Category: Uncategorized

Two years apart

each day closer

can distance cement a bond

Chamberlain

            The Sun Times ran the headline in bold print: Officer Gunned Down at Ball Fields: Assailant Unknown.

As he’d sifted through the paper while eating his breakfast, the image of Reilly, head rolled forward, blotch of red covering his chest, wouldn’t leave Chamberlain’s eyes.

When he arrived at the station, it seemed everyone had to come up to him and let him know how terrible he or she felt. He was tired of it all. Reilly’s death wasn’t upsetting to him on a personal level. It was more the loss of a brother officer that got him. He knew some people would find that ironic considering his last big case, but it’s what he felt.

He and Reilly had been partners for two years. And that had been the long and short of their relationship. They respected one another, he respected Reilly’s intelligence and drive, and Reilly respected his history of success within the department. They shared lunch every day for two years, and that was as intimate as they got.

Sure, Chamberlain would spout off with complaints about his wife or little things about aging. Reilly, would smile at the stories, but never include any of his own personal vignettes.

Chamberlain knew Reilly was unmarried. He also knew he’d come to Central Falls from Eustis, not too far from the Canadian border, ten years ago. He thought he knew from somewhere Reilly didn’t have any family in Eustis. Parents had died, maybe, if he was remembering the rumor right?

He didn’t know if Reilly had any friends outside the department. He’d go out for beers with some of the guys after their shift, but he’d never said anything about any other, personal, buddies.

He had no idea if Reilly was seeing anyone and had never had any real desire to know, though it would have been nice to have someone to ask about Reilly’s extracurricular activities.

As he sat at his desk, he mulled over how nice it would have been to know what Reilly was mixed up in that would have caused him to be out at the ball fields in the middle of the day.

As of right now, an unanswerable question, and not one he was responsible for answering, despite what he’d told Mary once he arrived home.

She’d been gentle with him. Kind. He’d promised he was out after Reilly’s killer and the Levesque robbery/homicide were solved. He’d even shown her the paperwork.

He wondered once more if it was his fault Reilly was dead. If he’d just been more patient with him, hadn’t sent him away.

He pushed the thought away. There was enough guilt on his conscience. This one wasn’t his fault.

He pushed the thought from his mind and turned his focus to the Levesque robbery. There was something about Levesque’s story that didn’t sit right with him. He also didn’t like the coincidence surrounding the date of the robbery and Levesque Sr.’s disappearance. Details like that meant something. He just didn’t know what, yet.

He decided to go pay another visit to young Levesque and see if he could shake any new details from him.

Levesque

            Levesque was having a hard time making things out. Everything was blurry. He had no idea where they were going.

He’d watched Tommy take six Buds out of the Chanti’s cooler and stuff them into a backpack. Tommy’d poured two shots of Cuervo. He dropped a twenty on the bar. Then he nudged Levesque’s glass with his own, and threw it back. Levesque had followed suit, and the world had started to spin.

His eyes had hurt, and he’d thrown an arm up against the sun as they emerged from the dark interior of the Chanti. Once out the door, Tommy had taken his keys from him, and navigated Levesque to the passenger side door of the F-150.

Now, they were headed up Oak Street towards the college, he thought. All he could see was Reilly’s face; the surprised look as the first bullet ripped into him, followed by the life leaving his eyes as the second bullet tore through him.

Levesque had planned on killing him. At least he didn’t think he had. If he hadn’t, then why had he gone to the store to get the Bible? He hadn’t thought he was going to kill Reilly. He was afraid. It was that simple. The police had his guns, he needed the one in the Bible for protection. What if the guys who knocked over the store came for him. Reilly was with them. Had he figured that out or had he imagined it? It didn’t matter, he needed the gun.

But that wasn’t true either. He had a second Walther in a case under the passenger’s seat of the F-150. He also had a shotgun in the basement safe in his office at home and his hunting rifle.

He was getting confused. This happened to him with more and more frequency. He took a deep breath, aware of Tommy’s eyes on him.

If he was being honest with himself, he had grabbed the Bible because he knew the .38 in it was clean. Clean as in the serial numbers were filed off. Tommy had given it to him, just in case. What had he said, “in case of emergency.” Well, this sure felt like it.

The cops thought he had something to do with robbing the store, and killing Davis. Had he? He hadn’t been that loaded when the giant had shown up at the door. It was still early in the day. But again, he’d been losing time. What if he had killed him?

Whether he or not he did kill him, he didn’t want the police coming down on him if he was forced to shoot one of the people who robbed his store, if those people came after him. That’s why he’d grabbed the .38. Sure it would be self-defense, but he didn’t want the police looking too close.

His head was spinning from the drink and the confusion of thoughts tumbling through his head. He felt like he was going to vomit, right as Tommy pulled the F-150 to the side of the road on an incline next to the Hill.

He and Tommy had brought their sleds here as kids and spent hours racing down at breakneck speeds. Tommy’d always wanted to climb higher so they’d go faster. He’d always been scared of the height and resulting speed. He’d also been afraid of appearing scared in front of Tommy, so he’d let him take them further up the Hill to the point where the trees thinned out, just below the rocky top.

Tommy would push them off from the ledge and send them hurtling down the Hill. They would scream with joy, and fear, as they flew through the curses of parent’s with small children on the lower inclines. They would end further out in the field below than any of the other sleds, laughing at the craziness of what they had just accomplished.

