by L. T. Ryan
“All right, here we go then.” Sean knocked, then pushed the door open. He stepped through and greeted the old man.
I walked in after. Shock hit me as I laid eyes on him for the first time in six years. He’d aged at least twenty, and he was old to begin with. Dad had waited until his early forties to start his family. Mom had been ten years younger. Up until the dementia set in, you couldn’t tell the age difference. That changed drastically.
He looked at me and froze. His bushy eyebrows furrowed, almost covering his eyes. He extended a bony finger and aimed it at me.
“Is that my Jackie?”
I stepped forward. “Hey, Pop.”
“Home from the Marines already?”
I shrugged.
“How on earth do you get away with that shaggy hairdo?” He shook his head. “In my day we’d have tied you down and shaved your head bald. Hell, I might try to do that right now.”
He planted his hands against the arms of his chair and tried to push himself up. He didn’t budge. Cursed up a storm, though.
“I’ve been on leave for a few weeks. They’d never let me walk around base looking like this.”
He nodded, looked away. “You boys gonna stay around for a while? Your mother should be around soon. I know she’d like to see you, Jack.”
I looked at Sean. He gave me a terse smile. Always something different. I could see it in his eyes.
“I’m not sure, Pop,” I said.
“Actually, we’ve got to get going in a few minutes, Dad. There’s been an unfortunate accident.”
“Oh, no,” Dad said.
“Yeah,” Sean said. “Jessie passed away.”
Dad shook his head. He brought his hand up to his mouth and bit on a knuckle. “I’m sorry, Jack. I know you two had plans to get married.”
“I’m broken up about it, Pop.”
He held out his hand. I took it. He squeezed as tight as he could. I barely felt it. He glanced up at me. Those blue eyes I remember were covered in milky cataracts. I wondered how he could tell it was me that had come in. I understood how he thought I was fifteen years younger.
“You’re a good kid, Jack. Always have been. But you gotta work on those issues you have, anger and whatnot, before they take over and ruin your life. You don’t want to end up alone, without a soul in the world to love you.”
I bent over and kissed him on the cheek. His white stubble stabbed at my lips.
“Love you, Pop.”
“You too, son.” He smiled, turned to Sean. “And you too, kid.”
Sean patted Dad on the shoulder and turned to me. “Let’s get going.”
We walked through the hall to the reception area. The nurse smiled at us as we passed. Sunlight poured in through a glass dome in the ceiling. We went through the automatic double doors and out into the parking lot. It was like walking out of a freezer and into a sauna.
A beat up Tercel nearly hit us when the driver leaned over and started looking for something on the floor.
“Don’t do anything,” Sean said.
I held out my hands. “I’m good.”
After we were seated in Sean’s car, he said, “Want to get a drink?”
I couldn’t say yes fast enough.
Chapter 15
Leon followed the parking lot around the back of the facility. He stopped on the far side and waited there until Jack and the other man had left in the Mercedes. Once they were gone, he pulled into a parking spot by the front door.
He glanced at himself in the rear-view mirror. He looked like crap. A day without a shower and eight hundred miles of driving would do that to a guy. He grabbed a wet nap and cleaned off his hands and face. A pine tree air freshener hung from the mirror. He grabbed it and rubbed it on his shirt.
He scanned the parking lot to ensure that the men had not returned. It looked safe. He got out and walked up to the entrance. The doors slid open and he stepped inside.
The woman behind the reception desk rose and said, “Help you, sir?”
“Yes,” Leon said. “My name is Roger Carter and I hear you guys run the best senior care facility north of Tampa. My Dad’s been living with me the past five years, but it’s grown to be a bit more than I can handle, what with my wife passing recently.” He forced his eyes to water. Something he’d been able to do since high school. “I wonder, do you have any literature on hand, and maybe a nurse I can speak with?”
“Of course.” She smiled and sat down and opened the drawer to her left.
