“You’re certainly on top of things,” I said.
“You’d be surprised the stuff I know,” Charlie said. “I keep up with current events. I’m real current. Most current is I had to get out of bed ’cause I heard about a fire tonight, and I heard it was you two assholes set it.”
“We looked out our window and saw a fire,” Leonard said. “We went over to help pull the victims to safety. We’re goddamn heroes.”
“That motherfucker’s lying!” Mohawk said.
“Keep your seat, Melton,” Charlie said.
“Don’t say anything else,” Florida said to Leonard. “You and Hap be quiet. You’ll do better being quiet.”
“Ah hell,” Charlie said, “Hap and Leonard, they like to talk.”
“That’s true,” Leonard said. “We can’t shut up.”
Hanson opened the door and came in. He went over to the desk. “You mind I have my chair?” he said to Charlie.
“Naw,” Charlie said, “it’s all right.”
Charlie got up and went over to Mohawk. He said, “Get up, Melton.”
Mohawk looked at Charlie. Charlie grinned. Mohawk got up and leaned against the wall. Charlie sat down and used his foot to move the ashtray and the ill-aimed cigarette butts aside. He scooted the chair forward and put his feet on the edge of the desk and rocked back so the chair was against the wall. He looked pretty precarious.
Hanson sat behind his desk and studied me and Leonard. “First time I seen you guys, I liked you. I don’t like you so much now.”
“That hurts,” Leonard said. “Shit, man, we like you.”
“I been eating Rolaids like they’re candy,” Hanson said. “I almost lit my cigar again. And you guys know why? I’m tired of the bullshit. Arson, that’s a serious crime.”
“So’s selling drugs,” I said. “That boy under our house might even think using them’s a bad idea.”
“He don’t think nothing,” Hanson said. “He died before he got to the hospital.”
Silence reigned for a moment. Leonard said, “I think the whole goddamn police force has got some gall, that’s what I think. These fuckers,” he jabbed a finger at Melton, “they been in that house for ages, selling drugs. They fed that boy dope. That boy is dead, man, and I’m not supposed to have a right to get pissed? I know they’re selling drugs. Everyone here knows it, but now you got us on arson, and you’re saying we’ll do time?”
“Could be,” Hanson said. “I ain’t got shit to do with the way the law works, just with doing what it says.”
“Some law that lets people like this creep do what they’re doing,” I said. “What happened to justice?”
“We get enough evidence, we pick ’em up,” Hanson said.
“And let them go,” Charlie said.
Hanson looked at Charlie. “You quittin’ the force? You with them?”
“I’m a cop ’cause I want to lock bad guys up,” Charlie said.
“I don’t want to pick ’em up so they can come down here to use the phone and toilet. And I certainly don’t want to arrest no citizens on a misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?” Hanson said.
Charlie took his feet off the desk and let the chair rock forward. “Couple of citizens see a fire, go in and rescue some people, I don’t see that’s a crime.”
“They kneed a woman in the face!” Mohawk said. “They knocked out my main man’s teeth.”
“That woman’s a crack head,” Charlie said, “and she got that way ’cause of you. She’s a hooker. She stabbed a girl friend near to death three years ago. She’s got a record longer than a basketball player’s leg. And your main man, hell, he’s fixed up good now. All them teeth missing. You ought to be grateful. He can suck your dick like a vacuum cleaner.”
“Just the thought of that gets me excited,” Leonard said.
“I’d also like to mention the woman got kneed in the face stuck a gun in my balls,” I said.
“Let’s cool our language,” Hanson said. “We got a lady present.”
“Why all of a sudden?” Charlie said. “And besides, she ain’t a lady now. She’s a lawyer.”
Florida smiled. She said, “Marvin, my clients just saw a fire and went to help.”
“Oh, God,” Hanson said, “not you too.”
“I’m sure the owner of the dwelling, Mr. Otis-”
“Some fat cat honkie, I reckon,” Leonard said.
“One of the fattest,” Florida said. “Mr. Otis, who I know is an upstanding citizen, and a friend of the police chief, would be upset to discover the house he’s renting out is being used to sell drugs.”
“Naw,” Charlie said. “Old fart gets a slice of the action.”
“We don’t know that,” Hanson said.
“We can’t prove it,” Charlie said. “Ain’t the same thing.”
“I’m sure he would be upset,” Florida persisted. “But I know he’d be happy to hear of the bravery of men like Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who selflessly went to the rescue of the inhabitants.”
“We see our duty,” Leonard said, “we do it. We can’t help it. It’s the way we were raised.”
“Yeah,” Hanson said, “and in the process of doing your duty y’all knocked a man’s teeth out, broke another’s knee, and busted up a woman’s nose.”
“Hey,” Leonard said. “My knuckles hurt. They’re all scraped up. Show him your head, Hap.” I turned the side of my head toward Hanson. Leonard pointed to it. “See there, he’s got a bruise.”
“Christ,” Hanson said.
“Sometimes, in the heat of the moment,” Florida said, “even when you’re trying to do a good deed, you can make mistakes. They were rough, but they saved lives.”
“They set the fire!” Mohawk said.
“I been in that place,” Charlie said. “Knocked the door down and come to visit a number of times. Joint’s a shit hole, a fire hazard. Fire could have started any kind of way.”
“You have a shotgun with you to shoot the fire out,” Hanson said to Leonard. “EMTs said you were carrying a shotgun.”
“I was cleaning it. We heard the boy under the house, didn’t know what it was, and we’d seen the fire out the window, so I rushed out with it in my hand. I was so excited I forgot I had it.”
“Shut up!” Hanson said. “Every one of you, shut up. Charlie, take Melton here to the restroom.”
“I don’t need to go,” Mohawk said.
Charlie stood up and took Mohawk by the elbow. “Sure you do. Come on, I’ll show you how to fold the toilet paper.”
Charlie and Mohawk started past us. I said, “Thanks, Charlie.”
“Us Kmart shoppers got to stick together,” he said, and he and Mohawk went away.
Hanson said, “All right, let’s cut the bullshit. Here’s the deal. I don’t give a damn about that house or Melton and his asshole buddies. I want them nailed bad as you do. I don’t want any more drugged-out dead kids. But I’ve had all the cat-and-mouse I’m gonna do on this child murder thing. I don’t want any more dead kids that way either. You jerks are gonna come clean, or I’m gonna use this arson thing to nail you, and don’t think I won’t.”
“And don’t think I won’t give your case a hard time in court,” Florida said. “Melton wouldn’t exactly make a sympathetic witness. Neither would the rest of the house’s occupants.”
“You’d do that to me?” Hanson said.
“Business,” Florida said, and smiled at Hanson.
Hanson smiled back. “Yeah, guess you would. All right, here’s how it’s coming down. You two saw a fire, went to help, couple of occupants panicked, didn’t know you were trying to rescue ’em, so they got rough, and you got rough, but you saved them. OK?”
Leonard and I agreed.
“I’ll call Melton back,” Hanson said, “explain to him he wants to fight it, he can fight it, but it’s just gonna be shit for him. He’ll talk tough a couple of minutes and let it slide. He don’t want any court trouble, I’ll promise that.”
“He hasn’t seen court trouble till I get on his ass,” Florida said.
I looked at Florida and smiled. She smiled back. For a moment it seemed like we were together again.
