Page 10 of Fade Out
He shook his dick and dunked it back into his boxers. When he turned around, he said, “So come on, give. What’d you do?”
“They say I killed a woman and chopped off her head and hands,” I said, hoping that he’d believe I did it and shut up.
“But you didn’t do it.”
“No. I didn’t.”
“So, why do they think you did?”
“I’m being framed.”
“Who’s framing you?”
“The woman they think I killed.”
He stared at me a minute and then he cracked up. “Oh come on, that’s dumber than my saying I left the gun in the car.”
“So you didn’t leave the gun in the car?”
“No, I—” He blushed, realizing he’d admitted he’d had the gun all along.
I sat up and stared at him. “When’s breakfast?”
“Twenty minutes or so. They’ll come by and open the door. Then we go out to the common area. It’s Thursday so there’s sausage gravy. Make sure they put it on everything.”
“Shouldn’t you get dressed?”
“Probably,” he said, then he climbed back up onto the top bunk. He wiggled around putting his uniform on and making the bed squeak. And, of course, he kept talking, “I called my mother and asked her for the five grand. She’s got it. I knows she’s got it. She said she’d pay five grand to keep me in jail. Which I didn’t think was very motherly, you know. That might be part of my problem, though. Having a mother who’s not motherly.” Suddenly, his head was hanging over the edge again, “So what’s it like cutting someone’s head off?”
“I wouldn’t know. But I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s messy.”
“You gotta have a strong stomach. I think I’d puke in the middle of it. Did you? Did you throw up?”
“I didn’t cut anyone’s head off.”
“Yeah,” he said, doubtfully.
Our door opened and it was time for breakfast. Turned out Steve was right about the gravy. It did make everything better.
Chapter Four
I can’t.
Two very small, very depressing little words. The sum total of Joseph’s good-bye note. Over the past few days, I’d repeated them in sadness and anger, empathy and confusion, and frustration. Always frustration.
No one could.I thought he’d understood that. No one ever could, until they did. We all woke up each morning, unprepared, unable, the world against us. And then we did; moment by moment, we did. And when the heart of someone we loved was on the line, there was never a question. We did. No matter what.
How could Joseph not see that?
Of course, I didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on thoughts like that. Steve Head did not shut up all day. Thankfully, a guard came to the door around three, opened it, and said, “Nowak, come on out.”
I did. He cuffed me. I noticed he was holding my big plastic bag. “Am I getting a new cell?” I wouldn’t have minded. Listening to my cellmate was wearing thin.
“No. You’re going to bond court. We bring your stuff in case you get lucky. But don’t get too excited. You won’t get lucky.”
I wasn’t excited. I knew that a murder charge often carried a sky-high bond, and I’d need a lot more than five grand to get my ass out of County. My only hope of getting out was a silver-tongued attorney, and since I hadn’t even made a phone call it was very unlikely I was going to find one on the other end of this journey.
The guard led me through a tunnel that went to the courthouse. That was when I realized the part of the jail I was in was directly behind the famous courthouse. It was the oldest part, I was pretty sure of that, and Al Capone had once stayed there. At least I was in good company—or bad, depending on how you looked at it.
