Shallow Graves

7

"How many you want?" Billy asked the boy.

Before he could answer, Bobby said, "Have four."

"What's your name again?" Billy asked.

"Ned. And sure, I'll have four."

The pancake somersaulted through the air like the bone in the movie 2001, the bone that became a space station. What the pancake became, after Bobby maneuvered the plasticized Grand Union paper plate underneath it, adjusting for the trajectory, was just more of the boy's breakfast-flapjacks, sausage, eggs and buttered toast.

"That was, you know, totally fresh," the boy said, his eyes whipping up and down, replaying the flip. Billy nodded toward his brother and said, "Nobody flips 'em like Bobby."

Another flip. Ned, a strapping, seventeen year old, was having five pancakes, it turned out, not four.

Bobby looked shy and pleased about the good review of his talent. He didn't say anything. He wiped his hands on his Kiwanis-supplied apron.

Billy and Bobby were twins. They were about the same size as the boy, a little under six feet and maybe a hundred eighty pounds. But less of them was muscle than in the kid. They were thirty-five. They wore their dark hair similarly, Carnaby look: with long bangs. A fringe came over their ears in a slight curl. They shampooed with coal tar soap and always had a medicinal smell about them. Today, they wore brown. Bobby had on a white shirt because he'd volunteered to cook at the Kiwanis Breakfast. Billy, just hanging around and helping whoever needed help, wore a beige short-sleeved shirt printed with designs that looked like chain links.

"Whatsa time?" he asked the boy, who looked at a big, gleaming watch (birthday present, Billy thought).

"Almost eleven."

"Near quitting time for us," Bobby said. He scanned the site of the breakfast-the basement of the First Presbyterian Church of Cleary-and motioned to a nearby paper-tablecloth-covered card table. "Why don't you sit over there. We'll join you."

"Well, sure," Ned said, turning his round, red-scrubbed face to where they pointed.

Bobby made himself and his brother plates of pancakes and sausage, then plastered the stacks with smears of Parkay. He added a couple extra sausages to his and poured syrup on both plates.

He called across the room to Earl Gibson, the manager of Cleary Bank & Trust and president of the Kiwanis, and asked if it was okay for them to quit and have something to eat. And Earl came by, pumped their damp hands and said, "You bet." Then he thanked them both for doing such a good job. "Whatsyer secret, Robert?"

Bobby winked at the boy and said, "What it is, they get aerated when I send 'em up."

"He makes 'em good, Mr Gibson," Ned told Earl.

Billy said, "Aunt Gee-mima, watch yo black butt. My bro Bobby's in town."

They all laughed and the twins sat down with the boy.

The twins loved to volunteer. They were Little League coaches and they worked regularly at the Cleary Boys' Club and the Future Farmers of America. Their favorite volunteering was for this, the Fall Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast, and the Jay-Cees summer barbecue and, though they weren't married and had no children, the PTA's regular potluck suppers (nothing beat the combo of food and volunteer work).

Ned was one of those teenagers that could talk easily with adults, especially adults like the twins, who knew sports and weren't too geekish to tell an occasional Polack joke or one about girls' periods or boobs. The boy's rambling monologue was up and running by the time Billy and Bobby focused on it.

"Oh, man, I heard it was like totally awesome. Sid, he's kinduva dweeb but, you know, he can be okay sometimes, he was driving by and seen the cloud."

"Cloud?" Billy asked, eating a huge mouthful of pancakes.

"Yeah. Of smoke. He goes, 'It was totally black.' I thought he was a hatter, man, really. Like I go, 'Excuse me, I mean, excuse me, but gas doesn't burn black.' But then I figured it must've been tires. You hear about that illegal dump over in Jersey? They had like a million tires there and they caught fire only nobody could put it out."

"Missed that," Bobby said. He frowned. "Did you hear about that?"

Billy said, "Didn't hear about it."

Ned continued. "So what is I went by the park. Stan was there and he wouldn't let us get too close. I mean, the body was gone and everything but the car-you should've seen it. Totally nuked. Awesome!"

