Joseph Wambaugh - Hollywood Moon

Then Dewey pointed at Jerzy and closed his fist, making a gesture of punching his left palm. Jerzy nodded and smacked his left palm with his big right fist and Dewey grunted and moaned again and said, “Please, Jerzy… please don’t hit me again!”

Tristan thought that both Jerzy and the man were getting into their roles with way too much gusto, so he tried to pull them back by saying, “Okay, dawg, shut it down.”

Dewey’s moans were punctuated with gasps and even a few whimpers until Tristan said, “Let’s be businessmen here. Turns out we figured out the whole game you been runnin’ with old Ethel here, and we figure we own you now and we’re gonna steal a lotta the money that you stole from other folks all these years. And we think about five hundred thousand is reasonable. We decided we’re gonna keep one of you, and the other one is gonna get the money from wherever you keep it, and then everything’s cool and you won’t see us no more. And you can go back to business as usual.”

Dewey spoke in what he thought was a painful whisper and said, “You’re fucking lunatics.”

Jerzy said, “Okay, we tried being gentlemen. Now we’re gonna show you how the wolf eats the rabbit.”

“What’re you doing?” Dewey said. “Ohhh, stop!” And then he let out a cry of pretend pain.

Way over the top! Tristan thought. Next thing, somebody driving by might hear it and call the cops! He shook his head and mouthed the words “Too much!” at Dewey.

Dewey quieted down to steady but subdued moaning punctuated by an occasional sob. He finally said, “Please… please don’t do that again. How much… much do you want? Five grand? Maybe… maybe Ethel could scrape up five thousand if you let her go. Please, Creole, let her go!”

Dewey looked at Eunice lying there on her side, knees drawn up, blindfolded and silent, not whimpering, not even complaining. And he looked at Tristan, shook his head, and shrugged.

Tristan took the cue and said, “Jerzy, how ’bout takin’ him down to the basement for some serious talk. Call me with good news when you get it.” Then he said, “Dude, I’m afraid I gotta leave you alone with Jerzy. He’ll take the gloves off and put some serious hurt on you, but you ain’t givin’ me no choice.”

Jerzy and Dewey both began shuffling and grunting their way to the door and before it closed behind them, Dewey said, “Creole, at least take the tape off her. Have some compassion!”

When they were outside, Dewey and Jerzy descended the staircase and went to the van, where they got inside and sat. Jerzy opened a can of beer and Dewey looked at his watch. It was 1:25 A.M.

“We’ll give them twenty minutes,” he said to Jerzy, who was unresponsive.

Dewey could smell days of body odor. He opened the door of the van, and Jerzy said, “Where you goin’?”

“To take a leak.”

“Well, don’t go far,” Jerzy said.

“It’s my wife that’s your prisoner,” Dewey said. “Not me.”

“That sorta depends how you look at it,” Jerzy said. “So piss here beside the van. I won’t peek at the little worm when you let him outta your pants.”

Tristan said, “Look, lady, I don’t wanna see you or your old man get hurt bad, but you gotta understand, you ain’t leavin’ here till we get what we’re after. And my peckerwood partner, he’s a violent dude. Do you see that?”

Still, Eunice did not reply. All Tristan heard was her breath rattling. It was making him nervous, and he said, “Do you have some kinda lung problem?”

There was no answer, so he said, “Do you wanna go to the bathroom?”

And at last Eunice spoke. She said, “Yes.”

Tristan said, “Okay, what we’re gonna do here is, I’m gonna cut the tape off your ankles and your wrists. You’re gonna go in there and do what you gotta do, but do not touch the blindfold. If you do, I’m gonna whap you upside the head with a lead pipe I got in my belt, and then I’m gonna tape up your wrists and your ankles and your mouth. And you might jist suffocate. You understand?”

Eunice nodded her head, and Tristan said, “Goddamnit, woman, say the words!”

“I understand,” she said.

“Okay,” Tristan said, and he took a penknife from his pocket and began sawing through the tape on her ankles. He left the tape sticking to each leg when he got through and said, “You can go ahead and move your feet if you want. Must be cramped up by now.” Then he began sawing through the tape on her wrists.

She moaned in relief when she could move her hands to the front of her body, and she stripped the duct tape from each wrist and threw it behind her into the middle of the room.

“Get up,” Tristan said, and he held on to Eunice’s right arm as she slid her legs across the bed until her feet were on the floor.

“One of my heels is broken off,” she said.

“Well, I’ll send you a new pair of shoes when I get the money,” Tristan said. “Now stand up, and I’ll lead you to the bathroom and you can feel where the toilet is and the sink.”

Eunice stood and kicked off both shoes, walking barefoot to the tiny bathroom. Tristan turned her so that her back was to the toilet and said, “You can sit down when you’re ready. The toilet paper is up on the sink to your right. There’s a bar of soap there too, but I forgot to bring paper towels.”

“Would you please close the door?” Eunice said.

“Ain’t no way in the world that’s gonna happen,” Tristan said. “But I’ll turn my head away if that makes you feel better. I ain’t interested in watchin’ somebody on a toilet, trust me.”

“How do I know that?” Eunice said. “I can’t see.”

“You can take my word for it, woman,” Tristan said. “Because I’m the only one here that can keep my crazy fuckin’ partner from doin’ some things you won’t like at all. You can think of me as your protector, if you cooperate.”

Without responding, Eunice reached under her dress, pulled her panties down, and sat carefully on the toilet seat. After hearing the stream for twenty seconds, Tristan said, “Yeah, you did have to pee, all right.”

A moment later she was standing in front of the sink, where she found the faucet, cold only, and washed her hands, drying them on her dress. Then she felt Tristan take her arm again and lead her back to the bed.

“You aren’t gonna tape me up again, are you?” she said.

“No, but I’m gonna chain your wrists to the bed. I was gonna chain your ankles too, but I’ll see how things work out. If you or your husband don’t cooperate, your ankles will get chained and then I’ll have to let Jerzy do what he does.”

“Where is my husband?” Eunice said.

“In the basement of this here place,” Tristan said.

“What’s happening down there?”

“You can guess, can’t you?” Tristan said.

Eunice was silent again until he wrapped the chain around each wrist and locked the links together with the padlocks. The chain encircled the steel frame of the old bed.

When Eunice spoke she said, “Why do I have to wear this blindfold? My husband knows both of you very well. Why the blindfold?”

“Because we don’t want you to have any idea where you’re at,” Tristan said.

“I can understand why you did that when you were driving us here, but now that we’re at the destination, why can’t you take it off? All I’ll see is the room.”

He wasn’t ready for a question that logical asked so dispassionately. The woman was thinking, and Tristan was starting to conclude that she might be way smarter than her old man.

“If you could see where a window is at, you might be tempted to take a flyin’ leap at it next time I take you to the bathroom. The blindfold stays on.”