“Watch out!” Les slapped his brother on the shoulder and pointed ahead. A backhoe, doing about half the speed limit, bounced on huge tires. The bucket at the back of the tractor was less than two car lengths ahead.
Marv swerved right and cut off a pickup truck.
A horn blared.
Les leaned into the turn. They flashed past the yellow tractor. “Watch the road like I told you!”
Marv accelerated to join the traffic on Memorial Drive.
Ernesto pulled up less than a car length behind them.
“Don’t panic, Marv.” Les pulled the Smith and Wesson out of its holster. “When you see an open stretch of road, let him pull up on my side.”
Marv looked ahead. Trees lined the right side of the road.
In between the road and the river, joggers and cyclists navigated the paved pathway. They were the fourth vehicle behind a group of cars. Ernesto trailed them. They passed through an intersection with the Louise Bridge on their right.
A car in the left lane slowed. They passed on the right.
“Get in the left lane,” Les ordered and opened the window. “Let him get nice and close.”
Ernesto saw the green van pull into the left lane. The passenger’s window opened half way. The broken mirror flapped against the door.
“Culo!” He swerved to drive alongside.
“He’s almost beside us!” Marv said.
They ran over a manhole cover.
Les fired one round. A star appeared in the center of Ernesto’s windshield. “Shit! I missed.”
“He’s pulled in behind us,” Marv said.
“Watch the road!” Les looked ahead. Now I have to figure out something else, he thought. The road curved right. Center Street Bridge arched its sandstone back over the water. Suspended beneath, a steel bridge hung above the swollen river. “Get in the right lane.”
“What you gonna do?” Marv said.
“The old guy wants his doll. We’ll give him his doll. We still have the old bitch. I’ll bet she knows where Bob is if anyone does.”
“You said the old man would be a pushover,” Marv said.
“You won’t believe me when I tell you where Bob is,”
Leona said.
“Just turn right under the bridge and do what I tell you. We’ll get rid of the old man and then we’ll find out what this old bitch knows.”
Marv braked for a red light. A white Mazda sat between them and a right turn.
Les held the rearview mirror in his hand as Ernesto opened his door.
Leona fumbled with the lid of the jar.
The light turned green.
Marv lurched forward.
Leona screwed the lid back down tight.
They turned right. The bridge deck was narrow. Tires hummed on the irregular, perforated metal surface. “I don’t like this,” Marv said.
A taxi passed going the other way. No other vehicles approached. “Stop in the middle of the road,” Les said.
“Why?”
“I won’t be able to get out and throw the doll over if you don’t stop in the middle.”
“Why?” Marv said.
“Do it!”
Marv hit the brakes and swung the wheel to the left. The van straddled the center line.
Les leaned into the damaged passenger door. Pain clawed at him when he put weight on his right foot. “Shit!” He heaved the van’s side door open, grabbed the doll by the back of its dress, twisted its arm at the elbow and limped to the edge. He heaved her over the side.
“NO!” Ernesto was crossing to the other side of the bridge. He looked at the green van once.
Leona shuddered as she heard the cry of a man ripped
open by grief.
The old man heaved himself up to the railing and jumped into the river.
Les pulled himself into the van. He lifted his right leg inside. The door would only close part way. He heaved to slam it shut. “Get us out of here!”
“You bastards.” Leona shook her head.
“He’s just a dirty old man. Turn left and get us back onto Memorial,” Les said.
“You ruined my family, and now you’ve killed Ernesto,”
Nanny said.
Ernesto bobbed to the surface. The shock of hitting the water stunned him.
The current carried him while he searched the surface. His foot smashed painfully against rock. He saw her hair first. Just under the surface. Ernesto swam to her and grabbed. Her face surfaced. By this time his feet were pointing downstream. He held her hair in his teeth and used his arms to keep them floating. They passed under a bridge. A pair of faces stared down at him and were gone.
Ernesto locked her arms around his neck. “Helen?” No answer. “Talk to me.”
The water seemed warmer now. He thought about their holiday in Italy and cooling off in the Mediterranean. It hadn’t been so long ago. “Remember our big trip? Remember how warm the water was? I can see that dress you wore.”
“Hold on to me,” she said.
He remembered the sea. Helen’s face inches from his.
Looking up at the sky, he thought about how perfect their honeymoon had been.
A steel cable caught him on the right side of the head. The shock of the blow knocked him out. They rolled beneath the surface then over the concrete weir. In a moment they were caught in a churning prison of white water. It turned them over and over till all the oxygen escaped Ernesto’s lungs.
“Take the Deerfoot North. That way we’ll get there faster.” Les pointed, directing Marvin.
“It was you two who threw the rock through our store window.” Leona lit a cigarette.
“Gimme a cigarette,” Les said and reached back with an open hand.
“Answer first.” She took a drag.
“What the hell are you asking?” Les said.
“Our store. You two helped ruin our business when my Judy ran away.”
“That was a long time ago,” Les said.
Leona waited and watched him through a filter of exhaled smoke.
“The rock was Bob’s idea. Said it would scare you.” Les wiggled his fingers and she dropped a cigarette into his palm.
“How about the slashed tires?” she said.
Marv looked at Les who searched for the cigarette lighter.
“I need a light.”
“Answer the question and I’ll light it for you.” She glanced left to see the jar in the cup holder. The gasoline quivered. Cars, pickup trucks and semis passed them on either side as they headed north on the freeway.
“Judy was right, you are a controlling old bitch.” Les put the cigarette between his lips.
Leona took a breath to keep her mind clear for what she had to do. This is what I should have done when they took my Judy away, she thought.
“Yah, we did it. Bob paid us 20 bucks for that one.” He reached back for the light.
Leona lit another cigarette with the tip of hers and handed it to him. “What about the letter to Beth?”
Les looked at his brother. He took a long drag on the cigarette, blew smoke out his nostrils and said, “I’m real good at letters.”
Leona nodded.
“Judy helped me write it.”
“Judy?” Leona said.
“Sure. Then she tried to get Beth to run away with her to teach you a lesson.”
Leona thought, Beth never told me. Never told me while she gained all that weight. No wonder! No god damned wonder she hates Judy. She looked out the left window. A silver blue semi was pulling up alongside. It struggled as they climbed a gentle incline. “Where we goin’ now?”
“Back to your place. You’ll tell us whatever we want to know. All I have to do is put my gun up against the side of the boy’s head.”
You’re not gonna get anywhere near Ernie, she thought.
“And if I call the police after you leave?”
Les said, “We’ll come back. Marv, we gotta get off this road pretty soon. Get in the right lane.”
“Can’t,” Marv said.
On the right, a white semi rolled up beside them.
“Slow down, then,” Les said.