Bobby said, "I didn't hear about any car, what happened?"

Ned said, "The guy was freebasing or doing crack. And, man, it went up like an M80. Like what is freebasing?"

Bobby shrugged and finished his pancakes. He took half of one off his brother's plate. "I don't know."

"What happened to the dude who was driving?" Bobby asked.

Ned said, "Torched. Like this sausage." He grinned and held it up on a white plastic fork. He put the.whole link in his mouth and chewed slowly.

"He was the guy from the movie company, right?"

Ned said, "Yeah, I guess that screws up the chance of 'em making a movie in Cleary. The other one's still here, though. His buddy."

Billy said, "I'd like to be in a movie."

Ned said, "Yeah, both you guys together! I don't think I ever saw twins in a movie." He wiped up syrup with his finger and licked it off slowly. "I think it'd be totally fresh to be in a movie. Only, you know what bothers me?"

"No telling."

"Well, think about it. In a love scene, okay? Some guy's kissing Sharon Stone or Kim Bassinger or some fox, he's gotta have a hard-on, don't you think?"

Bobby said, "You'd think."

"Man, that'd be totally embarrassing. I'd try to think about making a play at second or something but I bet I'd still get a hard-on. Oh, man, what if I came while I was kissing her, right in front of everybody? God, I'd die."

The twins glanced at each other. Neither of them looked like they'd die under those circumstances.

Billy said, "I think it would've been fun, have a movie made here. Then go out to the mall, to the Multiplex over in Osborne; and see Main Street up there on the screen."

Ned said, "Oh, you know what'd be great? When they kiss on screen, you know, the girl's gotta kiss you whether she thinks you're a dweeb or not. It's like in the script, so what I'd do is, I'm holding her and the director says, 'Roll it,'-"

"'Action,'" Bobby offered.

"Yeah, right, 'Action,' and what I'd do is I'd tongue her so fast, bang, just like that! And she'd have to put up with it. She'd have to look like she enjoyed it."

"But then you'd get a hard-on," Billy said, "and be all embarrassed. Was there anything left of it?"

"Of what?" Ned sucked his fork.

"The car?"

"Just the metal parts. They were all twisted and burnt up but-"

"So where's that car now?" Billy asked.

Ned said, "Jimmy and me wanted to go take a look at it. It's at Sillman's garage. They're the ones that rented it to him."

Bobby said, "What you think it's worth?"

"Worth? It's pretty totaled, man. It's like nothing's left of the back half. The engine might be okay."

Bobby looked at his brother. "Maybe we should take a look at it."

"Can't hurt."

Bobby looked at the boy's empty plate. "Hey, you want any more?"

"They're closed up," Ned pointed out.

"Hell, for you, we'll open the kitchen."

"Well, just pancakes and sausages. I don't want any eggs."

"Coming right up," Bobby said just as Billy started to say the same thing.

Wexell Ambler's house was on Barlow Mountain Road just South of Cleary. The yard ran at a shallow incline down to what was called a lake on the local maps, though it was really just a pond. A hundred years ago Samuel Bingham, the Hartford insurance magnate, wanted to surprise his wife on her fortieth birthday by giving her something she didn't already own, which didn't leave many possibilities. But he noticed a low-lying spot on their seventy-acre estate and an idea occurred to him. He dug out three hundred apple trees and dammed a small stream that ran through the property.

The result was a shallow, weedy ten-acre lake, now surrounded by houses of the sort Ambler owned: half-million dollar colonials (Ambler's was the oldest, built in 1746) and contemporaries. All two-acre-plus lots. Ambler's ex-wife had landscaped the place; it was trim and simple. Pollen-dusty hemlocks, azaleas, rhododendrons, boxwood. She'd given up on tulips and annuals. ("The damn deer can find their own entrees," the woman had said shrilly.)

