Today’s
excerpt is from Toboggan, Book #4 of the nine-book Janitors Series. The two escaped thugs having a rough go as
they try to reach the lodge belonging to a New York crime boss they both know. Enjoy and have a great day.
m.j.
While
Nick and Phyllis were “enjoying” their meal, Tony and Frank were having a much
less pleasant time of it. Rather than
proceed with steady, determined paces, they were trying to hurry. The end result was both men were near
dropping when they happened upon a deserted house.
Tony
saw it first. “Look there, Frank. A house.”
“Whadda
we do dares somebody libbin’ dare?”
“We
kill’em, dunce. What’n the hell you
think?”
“Oh.”
They
trudged on up to the house, and could soon tell it was vacant. Tony kicked in the door and walked in. Since he couldn’t see well in the darkness,
he walked back outside and started one of the flares, which he placed between
two boards in the porch. With the added
light, he at once saw a fireplace. “We
gotta find some wood for a fire.”
“I
gotta rest first.”
“Like
hell. Help me find some wood.”
When
no wood was to be found, Tony took the butt end of the shotgun to a door frame,
then another. Those he stomped on and
broke into pieces, which would fit into the fireplace. Then he found a two-year-old newspaper lying
in a corner, wadded it up, and put it around the wood. Next he asked, “Did that cop have a lighter?”
“Yap .”
“Well,
give it here.”
Soon
the fire was started, and let off an awful odor as the paint on the door frames
started to burn. Frank grumbled, “Dat
smell like shit.”
“Beats
freezing, you lame-brain. But we’re
gonna hafta find more wood. That isn’t
gonna last too long. By the way, did
that cop have cigarettes, too?”
“Yap .”
“Well,
give them here. You don’t smoke.”
Tony
lit one up, took a long drag, then went in search of more wood, now aided by
the light from the fire. He found an old
dilapidated kitchen table, broke off the legs, and put them in the fireplace,
sticking their fatter ends in the already diminishing fire, with the remainder
hanging out on the hearth.
Knowing
the legs would burn up quickly, he kept up his search while Frank broke up the
rest of the table. Just now starting to
warm up, he hated to do it, but Tony went outside the house in his search. In the heavy snow and rapidly fading light,
he found only a large log, nearly too large to carry, and a shed. The log had been used by the former owners of
the cabin to split wood. Had Tony been
smarter—or at least taken time to think—it might have led him to the neatly
stacked pile of wood near the building.
However, that wood was never to be found by Tony or Frank, and after
getting Frank to help him carry the log into the house and placing it in the
fire, he took the shotgun and used the butt end to start systematically
smashing the boards from the shed. With
Frank’s help, a sizable portion of the shed was carried inside before Tony
called a halt.
He
surveyed their stack of wood and announced, “That should hold us through the
night, and beyond if we have to stay here more than a day.”
“What’re
we gonna do ‘bout food?”
“Starve…unless
you want to go out and run us down a big fat rabbit. How in the hell do I know what we’re gonna do
about food? What we’re gonna do is hold
up here ‘til this damn snow stops. Then
we’re gonna go up to Meat Hook’s place and see what kind of stuff he leaves
there during the off season.”
“What
da off season?”
“Winter. Late fall and early spring, too.”
“Why
habba pwace wit ya can’t use ‘cept a little bit?”
“I
don’t know why to ‘habba’ such a place.
Frank, don’t ask me things I don’t know the answers to, please. You’re always doing that.”
“Yeah,
an’ ya always makin’ fun outta me.”
“Sorry,
Frank. Let’s curl up in those blankets
and try to get some sleep. Ain’t nothing
else to do that I can think of.”
“I
gotta shit.”
“Frank,
for God’s sake, don’t tell me your problems.
Go find a place to dump and just do it.”
“Outside? It cold out dare. And da snow deep.”
“Just
do it, Frank. Use one of these boards to
push some snow back, take your dump, then cover it up with snow.”
After
Frank answered the call of nature, Tony spread two blankets on the floor,
tossed one to Frank, and laid down on one he had spread and pulled the last one
over him.
Frank
said, “I needa pilla.”
“Use
your damn coat.”
“Dat’s
a tought.”
Tony
just shook his head and—not for the first time—wondered if he wouldn’t be
better off just killing Frank and stashing his body. He sighed as he realized that Frank did
have his uses, no matter how irratating he was.
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