Hustle (24 page)

“No, you are nothing like
my dad. He’s a straight-arrow, button-down conservative.”

“Is he still around?”

“Yeah, but if he knew I was sitting in my bedroom talking to someone like you, it might kill him.”

Th
ey both laughed about that, and, then, without warning she kissed him, a long, sloppy drunken kiss on the mouth.

Bear held her by the shoulders and said, “Be careful. I may be old, but I’m not dead.”

She kissed him again. This time he kissed her back. She fell slowly back onto the bed, pulling him with her. Before long they were under the sheets and the lights were off.

It didn’t last long, but it was as passionate as anyth
ing Bear could remember.

Soon after, h
e found himself deep in a dreamless sleep.

There was a banging on the bedroom door.  It was Gabriel, shouting that it was time to go. Bear tried to focus on the clock beside Bean’s bed. 5:30 am. Jesus Christ, thought Bear, what am I, a farmer?

He sat up, hoping Bean would remain in her slumber, and he pulled himself out from the warmth
under her comforter. His head was pounding louder than the door. He opened it.

“What?”

Gabriel said, “Bear, we’ve got to get ready. We want a jump on Dustin. I fear he may be already camped out, waiting.” Then he looked over Bear’s shoulder at his sleeping secretary and said, “Really, Bear, my receptionist? You couldn’t contain yourself?”

“What was that you said yesterday? Oh yeah,
let he who is without sin ...”

Gabriel cut him off, “Yes, yes, yes. Let’s just focus now
on getting ourselves down to City Hall on time, shall we?”

Bear found Donny in the kitchen
slowly stirring a pan of scrambled eggs with a spatula. Donny’s pupils were constricted and he boasted a sleepy, relaxed smile. He’d clearly already spent some time alone in the bathroom this morning.

“You okay?” asked Bear.

“Oh, yeah, I feel great. I’m really a morning person anyway. I’m ready to go.”

“You can’t keep doing this
shit, you know. At some point,” said Bear, “you’re gonna have to get your life together.”

The smile dissipated from Donny’s face. “I know,” he said, “I’m going to
… I plan to.” Then after a moment of contemplation, he said to the frying pan, “I have to.”

“Don’t forget to butter the toast.”

While Gabriel moved into the bathroom for a quick shower, Bear scoured the fridge for a beer. Nothing. “Goddamn wine. I woulda been better off with whiskey,” he mumbled to himself. He gave up his search and decided to wait out the hangover and moved himself outside to the balcony for the day’s first cigarette. It was cold and windy still and he stubbed it out after only a few puffs and returned to the comfort of Bean’s apartment.

The sky outside was growing a pale blue by the time Gabriel emerged from his shower. Donny and Bear
already had their shoes and jackets on and looked impatient.

“What the hell did you drag me out of bed for, Gabe? If I
hadda known you were gonna shower, shit, and shave, I could have stayed in bed an extra hour.”

“I wanted to make sur
e you were ready—
really
ready—to do this. If I know Dustin, he’s been awake this whole time trying to figure out how to beat us to the punch.”

“It’s not even seven o’clock, when does that joint open anyway?
We got time for a coffee at least, don’t we?”

“Eight am, sharp. We’ll be there, at the front door, waiting.”

“What if he’s on the other side? Don’t they open the Van Ness doors and the Polk Street doors at the same time?” asked Donny.

“The kid’s got a point,
Thaxton. How we plan to stake this place out?”

Gabriel pursed his lips, thinking it through. “We’ll
have to put Donny on one side—the Van Ness entrance. He can guard that door and let us know if he sees Dustin.”

“How am I
gonna let you know?” said Donny.

“Use you
r cell phone. Call Bear if you see anything, anything at all. We’ll be waiting at the other side with the paperwork.”

Bear interrupted, “He can’t call me. My cell is dead.
It sat there in Marin for almost two days. That call you made to Bean killed it. I wasn’t kidding yesterday when I said I hadn’t charged it.”

“Donny, let
Bear use Richard’s phone.”

Donny’s face blanched. “No, I told you guys, it
ain’t workin’ either. It’s broke. It ain’t got no charge.”

“Which is it?” said Bear. “Is it broken, or does it have no charge?”

Donny hesitated only a second before Bear lit into him, “I’m sick of this shit. You been jerkin’ me around about the goddamn phones for three fuckin’ days now. Before we go into goddamn battle, I wanna know what the deal is with those phones. What’s on ‘em you had to have ‘em back so fuckin’ bad? And don’t tell me about no goddamn kid pictures this time.”

