Silent Night

Joe and Frankie were in the sitting room to the right of the front door. Joe was sitting in an overstuffed chair, and Frankie was lounging on the sofa. Each had a cigarette in one hand and a Budweiser tallboy in the other.

“Hey, what do you want?” Frankie said. Both of them started to get up.

I decided that of the two, Frankie might be more useful to us. I walked to Joe without saying a word, grabbed his face in my right hand, and pushed him back down into the chair. Hawk and Vi

“You might want to sit,” Hawk said to him. Frankie sat.

Joe struggled to stand up. I jabbed him on the nose with a quick right. Blood spurted as his hands went to his face. Beer splashed off the wood floor. He might have swallowed the cigarette. I grabbed him by the hair and yanked him over to Frankie’s sofa.

“Hey! Hey! What the fuck?” Joe said.

I stepped around the sofa and kicked him in the stomach. Then I picked him up with both hands and slammed him against a bookcase. He staggered for a moment, then fell, pulling the bookcase down on top of him.

“I see the rules have changed,” Hawk said.

I stood over Joe in a loose crouch. “A kid gets hurt,” I said, “the rules are different.”

We all turned to look at Frankie. He was squirming on the sofa, panic in his eyes.

“What do you want? What do you want?” He was almost screaming. “Don’t hurt me. I didn’t do nothing. I didn’t hurt no kid.”

“Where are the boys?” I said.

“Upstairs,” Frankie said. “They’re all locked in their rooms upstairs. They’re okay. Nobody hurt ’em.” His voice was rising in pitch, his words tumbling out.

“Where’s Jackie?”

“I don’t know,” Frankie said. “Honest to Christ, I don’t know. They took him away. When Joe and me got here, he was gone.”

I leaned in and slapped him across the face. He turned his head away. A trickle of blood formed on the side of his mouth.

“As you can probably surmise,” I said, “I have very little time to deal with you, and even less patience. So you’re going to tell us what happened here. You’re going to be clear and concise and complete. You’re going to tell us why you two geniuses let Jackie get beat up by a couple of thugs. You’re going to tell us where Jackie is. And you’re going to tell us why the residents of this safe house are locked in their rooms while you and Joe have a frat party down here. Got it?”

Frankie looked from me to Hawk to Vi

“Okay, okay,” he said. “It’s like this. Joe and I get a call from Mr. Alvarez. He says some guys are coming by, he wants them to talk to Jackie. He tells us to let the guys in, then take a walk for an hour. So that’s what we do. We let the guys in, and we get lost. When we get back, Jackie and the guys are gone. Then Mr. Alvarez calls and tells us to lock up the kids and wait for his orders. So we do that. We lock up the kids that are home, and we wait down here for the ones who are out to come back. When they do, we grab them and lock them upstairs, too. Then you guys show up.”

“Who were these guys? Men from the farm?”

Frankie shook his head. “No, not from the farm. Two big Hispanic guys I never seen before. Tattoos and shit. Scary guys.”

“What did Alvarez want the guys to talk to Jackie about?”

“I don’t know,” said Frankie. “Honest to God, I don’t know. He didn’t say, and you don’t ask Mr. Alvarez questions. You just do what he tells you.”

“You’ve been around here awhile. You have an educated guess what Mr. Alvarez would want them to talk with his brother about?”

Frankie rocked back and forth on the sofa. He shook his head from side to side. He swiveled his head to look at Joe. Then he looked back.

“Please, don’t make me do this.” Frankie was almost crying. “He’ll have me killed.”

“Who will?” I said. “Joey here? I don’t think he’s in any shape to do you much damage.”

“No!” Frankie started to wail. “Mr. Alvarez. I talk about his business, he’ll have me killed! Please!”

I slapped him twice to get his attention. “You don’t tell us, and the three of us are going to drag you up to the roof and bounce you off the sidewalk.”

“You don’t know Mr. Alvarez.” Frankie was pleading.

“You’re afraid of Alvarez? Look around you, Frankie. Alvarez isn’t here. We are. You might want to be more concerned about what we want.”

Hawk grunted. Vi

Frankie burst into open tears. I waited. He cried. I grabbed the neck of his sweatshirt, twisted it in my hand, and lifted him up off the sofa.

“I’m waiting,” I said softly. “But not much longer.” I let go, and he dropped back.

Frankie looked back again at Joe, who hadn’t stirred. Then he turned back to me and sniffed twice.

“Okay,” he said. “Okay.” He shook his head and gave a deep sigh.

“Mr. Alvarez hates Street Business. Wants to shut it down. It loses a ton of money, and he thinks someone will find out that it’s here and it’s not legal and the police will come, and Mr. Alvarez doesn’t want that kind of attention. But he can’t shut it down, because it’s important to Jackie and Mr. Alvarez promised his mama he’d support Jackie and he can’t go back on his promise. So he tries to buy Jackie out, but Jackie’s proud of this place and thinks he’s doing a good thing, and he says no. So then he tries to scare Jackie into giving up. He thinks Jackie is weak and will just give up if he’s threatened, so Mr. Alvarez hires some guys to cause trouble. Nothing serious, you know? Just push some of the kids around, take some of their money. Just enough to frighten Jackie.”

“But Jackie doesn’t get frightened,” I said.

“No,” said Frankie. He shook his head again. “Jackie grows a backbone, just at the wrong time. He won’t quit. He fights back. He asks Mr. Alvarez for more help, so Mr. Alvarez sends Joe and me to guard the place. And Jackie brings you in to make the threats stop.”

“Not knowing that his brother is the one causing the threats. Not knowing his security guards are working for the enemy.”

Frankie looked down and swallowed. He didn’t say anything.

“When did Alvarez decide that Street Business was a problem, and might attract the wrong attention? When did he decide to shut it down? Fu

Frankie looked up at me, then shut his eyes tight, as though thinking caused him intense physical pain.

“I du

“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to ask you this just one more time. Where is Jackie now?”

Frankie recoiled and started to shake. Tears began ru

“I told you, I don’t know!” He was shouting, his voice hoarse and filled with fear. “I’d tell you if I knew. Honest to Christ, I would. But I don’t. He just wasn’t here when Joe and me got back.”

I stood over him for a moment. He dropped his head and didn’t say anything else. I looked at Hawk. Hawk shrugged.

“Vi

Vi

“Sure,” he said.

Hawk and I walked out to the hallway.

“What do you think?” I said.

“Think you scared him,” Hawk said.

“Do you think he’s holding back anything from us?”

“I think he’s told us all he knows. Now what?”

I looked at my watch. It was almost three in the afternoon.

“We’ve got to get out to Weston. Time to call in the cavalry, I think.”