Homefront pb-6

by Chuck Logan

  So it was happening fast, Sheryl thought. Important now to lean forward, into it. She answered crisply, “I take 94 to St. Cloud, then pick up 371 going north, then west on Highway 2. Gets a little tricky when we head north again past Bemidji.”

  Shank focused on her. “How, tricky?”

  “We’ll bypass Glacier Falls, work a jigsaw on back roads. Gator says, in the winter, the locals notice every new car. This Nissan will be like a neon sign. We gotta come in the back way, like that.”

  “Gotcha.” Shank nodded and concentrated on working through a cluster of cars. When he passed then, he said, “Here’s the deal. We do a photo spread for Gator just like the cops do. If he picks Broker out, we’re in business.” He removed his right hand from the wheel and gave her a thumbs-up.

  Sheryl exhaled and leaned back in the seat. “I gotta call Gator. We got this system. I page him, he goes to a pay phone, then I call from a pay phone…”

  Shank said, “We’ll wait till we get free of the metro, then we’ll stop. Gotta have breakfast anyway. And keep your eye out for an outfitters. I checked the weather; you’re gonna need some boots, a sweater, gloves, stuff like that. We could hit some snow. I got stuff in the trunk but I don’t think it’ll fit you.”

  “Thanks,” Sheryl said, “that’s thoughtful of you.”

  Shank shrugged. “Hey, no biggie; I’ll expense it.”

  They settled back for a few miles, Sheryl thinking about what he had in the trunk. Jesus. She’d see soon enough. Then Shank began to talk, casual, to pass the time.

  “You know Joey, how he loves to talk? Well, he told me about that whole day of the pig roast. Broker shows up the day before. He’s got a load of firewood in his truck, has the pig on ice from a butcher shop. He digs this pit, oh, four feet deep, and starts a fire…” He turned to her. “Joey says, Danny’s coming out of the house, bringing him a beer, whatever he needs. See, Danny was always interested in learning new things. Like how to roast a pig.”

  “Yeah,” Sheryl said. “Danny didn’t miss much.”

  “Missed this fucker.” Shank pursed his lips. “Can you imagine those fucking narcs, sitting in a bar, yukking it up about roasting a pig. Some of those assholes have these little pig studs they wear in their ears when they hang out. I seen that once.” He shook his head, curling his upper lip in a ghastly smile, showing an elongated canine. Turned to her.

  “Joey said when you roast a pig, you wrap it in burlap, then truss it up with barbed wire. Wet down the burlap, that seals in the flavor or something. Put it in the coals, put more coals on top. Put in a piece of corrugated tin to hold the heat, then fill the pit with dirt, let it cook for ten, twelve hours…”

  Sheryl nodded her head along with his conversation, careful not to bring up the lab plan. Don’t rush it. Let it develop. Be attentive, a good listener.

  “Yeah, well,” Shank said. “We’re gonna have our own pig roast.”

  They had rounded the Minneapolis metro and were coming up on west 94; the roadside clutter starting to fade, the land unrolling brown and tired. Snow dusting the ditches and fields.

  Sheryl removed her cell from her purse. “Should make my call,” she said.

  “Go ahead. We’ll grab a Perkins in half an hour. Grease down. They’ll have a pay phone.”

  Half an hour later, Gator stood stamping his boots in the phone booth outside Perry’s Grocery, watching the Monday-morning shoppers wheel their carts into the parking lot. The wind had picked up ice-pick sharp, chipping flecks of stinging snow off the looming iceberg clouds.

  The excitement was heavy and compact in his chest, purring like a motor. When the phone rang, he took a moment to compose his voice. “Yes?”

  “Hi, hon, thought I’d give you a heads-up. Shank and I are on the road. We should roll into the farm about one this afternoon. We’re driving a gray Nissan Maxima.”

  Listening to her saying this in a normal voice, like it was routine, riding up north with a killer. “That car’s gonna stick out like a sore thumb up here,” Gator said in a calm controlled voice. Behind his voice the motor in his chest was smoking. Holy shit! It’s on, it’s happening.

  “We’ll come in careful on County Z.”

  “Grab some local stations on the AM, we got some weather.”

  “Maybe you should get the garage door open,” Sheryl said.

