Nobody's Fool

he was the dangerous man people considered him to be.
    â€œI’m not too worried,” he told Carl Roebuck now. “Toby says I can stay with you until something turns up. ‘It’d be nice to have a man around the house’ were her exact words.”
    Outside the trailer door there was a low growl, then a scratching and sniffing at the door. Will edged closer to Sully on the sofa.
    â€œFunny how that dog hates you,” Carl observed.
    â€œHow do you know it’s me?”
    Another low growl from outside.
    Carl Roebuck grinned. “His master’s voice.”
    â€œCan he get in?” Will wanted to know.
    â€œWatch this,” Carl told the boy. “Go over to that window. Peek through the curtain.”
    Will looked more than a little dubious but did as instructed.
    â€œIs he standing there?”
    When Will nodded, Carl Roebuck kicked the door, hard. Outside, there was a muffled thud.
    â€œHe fell down,” Will reported.
    Carl shook his head at Sully. “Isn’t that pitiful? A perfectly good Doberman, mean as hell. Ruined.”
    â€œListen,” Sully said. “I heard you had some work for me.”
    â€œThat depends,” Carl said, sitting back down and putting his feet up again. “You still own that piece of shit property on Bowdon?”
    â€œBeats me.”
    â€œYou don’t know?”
    â€œI don’t care,” Sully told him, though this response was more force of habit than literal truth. In the last few weeks he’d found himself thinking about the house almost every day. He’d even wandered down from the Anderson place and contemplated it one afternoon, wondered again if the property could be worth more than the taxes owed on it and, if so, how much more. Enough more to be a possible solution to his deepening financial woes, for instance. Or enough more to make a difference to Peter. His son’s return to Bath had caused the resurgence of Sully’s unaccountable desire to give him something. When Peter was a boy, Sully’d sent him presents for Christmas and, when he remembered, on his birthday, but he couldn’t remember a single specific gift, which felt a lot to Sully like he hadn’t given anything. Maybe if he gave Peter the house, or the money from selling the house, it’d be something.
    â€œYou remember if it had hardwood floors?”
    Sully said it had. He could picture his mother cleaning them on her knees.
    Carl picked up the phone and dialed it. “Hi,” he said, not bothering to identify himself. “Do me a. favor. Call City Hall and find out the status of Sully’s place on Bowdon. He doesn’t seem to know if it’s his. Give little Rodrigo a kiss for me.”
    Before Sully could attempt to make sense of this conversation, Carl hung up and said, “You want to run by there and take a look?”
    â€œWe could,” Sully said, feigning indifference. In fact, the idea of getting Carl’s opinion of the place appealed to him. He’d even considered asking him for that opinion more than once and had been prevented only by the fact that by asking Carl’s opinion he might appear to be wavering from his public view that Carl Roebuck’s advice on any subject was not worth having.
    â€œLet’s,” Carl suggested without getting up or even taking his feet off the desk. Will, taking their apparent agreement literally, stood up, then, seeing that neither man had moved, sat down again, confused.
    Sully studied Carl carefully. Something about his attitude was different, and he recalled Toby Roebuck’s remark that her husband was a changed man. “You’re looking especially smug today,” Sully observed, leaning forward and pulling a small end table covered with magazines around in front of the sofa so he could put his own feet up. To Sully’s way of thinking, if there were two men in a room and one of them had his feet up on something, that man had a distinct advantage. Especially if the manwas Carl Roebuck. Whenever possible, Sully liked to put his feet up around Carl, even if the maneuver hurt, and he did so now, especially pleased with the fact that his work shoes were wet and that a slushy puddle began immediately to form on the cover of the top magazine.
    â€œIt’s true,” Carl said. “I’m in such a good mood that even a visit from you hasn’t dampened my spirits.”
    â€œI’m glad to hear