Leon glanced down at the sign-in sheet on the counter.
“Rats,” the woman said. “I’ll need to go in back to grab that. I’ll look for the nurse while I’m back there. Just a sec, OK?”
Leon said, “Sure, take your time, ma’am.” He crossed his legs, dropped an elbow on the counter top and leaned to the side. After she disappeared, he pulled the registry closer. The last line with an entry had Noble written in both the visitor and resident columns. On the other side of the sheet was a messy bunch of scribble. No matter what way he looked at it, it didn’t read ‘Jack.’ Leon looked up. That was the signature line. Between the signature and resident, Leon saw the number 117. He glanced at the column header. Room number. He pulled a pad from his pocket and used the pen on the desk and wrote down “Noble” and “Room 117.”
The woman emerged from the hallway. She waved a few pamphlets in the air. “I’ve got it. And I found Nurse Jenny, too. She can answer any questions you have.”
Leon lifted his hand in the air. He held his cell phone. “I just got called into the office. I better get going. But thanks for the literature.”
“Maybe you can bring your father up one day this week to take a look around.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” He took the pamphlets and left the facility. He drove about a mile down the road and pulled into a shopping center. There, he placed a call to Vera.
“OK, so here’s what I got. Jack and the guy, I’m figuring it’s his brother. They left the house and cut through town. Ended up at a retirement home. I got a look at the guest register thing. Noble signed in to pay a visit to Noble.”
“So a mother or father?”
“Yeah, that’s what I figure.”
“What did you tell the people inside?”
“That I was checking the place out for my dad.”
“OK,” she said. “I may have you follow up there. Whichever Noble is a resident may come in handy for us later.”
“Hey, you get me an old black man down here, and I’m good as gold.”
“You lost them, though, right?”
“Jack and the guy?”
She exhaled loudly into the phone. “Yes.”
“Yeah, but at least I know where they’ll end up. They headed back the way they came, too.”
“Good. You feeling good on your own or would a teammate be helpful?”
Leon considered this. Two people could be better than one, but he hated working with a partner. They got in the way and always became a liability.
“Solo for now, but keep someone on standby.”
“OK. Call me this afternoon.” She hung up.
Leon rolled down his window. The smell of fast food filled the small car. He glanced around, spotted a Burger King and went in for a bite to eat.
Chapter 16
I followed Sean past the dented wooden door into the dimly lit bar. The place had changed names a dozen times since I was kid. Lou’s, Cal’s, Crystal River Pub, and several more that my mind couldn’t conjure the names. It always looked the same, though. Right down to the pool tables in the game room. When we were kids, Dad brought us in here to shoot while he pounded a few rounds with his buddies.
Bonding. Good times.
Sean and I took two empty stools at the far end of the bar. I had a wall behind me, and the door in front of me. The mirror that stretched the length of the bar let me keep tabs on the tables without looking in their direction. Sean said nothing. Neither did I.
The bartender glance
d our way. He nodded, put down the cups he was drying and walked over. I recognized the guy. He, like the pool tables, had been a staple in the pub for thirty years. And like the felt on those tables, he looked weathered and worn.
“Well I’ll be… If it ain’t the Noble boys. What the hell are you two doing in here? I don’t see your daddy around. Don’t tell me you two kids are old enough to drink now?”
It took a minute for his name to come to me. “How are you, Eric?”
He shrugged. “Seriously now, something happened to your old man?”
Sean shook his head. “Nah, an old friend died, though.”
Eric nodded. “Heard ‘bout Jessie.”
He glanced at me. There was a sadness to the way he looked. His eyes seemed to droop. His lips parted a crack. He wanted to say something. I looked away before he could.
“Anyway, what’ll you guys have?” Eric said.
“Beer,” Sean said.
“Beer,” I said.
“Coming right up.” Eric walked off.
Glasses clanked, feet scuffled and the jukebox kicked on. An old Stones song piped through the speakers.
