Read Online False Allegations by Andrew Vachss - Free Book Online

It is a lie. I hate lies. That’s why I— “
    “I know.”
    “You say that a lot, don’t you, honey? ‘I know.’ But the way you say it, I almost believe you do.”
    “I’m careful when I say it, Bondi. And it’s true when I do.”
    “Is Burke your first name? That’s a Brit name, you know. Or maybe it’s Irish…Is it your first name or your last?”
    “It’s both, actually.”
    “Oh God, I heard about stuff like that. Your mother must have had some sense of humor.”
    “Yeah, Mom loved her jokes all right,” I said. Thinking about the indifferently typed letters on my birth certificate, the one I’d had to commit a crime to see. In the institution they sent me to when I was a kid. I’d used a screwdriver on the file cabinets in back of the social worker’s office. Looking for my father’s name— one of the older kids said it would be there. My father’s name turned out to be UNK. My mother hadn’t even bothered to give me a name. The fucking State had done that: Baby Boy Burke.
    Maybe it was something in my voice— she stayed quiet for a while after that. I listened to her breathing. It smoothed out and settled down, but she never flirted with REM.
    “Burke?”
    “What?”
    “Can we tell each other the truth?”
    “I can,” I lied, holding her closer.
     
     
    “I t’s true,” she said softly. “He’s there. Across the street. Watching. At least, I think he is.”
    “But…?”
    “But it wasn’t my girlfriend who told me. That he lets other people watch me, I mean.”
    “Who was it?”
    “A woman. A big, hard woman. Not fat, really. Just…muscular. Pushy, too. Like a bloody man, she was.”
    “A lesbian, you mean?”
    “No, silly. They’re women too. This one wasn’t like that. She came right to my door. Rang the bell. She said her name was Heather. Heather, huh! Some name for a creature like that, I tell you! She had orange eyes. Orange ! Can you imagine? Contact lenses, for sure. They looked so…I don’t know…aggressive. She…scared me, like.”
    “Did you ask her how she knew? About what was going on?”
    “It didn’t matter, honey. She knew. She told me all about it— what I…do for him. She must have seen it. Or he told her about it— that’s just as bad.”
    “What else did she say?”
    “She just said, if I wanted to…do something about it, she knew a guy who could get it done.”
    “Did she say my name?”
    “ Your name? No, baby. She told me about this guy Harry. I called him. Went to his office. He asked me what did I want to do about it. He was playing like maybe I wanted to get him done. My…boyfriend, I mean. Bash him up, maybe. Or even worse. I told him I didn’t want that. I just wanted him to pay.”
    “Whose idea was it about the safe?”
    “That was Harry’s. He said he knew some guys who could handle it. That’s what he said: ‘handle it.’ I should just wait, and he’d give me a call.”
    “And you didn’t hear from him again?”
    “Just from you, luv. That one time.”
    I kept my eyes closed, concentrating on keeping my voice gentle. “You knew it was a wrong number, Bondi. You thought some man was going to come around, you were going to tell him that story, he was gonna go in there, take care of business…and mail you your share?”
    “No,” she said quietly. “I never thought that. I thought something was gonna…happen. To him. I didn’t much care what. I told you the truth about that part. I’m going home. And I’m not looking back.”
    “Tell me the rest,” I said.
    “She came back. This Heather, she came back here. She said a man would come around. A quiet, hard man. You. She didn’t say your name, but she described you perfect. She said, if you didn’t ask any questions, just keep my mouth shut.”
    “But if I did?”
    She got off the bed again, walked out of the room. When she came back, she had a card in her hand. I knew what it was. I couldn’t see the lock, but I could hear the tumblers falling into