Gecko (2 page)

“
So you weren’t thinking clearly?” Walker shut off the engine.

“
My mind was working fine.” He got out of the car, stretching as he looked up and down the alley. It looked to Jim as if he was trying to cover the fact that he was checking to see if anybody was watching.

“
Don’t hurt him,” Walker said as Washington climbed into the back.

“
I won’t, I just wanna ask him a few questions.”

Jim pushed himself as far from the big man as possible, but there was nowhere he could go. His retreat was blocked by the locked door.

“
Don’t hurt me anymore,” the voice in his head pleaded.

“
Quiet! I’m not a coward.” Jim thought it must be his subconscious and he didn’t understand, because he’d never plead, never beg.

“
I didn’t say anything,” Washington said. “And I don’t think you’re a coward. I just want to talk a little before we get to the hospital.”

“
You scare out a lot of confessions this way?” Jim asked.

“
Some.”

“
They stand up in court?”

“
Some. I’m a big man, big boned. Frightens some people.”

“
I killed a couple of baby-rapers once,” Jim said, ignoring Washington’s statement. “I caught them right after they raped a young mother and her little girl.” He was looking through Washington, speaking like he was in a trance. “I shot them both in the balls. Then I blew off their knee caps and sat and watched them scream and bleed to death. That’s what got me caught, watching them die. I could’ve killed them quick and got away, but I didn’t and it cost me four long years.”

“
Jesus.” Walker crossed himself.

“
And you know what,” Jim continued, “even though it was the worst four years of my life, if I had it to do over again, I’d kill them slow again.”

“
What have we got here?” Walker said.

He didn’t get an answer. The men in the back were quiet, staring at each other. The silence was interrupted by the sound of a gunshot and the pinging of shattering safety glass as a bullet lanced through the rear window.

“
Go, go, go!” Washington shouted, but Walker didn’t need any urging. He started the car in an instant, pulling the gear shift into drive with his foot already on the floor. The new Ford cruiser shot out with its rear wheels spinning.

A second shot rang out, ricocheting off the rear bumper, but before the gunman could fire a third, Walker had the car sliding around the corner. One hand on the wheel, the other on the mike.

“
Officers under fire! Alley behind Tenth, east of Park, turning north onto St. Joseph.”

Walker stomped on the brakes as soon as they were out of sight and no longer a target. He leapt out of the car with his gun drawn, instinctively opening the back door. Monday and Washington scrambled out. Washington also had his gun drawn. There was the sound of a siren off in the distance.

The two policemen ignored Monday as they ran, hoping to get a shot at their attacker, but by the time they reached the corner, the alley was empty. They turned and walked back to the car, only to discover their prisoner gone.

“
We’re in for it now,” Washington said.

“
Come on, get in,” Walker said. “He couldn’t have gotten very far.”

“
Over here.” Both officers turned toward the voice.

“
There, I think, between those two houses.” Walker pointed to an area between two houses covered in green bushes, a perfect hiding place for a child playing hide and seek.

“
I need some help here, I don’t think I can get up by myself,” Jim called out.

“
You didn’t think you could hide from us for long did you?” Washington helped Jim up.

“
I wasn’t hiding from you.”

“
Then who?”

“
The shooter, the man trying to kill me.”

“
What makes you think it was you he was after?” Washington said as the sirens got closer.

“
Someone tried to run me down on Second Street, but they got the wrong man. Makes me think the shooter was trying for me. Unless of course you guys get shot at all the time.”

Two police cars came skidding around the corner onto St. Joseph, one from the alley, the other from the north, boxing them in.

“
For Godsakes get these cuffs off. I think my arm is broken and besides, I’m not going anywhere.”

“
Turn around,” Washington said. Jim obeyed and Washington unlocked the handcuffs. “Now don’t go making me sorry I did that.”

“
Are you crazy, Washington?” Walker said. “Didn’t you hear what he said about killing and going to jail? Now you go and take the bracelets off. You think that’s smart?”

“
Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but I think I can trust him.”

“
Holy shit, Washington, look at your car. Looks like someone put a bullet through the back window,” an approaching officer said.

“
Went in but didn’t go out, looks like,” a second uniform said.

“
Doesn’t look like it hit anything inside. Must have gone out one of the open windows.”

“
Driver’s window. You driving, Washington?”

“
No, Walker.”

“
Damn, Walker,” one of the young cops said, “you’re one lucky policeman, must’ve missed by inches.”

“
Motherfuck!” Walker crossed himself again.

“
Okay, boys,” Washington said, “show’s over, let’s clear out! The natives are getting restless.” Doors were opening and curious people were starting to fill the street.

“
Yep, time to move,” Walker said. “We got a casualty to get to Community.”

“
Okay, take your man to the hospital. We’ll clean up here and calm the common folk,” the first uniform said.

“
I think we can leave the cuffs off.” Washington opened the rear door for Jim, waited while he climbed in, then closed it. The two police officers got in front and once again started for the hospital.

At the hospital, Washington and Walker were called upon to keep order between a battling couple. She had given her husband a broken nose, he’d given her a black eye. So they turned their prisoner over to the staff in the emergency room while they kept the peace. By the time the officers had calmed the quarreling couple, Jim was fixed up and ready to go.

They did a good job.” Jim held his right arm up, showing it off. It was in a cast from the wrist almost to the elbow. He was lucky, he thought, he could still drive and dress himself.

“
Now we go to the station.” Washington’s tone was more subdued. Jim thought he probably didn’t get too many prisoners paying their own hospital bill after the police had roughed them up.

“
All right, I’d like to get this over with,” Jim said.

