Mr Majestyk (1974) (18 page)

"Frank's not home," Wiley said. "You want to come in and wait?" He didn't answe r n ow and she turned to go. "Well, it was nice talking to you."

"Wiley--"

She stopped and looked back. "Yeah?"

"Come here."

"I don't know where you are."

"Over here. That's right."

He waited until she was in the trees, more cautious now, and finally saw wher e t hey were standing. "What's he doing?" Majestyk said. "He want you to point t o m e so he can shoot?"

"I told you, he's not home."

"The car's over there."

"It belongs to somebody else."

"Wiley, tell Frank the cops are on the way. Tell him if he wants to settle it h e h asn't got much time."

She hesitated. "Police, huh. Listen, this really hasn't got anything to do wit h m e. I just happen to stop by."

"Who else is in there? How many?"

She hesitated again. "Just Frank . . . and two others. God, he's going to kil l m e."

Majestyk turned to Nancy. "Put her in the truck. Drive back to the road and wai t f or me there."

Wiley said to Nancy, "I really don't know what's going on. I don't have an y c lothes or anything."

"Don't worry, I'll give you a nice outfit," Nancy said, and looked at Majesty k a gain. "Vincent, wait for the police, all right?"

"If they come," he said, "but right now it's still up to him."

They couldn't see her now. There had been a spot of orange in the trees, but no w t hat was gone. "Where'd she go?" Kopas said. He didn't like it at all. Fiv e p eople dead, the man out there waiting for them. The man must be crazy, all he'
d d one.

"He grabbed her," Lundy said. He was holding his big magnum, resting it on th e w indowsill.

Why would he? Kopas was thinking and said, "Maybe they left. He sees we got him , so he took her and cut out."

"He's there," Renda said, sure of it now, since he had begun to know the man , understand him. "Son of a bitch, we got to suck him out. Or go in after him."

Kopas said, "You mean walk out there?"

Renda looked at him. "If I tell you to."

Majestyk came up to the Olds 98 through the trees, keeping low, and there wa s n othing to it. The next part he'd have to do and not worry about and if the y s potted him and fired he'd have to back off and think of something else. H
e o pened the front door on the passenger side, waited a moment, then slid i n h eadfirst over the seat and pulled the key out of the ignition. Coming out h e l ooked at the backrest of the seat cushion, at the two bullet holes that wer e h ardly noticeable. Just a little more to the left. He wished he'd taken a coupl e m ore seconds. It would have saved him a lot of trouble.

They could still come out the front while he worked around through the trees t o t he back, but it wouldn't do them any good now. They weren't going anywhere , unless on foot, and then it would be even easier.

That's what he did: cut across the open to the blind side of the house an d s tayed close to it as he made his way around to the patio.

It could work because they wouldn't expect him. Get up to a window or the glass door underneath the sundeck, shove the pump gun in, and wait for somebody t o t urn around. He moved past the lounge chair Wiley had been using a little whil e b efore, his eyes on the window. Even if he had looked down then he might no t h ave seen the iced tea glass, it was so close to the chair. By the time he di d s ee it he had kicked it over--hearing it like a window breaking--and all he sa w w ere the broken fragments and a piece of lemon on the wet cement.

Renda turned from the front window. He stood listening, holding the .45

automatic at his side, then raised it as he started across the room toward th e p atio door. Lundy followed him.

Kopas waited. He wasn't sure he wanted to go over there. He watched Renda pres s a gainst the glass panes to look out, trying to see down the outside wall of th e h ouse. Kopas knew he'd have to open the door and stick his head out to se e a nything. He wondered if Renda would open the door, if he'd go out. Christ, i t w ould take guts.

He heard Renda say to Lundy, "You stay here. I'm going up on the sundeck. I spo t h im I'll yell to you."

Lundy nodded, holding the big mag, and moved in close to the door as Renda cam e b ack across the room. Kopas still didn't know what to do. He was sure, though , he didn't like being here with the guy right outside, the guy maybe poking a gu n i n a window any minute.

