’s no big deal,’ he said. ‘Have to do a makeover bio lab session too, and there’s some minor problem with missing a deadline on my psych report. Nothing major.’
He figured Maddie had never missed a deadline. She’d scored high marks at the end of her Year 12. She was bright and she applied herself. It was one of the things he most liked about her, Primo told himself. She was no bimbo.
‘Maybe you can do that essay for me. It’s on Albert Camus and The Outsider,’ he quipped.
But Maddie wasn’t smiling and Primo didn’t continue along that track. The other thing he really liked about Maddie, Primo realised, was that she didn’t suffer fools easily.
‘Wish I was going with you to Europe,’ he said. Aside from being able to take back what had happened with the dead dog, there was little Primo wanted more, except perhaps stopping Santo from claiming Bambino, as though it were a given.
‘Yeah, well,’ Maddie said softly. ‘Can’t say I didn’t try to convince you.’
Primo took a deep breath. He’d asked Maddie to meet him, he reminded himself. He had to get out what he’d decided to say and quick, before he chickened out.
‘Can we walk?’ he asked. Not waiting for a response, he started ahead of Maddie, school bag bouncing over his left shoulder. When they were almost at the school gate, Primo turned. ‘I want you to trust me, Maddie,’ Primo said. ‘Do you trust me, Maddie?’ His voice was sharp with unease.
As he’d expected, the question caught Maddie by surprise and she frowned hard at him.
‘What?’
Primo licked his lips. He took a step forward, then checked himself and leaned back from the hips slightly.
‘We’re not an item any more, Prims, so why do you care?’ Maddie asked.
‘Tone trusted me and I let him down real bad,’ Primo said. ‘Ad, too, and I stuffed up again. I just need to know if you trust me, Maddie, after all that’s happened.’
‘You had me come here to ask me that?’ Maddie said incredulously. ‘Seriously?’ She grinned, but it wilted quickly. ‘What is it, Primo?’
‘I’ve made a mess of things,’ Primo replied. ‘With Ad, with Tone ... with you too.’
They were silent for what to Primo seemed like ages, then Maddie said, ‘Yeah, you have stuffed up. It was really stupid and juvenile what you did. Lucky for you that no one got hurt. Not like, seriously. It was just a stupid stunt. And I’m sorry too, about what happened to your dad’s car. Really I am. And Tone, he’s your best mate, I doubt he doesn’t trust you.’
Maddie reached out and touched Primo. ‘Like I said, no one got hurt,’ she said.
Her words cannoned into him. ‘No. No, you’re wrong there,’ he said finally, his eyes glistening. ‘Everyone got hurt. You. Tone. Ad. That woman, Crystal, the one who came to the house. Even Mum. Again. What you just said, “no one got hurt”, that’s what Dad would tell us. He’ll tell us that what went on between him and those women didn’t really mean anything. That it was out of his control. Or that the women were to blame for leading him astray. Him, a decent family man who would never have thought about cheating on his wife and kids again and again, if those women hadn’t made themselves available to him.’
Primo was crossing the road before he realised it. He stopped abruptly, but didn’t look to see if Maddie was following. Instead he stared at the ground for several long moments, then exhaled loudly.
‘Dad wouldn’t have been allowed back to play happy families without Mum’s say-so,’ he said, just above a whisper. ‘Stella should just take Ad back and pretend like he never had the affair. I mean, that’s what Ad expects, right? ’Cause Mum took Dad back. Every time.’
‘Primo,’ Maddie said when Primo paused to wipe his eyes. ‘It’s not your concern what your brother and Stella decide to do. It’s their lives, not yours. You shouldn’t buy into it.’
Primo dropped his school bag with a thud of resignation.
‘Yeah, it is,’ he replied, his voice slightly raised. ‘It is. I bought into it when I decided to fleece Ad of his money by offering to help him out with that dog.’
‘That was a stupid mistake,’ Maddie said. ‘Poor choice.’ She shook her head, searching for more.
Primo winced. ‘Yeah, maybe.’ He grabbed his school bag, hoisted it over his shoulder. ‘My old lady should never of let the old man get away with what he did to us,’ he said. ‘She was too quick to forgive him, and so he just stuffed up again and again, because he knew he could.’
‘You don’t want me to forgive you, Primo?’ Maddie asked. ‘I don’t understand.’
Primo was walking again, but this time Maddie didn’t follow.