Standing now at the edge of this pond, Ambler whipped his fishing rod back and forth, trying to drop the tiny dot of burgundy fly into the yellow plastic hoop floating thirty feet away. Each time he'd flick the willowy rod he came close to his target but there was an uneven breeze and he was having problems compensating. Although he'd hunted all his life and fished frequently with a spinning reel he'd only been fly-fishing for a year, and learning it was hard as hell. Still, he kept at it, patient, squinting at the hoop, which looked white through his yellow-lens glasses.

The footsteps came up slowly behind him. The steps were deliberately loud (and, he decided, male); someone was walking heavier than necessary to announce himself. So he wouldn't startle Ambler.

He glanced over his shoulder at the young man. "Mark."

"Howdy, Wex."

The man wore blue jeans, a plaid jacket, a blue down vest, engineer boots. He was in his late twenties, heavy. His thin lips curved into a sincere smile. His sand-colored moustache was irritatingly meek. He had brush-cut hair, parted in the middle. Put him in a polyester suit and he'd be a model Kmart manager. He didn't look like what he was: a facilitator. Ambler didn't particularly like the young man; on the other hand, labor and accounts receivable problems at Ambler's construction company had nearly vanished since he'd hired Mark.

The boy was chewing tobacco and Ambler hoped he'd spit ugly so he could dress him down for it. But he just kept the wad in his mouth like a New York Yankee pitcher and looked happily across the lake.

"Catching anything?" Just a salutation. Snappers, snakes and algae were the only living creatures in this lake. Everybody knew that.

"Nope."

"I've asked around. Seems like it's right. About that guy."

"He's staying around."

"Yessir."

"What for?"

"Asking questions about his friend was killed."

"Goddamn."

"You don't have to worry, Wex."

"Any chance at all that somebody saw you?"

"No. I'm sure."

"How sure?"

Mark was completely patient. It was funny how calm and patient truly dangerous people could be. "No one saw me."

"When I heard the car burned up I thought it'd be destroyed."

"I wrapped the stuff in foil. It was in the glove compartment. That may have helped."

"Helped? What do you mean?"

"I don't mean helped in a good sense. I mean, that may have kept it from burning up. There was hash and some crack vials."

As if he didn't want to hear the details Ambler asked quickly, "When you called the sheriff there's no way to trace it? Maybe they could do a voice print."

"Tom doesn't have that kind of equipment, Wex. You know that. Anyway, he was out getting his haircut. I left the message with Gladys. She doesn't even know my voice. Said a couple of us had seen him."

"I shouldn't have told Moorhouse to plow the ground over."

Ambler thought of something else. "What about fingerprints?"

Mark didn't say anything, just stared at the band of colorful trees across the pond.

Ambler said, "I'm sorry. I'm sure you thought of that. I just thought Pellam would have left. It's upsetting."

The fly went wide and caught in some reeds. "Damn," Ambler said. He pulled out his complicated fishing knife, with a hook remover and sealer on it. He was going to cut his line but then thought maybe a Canada goose might get tangled. Ambler was wearing two-hundred-dollar L.L. Bean shoes. He had no idea where his wading boots were. He sighed and started walking into the lake to free the line. He felt soft muck under his shoes. Bubbles of soft air rose around his legs.

Mark said, "You want me to do that?"

Ambler said, "No."

He walked unsteadily to the weeds, unhooked the fly then returned slowly to the shore.

"I know the kind of man he is."

"Who?"

"The man from the movie company. He's not leaving till he gets some answers." Ambler sighed.

"You know him?"

"I know his kind" he said impatiently.

The young man looked out over the lake, squinting at a phalanx of geese coming in for a landing. It was a wistful look-as if he wished he were sighting down the barrel of a long ten-gauge shotgun, leading a bird by ten feet. "You want me to keep an eye on him?"

"Yes, I do."

A moment passed. A swan floated past. Ambler knew that however beautiful they were they were also mean sons of bitches.

Finally Mark said, "You want me to do anything else?" Ambler glanced at him then dropped to his knees and began to undo the tangled fishing line.

"You're the place rents cars?" Pellam asked the young man.

