Requiem for Moses

Chapter Twenty-Four

The sign read, PLEASE SEAT YOURSELF.

Three well-dressed, good-looking young people glanced at the sign, conferred briefly, and headed for a booth in the rear of the restaurant. Two, a man and a woman, were white; the other man was black.

“It’s like having your own private club,” David Green said.

“It’s way too late for any of Big Boy’s regular clientele to be here,” Bill Gray said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Judith Green replied. “I don’t know anybody who ever went to a Big Boy.”

They had selected the Big Boy restaurant for their late-night meeting for all of the reasons above.

There would be few customers at this late hour. Indeed, the three were the only patrons in the entire place. Even if others had been there, the likelihood of any recognition between a Big Boy regular and any of these three was minimal.

It was even better than a private club. In a club they surely would know someone or someone would know them.

Of the two waitresses, neither gave any indication of taking her duties seriously. That was no problem for the purposes of this trio; they were not there out of hunger or thirst.

“So,” Judith opened, “how’s it going with you, Davie?”

“As well as can be expected,” he said, borrowing hospital jargon. “How about you, Bill?”

“Making progress,” Gray said. “Progress is our most important product.”

“For the love of Christ, will you guys let up?” Judith was irritated. “We didn’t come here to trade cliches.”

“Well,” David said, “you’re the one who called this meeting-or was it the two of you?” he asked, including Bill.

“It wasn’t the two of us,” Gray insisted.

Judith took full responsibility. “I think it’s important for us to meet. As of Monday night, there was positively no reason whatsoever for us to get together, especially on the sly.”

“Let’s see …” David was toying with his sister. “What could have happened Monday night?”

Bill seemed amused by the sibling baiting. “Your father-my future father-in-law-rose from the dead … don’t you remember?”

“Don’t get cute,” Judith snapped. “We all know what happened. Our problems were solved. Until that unfortunate turn of circumstances.

“What I want to know, and what I want all of us to be aware of, is where we stand now with Daddy.” She paused. “I’ll-”

Before she could finish her sentence, a waitress loomed over them, bearing menus.

“We don’t need menus,” Judith said. “Just bring water and three coffees, regular.”

“Wait-”

“Three coffees, regular.” Judith, ignoring her fiance’s interpolation, drove home her point.

As the waitress turned to leave, Judith said to Bill, “I know you take decaf. But we don’t have time to fool with a dumb waitress. Besides, we want to be wide awake and alert.”

How like Mother, thought David. How very much like Mother.

“I haven’t seen Dad since Monday night,” Judith said. “How about you?”

Both men shook their heads.

“But,” she continued, “I did get a call from him.” She looked pointedly first at Bill, then at David.

Bill shook his head. David nodded.

“Okay,” she said. “So far, it’s what I expected. I can almost guess what the old bastard told you, Davie. But first I’ll give you a brief rundown of what he said to me.

“He said he still opposed my marriage.”

“Did the word nigger come up?”

“That’s immaterial, honey. Let me finish. He opposed the marriage … but he was willing to compromise.”

Bill snorted.

“Hear it out,” she said. “He would not attend.”

“There’s a blow!”

“He would not attend. But he would contribute a third of the cost.”

“What?!” Bill almost stood. “We don’t need-we don’t want his money.”

“I know that. He’s almost forcing the money on us because he’s tied that to destroying that tape of Jake and me.”

Silence.

The waitress returned with the coffee. “Will that be all?” Her sarcasm was obvious.

Judith laid a twenty-dollar bill on the table. “That’s for you, sweetie. Just keep the coffee coming.”

“Is the coffee part of the twenty?”

Judith added a ten-dollar bill to the twenty. “You pay for the coffee, sweetie, and keep the rest.”

“Yes, ma’am.” She almost saluted.

“As I was saying,” Judith recommenced as the waitress retreated, “Daddy promised he would destroy the tape.”

This time it was David who snorted. “And you believe him? And all you’ve got to do is accept some dough? Not a bad deal. The old man must have a hole in his IV tube.”

“It doesn’t make sense, does it?” Bill said. He’s not coming to the wedding … so what! Who’ll miss him? Next, he demands that we accept his money-and in return he’ll destroy the tapes he threatened to use to embarrass you and cripple my potential practice.”

“You’re quite right, dear,” Judith said. “On the face of it, there’s no point to his offer.”

“Which means,” David said, “that there’s more to it than meets the eye. Like Gilbert wrote, ‘Things are seldom what they seem.’ What’s he got in mind?” He looked from one to the other. “Any ideas?”

“My guess,” Judith said, “is that he’ll find some way of using the money gift as a debt we owe him. Dad always does things like that-at least he has with me. He gives something with one hand and he takes it back-with interest-with the other hand.”

Bill nodded. “So what you’re saying is that we don’t know what he’s going to demand of us. We’re just sure there’s no free lunch. Somehow, sometime, he’ll demand his pound of flesh. And if we refuse his offer then he uses the tape of you and Jake.”

“That’s the way I see it,” Judith agreed. “On top of that, what’s to say that even if he gave us the tape, that he wouldn’t keep X number of copies to use if the occasion arose.”

“Now, hold on a minute,” David said. “Aren’t you being a little harsh? The old man doesn’t like your choice for a life’s companion; so he won’t go to the service. But to show he’s not a sore loser, and so you won’t cut him out of your life forever, he helps defray the cost of the wedding. And, on top of all that, he throws in a most destructive tape in the bargain. And why? Because he has become God’s Chosen One. Doesn’t that sound like a possible explanation?” David’s sarcasm was caustic.