That is why he followed Renda to the front hall and up the stairs. The gu y c ouldn't poke a gun into a second-floor window.

Renda went into a bedroom and over to the sliding glass door that opened on th e s undeck. He glanced at Kopas as he went out, noticing him, but didn't sa y a nything--like other times, looking through him as if he wasn't there.

Kopas said, "What you want me to do, Mr. Renda?"

Maybe Renda hadn't heard him. He was out on the sundeck now, looking over th e r ailing at the patio. Kopas raised his shotgun and moved to the open doorway. H
e d idn't go out. He could see most of the patio and the swimming pool, the su n r eflecting on the clear green water. He watched Renda go to his hands and knees , trying to see down through the narrow spaces between the deck boards. Rend a c rawled along this way, coming back to the door before he got to his feet again.

"Son of a bitch, he's under there," Renda said.

But where? Kopas was thinking. The deck was about thirty feet long. He could b e r ight underneath them or he could be down a ways or hiding behind something. H
e w atched Renda move to the rail again, then look over to the left, to where th e p atio door would be, where Lundy was waiting. He watched Renda lean over th e r ail and point the .45 straight down--and couldn't believe it when Renda suddenl y y elled out.

"Gene, he's going around the side! Get him!"

Majestyk's eyes were raised to the sundeck above his head, his shotgun pointin g s traight up to where he was pretty sure Renda was standing--where he had hear d t he movement and where the glints of sunlight between the boards were blotte d o ut.

He didn't know it was Renda, not until he heard Renda's voice, his words clear , startling. And heard something else. A door. Quick footsteps on cement.

He had time--at least three seconds, before Lundy, running alongside the swimmin g p ool, saw him, came to a stop and swung the magnum at him--time to swing th e s hotgun down and fire and pump and fire again and see Gene Lundy blown off hi s f eet into the swimming pool.

Renda saw that much and knew where the man was down below, knew close enough , and began firing the .45 automatic straight down at the deck boards , concentrating on a small area only a few feet to his left, fired and fired , splintering, gouging the stained wood, and kept firing until the automatic wa s e mpty.

He stood listening then. When the gunfire ringing in his ears began to fade, h e c ould hear, very faintly, the sound of hi-fi rock music coming from the mai n r oom. That was all. He stepped into the bedroom to reload the .45, stil l l istening, watching the patio--pulling out the clip and throwing it aside, takin g a nother clip from his jacket pocket and smacking it with his palm into the grip.

"Go take a look," Renda said.

Kopas had backed away from the glass doors until the bed stopped him and he fel t i t against his legs. "Mr. Renda--" He stopped and started over. "The man wasn'
t r unning around the side. I was looking, I didn't see him. You told Gene that--yo u u sed Gene to spot the guy."

Kopas saw him turn and saw his eyes, not looking through him this time but righ t a t him.

"Go downstairs," Renda said, "look out the door. If he's laying there, walk ou t o n the patio. If he isn't laying there, stay where you are."

"I'm sorry," Bobby Kopas said. "I mean I don't even know what I'm doing here.
I don't give a shit about the guy. Really, it's none of my business. I think I better just--split. You know?" He had to get out, that's all. Just get the hel l o ut of here, though not make it look like he was scared or running. He said , "I'll leave this in case you need it," and dropped the shotgun on the bed as h e g ot around the foot of it and headed for the door.

Renda said, "Bobby--"

Kopas kept going.

He was almost to the stairway when Renda came out into the hall.

"Bobby!"

His hand was on the stair rail. Below him was the open front door and sunlight.

He didn't hear his name again. He didn't care if he did. He didn't care now if Renda thought he was running. Just get out, that's all.

He got halfway down.