Gabriel looked confused. He had no idea what Bear was talking about. He had no idea why Donny was looking like he wanted to disappear into the carpet. “Donny, what is it? Just tell us. This far along, I don’t think there’s any need to keep secrets.”

Donny felt all at once exhausted, sick of the whole thing. He didn’t care anymore. He didn’t care about the money, getting off the street; he was tired, pushed to his limits. He thought about his dead friend, he thought about the freak raping him in the motel room. He thought about the plan to extort the man standing right in front of him, a man who was waiting for an explanation with his big, watery blue eyes. A man that had been only kind to him. Donny gave up.

“There’s a
video on Rich’s phone. A movie. We shot it at the hotel last week.”

Both Gabriel and Bear waited.

“It’s got you in it, Gabriel. You, me, and Rich. We were gonna tell you we’d put it up on YouTube if you didn’t pay us off. That was it, our big plan. We just wanted enough dough to get off the streets and now,” he almost choked up, but held it in check. “Here we are. Rich is dead.”

Bear held up a finger and said, “Don’t forget about that poor woman upstairs.”

“Oh, Jesus,” said Donny. The image of her dead body flashing through his mind again before he continued, “Dustin’s stealing your house, and … and I’m probably going to fucking jail.”

Bear and Gabriel only let the boy talk.

“I don’t know, I went along with it. I just wanted to get clean and get outta here, outta San Francisco. Rich told me again and again it would work, even when I knew it was never going to. Then, it was too late, we’d gone too far.”

Beatrice’s tiny apartment was silent. They heard a
toilet flush in another unit, then the creaking of a neighbor’s footsteps upstairs. Still, no one said anything.

Then Bear said, “I don’t think they even let you put that
kinda shit on YouTube.”

Gabriel smiled. Bear was right. It didn’t take a lot to maintain damage control on a scheme like that. There were entire firms whose sole funct
ion was to root out slanderous Internet posts. It would be particularly easy for someone who was not a movie star, someone that nobody wanted to see naked—someone like himself—to quash a plot like that before it got out of hand.
Outed
. When he thought about it, it was the least of his worries.

Donny looked visibly relieved. When he’d gotten it all out, he took a couple of deep breaths and lifted his head to face Gabriel. He felt foolish. He felt like a dumb kid, caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Gabriel said, “I’m going to help you, Donny, but not because of the film. I’m going to help you get off the street, off the drugs, because I think you deserve that. I’m going to help you because you’re helping me.” He paused a moment, then said, “and because, regardless of what you two were up to, I considered Richard a friend.”

“Alright, enough of this
shit. I don’t want to watch an Afterschool Special. Jesus. I’m gonna say good-bye to Bean and then we’re out of here.”

Chapter 23

They’d reached the car, got in, and started to pull out before Gabriel asked Bear, “What did she say?”
“Nothing,” said Bear. “I couldn’t wake her up.”

It was a
n unusually clear morning, crisp and cold. There weren’t too many other cars on the street either, only taxis, Muni buses, and early morning commuters. All three of them kept their eyes peeled for the black Bentley.

They rolled down Polk Street and when they’d reached City Hall they went around the block a few times, looking
for Dustin and trying to find the right parking spot with the best vantage point. They finally settled on a spot perpendicular to the sidewalk on Grove Street across from the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. They pulled in and could see the doors of City Hall from where they sat. Civic Center Plaza was designed to offer a sense of classical antiquity. A hodge-podge of different themes from different eras, there was Roman and Greek architecture mixed in with City Hall’s Parisian dome. The whole place gave one a feeling that its best days were behind it. The plaza laid out in front of the grand buildings was dotted with homeless people—in tents, in sleeping bags, or curled up around their battered shopping carts.

Bear st
ruck up a Camel and cracked his window. “What time is it?”

Gabriel didn’t e
ven have to check. “Seven-twenty.”

Bear leaned back.
“Donny, you got that phone?”

Donny passed it up
, and with it the video, the failed plot, and his hopes of extorting Gabriel. “You got another one of those Camels?”

Bear shook one out for the boy and p
assed him the lighter. “Now remember, kid, when you walk around to the Van Ness side, keep an eye out. We figure he’s gotta be near here somewhere, waiting, just like we are. If you see anything, anybody that looks like him, you call. Let’s make sure we’re the most recent dialed number in your phone to speed things up.”

Donny scrolled to Rich’s number and hit send. The phone in Bear’s hand rang once before Donny hung up.

“Good luck, son,” said Gabriel as Donny got out of the car.

Donny walked around to the driver’s window and Bear rolled it down. Donn
y said, “One more, for the road?”