“Sure,” Judith said. “And the pope’s Polish.”

David and Bill looked at each other.

“You don’t know?” Bill said.

“What?”

“The pope is Polish.”

Judith waved a hand in dismissal. “I don’t keep up with that.”

“But you got a call from the old man too,” said Bill to David. “What did he want from you?”

“Nothing, really. Like you, he was offering me things.”

“Like …?”

“All along,” David said, “he’s held a double threat over my head: He will either make me sole heir of his considerable fortune or he will cut me off without a penny.”

“And?”

“And upon my passing the bar, I will be pressed into involuntary servitude. I’ll be Daddy’s lawyer. And that almost certainly would preclude any other practice, and make my life more miserable than even I could imagine.”

“He couldn’t do that to you,” Bill protested.

“Don’t underestimate Pop,” David warned. “When he wants something, he gets it.

“Anyway, he assured me that he was about to make a binding will, in perpetuity, that I inherit the bundle. And he promised that I would be free to act in his behalf, legally, on a case-by-case basis. And, if I chose to represent him, I could charge a competitive fee … sound pretty good?”

“Great,” Bill said. “But how much of that can you swallow?”

“I’ll admit, I have trouble getting any of it down.”

“So where does this leave us?”

The waitress returned and filled cups. She looked longingly at the money. “Would you like me to take that for you?”

“Just leave it, dearie,” Judith said. “Trust us. It’s yours. When we leave.”

It was evident from her manner that she’d believe all this only as she put the money in her pocket. She walked away, making a face to herself.

“I’ll tell you where this leaves us,” Judith said. “It leaves us with a string of promises. And knowing Daddy, they’re empty promises, every one of them.”

“That puts us back at square one, doesn’t it?” Bill commented. “We’re right where we were before Monday: Each of us is up the creek and Moses Green has the paddle.”

“Then it may be up to us to take the paddle in our own hands.” Judith played the ingenue for a moment.

“What do you mean?” David asked.

She reverted to Lady Macbeth. “We’ve got to return Dear Old Daddy to last Monday night. But this time, no miracles.”

The other two looked at her blankly for a few moments. “You’ve got to be kidding,” David said finally.

She turned to him. “But this time you can’t botch it.”

“Botch it? Me?! What do you mean, me?!”

“Whatever you did-drugged him, overdosed him, I don’t know- but whatever you did, you botched it and he regained consciousness. This time we’ve got to make sure he’s dead.”

“What do you mean, me?!” David repeated. “I didn’t do anything! Look to your bridegroom-or yourself! You-one of you, both of you, I don’t know-you’re the ones who bungled it!”

“Wait a minute-” Bill began.

“There’s nothing to be gained in pointing the finger at each other,” Judith said dismissively. “Maybe we can all learn something from that fiasco last Monday. This time we’ve got to make certain Daddy doesn’t cheat death.”

“Are you serious!?” Bill was incredulous. “You’re talking about murder-or conspiracy to commit murder. You can’t be serious!”

“You want to marry me?”

“Of course I do.”

“You want to see your career end up in the toilet?”

“Of course not.”

“You got any other way out of this fine dilemma?”

Bill pondered.

“No … but …”

“Then we have to plan.”

“I say we take out a contract on him,” David offered.

“A contract!” Bill was still fumbling with the fact that he had suddenly become part of a homicidal conspiracy.

“Da- vid!” Judith was exasperated. “You’ve been seeing too many movies. How many killers for hire do you know? Or should I call them ‘hit men’ for the benefit of you and your film buddies?”

“Well …” David’s train of thought quickly ran out of steam.

“I can’t believe this!” Bill said.

Judith ignored him completely. “No! We do not hire anybody.”

“We don’t hire …?”

“You heard me. Now, with three, this shouldn’t be so difficult. We have to get Mother out of the way.”

“We have to kill Mother?!” David was truly horrified.

“No, idiot! We get her out of the apartment. That should be easy for you, Bill; she likes you.”

“I don’t know ….” Bill demurred.

“I do! And that will give David and me a chance to get into the apartment.”

“I haven’t got a key. Have you?”

“No. We don’t need one. Don’t you remember, Davie: There’s only one lock and no dead bolt. We can trip the lock with a simple strip of hard plastic.”

“Good God!” David exclaimed. “So we can get in. You make it seem so simple. What the hell would we do? I mean, you’re actually talking about murder. What do you want me to do, strangle my own father?!” He paused. “Up till now, this sounded like one of those crazy daydreams. This is the first time I’ve gotten serious about this. I really don’t think I’m able to … I mean, I can’t kill anybody, let alone my own father.”

“Don’t be so emotional, David. It won’t be anything gross like strangling him. We can just give him some pills. The only thing we’ve got to be careful about is that he gets enough to do the job. This time he’s gotta be dead-really dead.”

“This is insane,” Bill said.

“Fine!” Judith threw up her hands in disgust. “Davie, you can find out what it’s like to start a professional career with no money for even a diploma to hang up. And you can be a lackey for your father for the foreseeable future-that’s all Daddy’s promises are worth.

“And Bill, you can marry me and watch your future become part of your past.

“Both of you can crumble before Daddy. But I’m not going to.”

Silence fell as all three sat, thinking their own thoughts.

Judith knew this had to be done, even if she had to do it herself.

This time, it’s got to work.