A Vicious Circle: Chapter 7 / 13
Renaissance
Chapter 7
Renaissance
Dash hadn’t called Adam in a while, which left the young gangster and his new girl with much more time on their hands. They began seeing each other more regularly after the incident at the Half Moon Diner, too. Whenever Carolyn had extra work to do, they limited themselves to meeting about once a week. If she had a few days off, they would meet every other day, still giving each other that noble “room to breathe,” as they put it. They shared the same basic concern, that – just as someone might get sick from overindulging in their favorite food – they would grow tired of each other if they spent too much time together.
Each time they decided to leave their city for a while, Adam’s gold-haired love never told him where they were going. He would learn it on the way, or after they arrived, and even then, the evanescent names never stuck. In a way, he never knew where he really was. Half the time, he felt as though he floated from place to place, drifting through them in a half-dream, as it were. And as if his unretentive perception of things weren’t enough, one time he asked Carolyn directly about the name of their destination, but just as she answered, he was seized by a violent cough that left him temporarily deaf to anything around him, and he spent the remainder of the journey in his usual blissful ignorance.
There was one occasion when a police car appeared behind them and signaled for them to pull over. A tall officer informed Carolyn she’d been speeding and asked for her paperwork. Adam began to sweat when he caught sight of the officer’s uniform through the window on Carolyn’s side. He had the blood of two men on his hands, a not-so-small sum of money he hadn’t declared, and – as if that weren’t enough – he was sitting next to someone who made her living selling drugs.
Who knows what’s inside the glove compartment, or the trunk? Adam thought. That woman’s going to get us both thrown in jail!
But the whole situation turned out very different from what he had expected. Instead of writing Carolyn a ticket, the officer handed back all her documents the moment he read her name. He stammered an apology he never finished as he hurried back to the squad car, where he immediately got into a heated argument with his partner.
Adam had no idea what was going on. He chose to confront the matter with Carolyn outright.
‘You wanna tell me what the hell just happened? I mean, the cop stops you, reads your name, and just runs off? You didn’t even get a warning!’
‘You see what a name and the right connections can do? More than you think, sugar. You’ll see for yourself. Sooner or later.’
‘I guess I will.’ Adam rolled his eyes and sat back. He wanted to act like it was nothing, but deep down, he couldn’t wait for the cops to tremble in his presence too.
But even with all the envy he felt over how she got away with everything, Adam found in Carolyn a companion who filled him with a deep, almost embarrassing satisfaction. Never before had he experienced that kind of acceptance and attentive warmth from anyone before her. Yet he could never quite answer himself whether they were actually in a relationship. He never liked putting labels on things, either; he preferred to let them grow on their own, organically. What mattered most to him was that he loved her, and he was sure she felt the same. Nothing made him think she might be interested in anyone else – and all that was enough to make him happy.
Adam’s new life felt perfect to him; he had affection, freedom, and no real worries.
Almost.
Because as spring approached, he started running short on money.
It’s about time I made some dough again, he kept saying to himself before he finally decided to call his boss.
In accordance with the established rules, he called Dash, let the phone give its three dutiful rings, and hung up. With the skin around his fingernails worked nearly raw, he waited for the call to be returned.
The phone did ring after a few seconds, but – for reasons he couldn’t quite grasp – Adam hesitated. He felt a vague danger in picking it up, a creeping foreboding that the device was capable of some erratic, unpredictable malice. Still, he reached for the receiver and didn’t postpone what had to be done.
‘Ah, Adam! It has been some time, has it not?’ Dash observed. Adam recognized his voice at once; it had that smooth, measured authority of a man long accustomed to being obeyed.
‘Good evening, Mr. Dash. Yeah-’
‘Well then, what is it I can do for you, Adam?’
‘I… I’m not sure how to put this…’
Ease up, man, Styles thought. He was this close to slapping his own cheek.
Dash urged him on, ‘Go on, my boy. Speak!’
‘I wanted to ask whether you… whether you needed any help. You know, like last time, I mean.’
A pause.
‘Yes! I am gratified you have not forgotten me, or my modest enterprise. But have no fear, Adam; I have known all along that you were in capable hands.’