The kid wore dungarees and stood under a yellow Monte Carlo, which was head high on a lift. The garage had two bays and a small office, the whole place stinking of grease and gasoline and burnt coffee. Pellam's eyes watered from fumes.

"Yessir." He was changing the oil and apart from his fingernails there didn't seem to be a fleck of grime on his body anywhere.

"That's a good trick, staying that clean."

"I don't work that hard."

Pellam yawned. He was tired. Winnebago beds are small and Janine was a big girl. Also, she was an energetic lover. A bit desperate too. It unnerved him the way she kept promising him how much she liked sex with him, how good he was. He didn't believe women were capable of that many orgasms in a two-hour period. At least not in a Winnebago bunk.

He woke up once in the middle of the night and found her crying. He'd asked her what the matter was. She said angrily he wouldn't understand. He sensed he was supposed to pry an explanation out of her but he fell asleep and woke at seven to find her foraging in the small fridge and making a huge omelette she ate out of hunger and he downed from politeness.

Pellam now asked the well-kempt garage man, "You Sillman?"

"Nosir, just work here is all."

"Is there a Sillman?"

"Yessir, but he's down in Florida."

Pellam walked to the front of the bay and looked again for the wreck. He wasn't sure he wanted to see it. It didn't matter because, although he saw a lot of decrepit cars, he didn't see any burnt wrecks.

"I understand you rented that car that got burnt up. The one the other day?"

"Oh, yeah. That was terrible, wasn't it?"

"You know what happened to the car?"

"Was here yesterday. Out back. Then she got sold."

"Sold?"

"That's right, sir. For scrap."

That sir again… Pellam asked, "Didn't anybody from the insurance company tell you not to?"

"Me?"

"Well, somebody."

"I don't know, sir. Nobody told me not to do anything. I heard that Mr Sillman settled with the boy's family. Paid 'em some good money. I heard a hundred thousand."

Man, for a town where nobody seemed in a hurry, some things got done real fast.

"Why would Sillman settle? Everybody's saying it's the boy's own fault."

"I'm not a lawyer, sir. Just a mechanic."

Pellam asked, "You know who bought it?"

"Nope."

"Who would?"

"Sillman. He's the one who sold her."

"I thought he was in Florida."

"Clearwater."

"But you said-"

"Oh, he left at noon."

"And that's all you know about it?"

"That's about it, sir."

"And Sillman'll be back when?"

"Probably next month."

"It's a stupid question but I don't suppose you know where I could reach him?"

"Clearwater's a big town."

"Stupid, like I said. A month, hm? He always take a vacation that long?"

"Oftentimes he does."

Pellam said, "This garage business… must do pretty well, a man can take a month off."

"You'd be surprised, sir. By the way, that's a nice camper you got yourself. You wanta fill?"

"Not today," he said.

Pellam walked over to the three men playing poker, sitting in the back of the Hudson Inn's sour-mash- and beer-scented bar. "Mind if I sit in?"

A little uncomfortable at first, this crew. Then he bought a round of Bud, in the tall bottles. Then he bought another and things loosened up. Fred was the easiest to talk to. Close to seventy, with a red, leathery face. He hadn't been a farmer, which would have been the safest guess, but had worked railroads all his life, retiring early from Amtrak ten years before. Pete-in his mid forties-ran an insurance agency from his split-level a mile outside of town. Before the first hand was dealt, Pete started hanging on everything Pellam said. Agreeing too often, nodding broadly. He'd say, "Wait!" a lot and have Pellam repeat himself, to make sure he understood what was said. The other of the foursome was Nick. Twenty-one and as blasé as anything Cleary had ever produced. He'd roll his eyes, saying, "Shee-it!" and offered a sneer of a smile that Pellam came to decide wasn't as mean as it appeared. It was just part of the topography of his face. Pellam pegged him as a searcher. A successful high school linebacker going to fat as he cast about for a career.

Fred told the others that Pellam was descended from a famous gunfighter. "Wild Bill Hickok."

