"Nine": Recruiting

Writer's Note: This actually does directly follow-up the previous post. --C.A.

I ignore Salamanca’s question.

“You hear about Kelly?”

“Yeah, man. Sucks. Sorry to hear it.”

I nod.

“Also heard about a dead drug dealer named Luis Colón. Fucker got killed with a five grand bond on him. You know anything about that?”

“I don’t know anything about five grand.”

Salamanca smirks at my dodge. “You know anything about a big time hitter from out of town who’s poking around about it?”

“Hitter?”

“Yes, Spears. As in, hitman. As in, Colón’s mob wants to know why their Utica distributor has more holes in him than normal.”

I feel the need to sit down, so I do in the client chair. It’s slated wood and stiff, which helps keep me upright.

“How do you know this?” I ask.

Shrug. “I knows what I knows.” Salamanca’s stare never leaves me.

“What makes you think this concerns me?”

“Maybe cause you went as pale as the Martha Stewart fan club when I mentioned the hitman? Maybe because I checked around and Colón didn’t have beef with anyone, ‘cept maybe an angry boyfriend?”

My eyes drift away from Salamanca’s, and I shift against the twisting in my guts. A gross miscalculation; I had assumed that someone like Colón would have plenty of enemies around.

I find some air. “The hitman know this?”

Head shake. “If he did, you’d be dead, I’m sure.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Confidence, shit. You can’t karate chop a bullet. You’re over you head and you know it, or you wouldn’t be here, darkening my doorstep.”

“I knew that. Didn’t realize how deep. I came here for help with Jerry Gold.”

“Shame about Jerry. Cops know who aced him?”

I tell him what I overheard, including the description of the shooter.

“A white guy with a fucking Zorro mask and a gold grill?”

I nod and explain my suspicions about the skinny guy and Tank Daddy.

“Sounds about right. I posted bond on both them guys. Sounds like you know Tank Daddy. Gold-grill’s name is Lenny Krastewski…” He trails off and for the first time looks away, out his window.

“What?”

“Lenny and Tank take turns shaking down the smaller businesses in the area for protection money. Cops don’t pay much attention, cause it’s been pretty small time. But lately, they been getting greedy. Could be that they were shaking down Jerry and when he don’t pay up, they used him as an example.”

“Son of a bitch.”

“That aint’ all. Guess who Lenny and Tank worked for, the operative word there being worked.”

“Colón?” I feel the flush of anger and something else—guilt?—on my cheeks. Did killing Colón somehow get Jerry killed?

Salamanca looks back at me, sees my train of thought and shakes his head. “I don’t think Colón’s and Jerry’s death are related any more than that. One didn’t lead to the other, exactly. Guy in charge of the crew now is a ‘roid freak named Bulldog, real rageaholic. Maybe without Colón’s cooler head around, he and Lenny got greedier.”

“Thanks, Tony. I almost felt better for a second.”

Shrug. “You did whatcha did. Lenny did what he did. You can’t control that.”

“I might be able to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Deep sigh. “Christ, Spears, you listening to me? There’s a hitman in town that will put a fucking hole in your head if he finds out you killed Colón.”

“I thought you said he didn’t know.”

“Not yet, no. I forget how innocent you are, Spearsy. I’m used to dealing with an element that knows the score, even if they ain’t as smart as you.” Big sigh again, and he’s looking out the window at the rain splashing against the pane. “There’s more to this than you know, Spears. It’s not easy to hear.”

My shoulders tense. I nod at him to go on.

“I did some checking around after I heard about Kelly. Figured I owed ya something for pulling Tina and me out of that fire.” He pauses and looks for something. The right words, I figure. “It was no accident that Kelly got that laced joint.”

I’m silent, holding vigil against the truth.

“Kelly was shaking Colón down. Why, I haven’t figured out yet. She wanted money for something, or she was going to testify against Colón as a drug dealer.”

Kelly into extortion and drugs? My Kelly? I want to walk right out of the office. But I don’t. The weight of the truth holds me in my chair and I slump against its weight.

“Again, I’m sorry, man. I know that shit ain’t easy to hear.”

Head shake. Still clinging to the last bit of resistance in me. “Doesn’t make sense. Kelly didn’t need the money. She didn’t want things, just the basic necessities and a few dollars left over for books.”

“Are you sure you knew her that well?”

I fight against my anger. “Yes. She had her Masters of Fine Arts and published poetry books. She didn’t have to be at a community college, making small change, when she could have been at a big school, making big money. She stayed here because she loved to teach these kids, whose only shot at an education was getting prepped at the CC.”

“I don’t know about all that, Spears, but maybe you’re right.”

Salamanca is quiet while he thinks about it, rubbing his scarred hand across two-days growth on his neck. I concentrate on breathing and sanity. I want to hit someone repeatedly.

“There someone she’d want to help? She have a kid or a relative in trouble?”

“No, no kid of her own, anyway. Maybe…” I rub my mouth as I consider it. Anger recedes. A seed of an idea sprouts and it feels good to be thinking again.

Salamanca waits for me, his gaze down from stern to curious. “Who would she give help to?”

“Whom,” I correct. “Mother taught school. Good grammar, always.”

“Never though of you having a mother, but all right, wise-ass, to fucking whom would she give help?”

“A student. She was always trying to save those kids, especially the hard cases who got into the college by the skin of their teeth.”

“That of course leads to the next question…”

“Yeah, which student. Guess I’ll have to figure that out.”

I stand, shake Salamanca’s hand, and leave.

“You need help on this, Spears, you let me know. But even I can’t help you against a Columbian hitman. Watch your six.”

“I’ll see what I can do about that five grand,” I say, walking out the door.