He took the paper towel off, looked at the blood, put it back up against his forehead. “I was outside, taking a leak. Okay? That’s the damn thing about watching a house you never see on the TV or the movies. At some point you gotta piss.”
“All right,” I said. “Did you see another car go up the driveway?”
“Nope.”
“Just the scream and the shotgun.”
“Yeah.”
“No car anywhere?”
“Well …”
“Rudy.”
“Well, when I was in the woods with my pecker out, there was this car that went by the driveway, slowed down, and kept on going. It might have pulled over a ways up. The woods there are thin. Easy to walk through if you need to.”
By now things seemed calm enough that I put the .32 back into my pajama bottoms. “Okay. You’re doing a surveillance, you just saw a car zip out, you’re outside urinating, and you hear a scream and the shot.”
“That’s right.”
“And then you decided to go over and check things out?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Huh?” Rudy asked.
“You heard me. There you are, outside draining your bladder, you hear a woman scream and then a shotgun being fire. Most people would leave the area. Why didn’t you do that?”
“Opportunity, man,” Rudy said. “I mean, things like this, a shotgun going off, a woman screaming, it means something somewhere’s gotten in trouble, there’s a screwup, things are a mess.”
“And you were going to swoop in and take advantage.”
“Yeah, whatever. I could see the lights of the place from where I was pissing. So I went through the woods, went up to the barn next to the house, the lights on and bright and shit, and I poked my head in.” He paused. “Now, with me giving up this silver without getting a dime, I wish I hadn’t. It was a real bloody mess. I mean, I’ve seen shit over the years, I’ve done shit over the years, and blood don’t bother me none. But I got there right after the old broad must have gotten shot. I could still smell the gunshot.”
“What did you see?”
“What the hell do you think I saw?” Rudy said, grimacing either from the memory or the blood still trickling down his wrist. “The poor broad was dead. Practically falling out of her chair. Everything up from the chest … I gave it a quick look and that was that. Then I saw that piece of silver, resting right out on the open on her desk, and I grabbed that and got the hell out.”
“Anything else?”
“Shit, besides her wet blood and brains still on the wall behind her?”
“Yeah, besides that.”
Rudy wiped at the blood on his wrist. “Papers. There were papers all over the floor and a couple of cabinet drawers were open. Shit, I don’t know what they were. I had the silver, ran out, happy I hadn’t touched a goddamn thing besides that.”
I picked up the silver plate, slowly moved it around, and put it back on the counter. “All right. Tell you what, I’ll give Felix a call in the morning. Tell him that you were remorseful—”
“What’s remorseful?”
“I’ll tell him you were sorry for everything. I’ll say that you couldn’t find him or call him, and you did the next best thing, you left the silver with me.”
“But I know where he lives. He might think that’s a bullshit story.”
“All right, I’ll tell him that you—well, it was late. And you didn’t want to disturb him. But you knew he and I were friends, so you thought of dropping it off with me, someone you could trust, and that you’re still sorry about the whole thing.”
“Fresh paper towel?”
“Sure.” I moved back into the kitchen—still facing him, for even though we were doing all right, I didn’t want to turn my back to him—and I tore off another few sheets of towel.
He bunched up the dry sheets against the sodden ones. “Sounds okay. I’m just worried he’s still going to come after me and tune me up.”
“I’ll take care of that.”
“How?”
“I’ll ask him not to hurt you.”
“C’mon, for real, how can you take care of me?”
“I just told you,” I said. “I’ll ask him not to hurt you, and he won’t.”
“The hell you say.”
“I just said it twice, so let’s leave it at that, all right?”
“Okay but … what do you have on him? Some photos? An affidavit hidden somewhere? You got a brother who’s a cop or FBI agent or something? What’s the deal?”
“The deal is friendship, Rudy.”
He snorted at that. “You don’t say. Then I’m glad I got what I got with him, which is pretty much lined out straight. Boss and worker. You say you’re friends? Okay, but you’re like one of those survivors on a zombie show, you decide to keep some decaying zombie as a friend and pet. That zombie will leave you alone at first, but one of these days, when you least expect it, that bastard will turn around and rip out your guts and eat ’em in front of you.”
“That’s some analogy.”
“Some what?”
“Forget it,” I said. I picked up the silver plate on its four tiny legs, slid open a nearly empty drawer, and put it in, closed the drawer. “I think we’re through here. You all set?”
“Yep.”
“All right.”
I started out of my kitchen and Rudy stood still. “Where are you going?” he asked.
“To the front door,” I said. “You can walk up my driveway and you’ll be all set.”
Rudy shook his head. “Christ, no. There’s a lot of cops still up there.” He went to the sliding glass door and opened it up. “That’s how I came in, and that’s how I’m going out. Later, bud.”
He closed the door, and that was that. I spent a few minutes cleaning up, locking the door, putting the wooden stick back in, and then went upstairs. I had to pause halfway up.
I was so terribly tired, and my back and shoulders ached.
“Just a few more steps,” I whispered, leaning into the cane.