Levesque vomited in the grass at the thought of the speed.

Today they wouldn’t be sledding. They’d be climbing to the top for a couple of beers overlooking the city, a high school pastime of theirs.

They started the climb. The Hill wasn’t tall, maybe 200 feet to the top, but as kids it had felt like a great adventure to climb through the trees to the top. Now, with his vision blurred by the alcohol, it was an intense struggle.

“You’re getting soft in your old age,” chided Tommy, who was having no trouble dodging the roots and rocks that dotted their path, as Levesque went to a knee for a fourth time.

“Go fuck yourself,” wheezed Levesque righting himself, only to stumble over a small stump with his next step.

Tommy laughed and moved on ahead. Levesque couldn’t hear Tommy’s footsteps over the sound of his labored breathing. He kept trying to dodge trees only to end up bouncing from trunk to trunk.

When the trees gave out, he put a hand out against the rocky face of the hilltop to keep his balance. Taking small, careful steps, he managed to make it to the top where he found Tommy sitting facing west, backpack at his feet, watching the sun arc downwards, a Bud already in his hands.

“Glad you could make it.”

“Fuck you, you haven’t been drinking like me today,” Levesque said, dropping in a heap next to Tommy.

“There are drunks who haven’t been drinking like you today. If I’d had what you’ve had today, the chances are good I’d be dead.”

“You didn’t have the day I had,” Levesque wheezed.

“Well, we’re not going to know about that until you tell me about your day.”

“The cops are on to me for the robbery.”

“What do you mean they’re ‘on to you?’”

“I mean, they came by this morning asking a lot of questions about what happened. They told me about firearms tests they’d run and brought up how it was ten years to the day from when my old man disappeared.”

“No shit, was it?”

“Yeah.”

“Of all the days,” said Tommy, letting the words hang there, as he finished off his Bud, reaching into his bag, he took out another.

“Fuckin’ a right.”

“So what did you tell them.”

“I told them I had nothing to do with it.”

“Who were the cops?”

“You know Chamberlain?”

“Yeah, he’s a weird guy, but smart. Sneaky smart. I don’t like how he operates. If he’s on it, that must mean Reilly, too. Reilly’s not as smart or as cagey as Chamberlain. He’s more of a blunt instrument, but still, not stupid.”

“Yeah, well, Reilly’s not on it anymore.”

“How’s that?”

“He was pushing me hard, planted the seed for Chamberlain that I was involved.”

“So what?”

“So, I shot him,” frenzied excitement flashed across Levesque’s face.

“The hell you say, you did not.”

“Yeah, I did. Give me one of those,” Levesque nodded towards the bag.

Tommy pulled out a bud, twisting the cap off, he handed it to Levesque.

Levesque took a long pull from the bottle.

“Yeah, they stopped by the store this morning. Reilly pushed me hard. Chamberlain sent him away on account of his leaning on me. After I got away from Chamberlain, I drove around the city for a while, just trying to get things right in my head.

“Well, I was driving down outer Main Street, and I noticed a gray Buick a ways behind me. I didn’t think much of it until I made a couple of different turns and the car was still following me. It looks a lot like the car the cops were in at the store.

“I slowed down a bit, and he caught up to me. I looked in my rearview mirror, and saw it was Reilly. I think he must have realized he was too close, so he backed off a bit.

“I figured if he was tailing me after being told to stay away, he must be one of the guys coming to get me after the robbery, so I headed out to the ball fields. You know how they’re all quiet, set in there down amongst the trees.

“Well, I made it down to the minors field and backed in. He came down not too long after and pulled in next to me. Told me he was convinced I’d killed Davis and been a part of the robbery, so he demanded a cut of the take from me. I denied I was in on it, but he persisted, so I shot him,” tears were streaming from Levesque’s eyes.

Tommy’s face was etched with disbelief as he pulled another beer from his bag, “alright, so you shot him, for real?”

“Yeah, I was confused. I was scared. It’s okay though, it’s not going to come back on me,” Levesque said through his tears.

“How’s that?”

“I used the .38 you gave me.”

“You used the fucking .38?”

“Yeah, I’d gone into the store this morning to get the book it was in. That’s why I ran into the cops.

“Anyway, they had the two guns I carry, and I felt like something bad was going to happen. You ever just get a feeling? Well, you told me it was for use ‘only in case of emergency’ and so that’s what I did. This was an emergency. Wasn’t it? What did I do wrong Tommy?”

“Nothing bud, nothing. You just shot a fucking cop.”

Levesque’s tears were running full force again, “I didn’t know what I was doing. It just happened. He was pushing me. You know what happens when I get pushed.”

“Why didn’t you come to me earlier?” Tommy opened another beer, passed it to Levesque, then twisted the cap off the final one for himself.

“I should have talked to you, but I wasn’t thinking straight. I didn’t even think of you.”

“That’s obvious.”

“So what should I do now?”

“Just keep your fucking mouth shut for a minute. Let me think.”

They sat, watching the sun sink over the city. Levesque snuck glances at Tommy between quiet sniffles, trying to figure out what he was thinking, but his face was impassive. He was elsewhere, lost in thought.

The sun dipped below the horizon. Its fiery red coloring of the clouds promising a lot of uncomfortable heat tomorrow.