Blunt Darts

keys.
    “I’m told you and the boy had a talk two weeks ago.”
    He turned back and tried to stare me down. “Oh, yeah? Who says?”
    “A man you’d best not suggest is a liar.”
    He blinked. “Fuck you. I gotta go.”
    I caught his arm and spun him into some stacked crates nearby. His momentum led him to sit down awkwardly and heavily on one of them.
    “The boy is missing. You’re the last one to see him. How does a morals charge strike you?”
    “You haven’t got shit. Whaddaya mean morals charge? You callin’ me a fag?” He flexed for me.
    “No, but I’m suggesting the boy might be gay. Where do you suppose that leaves you?”
    Sammy thought about that and didn’t like his Position. “I thought his hair looked a little funny.”
    “What happened?”
    “Look, man, nothin’ happened. Just nothin’. He asked me for a lift to the mountains so he could go on some kinda reportin’ trip. He had a backpack and everything.”
    “Where in the mountains?”
    “Granville. It’s a little town way northwest, maybe four miles off the Pike, Lee exit.”
    “Where did you drop him off?”
    “About a half mile before Granville Center.”
    “If he was going on a reporting trip, why didn’t he ride all the way into town?”
    Sammy sneered again. “He didn’t fuckin’ say.”
    I leaned over. “Sammy, I think you tried to shake him down.”
    Sammy swung a left at me as he rose. His left was a little slower than it should have been. I deflected it and him to my left with my left palm and gave him a moderate cupped-hand dig in the back, near his left kidney. He sagged down, doubled over.
    “What did you try to charge him for the lift, Sammy?”
    “Jesus... I think you ruptured... somethin’!“
    “Sammy, answer my question! How much?“
    “Twenny bucks. I saw... he had plenty... when he paid... one of the tolls.”
    “He paid up, did he?”
    “Yeah, yeah.”
    I lifted his chin up gently. “Sammy, I don’t believe you. And I don’t think the cops will either.“
    “Awright, awright. He didn’t pay. But I didn’t make him.... He just hopped out and... ran.”
    “With a pack he outdistanced you? Do you figure your kidney needs a little more massage, Sammy?“
    “No, no. He... ah, listen, man—you gotta keep this quiet. Around here, I’d be laughed at. I’d be laughed outta the place.” He winced and gritted his teeth. “Jesus, you hurt me.“
    “Come on, Sammy.”
    “Okay, okay. He had a piece.”
    “A piece?”
    “A gun, man. A long thing like outta Star Wars. He fuckin’ went into his pack for the twenny and come out with the piece. I thought the fuckin’ little screwy was gonna shoot me. I backed off, and he took off across a field.”
    I straightened up. “Thanks, Sammy. You’ve been a swell guy and a great panelist.”
    As I walked away I heard the telltale click. I wheeled around as Sammy was coming off the crate with a big clasp knife open for business. His face was still contorted in pain, but a vengeful determination shone through.
    The booming voice behind me interrupted our little melodrama. “Sammy, you drop the knife or it’s the last piece of anything your fingers’ll ever go ‘round.” I glanced over my shoulder at AI with his cleaver hanging at his side and a somewhat calmer George next to him.
    Sammy didn’t close the knife, but he visibly stood down. I walked toward AI and thanked him.
    “I told ya he was a weaselly bastard,” replied Al as I passed on my way out.
     
     
     

     
     
    “I’m not sure how far it is to Granville, but I expect it’s going to be an overnighter. You know how I hated to travel without you. And I can’t very well call you, you know.”
    The carnations weren’t there anymore. The kid in the jeans had probably scoffed them as soon as I’d left the last time. I squatted down and arranged Mrs. Feeney’s red roses on the spot where the carnations had been.
    “The grandmother hasn’t played straight with me, Beth. I think I know where the kid is, or at least where he was headed, because one of the ranger stations is only four miles from Granville. But I have to check out a few things first.”
    A puff of wind came off the harbor and ruffled the roses. I foraged a rock to hold them down.
    Off to the left, at another grave, I noticed an elderly man. He wore an old gray suit and held a Homburg in his hand. He was motionless, standing to the side of a headstone and staring at it.
    I looked down at Beth. Funny, I almost never