Further Adventures (18 page)

“So now you know who you’re up against.”

“You’ve got a piece of boloney stuck in your teeth Ray.” While I poked around my Canines he spoke to me very sincere. “It looks completely innocent on your part. I hoped as much.”

I pulled my lips back to show him my pearly whites. “Did I get it?”

“No. It’s still there.”

“You have to guide me in.”

“Left a little. No—
your
left. Got it.”

I speared the tiny ball of boloney a Specimen to examine. “Look at that,” I observed. “What’s the yellow in it? Fat?”

Newberry pulled me back to the Topic of the Day. “Tell me what Amelia told you about the trouble she’s in. I’m sure I can help.”

“You don’t want to help her.”

“No sir I don’t,” he said. “I want to help
you
.”

“I’m fine thanks.”

“You’re going to have to tell me how I get you to trust me on this. Amelia Vasquez is a dangerous woman. She can be vicious. I’ve been able to keep you from getting hurt so far but my hands are tied now if I don’t know what she’s going to do next.”

“I don’t know,” I answered him truly.

“If she goes to Mexico—well—there’s a limit to how much I can do in a hurry. You’ll be on your own with her.” He leaned back & broke open a pack of Dentine gum. He chewed a stick very slow before he asked me, “Did she get you to go to bed with her?”

“A gentleman does not ask. A gentleman does not answer.”

“I guess there’s only one gentleman in the room.” He soft-soaped me with apologies. “I just want to
solve
this thing Ray. What I was thinking—I was thinking pillow talk. When your defenses are down she could drip some poison in your ear. She’s a clever girl. Sharp instincts. She thinks ahead.”

This was not exactly Perfume he was pouring in my ear either. If I listened between Newberry’s lines I could hear the echo of his inner thoughts I could find out how he was plotting against us. “What are you talking about poison?”

“Lies about the kind of trouble she’s in. Lies about me.” He twirled his fingers by his head to show me he can pull a good Example out of the Air. “In case I got to you she’d assassinate my character. Make it very hard for me to convince you otherwise.”

“I try to keep a open mind about people.”

“Including Amelia?”

“To me it looks like she needs my help more than you.”

“That worries me.”

“I hope so.”

“Play fair,” he said. “What did she tell you about me? Give me a chance to defend myself. Listen I know how it is. You’re with a woman. She says anything to you and it’s hard to believe she’d tell you anything that isn’t true. That she’d hide anything from you since the two of you are lying there naked in bed and you can see every mole on her. Every hair. Man! You know how she
smells
. She doesn’t try to hide any part of her so it doesn’t occur to you she’d want to hide anything else.” Newberry clammed up his lips pinched tight. “Believe me. I know what I’m talking about.”

“What are you talking about may I ask?”

“I might as well be married to Amelia Vasquez. I know more about her than I do about any other fugitive. Every night for the last 6 years—since I’ve been on this case—she’s the last thing I think about before I fall asleep. In the morning her file is the first thing I see on my desk. I’m sick of looking at it. I’m
this far away
”—he showed me a small measurement between his finger & thumb—“from closing this out. I don’t want to get sick of looking at a file on you.”

“Can I have a stick of Dentine?”

Disgust from him! He threw the pack at me so I took 2 sticks one for later & one I chewed in front of him. “I’ve been with the Bureau for ten years. I take home around $2250 a month
if
I can snag the overtime. I have a wife who can’t work because she’s got to take care of four kids. You said something about justice in my office. In
my office
you gave me that graduation speech and to be honest Ray it really pissed me off. For your information I didn’t go through Quantico because of the terrific salary. Laugh if you want to but I had the idea that our country is a great place to live. Of all the opportunities on the shelf I picked this one—”

Newberry slapped his Badge on the table. Then he kept going. “And now I’m somebody who protects your right to make a hundred million dollars from fried chicken or porno movies or whatever. Any opportunity you can name I’m protecting it for 2250 and change. But hey. I’m not complaining. There’s a reward to it. Sure. When I sweep a hustler like Amelia Vasquez off the streets! Somebody who turns a decent opportunity upside-down and shakes it to see what falls out of its pockets.”

