Collection (4 page)

“I’m not trouble for him.”

The old man nodded.
 
“In that case, you can find him on 14th and Vine.”
 
He gave me an address then pushed the door closed.
 
Before it shut, I heard him say, “Tell him he needs to call his mother.”

~

I found the address easy enough, and this time I took the .44 and slid it in my jacket pocket.
 
When I knocked on the door, I heard someone shuffle inside.
 
A moment later a shadow passed behind the peep-hole.
 
It stayed for a while, then a low voice said, “Who is it?”

“Are you Charley?”

“Who are you?”

“Vanessa wanted me to drop off this check for you.”

I heard the chain slide almost immediately, and when the door opened I pushed it back –hard, and took the .44 from my pocket.

“What the hell is this?”

I pointed the gun at his head.
 

He held his hands out.
 
“Jesus Christ, man.”

I’d never held a gun on a person before, and I didn’t necessarily like the way it felt, but Charley Taylor was big, bigger than me, and I was happy to have the gun.
 

“Why did you try to blow up the Diner?”

“I didn’t try to blow up anything.”

“You’re right,” I said.
 
“You burnt it down.”

He shook his head.
 
“That wasn’t me, man.”

He backed into the apartment and stood pressing himself against the living room wall.
 
There was a faded green couch in the room and he balanced himself against it with one hand.

“Who were you with?”

“I’m telling you, I don’t know what you’re talking—”

I slid the chamber back on the gun, loading a round, then pressed the barrel against his head.
 
I was thinking about Marcus, and when I did, pointing that gun didn’t feel as bad.

“Chris almighty, please, man.”

“Who was he?”

“Are you a cop?”

I shook my head.
 
“I’m a chef.”

He looked up at me.
 
If he wasn’t so scared I swear he might’ve laughed.
 
“Guy’s name is Max.
 
I help him out with jobs once in a while, but I didn’t start no fire.”

“Max what?”

“No idea.”

“What do you know?”

He shook his head.
 
“I know he works for a guy named Rusch who owns a couple strip clubs in Glendale.
 
Max works security, the kind that stays in back.”

“I heard the Rusch family got out of that back room shit.”

This time Charley did manage to smile.
 
“You heard wrong.”

~

I drove across town to a place in Lakewood.
 
The entire way I wondered why a guy who worked for Vince Rusch would want to blow up a diner.
 
It didn’t make sense.
 
If the Rush family was still involved in organized crime that was one thing, but even then, what would they want with a shit-hole diner like Marcus’s place?

The sign outside Mulligan’s recycled goods said you could get anything inside. I also knew you could dispose of anything, too.
 
But that wasn’t on the sign.
 

I parked at the end of the fence and went up a long sidewalk to the front door.
 
When I went inside I heard a delicate chime, and then the smell of grease and dust and age hit me and took me back half a lifetime.

Some places change, but Mulligan’s wasn’t one of them.

Dave Mulligan had known my father.
 
They’d worked together a few times, did time together, and my dad trusted him.
 
When they were both out of jail at the same time, they’d have weekly card games.
 
I was just a kid, and once in a while I’d get to come along.
 
The game always bored me, so they let me explore the junk lot behind the building.
 
It was a good memory.

I stood in the doorway smiling like an idiot.

“You in or out?”
 
A woman’s voice asked.

I glanced over at the counter and smiled, then I let the door close behind me.
 
I walked across the room to where she stood.
 
“I’m looking for Dave,” I said.

She thumbed over her shoulder and said, “He’s out in the lot, but he’ll be back in a few minutes.
 
Anything I can help you with?”

I told her no, and she didn’t seem to care.
 
She sat on a wood stool and took a paperback from the shelf next to her.
 
It had one of those windblown covers with a lot of hair and skin and the color red.
 

“Good book?” I asked.

“Nope,” she said, and didn’t look up.

I decided to look around.

When Dave came in, he didn’t recognize me.
 
I stood at the counter, smiling.
 
He looked up once, frowned, then said, “Help you?”