“
That’s right, you’re a big man,” Walker said as he came into earshot from the other side of the emergency room. “You’ve done time. For murder, isn’t that what you said? So why did they let out after only four years if you killed two people?”

“
The war was over. They let us come home.”

“
Where did you do your time?” Washington said.

“
In a small camp south of Hanoi.”

“
The child molesters you killed were Viet Cong?”

“
Yes.”

“
And you could have gotten away if you would have killed ’em quick and quiet?”

“
Probably.”

“
Why didn’t you?” Walker asked.

“
I was a little upset.”

“
Boy, you and me are gonna get along fine.” Washington said. “It’s a shame we gotta take you in, but that man you half killed is gonna press charges, sure as I’m my momma’s son.”

“
I understand.”

“
You know,” Washington said, “we’ve been through so much together and we don’t even know your name.”

“
Jim Monday.” Jim held out his left hand as the right was in the cast.

“
Hugh Washington.” The big cop took the hand with his own left, “and this is my partner, Ron Walker.”

“
The Jim Monday?” Walker said.

“
I didn’t think anybody still remembered.”

“
How could a guy like me forget. I learned all about you in boot camp.” Now Walker was being respectful too. “You were like a god to us. I campaigned for you. I got all my friends to vote for you.”

“
What are you talking about?” Washington said.

“
This is Monopoly Jim Monday, Silver Star, Navy Cross and the Congressional Medal of Honor. He used to be our congressman.”

“
That was a long time ago,” Jim said.

“
Did you really get that name the way they say you did?” Walker asked.

“
I really did.”

“
I don’t understand,” Washington said.

“
They called him Monopoly Jim because he loved to play the game. In Vietnam he had this set and when he wasn’t in the field, he played. They say when he couldn’t find anybody to play with, he played himself. That true?”

“
Yes,” Monday said.

“
They told us you only did two things in Vietnam, Monopoly and kill. They said that you didn’t go for the girls, you didn’t drink, you didn’t take R & R. They said you didn’t even like to eat. They said you were one crazy motherfucker.”

“
I was.” He had spent a long time trying to forget, but now it was all coming back. The long days, the longer nights. He joined the Marine Corps to get out of school and they turned him into a killing machine, probably because they’d discovered he had an aptitude for it. However it changed him, made it so he was unable to communicate in a normal way. So he played the game.

“
They said you played imaginary Monopoly when you were a POW to stay sane. They said you didn’t break under torture, you didn’t sign anything and you never gave an inch. They said it was because of the Monopoly you played in your head.”

“
I still play, only now it’s for real. I buy and sell real estate.” He remembered the nights of the imaginary game. They couldn’t crack him because his mind was somewhere else. They could never understand that. He lived on Boardwalk and Park Place. He rode the Reading Railroad, paid Luxury Tax and tried to stay out of Jail. He played the game in his head and after a while they figured he was crazy and they left him alone. He used to wonder why they didn’t kill him and be done with it, but sometime about ten years ago he stopped wondering.

“
I know who you are now,” Washington said. “You’re the Jim Monday that owns half of Long Beach. You own the building I live in. You’re my landlord.”

“
Probably.”

“
Are you still crazy?” Walker asked.

“
No, now I’m rich.” Jim smiled, secretly pleased somebody still remembered him.

“
We still have to take you in, sir,” Hugh Washington said. “Small matter of assault and battery.” His words brought back with frightening clarity the picture of David, dead and covered in glass. This wasn’t just a friendly conversation with two policemen. He was being arrested for attacking Bernd Kohler, a man he believed had tried to kill him. Twice. That meant that he would probably try again. Maybe he had someone waiting at the house, or the condo at the beach. He needed someplace safe. He needed it quickly, he needed it now and he needed a little time to plan. He needed to get even, but he couldn’t go running around with guns blazing. He wasn’t a kid anymore. It had been almost four decades since his war, he was five years shy of sixty and he’d always considered sixty old.

But still, almost over the hill or not, he had to find out what he was up against.

“
It doesn’t seem right bringing you in like a criminal.”

“
It’s okay, Walker, I don’t want any special treatment, never have.”

“
You want us to call someone? Your lawyer maybe, so you can make bail as soon as possible?” Washington asked.

“
I don’t have a lawyer anymore. He was just murdered on Second Street. He was my best friend.”

“
I’m sorry,” Washington said.

“
That’s okay, you couldn’t have known.”

“
What do you want us to do, sir?” Walker asked.

“
Take me in. Book me. Let me spend a couple of days in a cell. I need the time alone, to think. When I get everything straight in my head, I’ll make bail.”

“
That doesn’t seem right. Don’t you have someplace you can go?” Walker said.

“
I have a condo in Huntington Beach I use sometimes, but somehow I don’t think that’s safe, because if someone is trying to kill me, they’d know about that. No, I think I’d rather spend some time in the lockup.”

“
It doesn’t seem right, a man like you in jail,” Walker said.

“
A few days behind bars isn’t going to bother me much. For a man like me it would almost be like a resort hotel. I’ll be safe from whoever is trying to kill me. I’ll be able to think. I’ll be able to grieve, alone. I need the solitude.”

“
There’s no solitude in our jail, Mr. Monday. It’s full of drunks, drug addicts and punks.”

“
That’s okay, Walker, for me that would be solitude. I don’t want any favors, except one.”

“
What’s that?”

“
Forget about me. Pretend we never had this conversation. Just book me like you would anybody else. In forty-eight hours the public defender will come to see me and find out I’m not a charity case. Then I’ll make bail. That’s all I ask.”