"Why didn"t the cop shoot him?"
"Didn"t have to. Renda"s gun"s empty."
"He doesn"t sound too bright. Pulling a dumb thing like that."
"They say he wanted the man bad, couldn"t wait."
Majestyk was studying Renda. Maybe he was dumb, but he looked cool, patient, like somebody who moved slowly, without wasted effort. He didn"t look like an accordian player now. He looked like some of the guys he had seen in prison, at Folsom. Mean, confident, hard-nosed guys who would give you that look no matter what you said to them. Like who the f.u.c.k are you? Don"t waste my time. How did guys get like that? Always on the muscle.
"They got him this time," the black guy said. "Gonna nail his a.s.s for ninety-nine years-you ask him is he gonna eat his sausage."
Because of Renda they brought the five prisoners out the back way to the parking area, where the gray county bus and the squad cars were waiting. Get them out quick, without attracting a lot of attention. But a crowd of local people had already gathered, along with the reporters and TV newsmen who had been in Edna the past two days and were ready for them. A cameraman with a shoulder-mounted rig began shooting as soon as the door opened and the deputies began to bring them out in single file, the two Chicanos first, startled by the camera and the people watching, then the black guy. They held up Renda and Majestyk in the hallway inside the door, to handcuff them because they were felons. A deputy told them to put their hands behind their backs; but the deputy named Ritchie told him to cuff them in front-it was a long ride, let them sit back and enjoy it.
When Renda appeared, between two deputies, the TV camera held on him, panning with him to the bus, and a newsman tried to get in close, extending a hand mike.
"Frank, over here. What do you think your chances are? They got a case against you or not?"
Renda held his head low, turned away from the camera. A deputy stuck out his hand, pushing the mike away, and two more deputies moved in quickly, from the steps by the rear door, to stand in the newsman"s way and restrain him if they had to. This left Majestyk alone at the top of the steps. He watched them put Renda aboard the bus. Four, five deputies standing now with their backs to him. He watched the newsman with the mike come around and mount the steps. The newsman turned, facing the bus, and the TV camera swung toward him.
Majestyk was close enough to hear him and stood listening as the TV newsman said, "Today, Frank Renda is being taken to the county seat for pretrial examination on a charge that will undoubtedly be first-degree murder. Renda, a familiar name in organized crime, has been arrested nine times without a conviction. Now, it would appear, his luck has finally run out. The prosecutor"s office is convinced Renda will stand trial, be convicted of the murder charge, and spend the rest of his life in prison. This is Ron Malone with TV-Action News coming to you from Edna."
Majestyk walked down the steps past the newsman, came up behind the deputies standing by the bus door and said, "Excuse me."
The two deputies nearest him turned, with momentary looks of surprise. One of them took his arm then and said, "Get in there."
He got in, moved past the driver and the deputy standing by him, and took a seat on the left side of the bus, in front of the black guy, who leaned forward as he sat down and said over his shoulder, "You get on TV? Your mama"ll be proud to see you."
Renda sat across the aisle, a row ahead of him. The two Chicanos sat together on Renda"s side, two rows closer to the front. When the door closed and the bus began to move, circling out of the parking area with a squad car leading and another following, the deputy standing by the driver moved down the aisle to take a seat in the back of the bus. Both he and the driver, Majestyk noticed, were unarmed.
He said to himself, How does that help you? And settled back to stare out the window at the familiar billboards and motels and gas stations, the tacoburger place, the stores that advertised used clothing, Ropa Usada Ropa Usada. Railroad tracks ran parallel with the highway, beyond a bank of weeds. They pa.s.sed the warehouses and loading sheds that lined the tracks, platformed old buildings that bore the names of growers and produce companies. They pa.s.sed the silver water tower that stood against the sky-edna, home of the broncos-and moved out into miles of fences and flat green fields, until the irrigation ditches ended and the subdued land turned color, reverted to its original state, and became desert country.
