The Burning Wire (33 page)

Chapter 65

THE POOL PARLOR
was looking like a crack house, R.C. decided.

He'd talk to his father about it.

The thirty-year-old pressed his pale hands around his beer bottle, watching the games at the pool tables. Snuck a cigarette and blew the smoke toward the exhaust vent. That smoking law was fucking stupid. His father said the socialists in Washington were to blame. They didn't mind sending kids to get killed in places with names you couldn't pronounce but they had to say, fuck you, no smoking.

Eyes on the pool tables. The fast one on the end might be trouble--there was serious money on it--but Stipp had the baseball bat behind the bar. And he liked to swing.

Speaking of which. Goddamn Mets. He grabbed the remote.

Boston didn't make him feel any better.

Then he put on the news about the crazy man screwing around with electricity. R.C.'s brother was handy and did a fair amount of electrical work, but wiring always scared him.

And now people around town were getting fried.

"You hear about that shit?" he asked Stipp.

"Yeah, which shit is that?" He had a cast eye, or one that didn't look right at you, if that's what a cast eye was.

"About the electricity thing? Some dude hooking up wires at that hotel? You touched the door handle and,
zzzzzzz,
you're dead."

"Oh,
that
shit." Stipp coughed a funky laugh. "Like the electric chair."

"Like that. Only it could be stairs or a puddle or those metal doors on the sidewalk. Elevators to the basements."

"You walk on them and get zapped?"

"I guess. Fuck. And you push those metal
WALK
buttons in the crosswalks. That's it. You're fucked."

"What's he doing it for?"

"Fuck knows. . . . The electric chair, you piss your pants and your hair catches fire. You know that? That's what kills you sometimes, the fire. Burns you to death."

"Most states got injection." Stipp frowned. "You probably still piss your pants."

R.C. was eyeing Janie in her tight blouse and trying to remember when his wife was coming by to pick up the grocery money, when the door opened and a couple of people came in. Two guys in delivery company uniforms, maybe early shifters, which was good, because they'd be spending money now that their day was over.

Then right behind them, a homeless guy pushed inside too.

Fuck.

The black guy, in filthy clothes, had abandoned a grocery cart of empties on the sidewalk and more or less run in here. He was now turning his back, staring out the window, scratching his leg. And then his head, under a disgusting cap.

R.C. caught the bartender's eye and shook his head no.

"Hey, mister," Stipp called. "Help you?"

"Something weird out there," the man muttered. He talked to himself for a moment. Then louder: "Something I saw. Something I don' like." And he gave a high-pitched laugh that R.C. thought was pretty weird in itself.

"Yeah, well, take it outside, okay?"

"You see that?" the bum asked no one.

"Come on, buddy."

But the man tottered to the bar, sat down. Spent a moment digging out some damp bills and a ton of change. He counted the coins carefully.

"Sorry, sir. I think you've had plenty."

"I ain't had no drink. You see that guy? The guy with the wire?"

Wire?

R.C. and Stipp eyed each other.

"Crazy shit going down in this town." He turned his mad eyes on R.C. "Fucker was right outside. By that, you know, lamppost. He was doing something. Playing with the wires. You hear what's going down around here? Peoples gettin' their asses fried."

R.C. wandered to the window past the guy, who stank so bad he felt like puking. But he looked out and saw the lamppost. Was that a wire attached? He couldn't tell. Was that terrorist around
here
? The Lower East Side?

Well, why not?

If he wanted to kill innocent citizens, this was as good a place as any.

R.C. said to the homeless guy, "Listen, man, get outa here."

"I wanna drink."

"Well, you're not getting a drink." Eyes outside again. R.C. was thinking he
did
see some cables or wires or shit. What was going on? Was somebody fucking with the bar itself? R.C. was thinking of all the metal in the place. The bar footrest, the sinks, the doorknobs, the register. Hell, the urinal was metal. If you peed, would the current run up the stream to your dick?

"You don't unnerstand, don't unnerstand!" the homeless guy was wailing, getting even weirder. "It ain't safe out there. Look outside. Ain't safe. That asshole with the wires . . . I'ma staying in here till it safe."

R.C., the bartender, Janie, the pool players and the delivery guys were all staring out the window now. The games had been suspended. R.C.'s interest in Janie had shriveled.

"Not safe, man. Gimme a vodka and Coke."

"Out. I'm not telling you again."

"You don't think I can pay you. I got fucking money here. What you call this?"

The man's odor had wafted throughout the bar. It was repulsive.

Sometimes you burn to death . . .

"The wire man, the wire man . . ."