Eric returned with two chilled bottles, caps off. Water drops ran down the labels.
I reached for my wallet.
He set them down in front of us. “Don’t worry about it.”
I looked at Sean. He shrugged. We’d make it up on the tip. Eric probably counted on that.
The Rays game was on TV. The music drowned out the commentators. Didn’t matter. I watched without interest. Long gone were the days of enjoying sports. Maybe I’d get back into them after retirement.
If I ever managed to quit the business before it did me in.
Sean leaned over and nudged me with his shoulder.
“What?” I said.
“Look who’s coming our way.”
I looked ahead and saw two older women saddle up to the bar. I hoped that wasn’t who he meant. He nudged me and lifted his finger off the bar top and pointed toward the floor. I shifted my gaze to the right, saw two guys I knew from my younger days. We had gone to school together from kindergarten on. During those thirteen years, we never got along. Half the fights I got in as a kid were with those guys. They hated me. I hated them. I wasn’t surprised to find those feelings still existed.
They looked the same, only grown up and sixty or seventy pounds heavier. One of the guys was Glenn’s brother. Glenn was Jessie’s husband.
“This must be twofer day,” one of them said.
“Yeah, two jackwagons for the price of one,” the other said.
Sean dropped one leg to the ground. His shoulder grazed my back as he turned. I heard his other shoe hit the hardwood floor.
I glanced back, shook my head. “I got this.”
Sean didn’t move.
I slid off my stool. “If it ain’t Mutt and Jeff.”
“It’s Matt and Jed, dumbass,” Jed said.
Sean laughed. I smiled.
“What’s so funny?” Matt was Glenn’s little brother. They looked nothing alike.
“Look,” I said. “I know there’s this long standing thing between you guys and me, but you gotta let it go. That was almost twenty years ago. You’re living in the past. I’ve moved on. You should move on. I mean, take your waistlines for example. They’ve moved on, and out.”
“You’re fixing to get your face pounded in, Noble,” Matt said.
Words like that were either followed by a punch or more tough talk.
He continued. “And then when we’re through with you, we’ll take out your sissy brother.”
I let my arms hang loose. “Then shut up and do it.”
“What?” Matt said.
“You aren’t going to do anything about it. You’re all talk. At least twenty years ago you had the sack to throw a punch. All those years of sitting on your couch watching talk shows has sapped you of your testosterone. You go around bullying people like you used to. Only now you can’t do anything but talk tough.”
Matt narrowed his eyes. The pace of his breath quickened. His arms shook and his fingers twitched.
Jed grabbed his shoulders, and shook him, and said, “Knock him out.”
That was all it took for Matt to wind up like he was throwing the first pitch out. His entire sequence was poorly executed. He tossed a lumbering right hook at me.
I leaned back and avoided the sloppy punch. With my right hand, I gained control of his right arm. I spun him around, grabbed the back of his head with my left and drove his broad forehead into the other guy’s nose. Jed went down in a heap. I drove my heel into Matt’s right knee. He buckled sideways. As he went down, I slammed his face into the edge of the bar and let go.
Sean pulled me back from the two bodies on the floor. Both men bled and rocked in place and moaned.
“Dammit, Jack,” Eric said from the other side of the bar. “Didn’t I have to ban you from this place for an incident like this before?”
I shrugged. “That time was my fault. This guy’s to blame this time. He took a swing at me.”
“And you did nothing to provoke it, did you?”
I held my hands up, sure that Eric wouldn’t do anything.
A woman stepped out from the game room. She had on a sheriff’s uniform. Dark sunglasses sat atop her head. Her hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. I recognized her from earlier when Sean and I drove through town.
She looked at me, shook her head and continued toward the bar.
Sean grabbed my shoulder. “Just ease back a sec, Jack.”
She said, “What happened, Eric?”
Eric said, “Those two knuckleheads were so drunk they fell off their barstools.”