Looking out at the land he wondered when he would be coming back. When, or if he would be coming back. He said to himself, What are you doing here? How did it happen? Sitting handcuffed in a prison bus. His fields miles behind him. Going to stand trial again. The chance of going to prison again. Could that happen? No, he said to himself, refusing to believe it. He could not let it happen, because he could not live in prison again, ever. He couldn"t think about it without the feeling of panic coming over him, the feeling of being suffocated, caged, enclosed by iron bars and cement walls and not able to get out. He remembered reading about a man exploring a cave, hundreds of feet underground, who had crawled into a seam in the rocks and had got wedged there, because of his equipment, and was unable to move forward or backward or reach the equipment with his hands to free it. Majestyk had stopped reading and closed the magazine, because he knew the man had died there.
Prison was for men like Frank Renda-sitting across the aisle with his own thoughts, slouched low in his seat, staring straight ahead, off somewhere in his mind. What was he thinking about?
What difference did it make? Majestyk forgot about Frank Renda and did not look at him again until almost a half hour later, when the land outside the bus had changed again, submitting to signs and gas stations and motels, and the empty highway became a busy street that was taking them through a run-down industrial area on the outskirts of the city.
He noticed Renda because Renda was sitting up straighter now, stretching to see ahead, through the windshield, then turning to look out the windows as the bus moved along in the steady flow of traffic. The man had seemed half asleep before. Now he was alert, as though he was looking for a particular store or building, a man looking for an address written on a piece of paper. Or maybe he had lived around here at one time and it was like revisiting the old neighborhood, seeing what had changed. That was the feeling Majestyk had. He was curious about Renda again and continued to watch him and glance off to follow his gaze. Through the windshield now-to see the intersection they were approaching, the green light and the man standing in the middle of the street, caught between the flows of traffic.
Later, he remembered noticing the man moments before it happened. Maybe ten seconds before-seeing the man in bib overalls holding a paper bag by the neck, a farmer who"d come to town for a bottle of whiskey, guy from the sticks who didn"t know how to cross a busy street and got trapped. He remembered thinking that and remembered, vividly, the man in bib overalls waiting for the lead squad car to pa.s.s him and then starting across the street, weaving slightly, walking directly into the path of the bus.
There was a screeching sound as the driver slammed on the brakes and the tires grabbed the hot pavement. Majestyk was thrown forward against the seat in front of him, but pushed himself up quickly to see if the man had been hit. No, because the driver was yelling at him. "G.o.dd.a.m.n drunk-get out of the way!"
He saw the man"s head and shoulders then, past the hood of the bus, the man grinning at the driver.
"Will you get the h.e.l.l out of the way!"
The deputy who"d been in the rear was coming up the aisle, past Majestyk, and the driver was standing now, leaning on the steering wheel.
The man in the overalls, whose name was Eugene Lundy, was still grinning as he took a .44 Colt magnum out of the paper bag, extended it over the front of the hood, and fired five times, five holes blossoming on the windshield as the driver hit against his seat and went out of it and the deputy was slammed backward down the aisle and hit the floor where Majestyk was standing.
Lundy drew a .45 automatic out of his overalls, turned and fired four times at the squad car that had come to a stop across the intersection. Then he was moving-as the doors of the squad car swung open-past the front of the bus and down the cross street.
Harold Ritchie knocked his hat off getting out of the lead squad car, swinging out of there fast and drawing his big Colt Special. He put it on Lundy, tracking with him, and yelled out for him to halt, concentrating, when he heard his partner call his name.
"Ritch!"
And he looked up to see the panel truck coming like crazy on the wrong side of the street, swerving around from behind the bus to take a sweeping right at the intersection. Ritchie jumped back out of the way, though the truck had room to spare. He saw one of the rear doors open and the bottle with the lighted rag for a wick come flying out and he was moving to the right, running hard, waving an oncoming car to keep back when the bottle smashed against the rear deck of the squad car and burst into flames. Five seconds later the gas tank exploded and instantly the entire car was on fire, inside and out.
