Smoked

  He remembered a time when a guy was telling him about the safe in the jewelry store where he worked.? When was that, 1969?? Smoke saw the cars, a little sports coupe, a big muscle car.? He was driving a red Dodge Challenger in those days.? The kids were on the TV, dying in the jungle.? The girls pranced with their long straight hair and the miniskirts.? College kids.? Smoke saw them more on TV than anywhere near his own life.? This punk kid was talking - he still wore that slicked back hair that had been out of style for years - some bullshit about going in and getting some of the display case stuff.? They were in a coffee shop near Grand Central Station, smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee.? Every time this kid put out a cigarette, he lit another one.? He was wired wrong, this kid.? Talking fast, trying to pull down his finder's fee.?

  "Brooklyn, O'Malley," the kid said.? "Brooklyn.? Out by Grand Army Plaza.? You won't believe this shit, man.? You won't fucking believe it."?

  "Okay," Smoke said.? "Okay, we go in and get the display case stuff, get pinched, and go upstate for what?? A bunch of trinkets and shit, right?"?

  "You don't get it," the kid said.? He took a long, crazy suck on his smoke.? This kid could smoke the whole cigarette in one drag.? "Yeah, you get the display case stuff, but only because it's there.? Why the fuck not?? But the gig - the gig - is the safe.? That's why you take the risk."

  From how the kid described it, Smoke knew he couldn't break it.? But then the kid described its location - it was built into the back wall of the office, right up into the bricks.? Dumb.? Smoke put a crew together.? They went in through the store right next to it.? It was a dry goods place.? The kid drew a map and they went right to the place where the back of the safe should be.? Smoke put down a small charge, baffled it - it sounded loud to him, but in the papers an upstairs tenant said he thought he heard someone sneeze - and then they yanked the bricks out of there with their bare hands.? They were in.? Shit, they grabbed a lot of money from that one.? It was 1969 and Smoke had $30,000 in cash sitting up in his apartment.? You could buy a real nice house for that, no mortgage, and Smoke had it in cash.? He was twenty-seven years old.? Those were good times.?

  He snapped awake.?

  Still in the car, the Crown Victoria.? The weight of the years sank into him in a second flat.? The weight of the current circumstances made him feel even heavier.?

  Maybe he was wrong.? Maybe Cruz wouldn't come for him this way.?

  Well, if they didn't come, then at 10 a.m., he would disable the charges behind his room door, then he would walk into Governor's and see what was what.? He had his little gun, and that was it.? He had no other plan, and right now he was too tired to think up another one.? He hadn't slept a wink.?

  A long minute passed.? He spotted a young woman under the awning, walking along the sidewalk toward his door.? She wore a blue smock and pushed along a cleaning cart.?

  She walked right to his door and knocked.? That didn't make sense.? He had placed a sign on the doorknob.? Do Not Disturb.? Didn't that mean anything??

  Her back was to him.? She had long, sleek black hair.? The chambermaid.? She was going to open the door.??

  Holy shit.

  He scanned the area, looking for them.? Nothing.?

  Now the maid rooted around on her key chain.? She brought out the key she wanted.??

  Smoke pushed open the heavy door of the car and jumped out.

  "Hey!" he shouted.? "Hey you!? Maid!? No!"?

  He was running almost before he said it.? It was a horrible, shuffling gait.? He had left the cane in the car.? In his haste, he had taken the Derringer and the cell phone, and left the cane.

  He was twenty yards away.

  He shouted again.? "Hey!? Don't open that door!"

  She looked up, the key in the lock.? For a moment, he thought it was Lorena.? Then her face resolved into that of a young woman.? It was a mask of confusion.

  Smoke pointed the gun at her.? "Don't you dare open that fucking door."??

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  Hal snorted another line off the mirror he had placed on the dashboard.? He snorted with a rolled up hundred dollar bill.? He saved the coke for special occasions - this was a special occasion if ever there was one.?

  His nostrils burned, all the way back into his throat.? Oh yeah.? He had been sagging until about ten minutes ago, despite three cups of coffee.? Now he felt huge, and he was growing bigger by the minute.?

  Here came the surge.?

  "Oh my God," Lola said.