Pellam closed his eyes for a moment. "Now where the hell'd you hear that?"

Fred shrugged. Pete's eyes widened another few millimeters and said, "Holy Moly."

Nick said, "Bet five."

Janine, of course. It had to be Janine. "See you," Pellam said. "Raise five."

Pete said, "Hey, I saw that film. Who was in it? Jimmy Stewart? I don't remember. He was one of the best shots in the west, Wild Bill. He was your classic gunfighter. He shot… who was it? I don't remember. Maybe Billy the Kid. Just… it was incredible. See your ten. He got shot in the back… Oh, hey, sorry, Pellam." He looked down, blushing at his faux pas.

"Christ, Pete, I never knew the man."

"Well, you know."

Fred said, "Dealer sees your ten. Shot in the back. Hey, Pellan, that why you're sitting facing the door?"

He laughed and said, "No." He didn't tell him that the reason he'd picked this chair was so that he could look across the street into the window of Dutchess Realty Company, where Meg Torrens sat, her white blouse ill-defined but evident in the dimness of the office. He'd decided a real estate broker could give him a good run-down on the cast of characters in Cleary-and who might not want a movie made here.

"Shot in the back? Man, fucking cheap shot," said Nick, and tossed in more chips. "Call you."

They played for nearly an hour, Pellam steadily losing fifty bucks, most of it to Fred.

Pete was still staring at him in an irritatingly eager way when Fred said, "Ha, Pellam, you're a poker player. You ever get a deadman's hand?" Then turned to Nick. "You know what that is?"

"What's that? Like so awesome it blows everybody away, a royal flush?"

"That's what Wild Bill had when he got shot. Full house of aces and eights. You ever get that, Pellam?" Fred stacked up his ample inventory of battered chips.

"Not that I can recall."

Nick got up to hit the John and Pellam asked Fred and Pete, "Got a question. Say somebody had a wrecked car. Where'd they sell it for scrap around here?"

"She run at all?" Fred asked.

"Nope, just for steel."

The local men looked at each other. Pete said, "Couple places. I'd go to Stan Grodsky's yard, out on Nine."

Fred said, "He's a Polack and he'll rob you."

Pete blushed again. "He asked who'd buy wrecks. Stan buys wrecks."

Fred said to Pellam, "He'll rob you."

Pete said, "I got a good deal there one time."

"Says you."

"Yeah? I got me a hundred bags of Sakreet at three dollars per."

Fred said, "They were forty pounders, not sixties, and how much was solid on the bottom?"

"Not much at all."

Fred scoffed.

As Pellam wrote down the name, Fred grimaced. "There are a couple others. Bill Shecker's Army & Navy, over on 106, about three miles north of here."

Pete was thinking furiously. "Oh, there's also R &W. They're out on Nine too. That's Nine also, I mean. Not Ninety-two."

Fred nodded. "Yeah, forgot about them."

Nick returned. The table was stacked with bottles, a forest of glossy brown. The bartender cleared some away and the game resumed. Pellam watched the cards flying out from under Nick's thick hands.

They played for another twenty minutes. Then Pellam saw motion across the street. Hard to say, vague in the dusk, but it might have been a pretty blonde in a white blouse wearing too much pancake makeup and fleshy pantyhose, locking up a small-town real estate office at dusk. He looked at the three jacks in his hand and folded. He stood up.

Everyone at the table looked at him.

"I'm beat."

Fred said, "Tough work losing money."

Nick frowned. It was too early to leave. Pellam was breaking gambler protocol. "Suit yourself."

"Maybe sit in tomorrow."

Pete said, "Come by sometime. Anytime. I'd like to get your opinion on what we were talking about before. You know."

Pellam had no clue. "Sure thing. Evening, gentlemen."

By the time he got to the sidewalk Meg had finished locking the door and was moving toward her car.

He felt a presence at his side. It startled him. Someone took his arm.

Janine kissed his neck. "It's Cecil B." She squeezed his biceps into her breast, "I just closed up shop and was going to stop by your camper and say hi. How are you, darling?"

