Jim Kane - J P S Brown (23 page)

A full shot of bourbon sat in front of Kane. Kane
asked Manuel, the bartender, where it came from. Manuel said Potter
had sent it over. Kane leaned over the bar and poured it in the sink.
He ordered a double shot and when Manuel brought it, he took it and a
glass of water and went over to a corner booth. Dan went over and sat
with him. "Yah, yah, yah, yah, yah," Potter was saying.

Kane drank his whiskey slowly in the evening,
waiting. Dan Gibson chose to wait with him.

"Jim, I'll back you in anything you decide to
do. This is your night. You better do what you can. You might not get
another chance," Dan said.

Later a young doctor, a friend of Kane's and Dan
Gibson's, joined them. He had his wife with him.

Potter had moved over to the bar on their side of the
room. People were leaving the bar. Potter had no companions now.

"
Give Kane a drink. Give his friend, another
cowboy, a drink. Give my friend, Doc Wagner and his cotton-headed
wife a drink, " Potter said.

"
Save your drinks, Potter. We don't want them,"
said Kane.

"
Yah, yah, yah. The big businessman?"

"
And keep your mouth off me. The only thing I
want from you is a check for nine hundred and sixty dollars."

Potter walked over to the booth and stood over them.
The doctor was sitting on a chair with his back to Potter. He had his
hat on. A good $12 straw.

Potter snatched the doctor's hat. "Sure is a
nice hat, doc. You a cowboy too? You head full of know-how. It need
air, man.

All of a sudden there was a big switchblade snapping
open Y in Potter's hand. He slid the point smoothly into the crown of
the hat and sliced it off. He put the brim back on the doctor"

"Yah, yah, yah, yah, yah," Potter said and
swaggered back to the bar.

Kane was out of the booth in time to hold the doctor
back.

"
Come on, Cotton," he said to the doctor's
wife. "Please go home." He put his arm around the doctor's
shoulders and walked him to the door. The doctor was very angry. The
doctor and his wife went out the door. Dan Gibson was at the door
too.

"I'm drunk, Jim. I'm going home now."

"
OK, Hoot, " Kane said.

"
You should have pounded hell out of him before
now."

"Not here, Hoot. I've got to get him somewhere
private. Across the line in the corrals would be a good place. I'll
be damned if I'll go to jail over my own money."

"
I guess you know what you're doing, Jim. Good
night."

"
Good night, Dan. Thank you."

Kane went in the restroom. When he came out Potter
wasn't in the bar. Manuel motioned to Kane that Potter had gone out.
Kane started out. Two of the restaurant waitresses were looking out
the window.

"
You better get outside, Jim. Potter has a knife
on your friend," one of the girls said.

Jim stepped outside. Dan was in his car. Potter,
holding the switchblade, was standing on the sidewalk in front of the
car. "Yah, yah, yah, run, you little son of a bitch. I'll run
your partner off next."

Dan fell out of the car and went for Potter. Kane got
his hand on Dan's elbow just as he swung on Potter. It made the punch
miss. Kane got hold of Dan and pulled him back to the car. Potter had
been too slow or too scared to stick the knife.

"Let the young boy come on," Potter said,
hefting the big knife in his hand. "Come on, boy. Come on."

"
Go on home, Dan," Kane said. He turned on
Potter.

"
Put up the knife, Fats."

"
Let your boyfriend make me put it up."

"
Put it up before you have to eat it."

"
Yah, yah, yah," Potter said. He turned and
walked back in the bar.

"
You shouldn't have butted in, Jim. He's got a
lot coming to him," Dan said.

"
He's mine, Hoot. Now you leave him to me and go
on home."

Gibson got in his car and drove away.

Kane went in after Potter. He sat down next to him at
the bar. "I thought you were gone, Kane. I didn't know big
businessmen like you hung out in these old bars."

"
Fats, now you are going to pay me so get out
your little draft book."

"
Let Mulligan pay you. It was his deal."

"
It's your money, Fats."

"
It wasn't my deal."

"
No, but you are going to pay for it. I'm not
going to wait very much longer, bigshot, then I'm going to start in
on you."

`'Listen, punk. I'm bullet city. I've been shot,
knifed, and busted up so much I've started to like it."

"Bigshot, you are going to have to like it
because I'm going to give you plenty of it. What do you do that is
big? What makes you a bigshot, Fats?"

"
I'm not a bigshot. I just try to earn a few
dollars."

"You never earn anything, bigshot. You get
suckers like me to steal from."

"I haven't stolen anything from you."

"
No, you haven't because you are going to pay me
pretty quick for twenty-four head of cattle."

"
Why don't you just admit you made a bad deal
and write it off like I do when I make bad deals."

"I ain't a big enough shot. I can't afford to be
a bigshot like you."

"
Maybe you are in the wrong business. Maybe you
ain't smart enough to be a steer buyer. I think you missed your
calling. If I were you I'd go back down there and keep those Meskin
women pregnant and raise a passel of Meskin generals. Now that is the
way you could make money. Not in the steers. Steers is for oldtimers
like me and your dad."

"You wouldn't make a pimple on a steer buyers
ass, Fats. You're a bigshot. Where did you learn all about being such
a bigshot, calling hogs back in Arkansas?"

"
I know a little about this cattle business,"
said Potter.

"
You know who to pick to do the work and how to
keep from paying them. Only you are going to pay me." .

"
I don't owe you. Mulligan does."

"You pay. Now I'm through talking, Fats. Pay me
now or I'm going to start massaging your brain."

"
Well, let's go see Mulligan in the room and get
this straightened out."

They left the bar and walked through the parking lot.
Dan Gibson was there sitting in his car. He got out. He got in step
with Kane. The three men walked to Mulligan's room, where Potter woke
him by shouting through the window.