  She burst out of the pickup truck.? Hal had the Mossberg across his lap, and at first he just watched her go.? He didn't know these people out on the sidewalk, but now he gathered she did.? They had been hunkered down low in the front seat of his old black Ford pickup, parked way in the back of the lot, away from Governor's restaurant, away from everything.

  Now Lola was running across the tarmac, no weapon, straight toward the man and woman out in front of that motel room.

  Swelling confidence buzzed in Hal's head.? Let her run.? It was exciting. Everything seemed crystal clear out there.?

  He stepped out of the truck with the shotgun.?

  He stood tall.

  In his pocket, he had another gun, a .25 caliber pocket pistol for up close fighting.?

  He saw two men moving in the same direction, coming in from the left.? They were all converging on the scene in front of the motel room door.? One of them was that big bastard that Hal had sworn to kill.? He moved like an ape, long gangling arms hanging practically to the ground.

  "Run, monkey," Hal said.

  He raised the shotgun and sighted along the tops of the cars.

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  Cruz and Moss were fast walking across the parking lot and toward the door.? Cruz drank it all in.? There was the chambermaid.? There was Smoke Dugan, just past her, leaning against the building.

  He seemed to have a gun.? Jesus, was that a gun?? It might have been a cigarette lighter.? Cruz watched as Smoke swiped at the cleaning cart and knocked it over.? He nearly went over with it.

  Ridiculous.

  "Dugan," Moss said.? It wasn't a shout, but was loud enough to be heard.? "Dugan.? Hey son, just one moment now."?

  This wasn't bad.? There was nobody here right at this moment, no citizens.? They could snag Dugan, bring him straight away to New York.? He could let Pamela go, though she interested him now.? She was? intriguing.? He figured he would have to run roughshod over Moss to ensure Pamela's safety, but he could do it.? He'd never see any of Dugan's money, and that retirement he was toying with would have to wait, but you know?? That was better.? Who was he fooling?? They don't let you retire.? And these, these fuck-ups yesterday, they were bad, but probably not career-ending.? Cruz was going to live through this, and come out on top after all.

  Mission accomplished.?

  All this went through his mind in less than five seconds.?

  Then Lola appeared.?

  "Smoke!"? She sprinted across the blacktop.? She screamed it again.? "SMOKE!"

  Cruz pulled his gun.? Beside him, Moss did the same.?

  "Uh-oh son, here comes the family reunion," Moss said.? His words drawled out like molasses.? "I hate that bitch."

  Then came the explosion.

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  "RUN!" Smoke screamed at the maid as she shrank back against the door.? Her hand jiggled the doorknob.? Smoke jabbed with the Derringer.?

  "Run you bitch, will you run?"

  He knocked the cart over for emphasis and almost lost his balance.

  Shit.? Shit on this.

  Behind her, Cruz and Moss were coming.? Moss loomed larger and larger as they approached.? He looked like a dinosaur.? He looked like a tidal wave.???

  "Dugan," Moss said.? "Dugan.? Hey son, just one moment now."

  The maid glanced back.? The sight of Moss decided her.? She threw her hands in the air and ran straight out into the parking
lot, away from everyone.

  Smoke heard his name called.

  He turned and Lola was running across the lot toward them.?

  Shit.

  Smoke backed away from the door.? He slid along the wall of the motel.? All the way back, get all the way back.? The fake stucco of the building clung to his jacket.? Moss and Cruz were almost here.? They drew their guns.? He raised the tiny pistol at them.

  Here they came.

  Moss smiled.? His face was bruised, like he had taken a beating.

  Smoke glanced down at the phone.? He had the pager on speed dial.

  He pressed the SEND button.

  Nothing happened.??

  He looked at the phone again.

  SEND, right?? You were supposed to press SEND.

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  Dugan was right there.

  Then the back windshield of a parked car shattered, ten yards away.? Cruz and Moss moved as one, crouched behind separate cars.? A second later, a long rolling BOOM sounded across the whole parking lot.? Someone screamed back near the restaurant.? A fat man with long hair and a beard walked across the lot toward them, shotgun raised.? He fired the gun again.

  Dugan disappeared between two parked cars.?

  The second blast demolished the rear windshield of the car Cruz was hiding behind.? That was two windshields down, two huge shotgun blasts on a normal straight world morning.? This was the last thing they needed.?

