Andrew Vachss - Two Trains Running

“How did Joey take that?”

“He walked out of the house. He came back late at night. Drunk. And he beat me up. Ow!” Tussy squealed, as Dett’s hand clamped down on hers.

“Oh God, I’m sorry,” Dett said. He felt hot lava suffusing the artificially tightened skin of his face, threatening to erupt. He quickly bent forward and kissed her hand. “I’m sorry, Tussy. I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s all right,” she said. “You just… startled me, that’s all.”

“When I heard you say he-”

“I understand,” she said, realizing, as she spoke, that she did, and not questioning it.

“What happened?” Dett said, clipping each syllable.

“I told you. He-”

“After that.”

“Oh. The next morning, he apologized. It was the liquor that made him do it, he said. But I couldn’t forget him… punching me, screaming how could he be the man of the house when it wasn’t even his house? I didn’t go to work the next day. I was too ashamed. My face was all…”

“He never did it again?”

“Can I…?” Tussy said, gesturing.

Dett handed over her purse, lit the cigarette he knew was coming.

“He did do it again. And again. He even kicked Fireball.”

“Your cat? Why would he-?”

“Fireball tried to tear him up. Scratching and biting. Joey couldn’t get him off.”

“I didn’t know cats did that. Dogs, sure. But-”

“Well, Fireball did. He was a little tiger. When Joey kicked him, he went flying into the wall. I thought Joey had killed him. If he had…”

“But he was okay?”

“I took him to the vet. They said he was fine, but that’s when everyone found out.”

“Found out?”

“About Joey… beating me. I had to take Fireball to the doctor; I thought he was hurt real bad. I did my best to cover up my… I put on a lot of makeup, but it didn’t do any good. I had a black eye, and my nose was all swollen.”

“You think the vet told people?”

“Maybe. I mean, I guess so. Because, when the police came, it was like they already knew.”

“The police came to the vet’s?”

“No, no. To my house. It was the very next night. Joey was drunk, and he slapped me. I punched him back, as hard as I could. Then I tried to scratch his eyes out, like Fireball would have, if he could. A window got broken. Someone must have called the police. One of my neighbors, I think. Nobody ever said.

“When they got there, Joey looked worse than me, I think. But I was the one with the broken ribs. We all went to the hospital. The police asked me what happened, and I told them. They said if I pressed charges Joey would go to jail, and then he’d lose his job, and there’d be no one to take care of me. I couldn’t even explain to them that I didn’t need anyone to take care of me; I was too busy crying. I felt like everything was just… gone.”

“Did you press charges?” Dett asked, shallow-breathing through his nose.

“What happened was, Sherman Layne came in. I didn’t know his whole name back then, but I remembered him, from the time my parents… he was the one who told me to go and see Mr. Beaumont He remembered me, too. I asked him, what should I do? He said the best thing would be for Joey to just leave and not come back. I told him Joey would never do that. But Sherman-everyone calls him that, Detective Sherman-he said he would.”

“Did he?”

“Yes,” Tussy said, as if still surprised at the memory. “That’s just exactly what he did. He moved out. He didn’t really have that much stuff to take, anyway; all the furniture-what you saw-it was mine. And then he had a lawyer send me some papers saying we were going to get divorced. I showed the papers to Mr. Gendell, and he started laughing. ‘Stupid punks,’ is all he said. Then he took the papers from me, and said not to worry about anything.

“A few weeks later, Mr. Gendell came into the diner. He gave me some legal papers, with seals on them and everything, and said I was divorced, and Joey had to pay me sixty dollars a month for alimony! I told him I didn’t want any money from Joey, and Mr. Gendell just smiled. He told me he knew I was going to say that. Joey was never really going to pay me a dime-the alimony was just for insurance, he said. In case Joey ever made trouble for me, I could have him locked up for nonsupport.

“I was so grateful. I asked Mr. Gendell how much money I had to pay him, and he said Joey paid him. He laughed when he said it. Like it was this terrifically funny joke.”

“He sounds like a good man, especially for a lawyer.”

“Oh, he is. But, you know, the way he laughed that day, I wouldn’t ever want him to be mad at me. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yes.”

“Well, now you know. My whole sad story. Still think I’m so pure, Walker?”

“Even more,” he said, holding her hand.

1959 October 06 Tuesday 00:13

“It didn’t even hurt, Daddy,” Lola whispered.

“You sound like you mad about it, sweet girl,” Silk said.

“Well, those other girls, they said it did. They said it burned like fire, and they couldn’t-”

“So you think they was gaming on you, playing you off the trick, so they could have him for themselves?”

“It was fifty dollars, Daddy!” Lola said, proudly. “Who gets that kind of money?”

“You do, little star. And that’s the truth. Be the truth forever,” Silk said, pulling his whore closer to him on the leather seat of the Eldorado. “Now tell Silk what you remember. Every little thing, right from the beginning.”

1959 October 06 Tuesday 00:41

As Dett nosed the rented Buick out of the clearing, a black Cadillac Coupe de Ville flashed past. Moving too fast for these dirt roads, Dett thought. He’ll put a lot of chips in that paint job.

“Anyone you know?” he asked Tussy, keeping his voice casual. Back where they had been parked, Dett had felt another presence. A lurker of some kind. Probably kids, looking for a thrill, he had thought at the time, not picking up any sense of danger. And, whatever it was, it had moved on quick enough. But now the Caddy…

“Why would I know anyone who comes here?” Tussy said, more angrily than she intended.

“I didn’t mean… that,” Dett said, holding his hands up helplessly. “I meant the car itself. It looked pretty fancy for a teenage kid to be driving.”

“Oh. No, I… I mean, it just looked like a car to me. I can’t tell them apart, the way some people can.”

“Sure. I thought it looked like it belonged to one of the people I’ve been talking to. About buying property.”

“Well, it was a big one.”

“Yeah. A Cadillac. But there’s no shortage of those around.”

“I guess that depends where you live,” Tussy said, chuckling. “You won’t see any on my block.”

“That’s sensible,” Dett said, seriously. “Some cars cost so much, you could buy a nice little house instead.”

“I can’t understand why anyone would do that. Have you ever noticed how some colored people buy big cars? I’m sure they buy them on time, but that’s the same way you’d buy a house, isn’t it? I mean, either way, you have to make payments every month. So why do you think they do that?”

“Well, what if you couldn’t buy a house?”

“I don’t understand. I, well, maybe I couldn’t, with what I make, but some of them-”

“No, I mean, what if nobody would sell you one? You walk into a showroom, I don’t care if you’re black or white or purple they’ll sell you a car. But if you want to buy a house…”

“Oh. I see what you mean. I never thought of it like that.”

“I didn’t, either,” Dett assured her. “Not until someone pointed it out to me.”

“And now you pointed it out to me,” she said, seriously. “I guess that’s the way people learn things.”