‘Why did you ask if I trust you?’ she demanded loudly, crossing her arms. ‘I haven’t told anyone about the dog, if that’s what you mean.’
Primo stopped. He had to do this. He couldn’t put it off any longer.
‘Do you trust me enough to believe me that I never meant to hurt you with Bambino?’ he asked, looking back toward Maddie. ‘And that I do care enough about you that I agree we should take time out. And that I’m not resentful that you’re off to Europe without me.’
Primo held Maddie’s gaze. ‘I just need to know, Maddie, that’s all,’ he added.
‘Can I think on it?’ Maddie replied after a few seconds.
The smile that Primo tried to manufacture failed him.
Maddie moved forward and waited until Primo opened his arms for her to step into a hug. She leant her head on his chest.
Primo held Maddie gently, his chin resting on top of her head.
Trust, Primo realised, was so easily taken for granted. And so easily abused.
‘Walk you home?’ he asked.
Maddie nodded and Primo slipped an arm around her waist.
‘I’m not going home,’ Maddie said. ‘I’ve got an interview with one of my course advisors, for that philosophy class I want to take next year. If you’re happy to wait while I see her, maybe we can grab a bite afterwards. As friends?’
Primo’s stomach tightened. He licked his parched lips.
‘Yeah, sure. Why not?’ he said. ‘Friends. Got to start again somewhere. I guess, eh?’
Tone’s hearse was in the driveway when Primo came around the corner. Though surprised, he didn’t think much of it until he was almost in the driveway and saw Tone on the veranda, his hands up behind his head.
There was something smudged on Tone’s T-shirt.
‘Tone? What’re you doing here?’ Primo asked, hesitating mid-stride.
The smudge on Tone’s blue T-shirt cut across his chest and down toward his navel. Two streaks of bright red surrounded by dappled motes.
‘Prims,’ Tone said. ‘Where’ve you been? Why haven’t you been answering your mobile?’ Tone moved toward Primo as he spoke. Primo reached for the phone in his pocket.
‘I was with Maddie,’ Primo said, and activated the phone.
‘I tried to call you first, honest I did,’ Tone started. ‘A couple of times. But you didn’t answer, so I figured I had no choice but to bring him here. I had Alison in the car and all ...’
Primo was looking at the phone’s screen, reading the missed calls message. The phone beeped, alerting him to a voicemail.
‘That’s me for sure,’ Tone said. ‘I left you, like, a heap of messages.’ He reached out and touched Primo’s arm. �
�Alison won’t say a word.’
Primo saw that the red on Tone’s T-shirt was fresh blood, not yet congealed.
‘Tone?’ Primo’s voice rose sharply. ‘What’s happened?’ Something prickled under Primo’s skin. He looked past Tone at the house.
‘It’s Ad,’ Tone said. ‘I found him a few blocks away. Didn’t know it was him at first, eh? Just thought it was some drunk staggering about trying to get across the road. I was almost past him when I recognised him.’
Primo’s throat constricted.
‘He’s copped a savage beating, Prims. Cut up all over the face. Lip all blown up and shredded, eyes half-closed. He looks like shit, Prims.’
Primo pushed past Tone and took the steps to the front door in two leaping strides.
‘Your mum’s cleaning him up,’ Tone called to his back.
Primo threw back the security door so hard it cracked like a gunshot against the weatherboard of the house and slammed shut behind him as he disappeared inside.
‘Mum?’ Primo called. ‘Mum?’ he repeated and came to an abrupt halt when his father appeared suddenly in the kitchen doorway.
The unexpected presence of his father in the dim of the house startled Primo, and for a few moments the two just stared at one another. His father was barefoot, wearing only his pyjama top and his underpants, an incontinence pad bulging out the sides.
‘Mum?’ Primo called again.
‘They’re in the bathroom.’ Tone’s voice at his back.
Primo went round his father toward the bathroom at the rear of the house.
The bathroom door was ajar.
Primo didn’t see Adrian. He saw his mother, bent forward into the bathtub, bloodied bath towels scattered about her.
‘Mum?’ Primo said and stepped into the bathroom.
His mother acknowledged him briefly. Her eyes were red and puffy, and loose stands of grey hair feathered her crumpled face.
She turned back to her battered son, sitting in the empty bathtub catching shallow breaths.
‘Ad? Ad, what happened?’ Primo asked over his mother’s shoulder.
Dead Dog in the Still of the Night Page 12