Ritchie was across the street now, waving at the traffic, yelling at cars to stop where they were. He didn"t see his partner or know where he was. From this angle he could see the second squad car close behind the bus and the driver-side door swing open.
In the same moment he saw the station wagon coming up fast from behind. He saw the shotgun muzzles poke out through the side windows and heard them and saw them go off as the station wagon swerved in, sheared the door off the squad car, and kept coming, beginning a sweeping right turn around the bus.
Ritchie raised his big Colt Special, steadying it beneath the grip with his left hand and squeezed off four shots into the station wagon"s windshield. The first two would have been enough, because they hit the driver in the face and the wagon was already out of control, half through the turn when the driver slumped over the wheel and the wagon slammed squarely into the burning squad car.
One of the men in the back seat of the wagon tried to get out the left side and Ritchie shot him before he cleared the doorway. But then he had to reload and the two who went out the other side of the wagon made it to a line of parked cars before Ritchie could put his Colt on them. He still didn"t know where his partner was until he got to the station wagon, looked out past the rear end of it and saw his partner lying in the street.
Watching from the bus, Majestyk recognized Ritchie, the one with the tattoo who looked like a pro lineman. He was aiming and firing at two men crouched behind a parked car-until one of them raised up, let go with a shotgun and they took off, running up the street past a line of storefronts. Ritchie stepped out from behind the station wagon, fired two shots that shattered two plategla.s.s windows, then lowered his Colt and started after them, waving his arm again, yelling at the people on the sidewalk and pressed close to the buildings to get inside, to get the h.e.l.l off the street.
Now there were no police in front of the bus.
The moment Renda moved, Majestyk"s gaze was on him, following him up the aisle past the two Chicanos huddled low in their seat. He watched Renda-who did not bother to look at the dead driver lying on the floor-reach past the steering wheel and pull a control level. The door opened. Renda approached it cautiously, looking through the opening and down the cross street a half block to where Eugene Lundy and the panel truck were waiting. He seemed about to step out, then twisted away from the opening, dropping to his hands and knees, as two shots drilled through the pane of gla.s.s in the door panel.
Majestyk"s gaze came away and he looked down at the deputy lying in the aisle. He was sure the man was dead, but he got out of his seat and reached down to feel for a pulse. Nothing. G.o.d, no, the man had been shot through the chest. Majestyk was about to rise, then hesitated as he saw the ring of keys hanging from the deputy"s belt. He told himself to do it, now now, and think about it later if he had to. That"s what he did, unhooked the ring and slipped the keys into his pants pocket. As he rose, turning toward the rear of the bus, he saw the black guy, only a few feet away, staring at him.
Neither of them spoke. The black guy looked away and Majestyk moved down the aisle to the back windows.
The second squad car was close behind, directly below him. He could see the deputy behind the wheel, his face b.l.o.o.d.y, talking excitedly into the radio mike. The next moment he was out of the car with his revolver drawn, moving around the back end of it to the sidewalk. Majestyk watched him. The deputy ran in between two cars that were facing out of a used car lot, then down behind the row of gleaming cars with prices painted on the windshields to where his partner was covering the door of the bus from behind the end car in the line.
Majestyk made his way back up the aisle in a crouch, watching the used car lot through the right-side windows. He saw both deputies raise their revolvers and fire.
With the closely s.p.a.ced reports Renda dropped again away from the door and behind the first row of seats.
Halfway up the aisle Majestyk watched him.
Renda was looking at the two Chicanos now who were also crouched in the aisle, close to each other with their shoulders hunched.
After a moment Renda said, "Come on, let"s go. We"re getting out of here."
When they realized he was speaking to them the two Chicanos looked at him wide-eyed, frightened to death, and Renda said again, "Come on, move!"
One of the Chicanos said, "We don"t want to go nowhere."
"Jesus, you think we"re going to talk it over? I said we"re going." Renda was reaching for them now, pulling the first one to his feet, then the other one, pushing them past him in the narrow aisleway.