"Get the fuck out. Somebody's going to steal your fucking grocery cart."

"I ain't going out there. You can't make me go. I ain't getting burnt up."

"Out."

"No!" The disgusting asshole slammed his fist down on the bar. "You ain't service . . . you ain't
serving
me," he corrected, "'cause I'm black."

R.C. saw a flash on the street. He gasped. Then he relaxed. It was just a reflection off the windshield of a passing car. Getting spooked like that made him all the angrier. "We ain't
servicing
you 'cause you stink and you're a prick. Out."

The man had assembled all his wet bills and sticky coins. He must've had twenty dollars. He muttered, "
You
the prick. You throwing me out and I'll go out there and get burnt up."

"Just take your money and get out." Stipp picked up the bat and displayed it.

The man didn't care. "You throw me out I'ma tell ever'body what goes on here. I know what goes on here, you think I don't? I seen you looking at Miss Titty over there. An', shame on you, you got a wedding ring on. Whatta Mrs. Prick think 'bout--"

R.C. grabbed the guy's disgusting jacket with both hands.

When the black guy winced in panic and cried, "Don' hit me! I'm a, you know, a cop! I'm a agent!"

"You're no fucking law." R.C. drew back for a head butt.

In a fraction of a second the FBI ID appeared in his face, and the Glock wasn't far behind.

"Oh, fuck me," R.C. muttered.

One of the two white guys who'd come in just before him said, "Duly witnessed, Fred. He attempted to cause bodily harm after you identified yourself as a law enforcement officer. We get back to work now?"

"Thanks, gentlemen. I'll take it from here."

Chapter 66

IN THE CORNER
of the pool parlor, Fred Dellray sat on a wobbly chair, the back turned around, facing the youngster. It was a little less intimidating--the back of the chair in between them--but that was okay because the agent didn't need R.C. to be so afraid he couldn't think straight.

Though he needed him to be a
little
afraid.

"You know what I am, R.C.?"

The sigh shook the skinny kid's entire body. "No, I mean, I know you're an FBI agent and you're undercover. But I don't know why you're hassling me."

Dellray kept right on going, "What I am is a walking lie detector. I been in the business so long I can look at a girl and hear her say, 'Let's go home and we can fuck,' and I know she's thinking, He'll be so drunk by the time we get there I can just get some sleep."

"I was just protecting myself. You were intimidating me."

"Fuck, yes, I was intimidating you. And you can just close your lips and not say a word and wait for a lawyer to come by and hold your hand. You can even call the federal building and complain about me. But, either which way, word's going to get to your daddy in Sing-Sing that his kid hassled an FBI agent. And he's going to think that running this shithole bar, the
one
thing he left to you to keep an eye on while he's inside and hoped you didn't fuck up, you fucked up."

Dellray watched him squirm. "So, we all together on that?"

"Whatta you want?"

And just to make sure the back of the chair didn't make R.C. feel too much at ease, Dellray slapped his hand on the kid's thigh and squeezed hard.

"Ouch. Why'd you do that?"

"You ever been polygraphed, R.C.?"

"No, Dad's lawyer said never--"

"It's a rhe-tor-i-cal question," Dellray said, even though it wasn't. It was just a way to burst a little intimidation over R.C.'s head like a tear gas grenade at a protest.

The agent gave another squeeze for good measure. He couldn't help thinking: Hey, McDaniel, can't do this while you're eavesdropping in the cloud zone, can you?

Which's too bad. 'Cause this is a lot more fun.

Fred Dellray was here thanks to one person: Serena. The favor that she'd asked had nothing to do with cleaning the basement. It was about getting off his ass. She'd led him downstairs into the messy storeroom, where he kept his outfits from his days as an undercover agent. She found one in particular, sealed up in the same kind of plastic bag that you used for wedding dresses. It was the Homeless Drunk costume, suitably perfumed with mold and sufficient human odor--and a little cat pee--to get a confession just by sitting down next to a suspect.

Serena had said, "You lost your snitch. Quit feeling sorry for yourself and go pick up his trail. If you can't find him, then find out what
he
found."

Dellray had smiled, hugged her and gone to change. As he left, Serena said, "Whoa, you smell bad, son." And gave him a playful swat on the butt. A gesture very, very few people had ever bestowed on Fred Dellray.

And he hit the street.

William Brent was good at hiding tracks, but Dellray was good at finding them. One thing he'd learned, encouragingly, was that maybe Brent had been on the job after all. Dellray found by tracing his movements that the CI
had
come up with a lead to Galt or to Justice For the Earth or something relevant to the attacks. The man had been working hard, tracking deep undercover. Finally he'd learned Brent had come here, to this dark pool parlor, where apparently the CI had sought, and ideally gotten, important information from the young man whose knee Dellray had just vise-gripped.

