Small Crimes

by Dave Zeltserman

  ‘You think I’d be that stupid?’ I asked, trying to look as dumbfounded as possible. ‘You think I’d call and leave my name? Come on, Earl, use your brains. You want to know why this happened a few days after I got out of jail? Because whoever did this waited until I got out of jail before calling.’

  He had been edging towards me, but that stopped him in his tracks. A perturbed expression crossed his face, and then he slowly started nodding to himself as he thought over what I said. I guess he decided to give me the benefit of the doubt. He showed me a sheepish grin and refilled my shot glass.

  ‘Hey, man,’ he said. ‘I could’ve killed you a minute ago. Damn.’

  My hand shook as I picked up the shot glass. I got most of the whiskey down my throat, and only a little of it down the front of my shirt. I signaled for another shot and Earl obliged.

  ‘Okay, so that’s what’s behind your affidavit,’ I said. ‘I can understand that, and I can understand Junior offering you a break, but you know what you wrote’s a load of crap. Any way you can back out of it, claim you were coerced by Junior?’

  ‘Hey, man, I’m not talking about that paper. I can’t do anything about it now.’

  ‘You know it’s bullshit.’

  ‘I don’t know nothing like that. I’m sorry about it, but I’m not saying another word, man. Sorry.’

  I started to open my mouth. I was going to say something else, but I saw it was pointless. The whiskey had taken a tiny bit of the edge off, not much, but a tiny bit. I still badly wanted the coke.

  I sighed. ‘Well, how about those lines, then. How much?’

  He thought about it, but shook his head.

  ‘Can’t do it, man,’ he said.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘I have this rule. If I fuck someone, I can’t give them a chance to fuck me back.’

  ‘Wait, what you’re telling me is because you screwed me with that affidavit, you’re going to keep screwing me?’

  ‘Sorry.’

  A couple of guys had come over to the bar to change their tens and twenties into singles. Earl turned his back on me.

  My hands were still shaking and my head was now throbbing. I got off the stool and took a couple of steps towards the exit and stopped. I remembered Toni, how she had no problem scoring coke the other night. Any of the girls could. I turned and started towards the stage area when someone grabbed my arm.

  ‘Hey, Joe, just the man I wanted to see.’

  I looked down and saw Scott Ferguson. He was wasted, his eyes barely able to focus on me. He pushed himself to his feet, and held onto my arm for support.

  ‘I need to ask you more about Vassey,’ he said.

  I had no choice. I walked him back towards the bar where we would have more privacy.

  ‘It don’t make any sense,’ he said. ‘Why would Vassey’s kid kill Billy? If Billy had the money he owed, what would be the point? It don’t make any sense.’

  ‘Maybe he was stubborn about giving up his money.’

  Ferguson made a face. ‘I’ll tell you something about Billy,’ he said. ‘He was a pussy. He would’ve paid in a second if he thought he’d get hurt. I’ve been asking around, and from what I hear Vassey’s kid worships his old man. He wouldn’t try ripping him off. So why in the world would he kill Billy?’

  ‘I don’t know whether Junior killed your brother or not,’ I said, ‘but I told you the other day, the guy’s a psycho. He gets off on hurting people, and if he was collecting from your brother my guess is he got carried away.’

  All I could think of was getting free of him. Whatever I had to do to speed it up. I took Earl’s affidavit from my jacket pocket and handed it to him.

  ‘Read this,’ I said. ‘I talked to Earl and he admitted to me that he manufactured it for Junior. As you can see, Junior’s already trying to cover his tracks.’

  Ferguson’s doughy features hardened as he stared at the affidavit. It took him a while, but he got through it.

  ‘How come you’re mentioned in it?’ he asked, his expression turning more surly.

  ‘Because Junior’s creating himself an alibi, and at the same time pointing the finger at me.’

  ‘Why you?’

  ‘I guess he thinks it’s plausible. I just got out of jail. People here in Bradley don’t feel all that favorable towards me, and I guess no one would really care if I got charged with something like this. I’m as good a patsy as anyone.’

  As Ferguson mulled over what I said, I took the affidavit out of his hands and slipped it back into my inside jacket pocket.