  “Will do. Ah, anything else?” He wondered if Shank was monitoring her conversation, standing there.

  “Let’s just not get ahead of ourselves. Take it one step at a time, okay?”

  “I hear you. I’ll get ready.”

  Sheryl hung up the pay phone in the lobby of a Country Kitchen and waited while Shank paid for breakfast at the cashier’s counter. When they got back in the car and pulled back on the road, Shank just asked, “Everything all right?”

  Sheryl nodded. “Told him we’d be in around one in the afternoon. He said to check the local stations when we get up north. Could be a storm coming down.”

  “Good idea.” Then, after a pause, “Not to pry, but what’s he like, Gator? I asked around, and he kept a low profile in the joint. Just a few pickups in the visitors’ room to keep our guys off his back.”

  Sheryl thought about it. “He’s a real hard worker, crackerjack mechanic.” Thought some more. “A compulsive planner.”

  “A mechanic would be, they know how things fit together,” Shank said.

  They settled in for the long middle of the drive. Sheryl thumbed through the photos again, mentioned how times had changed. People weren’t hanging it out on the street in leathers, tooling around on fat boys, like they used to.

  Traveling north on 371, coming up on Little Falls, they started talking about The Sopranos on HBO.

  “I don’t buy the bit about a boss going to a shrink,” Shank said. “That’s contrived. I think they do that to suck in a wider audience. None of them ever known a gangster, but lots of them go to shrinks.”

  “You got a point,” Sheryl said. After a moment, she wondered out loud, “How do you think it’s going to end?”

  “The way I see it, there’s two possibilities; you got a war brewing with Johnny Sack in New York, then you got the family angle cooking underneath.”

  “Yeah, Carmela and her thing with Furio. That ain’t over. He’ll be back, Furio will,” Sheryl said seriously.

  “True. Furio is a stand-up guy,” Shank said.

  “So Furio returns and has a showdown with Tony over Carmela,” Sheryl said.

  Shank smiled and wagged his finger at her. “No offense, but you’re thinking like a woman. Making it all romantic-”

  “Hey,” Sheryl countered. “TV shows are like everything else. They’re a business, and I bet most of the viewers are women.”

  “Granted, they could pussy out and do it that way,” Shank said. “But I think, ah, what would be more true to life is Tony gets caught making this big choice between his family and the mob.”

  “How do you mean?” Sheryl said.

  “Well, what’s he going to do if push comes to shove? Sacrifice his family to save his business? Al Pacino would do that, right. He had Fredo killed in Godfather II. But Tony goes to a shrink, right? He’s got guilt and panic attacks. No, I think the way to end it is, he has to turn into the thing he hates to save the thing he loves.”

  Sheryl considered it, cocking her head.

  Shank continued. “So Tony makes a deal with the feds, rats out all his buddies, and goes into Witness Protection. There he is, living in a crummy track house in Utah, driving a garbage truck. Carmela is shopping at Wal-Mart. The End.”

  “Jesus, that’s grim,” Sheryl said.

  “Yeah. I kinda like it,” Shank said.

  Sheryl took out her Merits and her lighter. “You mind?” she asked.

  Shank shrugged, hit the window controls, zipped the front seat windows down an inch, and turned up the heater.

  Sheryl lit the cigarette and blew a stream of smoke into the icy draft. After a minute or so she turned and
caught Shank watching her.

  “What?” she asked.

  He shrugged affably, turned back to watching the road. “Shouldn’t smoke those things,” he said. “They’re bad for your health.”

  Chapter Forty-two

  Monday morning was another first. Nina drove Kit to school. Not just to drop her off, but to go in and talk to the principal about gathering Kit’s records and transferring them back to the elementary school in Stillwater. Maybe sit in on some of her classes. Today would be Kit’s last school day in Glacier Falls. Nina had set the tone at Sunday breakfast when she casually suggested that Broker should call Dooley.

  He’d called Dooley and told him to get the duplex straightened up and turn up the heat; they be arriving Wednesday afternoon. That gave them Tuesday to finish packing and clean Griffin’s place. He called Griffin, explained their plans, and they agreed to have supper Tuesday night at the Anglers to settle up and say good-bye.

