بخش 02 - فصل 22

22

Statewide Motorcycle & Small Engine Repair isn’t statewide or even citywide; it’s a ramshackle zoning mistake made of rusty corrugated metal on the South Side, a stone’s throw from the minor league stadium where the Groundhogs play. Out front there’s a line of cycles for sale under plastic pennants fluttering lackadaisically from a sagging length of cable. Most of the bikes look pretty sketchy to Morris. A fat guy in a leather vest is sitting against the side of the building, swabbing road rash with a handful of Kleenex. He looks up at Morris and says nothing. Morris says nothing right back. He had to walk here from Edgemont Avenue, over a mile in the hot morning sun, because the buses only come out this far when the Hogs are playing.

He goes into the garage and there’s Charlie Roberson, sitting on a grease-smeared car seat in front of a half-disassembled Harley. He doesn’t see Morris at first; he’s holding the Harley’s battery up and studying it. Morris, meanwhile, studies him. Roberson is still a muscular fireplug of a man, although he has to be over seventy, bald on top with a graying fringe. He’s wearing a cut-off tee, and Morris can read a fading prison tattoo on one of his biceps: WHITE POWER 4EVER.

One of my success stories, Morris thinks, and smiles.

Roberson was doing life in Waynesville for bludgeoning a rich old lady to death on Wieland Avenue in Branson Park. She supposedly woke up and caught him creeping her house. He also raped her, possibly before the bludgeoning, perhaps after, as she lay dying on the floor of her upstairs hall. The case was a slam-dunk. Roberson had been seen in the area on several occasions leading up to the robbery, he had been photographed by the security camera outside the rich old lady’s gate a day prior to the break-in, he had discussed the possibility of creeping that particular crib and robbing that particular lady with several of his lowlife friends (all given ample reason to testify by the prosecution, having legal woes of their own), and he had a long record of robbery and assault. Jury said guilty; judge said life without parole; Roberson swapped motorcycle repair for stitching bluejeans and varnishing furniture.

‘I done plenty, but I didn’t do that,’ he told Morris time and time again. ‘I woulda, I had the fuckin security code, but someone else beat me to the punch. I know who it was, too, because there was only one guy I told those numbers to. He was one of the ones who fuckin testified against me, and if I ever get out of here, that man is gonna die. Trust me.’

Morris neither believed nor disbelieved him – his first two years in the Ville had shown him that it was filled with men claiming to be as innocent as morning dew – but when Charlie asked him to write Barry Scheck, Morris was willing. It was what he did, his real job.

Turned out the robber-bludgeoner-rapist had left semen in the old lady’s underpants, the underpants were still in one of the city’s cavernous evidence rooms, and the lawyer the Innocence Project sent out to investigate Charlie Roberson’s case found them. DNA testing unavailable at the time of Charlie’s conviction showed the jizz wasn’t his. The lawyer hired an investigator to track down several of the prosecution’s witnesses. One of them, dying of liver cancer, not only recanted his testimony but copped to the crime, perhaps in hopes that doing so would earn him a pass through the pearly gates.

‘Hey, Charlie,’ Morris says. ‘Guess who.’

Roberson turns, squints, gets to his feet. ‘Morrie? Is that Morrie Bellamy?’

‘In the flesh.’

‘Well, I’ll be fucked.’

Probably not, Morris thinks, but when Roberson puts the battery down on the seat of the Harley and comes forward with his arms outstretched, Morris submits to the obligatory back-pounding bro-hug. Even gives it back to the best of his ability. The amount of muscle beneath Roberson’s filthy tee-shirt is mildly alarming.

Roberson pulls back, showing his few remaining teeth in a grin. ‘Jesus Christ! Parole?’

‘Parole.’

‘Old lady took her foot off your neck?’

‘She did.’

‘God-dam, that’s great! Come on in the office and have a drink! I got bourbon.’

Morris shakes his head. ‘Thanks, but booze doesn’t agree with my system. Also, the man might come around anytime and ask me to drop a urine. I called in sick at work this morning, that’s risky enough.’

‘Who’s your PO?’

‘McFarland.’

‘Big buck nigger, isn’t he?’

‘He’s black, yes.’

‘Ah, he ain’t the worst, but they watch you close to begin with, no doubt. Come on in the office, anyway, I’ll drink yours. Hey, did you hear Duck died?’

Morris has indeed heard this, got the news shortly before his parole came through. Duck Duckworth, his first protector, the one who stopped the rapes by Morris’s cellie and his cellie’s friends. Morris felt no special grief. People came; people went; shit didn’t mean shit.

Roberson shakes his head as he takes a bottle from the top shelf of a metal cabinet filled with tools and spare parts. ‘It was some kind of brain thing. Well, you know what they say – in the midst of fuckin life we’re in fuckin death.’ He pours bourbon into a cup with WORLD’S BEST HUGGER on the side, and lifts it. ‘Here’s to ole Ducky.’ He drinks, smacks his lips, and raises the cup again. ‘And here’s to you. Morrie Bellamy, out on the street again, rollin and trollin. What they got you doin? Some kind of paperwork’d be my guess.’