Dellray now said, "So. My cards. On the table. Are we havin' fun yet?"

"Jesus." A fierce grimace that might've sent R.C.'s cheeks into a cramp. "Just tell me what you want."

"That's the spirit, son." A picture of William Brent appeared.

Dellray watched his face closely and a flash of recognition popped into R.C.'s eyes before it dissolved. He asked the kid instantly, "What'd he pay you?"

The blink of a pause told Dellray both that Brent had paid him and that the amount he was about to say would be considerably less than what really changed hands.

"One large."

Damn. Brent was being pretty fucking generous with Dellray's money.

R.C. said, with a bit of whine, "It wasn't drugs, man. I'm not into that."

"Course you are. But I don't care. He was here about information. And now . . . now . . . now. I need to know what he asked and what you told him." Dellray limbered up his lengthy fingers again.

"Okay, I'll tell you. Bill--he said his name was Bill." R.C. pointed at the picture.

"Bill is as good as any. Keep going, friend."

"He heard somebody was staying here in the 'hood. Some guy who'd come to town recent, was driving a white van, carrying a piece. A big fucking forty-five. He clipped somebody."

Dellray gave nothing away. "Who'd he kill? And why?"

"He didn't know."

"Name?"

"Didn't have one."

The agent didn't need a polygraph. R.C. was doing just fine with the dharmic quality of honesty.

"Come on, R.C., my friend, what else about him? White van, just came to town, big forty-five. Clipped somebody for reasons unknown."

"Maybe kidnapped 'em before he killed 'em . . . Was somebody you didn't fuck with."

That kind of went without saying.

R.C. continued, "So this Bill or whoever heard I was connected, you know. Hooked into the wire, you know."

"The wire."

"Yeah. Not what that asshole's using to kill people. I mean the word on the street."

"Oh,
that
's what you mean," Dellray said but R.C. floated below irony.

"And you
are
connected, aren't you, son? You know all 'bout the hood, right? You're the Ethel Mertz of the Lower East Side."

"Who?"

"Keep going."

"Okay, well, like, I
had
heard something. I like to know who's around, what kind of shit could be going down. Anyway, I'd heard about this guy, was just like Bill said. And I sent him over to where he's staying. That's it. That's all."

Dellray believed him. "Gimme the address."

He did, a decrepit street not far away. "It's the basement apartment."

"Okay, s'all I need for now."

"You . . ."

"I won't tell Daddy anything. Don'tcha worry. 'Less you're fucking with me."

"I'm not, no, Fred, really."

When Dellray was at the door, R.C. called, "It wasn't what you think."

The agent turned.

"It really was 'cause you smelt bad. That's why we weren't going to serve you. Not because you're black."

Five minutes later Dellray was approaching the block R.C. had told him about. He'd debated calling in backup, but decided not to quite yet. Working street required finesse, not sirens and takedown teams. Or Tucker McDaniel. Dellray loped through the streets, dodging the dense crowds. Thinking, as he often did, It's the middle of the day. What the hell do these people do for work? Then he turned two corners and eased into an alley, so he could approach the apartment in question from the back.

He looked quickly up the dim, rot-smelling canyon.

Not far away was a white guy in a cap and baggy shirt, sweeping cobblestones. Dellray counted addresses; he was directly behind the place where R.C. had sent William Brent.

Okay, this's weird, the agent thought. He started forward through the alley. The sweeper turned his mirrored sunglasses his way and then went back to sweeping. Dellray stopped near him, frowning and looking around. Trying to make sense of this.

Finally the sweeper asked, "The fuck're you doing?"

"Well, I'll tell you," Dellray offered. "One thing I'm doing is looking at an NYPD undercover cop who, for some fucked-up reason, is trying to blend by sweeping cobblestones in a 'hood where they stopped sweeping cobblestones, oh, about a hundred and thirty years ago." Dellray displayed his ID.

"Dellray? I heard of you." Then defensively the cop said, "I'm just doing what they told me. It's a stakeout."

"Stakeout? Why? What
is
this place?"

"You don't know?"

Dellray rolled his eyes.

When the cop told him, Dellray froze. But only momentarily. A few seconds later he was ripping away his smelly undercover costume and dumping it in a waste bin. As he started sprinting for the subway, he noted the cop's startled reaction, and supposed it could have come from one of two things: the striptease act itself, or the fact that underneath the disgusting outfit he was wearing a kelly green velour tracksuit. He supposed it was a little of both.