Crime Machine

20

“HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET DOWN?” Nikki said. She was hanging by her knees from a tree branch. She was high enough that, even upside down, her face was a foot higher than Lemur’s. He was looking up at her, shaking his head in his solemn way. A frigid breeze blew across her belly where her jacket and sweater had fallen open.

“Cover yourself up,” Lemur said. “Your stomach. Don’t show yourself like that.”

“Perv. You getting turned on?”

“It’s not our way. You’ve heard Papa talk about modesty.”

“You just don’t like to look at girls cuz you’re a faggot.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Chill, Lemur—I’m just kidding.”

“Don’t call me names. I don’t call you names. We’re here to respect each other. You’re not gonna get a lot of that outside the family, and neither am I. Not yet, anyway.”

Nikki didn’t like that talk of respect. The only thing people had ever respected about her was her ass. Soon as they saw her face, it was a whole other story. She pulled herself up so that she was sitting on the branch. The sensation of all the blood now draining from her head made her woozy. She looked up to where she had climbed to loop the rope over a high branch. “I can’t believe I went up that high. I haven’t climbed a tree since I was a kid.”

“You’re thirteen years old. You still are a kid.”

“You’re three years older. Big deal.”

“Toss me the rope, then come on down.”

“I told you, I don’t know how.” She let the rope go and it slithered down through the branches.

“Just swing down and hang from the branch by your hands.”

“Uh-huh. And if I break my ankle? Papa will kill you. You’re supposed to protect me.”

“You’re family, Nikki—I will always protect you. But you have to be self-reliant, too.”

Still holding tight, Nikki slid back and down until her heels caught on the branch so that she was swinging under it, clinging almost upside down from hands and ankles. She let go with her ankles so that she was stretched out full now, hanging just from her hands, the cold bark biting into her fingers. She let herself dangle, feeling the stretch all the way down to her toes. Cold air on her stomach again. She wanted Lemur to touch it. Eight months with this weird family and she still had no idea how to be with a male who didn’t try to fuck her. Lying down in the dark, they couldn’t see her stupid face.

“You’re showing yourself again.”

“Don’t be such a tard. I’m hanging from a fucking tree.”

“You have to take care for yourself, Nikki. Watch your language, too. You can’t be using the F-word. Men have strong desires.”

“You don’t. Not for girls, anyway.”

“Don’t start with that again. I’m trying to be nice to you.”

“I know all about men’s desires,” she said from between upstretched arms. “I bet you all had a good laugh about it when Papa took me in that night.” She let go. Her feet hit the ground hard and she staggered backwards.

Lemur steadied her, strong hands gripping her biceps.

“You can let go of me now, perv.”

“Nobody laughed at you,” Lemur said. “Night he brought you in, Papa said, ‘Nikki’s been doing what she has to do to survive. I won’t hear her criticized for it.’”

Nikki imitated Papa’s tone. “‘I won’t hear her criticized for it.’”

Lemur smiled. He had a good smile—the gap in his front teeth made him look like a little kid—but he didn’t use it much. “Okay, I’m going to tie this to the rear axle.”

Ignoring the snow, Lemur got down on his back and slid under the Range Rover. All Nikki could see were his legs and the rope jerking beside them as he tied it. She thought about making a grab for his crotch, going down on him right here in the snow. See exactly how faggoty he might be.

“Why are we doing this, anyway?” she said to his legs. “Who in their right mind is going to come out here?”

Lemur emerged from under the car and stood up, swatting snow from his pants. “You want to question Papa, you go right ahead. But you may have noticed, if you’re going to stay in this family, you don’t ask too many questions.” He got into the Range Rover and started it. He rolled down the window and said, “Let me know when the rock’s about twenty feet up.”

The car inched forward, pulling the rope taut. The huge rock Lemur had fixed to the other end with many complicated knots began to rise in the air. When it was about twenty feet up, she called out, “Stop!”

Lemur got out and showed her how to tie the loop, how to set it to be tripped by an unwary footstep. “Okay, let’s try it out. Step in the loop, there.”

“I’m not stepping on that thing.”

Lemur gave her a look. He didn’t have to say anything. It was the family look. It said, This is family business and you just get it done. “It’s not gonna hurt, right?”

“No.”

Nikki stomped one foot on the hidden trigger. The loop slithered closed round her ankle and she was hoisted into the air as the counterweight slammed to the ground. “Ow, Lemur. What the fuck.”

“Watch your language.”

“I hit my head, you jerk-off.”

“Nikki, you have to stop cursing. It’s a sign of weakness, and members of this family are not weak. You use language like that, Papa’s gonna go berserk.”

Nikki was dangling upside down from one ankle, the snowy forest floor swinging crazily beneath her. “Just get me down before I throw up. The thing works, okay? Anybody comes along this trail, they’re totally fucked—sorry!—trapped. Don’t wanna hurt those virgin ears of yours.”

In the kitchen, Papa had just finished his lunch and was sitting at the table picking his teeth and listening to the radio. There were a lot of local ads, but it kept promising news. Jack was staring out the window, where a light snow was falling.

Papa put the toothpick on the plate and pushed the plate aside. Then he rested his elbows on the table and leaned his face into his hands, like a man suffering a tragedy. After a while he said, “God. I have such thoughts.”

His words were muffled. Jack turned from the window and said, “What’d you say?”

“Such thoughts come to me,” Papa said, his face still in his hands. “Such images.”

“I’m aware of it,” Jack said. “It’s not like you’re the one got to deal with it.”

