Fish Farm by Walt Sautter (top rated books of all time TXT) 📕

to count. Forty-five hundred in the first pile and forty-three hundred in the second. Eighty-eight hundred and twenty dollars to be exact.
He sat for a moment, then re-secured the money with an elastic. He opened the refrigerator and took out a package of frozen peas, emptied the contents and placed money into package and put it back in the freezer.
Chapter 10
The next morning Petey arrived as scheduled.
Jack walked out of his apartment’s front door dragging a rolled up piece of old carpeting behind him.
“Pop the trunk and help me” he yelled to Petey.
Petey obliged and together they wrestled the carpeting into the trunk of the car.
“I called Larry and he said he’s ready” announced Petey as the entered the car.
“What’s the rug for?”
“I found grabbed it out of the garbage yesterday. It’s exactly what we need. You’ll see” replied Jack.
He and Jack drove straight to the apartment building and pulled around to the back. They removed the rug from the trunk and silently carried it up the two floors to DS’s apartment. Jack took out the key, opened the door and they pulled the rug into the bedroom.
They unrolled the rug exposing three large, plastic garbage bags and a coil of rope. Jack opened the closet door and brushed the pile of dirty clothes aside, revealing DS’s lifeless body, the plastic bag over its head still in place.
“Petey! Give me a hand”
Together they maneuvered the corpse into the bags and slid it to the center of the carpeting. They then tightly rolled the rug around the body and tied it with the rope in several segments.
“This aint gonna be easy getting’ him down these stairs” remarked Petey in a low voice as they carried their package towards the door.
“Look. If we have to slid him that’s OK. He’s not going to yell. Just be quiet. No noise. And don’t drop him” answered Jack in a whisper.
Several minutes later they arrived at the car.
“Jesus Christ! I thought I was going to have a heart attack” exclaimed Petey in a breathless voice.
They pushed and shoved the package into the trunk just making it fit and closed the deck lid.
The ride to Larry’s was long and tense.
“I never thought you would do it. I know you talked about it a lot and I know you were plenty pissed but I never thought you would do it” Petey repeated.
“Neither did I” relied Jack soberly.
“But, you what, now that it’s done, I’m glad!”
“What kinda pushed you over the edge Jack?”
“Well, I thought about it for a long time. I was really tired of taking all the shit from those punks and something had to be done.
My mother always told me that if you want the right to complain then you have to earn it by being willing to do something to change things.
I think this is going to change things!”
Jack paused and then added, “You know, I heard the story about the lady over on Beech Street the other day too.”
“About the dog? I never got the whole story. What happened?” asked Petey.
“Yeah!
Evidently these guy came to her apartment. It was when they were lookin’ to find me about that note I sent them.
Anyway, when they came into her place her dog nipped one of them, a little dog, the size of a mouse, you know what I mean?
So the prick took the dog and threw it out of the third floor window.
And then when the old lady started screaming and crying they took her over to the window and hung her half way out and threatened to throw her out if she didn’t stop yelling.
When I heard that, that was the final straw I guess. I knew I had to do what I had to do, and I did it!”
“What was it like Jack? I mean killin’ him”
“You should know. Larry said you killed a shit load in Nam.”
“But I mean, up close and personal like you did. I never really saw the guys I killed get hit up close.”
“You know what!”
Jack paused and took a deep breath.
“ It wasn’t that bad after all.
I guess it was because I hated the son of bitch so much that it was like killing a mosquito. After it’s squashed, you’ve done a service not a sin because you know that you and nobody else are ever going to be bitten by that bastard again.
It’s like you’ve done a public service.”
Soon they were bouncing down the dirty road to Larry’s.
Larry arose from his chair on the front porch and walked out to greet them with a beer in one hand and a half lit cigar in the other.
“Good to see you boys again. How was the ride up?”
“I would have liked it better if we didn’t have our passenger ridin’ shotgun in the trunk” replied Petey as he pointed to the back of the car.
“Look at it this way. You guys are like the sanitation department for your neighborhood. You’re just pickin’ up the garbage and takin’ it to the landfill. Helpin’ to keep the streets clean. Who could argue with that?” answered Larry with a grin and another puff on his cigar.
“How about you Jack? Things OK by you?”
“Yeah! Great Larry” he replied somberly.
“But I’ll be even better when this is done.”
“I know what you mean. I know what you mean” said as he tapped on he trunk lid.
“Let’s get to it. Drive on down to the pond as close as you can. I’ll meet you down there. I gotta get some gas for the chipper” and he walk towards the shed adjacent to the house.