Renda shot him from the top of the stairs, hitting him squarely in the back , twice. Lowering the .45 he saw Kopas lying face-down in the front hall, a fe w f eet from the door, and was aware of the hi-fi music again--a slow roc k i nstrumental--coming from the main room.

All right, he'd go down, go through the room to the patio. Look outside.

Or he could go out the front door and walk around. If the guy was alive h e w ouldn't know which way he'd be coming from, wouldn't know where to look.

But the guy was probably dead. Or at least hit. He must have hit him. So i t d idn't matter. Renda moved down the stairs, holding his gaze on the archwa y b elow and to the right, that led into the main room. He was at the bottom, i n t he front hall, about to step over Bobby Kopas's legs, when the hi-fi musi c s topped. It stopped abruptly, in the middle of the rock number.

Renda waited.

There was no sound from the room. Animal heads looking down in silence at--what?

Where would he be? Behind something. Renda could see only part of the room fro m w here he was standing, the windows along the front wall. He would have to wal k t hrough the archway to see the rest, not knowing where the guy was. He had neve r d one it like this before, walked in, the guy knowing he was coming. Guy waitin g w ith a shotgun. There was a shotgun upstairs. But if he went up the guy coul d m ove again and he wouldn't know where. He knew the guy was in the room. But i t w as a big room. Or he could be outside again, with the shotgun sticking in th e w indow.

He said to himself, This isn't a fucking game. Get out.

Renda went through the doorway, ran across the grass to the Olds 98 and got t o i t, pulled the door open and started to slide in.

The key wasn't in the ignition.

The fucking key wasn't in the ignition! Lundy had it. No, or it was on the floor . . . or on the dash . . . or on the sun visor. Somewhere!

"Frank?"

Renda came out slowly, turning a little to look over the top of the open door.

Majestyk was standing on the front steps of the house, the shotgun cradled i n t he crook of his left arm.

"You hear it?" Majestyk said.

Renda turned a little more, keeping the car door in front of him. He could hea r i t now, the faint sound of a police siren.

Majestyk waited.

Behind the door, below the window ledge, Renda shifted the .45 automatic in hi s l eft hand. He knew he could do it, hit the guy before he moved. Farmboy standin g t here not knowing it was over. He said, "You want to think about it?"

Majestyk shook his head. "Last chance, Frank."

Renda brought up the .45 automatic, at arm's length out past the edge of th e d oor and fired, trying to aim now as he fired again.

Majestyk swung the shotgun on him and blew out the window in the door, watched Renda stagger out from behind it, still holding the .45 extended, and shot hi m a gain, the 12-gauge charge slamming Renda against the side of the car and takin g o ut the rear-door window. Renda went down to his knees, hung there a moment an d f ell face-down.

Majestyk was sitting on the front steps with the shotgun across his knees. H
e w atched the three squad cars come barreling in through the trees, watched the m p ull to nose-diving stops and the doors swing open and the deputies come pilin g o ut with riot guns and drawn revolvers. They stopped when they saw him and stoo d t here looking around. Lieutenant McAllen walked over.

"You were right," Majestyk said. "That man was trying to kill me."

McAllen looked at him. He didn't say anything. He kept going and walked over t o w here Renda was lying, stooped down and felt his throat for a pulse. He looke d o ver at Majestyk again.

But Majestyk was walking away, over toward the pickup that had come in behin d t he squad cars, where the girl was standing.

McAllen watched him put his hand on the girl's shoulder as he opened the doo r a nd heard him say, "We'll get us a couple of six-packs on the way home. Right?"

And he heard the girl say, "Right." He watched Majestyk's hand slide down to th e g irl's can as she climbed into the cab and heard her say, "Hey, watch it!" H
e d idn't hear what Majestyk said to her as he slammed the door, but he heard th e g irl's laughter.

Then Majestyk was walking around the pickup to the driver's side. He looked ove r a nd gave McAllen a little wave.

McAllen didn't wave back or say a word. He heard the girl laugh again an d w atched the pickup drive off through the trees.