The Kind One (33 page)

“Jesus Christ, Danny. What’s the matter?”

“I was moving some furniture around and threw my back out. It’s no big deal.”

I took the shot, and missed. Bud was looking at me with concern.

“I got a bum back too, it’s nothing to fuck around with. I got a great chiropractor. Why don’t you go and see him tomorrow?”

“Dr. Brunder?”

Bud grinned. “Nah, not Brunder. I hear he just went outa business.”

He sank the three, but missed the six. I put the twelve into the corner.

“So how come Darla’s down in the dumps?”

“Aw, it’s always something with that broad. Now she’s acting sorry about what she done. So the stork ain’t gonna be paying her a visit after all. Well, that’s life. You make a choice, you gotta live with it.”

Evidently I’d misspent a significant part of my youth in pool halls, because I was a pretty good player. Now as I chalked my stick, I saw I could run the table on Bud if I didn’t screw up.

“Sorry to hear about your wife.”

“Yeah. What a terrible accident.”

He said it with a straight face.

“You really think it was an accident?”

“Who the hell knows? All I know is, some people deserve what happens to ’em. Bernice deserved to drown like a rat in a fucking sewer. You don’t know what kinda hell she put me through. Aw, nice shot. Hey, I got good news for you. I’m giving you another raise. To a yard and a half a week. How does that sound?”

A yard and a half was a hundred fifty bucks.

“It sounds great, Bud. Thanks.”

I lined up another shot. A tricky bank.

“Ten bucks says you miss it.”

“You’re on.”

“Shit! You’re on fucking fire, kid. So I’m gonna have a party. It’s been a while since I throwed one. But since things is starting to look up for me again, it seems like a good time. And I’m gonna make a couple of announcements.”

“What kind of announcements?”

“That I’m your old man, for one thing. That way, people’ll start treating you with the proper respect.”

I knocked in the ten.

“What’s the other announcement?”

“That Darla and me’s getting married.” He went in his pocket, pulled out a little box. Opened it to reveal a diamond ring, one big stone set in a twinkling constellation of smaller ones. “Wait’ll she gets a gander at this, huh? I got it today at Lackritz. That’s the fanciest jewelry joint in Beverly Hills.”

“It’s some ring, all right.”

“So Darla’s gonna be your stepmom. What do you think of that?”

I tapped the thirteen, watched its orange stripe wobbling across the table till it dropped into a pocket. I’d left myself an easy shot on the eight.

“Geez, kid. You oughta have some mercy on your old man.”

But there was a glint in his eye of paternal pride as I finished him off.

“Double or nothing on the sawbuck?”

“Sure.”

I got the balls out of the pockets and rolled them to Bud as he racked them up. I sensed Darla’s presence in the house. Something more fundamental than my physical body could see the glow of her golden hair, could smell her Jean Harlow perfume. I had my gun on me. I could break my cue stick over Bud’s head and knock him out and rush upstairs and grab Darla and we’d run outside and jump in my car and I’d gun down anybody that got in my way. We’d highball it out of this insane city into freedom, into the future. And then in a little cabin in a tourist camp out in the desert we’d do what Adam and Eve did, what guys and girls do. And she’d murmur and grow sad over my bruises and my tortured toes and the dent in my head and I’d say are you kidding? No man could be happier than I am at this moment.

“I want you to go out to Palm Springs with me this weekend. I got a very important business meeting.”

“Yeah? Who with?”

“Some guys I know from Chicago. I’m looking for ’em to be my new partners. Since my old partners stabbed me in the fucking back. But I want you right there with me in the meeting. From now on I’m including you in everything.”

He positioned the balls properly then lifted up the rack.

“Break.”

I exploded the bumpy bright pyramid of balls. The two and eleven dropped in.

Bud drank some scotch and shook his head. “Geez. I might never get another shot.”

But I missed the next shot, even though it was easy. Bud looked at me suspiciously. “You do that on purpose?”

“Course not.”

“’Cause when you got your foot on somebody’s neck, you don’t ever let ’em up.”

He walked around the table, cleaning his cue with a Kleenex as he examined the angles.

“You know, I had the goddamnest thing happen to me the other night.”

“What?”