  Now it was almost one-thirty in the afternoon, and Nina hadn’t returned yet. Broker stood in the garage studying the stack of boxes and suitcases that he, Nina, and Kit has assembled on Sunday. Seeing them, he remembered the tense days last January, the rushed packing. He raised his right hand to his throat, felt the key to the gun locker on the leather thong. The guns would be the last thing he’d load in the Tundra.

  His cell rang. It was Griffin.

  “You think I could get a little more work out of you, before you split?” Griffin said.

  “What’s up?”

  “My truck’s still in the shop. And my wood trailer’s got a broken axle. Teedo’s home with a sick kid, so I don’t have his truck. I need a couple loads of oak carted over here at the lodge. Want to get it under a tarp before this big mother of a storm moves in.”

  “Sure,” Broker said. “I’ll get on it as soon as Nina gets the truck back.”

  “Look, I know you’re packing. Just bring one load over. We can trade cars, and I’ll come back for the second load.”

  “No problem, any way you want to do it,” Broker said.

  After he ended the call, Broker walked out into the driveway and looked at the storm clouds marshaling over the northwestern treetops. Persistent spitballs of frozen snow rattled on his parka. The mini sleet drew a faint veil over the road, and he saw Nina’s high beams knife through it. He watched the Tundra pull up the drive. Walked out to meet her.

  “How’d it go?” Broker said.

  Nina gave him a droll smile and did a snappy little curtsy. “Am I a soccer mom from central casting or what?” She was wearing the cross-country ski outfit he’d given her for Christmas. “I talked to the principal, Helseth, and sat in on a reading and math class. Kit wanted me to stay for lunch and for her gym class. You know, she wanted to put me on front street. Like, ‘See, I got a mom, too.’ And the paperwork is all set. They’ll ship it end of week. How’s it going here?”

  Broker explained Griffin’s call, how he’d drive over to the lodge with a load of wood, then use Griffin’s Jeep to pick up Kit.

  “You might want to go in early to school. When I left, they were all watching the weather in the office. They might start the buses early if this thing rolls in before school lets out.”

  “Okay, I better get on it.”

  Nina nodded. “I’ll sort through the upstairs bathroom, pack everything except essentials, then-” She perused the sky. “Maybe get in a run before we get dumped on.”

  They set off to their separate tasks. Nina went inside as Broker took off his good parka and pulled on the beat-up brown work-crew jacket. Then he started the Tundra and backed it up to the woodpile. Half an hour later, he had the bed full of oak, got in, and headed off for the lodge.

  When Broker arrived at the lodge work site, he found Griffin upbeat, busy squaring away his gear as if he relished the prospect of working in the midst of a severe winter storm. They unloaded the wood, covered it with a tarp, and weighted the tarp down with hunks of flagstone.

  “You planing to work tomorrow?” Broker asked.

  “Nah, but if we really get a lot of snow, it’ll take a day for the plows to clear the roads. Might as well get the wood in before it hits, so we can start on Wednesday,” Griffin said.

  They hunkered in the lee of the warming tent, drank coffee from Griffin’s thermos, and watched the gauzy afternoon light slowly filling in with billows of white. Start to pick away details on the lake.

  “Nina still on track?” Griffin asked.

  “Life is good,” Broker said. “She went to school this morning with Kit. Stayed through lunch.”

  “And the other thing?”

  “Well, we’re coming to that. She said we’re going to have a long-overdue talk. But we ain’t there yet. There’s this doctor at Bragg she has to check in with. It’ll happen then.”

  “Well, good luck.” Griffin squinted at the rising wind. “You still planning to head back Wednesday? This could make a mess out of the roads.”

  “Why they made four-wheel drive.” Broker shrugged and studied his friend, standing there in the identical jacket and black watch cap. “Remind me to give you this coat back,” he said.

  “Hey, keep it,” Griffin said, his face ruddy, his gray eyes merry, more youthful and alive than usual, as he watched the whipping snow.

  “You’re in a good mood,” Broker observed. “Your lady friend Hatch come over and whip some Class A maintenance on your relationship?”