Bear sighed and shoo
k out another Camel for the boy. “You know, kid, they sell these things in stores.” Donny took the cigarette and Bear added, “Remember, be smart. Use your head, Donny. Be smart.”

Donny
turned and walked away, still limping with the pain from his last time on the corner.

“We should discuss any weapons you might have.” Gabriel spoke without taking his eyes off the ornate golden doors in the middle of City Hall.

“Why? I know there’re
metal detectors. I’ll leave what I have in the car.”

“When we do see him, he’ll be away from the vehicle. We’ve go
t to get into that trunk. He won’t have the VHS tape with him, I don’t think. It’ll most likely be in the trunk.”

“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about your precious tape.”

“Getting this deed recorded is the easy part, Bear. It’s getting that tape back I’m worried about.”

Bear asked, “You think the kid is over there yet?”

“You could call him.”

“Nah, I’ll wait.”

Just as the words left Bear’s lips, they spotted the black Bentley. It rolled slowly down Polk Street, from McAllister toward Grove, right past the front steps of City Hall. They could see Dustin behind the wheel, alone in the car, with his neck craning toward the building’s entrance.

Gabriel said, “Good L
ord.”

And Bear said, “Holy shit.”

The car moved through the light at Polk and
Grove and continued on toward South of Market.

“Where the fuck is he going?” asked Bear.

“Pull out, Bear. Follow him,” Gabriel said excitedly. “Quickly, before he gets too far.”

Bear started his Toyota and threw it into reverse. They made the light and turned left onto Polk. They could see Dustin in
Thaxton’s Bentley stopped at the light up ahead of them.

“He’s in a stolen car, Gabe. Call the cops. Tell ‘
em where he’s at.”

“The car has not been reported stolen. It will only complicate things. Please, just stay close and keep an eye on him.”

“Jesus Christ, what the hell do you think I’m doing?”

They
now sat two car-lengths behind Dustin. They watched his head turn, bird-like, from side to side, either looking for a place to park or the usual paranoid jerking motions he always made. Bear got a chill just seeing the back of his head. The light changed and they followed the Bentley across Market onto 10
th
Street. Dustin was moving away from City Hall.

“You think he sees us?”

“I doubt it,” said Gabriel. “But I’m not sure what he’s doing either. Maybe he’s looking for parking. Maybe he’s not even sure where he’s going. Stay close, Bear. This is our chance.”

“To get the tape, you mean.”

Dustin drove ahead for three more blocks, then, without signaling or slowing, took a hard left on
Folsom Street. By the time Bear made the same left, Dustin was halfway up the next block. The Bentley was moving fast. Dustin caught the next two lights and showed no signs of slowing.

“Shit, I think he sp
otted us.”

Gabriel pointed at the corner
ahead. “He’s taking a left on 7
th
. Hurry, Bear, stick with him. He’s going back to the Civic Center.”

Dustin crossed Market Street
again, hooked a right, and zipped into the Tenderloin District. Gabriel started to get nervous. They were dangerously close to a high-speed chase. This could only go on for so many minutes before they attracted the attention of the police. They followed Dustin, zigging and zagging over the one-way streets of the City’s skid row. Then, he was gone.

“I don’t see him,” said Bear.
“What time is it?”

“Seven thirty-three,” said Gabriel.

“Call Donny and let him know he’s coming his way. We gotta get back and cover the other entrance.”

“We’ve go
t to find him,” Gabriel sounded desperate now. “He’s probably pulled into one of these alleys. We still have time, let’s find him, please. Turn here at Larkin.”

Bear turned.

“Left here, on Willow, slow down,” Gabriel commanded. He knew the alleyways of the Tenderloin well, having prowled here when picking up young men. He was sure Dustin would be hiding somewhere near.

Before they’d made it half
way down the alley, they were hit from behind. The jolt shocked them both and Bear stopped the car. He looked in the rearview and saw Dustin’s smiling face behind the wheel of the Bentley.

“Son of a bitch,” Bear growled. He watched as Dustin threw the Bentley in reverse and began to back out of the alleyway. When Dustin reached the mouth of the alley, he reversed into traffic. Horns sounded and there was another metallic crash.
There were more horns followed by a squeal of tires. Bear watched as he saw the Dustin’s vehicle flash past the entrance to Willow Alley. It was a hit and run; the Bentley was gone.

Instead of following him in reverse out of the alley, Bear put it in drive and moved forward to Polk. There was no point in getting tangled in the destruction Dustin had created.
Larkin was a one-way street; the Bentley had to be moving north now.

Bear took a right on Polk and moved north
too, hoping to spot the Bentley on one of the cross streets. There was an unbearable rubbing sound where the fender had been pushed into the right rear wheel. He was sure several citizens had called 911 by now. The police would soon be scouring the Tenderloin for the Bentley.