‘Uhm…’ Adam wasn’t really sure what his boss meant, so he chose to let him continue.
‘Yes, yes. You may indeed prove useful to us, Adam. But before we proceed, there is one small matter I must ask you to attend to. Bobby will come for you tomorrow evening, around eight. He will acquaint you with everything you need to know.’
‘Thank you, Mr. Dash. I’m very grateful for your help.’
‘Goodbye,’ Dash said with effortless indifference, and the line went dead.
Bobby pulled up at eight o’clock sharp. He stopped the car beside the brick fortress of a building where Adam stood waiting.
‘Howdy,’ Bobby said, their hands meeting in a hard clasp while he lit a cigarette.
‘Howdy to you. So, what are we up to today?’ Adam said and settled into the passenger seat.
‘The fuck you mean “what are we up to”? Don’t you know?’
Adam jerked his head back. ‘Well, Dash said you’d fill me in.’
The bearded gangster sighed and shook his head. ‘Listen, it’s like this: we gotta pay a few guys a visit-’
‘How many?’
‘Three, I think.’ Bobby reached for a crumpled piece of paper, glanced at it, and tossed it away. ‘Right. We gotta see three guys who still owe the boss his envelope. We get the dough and then we get rid of ‘em.’
‘Okay, and what do we do if they’re, you know, empty-handed?’
A quick shrug. ‘Then we’ll just get rid of them.’ Bobby frowned and gave Adam a thin smile. ‘Clear?’
‘Clear as day.’
‘You done this before. And you handled tougher. This ain’t rocket science for you anymore.’
‘Right. Let’s go.’
‘I’ll go when I feel like it.’ Bobby handed Adam a gun and they disappeared into traffic.
Adam didn’t care to ask what city they were heading to. A light drizzle blurred the street lights and the traffic signals, their colors smeared across the wet asphalt as they drove.
‘That’s where the dude lives,’ Bobby informed Adam while jerking his thumb toward a building with an almost sterile facade.
Once the two colleagues climbed the stairs to the second floor, before them stood a tall, red-painted door with a golden number 5 fixed to it. Bobby eased it open and slipped into the apartment as quietly as he possibly could. A few seconds later, they were already moving down the narrow vestibule and into the living room where the delinquent sat. He was a skinny young man with dark, curly hair. All he wore that night was a white T-shirt and a pair of white boxers. He seemed absorbed by carelessness, smoking a joint and drinking his beer straight from the bottle. Upon seeing Bobby and Adam standing with their guns in their hands, present in his very own apartment, he snapped upright, set aside the bottle, and tried to put out the blunt, not entirely certain whether he’d hit the ashtray or the fabric of the couch instead.
The man couldn’t force a single word out. It felt as if someone had cinched a rope around his throat, while the rest of his body shook like the tail of a startled rattlesnake. He knew exactly why they’d come and that the outcome of their visit wasn’t going to be pretty.
‘Hey, Philly boy. The fuck you doin’ sittin’ there like that?’ Bobby said.
‘W-well, hi. I, uh, I wasn’t doing nothing. J-just…’
‘This here’s a good friend of mine – Adam. You know him, Philly?’ Bobby asked, tapping Adam on the shoulder.
Philip shook his head.
‘Well, maybe you oughta know him ‘cause he’s the one who took out Rector.’
Philip kept his wide eyes locked on Bobby. He tried to swallow, but his mouth had gone completely dry. ‘Rector?’
‘That’s right,’ Bobby said, his hand still resting on Adam’s shoulder. ‘We were bored, just cruisin’ around n’ shit, and since we were in the neighborhood, I go, “Ain’t this where Philly stays?” We figured we’d swing by, see what you’re up to. Hope we ain’t interruptin’ nothin’ important. ‘Cause if we are-’
‘No, no! Not at all! Everything’s cool and kosher, Bobs.’
A wide grin spread across Bobby’s face. ‘I’m delighted to hear that,’ he whispered. He then dropped himself in the armchair beside the couch and took a good look around the room. ‘You got yourself a real nice crib, Phil. Real fuckin’ nice. What’s the rent on a place like this?’