“Yeah,” I said.
 
“I hear you got a card game around here that’s easy to beat.
 
I hear you can’t bluff worth a shit.
 
Your eye twitches whenever you lie.
 
Is that true?”

Mulligan stared at me, then, after a moment, he smiled and shook his head and said, “Would you look at this mother fucker.
 
All grown up.”

~

“I didn’t even know he was sick,” Mulligan said.
 
“Christ, he was too young.”

“That’s what you’re supposed to say, I guess.”
 
We were sitting in his office.
 
He had a refrigerator in back, and he opened it and handed me a beer.
 
It tasted good.
 
“Me and him weren’t close.”

“Yeah?”
 
He shrugged.
 
“Don’t let it get you down.
 
Your old man wasn’t close with anyone.”

“What about you?”

“What about me?
 
I liked him fine, and I guess he tolerated me.
 
Truth is, he was happy when he was alone.
 
That’s the way he wanted his life to be, and that’s what he got.”

“Seems like a shitty way to live.”

“Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t.”
 
He motioned to my beer.
 
“You want another?
 
Maybe tell me why you came by?
 
Was it just to give me the news?”

“I want to know what you can tell me about Vince Rusch.”

Mulligan looked up at me.
 
“The club owner?
 
What the hell you want to know about him for?”

“Looking for someone that works for him.”

“Who?”

“Guy named Max.”

Mulligan’s eye twitched.
 
“Never heard of him.”

I knew he was lying, even without the eye to give him away.
 
Dave Mulligan knew everyone in this town who worked under the law.
 
It had been one of the reasons he and my father had been friends.
 
I couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t tell me, but I decided to let it slide.

“From what I hear, Vince Rusch isn’t completely legit.
 
From what I hear, this Max guy handles some of Vince’s back room shit.”

“Not for Vince,” Mulligan said.
 
“He’s clean.”

“Then what’s with Max?
 
Why does he need someone like that around?”

Mulligan got up and walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out two more beers.
 
He opened them on the edge of his desk and handed one to me.
 
“I don’t know that he does.”

“Is someone over Vince?”

Mulligan took a long drink.
 
When he set the bottle down he leaned back on the couch.
 
“What’s all this about, Jack?
 
You’re bringing up a lot of bad guys.”

“I’m doing this for a friend,” I said.
 
“Someone tried to blow up his restaurant.
 
I worked there.
 
He was my boss.”

“Sounds like he’s into some bad shit.”

“Not this guy.
 
He’s in his seventies.
 
He’s a good man.”

“You sure about that?”

I thought about it for a moment, then said, “One hundred percent.”

Mulligan shook his head.
 
“Don’t go doing anything stupid.”

“Give me a name.”

Mulligan nodded slowly, then said, “Colletto.”

I eased back in my chair.
 
“Christ.”

“Keeps an office in the settler’s club down on Larimer Street.
 
You know the place?”

I nodded.

“I probably shouldn’t have told you,” Mulligan said, then pointed at me.
 
“Don’t do anything stupid.”

I laughed, lifted my beer and finished it.
 

“What are you going to do?”

“Haven’t decided.”

“I don’t believe you.”

I looked up at him and smiled and wondered if my eye was twitching.

~

That night, sitting at the kitchen table, I told Ava about Charley and his mother.
 
I told her about Vince Rusch and Max.
 
I even told her about Dave Mulligan and how my father once told me he was the only man he ever trusted.
 
But I couldn’t tell her about Colletto.
 

If she knew why I was going down to the Settler’s club tomorrow she’d lose her mind.
 

But I wasn’t going to lie to her, either.

Luckily she didn’t ask too many questions about what had happened.
 
She was concerned with what would happen next.
 

“Have you thought about money?” she asked.

I hadn’t.
 
I’d been too wrapped up, and I hadn’t even thought about rent or food or diapers.
 
“I’ll find something this week.”

“Nelson is always asking me if I want more shifts.
 
If you want to stay home with Jacob a couple more nights, you know, just for a little while.”