“He’s dumping the car,
” said Bear.

“How do you know?” asked Gabriel.

“He’s got to. Hear the sirens? He’s gotta dump the ride if he’s gonna make it to City Hall.”

Then they saw him, walking quickly out of Cedar Alley. He had a shoulder bag wrapped around his
neck and he was moving fast, trying to act nonchalant. Bear’s eyes met Dustin’s. Bear yanked the Toyota over. The right front tire jumped the curb.

Bear s
tarted to jump out of the car, but he was caught by his seatbelt. While he fumbled with it, Dustin broke into a sprint. He was running down the gentle, sloping blocks toward City Hall. Bear, remembering that all his weapons were still in the trunk, said, “Shit,” and got back into the driver’s seat and pulled his battered car off the curb.

He tried a clumsy three-point turn and got the Toyota facing the same direction as Dustin was moving.

“Get him, Bear. We still have time,” Gabriel cried, his voice high and excited now. He was torn between chasing Dustin or finding his Bentley and searching the car for the VHS tape before the police discovered it. “Did you see where he left the car?”

Bear made the decision for him and sped after Dustin.

Donny sat o
n the stone steps leading up to City Hall on Van Ness Avenue. He twirled the second Camel Bear had given him between his fingers. He wasn’t watching the sidewalk for Dustin. His mind wandered. It played over the scenes of the last three days. He felt sick when he thought about Rich. Not dope-sick, but a sour queasiness in his stomach. He kept flashing back to Dustin, too, that jailhouse tattoo on his chest, the deranged look in his eyes. Donny wondered if that’s what was in store for him; if he, too, was to become an animal like Dustin.

“Pull over, pull over, there he is,” Gabriel shouted as they watched Dustin slip into another alleyway.

Bear yanked the car over along a sect
ion of the curb painted red beside a fire hydrant and hopped out of the car. The Toyota was hanging in the street with its rear-end damage visible to anyone who may drive by. He ran around to the rear of the car and opened the trunk. He reached into the wheel-well and got his gun.

“C’mon,” he said to Gabriel, but
Thaxton was already crossing the street to reach the mouth of the alley.

Dustin had reached the
alley’s halfway point when Bear shouted, “Freeze motherfucker!”

Dustin didn’t freeze; he darted behind a large dumpster and grabbed the nearest thing he could
find, a half-conscious homeless woman slumbering there with her man. Dustin wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her up on her feet. She protested, grumbled, not really sure what was happening, perhaps thinking that she was being arrested. He pulled his gun from behind his back with his free hand and stuck it into her cheek. He peeked out from behind the dumpster and saw that Bear and Gabriel had slowed to a cautious walk.

Bear had his gun out in front of him, aimed at Dustin’s head. “Dustin, you fuck, let that woman go. You’re
gonna get her killed.”

“Fuck you,” said Dustin, “You’re the one that’s
gonna get her killed. You back off, go back the other way and I’ll let her go.”

Gabriel pleaded with him.
“It’s gone too far, Dustin. They’ll never let you record that deed. They’re watching for you at City Hall. You won’t even make it into the building. Give this thing up before someone else gets hurt.” Then Gabriel said something that astonished Bear, “Dustin, I can still represent you. What have you done? A hit and run is all you’ll be charged with. Please, it’s not too late.”

“Hit and run? That was your car, old man. You
fuckin’ deal with it.” Dustin’s voice was venomous, hissing. His glassy eyes lit up with glare.

He reminded Bear of some kind of angry reptile, cornered and about to get a swat.

“It’s your problem; it’s all your problem. I have the tape and you know what that means. I’ll always have the tape, you old fuck.”

The woman in Dustin’s clutches was making unintelligible gurgling sounds. She knew now she was not under arrest, but she still looked wild and confused.

Bear had his gun aimed right at Dustin’s head. “You want me to shoot him, Gabe? I think I can do it. It’s an easy shot.”

Sirens rose, several of them, the sound
was getting louder and louder. Gabriel said to Bear, quietly and out of the side of his mouth, “Can you do it, can you hit him?”

“I think so.” Bear kept his hand steady, his sights on Dustin’s forehead.

“Please, Dustin,” said Gabriel. “Where is the tape?”

“
I got it. I got it right here. And you’re never gonna get it.”

“Shoot him,
” said Gabriel.

From behind Dustin, a great, dirty, meaty paw rose. The homeless woman’s man, or husband, or boyfriend, rose up and was going to swing at Du
stin. “Leggo uh her,” he said with a slurred growl.