‘Listen, Bobby… I can explain. Everything-’
‘I asked you a question, Philly boy. And I sure as fuck hope you can answer it.’
Philip clapped his rigid hands together. After a brief pause, he stared down at his socks and said, ‘It’s, uh, it’s about eight grand. A month.’
‘Well, fuck me sideways n’ call me Shirley! You ain’t exactly hurtin’ for cash, are ya? ‘Cause here’s the thing, Philly – there’s a guy you owe a whole lotta money to. And, just so you know, he ain’t runnin’ a fuckin’ charity.’
‘Bobby, I-’
‘Lemme stop you right there. You got it?’
‘Well, not right now exactly, but…’
Bobby stretched out his arm, pressed the gun to Philip’s temple, and pulled the trigger. The debtor collapsed to his right, his head sinking into the pool of blood spreading across the couch.
After Philip died, Dash’s soldiers searched the apartment for any money they could take back to their boss. The few thousand dollars they found went into the black gym bag Adam was carrying. It seemed like the right choice, he figured, since so many people used it that it barely drew any attention.
‘We’re done here. Let’s move. We got other places to hit,’ Bobby ordered, and they left the chic apartment.
They got into the next building thanks to a little boy who couldn’t have been more than six. He was nice – or naive – enough to hold the door for them from the inside. The building rose fourteen stories, and the man they had to see lived on the sixth. Bobby groaned once he’d learned there was no elevator, which meant a long, sweaty climb for his two-hundred-and-twenty-pound frame.
‘It’s a damn shame we gotta put him down,’ Bobby said, still panting.
To Adam, it looked like his accomplice was genuinely bothered about the next hit.
He raised his brows at Bobby.‘And since when are you so fucking compassionate?’ he said. ‘You know the guy?’
‘Matter of fact, yeah, I do. We go way back – high school. Played ball together. He rang me, sayin’ he really needed some paper bad, so I got him to borrow a couple grand from Dash. Now he can’t pay it back. He prolly knows we’re on our way, too.’
‘I’m sorry, man, but you know how it is – work is work.’
‘Yeah.’ Bobby stopped to take a breath. ‘It really sucks camel dick things turned out this way. But what can you do. Anyway, this is the place.’ He shook his head and let out one last sigh before carrying out his order. ‘Come on. Let’s get this shit over with…’
Adam and Bobby stepped into the apartment without knocking. Zack was standing in the middle of his bachelor’s apartment, as if simply existing there required effort. He was a tall man with short, blond hair, wearing worn jeans and a green checkered shirt whose sleeves were rolled up in a careless, absentminded way.
‘I gotta admit, I expected you guys a lot earlier.’ Zack smiled, ever so faintly, as he stared down at the tiled floor.
‘Don’t you think for a second this is easy for me, Zack,’ Bobby said.
‘Neither is it for me,’ Zack retorted. He turned toward the window. There was little to see, only the opposite walls with their small, identical windows. All the buildings were so alike that replacing their facade with a mirror wouldn’t have changed the view by much. ‘You think I could have a smoke before-’
‘Sure,’ Bobby cut his friend off. The moment was awkward enough; he didn’t want to stretch it out with small talk.
Zack gave a slight nod and stepped out onto the balcony, leaving the door open behind him. He let his eyes settle on the cloud-laden night with each drag he took.
‘I don’t have the money, you know, so you can go right ahead and shoot me,’ Zack said matter-of-factly, like a man who had already counted himself among the dead.
Bobby was lifting his arm when Adam stepped up beside him and whispered something into his ear. The bearded gangster’s eyes narrowed as he listened and nodded. Without saying anything, he got out of the apartment and pulled the door shut behind him.
Adam walked to the balcony entrance and shot Zack a few times in the back without a word of warning. The impact hurled him over the low railing, sending his body plunging six stories down before it struck the concrete below.
Adam rushed toward the railing and looked down. ‘Oh shit…,’ he whispered, then shouted at the top of his lungs: ‘Bobby! Get over here real quick!’
Bobby shoved the door open and came striding in. ‘What’s going on? Where the hell’s Zack?’
