Chapter 30 - Nick's Knucks

When Sumner got home from Machias he thought it strange the Valiant was in the dooryard with no one at the house, but he went ahead and wrestled the rear end he'd pulled out from under a wrecked Plymouth at the junkyard off the back of his flatbed.

"Probably gone for a walk on the beach," he thought, as he set a new pair of shocks next to the rear end, in the shade of the building.

It was only when he was washing up at the sink that he noticed the block-printed note and the lock of Liz's hair. His stomach lurched, and he nearly lost it into the sink. He stood there, hanging onto the counter, his head spinning, until he could catch his breath.

"O no.." he prayed, "please no. Don't let them be hurt. Why did I ever get involved in this? I'm so sorry Lizzie." He sat down at the table, shaking.. then he noticed Liz's grandmother's china vase, upside down on the table.

"That's odd," he thought, and he picked it up. Liz's note fluttered to the table. Sumner grabbed it like a liferaft.

TWO MEN FROM SAILBOAT

"Cyr, that damned Cyr," he thought. "It WAS him on the sailboat. But what's this about ASK DUNK?" That didn't make any sense. "O, I love your, too, Liz. Please be all right."

Then he saw drops of blood on the floor, and went into a tailspin. He started out the door in a rush. Then he rushed back to pick up the phone. Then he put the phone down. "No I can't go, and I can't use the phone. They might call," he muttered to himself.

"Maybe just one call," he thought, and dialed Buster's number. "Maybe Dunk can help explain," he hoped. But Buster's phone just rang and rang, with no answer. "Dunk must be working the tide, anyhow," he reasoned.

Sumner was standing at the kitchen window with his hand on the receiver, frantic with worry, staring into space, trying to figure out something to do, when he heard a tractor-trailer downshifting as it approached the curve just east of the house. It continued to shift down as it came out of the fog, and Sumner saw it was Sidearm's rig, slowing to pull off the road. He wondered for a moment why it was approaching from the east, then he thought, "maybe Sidearm knows about this," and he hurried out the back door, and around to the road.

A black Lincoln town car was pulling in behind Sidearm's rig, but Sumner was too upset to wonder about it. Then, as he hurried around the front of the tractor, a heavyset man in a black windbreaker and sunglasses swung open the shotgun door and pointed a revolver at his head.

"Hold it," the man said. Sumner stopped cold, and held up his hands. When he looked over at Sidearm, the tough little driver held his palms up in the air, did an exaggerated shrug. Sumner heard the doors on the town car thunk shut, and two more strangers came up alongside the trailer, the bigger one a huge brute in a black T with cutoff sleeves, carrying a sawed-off shotgun.

"This him?" the third man asked Sidearm through the tractor's open door. He was short and round, with slicked back hair and the genial face of a politician, wearing an elegantly tailored summer suit in a silver-gray weave.

"Yeh, Sumnah Dow." Sidearm said. "This is Mr. Chinetti. He thinks you may have something of his."

"An if yuh give it back real quick," the man with the revolver said," we might not liquidate your dumb ass." Sumner turned to face Rizzo Chinetti.

"Maybe this is the best way out of it," Sumner thought. "Give it back to these thugs, and let them deal with Cyr."

"Mister Chinetti, if you're looking for a barrel of cocaine, I HAVE seen it, " Sumner said. "We picked it up fishing offshore. Where it is right now I can't be sure, but maybe I can help you find it."

"Now ain't he cute?" the big guy with the shotgun said. "Gonna help us find our lost barrel," and he kicked Sumner below the knee so his leg collapsed and he tumbled to the ground, clutching his shin.

Chinetti put a restraining hand on the man's arm, "Bobo, please. Mr. Dow seems eager to assist us."

"Yeah? What choice's he got? Dumbfuck steals our coke, now he wants to kiss and make up?" Bobo kicked Sumner again, this time in the thigh. "I should blow him away."

"Sidearm, you know where the coke is?" Chinetti asked.

"No, I already tole you," Sidearm answered. "Summy here asked me to make a deal for him."

"Summy better know how to add two plus two," the other gunny said from his perch in the tractor.

Bobo reached down, grabbed Sumner by the shirt, and yanked him to his feet. "Where is it, asshole?" he demanded.

"Last I knew it was in Sonny's barn," Sumner said, hating himself, but hating what might happen to Liz and Jesse even more. "But you're not the only ones lookin for it."

"Who else," Chinetti quietly demanded.

"Some guys on a sailboat, and the Coast Guard, I think," Sumner answered.

"That answers one of Mainardi's questions, Monk," Chinetti said to the man in the cab. "Somebody did finger the Colombian."

"Or turned him," Monk replied. "Unless these fuckheads told the Coasties."

Bobo still had a hold on Sumner's shirt. Now he shook him angrily. "Well? Fuckhead? Did you?" he demanded.

Sumner shook his head. "If we did, would I ask Sidearm to make a deal?" Bobo released Sumner with a shove, and he staggered a couple of steps before regaining his balance.

Chinetti spoke to Sidearm. "OK numbnuts, can you take us to this Sonny's barn?" Bobo cocked the shotgun and aimed it at Sumner.