  ‘Hey, I wanted to keep that!’

  ‘Sorry, I need it.’

  His eyes narrowed and his lips compressed, and he looked like all the other drunks I’ve seen over the years before they threw their first punch. He inched closer to me, his breath smelling like an open bottle of bourbon.

  ‘How do I know there’s not a good reason for pointing a finger at you?’

  ‘If there was, I would’ve had Earl fill out an affidavit for me long before he did this one.’

  He thought about what I said, mumbled something that I couldn’t quite hear, and then seemed to lose interest in me. I watched as he staggered back to his table.

  I walked around the room so I could get to the stage without having to pass Ferguson again. There were no empty seats, so I squeezed in near the loudspeakers. I took out a twenty and signaled with it. A tall, skinny blonde was now onstage. She spotted the twenty and came over. I started to slip the bill under her garter belt, but she moved my hand so I would slide it in under her G-string. Up close, she had way too much makeup on, and her face almost seemed to crack when she smiled. She leaned over and whispered in my ear about us partying alone in one of the back rooms when her set was done. I nodded. I didn’t care who she was or what she looked like. All I could think about was the cocaine.

  She lingered on, trying to give me my twenty dollars’ worth, and trying to make sure I’d stick around after her set was over. After she moved away, she kept smiling over at me, even when other guys were slipping dollar bills under her garter belt. When she moved a certain way I caught sight of a dark bruise along the inside of her thigh. I wondered briefly what her makeup was covering up. It didn’t matter to me, though. I was still going to join her in a private room. And if I had to screw her first to get the cocaine, I’d do that also.

  I felt a small hand rubbing my shoulder, and then a voice next to me yelling, ‘Hey!’ I turned and saw Toni grinning wickedly. She looked even more stunning than the other day. She was also wearing less – only a sheer black negligee and panties.

  She tried saying something to me, but I couldn’t hear her over the music. She got on her toes and talked into my ear, her breath hot against me. The touch of her lips made my spine tingle.

  ‘I still owe you something from the other night,’ she said. ‘What do you say, Joe? You want to go somewhere private and finish what we started?’

  I reached down to ask whether she could get her hands on more coke. The scent of her made me dizzy. She told me she could. She took hold of my hand and led me around the speakers and through the curtains separating the back hallway.

  The room we took was identical to the one we were in before. Toni locked the door and told me to relax. I sat back on the carpeted bench. As she came towards me, she was still grinning that same wicked grin.

  ‘You got the coke?’ I asked.

  ‘First things first,’ she said.

  She reached her hand towards me. I thought she was reaching to caress my cheek, but she quickly brought her hand back and nailed me good. She couldn’t have weighed more than ninety pounds and her clenched fist was less than a third the size of mine, but her punch snapped my head back. She must’ve got me with the side of her fist – the fleshy part above the wrist – and I was damn sure she broke my nose. She got in two more punches before I could stop her. One of them rapped me in the mouth. After I pinned her against the wall, I checked with my thumb and felt a tooth move. I
was lucky she didn’t knock it out completely.

  She was calm, but there was a white-hot intensity burning on her face.

  ‘You should die for what you did,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, and what did I do?’

  ‘You dirty bastard.’

  ‘I’ve been hearing that a lot lately. So come on, what did I do?’

  ‘You bastard. You dirty bastard. You sent Paul to that motel room.’

  ‘Not me. I had nothing to do with it.’

  She looked like she wanted to spit in my face. As I looked at her, I realized I didn’t care anymore. Screw her. Screw Dan. Screw all of them. None of it mattered.

  ‘I know who did, though,’ I said. ‘He’s a buddy of yours. Want to guess?’

  Doubt flickered in her eyes.

  ‘No guess, huh?’ I said. ‘I’ll tell you, if you punched him in the nose he wouldn’t be taking it as nicely as I am now. He’d probably have a couple of his deputies dig a hole in the woods to plant you in.’

  I could see fear in her eyes, because she knew what I was telling her was true. It was more than that, though. If Dan ever found out she knew of his involvement, he’d take care of her just the same. She knew that also.

  The fear in her was now palpable. ‘You told Dan so he’d send Paul to that motel,’ she said.