Both of them made their way onto the balcony and leaned over. Zack’s corpse lay twisted on the sidewalk in an utterly misshapen posture. Scanning the area below, they noticed two police officers whose eyes moved between Zack’s body and the two gangsters standing on the narrow platform jutting from the building.
‘Shit! They saw us! What do we do now?’ Adam blurted. His whole body had gone cold.
‘Relax, will ya? Just relax!’ His bearded colleague said.
‘But what are we gonna do? The cops saw us, man!’
‘Can you shut the fuck up a second and let me think?’
Adam went back inside the dead man’s apartment and paced the room in quick strides.
‘Okay, listen up,’ Bobby said. ‘Here’s what we’re gonna do. If we walk out the front, they’ll be waitin’ for us. Maybe they’re already comin’ up. And we are not gettin’ into a shootout with the cops, shit gets too messy. We run. If one of ‘em grabs you, just punch him or whatever and keep runnin’. You got this, all right?’
Adam nodded briskly. ‘I’ll try.’
The gangster duo bolted out of Zack’s apartment as fast as they could. They rushed down the stairs, alert for whatever unforeseen trouble might rise up to meet them.
Bobby was lowering his foot toward the next step, nearing the second floor, when he came face-to-face with one of the police officers dressed in his usual black uniform. He froze and stepped back. Adam, unaware of his colleague’s unexpected move, crashed into him and tumbled onto his back on the dusty stairs. Before the police officer was able to utter a single word, Bobby clenched his massive fist and drove it with all he had right into the man’s cheekbone. His unconscious body rolled down the steps and stopped on a lower landing. He looked as if he were merely taking a nap, however unusual a place it was for one.
‘One more to go,’ the bearded pugilist said and continued his escape with his younger accomplice.
The moment they stepped outside, they found the second policeman waiting for them, his gun aimed at the pair of fugitives. Bobby didn’t hesitate – he kept on running as if no one were there. Adam, however, stopped cold and stared at the young uniformed officer; the sight of the gun paralyzed every one of his already tense muscles.
Man, if only the cops feared me the way they fear Carolyn, Adam thought.
When Bobby noticed Adam standing there, he rushed back and yanked him by the sleeve of his jacket. The rough pull snapped him out of his daze at once. Now he ran too, following his burly partner toward the car.
Bobby’s years behind the wheel were finally paying off. He drove through the city’s streets with practiced ease as he tried to lose the police. But no matter how smoothly he handled his ride, the squad car clung stubbornly to their tail.
‘Fuck! What are we gonna do?’ Adam boomed as he watched the car behind them. ‘Dash is gonna fuck us up for this, big time!’
‘Fuckin’ cool it for a sec, will ya?’
‘Well, excuse me for giving a shit, but the cops are literally trying to kill us and you’re telling me to cool it?’
Suddenly, the bearded driver cut left into a narrow alleyway. The police kept going straight and turned their sirens off after a short while.
Adam stared at Bobby, then at the rear window as he tried to fathom the squad car’s sudden disappearance. ‘What the hell just happened? They were right on us, and now they’re just… gone?’
‘Listen, man,’ Bobby said, lighting a cigarette. ‘They knew exactly who the fuck they were followin’. They knew they couldn’t do shit – too much heat, no payoff.’ He slouched back in his seat and squinted at his colleague. The doubt lingering in Adam’s eyes told him he’d have to explain it in simple terms. ‘Look, they’re cops, all right? Most of ‘em got families, mortgages, shit like that. They ain’t throwin’ their asses on the line just to lock up a couple nobodies like us.’ He took a long drag and exhaled through a smirk. ‘Most importantly, though, we pay ‘em way too good for them to give a shit.’
‘Okay. Fine. So why’d you punch that cop on the stairs? And why was the other one chasing us the whole time?’
‘The first cop was prolly some new kid, didn’t know the rules yet. Besides, you saw him. He had a real punchable mug, if I ever fuckin’ saw one.’ Bobby shrugged. ‘What can I say? Temptation got the best of me.’ He cackled and dragged on his cigarette. ‘And the second cop, well… You gotta keep up appearances, if you know what I mean.’
Adam sank back in his chair and sighed. ‘I guess I still got a lot to learn.’
