Unknown - High School Scandals

“Hoo-hah,” Shapiro said softly, “I should only have such rumors started about me. Some of the young chicks, yet-not one, or even two, but some. Okay, lover-only watch yourself at all times. With all this dreck coming down on you, and still you have to be the cocksman.”

Dallas said, “I know it’s crazy, man. But you don’t know; nobody knows, how those kids ball. It’s the greatest thing ever, so wild and far-out that I get turned on all over again,, just remembering some of the things they did with me and to me.”

The lawyer held up a hand. “I don’t want to hear it I’m an officer of the court, like it says, but also because I might get more jealous. Split Dallas-and I’ll call you soon as I hear anything.”

“Just remember, I’m bugged. And it could happen to your phone too.”

“Let ‘em,” Shapiro said. “I’ll have those momsers talking to themselves, and answering back.”

When Dallas parked the bug at the drive-in, the cute carhop came sway-hipping over, right away. “Hi, Mr. Bradburn. Anything special you want?”

The rumors were spreading fast, he thought; this girl bad a certain inflection in her voice, and her offerings were far more obvious. He wondered if all women got fired up when they heard that a certain man was a swinger, if all of them felt some how challenged by that kind of guy. Maybe that was why Casanova scored so much; the chicks just kept coming to him, to see for themselves if all the things they had heard about him were true.

“Just a couple of fishwiches, please, with chips and a vanilla malt. I’ll eat here.”

He thought he could read a disappointed roll in her hips as she flipped away.

He listened to the acid music station for awhile, then turned to a local one.

The news came on, and the announcer was playing down the protest at the school that morning. Only a few kids, the radio said; just some troublemakers looking for any excuse. Easter vacation was coming up, the announcer reminded his audience, and kick would forget “all about demonstrations soon. He never mentioned why the kids had been out in the first place.

“Two fish,” said the cute carhop, “with extra goodies.” She was leaning down, showing him the cleft between her tits, and it all looked very good. If he hadn’t been balling so much lately…

But Dallas thought of another angle, and said, “The-extra goodies look terrific.”

“Oh, do you think so?”

“I’d have to check-closer, to be certain.”

She dimpled. “I get-off at eight.”

Dallas hesitated. “Not tonight, okay? I’d like to, but I’m jammed up to here with work I can’t cop out on. Really. But tomorrow night.”

“Would be groovy,” she smiled, and showed him the intriguing rhythm of her haunches as she strode away on other business.

Maybe he could pull the detectives off the real trail, he thought, realizing that he had been lucky as hell so far in avoiding them. If he took this girl out-and he didn’t even know her name-the people following him might think he was doing his thing with the carhop, and nobody else. He wouldn’t let them box him into some situation where they could squeeze him about it.

He had just finished off the fries and was making noises with the straw in the malted container when the man sauntered over to the VW and put an elbow on its roof.

Dallas said, “I don’t know you. If you stick a hand in here, I’m going to break your arm at the elbow.”

The man grunted and backed off a step, but not hurriedly. He said, “I know you, Bradburn. My name is Sladermann, and I’d like to talk to you. Okay if I come around the other side of the car and sit down with you?”

Dallas put the remains of his dinner on the car tray and tooted his horn. The cute girl came swiftly and he said to her, “Our date is set for tomorrow night at eight, darling. But take a real good look at this man, and be sure you remember his face, and the time he was here. Because if anybody causes our date to be broken, he’ll be the one.”

She pouted rich lips at Sladermann. “Don’t you dare.” Collecting the tray and her tip, she bounced away again.

“Now you can come sit down,” Dallas said.

The VW dipped under the man’s weight, and he turned uncomfortably to face Dallas after he sat down. “So you’re covered, but you won’t need the kid for a witness Bradburn. This is all business.”

Dallas looked the man over, registering the broken nose and the shrewd eyes, the lips that announced scar tissue inside. Sladermann was fortyish, with big shoulders and a pastey skin. There was gold in his mouth; it showed when he talked.

He said, “You’re slick mister. You lose tails and you don’t do anything that can get you burned. I don’t even know how you figured you’re being watched. And I know you’re a pretty rough boy, through that mess on the beach. Those four guys, they’d like another shot, though-a rematch, like.”

“Next time,” Dallas said, “I’ll kill a couple of them. That’s what the rematch will cost.”

Sladermann sighed. “You might do it, at that. Which is why I’m here. To talk business just between you and me Look, everybody needs a buck right? I mean, teaching English in high school is no way to get fat. I can offer you five big ones if you hang around two, three more weeks, then resign and leave town.”

Dallas said, “Five thousand dollars?”

“Tax free,” Sladermann added. “A going away present.”

“I don’t understand,” Dallas said. “How do you make any money out of that?”

Sladermann rubbed his broken nose. “It’s kind of complicated; let’s say I’ll do okay, personally.”

Dallas stared, thinking furiously. Nobody was willing to pay him to quit teaching here; they’d rather spend twice as much to force him out, to make him capitulate. Sladermann was being hired to get something usable on Dallas, some lever that could be used to fire him. Craig Collins was footing the bill, and happy to spend his money.

“Yeah,” Dallas said slowly, “I see it-You shake Collins down for-say, twice that much money, tell him you need it to buy witnesses, or more cops, or to plant something on me. When I resign, your job is done, and you’re richer than you would be if you chased me around for months and found nothing.”

Sladermann turned to face the windshield. “Something like that. It’s a good deal for you Bradburn. Traveling money, and nobody gets hurt-not even you. If I hang around long enough, I can find something on you. Or I can make sure something’s found.”

Dallas shook his head. “If Collins stands still for a long, dragged-out hustle.

I’d say he wants action right now, that he’s given you a deadline.”

The man sighed again. “Five big ones, that’s all I can go.”

“No way,” Dallas said. “And stay away from me Sladermann. Don’t push your boys on me again. I’m not kidding about that.”

Climbing heavily from the VW, Sladermann said, “You see me laughing? Think about things. Like guys that don’t have to get close to you. Think about that cute-girl and what if she got hit by a truck before your date tomorrow night.”

“Bullshit,” Dallas said, as the man started to walk away. “You don’t get paid that kind of money on this job.”

Sladermann kept going, finally disappearing between a couple of big cars at the other end of the drive-in lot. Dallas keyed the bug and pulled out, driving aimlessly while he tried to sort everything out in his head, while he reconvinced himself that he’d been right, and that Sladermann wouldn’t try to kill anybody, or even seriously hurt them. Himself excluded, Dallas conceded there had been the battle of the beach, and before that the skirmish of the locker room. There could be other, more successful incidents.