Peter Rabe: A Shroud for Jesso

The other one didn’t look any better. She watched Jesso walk up to the counter. When the glare from the bulb hit his face she said, “What do you want?”

“Buttons,” Jesso said.

She patted her hair. It was a rumpled gray and she kept patting it as if that were going to make a difference.

“The buttons I’m after are blue. Popeye blue, Mrs. Cook.”

She stopped patting. “How’d you know my name?”

“Your father told me.”

She leaned her face closer and Jesso saw wrinkles stretch in her neck.

“You’re lying. He ain’t left the back in years.” She straightened up again and folded her big arms. “What do you want, copper?”

Jesso laughed. Then he stopped and put his hands in his pockets. “Where’s Bonetti?”

She still look rattled. “Who’s that?”

“Your old man, in the back. He ain’t left the back in years, you said.”

She was stupid. “Who’s Bonetti?” she said again.

Jesso shrugged and walked through the curtain in the back. It was even darker there. He stumbled over an empty carton that lay on the floor and hit his leg against a sewing machine. Then he stood still, trying to get his bearings. Tissue paper crackled under his feet and there was a smell of burned coffee.

“He’s a copper,” the woman said from the curtain.

“Oh, no, he ain’t.”

Jesso turned, looking for the cackly voice. Then he saw Bonetti. He sat all sunken in a wheel chair, his old man’s jaws chomping in a constant tic, and there was a big. 45 in his hand. It trembled a little, but the aim was good enough.

“Call the police, Ann,” Bonetti said.

Jesso kept his hands down, turned slowly.

“Go ahead, Ann,” he said. “Gluck’s going to like that. And Snell.”

But Gluck didn’t mean a thing to Bonetti and he ignored the name Snell.

“Go on, Ann,” he said. He kept working his jaws.

Bonetti’s daughter stepped around the sewing machine and grabbed the phone off the hook. “Police,” she said.

When she was connected with the police she gave her name and address, and asked to have a man sent out right away, because her daddy had caught a prowler and was holding a gun on him. She hung up and turned to Jesso. “Smart guy,” she said, and worked her mouth the way her father was doing it.

“That’s right,” Jesso said. He stood still and watched the old man’s gun. The muzzle was making short, trembly arcs, the safety was off, and one bony finger held the trigger the way it ought to be held.

“Lemme reach for a smoke,” Jesso said. He waited for an answer.

“See if he’s clean, Ann.”

“He’s clean,” Jesso said, but the woman started to pat his sides, without ever getting in the way of the gun.

“So smoke,” Bonetti said.

Jesso lit up and let them watch. He could tell they were getting puzzled.

“You know you made a mistake, don’t you, Bonetti?” The old man didn’t answer. His daughter poured a cup of the coffee that Jesso had been smelling and the old man started to slurp.

“This’ll ruin your setup, Bonetti, once the cops have been here.”

Bonetti just slurped.

“You should have asked my name, Bonetti.”

“And get a lie.”

Jesso sighed and took an elaborate puff on his cigarette. “I thought you might feel that way, Bonetti.” Then he leaned against the sewing machine, finished his cigarette, and just waited.

When the cop came charging into the store and through the curtain, nobody turned.

“That’s him,” Bonetti said, pointing with the gun.

The cop stumbled over the paper carton and knocked against Jesso. He grabbed him by the arm and held his. 38 against Jesso’s side. “What’s he done? Who’s preferring charges?”

Before Bonetti got his mouth open, Jesso turned his face to the cop.

“Nobody’s preferring charges,” he said.”

There was quite a pause when he was through.

Then Bonetti flicked the safety and put the gun down in his lap. “I am,” he said. “Breaking and entering.”

“Pops is balmy,” Jesso said. “We’re old pals having a chat. Then his mind starts to wander, you know how it is,” and Jesso moved to shake the cop’s hand off his arm.

But that didn’t come off, either. The young cop was a rookie and he wasn’t getting any of this. He grabbed Jesso’s arm and yanked.

“You resisting arrest, buddy?” His face came close.

“Heavens, I wouldn’t!” Jesso said. He grinned back at the cop.

“So don’t make suspicious movements,” the rookie said, and he waved his gun up and down.

“Before you shoot, Officer, I got a confession to make.” The cop waited. “Ever hear of Jack Jesso?”

The cop had, but he didn’t like being snowed. He turned back to the old man, but he wasn’t any help either. Bonetti had heard of Jack Jesso too. Bonetti sat still, waiting for the rookie to carry the ball.

“So what?” said the rookie. “I also heard of Jack Rabbit. Now move, buster. You, lady,” he nodded at Bonetti’s daughter, “better come along to the station.”

But Jesso didn’t move, and the woman didn’t move. Old Bonetti waved his hand at her and the woman stood still, waiting for somebody to make up his mind.

“I got more to confess, Officer,” Jesso said. “It’ll save you the trouble of facing up to a false-arrest charge.”

“Who’ll charge false arrest?” the rookie yelled.

“I will,” Jesso said. “Me. Jack Jesso.”

The cop stepped back. “Stick out your hands,” he said, and he fumbled for the handcuffs under his coat. He still held the gun in the other hand.

Jesso folded his arms. “I’ll save your job for you,” he said. “One phone call, rookie, and I save you your job.”

“Don’t move,” said the rookie.

“Or I’ll bust you back to civilian.”

“Stick out those wrists.”

“You don’t hear Pops preferring any charges, do you?”

That was true. Bonetti hadn’t said a word. He was chomping his gums and trying to look sly.

“One phone call, rookie, and the whole thing’s forgotten.”

“Don’t move,” said the rookie. He had started to sweat.

“I’m standing still,” Jesso said. “You make the phone call. What’s your precinct?”

The rookie told him.

“Call and ask for Captain Todd. Tell him I want to talk to him.”

Jesso could almost see the wheels going around in the cop’s head. He would be a fool to let this go by. Either way, how could he lose?

The cop made the connection and then Jesso took the phone.

“Ed? Jesso… Fine, fine. Listen, a man of yours asked me to call, for character reference, sort of. Tell him who I am and so forth… No, just a mix-up… No, no. Just a real alert kid. Wanted to make sure there was no mistake. Some loony called the cops thinking I was going to steal his wheel chair… No, honest. Here he is.” Jesso turned to the cop and gave him the phone.

It didn’t take long after that. The rookie hung up, holstered his gun, and put the handcuffs away. He gave Bonetti a dirty look, kicked the paper carton out of the way, and left. When the front door banged shut, Jesso walked over to the wheel chair and took the. 45 out of the old man’s lap.

“Nothing like a cop for a character witness, is there, Bonetti?”

The old man coughed. “How should I know who you was? You shoulda told me who you was.”

“And get told I’m a liar,” Jesso said. He tossed the gun on the sewing machine. “Where’s Joe Snell?”

“Look, Jackie.” Bonetti came wheeling across the room. “I gotta make a living. I never yet crossed a customer.”

“There’s no convincer like an honest cop, Bonetti.”

The old man squirmed in his chair. He rolled the wheels back and forth as if he were trying to twist them off.