Rock Island Line by David Rhodes (i am reading a book TXT) 📕

“Sure. I was just making something. Your car—you didn’t leave it outside?”

“No, no, it’s nowhere around here.” Pause.

“Jesus,” exclaimed July, trying to keep himself from breaking into tears. “I didn’t know—When you asked me if I’d—”

“Forget it. It wouldn’t have mattered. I should’ve had a couple of the boys take it up.”

July looked at Franklin’s hands, folded deadly in his lap. “I didn’t tell them anything.”

There was a silence then, and July stirred the soup and cut pieces of cheese with the bread knife, and took down some crackers and bowls. “Milk?”

Franklin nodded, looking at the floor as though it were a great hole in the ground. Suddenly he stood up, but then seemed for a moment not to know why he had, and rubbed his hands on his face. “I’ve got to go downstairs,” he said finally.

“Wait. It’s almost ready, then I’ll go down first and look around.”

They sat at the small table. Franklin ate quickly, spooning up the soup as though it were hot water. The crackers and cheese seemed dry and hard to swallow. Taking a drink of milk, he commented matter-of-factly, “A little sour. You ought to go out tonight and get a quart, it’ll be completely gone by morning.”

“I don’t drink much milk,” said July. “It always seems like it’d be too much bother to pour it out, except for the cat.”

“Slovenliness. Say, what did they talk about today? What’d they ask you?”

“I guess they found that place in Chelsea. They know about the thieves. They didn’t say anything about the truck. They said you were trying to quit. Is that true? Want something else to eat?”

“No, no, this was fine, just fine . . . . Well, I was thinking I’d better take it kind of easy. I told the kids to lay off the household stuff—but, see, the thing was, they could break into a house and get a clean sweep of any change around and stuff like that, and sometimes they could make a nice bit that way, with less risk, and then stick me with the appliances—which wasn’t so bad except hitting homes is a poor idea because it makes everybody mad at the police. So I told them to lay off and keep to the stores and equipment, and even paid them a higher percentage on those. But it was still too easy to get a house now and then, and I had a couple of boys who were real cocky—had never done any time or had any real close calls,you know—and I figured I was going to get into trouble there. So, anyway, I decided I better get out. Not only that, insurance companies aren’t paying out the way they used to and it’s costing too much for coverage, so security’s getting better. And I had a good offer on the building in Chelsea, and the truck. Did they go through the safe?”

“No.”

“Good. But no doubt about it, they’ve got somebody outside. Must be an old trick. They’d never leave an unopened safe unguarded.”

“Probably not.”

“Well, I’ve got to get some checks down there from a bank in Germantown, and I’ll make one out to you and you can cash it in the morning. And we’ll have some money to leave on—not much, but the account’s in another name, so we won’t have any trouble getting it. They’ve got everything else all tied up. At least, that’s what Rose says.”

“I hope she’s not too upset,” said July, feeling stupid.

“No, I don’t think so. But, anyway, we’ll have almost a thousand dollars to start on, after we get an old car in your name, and that’s more than most people ever have to start out.” He stood up and went to the door.

“Let me go first,” protested July.

“No, no, there’s nobody down there. I just got to get those checks from the safe”—as though he were talking to himself. “I’ll be right back.” But he stopped at the door. July forced himself to look him in the eyes, but when he did he found Franklin’s were staring at the door, as though he were looking into the grain. “I was wondering,” he said, “if you wanted to go out to Wyoming with me . . . or if we didn’t like the climate we could go to Colorado. I’ve got a lot of friends there.”

“Sure,” said July. “Sure. But wait—let me go down first.”

“We’ll get on just fine. Start out slow, of course, so as not to attract any attention. Maybe a restaurant or something. Before long we’ll be right back on top. It’s the fun of the game. Fifty-fifty.I’ve got a lot of friends in Colorado. . . . I’ll be right back.” Then he left, closing the door behind him. July could hear him walking across the bare wooden floor and begin descending the stairs, stepping heavily and slowly. Then he must have stopped and stood for almost a minute before continuing down. As soon as he reached the carpet below, all traces of his progress ended.

The silence was oppressive, and sucked at the very edges of July’s nerves. Across the room Butch yawned inaudibly and continued staring at the legs of the table. A blanket of dark softness filled the windows. From nervous habit, July took out his diamond and turned it quietly before him. At a certain angle it acted like a mirror and he could direct a small spot of orange light onto the table from the lamp behind him. He heard the hinges on the heavy iron door make one thin, horrible screech.

He tried to picture himself and Carroll driving together out to Wyoming in an old Buick, smoking cigarettes, sleeping on the seats in parking lots and rest areas, drying their hands on the fronts of their shirts and eating grocery-store cold food—but the vision languished. There seemed too much to think at once.

He thought of Franklin and the dark softness seemed to come in