Trina wound her way back and stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. Her eyes red and her face puffy, she had the forceful look of a woman on a mission.
"I only had an hour to round people up. These people care about you, you know." She paused and wiped her eyes. "You don't have to do what ever fool thing you're about to do, you know." She stared at me. I stared back without saying a word. She shook her head.
"You're going to tell me whatever it is you're going to do you have to do, and I won't understand. Damn, you're an idiot." I just smiled.
I called out and asked everyone to gather around. They all came here to help, but this thing needed to be organized.
"Look, everyone," I wasn't sure what to say. "I haven't been doing so good lately. As many of you well know, I might not be in my right mind. I'm pretty sure I'm a little nuts. I don't want anyone getting hurt or in trouble because I'm nuts and-" The black kid with the bandana cut me off. "Shony said you crazy. She also say you the only motherfucker crazy enough to save her when she needed savin'."
"I know everyone called you nuts for teaching me karate and, uh, changing my life," Billy Cramer said.
"It was a crazy thing you did for my friend-you almost lost your job. Beautifully crazy," Dr. Pac said.
"You got my scarf back and didn't even know me. We need more crazy people if you ask me," Mary Jo said.
"Look, Duff, everyone here knows you're crazy and been crazy, so why don't you stop the bullshit and tell us what we got to do," Jamal said, speaking for the guys from the gym.
"All right, all right," I said. "Okay, here's the deal. You know this canned food drive everyone's been doing for the soldiers? Well, the place in this region that collects them is also what they call a puppy mill. They call it that because they breed dogs for profit like a mill and they mistreat the dogs. The dogs don't get exercise, they're fat but undernourished, unsocialized, and when they're done breeding, these bastards sell them to the cosmetic people to do awful tests on them. Our job is to go in there, steal the dogs, and get them out." Everyone stared at me, but I had gotten used to that.
"Oh, and one more thing. Al's mom is in there and she's real sick and real pregnant."
"I just got a question," Billy said.
"Shoot," I said.
"How are we getting forty or fifty dogs out of there to wherever we're going with them?"
"That's a problem," I said.
The bar went quiet, except for the two Jerry's and TC, who whispered and snickered.
"What's up fellas?" I said.
"Uh, Duffy, I don't think transportation will be an issue," Jerry Number One said and the other two giggled. On cue, while everyone tried to figure out what was going on, AJ's front door opened. Rocco came in wearing old army fatigues.
"Sorry, I'm late, Duff," Rocco said. "What's the problem?"
"Getting through the gate and getting all the dogs out," I said.
"That won't be a problem," Rocco went back out the door.
"Excuse me everybody," I followed Rocco. There, at the curb, parked in front of AJ's sat The Deuce. Totally restored, tuned up, and humming like an engineering work of art.
"No, Rocco, not The Deuce, I can't. It's your pride and joy, man."
Rocco smiled and put a hand on my shoulder. "You know this friend of yours, Karl?" Rocco looked me in the eye. I nodded.
"You know I did time in the service. I don't talk about it much, but this PTSD shit they talk about now didn't start in Vietnam. Some shit happened to me in Korea I don't like thinking about. It wasn't nice. So if I can maybe do something to help someone else make sense of that shit, maybe it will help me make sense of some old built-up shit in my life."
"But Rocco, the Deuce? Your dream?"
"Well, Duff, I got to thinkin'. Maybe she wasn't built to look pretty. Maybe she got built for a mission. Maybe for a mission exactly like this."
The big horn sounded. I looked up to see Karl behind the wheel, Al next to him. Al bayed along with the horn. I guess it was time to go.
Tom Schreck
Out Cold: Round Three of the Duffy Dombrowski Mysteries
43
AJ's Army filed out and climbed in the back of the Deuce. Rocco drove, Karl went shotgun and Al sat between them. I stepped to the back with the troops.
The night had a chill and riding 55 miles an hour added to the cold. No one complained and no one talked. A certain tension existed to the trip that brought a bunch of people together who didn't know one another and didn't really have much in common. That is, except they liked me enough to do this, and they were crazy as shit for offering their services. The thirtyminute ride seemed a lot longer. A mile outside the puppy mill, Rocco pulled over to the side of the road so we could mount a battle plan. Rocco looked at me to address the army and I shook my head and nodded to Karl. This was his show and his chance to exorcise whatever demons haunted him. I thought it might be nice if he didn't get killed, or get the rest of us killed in the process.
"All right everybody listen up," Karl said his voice deep, his tone confident. It wasn't hard to picture him as an exemplary soldier. "This is what we know. A. The bastards who live here are right-wing whack jobs and we don't know what they are capable of. B. They're mistreating dogs, including a pregnant dog we've identified as Al's mom." Karl paused and looked at everyone.
"And C." His voice deepened and he turned the volume up a notch. "Their operation is fuckin' history the second we bust through that fuckin' gate!" Karl yelled it at the top of his lungs and Rocco floored the Deuce.
Rocco had her up around seventy as we bombed down Route 85. The puppy mill came into view about a hundred yards down the road. Rocco yelled, "Hang on tight, men!" The Deuce hit the gate, blasting it wide open. Sparks from the metal-to-metal violence flew and the gate splintered into a dozen pieces. The Deuce swerved, bounced, and for a second felt like it was going to roll over, but Rocco, like Lee Marvin on steroids, righted it and yelled "Yahoo! You Motherfuckers!" Lights went on all over the compound and alarm sirens went off. Rocco didn't slow down and headed down the dirt road towards the kennels. When he got within fifty yards he slowed the Deuce down so everyone could jump out.
"Free the POWs," Karl yelled referring to the basset hounds.
The AJ's Army jumped out of the back of the Deuce and ran into the kennels. The hounds heard the noise and went nuts. A cacophony of barking, howling, and baying filled the night as the gang ran in.
Jerry Number One and TC were the first out, each carrying a couple of old hounds. Next came Vinci and Billy followed by the three gang-bangers all holding bassets. What a great sight. Billy and Timo each had a fat lemon and yellow basset in their arms, running toward the Deuce, and Jamal made a face trying not to inhale as his POW relieved himself. Mary Jo told a little guy to hush up and he would be all right, and Dr. Pac was tried to get an unruly barker into the back of the Deuce. I heard Karl yell out for me. I ran to the back of the barn. He stood there with Al, who paced back and forth and wagged his tail.
"Duffy!"
I got back there as fast as I could and noticed what had caused the panic in his voice. Gladys moaned in pain and breathed hard. A little foam oozed out her mouth.
"She's in trouble, Duff. She needs help bad," Karl said. He wrapped her in a tattered blanket he found in her pen and lifted her as gently as he could. "We gotta get her to a vet ASAP." Ahead of us in the barn, there a flurry of activity continued as the gang rounded up the rest of the hounds. Karl walked with Gladys as gingerly as he could. Only a handful of hounds remained and the gang-bangers rounded them up.
"Damn these mutherfuckin' bitches smell!" I heard one say to the other. I didn't think he meant it literally. I could hear the Deuce's engine. We came out with Gladys to load her in the front seat. We loaded Gladys into the front seat when I heard Billy Cramer say, "Hey Duff, looks like we got some company."