  ?Now the fat man was just across a lane of cars.? He ducked down.?

  "Who is that?" Cruz said to Moss.? Moss rested his gun on the car he was crouched behind, aiming across the parking lot.? His eye was cast down in a squint.?

  "He's the fat fuck who clubbed me."

  "You see him?"

  "Not right this second.? But I know where he went under.? When he comes back up, I'm gonna take him."

  Cruz looked for Smoke.? He looked for Lola.? He didn't see either one.?

  The cops were going to be here any minute.

  Five seconds had passed since the fat man ducked under.?

  Then the fat man stood up, two cars over from where he had gone under.? He started firing again.? Moss and Cruz started firing.? Cruz fired randomly, across the parking lot, away from the fat man, away from anybody.? Could Moss see this??

  Windows shattered.? Bullets whined off pavement.?

  Moss's line caught the fat man.? The fat man did a strange jitterbug as Moss hit him three or four times.?

  "Bingo!" Moss shouted.? "Dance, fat boy!"

  The fat man went down like a wall of bricks.

  Just then:?

  An explosion ripped the air just behind Cruz and to his left.? A rush of hot air blew over him.? The explosion had no sound.? It was too big for sound.? He was lifted into the air.? He flew over the top of the car he had hidden behind.? His arms pin-wheeled madly, and Cruz thought for sure he was dead.?

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  Hal couldn't feel his legs.?

  He lay on his back on the blacktop.? He had barely registered the explosion - he had more important things on his mind.? He could feel the burning in his gut where he had been shot.? He swallowed, then lifted his head and stared down at his feet.? Everything was still down there and still attached - he just couldn't feel any of it.

  The bullets severed my spine.

  No thought had ever caused him such horror.? Darren's death paled in comparison.

  Valuable seconds passed as he watched an image of himself in a wheelchair roll slowly across his mind.?

  He shook his head.? There was no time for that.? There was only time for action.? The shotgun was above his head and behind him somewhere.? He reached back there - it hurt just to raise his arms like that - but he couldn't find it.? He started crawling backwards, dragging his useless legs after him.??

  Something caught his eye.? He looked up and here came that big motherfucker, swaggering toward him.? The bastard's face was swollen, but he was grinning.?

  As he approached he raised his gun.? He pointed it at Hal.?

  "Hey fat boy," he said.???

  Hal fell back and threw his hands up in front of his face.?

  I'm sorry, Darren.? I'm sorry.

  "Smile," the big man said.???

  Just then, Hal remembered the pistol, the small .25, still in his jacket pocket.? He felt its reassuring weight there.? He reached for it, hoping that somehow, by some miracle, he wouldn't be too late.???

  ?

  * * *

  ?

  Cruz hit the tarmac, surprised but still alive.

  He glanced back at where he had been.

  Jesus.?

  The door had blown out from the hotel room.? Its fragments had sprayed all over the parking lot.? The doorway was on fire.? The cars near the door were on fire.? The car Cruz had hidden behind was on fire.??

  There was no sign of anyone.

  Then he saw Moss, up and pacing across the lot.? He stopped about three cars away.? He stood over something, looking down at it.

  "Hey fat boy," Moss said.? Cruz heard him clearly through the smoke and early morning air.? Gawkers were going to gather soon.? Gawkers always did.? They had to get away before then.

  Cruz struggled to his feet.?

  There was Moss, pointing his gun at the figure on ground.? There was the fat man, hands raised to ward off the blow.? Cruz walked toward them.?

  "Smile," Moss told the fat man.

  "Moss," Cruz said.

  Moss fired three times.

  Brain salad sprayed onto the blacktop in a fan shape.

  Moss looked at Cruz.? "What?"

  ?

  * * *???

  ?

  It must have been a faulty connection.?

  Smoke thought about this while he lay sprawled between two parked cars.? Now was not the time, but all the same, he thought about it.? The nitro had worked.? Good.? The phone had worked.? Good.? The connection from the pager to the detonator?? Well, he probably could have wired it better.

  He wondered if anybody had died.

  Then Lola was there next to him.

  "Smoke!" she said.? "Smoke!"? She said it over and over.? She cradled his head in her arms.? She was alive.? She was free.? He didn't even question it.?