  Griffin grinned and quipped, “There’s some things more exciting than mere sex.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. Like winter storms.” Griffin smiled, then upended the dregs of his coffee and pounded Broker on the shoulder. “C’mon, I gotta do a few more things here. Keys are in the Jeep. See you over at the place in an hour or so.”

  Chapter Forty-three

  Quarter to one, Gator pacing on the farmhouse porch, peering into the light sifting snow. Felt like he was onstage, coming up on a big job interview. He could feel the barometer dropping, pressure building like it was in his throat. They were auditioning for the big time. So take it one step at a time, Sheryl had said on the phone. Don’t rush it. Presumably she meant stay focused on Shank’s business with Broker. Don’t expect anything. Play a support role. Just be competent and keep your mouth shut.

  The garage door was pulled open. He had a fresh pot of coffee perking in the shop. He’d put the cat in the house to be out of the way. Maybe this guy was superstitious about black cats. Who knows.

  Jesus. Hope they didn’t run into trouble coming in on Z. Near as he could tell, the storm was still to the north and west, but the wind could whip up small whiteouts in the open spaces.

  Then he saw the high beams cut through the wavy tissue-paper light. The Nissan Maxima glided through the snow like a low gray shark and turned off into the drive. Gator’s hands moved in a silly tucking-in gesture, straightening his jacket. He took a deep breath, let it out, and walked toward the barn as the car slipped into the garage.

  Sheryl got out of the passenger side and smiled. Gator saw she was wearing sensible new Sorel boots for a change. The guy behind the wheel got out, and Gator had a look at him. In the joint, Gator had roughly classified scary guys into two categories; there were the muscled-up brutes and then there were other guys who had this weird intimidating energy. Crazy waiting to happen. Shank struck him as a very controlled version of the second type.

  He was lean and too white, like he had bleach in his veins, whitish hair and eyebrows, pale blue eyes. He moved smooth and deliberate, walking right up to Gator and extending a hand.

  “It’s Gator, right? I’m Shank, good to meet you.” Cool dry hand. Didn’t make a handshake into a show of strength. More like a probe. “Where can we talk?” Shank said.

  “In the shop,” Gator said.

  Sheryl yanked a thumb toward the house. “I’m going in to use the john. Let you two get acquainted.” She turned and walked toward the house.

  Shank thumbed his remote, and the spacious trunk
popped open. He hauled out a rugged gym bag, the kind with lots of zippered side pockets, shouldered the bag, and waited for Gator to lead the way.

  Gator opened the door to the shop and stood aside to let Shank enter first. Shank went in and lowered his bag. “Mind if I have a look around?”

  “Sure.” Gator opened his right palm in a gesture of welcome. “You want some coffee?”

  “Yeah, black is good.” Shank removed his jacket and set it on the cot in the alcove, then walked through the door into the garage bay. He returned in a minute. Gator handed him a cup of coffee.

  “What do you do here?” Shank asked.

  “Restore antique tractors. Got three completes in the yard out back of the shop. Can cannibalize parts off another half dozen.”

  Shank sipped his coffee. “The one you have in there. How long to get it ready for sale?”

  “That’s a special one. My Prairie Gold 1938 Moline UDLX. C’mere for a sec.” Gator led Shank into the garage and proudly pointed at the color centerfold on the wall.

  Shank pointed to the sleek photo. “That’s”-he pointed to the gray bifurcated jacked-up heap of junk-“that? No shit.”

  Gator shrugged. “Might take me another six months to get it exactly like the picture, all the authentic gauges and tinwork.”

  “How much they pay for something like that?” Shank said.

  “It’s like rare. Restored inside out? Mint condition; a hundred K.”

  “Christ, our guys go to jail, and they wind up taking computers apart. We should be getting into tractors.” Shank laughed. Then he looked around and nodded. “This is a real squared-away shop you got here.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Yeah, well”-his voice dropped a decibel-“you figured out that I ain’t here to buy tractors.”

  Gator wasn’t sure whether to respond “yep” or “nope,” so he just nodded.

  “Okay,” Shank said, looking Gator pointedly up and down. “We asked around, got the book on you when you were inside. You were a stand-up guy. When OMG leaned on you for some favors, you were practical.” Shank paused, sipped his coffee, his pale eyes burning into Gator over the rim of the cup. “You ever meet Danny?”