Freaky Deaky

Chapter 30

"The tricky part," Chris said, "you have to figure out how much wire to use. You run an exposed wire from the dynamite and hook it to the underside of the desktop in a loop. Then you run your insulated wire to the inside of the front of the drawer, staple it there and run it back through the loop, with about three inches of insulation at the end of the wire peeled off. See, then when you open the drawer it pulls the wire through till the exposed end touches the loop and completes the circuit."

Donnell said, "You understand that, Mr. Woody?"

Woody, eating his cereal with the TV on but the sound off, said, "What?"

It was the following Sunday morning. Chris had stopped by to ask Donnell a question.

He was saying now, "There's a little more to it. With the drawer open you lay a sheet of paper between the two wires, 'cause in that position the exposed parts would be touching. Then, it's like this," Chris said, demonstrating. "You pull the sheet out as you push the drawer closed. You want, I can draw you a picture how it works."

"No, that's all right," Donnell said. He poured coffee for Chris and refilled Woody's cup, saying, "We be in the other room, Mr. Woody. Call, you need anything."

Chris followed Donnell through the butler's pantry.

"He has Jimmy Swaggart on but no sound."

"Mr. Woody don't like to hear Jimmy preach, it scares the shit out of him. But, see, 'The Lone Ranger' come on right after. Next hour or so he'll call me Tonto. I said to him, 'Mr. Woody, remember that new will me and you made up?' Looks at me, says, 'What new will?' "

They walked through the front hall to the library and stood in the doorway to look at the shattered interior, the ceiling scorched, books ripped from the shelves.

"You haven't done anything," Chris said.

"I'm getting bids on the work. Don't have one yet that pleases me."

Chris said, "I'll bet there's still some of Robin in there."

"Man, she was all over the library, huh? Didn't Skippy say something to you?"

"He opened his eyes. I think he said, 'Oh, shit,' but I could barely hear him."

Donnell said, "Yeah, well. . . ." Sipped his coffee and said, "How you doing with Ginger?"

"You mean Greta. She went out to L.A., try and get in the movies. She makes it, I can say I helped finance her career. In a way, I mean. I gave her the check Woody gave me."

"Get out."

"I wasn't gonna keep it and Woody didn't have any more checks, so . . . what's the difference?"

"The difference between being smart and dumb as shit," Donnell said, "is what the difference is. Man, I don't believe it. You out of work, you give money away."

"There's a good chance I'm going back, get in Homicide . . . after this hearing tomorrow. They want to ask me a few questions."

"I bet they do."

"There's one area where I might have a problem. See, I've talked to them already during the investigation--you know how they go after all the little details. They want to know where I got the dynamite; I said it was in the house. They say, Okay, but why did you go there? I tell them, To pick up Greta. They say, Oh? With a gun? And I just said, without thinking, What gun?"

"Not saying you didn't have one."

"Unh-unh, I said, What gun?"

"I 'magine they mean the one I found blown clear out in the yard and give to a policeman. That funny gun."

"That's what I was afraid might've happened."

"So you have to explain why a laid-off cop is walking around with a piece, huh? Like what was your intent?"

"I kept it at work, but I never used it on duty."

"Tell 'em you were taking it home."

"And just happened to have it," Chris said and thought about it a moment. "That's not bad."