Gin Palace 02 - The Bone Orchard

it?”
    “What if it’s my father?”
    “I’ll be back before he calls, don’t worry.”
    “Where are you going?”
    “I’m going to get rid of all this. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
    I drove west on Sunrise Highway because there’d be fewer cops on that road this time of night. Along the way I cleaned the steering wheel with the window cleaner and put the dirty paper towels into the bag. I stopped at the side of the highway and grabbed two rocks twice the size of my fist and put them in the duffel bag. Then I stuffed in my boots and finally the blanket and tied the bag closed. I continued west, till I came to bridge over the Shinnecock Canal, then pulled over to the side of the road and took a screwdriver from my glove compartment and poked a half dozen air holes through the heavy cotton of the bag. After that I got out and walked to the rail and flung the bag out into the night air. I heard it land in the rushing water and then got back into my LeMans.
    I thought of what I could have done differently to keep from ending up where I was. But I didn’t see anything that would have kept out of all this. I was where I was supposed to be, which was as disconcerting as it was comforting. If there was a debt to pay here, I wanted to pay it and get it over with and move on.
    I was telling myself that the night was over, that things had come to a natural pause and would resume again on their own sometime tomorrow, when those involved had time to consider what had occurred and plan their next move. But when I entered my apartment I found Tina standing in the living room beside my couch with the phone to her ear and a look of wild fear in her eyes, and I knew then there would be no such pause at all, that this night would bleed gradually into the morning and all I could do was stand there and watch it.
    “What’s going on?”
    She extended her long arm, as if to push the receiver off on me. I could hear the sound of a male voice coming through the earpiece, tinny, talking fast. I stepped toward her and reached out for the phone, and just as I was bringing it to my ear, she muttered, “They’ve arrested my father.”
    We looked at each other for a moment, and then I said into the phone, “Augie, what’s going on?”
    The line cracked twice, and there was a heavy hissing in the background. It was obviously a pay phone line, but the voice came through clear enough.
    “I thought you had more sense than this, MacManus.” It wasn’t Augie on the other end, it was Frank Gannon. “Just don’t tell me it’s true love. I’ve got a weak stomach.”
    I ignored that and said, “Why’s Augie been arrested?”
    “No, not over the phone. Be at my office in the morning, around nine. I’ll fill you in then.”
    “But is he okay?” I glanced at Tina.
    “All I know is he’s under arrest. I’ll find out more in the morning.”
    “I have to be at work by eight.”
    “Seven-thirty, then. I’ll send Eddie.”
    “Don’t bother. I’ll get there.”
    “You’re going to have to do something with that little plaything of yours. I don’t know exactly what it is she does for you, but stick her for now in a motel, ship her off to someone, anything. And whatever you do, MacManus, don’t let her answer your fucking phone. You can self-destruct on your own time, not when you’re working for me.”
    He hung up before I could say anything to that. For a moment I thought of calling him back and reminding him that I wasn’t working for him, but then I remembered he was at a pay phone and, anyway, what would it bring except maybe a moment’s pleasure. I hung up and checked my watch. It was already after five. I looked toward my windows and knew sunrise was now underway somewhere behind the shredded phantoms that moved past the fingery tops of the bare trees lining my street. I tried to think of what lay ahead. All I could do was sense the effort to come, the long nights and inevitable fear. We’d all been here before. I felt locked into something and didn’t like it, but then I thought of Augie. I felt responsible, if not for him being where he was then for getting him out.
    Tina spoke then, pulling me from my anticipations.
    “It just kept ringing,” she said.
    I had been looking at her but not seeing her. I refocused my eyes. “What?”
    “It just kept on ringing and I couldn’t stand there and listen to it anymore. I’m sorry.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Was he rude to you?”
    She shook