Free Hose Monkey by Reed Farrel Coleman Page B

Hoskins. I’ll be like a cancer to you.”
    “I hate this shit.”
    “Don’t worry,” Joe said, resting his hand on Frank’s shoulder. “Maybe it’ll be just temporary.”
    “You can’t just leave this thing with the kid alone?”
    “Maybe if he hadn’t died in our yard, in your truck. Maybe if the cops could find this guy Toussant. Anyway, do you really want me to let it lie?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You’re a bad liar, boss. Besides, I’m doing it for me, really. I figure I got debts to pay.”
    “If that’s the way you want it …”
    “Sometimes it’s not about wanting, but about the way it is. This is one of those times.” Joe cleared his throat. “One more thing …”
    “What’s that?”
    “Now that I quit, I need you to fire me.”
    Frank slammed his fist onto the desk. “There’s no freaking sense in this.”
    “Maybe in the real world this doesn’t make sense,” Joe confessed.
    “This ain’t the real world?”
    “When you’re talking cops and murder, Frank, it’s a different world altogether.”
    “Okay, you’re fired.”
    “Not now.”
    “Not now what?”
    “Don’t fire me now.”
    “When?”
    “Tomorrow morning.”
    “You have a time in mind?”
    “Around 7:30, I guess.”
    “Why 7:30?”
    “I want a very public execution.”
    “Public execu—”
    “Trust me, boss. I know what I’m doing.” Frank threw his hands up in surrender. “Yeah. Yeah. Cops and murder, a different world altogether.”
    The red rectangle blinked three times at Joe when he walked into the basement apartment he had shared with Vinny for less than a year. They had shared a room all through their childhood and Joe remembered how much he wanted to get out, to finally get some space of his own. There were many nights during his marriage that Joe found himself wondering whether it was true love or his desire to get out from under that motivated him to buy an engagement ring all those years before. Whatever the reason, he got out, all right.
    Then, when Joe was making an Olympic sport of being kicked out of everything from his house to his marriage to his career, Vinny was there to take him in. Joe’s heart still ached at the memory of Vinny, stuttering madly, promising not to drive him away like he had when they were growing up. That’s one thing Joe had set right before 9/11. Even in the depths of his misery, maybe because of it, he and his little brother had come back together. They were comfortable together in that basement apartment. Joe could have afforded to move to a better place a few years ago, but he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving.
    The three blinks of the phone machine were all messages from Marla. Joe’s heart raced at the sound of her voice, her words barely registering. His response was so beyond voluntary that it frightened him. Maybe he couldn’t control the beat of his heart, but he could control the speed at which things moved along. He was determined to take it slow with Marla.
    By the second message, Joe could hear her words.
    “Me again. Listen, there’s a woman who drives a van for our group home in Patchogue who dated Toussant for about a month when they both worked for a private agency in Oceanside. She told me some stuff. I don’t know if it’ll help you, but … Give me a call.”
    “Hey,” he said. “It’s me.”
    “Hey, me. You got my messages?”
    “Got ‘em. So what’s this about a woman—”
    “What?” Marla interrupted. “No declarations of eternal love?”
    Joe didn’t know what to say. “I … I … Um—”
    “Calm down, Joe. I’ll settle for assurances you’ll take me out Saturday night.”
    “I think I can manage that.”
    “Kissing. I’ll need kissing.”
    “I can almost guarantee you that.”
    “Almost.”
    “Okay, I’ll kiss you.”
    “Promise?”
    “Needles in my eyes if I don’t.”
    “Fair enough,” she said. “So I guess you’ll want to hear about what Corral had to say.”
    “Corral?”
    “Corral Lofton. She’s