Robert Randisi - I'm a fool to kill you

‘What was that?’ she asked.

‘That was a shot, Miss Ava,’ Jerry said.

‘B-but I didn’t hear a shot, only the glass breaking.’

‘Trust me, it was a shot. You better get back inside.’

‘Where inside?’

‘Away from any windows,’ Jerry said. ‘In fact, get in that closet outside the bathroom and stay there until I come for you.’

‘But Jerry, you can’t — I can get my gun-’

‘No,’ Jerry said. ‘Get in the closet. Now!’

‘All right.’

‘And keep low.’

Ava crab-walked back inside while Jerry went to the rail, keeping low and looking out for the shooter. What he saw was two men coming toward the house, guns in their hands. One of them had obviously gotten anxious and fired too soon.

Jerry decided staying out in the open was a bad idea so he went back into the house, figuring he’d have an advantage because they would have to come in after him.

He closed the front door, locked it, and then peered through the shattered window.

The two shooters thought better of coming up the front steps. Jerry was just able to see them as they split up, each going around the other side of the house.

There was a back door in the kitchen. The deck wrapped around, but the only other access was in the back. They’d have to climb up on to it from the side, which wouldn’t be easy with guns in their hands.

Jerry left the front of the house and went into the kitchen. It would have been helpful to use Ava as a look-out, but he decided to leave her in the closet, where she’d be safe from flying lead.

He peered out the back window, saw one man appear at the base of the steps. He stopped there. That meant the other man was probably climbing up on to the deck.

This man had come from Jerry’s left, so he assumed the other man was climbing up on the right. He hurried to that window, saw the man sweep one leg over the rail, then the other. Then he drew his gun from his belt. Jerry did not break out the window pane the way they did in movie westerns. Rather than warn the man with breaking glass he simply fired through it. Oddly, the hole appeared in the window, but the pane didn’t shatter. The bullet struck the man in the chest. His eyes went wide, his mouth opened, and then he toppled backward over the rail. Jerry heard the body hit the ground, but didn’t waste any time in running back to the kitchen. As he reached the doorway the back door slammed open from a kick, and the second gunman rushed in with his gun out. They saw each other and fired at the same time. .

From inside the closet Ava sat with her little gun in her hand. She’d made a point of grabbing it before she obeyed Jerry and hid in the closet. She held it in both hands, flinching when she heard the first shot, then again when she heard two shots fired almost at the same time.

Then it was silent, and that was even scarier.

She held the gun tightly, waiting. She heard footsteps approaching the closet, and then the door swung open. She pointed the gun. .

. . Jerry saw Ava pointing the gun at him with both hands and said, ‘It’s OK, Miss Ava.’ He was shocked when she fired, her eyes wide with fright. He waited for the impact of the bullet, but none came, despite the fact that she pulled the trigger again and again.

The he turned, saw the man behind him and fired once. The man staggered back, the gun dangling from his hand. Finally, he dropped his gun to the floor, and then fell over on to it. Jerry went to the body and turned it over.

‘Did I. .’ Ava asked.

Jerry told her the truth.

‘You missed every shot,’ he said. ‘But you gave me time to put one hole in him, and that was enough. Thanks, Miss Ava.’

‘The bullets are small and didn’t do much damage to the walls.’

‘I saved your butt and you’re talking about the walls?’ Ava asked, coming back in with the coffee.

‘You did save my ass, Miss Ava,’ he said. ‘I don’t know how that guy got behind me.’

I knew, but I didn’t say it out loud. Jerry was so concerned about Ava that he’d made a mistake, and it had almost cost him.

I looked at Ava. Actually killing a man did not seem to have affected her as much as seeing Jerry kill the two in the parking lot. Maybe she was becoming hardened to this kind of life.

‘OK, hold on,’ I said. ‘What happened to the bodies?’

‘Oh,’ Jerry said, ‘they’re out back. I covered ’em up with some branches to keep animals away, but they’re gonna start to stink soon.’

‘When did all this happen?’

‘Yesterday evenin’,’ Jerry said. ‘I woulda taken Miss Ava away from here, but we didn’t have no car and it’s too far to walk.’

‘We can talk about that later,’ I said. ‘We’ve got to get Tony’s house fixed up, and those bodies taken care of. We can’t have him come back here and find a stack of dead, decaying Chicago hoods — they are from Chicago, aren’t they?’

‘Oh yeah,’ Jerry said. ‘Here.’ He walked to a small writing desk that Tony had against the wall and opened a drawer. He came back and handed me two wallets.

‘Daniel Pierce and Gino Capetti,’ I read off, ‘Chicago driver’s licenses. Even Chicago union cards. But Pierce isn’t Italian.’

‘Don’t matter,’ Jerry said. ‘I ain’t Italian and I work for the families.’

‘You’re right.’

‘So what do we do?’ Ava asked.

‘We can stay here another day or two. They won’t be lookin’ for these guys until then. Meanwhile, Jerry and I have to cart them off someplace and bury ’em.’

‘That’s gruesome work,’ she said.

‘Yes, it is. After that we’ll have to fix that window. I don’t know what we can do about the bullet holes in the outside wall.’

‘Maybe Mr LaBella will think they lend the place some character,’ she offered.

‘You know?’ I said. ‘He just might, at that.’

‘I can heat the leftover roast up and make sandwiches for lunch,’ she said. ‘I mean, if you can be hungry after burying three men.’

‘I can,’ Jerry said.

‘Yeah,’ I agreed, ‘I’m afraid to say I’ll probably be hungry too.’

There was no other way to do it. Jerry carried two of the bodies — one over his shoulder and one under his arm — and I carried the other, smallest one. We walked as far as we could into the forest and then dug one big hole to bury them in. Tony had a couple of shovels in a shed behind the house, so we used them to go down at least three feet.

But before I shoved my guy into the mass grave I noticed something.

‘Jerry, this guy’s got the same ring.’

‘With the snake?’

I nodded, leaned over and took it off him.

‘This must be somethin’ Napolitano’s guys get from him,’ I said. It was the only explanation I could think of. ‘They don’t all have it,’ Jerry said, ‘but maybe you gotta make your bones first.’ He shook his head. ‘Tacky.’

I rolled my guy into the grave.

We covered them up.

We couldn’t call the police, even though Jerry had killed them in self defense, Hargrove would have used the incident to try to put him away — and probably me, too. There was no way we’d get an even break from the cops. Not when almost everybody involved was a wise guy.

When we got back we were, indeed, hungry. We washed up and sat and had a kind of grim lunch with Ava, who surprised herself by having an appetite as well.

‘Man, this roast was great, Jerry,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry I missed the whole meal last night.’

‘Maybe you shouldn’t be,’ Ava said. ‘If you were here you might’ve got shot.’

‘Yeah, well. .’

‘You gotta tell us how Chicago went, Mr G.,’ Jerry said.

So I did. .