“Hap,” I said. “Hap Collins.”
“He didn’t like the way you treated him in a hotel room,” Big Jim said. “That right, moron? A hotel room, wasn’t it?”
Wilber said, “Yes, sir.”
“Yeah, I bet he didn’t,” I said, “ ’cause I whipped his ass. And I kicked it at the whorehouse too.”
“There you are,” Big Jim said. “Wilber didn’t like that. Go ahead and shoot him, Wilber.”
“I could have taken you, you hadn’t had a gun on me,” Wilber said, and he pointed his automatic at me.
“You and about ten like you,” I said.
Big Jim said, “Whoa! You really think you could take him, Mr. Hap?”
I nodded.
“What about you, Wilber,” Big Jim said. “What do you think?”
“I could take him,” Wilber said.
“You really want to fight him, don’t you, Wilber?” Big Jim said.
“Yeah, I’ll fight him,” Wilber said. “Right now.”
“I guess you would,” Leonard said. “Hap’s hurt. He wasn’t hurt, he’d wipe your honky motherfucker’s shit on the wall.”
Big Jim looked about at his entourage. He grinned. They grinned. Red couldn’t decide if he ought to shit or go blind.
Big Jim settled his gaze on Leonard, said, “You want to take Wilber instead?”
“Yeah,” Leonard said. “I’ve just traveled from here to Mexico, fought it out with a bunch of would-be bad-asses, eaten badly, slept badly, crashed in a plane on my way back, so I ought to be tuckered just enough to make it a little more of a contest for fat boy here.”
Wilber steamed.
Big Jim chuckled. “Hey, you’re on.”
“What for?” Leonard said. “Just to get shot afterward? What’s the point?”
“You win, I let you go,” Big Jim said.
Leonard shook his head. “You a man of your word, Big Jim?”
“You trying to gamble with me?” Big Jim said.
“You let me and this walking stack of dog shit fight,” Leonard said, “and I win, you got to let me and my man go here. You got to let the woman and the whore go too. Toss in Irvin here ’cause he’s stupid. Herman too. The midget, I don’t give a shit.”
“I give you your life,” Big Jim said.
“Not good enough,” Leonard said.
Big Jim shook his head. “I’m going to hate myself in the morning. Okay. I give you Hap, the pilot, the woman, and the whore. Take Herman too. Red, I got plans for.”
Red studied Big Jim’s face, hoping to see some sign that the plans were positive, but the expression he hoped to see just wasn’t there.
“What I say,” Big Jim said, “is this. You two fight. One can’t stand up when it’s over is the loser. My man loses, I let everyone but the troll go.”
“I’m not going anywhere without Red,” Herman said.
Big Jim turned to look at Herman. “Have it your way.” Then back to us. “You lose, colored fella, I got to shoot you all. But I’ll make it quick. Promise. I got to tell you, gambling, it’s my vice. You got me by the short hairs on that. My wife tells me I’ll bet on anything and that I’m too good-hearted. She’s right.”
Leonard said, “Let me speak to my people.”
“Snap it up,” Big Jim said. “This plane fire, it could cause problems. Another minute, this offer’s no good.”
Leonard eased over to us, unbuttoned his shirt, tossed it on the ground. He and Brett helped me to stand. Leonard said, “I don’t know he’ll keep his word or not. It’s all we got, though.”
“You’re bushed,” I said.
“It’s not like we got a choice,” Leonard said. “Right now you couldn’t whip a three-year-old in a straitjacket.”
“Come on,” Big Jim said. “Enough whispering. Do it.”
30
They closed the back door and two suits stood there as guards. The others spread out in a circle around us and Big Jim moved his stool back a few paces. Red slid up against the wall, trying to blend his molecules with it so that he might pass through.
Wilber took off his cheap jacket and tossed it over the side of Bill’s pickup bed. He unbuttoned his shirt at the neck and rolled up his sleeves. Wilber gestured at me, said to Leonard, “It’s not gonna be as much fun hittin’ you as him.”
“I’ll try to make you laugh,” Leonard said.
“He’s twice Leonard’s size,” Brett whispered to me.
