Andrew Vachss - Two Trains Running

“I trust you found everything to your satisfaction,” the man at the front said, as they walked to the front door.

“Oh, it was just wonderful!” Tussy assured him.

The valet drove Dett’s Buick to where they were waiting. An attendant reached to open the passenger door for Tussy just as Dett stepped forward to perform the same act. The attendant bounced off Dett as if he had hit a wall. Dett closed Tussy’s door gently behind her, and handed the breathless attendant a pair of dollar bills with his other hand, all in the same motion.

Dett walked around to where the valet was holding open the driver’s door. “Your partner’s got your half,” Dett told him, and pulled his door shut.

1959 October 05 Monday 21:58

As if beckoned by the red glow of Lacy’s just-lit cigarette, Harley Grant’s Chevy glided up. Lacy tossed his cigarette away and got in.

“What was so important, you had to see me?” Harley asked him.

“There’s a meet Wednesday. Between the Hawks and the Kings,” Lacy answered.

“A real one?”

“Yeah. Supposed to go down in the big lot on Halstead, a little ways from where you picked me up.”

“Kids,” Harley said. “What’s that to me?”

“Kids, yeah. Only, we got a treaty with the Hawks.”

“I told you, Lacy. We’ve got big plans now. You can’t be getting into any-”

“I know that. I know what the plan is. We wouldn’t be fighting with them-on their side, I mean-but they wanted to be sure we’d be around, back them up, in case the Kings bring too many men. Extras, like.”

“We talked this over, Lacy,” Harley said, in the same quietly commanding voice he used with Benny, a voice Royal Beaumont never heard. “If you get your guys into any-”

“We’re not,” Lacy assured him. “But that isn’t what I had to tell you, the important thing. See, the Hawks, they’ve got guns.”

“So do the Kings. It’ll be like it al-”

“Not zip guns, Harley. Real ones.”

“How do you know that?”

“Ace, the President of the Hawks, he showed it to us. Brought it right into our clubhouse.”

“What, exactly, did he show you?” Harley asked, enunciating each word to emphasize its importance.

“A pistol. A real pistol.”

“One like this?” Harley said, pulling a snub-nosed revolver from inside his leather jacket and holding it below the dash.

“Like that,” Lacy said, “only bigger. And it was all bright, too, not like yours.”

“You’re sure?”

“I seen plenty of real guns,” Lacy said. “This was just like the ones the cops carry.”

“He say where he got it? Or if they have any more?”

“He said he got it from the Klan,” Lacy snorted. “But I don’t think so. I think I know where he got it.”

“Where?”

“From Dioguardi.”

“Dioguardi?” Harley said, consciously keeping his voice level. “Where’d you get that idea?”

“Where they have their clubhouse, that’s Dioguardi’s building,” Lacy said, defending, but not defensive. “Dioguardi’s got a storefront real close by, too-the one with the windows painted black? And tonight, just before you came, we saw his Imperial, parked in the exact same lot where the meet’s going to go down.”

“This… Ace is his name?… He was with him? With Dioguardi?”

“We couldn’t see inside the car. But it figures, right? I mean, where would the Klan have heard of some little club like the Hawks?”

1959 October 05 Monday 22:10

“Did you mean what you said before?” Tussy asked Dett.

“What?”

“That I couldn’t do anything wrong. With you, I mean?”

“Yes. That’s the truth.”

“Walker, how could you say such a thing?”

“I don’t know how I could say it,” Dett told her, as he turned onto Route 44, heading back toward town. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. When I said it, I knew it was. I don’t know how else to explain.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” she said, drumming her fingers lightly on the dashboard.

“What do you mean?”

“I want to keep talking to you.”

“I want to, too,” Dett said.

“I know. I just don’t want you to take what I’m going to say the wrong way.”

“I promise.”

“If you take me home now, I can’t invite you in. The neighbors… Some of them, they’ve known me since I was a little girl. And the others, they know I was divorced, so they all think I’m… you know.”

“I would never want you to-”

“And the only place I know in town-the only nice place, I mean-where we could sit quietly and talk this late is the diner, and I could never bring you there.”

“Oh,” Dett said, not understanding, but unwilling to say so.

“I know someplace. It’s out in the woods. Where some of the kids go to park. You know, like to-”

“Sure.”

“I want to go there,” Tussy said, firmly. “We could be alone, and talk some more. But I don’t want you to think I’m one of those-”

“I wouldn’t,” Dett said, solemnly. “Never.”

1959 October 05 Monday 22:16

“Are you crazy, calling me here? At this hour? What if my father had answered the phone?”

“I would have hung up,” Harley said to Kitty. “But I had to take the chance. I have to talk to you.”

“Talk?”

“Kitty, please. This is serious. Real serious. It’s about your brother.”

“If you’re just-”

“I’m not. Please, Kitty. I can’t tell you this on the phone. Can’t you just meet me by the back of-?”

“No! And if you come by here, everyone in the neighborhood will hear those loud mufflers of yours.”

“I already traded cars. For the night, I mean,” Harley added, hastily. “It’s a black Caddy.”

“Fit right in around here, huh?”

“Kitty, now’s not the time to be doing that. Will you meet me or not?”

“I could go over to Della’s house for an hour, maybe. But that’s all, Harley. When could you-?”

“I’m only a couple of blocks away,” Harley said, speaking urgently into a pay phone, one hand inside his leather jacket. “Just walk to the end of the block, I’ll pick you up.”

1959 October 05 Monday 22:43

“I haven’t been here in… God, I can’t even remember the last time I was here. But it is beautiful, isn’t it? You can see the moon right through the trees.”

“Want to sit outside?”

“Outside? I’m all dressed up, and we don’t even have a blanket or… or do you?” Tussy said, a faint hint of wariness edging her voice.

“A blanket?” Dett said. “No. Where would I get a blanket? I thought, maybe, you could sit on the hood of the car. On my jacket, I mean, so you wouldn’t mess up your dress.”

“You’d ruin your coat,” Tussy said. The little smile at the corners of her mouth seemed to reach inside her words.

“No, I wouldn’t. And that way, I could… see you better. They didn’t even let us sit across from each other in that restaurant.”

“Yes. Wasn’t that-?”

“I thought you’d feel better that way, too. Outside, I mean.”

“Me? Why? Oh!”

“Did I say something wrong?”

“What you said was just right, Walker. Come on, let’s do it, just like you said.”

Dett spread his jacket on the Buick’s broad hood. Tussy took his hand, put one foot on the heavy chrome bumper, and stepped, turning as she sat down. “It’s warm,” she said, giggling.

“It is,” Dett agreed. “More like summer than-”

“I meant, where I’m sitting,” Tussy said, hiding her face behind her hand. “From the engine.”

“Oh. Do you want to-?”

“It’s fine,” she said, fumbling in her purse.

Dett moved close to her, matches ready.