Judging Time

32

Wally Jefferson knew the cops were looking for him. His wife told him the detective called Sanchez had telephoned her three times in the last two days. The cop didn't believe her when she told him her husband was not at home. So tonight he'd driven out to New Jersey in the early evening to check out the situation himself. She was hysterical because the cop had asked if he could look around, and she hadn't known what to tell him.

"Wally, are you in trouble?" She called him on his cell phone and started crying at the sound of his voice.

"Did you let him look around?"

"Yes," she wailed. "He went into the garage, into the backyard. What was he looking for?"

”A body. Did he find one?"

She screamed. "Oh, Lord, have mercy. A body. Oh, you're funning me."

"Yeah, that's right. I'm funning you."

"Well, he didn't find a body."

"That's good. He ask you where I was the night Petersen was killed?"

"Yes. He-"

"What did you tell him, hon?"

"I told him you were with me from ten o'clock on, just like you said. Oh, Lord, Wally, what's happening?"

"Some bad things are happening, but I didn't have nothing to do with none of them. Don't you worry about a thing. Do you believe me?" "But you weren't home that night," she wailed. "Please come back now, I'm scared."

"You got to trust me. You got to not worry, and let me fix this."

"How you gonna fix it? Where are you? I gotta know."

"No. You don't gotta know nothing. I'll call you later and tell you what we're gonna do." Wally hung up his cell phone and dialed Julio's cell phone.

The Dominican picked up and babbled some Spanish into the phone.

"It's Wally, where are you?"

"Where you, man?"

"Don't jerk me, Julio. You wiped somebody in the wrong car. You got to make things right with me now."

"No kill nobody. This guy, he ate his gun. Dumb hijo de puta. He want everything."

"Why'd you have to do it in the car."

"I tole you accidente. No do nada."

"Julio, you fucked my life. 1 have to get out of here. And I have to get out of here now."

"Where are you, man?"

"I don't know. Somewhere. I need my share of the money."

"Yeah, tomorrow. I tole you."

"Tonight. I need it tonight. You hear me. You give me the money, I'm out of here. If you don't give me the money and I talk to the pigs, I go down for car theft max. Not even possession, man. You go down for murder. Comprende?"

"My ingles is bad, pero tonight I bring. Okeydoke?"

"Same place?"

"Si One hour, two hour."

Jefferson sighed. He knew he had to dump his car now, rely on public transportation. He hated doing that. He knew he had to change his clothes, too. It was raining again. He'd have to find another car when he got uptown.