“If Leonard isn’t too tired, it’ll be all right,” I said.
Wilber had his legs spread wide and his fist clenched. I could tell then he didn’t know shit about technique. Probably never had to use any. When you’re that big and strong you can get away with lack of technique.
Leonard didn’t adopt any stance or posture. He just sort of eased toward Wilber. Wilber suddenly kicked out with his right leg, a stiff, but hard and fast kick. Leonard scooped it up with his left arm and lifted and pushed backward. Wilber flopped to the dirt floor, rolled and came up. Leonard slid into a loose stance, bobbed a little like a boxer.
Wilber grinned at him. This was all great fun. He eased in and threw a wild right. Had it hit Leonard, it would probably have knocked his head somewhere just south of Mexico City.
But Leonard went under the punch, stuck a right in Wilber’s ribs, whipped a left to the kidney. Wilber took it well, came around with a backhand swipe that brushed the top of Leonard’s head. Leonard hit Wilber with a right uppercut, but Wilber hit Leonard with a left, a chopping blow just over the ear. It sent Leonard to the ground. Wilber kicked him then. Hit him in the face, full blast. Leonard rolled with it as much as possible, but it was a good shot and a spray of blood went wide in the dull lights of the hangar.
Leonard lay on his back, his face bleeding. Wilber planted kick after kick in Leonard’s side. Finally Leonard rolled into a kick, got hold of Wilber’s leg, and pushed him down. They rolled on the concrete for a moment, then Leonard stuck a finger in Wilber’s eye, got loose, got up.
Wilber had a hand over his eye. “You sonofabitch,” he said.
He came at Leonard with a wild football kick. Leonard scooped the kick up, twisted, rolled Wilber on his stomach. Leonard stepped over Wilber’s leg while he held it, pushed his chest against it and went down. There was a cracking sound like you might hear from a china vase just dropped from an aircraft. It was Wilber’s knee going out. Wilber screamed, and Leonard, still locking the leg, bent forward and slipped his arm around Wilber’s neck, around the brace, slid his hand into the crook of his other arm and locked that behind Wilber’s head.
Wilber was strong and the neck brace kept Leonard from cutting into Wilber’s throat with a forearm. Wilber got his hands under him, pushed up enough to roll on his back. But it didn’t matter. Leonard lost the leg lock somehow and the ruined leg thrashed out to Wilber’s side as Leonard rolled on his back and hooked his heels inside Wilber’s thighs and kept choking.
Wilber thrashed and clawed at Leonard’s arms so hard he drew blood, but Leonard didn’t let go. He just lay on his back with his head pressed tight against the base of Wilber’s head, and he kept squeezing. You could see the muscles in his forearms and biceps swell. Leonard moved his foot once, just enough to pop Wilber in the testicles, enough to weaken him. But by that time he didn’t really need it. Wilber wasn’t clawing anymore. His eyes were sticking way out of his skull and his tongue was skating over his lips. A thin trickle of blood was running out of one nostril and there was a bead of it on his bottom lip.
Leonard flexed even more. The brace was past working for Wilber. Leonard had put so much pressure into it, the brace was beginning to bend, making an indentation for Leonard’s forearm.
Leonard turned his head slowly and looked at Big Jim on his stool. Big Jim studied the situation for a moment, made a cutting motion with his hand.
Leonard let go of Wilber, rolled out from under him. Wilber lay on the ground heaving, trying to get his breath back.
Leonard stood up and loo
ked at Big Jim.
Big Jim looked around the room, at us, at his men. He put his cold cigar back in his mouth and pawed around in his suit for his lighter. He lit the cigar and puffed.
“How much money you got?” he asked Leonard.
“What?” Leonard said.
“How much money you got, all of you?” Big Jim said.
Leonard and I had some change, Brett had a few dollars, and Irvin had what was left of the money we had given him. Most of it he had pissed out on the ground after it had turned to beer and then pesos at the cantina.
I said, “Bill’s body’s out there. He might have some money on him.”
“No,” Big Jim said. “We’ll leave him like he is.”