Jack and Petey drove slowly to the pond.
Within minutes, Larry arrived with the gas and refueled the chipper.
“Let’s get him out of there and ready for processing” said Larry as Petey popped the trunk open.
They pulled out the carpeted body, unrolled it, removed the plastic bags and proceeded to undress the corpse.
“You gotta leave the bag over his head!”
“ Getting’ a little squeamish on us Petey?” asked Larry.
“OK! Sure!” replied Jack while they hoisted the body onto the bed of the chipper.
Suddenly, Jack noticed the glint of a small gold pinky ring on the left hand.
He’d seen it before when he searched DS’s pockets back at the apartment but in the excitement of finding the cash, he had forgotten about it.
“Wait a minute!” he yelled as they began to push the corpse towards the whirling blades of the machine.
They stopped.
“Let me get that ring off his finger.”
Larry immediately reached into his pocket a withdrew a pen knife.
“What are you doing?” asked Jack staring at the knife.
“You don’t think you’re gonna just pull that thing off with his fingers swelled up like that do ya?” replied Larry.
“Let me show ya how it’s done. I got some practice with this kinda stuff.”
With that he opened the blade, proceeded to amputate the finger at the knuckle and slid the ring off. Then he tore a piece from the clothing they had striped from the body, wrapped the bleeding finger in it and handed the ring and the finger to Jack.
“What the hell am I going to do with this?” he asked as he thrust the blood stained package towards Larry.
Larry looked at Jack with a sly grin on his lips and answered.
“Let me tell you a story” he began.
“Back in Nam, I still remember the day, August fifth, nineteen sixty-eight, we was out in the bush like usual. There was about ten of us, marchin’ through all the jungle shit, snakes, bugs and of course, the Cong.
All of a sudden, one of our guys goes down. He got it right through the head. He was dead before he hit the ground.
All of us hit the ground too. Then pop! Another guy got it. The guy behind me stood up to get a look at where the shootin’ was comin’ from and pop he got one too and he fell right on top of me.
I just stayed there and heard a bunch more shots and a lot of screams. Then after a while, all was quiet and I see this Cong slidin’ down a tree about ten yards away. I knew it was him. I took a bead on him and bang got him like shooting’ a squirrel out of a tree.
It was quiet some more and I rolled out from underneath the guy that fell on me. I guess he kinda saved me cause he took a bunch of bullets in the back while he was layin’ on me.
Anyway I looked around and found all the other guys. Only one was alive and I called us in so they’d send a chopper for us or what was left of us.
Then I went over to the Cong. I couldn’t just leave him there without some revenge after what he did, so I cut his trigger finger off and shoved it in my pocket.
I started to walk away and then I stopped and went back cut off one of his ears and stuffed that in my pocket too.”
With that Larry took out his wallet and removed an object from its recesses. It had a thin, black, wrinkly outline encased in plastic.
“When I got back to base, I cut the bone out, flattened it out and dried it. Then I laminated it in plastic so I could keep it kinda like the Indians in South America do with those shrunken heads, I guess.
Here it is” and he held it more up more closely for Jack and Petey to see.
“Why in Christ’s name did you do that?” exclaimed Petey.
There was a brief silence.
“Revenge, Petey. Revenge, I guess.
Every time I look at it, I kinda feel like I’m getting’ a little even with that prick for killin’ all my guys.
It might be kinda nutty but it makes me feel better.”
Again there was silence.
“What happened to the ear?” asked Jack ghoulishly.
“I gave it to the other guy that survived with me, Knotsy. We usta call him Knotsy cause he always said he had a knot in his stomach from the day he landed in Nam.
Knotsy and me, we were pretty good buds the whole time in Nam, especially after that thing with the Cong that day. Shit, we were the only two guys left of our original bunch.
After we got out of that shit hole and back to the States we kinda lost touch. Maybe a Christmas card but that was about it if you know what I mean.
Then one day about ten years after we was out he calls me and we get together again for a couple of drinks and bullshit. He said he was doin’ pretty good, makin’ a lot of bucks and all. He never really said exactly what he was doin’ but it was workin’ out alright.
Then just before we split, he pulls out his wallet and shows me, the ear all laminated in plastic like mine.
He said he figures that was his good luck charm and without it he would never be doin’ as good as he was.
When we was talkin’, I told him about wantin’ to by this farm and how I didn’t know if I could swing. I never saw or heard from him again but about a month later I get a check