Andrew Vachss - The Weight

“I don’t think the whole bit about the partners desk was in any will, Lynda. You know what I think? What I think now , I mean? I think that whole partners desk thing came in when Albie knew he was going. That’s when he would have told Solly about it. I don’t think there ever was a will. Not from Albie; he wouldn’t want you going near any court. And why would Solly leave one? Dead is dead-what would he care?”

“But what about all his… property and stuff?”

“What about it? Solly knew Grace would do whatever he told her to do. He could make sure she had money without any will. He probably did that. But no more.”

“Solly would tell her to mail his book to Albie?”

“No. Look, I had to think about this as hard as I ever did, Lynda. About everything. Solly knew Grace, sure. But he didn’t know you . Albie, he must’ve told Solly you were supposed to send him that book. When you didn’t, that’s when Solly knew something was wrong. He was right about that… but he was wrong about you, see? He thought what you wanted was money. When you didn’t send the book to Solly, or even mention it, he figured you were holding it hostage.”

“Okay, but-”

I slapped her bottom, real light, so she’d know I wasn’t mad. “You said you’d let me finish,” I told her.

“I’m sorry.” She sounded like she really meant it.

“So Solly sends me down to get it from you. When I told him I came up empty, that’s when he played his trump.

“No way men like Solly and Albie would trust a typewriter. They’d know each other’s writing. Albie knew the only thing Solly could ever tell you about some bullshit ‘will’ without actually showing it to you was that partners desk. Like I told you before; Solly probably thought there was gold or diamonds or something like that in there.

“So you open that secret compartment in the desk, now you know Solly’s righteous. He just proved it, right? So you hand over that little blue book. If you have it, that is. If you don’t, it’s in that house somewhere. See?”

“No,” she said. “No, I don’t see. What was Solly going to do, come down and tear the place apart?”

“Lynda, let’s say it was gold or diamonds or whatever in there. How are you going to turn it into cash without going through Solly?”

She shifted a little, like a fighter taking a real hard shot but refusing to go down.

“When Albie set that trap, he couldn’t know who would go first, him or Solly. But he knew, if Solly told you about the desk, you’d have a chance to get in the wind before he could send someone.”

“To kill me,” she said. Like she was tired of living anyway.

“Unless you gave it up, yeah. Probably even then, from the way Albie’s message sounded.”

“Solly sent you.”

“To talk to this Jessop.”

“And get Albie’s book.”

“Yeah. He was always a step ahead, Solly. He knew you’d get me to… Wait! Wait a minute. No, he couldn’t know that. It’s just like I said. Solly didn’t know you; what he knew was me . Sure. When I called and asked him to prove you had this ‘will’ of Albie’s, Solly, he was expecting that.”

“So how come you didn’t kill me, then?”

“I wouldn’t ever have done that. Solly, he knows that, too. Listen, Lynda. Solly, he’s every kind of tricky you ever heard of, and plenty that you haven’t. And I’m not trying to get you to change your mind about him, but he never told me to do anything to you. That’s why I was kicking myself, looking for the room where the partners desk was. I was afraid you’d think I was hunting you.”

“I thought you might be, Sugar. I didn’t want to, but I was… taught better, you know?”

“Yeah. And you were taught right, too.”

“So this whole Jessop thing, that was just-what?-a convenient excuse?”

“I don’t know. I for damn sure don’t know. But now there’s no choice.”

“That’s why you asked me about getting him to Tampa?”

“Yeah,” I said, glad she couldn’t see my face when I said that.

I kept waiting for her to say something. I felt her body get softer and softer, her breathing change. She was asleep.

I guess I must have gone out, too. I heard her say, “Oh, Sugar!”

“Huh?”

“I dropped off, like a baby taking a nap. And you couldn’t even move for… jeez, almost four hours! I even got your shirt wet.”

She looked embarrassed when she said that last part, so I made like I didn’t hear it.

“We just needed to rest,” I said.

She jumped off my lap and started doing stretches on the carpet. I took off my shirt and worked the kinks out of my neck. I was finished way before she was. But when she got done, she jumped up and ran out of the room.

Before I could even think about why she did that, she was back.

“This is Albie’s phone,” she said, handing a cell to me. “It’s got a 305 area code. That’s Dade County. Miami.

“Every town in the part of Florida where Jessop’s supposed to be living, that would be an 863 area code.”

“Would he recognize your-?”

“Not mine. Albie’s.”

“What good does that-?”

“Wait,” she said, “see this?” Holding up a little metal case. “Watch.”

She hit some button. The case she was holding said, “New work. Same place. Tomorrow night at eleven. Leave message, in or out?”

The voice sounded like it was in the room. Thin and strong at the same time, like piano wire.

“That’s Albie,” she said. “I’ve got a couple of dozen different messages from him on this.”

The next afternoon, we kept arguing all the way back.

“If he recognizes you-”

“He won’t see me, Sugar. Just you.”

“Yeah? And how are we going to get that Lincoln out of the garage?”

“Just drive in and take it. What’s the big deal? We’re not doing anything illegal.”

“Albie told you to get out of that house and never come back.”

“I won’t ever come back.”

“What if they’re waiting?”

“They wouldn’t do that. They only come after dark, and they never stay long. To them, it’ll look as if I already disappeared.”

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t know them. They’re… machines, not people. And I know things have been going wrong the past couple of years. Things they planned, I mean. Not crime stuff, like Albie did with those others. But… something. Something bad. I don’t know why anyone would want Albie’s blue book, but that note- that says Solly’s a traitor, straight out. I’m sure, if I showed them that, they’d know who’d been talking to the wrong people.”

“I still don’t like it.”

“We already agreed to do it, Sugar.”

“Me, I agreed to do it. I didn’t agree to do anything with you.”

“Would you listen for just a second? If Jessop doesn’t see that Lincoln, he’s going to spook.”

“I know.”

“Do the math, damn it! Two cars, we need two drivers.”

“You got stubborn confused with smart, Lynda.”

“I don’t have anything confused.”

“Yeah, you do. Starting with me.”

She sulked all the way. But when I told her she had to park the Caddy in the airport lot, way in the back, and lie down in the back seat with the windows up and the doors locked, she turned into a fucking volcano.