“I was in here by myself just knocking the balls around. I do that sometimes when I can’t sleep. And guess who comes strolling in the door.”

I shrugged.

“Doc Travis! That’s who.”

“The bootlegger or the monkey?”

“The bootlegger!”

“Did he still have his head?”

“Oh yeah. I woulda fucking fainted if he’d come walking in here without a head. He was just like he always was. But he was real mad at me ’cause he thought I had something to do with what happened to him. He said when that stripper died up at the lake, what was her name?”

“Vera.”

“Yeah. He said it wasn’t no accident. He killed her ’cause he knew it’d make trouble for me.”

“Doc said he murdered Vera?”

“Yeah. And you know ever since I come back from the lake I been feeling fucking hoodooed.”

“Then what happened?”

“Nothing. He just turned around and walked back out the door. So either I’m losing my marbles or I seen a ghost.”

“Well, I don’t believe in ghosts.”

“So you’re saying I’m losing my marbles.”

“No.” I stared down into my glass, swishing the scotch around in it. “Maybe you were dreaming.”

“Danny, I was as wide awake as I am right now.”

I couldn’t help but jump a little as out of the corner of my eye I saw somebody walking through the door. But it wasn’t a ghost, it was just Darla. Though she looked a little like a ghost.

She was wearing a fluffy white robe over a pink nightgown. One hand clutched the robe shut over her throat. The strange thing was, she had on sunglasses, which stood out starkly against the pallor of her face.

Bud started toward her.

“Baby, what are you doing out of bed?”

“Don’t touch me!” she hissed.

“Why are you wearing sunglasses?” I said.

She took them off. I expected to see that one or both of her eyes had been blackened, but that wasn’t it. They were blue and red. The irises blue, the whites shockingly blood-red.

“What happened to your eyes?”

“They turned this way last night. After he tried to choke me to death. See?”

She let her robe fall open so I could see her throat. It was covered with bruises.

I turned to Bud.

“You bastard.”

He looked at me warily. “This ain’t none of your business, Danny.”

“Why’d you do it?”

“I’ll say it again. It ain’t none of your business.”

“I’ll tell you why he did it,” said Darla. “’Cause I told him I couldn’t stand him anymore. That I’d rather be dead than stay with him.”

“It didn’t happen like she said. I wasn’t trying to choke her to death. I just flew off the handle a little bit, that’s all. I told her already I was sorry.”

Darla was looking at me with her unsettling blue and red eyes.

“Can she leave if she wants to?” I said. “Is she a prisoner here?”

Bud gave an exasperated sigh, ran his fingers through his thinning Grey-Goned hair.

“Come on, Danny. What are you talking about ‘prisoner’? Can’t you see she’s a fucking basketcase? She don’t know what she’s doing. I’m looking after her, that’s all. So she don’t hurt herself.

“Hey, let’s don’t fight no more,” he said to Darla, then he went in his pocket and pulled the little box back out.

“Lookit, baby. Look at what I bought you.”

He took the ring out and held it out to her.

“It’s from Lackritz, baby. Seven and a half carats! And that ain’t even counting all the little ones.”

She slapped it out of his hand. It bounced across the red carpet and rolled under the pool table.

Something changed instantly in his eyes, like a light going on or a light going off. He bent down and reached under the table and got the ring, then he grabbed Darla’s wrist and tried to force the ring on her finger.

“Put it on, you bitch!” he shouted, and she tried to jerk her hand free then slapped at his face then dug her fingernails into his cheek. He yelled then whacked her across the side of her face and sent her reeling and stumbling over the carpet. He never saw the punch I launched; it caught him in the left temple, and he grunted and dropped to all fours. He swung his head groggily back and forth, a glistening string of saliva dangling from his jaws. I took Darla by the elbow and said: “Come on, let’s get outa here.” We started toward the door, and then my fantasy of whacking Bud with my pool cue came true except in reverse: the stick came down where my neck met my right shoulder, and broke in half. The pain was paralyzing, and I fell to my knees. Then Bud knocked me on my face, and his knee was in my back as he crouched atop me and shoved the broken end of the pool cue against the back of my neck. He roared hoarsely: “I’M GONNA KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!”