The other Chicano said, "Man, I was drunk driving-I don"t run away from that."
And the Chicano who had spoken before was saying, as he was pushed to the front, "Listen, please, they see us coming out they start shooting!"
"That"s what we"re going to find out," Renda said.
He crowded them, jamming them in the doorway, then put a foot behind the second man-as the man said, "Please, don"t! We don"t want to go!"-pushed hard and the two Chicanos were out of the bus, stumbling, getting to their feet, starting to make a run for it.
Majestyk watched the two deputies in the used car lot swing their revolvers over to cover them and was sure they were going to fire. But now the two Chicanos were running toward them with their hands raised high in the air, screaming, "Don"t shoot! Please! Don"t shoot!" And the deputies lowered their revolvers and waved them into the used car lot.
Renda was watching, crouched by the open door as Majestyk came the rest of the way up the aisle.
"Go out there, you give yourself up or get shot," Majestyk said.
Renda looked over his shoulder at him. He watched Majestyk step over the dead driver and slip into the seat, lean against the steering wheel and reach with both hands to turn on the ignition.
"What"re you doing?"
Majestyk didn"t answer him. He put the bus in gear, began to ease it forward a few feet, then braked and shifted into reverse.
The two deputies in the used car lot saw it happen. They moved the two Chicanos out of the way and returned their attention to the bus-in time to see it start up abruptly in reverse and smash its high rear end into the grille of their squad car. The bus moved forward-G.o.d almighty-went into reverse and again slammed into the car, cranked its wheels and made a U-turn out of there, leaving the radiator of the squad car spewing water and the two deputies watching it pick up speed, back the way they had come. They wanted to shoot. They were ready, but at the last moment had to hold their fire because of the people in cars and on the sidewalk, on the other side of the street.
Then the two city police cars were approaching the intersection from the south-off to the left-their sirens wailing, and the two deputies ran out to the sidewalk, waving their arms to flag the cars down.
Majestyk heard the sirens, the sound growing fainter, somewhere behind them. He headed west on the street they had taken into town, turned north on a side street, then west again a few blocks up. Finally he slowed down and eased the bus into an alley, behind a row of cinderblock industrial buildings that appeared deserted. He pulled the lever to open the door and looked around at the black guy.
"Here"s your stop."
"Man," the black guy said, "you know where you going? If they don"t shoot you?"
Renda was in the aisle, moving toward the black guy. "Come on, Sambo, move it. And take them with you."
Majestyk helped the black guy lift the bodies of the driver and the deputy and ease them out through the narrow doorway. Renda told them to hurry up, for Christ sake, but Majestyk paid no attention to him.
As he got behind the wheel again the black guy, standing outside, said, "Man, what did you do?"
Majestyk looked at him. For a moment he seemed about to say something, then closed the door in the black guy"s face and took off down the alley.
Move out fast and try to get to high country before the police set up roadblocks and got their helicopters out. That"s what he had to do. Keep to the back roads, working north, get far enough away from the highway and find some good cover.
That"s what he did. Found an old sagging feed barn sitting out by itself on a dried-up section of pasture land, pulled the bus inside, and swung the double doors shut to enclose them in dim silence.
Majestyk remained by the crack of vertical light that showed between the doors, looking out in the direction they had come, seeing the dust settling in the sun glare.
Somewhere behind him in the gloom Renda said, "You move, don"t you? I figured you for some kind of a local clown, but you move."
Majestyk didn"t say anything.
"What"d they bust you for?"
"a.s.sault."
"With what?"
"A shotgun."
"a.s.sault, s.h.i.t, that"s attempted murder. They were going to jam you the same as me."
"Maybe," Majestyk said.
"Maybe? What do you think you"re going to do about it?"
"I got an idea might work."
"Listen," Renda said, "we get to a phone we"re out of the country before morning. Drive to Mexico, get some pa.s.sports, we"re gone."