Moose clunked over on his braces and cast, took all our money, bundled it up in one hand, and carried it to Big Jim.
“I got to have something for my troubles,” Big Jim said. He counted out the money, frowned, put it in his coat pocket. “I don’t like to do a deal where I lose completely. I drove all the way down from Oklahoma for this, and now I’m just going to let you go. But this way I make a little money, and I got Red. Which is what I really wanted. And, I guess I got Herman. Herman, you still have your chance too. I give you that. Red stays. You go.”
Herman nodded. “I can’t go without Red. You still want to gamble, I’ll fight anyone for Red’s life.”
“Nope,” Big Jim said. “That didn’t work out so good. Once a night is enough. Someone go over there and get Wilber up. Get his coat. Put him in the car. We’ll stop in town, get him a soda.”
Two of Big Jim’s men picked up Wilber’s coat, got hold of Wilber. He screamed in agony when he was lifted. As they carried him along, his leg dragged behind like the tail of a dead animal. They opened the front door and helped him outside.
“This whole thing,” Big Jim said. “It’s soured my stomach. You know, I’m really a pretty nice guy. I like to give breaks. I’m forgiving. But sometimes, well, you got to know when to cut your losses.”
Big Jim reached inside his coat and took out an automatic, said, “Hey, dwarf!”
Red looked at him and Big Jim pulled the trigger. Red’s head slammed against the tin wall and the wall went scarlet and Red melted to the floor like butter running off the side of a griddle.
Herman bellowed, charged at Big Jim. Big Jim swiveled slightly on his stool and shot Herman in the head. Herman’s charge knocked Big Jim off the stool and Herman came down on top of him.
Two bodyguards leaped forward, grabbed Herman, yanked him off of Jim, rolled him on the ground and shot him several times.
Big Jim said, “He’s dead, you fools. He was dead when I shot him.”
Big Jim got his feet under him, put his automatic back inside his suit coat and began to brush himself off. One of the bodyguards came over and helped him. Big Jim let him. When he was brushed off he took the handkerchief off the stool and used it to wipe his shoes. He gave the handkerchief to one of his men, turned to us.
“I shouldn’t have made a deal like that with you guys,” he said. “It was stupid. I thought Wilber could take you, colored man. I thought he’d wipe the place up with you.”
“Maybe he had an off day,” Leonard said.
Big Jim grinned. “No. I don’t think so. All right, ya’ll get the whore, get your asses out of here. I don’t want to see you no more. I hear from you, I see your faces, whatever, all bets are off. Got me?”
We nodded.
Leonard put on his shirt without buttoning it, picked up Tillie and carried her and put her in the back seat of the car. With Brett’s assistance I went after them and leaned against the hood.
Irvin walked past us. He said, “I don’t want to never see any of you again. Ever.”
Outside, the two bodyguards were putting Wilber into the back of a black Cadillac. There was another black Cadillac parked under the tree next to Irvin’s truck.
Irvin got in his truck, started it up, and drove away.
Brett sat with Tillie’s head in her lap. I used the car to brace myself and got around to the passenger’s side. Leonard got behind the wheel. He said, “Shit, no keys.”
“There’s a spare in a magnetic box,” Brett said. “It’s stuck up under the dash there, to the left of the steering wheel.”
Leonard found it and we drove out of the hangar.
I turned to look back. Flames from the plane were licking up higher than the hangar. The big men in their nice suits were escorting Jim out to the Cadillac under the tree. He got in and they closed the door. A few of the men got in the same car. The others opened up the trunk of the Cadillac where Wilber waited, then went back inside the hangar.
As we eased away, I saw them come out of the hangar carrying something. The sun shone brightly on the red hair of that something. They dumped Red into the trunk and returned to the hangar.
“Drive very fast,” I said.
31
The field across the road was frozen and the ice on the dead grass was very pretty in the moonlight. It was mid-December and Leonard and I were sitting on his front porch looking across the road through barbed wire out where forty acres of cleared land lay. It was a hay field, but for some reason none of it had been baled that year. Bad hay maybe. Perhaps the owner died.