‘You can say that again,’ Bobby said and flashed a crooked grin. ‘Don’t sweat it. You’ll catch on. By the way, the fuck happened to your face?’ he asked, pointing at the long, thick scar running down toward Adam’s jaw.
‘Nothing. Just a stupid bar fight.’
‘Well, it looks pretty fuckin’ ugly, I’ll tell you that.’
‘Oh yeah? You should’ve seen the other guy.’
Bobby shook his head, flicking the cigarette butt out the window, and threw it in reverse. ‘Whatever you say. Let’s finish this thing.’
On their way to the third debtor, they were stopped by the same squad car that had chased them moments earlier. The police officer leaned down and asked Bobby for his driver’s license. Bobby, knowing the whole thing was just a mere charade, opened the glove compartment, pulled out a handful of old business cards and fliers, and handed them over. The officer pretended to study them, scribbled something in his notepad, and asked whether they’d seen anything suspicious. After they told him no, Bobby took the leaflets, tossed them blithely over his shoulder, and thanked the policeman for the “safe trip.”
He glanced at Adam with a smug little smile. ‘Just like I told ya.’
Several minutes later, they drove into the neighborhood where Henry Kenner lived.
As they got out of the car, the two men already saw him standing in the doorway – a dark, motionless silhouette.
Henry was a rather short man. His gray hair, combed to the side, and the deep wrinkles carved into his dry face, bore witness to his advanced age.
Bobby and Adam drew closer, their heavy steps slow and deliberate. Kenner backed up but shouted, ‘Get the hell out of here! You won’t get one stinking penny out of me, you animals!’ He intended to draw his neighbors’ attention, but with little success. Not a single light flicked on in the surrounding houses, and no curtains moved.
Henry kept backing into his house. With trembling hands, he grabbed the push broom leaning by the doorway and swung it at them as hard as he could. Adam caught the handle and struck the panicked senior on the head hard enough for him to pass out. Kenner collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
‘We’re offing him now or later?’ Adam asked.
‘Not now. Tie him up. Don’t need this prick giving us trouble when he wakes up. You didn’t crack his skull, right?’
‘Nah, I don’t think so. But why do we gotta wait?’
‘‘Cause he’s gonna be awake for it. He’s gotta know what he’s dyin’ for. And before that? He’s tellin’ us where he hid the fuckin’ money.’
Kenner woke up a couple of minutes later. Groggy, drooly, and tied up, he was neither able to spit at them nor insult them. He tried to reach for something, anything, to defend himself, but with his hands bound he could only move his head. Even his words came out slow and thick, as though his mouth had forgotten how to work. Still, he managed to guide them toward the cupboard under the TV where he kept his savings, and to the key to open it, which rested under one of the pillows on the couch.
Kenner was still lying on the ground. After he’d gotten a little strength back, he forced his voice out as loud as he could. ‘And what now, you want to kill me? You got what you wanted! What more do you want from me?’
‘Actions have consequences, old man. Everybody pays,’ Bobby said and aimed the silencer right at Kenner’s forehead.
‘You bastards! You filthy sons of whores!’ Henry screamed right before the bullet tore through his head. Blood stained the walls, the floor, even the ceiling.
‘All right, let’s call it a day,’ Bobby said while rubbing his bloodshot eyes. ‘Let’s get the hell outta here.’
Adam hefted the gym bag filled with Kenner’s – or now Dash’s – money and laid it in the yawning mouth of the trunk. The two gangsters slid into the car and, once again, rolled off with their blood-stained spoils, carrying them to the man who would grant them the wages they believed they had earned.
END OF CHAPTER 7
Another exciting chapter, Christopher. Adam has become a cold-blooded criminal. I didn't realize Carolyn was a drug dealer. I guess she will not be the positive influence on Adam I had hoped for. Keep 'em coming.
Great, gritty stuff, Chris. I thought Adam might have been in over his head there for a while, but Bobby is pretty damn reliable and seasoned at his work. I’m glad to see him rising up in the organization. I’m sure it was tough on Bobby to have kill an old friend, too, but that’s the gangster life. It is often not pretty, but always real. I look forward to the next chapter, man.