Morris tells him about his job at the MAC, and makes chitchat while Roberson helps himself to another knock of bourbon. Morris doesn’t envy Charlie his freedom to drink, he lost too many years of his life thanks to high-tension booze, but he feels Roberson will be more amenable to his request if he’s a little high.

When he judges the time is right, he says, ‘You told me to come to you if I ever got out and needed a favor.’

‘True, true … but I never thought you’d get out. Not with that Jesus-jumper you nailed ridin you like a motherfuckin pony.’ Roberson chortles and pours himself a fresh shot.

‘I need you to loan me a car, Charlie. Short-term. Not even twelve hours.’

‘When?’

‘Tonight. Well … this evening. Tonight’s when I need it. I can return it later on.’

Roberson has stopped laughing. ‘That’s a bigger risk than takin a drink, Morrie.’

‘Not for you; you’re out, free and clear.’

‘No, not for me, I’d just get a slap on the wrist. But drivin without a license is a big parole violation. You might go back inside. Don’t get me wrong, I’m willin to help you out, just want to be sure you understand the stakes.’

‘I understand them.’

Roberson tops up his glass and sips it as he considers. Morris wouldn’t want to be the owner of the bike Charlie is going to be putting back together once their little palaver is done.

At last Roberson says, ‘You be okay with a truck instead of a car? One I’m thinking of is a small panel job. And it’s an automatic. Says “Jones Flowers” on the side, but you can hardly read it anymore. It’s out back. I’ll show it to you, if you want.’

Morris wants, and one look makes him decide the little black panel truck is a gift from God … assuming it runs all right. Roberson assures him that it does, even though it’s on its second trip around the clock.

‘I shut up shop early on Fridays. Around three. I could put in some gas and leave the keys under the right front tire.’

‘That’s perfect,’ Morris says. He can go in to the MAC, tell his fat fuck of a boss that he had a stomach bug but it passed, work until four like a good little office drone, then come back out here. ‘Listen, the Groundhogs play tonight, don’t they?’

‘Yeah, they got the Dayton Dragons. Why? You hankerin to take in a game? Because I could be up for that.’

‘Another time, maybe. What I’m thinking is I could return the truck around ten, park it in the same place, then take a stadium bus back into town.’

‘Same old Morrie,’ Roberson says, and taps his temple. His eyes have become noticeably bloodshot. ‘You are one thinking cat.’

‘Remember to put the keys under the tire.’ The last thing Morris needs is for Roberson to get shitfaced on cheap bourbon and forget.

‘I will. Owe you a lot, buddy. Owe you the motherfuckin world.’

This sentiment necessitates another bro-hug, redolent of sweat, bourbon, and cheap aftershave. Roberson squeezes so tightly that Morris finds it hard to breathe, but at last he’s released. He accompanies Charlie back into the garage, thinking that tonight – in twelve hours, maybe less – the Rothstein notebooks will once more be in his possession. With such an intoxicating prospect as that, who needs bourbon?

‘You mind me asking why you’re working here, Charlie? I thought you were going to get a boatload of cash from the state for false imprisonment.’

‘Aw, man, they threatened to bring up a bunch of old charges.’ Roberson resumes his seat in front of the Harley he’s been working on. He picks up a wrench and taps it against the grease-smeared leg of his pants. ‘Including a bad one in Missouri, could have put me away down there for the rest of my life. Three-strikes rule or some shit. So we kinda worked out a trade.’

He regards Morris with his bloodshot eyes, and in spite of his meaty biceps (it’s clear he never lost the prison workout habit), Morris can see he’s really old, and will soon be unhealthy, as well. If he isn’t already.

‘They fuck you in the end, buddy. Right up the ass. Rock the boat and they fuck you even harder. So you take what you can get. This is what I got, and it’s enough for me.’

‘Shit don’t mean shit,’ Morris says.

Roberson bellows laughter. ‘What you always said! And it’s the fuckin truth!’

‘Just don’t forget to leave the keys.’

‘I’ll leave em.’ Roberson levels a grease-blackened finger at Morris. ‘And don’t get caught. Listen to your daddy.’

I won’t get caught, Morris thinks. I’ve waited too long.

‘One other thing?’

Roberson waits for it.

‘I don’t suppose I could get a gun.’ Morris sees the look on Charlie’s face and adds hastily, ‘Not to use, just as insurance.’

Roberson shakes his head. ‘No gun. I’d get a lot more than a slap on the wrist for that.’

‘I’d never say it came from you.’

The bloodshot eyes regard Morris shrewdly. ‘Can I be honest? You’re too jail-bit for guns. Probably shoot yourself in the nutsack. The truck, okay. I owe you that. But if you want a gun, find it somewhere else.’