His back still to Renda, Majestyk pulled the deputy"s keys out of his pocket. He"d almost forgotten about them, hurrying to get out of there, maybe hurrying too fast and not thinking clearly. He would have to slow down a little. Not waste time, but make sure he wasn"t doing anything dumb. He listened to Renda as he began to study the keys and select one that would fit his handcuffs.
"I got friends," Renda was saying, "as you noticed, huh? It was set up in a hurry and they blew it. All right, I call some more friends. They get us out of the country, someplace no extradition, and wait and see what happens. I got enough to live on, I mean high, the rest of my life. It won"t be home, s.h.i.t no, but it won"t be in the f.u.c.king slam either. I couldn"t make that. Couple of weeks I"d be sawing my f.u.c.king wrists." He paused. "What"re you doing?"
Majestyk didn"t say anything and Renda came over to him, his face brightening as he saw the keys.
"Jesus, it keeps getting better. You not only move, you think. Give me those, hold your hands up." As he tried the keys in Majestyk"s handcuffs he said, "Figure if you take a long chance, get me out of there, it"d be worth something, huh? Okay, you do something for me, I do something for you. Maybe fix it so you can go with me."
Renda snapped the handcuffs open. As Majestyk slipped them off Renda handed him the keys and raised his own hands to be unlocked.
"How"s that sound?"
"I think you got it a.s.s-backwards," Majestyk said, returning the keys to his pocket. "I"m not going with you, you"re going with me."
He found an old hackamore that did the job. Looping it around the link of the handcuffs, he could pull Renda along by the length of rope, yank on it when Renda resisted, held back, and the cuffs would dig into his hands.
Leaving the feed barn, hauled out into the sunlight, Renda put up a fight, yelling what the f.u.c.k was going on, calling him a crazy insane son of a b.i.t.c.h. So he belted Renda, gave him a good one right in the mouth that quieted him down, and brought him along. But, G.o.d, he didn"t like the look in the man"s eyes. The man wanted to kill him and would probably try. So his idea had better turn out to be a good one and come off without any hitches.
All afternoon and into the evening he led Renda by the hackamore, forcing him to keep up as they moved through the brush country, following dry washes and arroyos that gradually began to climb, reaching toward the high slopes. Majestyk, in his work clothes and heavy work boots, had little trouble; he seemed at home here. He seemed to know what he was doing, where he was going. Renda, in his tailored suit and thin-soled shoes, stumbled along, falling sometimes, getting his sweat-stained face and clothes caked with dust. Majestyk judged the man"s endurance and let him rest when he felt he was near the end of it. Then would pull him to his feet again and they would continue on, through brush and pinyon thickets, climbing, angling across high slopes and open meadows.
He brought Renda more than ten miles this way, up into the mountains, and at dusk when they reached the cabin-a crude one-room structure that was part timber and part adobe-he had the feeling Renda would not have gone another ten yards.
"We"re home," Majestyk said.
Renda looked at the place with a dull, lifeless expression. "Where are we?"
"Place I use sometimes. Mostly in hunting season."
Inside, he found a kitchen match on a shelf, feeling for it in the dark, and lighted a kerosene lamp that hung from the overhead.
"We got coffee and canned milk. Probably find some soup or some beans. I haven"t been up here since spring."
Renda was looking around the room, at the two metal bunks with bare mattresses, the wooden table and two chairs, the cupboard with open shelves that showed a few cans and cobwebs, but were nearly empty. Renda went to the nearest bunk and sat down. Majestyk followed him over, taking the keys from his pocket.
"Hold up your hands."
The man sure looked worn out. Renda raised his arms slowly, too tired to move. But as soon as Majestyk freed one of his hands, Renda came off the bunk, pushing, chopping at Majestyk with hard jabs. It took him by surprise, Renda"s fists stinging his face, and he had to back off and set himself before he could go after Renda, jabbing, feinting, then slamming in a hard right that stunned him and dropped him to the bunk. Majestyk put a knee on him and got him handcuffed to the metal frame before he could move again.