Landry boy.
Shit, he thought, check out this shit, busting my hump to get
When he saw Rex, the boy put on that hard face. “What you doing here?”
“Got some questions.”
“Who give a shit?”
“You just answer me.”
“Why you tell them where my brother’s gun at?”
“Didn’t mean to.”
“What the fuck do that mean?”
“Thought I was giving them a story. Trying to do the right thing.” He shook his head, to leave that be. “Must be me and your brother just think alike. How come he put it there?”
The boy stared. Seemed like the air went out of him. His shoulders slumped, the hard face sagged. “My moms don’t let no gun in the house.”
“Did you know where it was at?”
“No.”
“Did your boys?”
The kid moved his shoulders, didn’t say nothing.
“Suppose they drop the charges, let you outta here. What you gonna do?”
“’Bout what?”
“You tell me.”
“Don’t know what you mean.”
“You going back to school?”
The kid blinked. “Sure.”
“Why?”
“Why
”
“Why you going back? You got plans?”
For a minute, the kid didn’t answer. Then he nodded, real slow.
“What plans you got?”
“Gonna be a engineer.”
“Why?”
“So I could build stuff. Bridges and shit. Buildings where there ain’t nothing now.”
Rex looked at the kid, watched him sit there, watched how young he was.
“That take college. You got a chance?”
“Grades, you mean?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Got a A in math, A minus in physics. B’s, everything else.”
“You got a sheet?”
The boy looked around the scuffed room. “Till this, I ain’t never been arrested.”
“If you get outta here,” Rex said, “I ain’t gonna tell you stop hanging with your boys. They your boys, you ain’t gonna turn your back. But you got choices. They got some shit going down, you stay out of it. You following me?”
The boy shrugged. “Don’t see how it matter. Cops got my ass. I ain’t getting out.”
“Are you following me?!”
The boy jumped in his chair, to hear Rex shout like that.
The guard in the corner turned to look.
Rex asked one more time, quietly, “Are you?”
The kid gave him a wide-eyed nod. “Yes, sir.”
“Okay,” said Rex. “Now you tell me one more thing. You kill that old lady?”
Right into Rex’s eyes, the Landry boy shook his head.
“No, sir.”
Something and Something Else was both surprised to see Rex walk into the precinct squad room. “Hey, look who’s here,” the white one said, but Rex sat in the chair at the black cop’s desk. Might as well give him the collar.
“Came to confess.”
The cop’s eyes opened wide, got white all around them.
Matched his damn teeth.
“Confess? To what?”
“Was me shot that old lady. That gun I give you, it belong to me.”
“Jesus, Rex, what kind of bullshit is this?”
“That kid ain’t done nothing.”
“Neither did you.”
“You got a witness seen him?”
“We’ll find someone.”
“You won’t, ’cause he ain’t done it. You got his prints on the gun?”
“No, but-”
“You got mine?”
“Yeah, but I saw you pick it up!”
“Can you prove that’s when them prints come from? Nah, forget it, I know you can’t. I shot the old lady and I give you the gun, with my prints from when I done it.”
“Rex,” the white cop said from his beat-up desk, “you did this, tell us why.”
“He was robbing her,” said the black cop. “Wanted her pocketbook.” Way he said it, it was clear to Rex he wasn’t buying that.
“Uh-uh,” Rex said. “Not that. ’Cause she look like Berniece, that’s the reason right there.”
“Who’s Berniece?”
“Skinny-ass bitch that sent me up.”
Something looked over at Something Else and Rex knew he had them.
“Fuck,” Rex said. “Why you think I been jerking you ass-holes around? Do that kid a favor? Why I’m gonna do that? Do I owe him something?
“Then why’d you change your mind and give us the gun?”
“You was gonna take me in! I thought I could give you some bullshit story, put my hands on the gun so you’d think my prints come from then, and you’d be dumb enough to buy it.”
The white one flushed. “And why’re you having a change of heart now?”
Rex shrugged. “Didn’t expect you to be
“So you’re just gonna give it all up? You’re gonna go back inside, just like that?”
“Shit,” Rex said. He thought about the room with the roaches, the job with the sawdust. He thought about the Landry boy’s eyes.
He thought about things that wasn’t there before someone made them, and he thought about the pressure building, building.
“I was going back in, sooner or later,” he said. “I got tired of it, is all.”
“Well, damn,” the cop said. “What the hell, garbage is garbage, I guess. If we can’t get one of those kids, I suppose we’ll take you.” He looked over to Something’s desk and waited for the brown teeth to smile. “All right,” the white teeth said, “if that’s what you want, I’ll book you. That it, Rex?”
“Yes,” said Rex, and added, not to neither of these fools, but to himself, definitely to himself, “sir.”