  ‘No, not me.’ I shook my head. ‘If I had any idea he was going to do something like that I would’ve called Phil and warned him.’

  ‘Why do you think it was Dan?’

  ‘I asked him after I heard about the shooting and he admitted it to me. You have to remember, the two of us go way back.’

  ‘How did he find out about Susie?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ I had her pinned with my forearm, and I used my free hand to gingerly touch my nose. I winced as I did. I could feel the blood dripping from my nostrils.

  ‘Look,’ I said. ‘If I let go of you, you’re not going to punch me again?’

  She shook her head. I let go, and sat on the bench and held my head back. I pinched my nostrils to try to stop the bleeding.

  ‘If I had to guess,’ I said, talking slowly and deliberately because I was breathing in through my mouth, ‘he probably found out the same way I did. When you do coke, Toni, you get a little too free with your words. It’s something you should watch.’

  ‘You’re lying.’

  ‘Why would I lie? You think I care at all what you think?’

  There was a long silence and then she started to cry. It wasn’t real loud, but loud enough for me to hear it. I lifted my head and could see her bawling away, her small face screwed up in pain, her shoulders rising and lowering rhythmically. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. All I could think was, fine, let her feel half as lousy as I do. As I sat there I realized I was still craving cocaine. Even with a bloody and broken nose, if I had a few lines, I would have snorted them up without a second’s thought. I guess at that point I had hit rock bottom. I just started laughing thinking about it. It hurt like hell to laugh, but I couldn’t help myself.

  My nose had stopped bleeding. I got to my feet.

  Toni, still crying, asked, ‘You won’t tell Dan?’

  I didn’t bother answering her.

  When I pushed past the curtains and into the main club, I could feel eyes turning towards me. I imagined what I looked like with my face and shirt smeared in blood. The blonde who I had given a twenty to must’ve seen me from behind, because I could see her out of the corner of my eye coming towards me, a plastic smile set on her face. When she caught up to me her jaw dropped. And then she backed away.

  I stopped in the rest room to clean up the best I could, and then got out of there. When I got to my car, I went through my duffel bag and found my last clean shirt.

  Chapter 17

  I drove towards Stowe and found a ski lodge that was open off season. I could tell the desk clerk didn’t like the look of me, and I couldn’t blame him. I must’ve looked like I’d been in a street fight. It was amazing how much damage a little thing like Toni could do. But I paid cash and he gave me a room.

  When I got to my room, I checked myself over in the mirror and saw that my upper lip was as swollen as it felt and that my nose was indeed broken. I left the room to fill up an ice bucket, and when I returned I wrapped ice in two hand towels, lay down on the bed, and placed one towel against my nose and the other against my mouth. As I lay there I tried to think about what I could do, but I guess I was too tired and too wiped out, and at some point I drifted off.

  Right before waking, I dreamed that I was back with Elaine and my two daughters, and it was like we were a family again. We were in our old house, but it still seemed like the present. Melissa and Courtney looked like they did in the photographs, both blonde and pretty, both in their teens. Elaine was like she was the other day when I saw her in Albany, except instead of a cold and indifferent attitude towards me, she was warm and relaxed.

  We were all sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner. My two girls acted like typical teenagers, rolling their eyes when I asked them questions about how their day went and stuff like that, but at times someone would make a joke and everyone would get a laugh out of it. It felt nice. Near the end, Elaine got up and moved behind me so she could massage my neck and shoulders. My girls giggled at that.

  The phone started ringing. Elaine very sweetly asked whether I would answer it.

  ‘Not now,’ I said.

  ‘But it might be important.’

  ‘Why don’t we ignore it?’

  ‘You should answer it, Joe.’

  ‘I really don’t want to.’

  ‘Joe—’

  ‘Okay, okay.’

  Then my eyes opened wide and the dream was gone. It took me a moment to realize where I was. The ringing was real, though. I looked over at the phone next to my bed and watched as a red light flashed with each ring.

  I didn’t want to lose my dream. I wanted to somehow get back into it. I wanted more than anything to be back with Elaine and my two girls. But I was wide awake and they were gone.

