Andrew Vachss - Two Trains Running

“There’s a way to hit them all,” Dett said. He was looking at Beaumont, but his eyes were unfocused, somewhere in the middle distance. “If it worked, you’d be the only one standing at the end.”

“I don’t like gambles.”

“Then you won’t like what I came up with.”

“Maybe I should hear it, first.”

“You have another place you could meet Dioguardi in?”

“Another place besides this house? I’m not going to any-”

“Another place in this house. A place not so fancy. A place we could fix up the way we wanted.”

Beaumont exchanged a glance with his sister. “We have a meeting room. But you have to walk right past a car to get in there. Anyone who sees it would know what it’s for.”

“If you decide you want to do this, that won’t matter,” Dett said, snapping his eyes into focus.

1959 October 08 Thursday 16:21

“Well, what do you think now?” Ace said to Lacy. “Did we show you something or not?”

“Yeah,” Lacy said. “You showed me you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing.”

“What!? I iced that-”

“Only thing you iced was your own club. You’re finished, all of you.”

“Hey, man, come on. The cops haven’t even been around. They don’t have any clue about who-”

“You’re the one with no clue, sucker,” Sunglasses said. “Preacher’s as alive as I am.”

“He didn’t die? But I-”

“Die? He didn’t have a scratch. I saw him myself, strutting around with his boys like a… well, like a fucking king, man. Get the joke?” Sunglasses laughed, harshly. “I hope so. Because the joke’s on you, chump.”

“I’m telling you-”

“You ever check that pistol? Fire it yourself?” Lacy said.

“Hell, yes, man. It works perfect.”

“Then it was the bullets. I guess the ‘Klan’ gave you a box of blanks.”

“Those weren’t no blanks.”

“Yeah? Better give it to me, let us see for ourselves.”

“You’re not taking my gun,” Ace said, pulling the pistol from his jacket. “This is mine. I don’t know what your fucking game is, but I’ll find out. I’ll find that nigger Preacher, too. See if I don’t.”

“Relax,” Lacy said, holding out both hands in a calming gesture.

At that signal, one of the waiting Gladiators smashed a length of rebar into the back of Ace’s skull.

Ace crumpled, still gripping his sacred pistol. The Gladiator holding the rebar bent over and raised his arm.

“Never mind,” Lacy told him. “He’s not getting up.”

Lacy slipped on a pair of thin leather gloves, then took the pistol from Ace’s limp hand.

“This is how he goes out,” Lacy said, holding the pistol. “Word’s all over the street about Wednesday night. Niggers talking about Preacher like he came back from the dead. If we don’t do something, they’re going to be too strong to handle.”

“I thought you said we were getting out of bopping,” Sunglasses said. “We’re going to be part of the-”

“That’s right,” Lacy cut him off. “And it’s going to be just like I said. But you don’t just sign up to be with an organization like Mr. Beaumont’s. We have to prove in. Show our true colors. And this,” he said, pointing to Ace’s body, “this is what they told us we have to do.”

1959 October 08 Thursday 22:24

“Sherman!” Holden Satterfield exclaimed. “Boy, am I glad to see you. I got a lot of new stuff in my logbook.”

“Good,” Sherman said, moving closer to where the woodsman stood in the darker-than-night shadows. “But that’s not why I came out here, Holden.”

“What do you mean, Sherman?”

“I wanted to talk to you about a job.”

“A job? But I already got a job, Sherman. Working for you.”

“This would be the same thing,” the big detective said. “Working for me. But not doing this. Not anymore.”

“I don’t get you, Sherman.”

“I’ve got some land, not too far from here. Twenty-two acres. It’s just about all forest; I only cleared a little bit of it, for my house.”

“But I don’t drive a car, Sherman. And this forest, it’s mine. I mean, it’s where I live. You know…”

“Yeah, I know where you live, Holden. Remember, you let me come and visit you there, once? But I was thinking, how would you like to live in a house? A real house. A little one, you could build yourself. In your own forest?”

“I couldn’t do that, Sherman. If anybody found out-”

“It wouldn’t matter,” the big detective said. “Because it wouldn’t be out here, it would be where I live. On my land. We could put up a dandy little house, you and me. It wouldn’t be much, but it’d be a house, Holden. A real one.”

“But what would I do? I mean, I have my job…”

“You could watch the forest for me, Holden. And, in the daytime, you could be clearing the land, working on the house. I always wanted to breed dogs. Maybe we could-”

“I don’t like those hounds, Sherman. They go after-”

“Not hunting dogs, Holden. Dobermans. Do you like them?”

“I… guess so.”

“Sure you do!” Sherman Layne said, patting Holden’s shoulder. “And you could take care of animals that get hurt, same way you do now, only it would be easier if you had a stove and a refrigerator, right?”

“I… I think I could. But, Sherman…”

“What?”

“How come things have to change?”

“Because we’re friends, Holden. And I’m changing, so I thought you might like to come along with me.”

“You’re moving away, Sherman?”

“No,” the big detective said. “I’m getting married.”

1959 October 08 Thursday 22:49

“Uriah got shot,” Kitty said. “But he didn’t get hurt.”

“I know.”

“He wouldn’t tell me how it happened. But I know, if you hadn’t told me about the gun, he couldn’t have done… whatever he did to protect himself, Harley.”

“I wouldn’t let anything happen to your family, Kitty.”

“When I talked to Uriah, it was just for a few minutes. But he’s different now. Like he aged a lifetime.”

“Scared?”

“No. Not at all. It’s like he’s got a… purpose now. I could tell, from the way he was talking. He might even make up with my father. But you know what?” she said, sadly. “You saved his life, and he hates you.”

“Me?”

“Not you yourself, Harley. All white people. That’s what he was going on about. How the whole gang thing was something the white man tricked them into doing, and he wasn’t going to be tricked anymore.”

“Yeah.”

“Locke City will never be the place for us, Harley.”

“Never’s a long time, baby.”

“I know you have plans,” Kitty said. “Big plans. And I know you’re smart. You’re so smart, Harley. I wish you’d go away with me.”

“To college, huh?”

“Yes!”

“Give me another year, honey. One more year. If I can’t… if we can’t be together then, right here in Locke City, I’ll come and be with you, Kitty, wherever you are. I swear.”

1959 October 08 Thursday 23:16

“Compass. Procter speaking.”

“If I get you something so hot it could turn this country upside down, could you get it into the paper?”

“Ah, you again. Yeah, sure. If it’s newsworthy. I mean, really newsworthy, not just some gossip about a politician’s wife, do we understand each other?”

“Yeah, that was just to- Look, this is a guaranteed blockbuster, a bigger story than the Rosenbergs. If I deliver, can you do the same?”

“Absolutely,” Procter said.

“You’re lying,” the voice on the phone said. “You’re not the boss of that place. Your editor would kill it in a minute.”