The winter of Frankie Machine

89

It’s cold and dark coming on four in the morning on a winter’s day in San Diego.

The famous sunshine doesn’t start for a few hours and the real sunny, warm days don’t start for a couple of months.

But the storm is over now.

The big swell has blown itself out, and the waves fall gently on the shore.

Frank walks along the beach toward the base of the pier. His body hurts, his chest so tight with anxiety, he can barely breathe.

First he sees the lights of the pier, then the faint glow of a flashlight; then he sees someone walking through the mist toward him.

A young man.

“Frankie Machine?” the man asks.

Frank nods.

“Jimmy Giacamone,” the man says, as if he expects Frank to recognize him. Frank just looks at him, so the man adds, “Jimmy ‘the Kid’ Giacamone.”

Frank doesn’t respond to it.

Jimmy the Kid says, “I could have taken you, Frankie Machine, I’d a had the chance.”

“Where’s my daughter?”

“She’s coming, don’t worry,” Jimmy the Kid says. “I gotta pat you down first, Frankie.”

Frank raises his arms.

Jimmy pats him down quickly and efficiently and finds the little tape cassette in Frank’s jacket pocket. “This is it?”

Frank nods. “Where’s my daughter?”

“Just so you know,” Jimmy says. “I don’t approve of any of this. This thing with your daughter. I’m old-school.”

“Where’s my daughter?”

“Come on.”

Jimmy the Kid grabs him by the right elbow and leads him along the beach. When they get under the pier, he says, “I got it. I got him. He’s clean.”

A group of men come out of the mist like ghosts, their flashlights in one hand, their guns in another. There are five of them, the whole Wrecking Crew.

And Donnie Garth, except he doesn’t have a gun. He holds out his hand and Jimmy the Kid gives him the tape. He pops it into a Dictaphone, listens for a second, and nods.

“Bring her to me,” Frank says.

Garth swings his flashlight up and down. An endless minute later, Frank sees Jill walking toward him through the fog, with Donna at her side.

“Daddy.”

She looks like she’s been crying, but she looks strong.

“It’s going to be all right, baby.”

“Daddy-”

Frank reaches out and holds her tight. Whispers into her ear. “Go. Be a doctor. Make me proud.”

She sobs into his shoulder. “Daddy-”

“Shhhhh, it’s all right.” He looks up at Garth. “I made copies. They’re in safe-deposit boxes all over the world. If anything should happen to my daughter-a robber shoots her, she gets hit by a car, she falls off a horse-there are people who will distribute this tape to every major news network.”

Jimmy the Kid looks at Garth.

“Let her go,” Garth says.

“Listen-”

“Shut up,” Garth says. “I said, ‘Let her go.’”

Jimmy hesitates, then nods his head at Donna and says, “Get her the fuck out of here.”

Donna starts to take her, but Jill grabs Frank’s neck and won’t let go. “Daddy, they’re going to kill you.”

“They’re not going to kill me, baby,” he whispers. “I’m Frankie Machine.”

Donna slips the gun into his hands, then pushes Jill to the ground and falls on top of her. Frank shoots Jimmy the Kid between the eyes, then one of the Wrecking Crew, then another.

Carlo gets a shot away before a bullet blows the back of his head off. The shock knocks Frank to the ground, and he tries to aim at the fourth guy but sees he’s going to be too late.

Dave Hansen sees the same thing, haloed by the pier lights. It’s a tough shot from a boat, even with a rifle, but he makes it, and puts a round between the guy’s shoulder blades.

Frank rolls, swings his gun to the fifth man, and shoots him in the heart.

Garth is running.

Frank gets up to chase him.

They’re neither of them young, but Donnie Garth hasn’t been through what Frank’s been through the past few days, so he starts to pull away.

Frank sees that his legs aren’t fast enough, but he knows a bullet will be. He raises his gun to shoot; then a searing pain burns in his chest and his left arm is numb. At first, he thinks it’s the bullet, but then he feels his heart crack like a breaking wave and he can’t breathe and the pain is awful; he gets off one last shot and has the satisfaction of seeing Donnie Garth drop.

Then Frank stops, grabs his chest, and topples into the sand.

“Daddy!”

Jill’s voice is the last thing he hears.