We sat on Leonard’s front porch in the porch swing and drank hot chocolate. Bob, Leonard’s son the armadillo, was curled up on the edge of the porch, staring out at the night, perhaps thinking about gunfire and shattering dillo shells, relatives gone to that great armadillo den in the sky, or perhaps he was seeing the leering face of Haskel. I wondered if it would matter to Bob if he knew I had given an anonymous tip to the FBI about Haskel’s location and vocation. Maybe for armadillos, unlike humans, the past was the past, gone away, completely forgotten.
Whatever, Bob had it cushy now. He followed Leonard about and Leonard shared his vanilla cookies with him more frequently than he did me.
I shifted in the porch swing for more comfort. My right thigh still gave me trouble, and my shoulder was a little stiff. I hadn’t gone to the doctor for any of it. Not even blood. I had stayed in bed for a couple of weeks eating steaks and drinking some godawful tonic Leonard made me take. I think I got well so I wouldn’t have to drink that tonic.
Brett came out to see me from time to time. I had only actually talked to Tillie once since the events, and all she had said was hi.
We read in the papers about the wrecked plane and the one body found. Bill’s. The papers called it a real-life mystery. We had no idea what Big Jim had done with Herman’s and Red’s corpses, but my guess was they were feeding a mesquite bush in the desert somewhere. Bill’s death was attributed to bad flying, and someone believed, or wanted to believe, he had crawled free of the wreckage and died.
Of course, Bill hadn’t had a pilot’s license, and it had been Irvin’s plane. Or at least the one he was using. No future newspaper articles followed. No policeman came tapping at our door.
I think the truth of the matter was the authorities knew who Bill was, had dealt with him before, and didn’t give a shit he was gone, just as long as he was out of their hair.
But Bill hadn’t been so bad. I thought about how Bill had called that old man uncle, had given him money, bought him beer and cigarettes. I wondered how Irvin had answered to the old man for Bill’s death. Or if he had.
I said, “It’s funny way it is. I haven’t even seen Brett but a few times since October. We only been to bed once. On my birthday. And it wasn’t too good, you want to know. I think I’d rather have had a pair of socks or a billfold.”
“Maybe you’re taking it too personal.”
“The bad pussy?”
“How she’s treating you, you moron.”
“I don’t want to say it, but I got to say it. I feel I sort of did something for her I wouldn’t have done for nobody but you. And now she’s got Tillie back, I’m like last year’s used Kotex.”
“Tillie needs a lot of attention,” Leonard said.
/> And she did need attention. She was in drug rehab, but she was back to hooking. This time out of LaBorde’s two main hotels when they didn’t catch her and run her off. Then she’d go to Tyler for a while to hook up with some of the church crowd there, bang them silly.
“You think she’s really going to change?” I asked.
“Nope,” Leonard said. “I could have told you that from the start. She wanted out of what she was in, but she’s not a new person. It could happen I guess, but I wouldn’t tie a rubber band around my dick till it did. Do that, your whang will fall off.”
“You knew from the start it would turn out like this, didn’t you?”
“You didn’t do what you did for Tillie, Hap, you did it for Brett. This has got nothing to do with Tillie, far as I’m concerned. Brett for that matter. I did it for you.”
“I hate I asked. I hate you had to do it.”
“I hate it. But it doesn’t matter Brett isn’t having anything to do with you now.”
“I didn’t say she wasn’t having anything to do with me.”
“Whatever. That doesn’t change things. I did it for you and you did it for her because you thought you should do it. We’ve done it. It’s over. What do you want, to be cheered? Have a little parade or something?”
“That would be nice,” I said.
“Well, you ain’t gonna get it.”
“I killed people, Leonard.”
“You knew that could happen.”
“There were a couple of women back there. I didn’t mean for them to die.”
“I don’t know they had much of a life, Hap.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“No, but you think them being women makes anything any different? It makes it done. War’s hell. You think shit like this is without consequences, man?”
I pushed against the porch with my foot and the swing moved back and forth for a while. I said, “Would you have strangled Wilber if Jim had let you?”
“In a heartbeat. I’m glad I didn’t have to, but I certainly would have. I even liked the idea at the time.”