The Big Both Ways by John Straley Read Free Book Online Page A

birdcage on the piano. Inside the cage was a yellow bird with a crest that stuck up from his head and big red spots on his cheeks. To Slip it was an odd and beautiful sight as if the bird had just finished putting too much rouge on its cheeks. There was a little girl standing on the piano stool and poking her finger into the cage. The girl had long braids and glasses tilted forward on her nose.
    “Hey, Buddy. Hey, Buddy. You want something to eat?” she cooed to him.
    “Annabelle, honey, why don’t you play in your room for a bit longer,” Ellie said.
    “Can I take Buddy with me?”
    “Sure you can, doll,” Ellie said, still keeping her eyes out on the street.
    The girl hopped down and took the little round-topped cage with her and disappeared through the door.
    “Oh, my dear.” Ellie whispered, “Excuse me, Mr. Wilson, you still have the gun I gave you?”
    “Yes, I do, and I’m not giving it back.”
    “That’s fine,” she said, and turned away from the window just as someone began pounding at the front door. “I just recommend that you keep it close.”
    Slip didn’t say a word. The pounding continued and the glass window in the door sounded as if it were going to shatter.
    “Is that Avery?” Ellie asked as she walked toward the back of the house.
    Slip looked out the window and saw a man in a gray coatstanding on the corner under the streetlight. The two men who had been talking to Ellie by the door were headed back toward the house.
    “How the hell would I know?” Slip called out.
    Ellie was buttoning up her coat and feeling her pockets for something in a hurry. “It’s probably Pierce and Conner. They’re going to want back in. But don’t you let them.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?” Slip said, sounding more tired than frightened.
    “Back door,” Ellie said and walked out of the room.
    “What about the little girl?” Slip called out.
    “No time.” Ellie was in the little kitchen peeking through the shade pulled over the window above the sink. A loud pounding from the front door shook the room. “They don’t want her. She’ll be fine. It will slow them down, if anything. We’ll come back in a bit and get her.”
    “What do you mean a bit?” Slip stood flat-footed in the living room with his arms folded across his chest.
    “One hour tops.” Ellie had her hand on the back doorknob.
    The pounding on the door stopped. There was a long pause and then there was the creaking sound of two men taking a step backward.
    Then there was a shattering of glass.
    “I’m getting out of here,” Ellie said, as the doorframe began to splinter.
    The frame gave way and Slip was running right behind the blonde. They were out the back door and into a small muddy yard. They ran to the low board fence and pushed through the gate. As they turned up the alley Slip noticed that the streetlight was not on. He turned and thought of going back to the house, but saw shadows of big men wobbling past the shades. When they went into the neighbor’s yard, a dog started barking. They ran out into the next street over.
    There was no one there waiting for them. The streetlight wason and it poured out a pool of serenity in the night. Slip took three steps backward when a man in a gray suit stepped out of a gate and took his arm. He was joined by others. None of them was the tall man from the dairy, but they were cut from the same cloth: bone breakers in worn-out suits and clean shirts. Nightmares in crepe-soled shoes.
    “Easy now, bud,” one of them said.
    A slow-moving sedan turned the corner and came to a stop.
    “Put ’em in the car. I’m going to take the both of them for a drive,” he said with a growl the other mutts appeared to defer to.
    “Want us to come along, Ben?” the man getting out of the car asked.
    “Naw, I’m fine. These two don’t have balls enough between ’em. We’ve got some talking to do. I’ll see you back at the office tomorrow.”
    “If you say so,” the gray