Mr Majestyk (1974) (12 page)

Lundy, slowing down for the intersection, saw the figure on the corner. H
e r ecognized the shirt, bright in the headlights, and the sunglasses and th e c urled-brim Texas hat. He said to Renda, next to him, "There's Bobby. He look s l ike he's got to take a leak or something."

Kopas was there as the car came to a stop, hunched down to look in the sid e w indow. He said, as calmly as he could, "Mr. Renda . . . man you want's insid e t hat place over there, having a beer."

Renda said, "Alone?"

"With a girl. One works for him."

"Where's the cop sitting?" Renda said.

The good feeling was there and it was gone as he felt his confidence begin t o d rain out of him. Kopas straightened and, with a squinting, serious expression , looked over toward the State Highway Department truck parked at the gas station.

He said, "I'm not exactly sure yet, Mr. Renda. But you want me to, I'll fin d o ut."

He was not aware of the country music or the two deputies at the bar or th e o ther people in the place. Not right now. His hand was on the bottle of beer , but he was not drinking it. He was looking at the girl's eyes, at the pear l e arrings and the way her dark hair was parted on the side, without the bandana , and had a silver clip holding it back, away from her face.

Nancy said, "Do you mind my asking about her?"

"No, it's all right." Majestyk paused. "I don't know, I guess people change. O
r e lse it turns out they're somebody else all the time and you didn't realize it.

Do you think it's hard to know people?"

"Not always," Nancy said. "Was she blond, with blue eyes?"

"Most of the time blond. You put your hair up in rollers? You have very prett y h air."

"Once in a while I have. Why?"

"I picture my wife, I see her with rollers. She was always fooling with he r h air, or washing it."

"You have any kids?"

"Little girl, seven."

"And you miss her."

"I guess I do. I haven't seen either of them in two years. They moved to Los Angeles."

A silence began to lengthen and Nancy said, "Are you thinking about them?"

"No, not really."

"What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking I'd like to know you better."

"Well, I'll fill out a personnel form," Nancy said. "Read it over, see if I pass."

"Always a little bit on the muscle." He was staring at her as he said, "You'r e v ery pretty."

"No, not very. But I suppose not bad-looking either. Not somebody you'd kick ou t o f bed, huh, if that's what you've got in mind."

"Why don't you try and relax a little," Majestyk said, "and be yourself. Fin d o ut what it's like."

"You want to go to bed with me. Why don't you say it?"

"I'd like to hold you."

"See how close we can get?"

"Sometimes, hard as you try, you can't get close enough," he said. "You kno w t hat?" She didn't answer, but he knew by her expression, the soft smile, she wa s a ware of the feeling. Wanting to lie very close to someone, holding each other , not saying anything, because they wouldn't have to use words to say it.

He said, "Let's go home, all right? Go to my house."

There was no need to make him wait. Or, as he said, to be on the muscle. She wa s a ware that they knew each other, each other's feelings. She knew she could rela x w ith him and be herself. Still she hesitated, she supposed out of habit, befor e s aying to him, "All right, your house." She smiled then as he smiled. "But first I'll go to the Ladies'--if it isn't locked."

"If it is," he said, "I'll kick it open."

He watched her cross the room--and the men looking up at her as she passed thei r t ables--to the little hall that led back to the kitchen and the rest rooms.

He saw a man come away from the jukebox and turn into the hallway and knew, eve n b efore the man with the hat and the sunglasses looked over his shoulder an d g rinned at him, it was Bobby Kopas. Majestyk started to slide out of the booth , rising. Then stopped, and sat down again as he felt the pressure of the hand o n h is shoulder.

"How you doing, buddy?"

Majestyk looked up, then past Renda toward the bar. "There're two cops sittin g o ver there."

Renda took his time. He slid into the seat where Nancy had been and looked at Majestyk before saying, "If there weren't, you'd already be dead."

Majestyk's eyes went to the hallway again. Kopas was still there, watching.

"Leave the girl alone, all right? She doesn't have anything to do with this."

"I don't give a shit about the girl," Renda said. "As long as she stays in th e c an, out of the way. I got something to tell you. You probably already know it , but I want to make sure you do. I'm going to kill you."

"When?" Majestyk said.

"I don't know. It could be tomorrow. It could be next week." Renda spoke in a n ormal tone, quietly, without the sound of a threat in his voice. "You coul d h ide in the basement of the police station, but I'm going to get you and yo u k now it."

Majestyk raised the beer bottle and took a drink. Putting it down again his han d r emained on the bottle and he seemed to study it thoughtfully before looking at Renda again.

"Can I ask you why?"

"I told you why. We make a deal or you're dead. The fact I got off has go t n othing to do with it. You jammed me. You tried to, and nobody does that."

"I don't guess I can talk you out of it then, huh?"

"Jesus Christ--"

"Or there's anything I can do about it?"

"You can run," Renda said. "I'll find you. You can live at the police station.

But you got to come out some time. There's no statute of limitations on thi s o ne. Whether I kill you tonight or a year from tonight, you're still going to b e d ead."

Majestyk nodded and was thoughtful again, fooling with the beer bottle. He said , "Well, I guess I got nothing to lose, have I?"

He raised the bottle in his left hand, but it was the right fist that did th e j ob, hooked into Renda's face, in the moment he was distracted by the bottle , and slammed him back against the partition. There was no purpose in hitting hi m a gain or hitting him with the bottle. There was little satisfaction in it; bu t h e was letting the guy know he wasn't a goat tied to a post. If Renda wanted hi m h e was going to have to work for it.

The people at the next tables saw the blood and look of pure astonishment on Renda's face. They saw the expression begin to change as he touched his face, a d ead expression that told nothing, but stared at Vincent Majestyk as he got u p f rom the table.