"Yeah," Sidearm said, "but if it's not there, we may need Summy to find it." Bobo uncocked the shotgun, and Sumner realized how close he'd come to getting shot.. and how quick thinking Sidearm was. Now he saw the tough little man had been beat up and bloodied, but Sidearm still had his wits about him. Sumner had been reeling with the punches since he saw the note about Liz. "Get a grip," he thought.

"Where's the sailboat?" Chinetti now asked Sumner.

"I don't know. Somewhere close. They've been in town." He didn't want to tell these mobsters about Liz and Jesse, but maybe he could use them to pry his family loose. Somehow.

"How many?" Chinetti demanded.

"Two.. that I know of," Sumner said.

"You seen 'em?"

"Uh uh," Sumner shook his head.

The fat little man stood thinking for a moment. "OK. We'll take these assholes in the car, and go look for Mr. Sonny." Bobo grabbed Sumner and shoved him toward the Lincoln. Sumner noticed the front plate read OPUS-1.

"Drug rehabilitation," thought Sumner, "my ass."

They put Sumner in back on the passenger side, with Bobo behind the driver, holding the shotgun upright between his legs. Monk shoved Sidearm into the middle up front, and got behind the wheel. Chinetti got in on the passenger side next to Sidearm. The town car squealed out onto the pavement, and sped toward town.

"Easy now," Chinetti said to Monk. "No need to draw attention." Monk slowed down to the speed limit. It was still blowing fog, the bunting and flags along Main Street shaking in the wind. Just past Bud's True Value some kids threw a string of fire crackers into the road, and Monk swerved to avoid the sudden explosions.

"Little bastards," Bobo muttered.

As they went past the high school Sidearm said, "It's coming up on the left." Sumner stiffened. Sonny's was on the island, not here in town. "What the hell is Sidearm up to?" Sumner wondered.

"This is it," Sidearm pointed left, down Nicky's driveway. As the town jar jounced from side to side in the ruts, Sidearm said. "I'll bait him out. He's expecting me to make a deal. He'll figga you're the byahs. Stop here." Sumner tensed himself as they halted just short of Nicky's dooryard.

Sidearm reached over and hit the horn twice, and Nicky came out onto her doorstep with a cigarette in her mouth. She stood there with her arms crossed.

"That's Sonny's wife," Sidearm said. "Let's go talk to her." Monk looked at Chinetti, and he nodded go ahead. Monk got out of the Lincoln and put his hand in his windbreaker pocket where the revolver was. Sidearm slid out under the wheel.

"Hey sweetheart," Sidearm said to Nicky. He walked steadily up to the foot of the doorstep, "we're lookin for Sonny." Nicky stared at Sidearm quizzically. Monk came up alongside Sidearm. Sidearm stepped back slightly, and a little to one side, so that Monk was between them.

"You know what you said you'd do to Shit-for-brains?" Sidearm asked, and he nodded at Monk. Monk turned toward Sidearm, "What the...?" he started to say. Nicky cold cocked him upside the head. As Monk fell, Sidearm grabbed the gun out of the thug's hand, and rolled away from Nicky. She jumped back into the doorway as Bobo threw open his car door, bringing up the shotgun. On the fly, Sidearm snapped off two shots at Bobo, which pinged off the side of the car. Bobo tried a wing shot with the sawed-of, but Sidearm was already rolling behind a pile of traps and down the ledge.

The instant Bobo leveled his shotgun outside the car, Sumner flung open his door, and sprinted into the scrub woods lining Nicky's drive. Behind him he could hear Sidearm firing two more shots, and the spinning of wheels as Chinetti backed the Lincoln full throttle out the drive. Sumner peeked around the scrub spruce he was crouched behind to see the town car careening backward, with Bobo half-in and half-out the back door, and Chinetti twisted round trying to see out the back window. There was a squeal of tires, and a blaring of horns when the Lincoln got to the pavement, then it burned rubber heading back east.

When Sumner came back into Nicky's dooryard, Sidearm was putting wire twist-ties on Monk's wrists. The kind used on mussel bags. He slipped the little twist crank into the loops, and spun it rapidly bringing a yelp of pain from the mobster. Monk was just coming to, but he was still too stunned to respond coherently. Sidearm wrapped another twist-tie around the thug's ankles, and cranked it tight. He dug in the thug's jacket pocket and came up with a handful of reloads for the revolver, which he put in the gun. Then he grabbed the neck of Monk's T-shirt and dragged him down the ledge beside Nicky's house, and stuffed him into a low shed where she kept wrinkles.

"He'll keep," Sidearm observed, bending over to wedge the shed door closed. Nicky had come out of the house again, and was standing over the little trucker, hands on her hips, shaking her head.

"Nice knucks, Nicks," Sidearm said. He danced in front of her with his fists up like John L. Lewis.

"How'd you know?" Sumner asked Sidearm, still astounded. Then he turned to Nicky, "How'd you know to hit him?"

"Oh, that's easy," Sidearm answered. "Nicky always said if her ex.. old Shit-for-brains.. ever showed his face in the dooryard, she'd put out his lights. I just said the magic words. Right, sweetypie?" he asked Nicky.

"You miserable little dipstick," Nicky said, pretending to be irritated, "You bring a cah load uh gangstahs to my house, and expect me ta pick up th' pieces." But she was grinning too wide to be angry.

"Nickles," Sidearm said, taking the hand she'd clocked Monk with, and kissing the knuckles, "you're the best piece I evah picked up, and it's bout time you return the favah."