Robert Alter - Carny kill

Billie and LouElla were both laughing and even bully boy Flem was grinning like a fatboy at a birthday party.

"My God," Billie said. "How long can you go on like that?"

I winked at her. "Billie Peeler, ladies and gents. The Twist Girl. She can shimmy, she can shake, she can make your oh-oh ache."

Flem was all chuckles now.

"Do some more, fella," he said. "Make another spiel."

"See the zebra, the wild ass-pardon me, lady-from the desert of Africa. Note the stripes so tightly placed on the animal from the tip of his nose to the tip of his toes that every time he winks he sneezes and breaks wind and the nasty little highschool girls amuse themselves by throwing sand in the animal's eyes. Okay?" I asked Flem. "Do I get the job?"

"You sholy do, mister! Ay-gawd, ain't he a kick, LouElla?"

LouElla admitted I was a kick.

"How about a beer for y'all?" she offered.

"We would sholy love it, Miss Scarlet honey," I said with a Civil War bow. "We would be forevermore obliged to y'all."

That got them all laughing again, and when my friend Freckles suddenly appeared in the doorway with a wondering look I went on with it to get him in the mood too.

"Wha' gawd bless ma boots, if yander ain't Massa Jim hisseif, jes' back from stompin' those no-count damn Yankees in the wo'! Jim, boy! Light down these here steps and throw a kiss on yo Aunt Billie. But mind whar y'all throw it, boy."

The two girls and Flem went off in the ha-ha's again and Freckles looked at them with a bewildered smile. I was watching him and I didn't much like what I saw. He had the same scared look Terry Orme had worn.

"Thax," Billie said. "Stop it now. You're such a damn fool!"

That was the truth. I cut it out and accepted a cold bottle of beer from LouElla. Billie received hers with a dubious look.

"My poor diet," she said. "Well, here goes one-hundred and fifty calories."

Freckles said he didn't want one and he and I and Billie sat down on the porch. LouElla told Flem to come away and mind his own business. Flem didn't want to. Flem said, "I want a hear him do it again." LouElla had to stamp her foot and squawk at him. Then we were left alone. I looked at Freckles.

"How come you up and quit, Jim?"

"Well gosh, Mr. Thaxton. I just felt like it is all."

"Come on. Something's bugging you. It's as plain as those Van Johnson freckles on your map."

He tucked in his mouth, looking defiantly ashamed.

"All right. You want the truth-I was scared."

"Of what?"

"That's the whole trouble. I don't know exactly. I guess finding Mr. Cochrane like I did really upset me. And those darn cops on me all the time with questions. I mean like every time I turned around, it seemed like. That Lieutenant Ferris always sending for me, and-well-yesterday."

"What yesterday?"

"That Cheeta midget-Terry Orme? He gave me the highsign from back in the jungle when I was taking a load of customers through the Swamp Ride. So when I had a break I went back in there to see what he wanted."

"And?"

"Well, I don't know. That's the whole trouble. He was real vague and edgy about it, you know? Wouldn't really come out and say what he wanted. Kept beating around the bush, you know?"

"Well, what did he say-vague or otherwise?"

"Well, he kept trying to find out if anybody had been around asking me questions about him, see?"

"About him? Orme?"

"Uh-huh. That's what he wanted to know."

"Did he mean the cops?"

"No. I asked him that and he said no, he meant anybody else. Somebody who worked at Neverland."

"But he didn't mention any name, huh? Or anything that would give you a hint who he meant?"

"Uh-uh. Nothing. And I tried to ask him who he meant exactly, but he kept hedging." The kid looked at me with a look of appeal in his orange peppered face.

"And he was scared, Mr. Thaxton. I don't know what of, but he was real scared. He nearly had the shakes." He gave a sort of hopeless shrug.

"I guess that's what finally bugged me into quitting," he said. "I don't know anything about that murder and I don't want to know. I just want to be left alone."

"You mean you got scared because you thought there might be somebody on the lot who figured you did know something about the murder? Something that wasn't safe for you to know?"

He nodded. "I guess so. Maybe it's silly, but that's how I started to feel about it. So I up and quit."

I took out a cigarette and rolled it in my fingers. Billie gave me a match. I didn't think to offer her a smoke.

"Your sister-or whoever LouElla is-asked me if I was another cop. Have the police been out here to see you?"

"Yeah, this morning. A squad car showed up early. But I didn't want any more of that business. I skipped out the back and hid in the palmettos. Flem told 'em I'd gone north. Which is just what I think I'll do," he added grimly.

I was damn sure he would, once he heard that Terry Orme was dead. I gave Billie a warning look. The kid would find out soon enough, and he was already too scared to eat his dinner. Why spook him ahead of time?

"Then you didn't find out what it was they wanted-the law?"

"No sir."

I thought about it for a while. Then I said, "That morning you found Cochrane. Is it the usual custom to take the boats around the whole Swamp Ride every morning before opening time?"

"No, that was just a freak thing. Usually all we have to do is see if they'll start up and then line 'em up in position for the customers. But that one boat didn't seem to have any poop that morning so I decided to give it a spin around the ride to see if I could work out the kinks."

"Do most of the employees know that? I mean that you usually just warm up the boats right there at the dock?"

"Well yeah, I guess so. I guess they do."

"Did anyone ever ask you about it? I mean before you found Cochrane?"

"No. Nobody ever asked me for the time of day-until after I found him. Now that's all I get from everybody. Questions!"

I gave him a benevolent smile.

"Well, that's what makes the world go round. Questions and answers. Thanks for answering mine. Let's go, Billie."

We took our time driving back to Neverland. I must have been pretty broody and abstract because Billie finally turned in her seat with a peeved look.

"What on earth's eating you, Thax? You act like an old bear."

"I don't know, hon. It's just that I have an idea about this business but I can't seem to walk to it in a straight line. Something always gets in my way."

"Well, why don't you just leave it alone? It really isn't any of your business, you know."

"I think it is. For one thing too many people, including the law, sort of feel I might have had something to do with it. Well, that part's all right. I didn't, and I'm damned if I can see how any sonofabitch can prove otherwise. But there's something else."

"Well, what?"

"To begin with, there's Cochrane. I liked that old Irishman. I think he and I were about to be friends. Then somebody did him dirty. Then there's Terry Orme. I told the poor little guy I was his friend. Yeah, and the first time he needs me I'm too goddam drunk to help him."

"Well, it's a cinch you can't help him now. He's dead, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he's dead. But the bastard that did it to him isn't."

I gave Billie a phony excuse for not meeting her that night after closing time and she seemed to go for it all right. What I wanted to do was look up Jerry before he got off somewhere with Bev. I went over to Dracula's Castle and got directions from one of the sweep-up men and scouted up a back door with Private on it.

The stairs inside went down and I went with them to another private door. This one meant it. It was locked. The barker who spieled for the nautch show opened to my knock. He knew me and he grinned and said, "Oh-oh, we better get out the handcuffs before we let you in here."