  "Are you hurt?" she said.?

  He shrugged.? "Me?? I'm fine."

  She helped him up and he leaned on her as they picked their way between parked cars.? He tried to stay low.? They crossed the lot, and ducked through the bushes into the next lot.? Here was the Tercel, parked away from the action.?

  Back behind them, an engine raced, and a car screamed out of the parking lot, tires squealing.? Then the buzz of people, the shouts, the sobs, the commotion began.

  Smoke put the key in the ignition.

  He looked at Lola.? She looked at him.

  "I love you," they said in tandem.

  They stopped and laughed.

  "Hon, we gotta go," Smoke said.

  ?

  * * *?

  ?

  "Fuck man," Moss said.? "Fuck!"

  He was back behind the wheel of the Taurus.

  They moved in heavy traffic down Route 1, the major thoroughfare in South Portland.? Cruz watched Moss drive.? Moss worried him.? His outlook had taken a sudden U-turn.? From the temporary elation of bagging the fat man, to a treacherous and burning rage.? That was not good.?

  It also nagged at Cruz that they were still in this Taurus.? They'd had it too long; it had seen too much action.? They had changed the plates, sure.? But they needed another car, and Fingers was the car thief of the bunch.

  Who had witnessed all that?? A lot of people.? Cruz had seen eyes looking out from doorways in the motel, from the windows of the restaurant.? An old couple were sitting in a car outside Governor's as Cruz and Moss ran past.? Cruz had glanced in their window and seen the look in their eyes.? The shooting had kept them in the car.? But they were seeing ev
erything.

  Including this car.

  He glanced back at Pamela, handcuffed to the hand grip above her seat.? Had anybody witnessed that?

  "We gotta do something about this car," he said.?

  "I hate this fucking job, Cruz.? You know that?? I hate this fucking job and I hate you.? How you think they're gonna feel about this down in New York?? In broad daylight all this shit happened.? You know what?? If we go down for this shit - and I never thought I'd say this, I never thought I'd go down for anything - if I do any time for this, until my dying breath I swear I'm gonna take you out."

  Cruz had never heard Moss talk so fast.? "The car, Moss.? We gotta do something about it."

  "I'm working on it."

  He turned right, signaling, driving perfectly normally.? He had turned at a sign with a harness racing figure on it that said "Scarborough Downs Raceway."? They cruised along a deserted feeder road, with hedges and a fence on either side.? Up ahead, the raceway itself loomed in the distance.? They crossed a vast, empty parking lot, with just a few cars stationed near the entrance to the raceway.? Weeds grew in cracks in the tarmac.???

  "No races today," Pamela said from the back seat.? Her eyes had gone large again.? Cruz knew the look.? The shootout had blown her mind.???

  "You know what?" Moss said.? "I've had it with you, too.? You should've been dead yesterday."? With his right hand, he whipped his gun out of his jacket.? He kept his left hand on the wheel, and turned nearly all the way around.? He put the gun to Pamela's head.? Pamela gasped, a long hissing moan of air going out of her tires.? The car rolled along slowly.

  "We're gonna ditch this car anyway," Moss said.? "I don't mind a little mess."

  Cruz pulled his own gun.? He put the barrel against Moss's temple.?

  "Pull that trigger and it's the last thing you do," he said.

  Cruz felt calm.?

  "Cruz, what the fuck's the matter with you?? Why you keeping this bitch alive?? The job's over, son.? That was it, don't you get it?? Dugan got away, with Lola this time.? He's halfway to fucking Timbuktu by now.? The job's a total loss, and we gotta get out of here."? He gestured at Pamela with his head.? "We can't bring her with us."

  "I disagree.? I think Dugan's coming back for her.? I think we still have a trade."

  "Cruz, are you fucking crazy?? All those people saw us back there.? You don't think we can stay here, do you?"

  Cruz ignored the question.? "Moss, I'm about to kill you.? You understand?"

  Moss cast an eye at Cruz.? The look said he understood well enough.?

  "Now drop the gun in the backseat.? You hear me?? Drop the gun."

  Moss hesitated, then smiled, and did as he was told.? The gun made a heavy bonk as it hit the floor in the back.? Moss turned back around to the wheel.? Cruz kept the gun against his head.???