"Doing good," Pellam said, forcing himself not to look toward Meg's receding form.

She squeezed his thigh, mindful of the bruise, and said, "You don't look as sore as last night." A sly grin. "I was thinking, love, you still haven't seen my house. Come by and I'll make you dinner. I'll even cook meat, you want."

"How about a rain check? I've got to send a package off to my studio. I'll be working all night."

"I've got an awareness group tomorrow and women's crisis intervention the day after. Maybe I can… Oh, hell, then my old man's coming by. He's bringing his new cycle over to show me…" She stood back and examined his face. "Hey, you're not jealous, are you?"

"Not a bit."

"That's a good boy." She held his eyes in a vice grip, then leaned forward suddenly and kissed his mouth. Hers was partly open. He recoiled for an instant in surprise, then returned the kiss.

Janine said, "Then the apple festival's on Saturday and I'm working a booth. How would Sunday be?"

"Sure. Good."

Where was Meg? He'd lost her. Goddamn, why'd she worn a black jacket? He couldn't see her. He looked back at Janine, who was saying, "You better not get cramps anywhere but in your writing hand." She punched him playfully on the jaw, though bone connected with bone and he blinked. She said, "And you better not stand me up. Mama doesn't like to be stood up."

"Yes, dear." He smiled and stood hard on the sarcasm.

Not far away Meg's Toyota fired up. He heard the bubble of the exhaust and saw the gray car back out of its stall. He said, "Well, much as I hate it, better go do some work. Sunday, then?"

"I close the shop at four. Why don't I come by the camper after? We'll drive home together. How's that?"

"Sounds great."

He kissed her cheek, broke away. As he started toward the Toyota he saw the little car speed away. The brake lights flashed as it made a fast turn and then was gone.

"Damn."

Pellam slowed his walk. Stopped and headed back toward the camper.

Thinking about junkyards.

He walked to the end of the deserted block and turned the corner onto the side street where the Winnebago was parked.

Thinking about getting something to eat.

Thinking about-

He nearly walked into the car. The little gray Toyota, idling at the curbside.

When he put his hands on the roof and bent down to the window, where she sat holding the wheel in both hands, staring straight ahead, she said, "You're alone."

"Nope. I'm with you."

"I thought you maybe had a date."

"Date?"

"Weren't you walking with…" She debated and the catty side won. "… Ms 1969?"

"Business," he said.

"Ah. Business."

Pellam asked, "How about a drink?"

He knew she was going to say no but he was curious what form it would take. There were a thousand different ways a woman says no to a man and they all have different meaning.

"I can't. I'm going out with the girls tonight. Bridge."

"How about poker? I can get us into a game up the street."

She laughed. A moment passed. "I wanted to say I was sorry about your friend. I heard about the accident."

"Thank you."

"I also wanted to apologize."

He cocked an eyebrow toward her, and she added. "For the other day. In the hospital."

"Naw. I was out of line," Pellam said. "I hate hospitals. They put me in a bad mood."

"No…" She studied the tachometer. "I was rude."

A hotrod car went past, exhaust popping as it slowed for a stop sign, then took off again.

She said, "There's something else."

He smiled. "Is there?"

Meg swallowed and tried to put up a shield against the flirt.

"It's kind of last minute. But you interested in coming over for dinner?"

"You cook like you drive?"

She blinked and tried to think of a comeback. He could see her thoughts racing. But she decided not to play the wittiest-comeback game. "About eight. That's extremely fashionably late around these parts. In fact, it's about bedtime."

"I'll bring some wine."

"No, you don't have to."

"No bother."

Meg gave him directions. He memorized them and repeated them out loud. He said, "See you then," grinning. She gunned the engine. He stepped back and she spun the car into the intersection, scattering gravel. She'd kept it in gear, the clutch depressed, while they'd talked. Planning a fast getaway.

Meg glanced back and, unsmiling, waved. She drove into the darkness.