They heard Majestyk lean over, his hands on the table, and say to the man he ha d h it, "Why don't you call the cops?" They watched him walk away as the man sa t t here.

Bobby Kopas didn't like it at all, what was happening now. Majestyk comin g t oward him. Renda, in the booth, who could stand up any second and star t b lasting the guy. The two cops at the bar, trying to see past the people at th e t ables who were standing now.

But nothing happened. Kopas stepped back as Majestyk came into the hallway an d w ent past him--didn't even look at him--to the Ladies' Room. He didn't d o a nything. Renda didn't. Nobody did. Majestyk pushed open the door to the Ladies'

Room and said to the girl who was standing there, "Let's go home."

It could have been a good night. Then there was no chance of it being even a p retty good night. They got back to the place to find no one there. Not even Mendoza and his family. Majestyk saw the flares and the flashing lights acros s t he field, on the highway. The lights were there for some time before he wen t o ver and found out a deputy had been killed. Hit and run it looked like.

Harold Ritchie blew up when he saw Majestyk. He said, "Goddamn it, you're th e o ne started this!"

Majestyk said to him, "Listen, an hour ago I had fourteen people at my plac e c ounting my foreman and his family. Now everybody's gone, chased off whil e y ou're sitting in a bar drinking beer."

"And a man was killed and we don't know who done it because I had to watch you!"

Ritchie yelled at him.

There was no point standing on the highway arguing with a sheriff's deputy i n t he pink-red flickering light of the flares that had been set around the area.

Majestyk went home. He told Nancy what had happened, then told her to sleep i n t he bedroom, he'd sleep on the couch in the living room. When she objected h e s aid, "I'm not going to argue with you. You're sleeping in there."

She didn't say any more and he didn't either. It wasn't until the next mornin g t hey found out what had been done inside the packing shed.

Chapter
10.

WHEN NANCY came into the shed, Majestyk was opening the cartons that wer e s titched with bullet holes and stained where juice from the melons had seepe d o ut. She looked at the open cartons scattered about the floor, at the chunks o f m elon, yellow fragments, on the conveyor line.

"If he can't have you, he'll take your melons," the girl said. "How does i t l ook?"

"Some are all right."

He walked past her, out to the loading dock, and stared at his empty fields an d t he pale morning sky. Some were all right. Spend a half day to sort them, mayb e h ave one load to deliver to the broker. Most of the crop was still on the vines.

If he could get it in he would at least break even and be able to try it agai n n ext year. If he could get the crop in. If he could get a crew. And if Rend a w ould forget the whole thing and leave him alone.

But that was not going to happen, so he'd sit here and wait and watch the cro p r ot in the field.

Unless you could finish it somehow, Majestyk thought, and had a strange feelin g a s he thought it. Instead of waiting, what if there was something he could do t o g et it over with?

When he saw the figure walking in from the highway he knew it was Larry Mendoza--the slow, easy way he moved--and went down to the road to meet him. As Mendoza approached he held up his hand, as if to hold Majestyk off, knowing wha t w as in his mind.

"Don't say nothing, Vincent. I live here, I work here. I took my wife and kid s t o her mother's, so they'd be out of the way. Now, what are we doing?"

"They hurt you," Majestyk said, staring at Mendoza's bruised, swollen mouth.

"I'm sorry, Larry. I should have been here."

"No." Mendoza shook his head. "Getting that beer was the best thing you eve r d id."

"They asked you where I was and you wouldn't tell them," Majestyk said. "So the y r oughed you up."

"Not much. I only got hit once. Nobody else was hurt."

"You don't know if Frank Renda was one of them?"

"No, I never seen him, picture or nothing."

"Did you talk to the police?"

"Sure, a cop stop me in town, take me in. They ask some questions, but what do I tell them? Some men come, I don't even know who they are. I don't even see them.

They tell us leave or get our heads busted. That's all. Come on, Vincent, we go t s ome work, let's do it."

"If you'll do one thing for me, Larry," Majestyk said. "I think we got enoug h g ood melons for a load. Take the trailer into the warehouse and leave it there.

You can come back later sometime, and get your personal things, your clothes an d s tuff."

Mendoza frowned. "What the hell are you talking about? I'll bring the traile r b ack, we'll pick melons and load it again. You retiring already, or what?"

"I can't ask you to stay here," Majestyk said.

"Then don't ask. I'll get the trailer."

As he started away Majestyk said to him, "Larry . . . it's good to see you."

When he returned to the packing shed Nancy had already begun the sorting , separating the undamaged melons and placing them in fresh cartons. She looked u p a s he came in.

"Lots of them are still good, Vincent. More than I thought."

"Larry's going to take a load in," Majestyk said. "He'll drop you off in town."

"What am I going to town for?"

He realized, by her expression, he was taking her by surprise. "To get a bus,"

Majestyk said. God, he sounded cold and impersonal, but went on with it.

"There's no reason now for you to stay. I'll pay you, give you money for th e o thers in case you run into them." She came to her feet slowly, as he spoke.

"Last night you want to hold me," Nancy said, "see how close we can get. Toda y y ou want me to leave."

"Last night--that seems like a long time ago." He still didn't like his tone, bu t d idn't know what to do about it. "I must've been nuts, or dreaming," he said , "believe the man'd sit and wait for me to get my crop in."

"All right, if you feel he's going to come back," the girl said, "then why don'
t w e both leave?"

"Run and hide somewhere? He'd find me, sooner or later."

"So face it and get it over with, huh?" There was a sound of weariness in he r t one. "Big brave man, has to stand alone and fight, no matter what. Where'd yo u l earn to think like that?"