"I guess I do. I haven"t seen either of them in two years. They moved to Los Angeles."
A silence began to lengthen and Nancy said, "Are you thinking about them?"
"No, not really."
"What are you thinking about?"
"I"m thinking I"d like to know you better."
"Well, I"ll fill out a personnel form," Nancy said. "Read it over, see if I pa.s.s."
"Always a little bit on the muscle." He was staring at her as he said, "You"re very pretty."
"No, not very. But I suppose not bad-looking either. Not somebody you"d kick out of bed, huh, if that"s what you"ve got in mind."
"Why don"t you try and relax a little," Majestyk said, "and be yourself. Find out what it"s like."
"You want to go to bed with me. Why don"t you say it?"
"I"d like to hold you."
"See how close we can get?"
"Sometimes, hard as you try, you can"t get close enough," he said. "You know that?" She didn"t answer, but he knew by her expression, the soft smile, she was aware of the feeling. Wanting to lie very close to someone, holding each other, not saying anything, because they wouldn"t have to use words to say it.
He said, "Let"s go home, all right? Go to my house."
There was no need to make him wait. Or, as he said, to be on the muscle. She was aware that they knew each other, each other"s feelings. She knew she could relax with him and be herself. Still she hesitated, she supposed out of habit, before saying to him, "All right, your house." She smiled then as he smiled. "But first I"ll go to the Ladies"-if it isn"t locked."
"If it is," he said, "I"ll kick it open."
He watched her cross the room-and the men looking up at her as she pa.s.sed their tables-to the little hall that led back to the kitchen and the rest rooms.
He saw a man come away from the jukebox and turn into the hallway and knew, even before the man with the hat and the sungla.s.ses looked over his shoulder and grinned at him, it was Bobby Kopas. Majestyk started to slide out of the booth, rising. Then stopped, and sat down again as he felt the pressure of the hand on his shoulder.
"How you doing, buddy?"
Majestyk looked up, then past Renda toward the bar. "There"re two cops sitting over there."
Renda took his time. He slid into the seat where Nancy had been and looked at Majestyk before saying, "If there weren"t, you"d already be dead."
Majestyk"s eyes went to the hallway again. Kopas was still there, watching.
"Leave the girl alone, all right? She doesn"t have anything to do with this."
"I don"t give a s.h.i.t about the girl," Renda said. "As long as she stays in the can, out of the way. I got something to tell you. You probably already know it, but I want to make sure you do. I"m going to kill you."
"When?" Majestyk said.
"I don"t know. It could be tomorrow. It could be next week." Renda spoke in a normal tone, quietly, without the sound of a threat in his voice. "You could hide in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the police station, but I"m going to get you and you know it."
Majestyk raised the beer bottle and took a drink. Putting it down again his hand remained on the bottle and he seemed to study it thoughtfully before looking at Renda again.
"Can I ask you why?"
"I told you why. We make a deal or you"re dead. The fact I got off has got nothing to do with it. You jammed me. You tried to, and n.o.body does that."
"I don"t guess I can talk you out of it then, huh?"
"Jesus Christ-"
"Or there"s anything I can do about it?"
"You can run," Renda said. "I"ll find you. You can live at the police station. But you got to come out some time. There"s no statute of limitations on this one. Whether I kill you tonight or a year from tonight, you"re still going to be dead."
Majestyk nodded and was thoughtful again, fooling with the beer bottle. He said, "Well, I guess I got nothing to lose, have I?"
He raised the bottle in his left hand, but it was the right fist that did the job, hooked into Renda"s face, in the moment he was distracted by the bottle, and slammed him back against the part.i.tion. There was no purpose in hitting him again or hitting him with the bottle. There was little satisfaction in it; but he was letting the guy know he wasn"t a goat tied to a post. If Renda wanted him he was going to have to work for it.
The people at the next tables saw the blood and look of pure astonishment on Renda"s face. They saw the expression begin to change as he touched his face, a dead expression that told nothing, but stared at Vincent Majestyk as he got up from the table.
They heard Majestyk lean over, his hands on the table, and say to the man he had hit, "Why don"t you call the cops?" They watched him walk away as the man sat there.
Bobby Kopas didn"t like it at all, what was happening now. Majestyk coming toward him. Renda, in the booth, who could stand up any second and start blasting the guy. The two cops at the bar, trying to see past the people at the tables who were standing now.
But nothing happened. Kopas stepped back as Majestyk came into the hallway and went past him-didn"t even look at him-to the Ladies" Room. He didn"t do anything. Renda didn"t. n.o.body did. Majestyk pushed open the door to the Ladies" Room and said to the girl who was standing there, "Let"s go home."
It could have been a good night. Then there was no chance of it being even a pretty good night. They got back to the place to find no one there. Not even Mendoza and his family. Majestyk saw the flares and the flashing lights across the field, on the highway. The lights were there for some time before he went over and found out a deputy had been killed. Hit and run it looked like.
Harold Ritchie blew up when he saw Majestyk. He said, "G.o.dd.a.m.n it, you"re the one started this!"
Majestyk said to him, "Listen, an hour ago I had fourteen people at my place counting my foreman and his family. Now everybody"s gone, chased off while you"re sitting in a bar drinking beer."
"And a man was killed and we don"t know who done it because I had to watch you you!" Ritchie yelled at him.
There was no point standing on the highway arguing with a sheriff"s deputy in the pink-red flickering light of the flares that had been set around the area.
Majestyk went home. He told Nancy what had happened, then told her to sleep in the bedroom, he"d sleep on the couch in the living room. When she objected he said, "I"m not going to argue with you. You"re sleeping in there."
She didn"t say any more and he didn"t either. It wasn"t until the next morning they found out what had been done inside the packing shed.