Mulligan was sitting up on his pillow in red silk
pajamas lighting a cigarette when they walked in.

"
Shorty, if we owe this little chickenshit
bastard anything, let's pay him right now and get him out of my
hair," said Potter.

Kane set himself solidly on the motel's deep carpet
and slammed a straight right hand into the side of Potters head.
Potter half turned and nosedived, loosely unconscious, head-first,
into the wall in the corner of the room. There was a hole in the
plaster when he rolled back on the carpet. His head had punctured the
wall where Kane's punch had driven it from  across the room.

Mulligan reached for the phone.

"
Forget about that," Dan said. "You
just sit up there like a pretty little girl on the bed. I'd like a
piece of you myself."

Kane picked up a chair and slammed it against the
wall. He rolled Potter over by the hair of the head and sat him up.
He lifted him and slammed him into the chair. Then he faced the chair
to the motel desk, jamming Potter between the chair and the desk. He
got the briefcase and threw it to Mulligan.

"
Get that famous draft book out and make me out
a draft for nine hundred sixty dollars for twenty-four head of cattle
so bigshot can sign it."

Potter moaned and fell out of the chair. Kane pulled
up another chair and sat in it. He was cooling a little now and he
realized he'd hit him too hard. It would never do to put him clear
out or maybe kill him.

Mulligan finished writing the draft and laid it on
the desk.

"
He won't sign it, Jim," Mulligan said.

"
I hope he doesn't I want to tap him some more.
I'd like to tap on him till breakfast time."

''This won't get you anywhere, Jim. Be reasonable,"
said Mulligan.

"
I'm through reasoning with you guys. It's
collection night." He got up and went in the bathroom and got a
glass of water. He walked back in the bedroom and poured it slowly on
Potters nose. Potter started fighting for air and when he turned his
head Kane poured water in a thin stream from up high into Potter's
ear.

Potter sat up.

"
Now, Fats, get up in the chair," Kane said
nicely. Potter sat in the chair. He was very. pale. Things were
happening to him.

Fats. Sign that draft our partner just made out. It's
on the desk."

"I don't owe you," said Potter sullenly.

"Now Fats, don't sull on me. Just pay me and
it'll be all over."

"Yah, yah, yah, yah, y—"

Kane lifted an arm and shovel-hooked three quick ones
on Potter's kidney.

"Yah . . "

Kane hooked on the ribs. They were very satisfactory
blows. They weren't homeruns like the first one that had busted the
wall but they were nice base hits. Kane was set just right and he was
in a position to pull the target solidly into each punch adding
immeasurably to bite, leverage, and satisfaction. He worked on the
other side, it was nicely padded with fat there, too.

"
Yah . . ."

Kane jerked the head back by the hair.

"
God, I'm tired of hearing that," he said
and punched Potter softly in the Adams apple. Potter fell over like
he'd been shot. He kicked convulsively. He gagged and threw- up.

"
My God, Jim, y0u'll kill him. I'm sorry but I'm
going to have to call the law," Mulligan said, swinging his
little white feet purposefully oil` the bed and grabbing the
telephone.

"Shorty, I don't want to start on you. Please
don't make me. Just put down the phone," said Kane.

"
Let me have the son of a bitch," Dan said.
"I guarantee he won't do any phoning."

"
No, Hoot. Hes going to be all right. Aren't
you, Shorty?"

Mulligan put down the phone. "OK, but go easy on
the man, Jim. You've already done enough. Hes going to need a doctor
and a hospital as it is."

"
Oh, I'm through if Fats is. Fats, are you
through now? Don't say 'yah, yah' again."

Fats was on his hands and knees now, draining his
lungs where he had choked them with vomit. There was a large purple
lump on his cheekbone. Its swelling joined the big one on his
forehead where he had butted the hole in the wall.

"
Kill me. Kill me. Kill me," Fats groaned.

Kane took two short gliding steps and place-kicked
Potter in the belly, stepped back one step, swung the leg stiffly,
and kicked again. Potters arms collapsed at the shoulders and he fell
over on his nose. His eyes stared at Kane. His shoulders were turned
in, his mouth contorted. The great bulk of his weight was shuddering.
It was all pressing down on its face. You could tell by the eyes that
the man was gone for awhile. Then the man came back and the body
relaxed and rolled over on its side and then it sighed and the man
was all the way back in. The eyes closed peacefully.

Kane sat back down. He was surprised the eyes had not
bothered him. He was collecting the debt and doing everything
necessary to collect the whole debt. Kane's anger was collecting its
part of the debt now. The abusive part of the debt required anger in
the collection. The $960 part was necessary too. He must not forget
about the dollar part.

"
Fats. Fats, wake up," he crooned.

Fats lay there comfortably. He had his shoulders
arranged right now. He had rolled over on his back and his arms were
lying comfortably on his stomach. A

"
Fats, wake up, " Kane said and got up from
the chair. The creak of the chair got Potter's attention. The eyes
opened wide. They looked fearfully at Kane. Evidently the man in
there couldn't take it at all while looking at Kane. Kane did not
like seeing the fear. He realized seeing the fear might stop him.
Maybe he had done all he could now.

Kane stepped up close to the head. The eyes were
transfixed. You might have thought the body was still unconscious. No
part of it moved. But Kane could see the conscious terror of the man
scrambling behind the eyes.

"
Now, Fats, I know you would not like it if I
started grinding my boot in your face. But I would like it and right
now is all my turn, so get ready."

Fats rolled. over and got up on his hands and knees
again.

"
Kill me," said Potter.

Kane swung the foot again, punting, putting the boot
to the head on the face side. The man left again and the body mass
spread itself on the floor. Maybe the man was gone for good this
time.