Ken Bruen - Merrick

to say ’Stew’ but she never got to find out, I never got to tell her.

A bullet took most of her head off, her blood and brains blending with the beautiful red

hair. I dropped the bowl as a mortar took out most of the top floor. Eddie was on his

belly, crawling towards the back door, his girl splattered over the far wall. I don’t

remember her name and I feel real bad about that.

I got my pistol out of my waistband as a borage of machine gun fire racked across the

room. Made it as far as Eddie, saw his face had a curious expression, shock I figured. He

said

‘Ryan, it doesn’t have to end like this?’

The fook was he talking about.

Added

‘They’ll let you live.’

My mind recoiled.

We were only just getting used to the term Supergrass, where the Brit’s grabbed our best,

turned them, and used them to decimate our ranks. He reached out his hand, I spat

‘You fookin can’t betray your country, Jesus Fookin wept, what else is there?’

I swear by all that’s Holy or otherwise that he smiled, said real quiet

‘I’m not.’

He was a fookin Brit, explained the dodgy accent and him being fookin useless at

hurling.

‘You’ll get a new identity, some nice money and all you have to do is tell them what they

already know.’

I managed to rise on to one knee, looked out the searchlights sweeping the house, the

street, and for a moment, it almost looked like white light, biotical sheen. Eddie pushed,

said what was to become my mantra of destruction

‘C’mon Paddy, it’s over.’

I got out of there, but I’m not really sure I ever truly left.

I was trying to compose a list of all time great buddy/road movies. For Merrick.

He’d be back.

Right?

Jaysus, if a friendship can’t survive a simple gun threat, is it really a bond?

Merrick loved poetry and my only knowledge was

…………….the poetry of cordite.

Definite in it’s relentless rhythm.

I had

Scarecrow, Hackman and Pacino……….didn’t they fall the fook out a time or two?

Freebie and The Bean, Caan and Arkin, and by Christ, they spent most of the movie

wailing the be-jaysus out of each other.

Butch and Sundance of course and they sure picked pieces of each other’s verbal hide.

48 Hours………..mmph…….I think it goes on the list, they certainly had enough

testosterone to merit.

Thunderbolt and Lightning, Jeff Bridges and Clint. A classic of friction.

A rapid knocking on my door halted my list, I figured it was a stoner asking why Lizzie

weren’t loud roaring, Whiskey In The Jar.

Figured wrong.

It was Shona.

A very distraught one, shouting

‘Why don’t you pick up your goddamn phone?’

Fook this, I asked

‘Am, what happened to hello?’

She brushed past me, turned to glare, said

‘Merrick’s been shot.’

I nearly said

‘I didn’t do it.’

In light of the last time I’d seen him, and my gun in his face, I bit down, hard. Asked

‘What?’

Her hands on her hips, the female in total exasperation at the male of the species, she said

‘His wife called me, they couldn’t get you,

She glanced at the bottle of Bourbon, the sound system, added

‘Because, guess what? Ryan is partying down. You bastard, your buddy is shot and

you’re having some fun time?’

She said a whole load of other shite, the way women do, they catch you on one fook up,

by Jesus, the whole kit and caboodle is comi.ng to show.

I did the smart thing, looked contrite like I could else? And when she wound down, got

the details, sketch as they were. Merrick was at Cedar Sinai, undergoing emergency

surgery.

And that was all she really knew.

She said

“I brought my car.’

Hello?

She had a car?

A Lincoln Convertible no less. You’d think…………The Lincoln lawyer, if you knew

your mystery.

She drove well, with a controlled ferocity, I had a hundred questions but my verdict

hadn’t come in yet so I said fook all.

Up on ER, we met Judy, Merrick’s wife, who said

‘Ryan?’

I waited for abuse but worse got

‘Oh Steve loves you.’

Steve?

Stephen Merrick, didn’t ring but I kept that to meself.

Merrick had taken a shot in his back, under the lower lung and was still in surgery, I

asked Judy

‘Can you remember anything about what happened/’

I was tentative, fearful of the wrath of The Comanche’s. She said

‘He came back early, from being with you, then said he’d work on our son’s car in the

yard. He’d been about there a while and I was going to call him for a beer, he loves his

cold beer after working up a sweat, when I heard a barrage of shots.’

Whoa, barrage?

She got there before me, said

‘Lieutenant Jordan,’

Indicating a short heavy set dude in the corner of the ER. He threw me a look of what

can only be termed, distaste.

Jesus, wait till he met me!

Judy continued

‘Say’s that six shost in all were probably fired, and only one hit.’

I thought

‘Moving car and handgun.’

It’s a bitch to nail a target with a handgun at the best of times but in a moving car, you

just empty your load and hope for luck.

Things got worse, Judy took my hand, said

‘Mr. Ryan, your friendship has really made a difference to Steve, he had been so down,

with Moe in a coma and all.’

Shona stared at me, willing me to step on it. I didn’t. Irish might mean green but it

doesn’t mean stupid, ask Bob Geldof.

I asked if could get her some coffee, some food, Jesus, anything to move me from the

spotlight.

Shona had her arm round her shoulder, I mean, come on, how do women get away with

this, they seem to be able do shit we’d get crucified for?

Judy said

‘Some coffee would be nice, keep me awake.’

I looked at Shona who said

‘No thank you?’

I went to get the coffee and with luck, a cig pit stop. The vending machine was on the

floor beneath and a sign that read………Smoking Room.

Alle-fooking-luia.

There is a nicotine God.

With a sense of humor. The sign led to the an outside wall.

Ok, I could roll.

A large man was coming towards me, he looked familiar, he smiled, said

‘You don’t remember me?’

Am…………

He laughed

‘You tinker, forgot me already, I’m Charley?……I own the bar, my Mum’s from Mayo?’

‘Oh right, sorry, I’m a bit preoccupied.’

He looked solemn, said

‘Steve will be fine, you’ll see, the guy is like a buffalo and hey, don’t be a stranger, come

down, buy your Indian girl some dinner, in my place, I’ll treat her right.’

Got outside

Got fired up and the door opened, I glanced up, a guy in a grey suit, came out, a crumpled

off the rack suit and I knew

‘Cop’

Nodded at him.

He took out a battered pack of un-filtered Pall Mall, and I offered my Zippo. He took it,

fired away.

I waited and sure enough, he said

‘Ryan, right?’

He put out his hand and I took it, he had one of those steel grips but let go without

damage, said

‘I used to walk the beat, with Merrick, back in the day.’

Ok.

More waiting as he got to make a smoke ring and maybe, the point then

‘Steve got pensioned out after his partner’s, lost his taste for the street I’m thinking and

me, I got moved to computer crimes.’