Suicide Squeeze

As soon as Co

15

Fat Otis put a huge arm around Co

“Co

Co

“Man, you know I don’t want to do this shit. Why do you put yourself in this position?” Otis asked, his voice plaintive.

“Bad karma?” Co

“You go

Co

Otis looked at Co

“How about I just send him a postcard?” Co

Otis shook his head. “Nope.”

“A nice letter with a promissory note for the money.”

“Get in.” Otis tossed Co

Rocky Big haunted the dark, cavernous back rooms and hallways of a dirty downtown building on the cheap side of the arena where the Ice Pilots hockey team played. Pensacola was hardly infamous for its rough neighborhoods. The small city didn’t have a Bedford-Stuyvesant or a South Bronx, but there were a few places somebody could buy crack or get knifed. Playerz Gentleman’s Club fronted Rocky’s building. Otis led Co

Co

“I’ll take you through Applianceville to Rocky’s office,” Otis said.

Applianceville was a long, wide hallway lined with washers, dryers, refrigerators, and microwave ovens. Most were brand-new and still in the original boxes.

At the other end of Applianceville, they entered a dark warehouse, stacks of CD players, digital video cameras, laptop computers piled high. The commotion of men loading trucks faded behind them.

They passed a reedy little man sitting on a forklift. He had a thin moustache, hair slicked back and oily. When he heard Co

They walked past the forklift guard, down another short hall to a door lit by a single bare lightbulb swinging from the ceiling. Otis knocked three times.

A voice on the other side, Southern, slightly high-pitched. “Come in, please.”

They went in.

At first, Co

The man behind the desk was neither rocky nor big nor anything else Co

“Nice to meet you, Co

He shook Rocky’s hand. Co

“Please have a seat.” Rocky motioned to a chair. “I’m sorry my desk is such a mess.” He indicated an adding machine, ledgers, stacks of computer printouts. “There’s simply an obscene amount of paperwork involved in an organization like this. You wouldn’t believe it.”

Rocky sat, smiled. They looked at one another. Otis hovered in the background.

“Well.” Rocky cleared his throat. “It seems we have an unpleasant financial matter to discuss.”

Co

A knock at the door.

Rocky said, “Hold that thought, won’t you, Co

Otis opened the door a crack, had a quick mumbled conversation with someone on the other side. Otis looked over his shoulder at Rocky. “Jeff is here.”

“Oh, damn.” Rocky suddenly looked stricken. “He’s early. Damn damn damn. I really hate this sort of thing.”

Otis looked concerned. “Let me handle it, Rocky. You shouldn’t have to do this.”

Rocky took a deep breath. “No, no. It’s okay. I have to do this in person once in a while, or people will begin to wonder.” He put a thick phone book in his chair, sat on top of it. He appeared marginally bigger. “Co

Co

Rocky said, “Okay, Otis. Tell him to come in.”

Otis mumbled at somebody through the door crack, and a few seconds later he opened it wide, ushered in a squat man with a scruffy beard. He wore a polo shirt, jeans, sneakers, a gold hoop in each ear. Brillo-pad hair.

“Have a seat, Jeff.” Rocky’s voice was suddenly lower and rough. A slight scowl on his face, which Co

“Sure, Rocky.” Jeff’s wide smile looked tight and strained. He sat.

“Jeff, I think we need to discuss the twenty-five thousand dollars you owe me.”

Jeff’s eyes slid sideways to Co

“Like I told your boys, Rocky,” Jeff said. “It’s just a little delay. My dumb-ass brother-in-law had to make a run to Mexico, right? And he had the dates wrong and now it’s just a simple delay with the merchandise.”

“I made you a loan,” Rocky said. “The particulars are of no interest to me.”

“Right, right. I know. I hear you.” Jeff bobbed his head. Agreeable. “And I totally respect what you’re saying. But I give you my one hundred percent promise that this deal I’m working on is a slam dunk. We needed you to finance us because we were up against a time thing, but as soon as my idiot brother-in-law comes back with the goods, we got a buyer waiting no problem and everybody gets paid.” He snapped his fingers. “Just like that.”