“Bud, don’t!” screamed Darla as she tried to pull him off, then Dick and Anatoly came running into the room.

“Bud, are you nuts? That’s
Danny
!” said Dick. Since they both knew the kind of man Bud Seitz was, it took a lot of guts for Dick and Anatoly to drag him off of me.

I sat up slowly, rubbing my neck and trying to catch my breath. I saw that a smidgen of sanity seemed to be returning to Bud’s eyes.

“Get him outa here,” he said. “Get him outa my fucking sight.”

“Come on, Danny,” said Dick as he helped me up, and then Willie and Bo Spiller joined the party. They weren’t as gentle as Dick. They grabbed me under the arms and proceeded to give me the bum’s rush out of the house. I was looking around for Darla but she’d already disappeared.

   I hadn’t been home long when the phone rang. It was Bud.

“What the hell happened, Danny?”

His voice sounded different than I’d ever heard it before: kind of shaky, and small, and baffled.

“You need to let Darla go, Bud. She doesn’t wanna be with you anymore.”

“I guess it’s true, then.”

“What?”

“What I heard about you two. About her sucking your dick by the lake.”

“No. That’s not true.”

“You swear?”

“Yeah. But there’s something you need to know. I love Darla. I wanna be with her. I wanna marry her.”

“Aw, shit,” he said, and then came silence.

“You still there?”

“Yeah, kid. I’m still here. Listen. If you and her think you’re gonna go skipping off hand in hand into the sunset together, well it ain’t gonna happen. I mean, what kinda example would I be setting for you if I let you push me around over some broad?”

“I can’t help the way I feel. And Darla can’t help the way she feels.”

Bud gave a humorless laugh.

“She’s using you, kid. You ain’t her type. You’re too nice. She likes crumbs. Like me. Rich crumbs. Then when she gets sick of one rich crumb she goes on to the next one. If they don’t get sick of her first.”

“I don’t think you really understand her.”

“Aw, I understand her all right. Believe me, I’m doing you a favor by keeping her away from you.”

“If you think she’s such a rotten person, why do you even wanna be with her?”

“Broads are like a disease. It’s like in the movies, where Clark Gable or somebody’s going into the fucking jungle. And then he gets bit by a mosquito, and he gets real sick, and he’s laying in some fucking hut sweating and moaning and talking out of his head, and the jungle drums are beating, and the cannibals are getting ready to come get him and cook him in a big pot, and it’s all ’cause that fucking little mosquito bit him.”

“I guess I got bit too, Bud.”

Silence, and then a sigh.

“This stinks.”

“Yeah.”

“You know, I’d sooner cut off my right fucking arm than hurt you. And to think about what I almost done tonight…I got plans for us, kid. Big plans. But Darla’s standing in the way. She’s got in between us. So what are we gonna do?”

“I don’t know.”

“It ain’t gonna work, you going to Palm Springs with me. But we’ll talk when I get back. All right?”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“See ya around, kid.”

“See ya.”

Then his end of the line went dead.

   ABOUT ELEVEN THE next morning, Nuffer called.

“I’ve found out some information about the Sonoma State Home. I don’t think you’re going to like it, Danny.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“To begin with, it’s not a reform school at all. It’s a mental hospital.”

“But—that doesn’t make any sense, Mr. Nuffer. There’s nothing wrong with Sophie.”

“I’m afraid there’s more. The doctors there work hand in glove with an organization called the Human Betterment Foundation. It’s based in Pasadena. A lot of prominent scientists and educators are members. My good friend Harry Chandler, the publisher of the
Los Angeles Times
—he’s on the board. Their purpose is the betterment of the human race through the science of eugenics.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means keeping the unfit from breeding excessively. According to California law, the state can sterilize the feebleminded and insane.”

“Wait a second. You’re not saying they might sterilize Sophie, are you?”

“No, Danny, I’m not saying they might. I’m saying they
will. All
patients, male and female, who are committed to the Sonoma State Home are sterilized as a matter of course.”

I thanked Nuffer, hung up, and crossed the courtyard to Sophie’s house. I had to knock awhile before Lois finally opened the door.

She looked at me blearily. “Yeah? What do you want?”

“Is Sophie here?”

“Unh unh.”

“Where is she?”