Read Online TKO by Tom Schreck - Free Book Online

welfare probably hurts as many people as it helps, but if there was ever a guy who needed some help from the government, it was Sanchez. Of course, I wasn’t even sure he was a citizen, but guys like Sanchez were the only guys who would pick apples and we all love to eat those apples, at least in our McDonald’s apple pies, don’t we? Most people, or at least most people who call in to talk radio shows, don’t get that point—oh well, they didn’t get much of anything.
    I thought for a second and had an idea. My ideas often got me in trouble, but I figured that was probably the case with most Robin Hood–type geniuses. I also figured that my chances of getting caught were low. That figuring was probably wrong, but what the hell. I scribbled on a sticky note and handed it to Sanchez.
    “Give them this and tell them to call this man,” I said. I gave him my address with the letter B after the street number, like it was an apartment building—as if an Airstream trailer could have a couple of floors or something. Sanchez smiled.
    “Gracias, Señor Duff. You da man, sí!” Sanchez said.
    He left happy and I called Dr. Rudy.
    “Rudy here,” he answered his office phone.
    “Hey pal.”
    “Whatya want.”
    “Geez, what kind of mood are you in?”
    “I’m fuckin’ busy and the only time you call me, you need me to stick my neck out.”
    “That hurts.”
    “So what is it?”
    “I got a migrant farm worker who needs an address. I told him to tell DSS that he’s renting an apartment from you.”
    “You what?”
    “C’mon, all you have to do is tell them that he rents from you when they call.”
    “Welfare fraud is what it’s called.”
    “You do have a way with words.”
    “Fuck you.”
    He hung up, which I knew he would do. That was fine because I saw it as the price I had to pay for his favors. There was no doubt Rudy would come through. He always does. I’d take shit for it and maybe for a long time, but that was the surcharge I paid for his kindness.
    I started to head for the coffee machine when I noticed the TV was on in the break room and all the staff were gathered around it. There was an MSNBC special report on and it was midmorning.
    I walked up behind Monique.
    “What the hell is going on?” I said.
    “There’s another one. All they’re saying is that a high-school girl was murdered and sexually mutilated.”
    “What is ‘sexually mutilated’?”
    “I can only imagine,” she said.
    “They think it’s Howard?”
    “That’s what they’re saying.”
    What was supposed to be an easy half-day was turning into a nightmare. All I had wanted to do was get some paperwork done, see Sanchez, and then get out and focus on my fight. Now there was going to be a thing, I could sense it. Claudia loved making a thing of things, and if it gave her an opportunity to be officious and pompous, then she would milk it for all it was worth.
    Turns out that she demanded that none of us leave until she gave the okay, and she reminded us over and over not to speak to the press. Then, she called in the board for a special meeting. The board at Jewish Unified Services was the biggest bunch of phony goofs you ever wanted to see. A while back, one of them actually shot me after I exposed his Internet porn industry. He was the same guy who shot Al, who happened to come to my rescue and save my life. Well, that board member won’t be attending any meetings soon because he drew a twenty-five-to-life sentence and actually was doing time at Green Haven, which had me wondering if he and Howard ever crossed paths.
    He owned car dealerships and I’m convinced he joined the board to network business opportunities out of the other board members, who, by my estimation, were there for the exact same reasons. There were financial guys and lawyers hoping to find new businesses, there were doctors’ wives, and there were a few others who I am sure were angling for something. There was one exception.
    The one exception was