Caught Stealing

– Yes?

– Mr. Miner, are you alone? Are you free to speak?

– Yes.

The cop is looking over at us again.

– Mr. Miner, we’ve been tracking your credit card transactions and found you had opened this account in the last twenty-four hours.

– Uh-huh.

– That’s how we got this number.

– Uh-huh.

– Mr. Miner, we believe that you are in great danger.

– Uh, why?

– Mr. Miner, do you know Henry Thompson? His parents were called from this number earlier today.

Oh, oh, fuck.

– Uh.

– Are you with Henry Thompson? Is he holding you against your will?

Are you fucking kidding me?

– Uh.

– If you’re not free to speak, just answer yes or no. Do you understand?

– Uh.

The cop is now openly staring at us. I keep my face well inside the shadowed interior of the car.

– Mr. Miner? Russ? Russ, this is a very dangerous man. Mr. Thompson is a very dangerous man. We know you’re in trouble, but if you’re with Henry Thompson, you are in worse danger than you know. We can help. Do you understand?

– Uh.

– Russ, we want to help you. Russ, are you still there?

I turn the phone off and toss it in the backseat. Russ takes his face away from Bud again and looks at me with his crooked stare.

– Who was that? Anybody I know?

I get out of the car, walk around to Russ’s side and start to help him out. The cop waves one of his buddies over to take control of the traffic and strolls toward us.

I have Russ out of the car and we’re moving away. I’m counting seconds. I’m counting seconds until I get to thirty so I can look back and see if the cop has stuck his head in the car to gander at all the broken glass and the hot-wired ignition. I make it to twenty before I turn.

He’s not looking in thecar, he’s got his back to the car. He’s got his back to the car so he can talk to Roman, who has just pulled up in his now Russian gangster-free sedan and who is, no doubt, asking about the two guys in the beige Celica. I hustle Russ down the steps of the L train station at the end of the block.

Getting the fucking tokens takes for-fucking-ever.Russ leans against me while I dig out one of the twenties. The guy in the booth wants to know how many we need and I blank out for a second, trying to figure if I should get more than one token each, just in case. Then I get a grip on where I am and how close Roman and Bolo are and I tell him to just give me a couple and please hurry. He slides the tokens through the slot and starts counting out my seventeen dollars in change, all in singles. Then I feel the breeze from the tunnel that means the train is coming. The token guy stuffs the bills at me and I grab them and drag Russ to the turnstiles. It’s another project just to get the two of us through and then down the next set of steps. The train is pulling in, but it’s on the opposite track, heading into Brooklyn. I start moving Russ down the platform toward the far end, away from the entrance and the turnstiles.

– What do you say, Russ?

– Mmmm. I don’t know, Hank.

We’re moving along OK now. I’m on his left side, helping him, but he does seem to have some control over the left leg and all I really have to do is keep him balanced.

– Youfeelin ’ any better?

– Hank?

– Yeah?

– Whatthe hell are youdoin ’, man?

– Well, Russ, I’m trying to get us out of here.

– But, like, all those cops back there, man. Let’s just.Mmmm. Let’s just, man, just hand me over,cuz, like, I think I’m pretty fucked up.

We’re getting close to the end of the platform and I can see the tunnel brightening ahead of us as a train approaches the station. I look back up the platform in the opposite direction.Still no Roman. We get to the end and I lean Russ against the wall. He has Bud’s bag hanging from his neck and Bud is trying to squirm out. I push him back in and zip the bag all the way shut as the train comes rocketing into the station.

– The thing is, Russ, I thought we might go pick up the money. Then I thought we might go see a doctor and get you fixed up. Then I thought we might take off someplace and hide out. What doya say, man, sound good?

– Yeah, that’s, like, cool and all, but you, like, gave fucking Roman the key.Mmmm. You gave him the key, man.

I pull Russ to the edge of the platform as the train comes to a stop. The doors slide open with a little sound.Ding-dong! We stand aside while a load of young artist poseurs from Williamsburg pile off to go drinking in the East Village.

– I gave him the wrong key.

– Huh?

– I gave him the key tomy storage unit, Russ. We still have the money.

As we step into the last car of the train, I catch some action at the other end of the platform: Roman and Bolo plunging down the stairs and through the crowd, trying to make it into the first car.

– We, like, still have the money?

– That’s right, man, we still have it. So just relax and everything’s gonna be OK.

Ding-dong!The doors slide halfway shut, stop, and slide back open the way they do when someone is blocking a door somewhere on the train.Ding-dong! They slide shut all the way. Me? I’d say Roman made it onto the train.

The train will make three stops before it reaches the end of the line at Eighth Avenue. I’m trying to figure how long it will take Roman and Bolo to work their way back through the whole train to us. The trains are eight cars long. Every other car has a locked door; they’ll have to jump cars at each station to get around the locked doors. I’m thinking about the layout of the stations between here and the end of the line, thinking about where to make our break. We pull into the Third Avenue station.

Ding-dong!The doors open and a few people get on and off. I’ve got Russ parked in a seat. I go to the door and stick my head out. At the far end of the train, in the second car, Bolo is doing the same thing. He sees me. I duck back into the car.Ding-dong! And we’re off again. Next stop: Union Square. When the train pulls in we’ll be near the stairs at the back of the platform. We can make a run for it, hope they don’t see us get off, and catch another train or hit the street.

I grab Russ’s arm and start to lift him off the seat, but he’s just deadweight. I look around the car. No one is paying the slightest attention to us. New Yorkers: God forbid you should look up, you might see something. I sit next to him and feel his wrist. There’s a pulse. Hopefully he’s just blacked out and not in a coma. We’re hitting Union Square.

– Russ, come on, man.Time to go. Let’s go.

No response. The train is stopping. I can leave him here. There is no reason not to leave him here.Except, of course, that Roman and Bolo will kill him if they find him.

– Russ.

I slap his cheek lightly.Nothing. In his lap, the bag shifts slightly as Bud moves around.Ding- dong! People are pouring off the train, on the train. I step to the door and look out. Bolo is there, still in the second car. He waves. I wave back and step off the train. He says something to someone inside the train and he and Roman both step off. I step back on. They step on. I step back off. Roman stays on the train. Bolo jumps