To demonstrate this ugly Deed he shook out his own pockets which move I think led him to his cutthroat razor he rolled it over & over in his palm. Then here is what I get from him: “I’m selfish. I admit it. If I do my job my kids benefit. There’s a roof over their head and food in their belly. And they see justice is actually a reality sometimes. Same thing my dad did for me.”

For a 4th of July speech he did not rehearse this was not bad Material but I did miss the choir singing “America the Beautiful” behind him which in my professional opinion would add the correct note of emotion to his Grand Finale. Who did he think he was kidding with this schmaltz!

“Your father,” I asked Newberry, “he’s still alive?”

“He’s back in D.C.”

“Retired?”

“Not yet. He’s 63.”

“My car is a ’63.”

“It’s in good shape.”

“Where does he work your father?”

“Dad’s with the Bureau. For his 40th last year,” Newberry said a little sour, “the President gave him a crystal punch bowl.” He twitched his neck. “I’m proud of my dad.”

“He’s proud of his boy I bet.”

“I’m sure he is.”

“God forbid he ever finds out how you hound and harm people.”

“Now wait—”

My fire & fury did NOT wait! “How he made such a low animal come into the world! Kidnapping a nice girl—and me too besides—his hired gunsels throwing us in a dirty room—”

“Hold it right there. Hold on a goddamned minute—”

“Perry with the dogs and the disgusting licking! Locked inside against our wishes! Calling
you!
”

“How the hell would you know that?”

“I figured the whole thing out.” He wanted True he got True.

“Well. If you’re doing your figuring from the incredible garbage Amelia wants you to believe you’re way off in left field. You’re over the fence. In the parking lot.”

“A home run.”

“One ton of 100% B.S.” He sat down very stern. He said to himself “Lies and Looney Tunes.” Then Newberry said, “Listen to me. For your sake and mine I’m going to comb out this plate of spaghetti. Did Amelia tell you how she makes a living? There aren’t a whole lot of careers in Mexico a woman can go into and bring home the kind of paycheck Amelia does.” He gave me a look like a bird looks at a bug. “You don’t have any idea?”

“I believe she’s in the nightclub business.”

Full of force he said, “Amelia runs Mexican illegals across the border. They pay her money you understand me Ray? The house you’re staying in that’s her safe house for the muchachos she smuggles into Texas. You met a man there—plump guy in his 50s—a guy she calls Tio? Looks like the Frito Bandito and talks like a Bubba?”

My fast judgment from the way Tio made me my breakfast & the kind way he treated Amelia made me Deny. “No. I didn’t meet anybody of that description.”

“Doesn’t matter. Amelia started out as a mule. One of Tio’s girl scouts who led his clients across the border a few at a time. By 1980
she was doing business from dozens of places in Mexico. Running them across in Texas all around the Rio Bravo. In New Mexico between Deming and Mason. Various places in Arizona. She put a bankroll together and turned into what we call a sponsor. Pays off the Federales and she’s got paid help this side. Half the mules down there work for Amelia Vasquez. I wish I could brag about my brilliant fieldwork but when I got this assignment my dad sat me on his knee gave me a piece of advice: bust her then give her a job.”

My mind worked on this. “What? Tour guide?”

“Pay attention. Amelia isn’t the only sponsor south of the border. She’s got plenty of competition. So we cut a deal. Whenever any of the other guys were plump and ripe she’d set them up for me. She knows how to do that—convince men to trust her. And she’s stayed in business for a bunch of years so you can guess how smart she is.”

“What’s her trick?”

Newberry frowned at me man to man. “Anyway now it’s all different. The arrangement isn’t working out anymore.”

“For you or for Amelia?”

“It’s the bastard citizens patrols. Maybe you heard about the dead illegals turning up in the desert lately? Not your ordinary wetbacks. They’re mules. Agent Feather informs me the C.P.s are working their way through the families. They’ll get to the sponsors. The Money in the right Federale hand and they’ll get to Amelia. If you’re with her when they catch up she’ll toss you overboard like a sandbag out of a hot-air balloon. Listen Ray. I can bring her in myself before she crosses the border. Otherwise like I told you—there’s a limit to how much help I can be. I don’t want to choose between saving your ass and exposing Agent Feather. Now I like you Ray and I respect you but there’s no contest.”

“I promised Amelia.” I did not want to sound feeble so I said, “I have to protect her.”

“Good. You own a gun?”

