“Nothin’,” Ernie said. He pulled Scout away from the car. Sweat rolled down his ribs. He looked at the men through the windshield and studied the passenger whose eyebrows seemed to form one line.
“What you lookin’ at?” The man leaned his head out the passenger window. Scout snarled.
Ernie smelled a mixture of sweat and garlic seeping out from inside the car. “Come on.” He dragged Scout across the street. Her nails clawed the pavement as she fought to get at the two men. Ernie pulled her onto the driveway. At the gate, he released her collar and she ran, tail high, around to the back of the house. She pranced up the stairs and onto the deck. He followed along the side of the house, past the brick of the chimney and onto the deck.
Lane said, “So, I’ll probably be back in a day or two with more questions.”
“Not much I can do about that,” Nanny said.
“I think we made some progress today,” Lane said.
The screen door slid open and Lane looked at Ernie. “You okay, Ernie? You look a little pale.”
Ernie opened his mouth and closed it again. He wanted to ask about the men and the pistol. Then he recalled all of the questions in the hospital. Probing questions. “Where exactly did your Uncle put his hands? Was there penetration? Did he put his penis in your mouth?” Ernie closed his mouth.
“Bye.” Lane stepped past.
Ernie caught the scent of berries in the detective’s shampoo and soap.
“See ya girl.” The policeman leaned over and scratched Scout’s chin. She licked his hand in reply.
Ernie listened to the sound of Lane’s shoes as he walked along the side of the house and opened the gate.
“You comin’ in?” Nanny said.
“Yes, Nanny.” Ernie heard the sarcasm in his voice but it was too late to take it back.
“Don’t you be smart with me.”
He put his nose against the screen. “I… ”
Scout barked and ran to the side of the house.
“It’s the wop in you. I warned your mother about this.”
Ernie felt anger running in his belly.
“I told your mother it’d be like this if she ever had kids. Told her my brother was killed in Italy during the war. He used to write home about the people there. Said the women were whores and the men weren’t much better. It’s in the blood. Told Beth she’d have nothin’ but pain if she married the wop!”
Rage formed the words for Ernie. “If it wasn’t for you… ”
Scout barked again.
The door bell rang.
“Get the door,” Nanny said. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d be in jail.”
“Better than living with you.” He opened the screen and stepped through. Scout followed.
“What’d you say?”
Ernie stepped past, feeling himself balanced on the edge of a precipice. On one side were all of the words he wanted to say. All of the words his grandmother would never forget. On the other side was surrender. The choice his mother had made.
“Goddamn Stampede around here,” Nanny said, following them to the front door.
Turning away from her, Ernie moved down the hallway. He grabbed the door knob. Scout was at the window, her nose nudging the curtains aside. Ernie opened the door.
Scout growled.
The two men, their shoulders close together, looked like the front line of a geriatric football team. A pair of bellies curved and fell out between suspenders. The bald one wore a blue golf shirt. Round Face still wore his grey jacket over a blue golf shirt.
“We’re here to ask some questions about Robert Swatsky,” Round Face said.
Ernie felt Scout’s nose push between his calves. She barked and squirmed outside. Her teeth were bared. There was a hollow thump as Round Face’s square toed boot met her ribs. She yelped once before collapsing at the boy’s feet. “You bastards!” Ernie said and crouched to put his hands on her side. He felt her ribs rise as she struggled to breathe. She whimpered when he found the place where she’d been kicked.
“What you two doing here?” Nanny said.
Ernie looked over his shoulder at her.
“Friggin’ dog came after us!” Round Face said.
Ernie began to straighten up. Fear was replaced by an anger so deep he almost remembered where he’d felt it once before. He crouched, left foot ahead of right, keeping his knees and elbows bent the way he’d been taught. His fists were clenched tight against his ribs.
“Ernie!” Nanny said. “No more of that goddamned karate!”
He took a step forward. The men looked at one another. Round Face moved his right hand inside his jacket.
“Ernie! For Christ’s sake, no!”
He took another step.
“Ernie!” Come here!” Nanny gripped the back of his shirt. Ernie turned to her.
“Stick with Granny, boy,” Round Face said.
Nanny reached out and grabbed the muscle running from Ernie’s neck to his shoulder. He leaned his head into the pain. She looked at the two men, “You’re Bob’s buddies.”
“We’re private investigators.” Round Face stuck his right thumb in behind a suspender.
“Bull shit! You’re Lester,” she said to Round Face then pointed at baldy, “You’re Marvin. I bet the two of you are lookin’ for Bob and his money. I remember you tried to put the scare into me when my Judy ran away.”
“You’re crazy,” Lester said before glancing at his brother.
Nanny stepped toward them. “Where’s my Judy?”
“How the hell would we know?”
“I swore after you two and Bob messed up my family, I’d never let anyone do that again.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
“What can you do about it?” Lester’s smile revealed a gold crown.
“Ever seen what happens when fire and oxygen mix?” She moved a step closer to them.
They stepped back. “You always were a crazy bitch.” Lester put his hands out front to push her away.
“Still am.” She opened the cigarette package and lifted out a red lighter.
“We’re not afraid of you!” Lester said over his shoulder while backing away. “You and your wop grandson!”
“Come close to me or mine again and I’ll… ” she pulled the oxygen tubes over her head, dropped them to the ground, put a smoke between her lips and lit. “… burn the pair of you.”
Ernie and Nanny watched as the brothers hurried across the street and opened the doors of the Ford.
“Took me a while to figure out that the reason those two are always trying to scare other people is ‘cause they’re chicken.” She pointed the cigarette at the retreating pair. “When somebody like that is always trying to scare you, it means there’s a good chance they’re afraid.”
“Just like Bob,” Ernie said.
“That’s right.” She put the cigarette to her lips. “I’m gonna make a fresh pot of coffee. Want a cup?”
CHAPTER THREE
“I just can’t cope with it!” Nanny’s voice spit words like a router spit wood.
Beth felt the slick white meat of potato in her palm as she peeled. She thought, Remember that time you almost cut your finger off? So much blood in the sink. Water turning from pink to red. The white skin of the potato painted by blood. What had Mom been saying? ‘If you run away like your sister, it’ll kill me.’ The doctor said the words the day after Beth’s 13th birthday. Nanny never forgot them and reminded Beth whenever…
“Ernie, his pervert grandfather, the police and Bob’s tough friends. Any more of this’ll kill me! Are you listening to me?” Nanny said.
Beth sliced the potato in half, dropped the pair into the pot and watched them sink. “Yes.”
“What did I say then?”
“Ernie, his pervert grandfather, the police and Bob’s tough friends. Any more of this’ll kill me.” Beth wiped the back of her wrist across her forehead. Through her reflection in the window, she watched Ernie picking up Scout’s turds in the back yard.