Mohawk was sitting in a fold-out metal chair on the left side of the room. Just sitting there smoking a cigarette. There was an ashtray on the floor in front of him and it was filled with cigarettes. There were stomped out cigarettes all around the ashtray.
Charlie wasn’t paying Mohawk the least bit of attention. He didn’t look at us when we entered the room. He was deep into his rag.
On the right hand side of the room, wreathed in Charlie’s smoke, was Florida. She was leaning against the wall next to a fold-out chair. She was dressed in jeans and a tight white T-shirt; she was a knockout. Just what I needed to see at a time like this. Then again, I knew she’d be here. She was mine and Leonard’s lawyer, and when I got my one call, I’d called her.
“Hap,” she said.
“Florida,” I said. “Thanks.”
Leonard nodded at her.
Hanson said, “Charlie, watch ’em. I got to wash my hands. I been pullin’ a guy’s dick.”
Charlie didn’t look up from his rag. He just lifted a hand over it. Hanson went out and shut the door.
I glanced at Mohawk and Mohawk glanced at me. He’d looked better. His mohawk was leaning a bit to the left, and there wasn’t one ounce of cockiness about him. There was a knot on the side of his head where I’d hit him. He looked away from me and took in Leonard.
Leonard smiled at him. It was one of those smiles Leonard can give that you’d really prefer not to see. Mohawk’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and fell back down. He dropped his eyes to the floor. The cigarette between his fingers was almost burned down to his skin. He sucked it once and dropped it. It nearly hit the ashtray. He said, “Where the hell’s my motherfuckin’ lawyer? They got their lawyer here, I want mine.”
“Got to call him first,” Charlie said, and turned a page on his rag.
“You ain’t let me call shit, man,” Mohawk said. “That ain’t legal.”
“Hey,” Charlie said, “we’re busy, we’ll get to it.”
“You look busy,” said Mohawk.
“The work of the mind is subtle,” Charlie said.
During this exchange, Charlie hadn’t once looked away from his paper. He kept reading. After a few moments, without taking his face out of the paper, he said, “You know, there’s some strange things in the world. They found a picture of Elvis in an Egyptian tomb.” He put the paper down and looked at me. “You know that, Hap?”
“No shit?” I said.
“No shit. Painted right there on the fucking wall. Had his hair slicked back and stuff. Had on a white jump suit and aviator glasses. It’s right here in the article. They got a picture.”
“Yeah?” I said.
“Yeah,” Charlie said. “They hunt around the tomb some more, they expect to find a mummy with the facial structure of Elvis.”
“You’re certainly on top of things,” I said.
“You’d be surprised the stuff I know,” Charlie said. “I keep up with current events. I’m real current. Most current is I had to get out of bed ’cause I heard about a fire tonight, and I heard it was you two assholes set it.”
“We looked out our window and saw a fire,” Leonard said. “We went over to help pull the victims to safety. We’re goddamn heroes.”
“That motherfucker’s lying!” Mohawk said.
“Keep your seat, Melton,” Charlie said.
“Don’t say anything else,” Florida said to Leonard. “You and Hap be quiet. You’ll do better being quiet.”
“Ah hell,” Charlie said, “Hap and Leonard, they like to talk.”
“That’s true,” Leonard said. “We can’t shut up.”
Hanson opened the door and came in. He went over to the desk. “You mind I have my chair?” he said to Charlie.
“Naw,” Charlie said, “it’s all right.”
Charlie got up and went over to Mohawk. He said, “Get up, Melton.”
Mohawk looked at Charlie. Charlie grinned. Mohawk got up and leaned against the wall. Charlie sat down and used his foot to move the ashtray and the ill-aimed cigarette butts aside. He scooted the chair forward and put his feet on the edge of the desk and rocked back so the chair was against the wall. He looked pretty precarious.
Hanson sat behind his desk and studied me and Leonard. “First time I seen you guys, I liked you. I don’t like you so much now.”
“That hurts,” Leonard said. “Shit, man, we like you.”
“I been eating Rolaids like they’re candy,” Hanson said. “I almost lit my cigar again. And you guys know why? I’m tired of the bullshit. Arson, that’s a serious crime.”
“So’s selling drugs,” I said. “That boy under our house might even think using them’s a bad idea.”
“He don’t think nothing,” Hanson said. “He died before he got to the hospital.”
Silence reigned for a moment. Leonard said, “I think the whole goddamn police force has got some gall, that’s what I think. These fuckers,” he jabbed a finger at Melton, “they been in that house for ages, selling drugs. They fed that boy dope. That boy is dead, man, and I’m not supposed to have a right to get pissed? I know they’re selling drugs. Everyone here knows it, but now you got us on arson, and you’re saying we’ll do time?”
“Could be,” Hanson said. “I ain’t got shit to do with the way the law works, just with doing what it says.”
“Some law that lets people like this creep do what they’re doing,” I said. “What happened to justice?”
“We get enough evidence, we pick ’em up,” Hanson said.
“And let them go,” Charlie said.
Hanson looked at Charlie. “You quittin’ the force? You with them?”
“I’m a cop ’cause I want to lock bad guys up,” Charlie said.
“I don’t want to pick ’em up so they can come down here to use the phone and toilet. And I certainly don’t want to arrest no citizens on a misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?” Hanson said.
Charlie took his feet off the desk and let the chair rock forward. “Couple of citizens see a fire, go in and rescue some people, I don’t see that’s a crime.”
“They kneed a woman in the face!” Mohawk said. “They knocked out my main man’s teeth.”
“That woman’s a crack head,” Charlie said, “and she got that way ’cause of you. She’s a hooker. She stabbed a girl friend near to death three years ago. She’s got a record longer than a basketball player’s leg. And your main man, hell, he’s fixed up good now. All them teeth missing. You ought to be grateful. He can suck your dick like a vacuum cleaner.”
“Just the thought of that gets me excited,” Leonard said.
“I’d also like to mention the woman got kneed in the face stuck a gun in my balls,” I said.
“Let’s cool our language,” Hanson said. “We got a lady present.”
“Why all of a sudden?” Charlie said. “And besides, she ain’t a lady now. She’s a lawyer.”
Florida smiled. She said, “Marvin, my clients just saw a fire and went to help.”
“Oh, God,” Hanson said, “not you too.”
“I’m sure the owner of the dwelling, Mr. Otis-”
“Some fat cat honkie, I reckon,” Leonard said.
“One of the fattest,” Florida said. “Mr. Otis, who I know is an upstanding citizen, and a friend of the police chief, would be upset to discover the house he’s renting out is being used to sell drugs.”
“Naw,” Charlie said. “Old fart gets a slice of the action.”
“We don’t know that,” Hanson said.
“We can’t prove it,” Charlie said. “Ain’t the same thing.”
“I’m sure he would be upset,” Florida persisted. “But I know he’d be happy to hear of the bravery of men like Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who selflessly went to the rescue of the inhabitants.”
“We see our duty,” Leonard said, “we do it. We can’t help it. It’s the way we were raised.”
“Yeah,” Hanson said, “and in the process of doing your duty y’all knocked a man’s teeth out, broke another’s knee, and busted up a woman’s nose.”
“Hey,” Leonard said. “My knuckles hurt. They’re all scraped up. Show him your head, Hap.” I turned the side of my head toward Hanson. Leonard pointed to it. “See there, he’s got a bruise.”
“Christ,” Hanson said.
“Sometimes, in the heat of the moment,” Florida said, “even when you’re trying to do a good deed, you can make mistakes. They were rough, but they saved lives.”