“Is that right?” she said. “There’s only two barstools at this end. Can’t fit anymore.” She reached both arms out wide in front of the endcap, then turned toward us. She kept her arms out and extended her index fingers. “And you two must’ve acted the part of good Samaritans and come over to help. Am I right?”
Eric nodded. Then he looked at Sean and me, pointed to the other side of the room, and said, “Thanks for your help, now you two go back to your table. The Sheriff can handle this. I’ll get you a fresh round of drinks.”
Sean tugged at my shirt. I stared at the deputy as we walked away. She winked at me as I passed her. We found an empty booth near the back corner and sat down. I kept glancing at the woman.
“You’ll never change, will you, Jack?” Sean said.
I hiked my shoulders an inch in the air. “In my world you have no choice but to act. If you don’t, you’re dead. You can’t avoid trouble like that. Besides, what was I supposed to do? Let him hit me? Screw that.”
“You didn’t have to take out Jed and then slam Matt’s head into the bar.”
“Yes, I did. Otherwise it’d still be going on. Or they’d show up at your house later demanding we settle the score, or whatever crap lingo guys like that use.”
“They might still show up.”
He had a point. If those two were anything like they used to be, any scenario was possible.
“If they do,” I said, “I promise they’ll beg for a beating like I just gave them.”
Sean leaned back a few inches. He stared at me without speaking. I don’t know if he’d ever seen me make a threat like that. He had always had his suspicions about what I did. I never told him. I simply avoided the question. Perhaps that last statement convinced him that my standard, “Government work” response was a cover up.
I calmed down a notch. “Adrenaline, Sean. That’s all.”
“Whatever,” he said, pointing toward the bar. “We got a visitor incoming.”
The woman’s thick-soled boots rapped against the floor. She walked slowly, confidently. She stopped in front of the table. I didn’t look up.
“Hello, Sean,” she said.
Sean nodded and said nothing.
“And hello, Jack,” she said.
I looked at Sean. He stared blankly over my h
ead. I looked up at the woman. “Do I know you?”
“You don’t remember me?” She feigned being hurt.
“No, I don’t. And Eric said the Sheriff would come take care of this. Where is he? I don’t see Sheriff Woodard over there.”
“I’m Sheriff Woodard, Jack.”
I turned in my seat and looked up at her again. “Sheriff Woodard had one kid. A girl. I used to babysit his daughter. You are not her. She was rail thin, bucktooth and covered in freckles.”
The woman smiled. Her teeth were perfect. Her body was too. “Some of the freckles are still there. Just too dim in here to tell.”
“April?” I said.
“Hi, Jack.”
“You’re the sheriff now? What happened to your dad?”
“Heart attack.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He did it to himself. Doctor warned him that his fifth would be his last. And it was.”
“Wow, I’m really sorry.”
“Don’t be, he’s OK now, taking it easy.”
Sean slid out of the booth. “Why don’t you sit, April? Catch up with Jack for a few. I’ll get some drinks.”
“Water for me,” she said as she took his seat, smiling. “You look good, Jack.”
“I try,” I said, still a bit stunned that the awkward little girl I knew twenty years ago sat across me as a fully developed woman. “You look… great.”
“Time can do that.”
I thought about the last time I’d seen April. She was still a kid, and I hadn’t left for the Marines yet. I remembered taking her to the movies a week or so before I left for recruit training at Parris Island. I was eighteen, she was eight.
I heard Matt or Jed say something. Sean’s voice rose a notch. I looked across the bar. Sean stood at one end. Jed and Matt stood by the front door. They both looked at me and pointed.
“This ain’t over Noble,” Jed said.
April stood, put her hand on the butt of her pistol and walked toward them. Her steps were no longer slow and cautious. She said, “Yes it is. Now you two get out of here before I haul your drunken asses in.”
The men glared at her, then me, then Sean, and then left.
April returned to the table. She exhaled loudly and shook her head.