“Picture this. Neighbours hear a barking dog. As far as they know, the people who live in that particular house are away. The barking goes on all through the night. Finally the police come and, after trying the doorbell, after trying to see in the windows, they bust the door open. What they find inside beggars the imagination. A dog is barking all right, but the dog is sewn inside a human body, his dog head emerging where the human head should be.”

Jack turned back to the window. “Personally, I don’t get the attraction of headless bodies—having seen ’em up close and all.”

“Shh. Listen.”

The local newscast opened with an item about a First Nations girl who had shot an assailant with a crossbow.

“A crossbow,” Papa said. “Have to give her points for that.”

A police spokesman related that the girl was not being charged with anything, and her alleged attacker was in hospital but expected to survive his injury.

Meanwhile, residents of Algonquin Bay continue to live in fear, wondering if they should expect more murders following last Thursday’s grisly double slaying. Police believe they have now identified the victims, but that information is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. As to the killer or killers, police still seem pretty much in the dark. We spoke to Detective John Cardinal of the Algonquin Bay police service earlier today.

The detective’s voice came on. “This investigation is still in its beginning stages, but at least it’s now on solid ground and we have a number of different leads to follow up.” CKAT will keep you updated as further developments unfold.

“‘In fear,’” Papa said. “I like that, ‘in fear.’ In fear is exactly the way people should be living. Fear is healthy. Fear is good. There’s a new world coming, and it’s nothing like the old world.”

“Chaos is coming,” Jack said. “Hold on to your hats.” He traced K-OS in the condensation on the window.

“Guided chaos. Exactly right.”

Jack drew a happy face in the O. “Lemur is taking an awful long time to set that trap. Maybe I should go find them.”

“Lemur knows what he’s doing.”

“You trust him with Nikki? Girl’s got a hot body for a thirteen-year-old. Terrible face. But I’d have swore she was sixteen.”

“Lemur will behave like a gentleman. I’ve trained a lot of kids over the years, and he seems to get it more than most.”

“Including me?”

“Including you.”

“That’s the thanks I get.”

“I’m referring to the gentleman part, Jack. Each kid responds to one part of the code more than another. In your case, it’s loyalty. For Lemur, it’s manners.”

“I’ve never understood why you’re so all-fired missionary on the subject.”

“Because no situation is made worse by good manners, and many are made better.”

“I still don’t see why it’s taking them so long.”

“Jack, that’s just lust talking. You know it’s a problem for you and it only brings you misery and pain. But I don’t define you by it, and I hope you don’t either. You’re such a strong guy, I can’t imagine you’re going to let it get the better of you.”

Jack turned from the window. He opened the fridge and took out a can of the old man’s ginger ale, opened it and took a drink. He wiped his mouth and said, “I didn’t say nothing about lust. That girl don’t even turn me on, tell you the truth. That face of hers.”

“Let’s not be shallow about people’s looks. Nikki’s face is perfectly fine.”

“It’s not to my taste is what I’m saying. So it’s not lust talking, Papa. It’s concern. We’re supposed to look after each other, and I’m concerned about Nikki.”

“Nikki’s in no danger with Lemur at her side.”

“It’s Lemur I’m concerned about.”

“Then you don’t know human nature. And you don’t know Lemur.”

Jack drank down the rest of the ginger ale and crushed the can in his fist. “Lemur this, Lemur that. What’s he ever done? What’re you always going on about that little faggot for?”

“Jack, please. We do not call each other names. You’ve spent years in institutions—have I ever called you psycho?”

“No.”

“Crazy? Disturbed? Wacko? I have not. And no one else in this family ever has or ever will. Because we respect you, Jack. And we respect your ability to give as you receive.”

Jack felt he should have a reply to this, that there was something unfair about it. But there was a lot right about it too, and now he felt bad for letting Papa down, letting the family down. After a time he said, “You always told me loyalty was the most important thing. Now all you go on about is manners.”

“Loyalty is second nature in Lemur. His manners, on the other hand, needed a lot of work. When we first took him in—don’t you remember?— it was ‘fuck this’ and ‘motherfucker’ that, and now he’s a model of polite speech. With you, loyalty has always been an issue. Lemur is like a hunting dog, but you—you’re a wild stallion. Magnificent, yes, but liable to gallop away at the first chance.”

“You question my loyalty? After what I just done for you? Everything you said, down to the letter—when you said and how you said. Do you have any concept what that took?”

Papa stood up and opened his arms wide. Jack hesitated then stepped closer, and Papa closed his arms around him in a bear hug. “Jack, your courage is never in doubt. Not for one minute. You’re our samurai. Our warrior. Our knight. Some poet said, ‘Lonely are the brave.’ Well, not in my house. You are crucial to this family and I trust you with my life, Jack. With my life.” Papa stood back, hands still gripping Jack’s shoulders. “When it comes down to it, Jack—when it comes to sheer guts?—I think you’ve got me outclassed. Maybe one day I’ll prove myself wrong, but I don’t think so.”

Jack did not feel brave. If he had any guts, he’d tell Papa that a girl, some kid, had seen him out at that house and it had panicked him so bad he couldn’t see straight. He should have killed her—run her down, shot her, whatever it took—but it hadn’t been part of the operation and he’d just panicked. But he couldn’t say it. He pulled away and folded his arms. “So when’s Lemur going to face his big test? He’s been part of this family a long time now. Is he gonna do the old man?”

“If I ask him to, he will.”

“You think so? I wouldn’t have said the odds favour it.”

Papa smiled. “That’s because you’re a man of action, Jack. Understanding people is not your strong point.”