10.
WHEN NANCY came into the shed, Majestyk was opening the cartons that were st.i.tched with bullet holes and stained where juice from the melons had seeped out. She looked at the open cartons scattered about the floor, at the chunks of melon, yellow fragments, on the conveyor line. came into the shed, Majestyk was opening the cartons that were st.i.tched with bullet holes and stained where juice from the melons had seeped out. She looked at the open cartons scattered about the floor, at the chunks of melon, yellow fragments, on the conveyor line.
"If he can"t have you, he"ll take your melons," the girl said. "How does it look?"
"Some are all right."
He walked past her, out to the loading dock, and stared at his empty fields and the pale morning sky. Some were all right. Spend a half day to sort them, maybe have one load to deliver to the broker. Most of the crop was still on the vines. If he could get it in he would at least break even and be able to try it again next year. If he could get the crop in. If he could get a crew. And if Renda would forget the whole thing and leave him alone.
But that was not going to happen, so he"d sit here and wait and watch the crop rot in the field.
Unless you could finish it somehow, Majestyk thought, and had a strange feeling as he thought it. Instead of waiting, what if there was something he could do to get it over with?
When he saw the figure walking in from the highway he knew it was Larry Mendoza-the slow, easy way he moved-and went down to the road to meet him. As Mendoza approached he held up his hand, as if to hold Majestyk off, knowing what was in his mind.
"Don"t say nothing, Vincent. I live here, I work here. I took my wife and kids to her mother"s, so they"d be out of the way. Now, what are we doing?"
"They hurt you," Majestyk said, staring at Mendoza"s bruised, swollen mouth. "I"m sorry, Larry. I should have been here."
"No." Mendoza shook his head. "Getting that beer was the best thing you ever did."
"They asked you where I was and you wouldn"t tell them," Majestyk said. "So they roughed you up."
"Not much. I only got hit once. n.o.body else was hurt."
"You don"t know if Frank Renda was one of them?"
"No, I never seen him, picture or nothing."
"Did you talk to the police?"
"Sure, a cop stop me in town, take me in. They ask some questions, but what do I tell them? Some men come, I don"t even know who they are. I don"t even see see them. They tell us leave or get our heads busted. That"s all. Come on, Vincent, we got some work, let"s do it." them. They tell us leave or get our heads busted. That"s all. Come on, Vincent, we got some work, let"s do it."
"If you"ll do one thing for me, Larry," Majestyk said. "I think we got enough good melons for a load. Take the trailer into the warehouse and leave it there. You can come back later sometime, and get your personal things, your clothes and stuff."
Mendoza frowned. "What the h.e.l.l are you talking about? I"ll bring the trailer back, we"ll pick melons and load it again. You retiring already, or what?"
"I can"t ask you to stay here," Majestyk said.
"Then don"t ask. I"ll get the trailer."
As he started away Majestyk said to him, "Larry ... it"s good to see you."
When he returned to the packing shed Nancy had already begun the sorting, separating the undamaged melons and placing them in fresh cartons. She looked up as he came in.
"Lots of them are still good, Vincent. More than I thought."
"Larry"s going to take a load in," Majestyk said. "He"ll drop you off in town."
"What am I going to town for?"
He realized, by her expression, he was taking her by surprise. "To get a bus," Majestyk said. G.o.d, he sounded cold and impersonal, but went on with it. "There"s no reason now for you to stay. I"ll pay you, give you money for the others in case you run into them." She came to her feet slowly, as he spoke.
"Last night you want to hold me," Nancy said, "see how close we can get. Today you want me to leave."
"Last night-that seems like a long time ago." He still didn"t like his tone, but didn"t know what to do about it. "I must"ve been nuts, or dreaming," he said, "believe the man"d sit and wait for me to get my crop in."
"All right, if you feel he"s going to come back," the girl said, "then why don"t we both leave?"
"Run and hide somewhere? He"d find me, sooner or later."
"So face it and get it over with, huh?" There was a sound of weariness in her tone. "Big brave man, has to stand alone and fight, no matter what. Where"d you learn to think like that?"
"You"re not going to be here, so don"t worry about it."
"Now you"re mad."
"I don"t have time to worry about it."
She said then, "I"ll tell you something, Vincent. I"ve been in a car that was shot at and the man sitting next to me killed. Another time, a truck chased a bunch of us down a road, trying to run us over. And once I was in a union hall when they threw in a fire bomb and shot the place up. I don"t need anybody looking out for me. But if you want me to leave, if you don"t want me here, that"s something else."
He had to say it right away, without hesitating. "All right, I don"t want you here."
"I don"t believe you."
She was holding him with her eyes, trying to make him tell what he felt.
"I said Larry"ll drop you off. Get your bag and be ready when he leaves." He stared at her, fought her eyes, until finally she walked past him, out of the shed.
They were lifting the battered portable toilet onto a flatbed truck with a hoist when Lieutenant McAllen arrived. He had them set the toilet back on the ground and looked at it, not touching it or saying anything until he turned to Harold Ritchie.
"How"s it written up? Hit and run?"
"That"s about all we can call it for the time being," Ritchie said.
McAllen nodded. "What"re they going to do with it?"
"Sc.r.a.p it, I guess. "Less the road people want to b.u.mp it out."
"You think maybe it ought to be dusted first?"
"Well, we could. But there"s people been handling it."
"I"m interested in the door," McAllen said. "Like maybe someone pulled it open, at the time I mean, to see if the man was alive or dead. There could be some prints along the inside edge."
"I guess there could be at that," Ritchie said.
"Let"s bring it in and do it at home," McAllen said. "I think that"d be better than having a lot of people hanging around here, don"t you?"