  I watched the phone and waited for the ringing to stop. Nobody should’ve known where I was. With each ring I felt my heart turning more into an icy slush. Nobody should’ve been calling. All I could think was that it had to be a wrong number. But I didn’t answer it. Finally, after what seemed like minutes, the ringing stopped.

  I waited a long time after that before sitting up. I held my breath and concentrated, trying to listen for anything out of place. The only noise I could hear was my heart skipping to a sick irregular beat.

  I was about to get out of bed when there was a hard knock on the door. I almost jumped out of my skin. There was another knock, and then a voice yelling, ‘Denton, Joe Denton. This is the Stowe police. Open the door.’

  I moved as quietly as I could to the door, looked through the peephole, and saw two uniformed officers standing out in the hallway. I didn’t recognize either of them.

  I had the chain on. I opened the door a crack, keeping my shoulder against it so they couldn’t force it open.

  ‘What do you want?’ I asked.

  ‘We have a warrant for your arrest.’

  ‘Can I see it?’

  He handed me a paper through the crack. I read it over quickly. It was for missing a meeting with my parole officer. The warrant was signed by Sheriff Dan Pleasant. I couldn’t believe that Craig had reported me.

  ‘Let me call my lawyer,’ I said.

  ‘You can call him from the station.’

  ‘You’re taking me to Stowe?’

  ‘Yes. Now open the door.’

  ‘Can I get dressed first?’

  ‘Go ahead. Make it fast.’

  I made it fast. When I opened the door, the officer I had talked to turned me around and cuffed me. He and his partner led me out of the room and through the lodge. We probably didn’t pass more than ten people, but each of them stopped to stare as we went by. When we got to the parking lot I saw Hal Wheely and Stan Black l
eaning against a Bradley County sheriff’s vehicle.

  ‘You said you were taking me to Stowe,’ I said.

  Neither of them said anything. They were on either side of me, dragging me faster as they held me by my elbows.

  I started to yell for help and something hard whacked me on the back of my head. Next thing I knew I was in the back seat of the cruiser, with Hal behind the wheel and Stan taking up the passenger seat. The back of my head throbbed, and I sat frozen from the pain for a minute before asking how they knew where to find me.

  Hal asked, ‘How do you think?’

  ‘Come on, at least tell me that.’

  I could see Hal through the rearview mirror smirking. ‘I followed you last night.’

  ‘From where, Kelley’s? You spotted me there?’

  His smirk widened. ‘I followed you all night last night. I saw you when you crawled out of your car and curled up like a baby sucking your thumb.’

  ‘You did a lousy job early on,’ I said.

  ‘Yeah, well, fooled you later, didn’t I?’

  He was still smirking, but it seemed to tighten, almost like it was etched on his face. I didn’t like the glazed look in his eyes. I also didn’t like the fact that Stan was being so withdrawn and quiet.

  I said, ‘I kept my mouth shut all these years. I could’ve sent both of you away for a long time.’

  ‘I appreciate it,’ Hal said.

  ‘Look, what you’re doing now is nuts.’

  ‘Doesn’t sound nuts to me.’

  ‘Did Dan ever tell you about my safe-deposit box?’

  ‘Why don’t you shut up?’

  ‘Stan, what about you, you don’t want this, do you?’

  ‘What I don’t want is to go to prison because of you,’ Stan said.

  ‘Look, I told you to shut up,’ Hal said.

  I could see his ears turning red. Something about his tone told me that I’d better listen to him. I sat back and watched the road. As we entered Bradley County, Hal turned down a dirt path and headed towards an old quarry that was once used for swimming but had dried up years ago.

  As we got closer to the quarry, I could see Dan and one of his deputies, Josh Stone, leaning against Dan’s car. Hal pulled up next to them, and before I knew it, Josh and Stan were pulling me out of the back seat and dragging me onto the ground. Hal joined them as they dragged me to the edge of the quarry and then flipped me on my stomach. Knees pushed into my neck and the small of my back, pinning me to the ground. I tried to lift my head, and for a second could see Dan standing off to the side watching. Then a hand shoved my head back into the dirt. As I was pushed down, I could feel my broken nose being smeared to the side.