I pointed at him. “Protect her from you.”

“How you plan to do that?”

“I have to think about everything.” Ergo Newberry accomplished what he wanted i.e. he planted a Doubt about Amelia in me. “Show me proof.”

Newberry sucked his lips & he pondered this. “Give me till tomorrow. I’ll let you browse through Amelia’s file.”

“Do I have to come back here?”

He pondered again. “Didn’t you say you wanted to see a doctor about something?”

“A high colonic.”

“Look. We use a clinic a few blocks from here.” He scratched the address on a scrap of paper. “Can you read my writing?”

“Arroyo Seco Medical,” I read it out. “Only certain qualified practitioners do colonics.”

“They do everything there.”

“O.K. then. Make the appointment.”

“It’ll be with Dr. Epps. Let’s say nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Dr. Epps. He’s got a first name?”

“Barry. When you get into the examining room one of the nurses will bring you the file. Lie back. Enjoy your high colonic—”

“You lie on your side.”

“Whatever. You can have the file for an hour. Don’t remove it from the room. Give it back to the same nurse when you leave.”

I heard my Voice enter the place from far away. “She only wants to go back to Mexico and live a quiet life.”

“That just isn’t possible anymore.” His Final Words on the subject & he held the door open for me. “You convince her.”

I sat still I did not jump to his Invitation. “Can I sit here by myself for a minute?”

He checked his watch. “Take a minute.”

“Will you switch the light off please?”

When the dark hit the room and Newberry let the door hush shut behind him the Silence rushed in on me it fell from the ceiling on top of my aching head. The same Sound of my Radio when it blows a tube. I know the Show is still going on but I do not hear it I can not hear what is flowing on the Airwaves. So this kind of quiet all of a sudden made me very jumpy & I did not sit & stew anymore I made a move I opened the door.

Pipes & boilers motors & vents & plumbing filled up this basement I did not remember exactly which way to the Exit. I followed the pipes they led me over to the boilers then I followed the vents they led me back to the pipes. I made a circle between the boilers & the motors so I followed the vents from there back to the pipes to the Conference Room. What did I have to do to get myself out of this? Did I have to sit down Helpless until he came back to get me? I did not wait for another tick of the clock I had to admit this was my only way out so I called him but not very loud—

“Newberry?”

By the time I got back to Tio’s I did not feel a Cramp in my head anymore no it was a ball of snakes there which hatched out where my calm Mind used to be. I did not know heads or tails with them hissing & slinking in & out of each other I did not know Truth or Consequences with Amelia—if she is Innocent & Mexican and she did not come back to meet me at Tio’s because of a tip-off and now she is on her way South of the Border—or if she is Guilty and she used me a dumb Decoy for her so she could shake Newberry and get to the Bank and go home to her hideaway.

All of my doubts curled around this ball of snakes. AM I HER CHAMP OR AM I HER CHUMP? Even when I put on my clean pajamas it did not help lower the pressure my eyes ached hard even from the
weak light around the window. So I covered my face in my hands which was not enough either because through my fingers I saw Tio’s bedroom expanding—I was in the middle of the Big Bang with everything flying apart from me. The floor dropped under my feet—the clothes closet took off backwards—the steer horns went spinning up to dark Space—the dark Space came spinning down around me it faded out all the Light in the room. Then I could not feel any Breath in my chest nor not any bodily feeling either. I did doubt my Senses except I watched the edges of the ceiling crack & show the Star Light beyond and that was my last view before I blacked out on Tio’s bed.

Some snooze I took! I can not tell you how long I was knocked out but I woke up in the dark. For a minute I did not recognize my whereabouts but from the smell beside me different Information came in it was Amelia asleep in bed with me. She kept her hand on my arm sizing up my muscle and her cheek she dug in right above it. I scooched up to stretch my back which move shook her awake.

“Qué es?” Her Voice came out jumpy.

Mine was soft in reply. “What’s going on?”

Amelia pulled her pillow down to her stomach & doubled over it she spoke Español to the mattress & hauled herself back on her knees. “I scared you. I’m sorry Ray.”

“Surprised me. Didn’t scare me.”

“You want me to go ’way?” She unwrapped from the blanket & I saw what she was wearing to sleep in only a T-shirt on top of my Bermuda shorts.