Jonathan Kellerman – Monster
Jonathan Kellerman – Monster
1.
THE GIANT KNEW Richard Nixon.
Towering, yellow-haired, grizzled, a listing mountain in khaki twill, he limped closer, and Milo tightened up. I looked to Frank Dollard for a cue. Dollard appeared untroubled, meaty arms at his sides, mouth serene under the tobaccoed gray mustache.
His eyes were slits, but they’d been that way at the main gate.
The giant belched out a bass laugh and brushed greasy hair away from his eyes. His beard was a corn-colored ruin. I could smell him now, vinegarish, hormonally charged. He had to be six-eight, three hundred. The shadow he threw on the dirt was ash-colored, amoebic, broad enough to shade us.
He took another lurching step, and this time Frank Dol-lard’s right arm shot out.
The huge man didn’t seem to notice, just stood there with Dollard’s limb flung across his waist. Maybe a dozen other men in khaki were out on the yard, most of them standing still, a few others pacing, rocking, faces pressed against the chain link. No groups that I could see; everyone to himself. Above them, the sky was an untrammeled blue, clouds broiled away by a vengeful sun. I was cooking in my suit.
The giant’s face was dry. He sighed, dropped his shoulders, and Dollard lowered his arm. The giant made a finger gun, pointed it at us, and laughed. His eyes were dark brown, pinched at the corners, the whites too sallow for health.
“Secret service.” He thumped his chest. “Victoria’s Secret service in the closet underwear undercover always lookin’ out for the guy good old Nixon RMN Rimmin, always rimmin wanting to be rimmed he liked to talk the walk cuttin outta the White
House night house doing the party thing all hours with Kurt Vonnegut J. D. Salinger the Glass family anyone who didn’t mind the politics heat of the kitchen I wrote
Cat’s Cradle sold it to Vonnegut for ten bucks Billy Bathgate typed the manuscript one time he walked out the front door got all the way to Las Vegas big hassle with the Hell’s Angels over some dollar slots Vonnegut wanting to change the national debt Rimmin agreed the Angels got pissed we had to pull him out of it me and Kurt
Vonnegut Salinger wasn’t there Doctorow was sewing the Cat’s Cradle they were bad cats, woulda assassinated him any day of the week leeway the oswald harvey.”
He bent and lifted his left trouser leg. Below the knee was bone sheathed with glossy white scar tissue, most of the calf meat ripped away. An organic peg leg.
“Got shot protecting old Rimmin,” he said, letting go of the fabric. “He died anyway poor Richard no almanac know what happened rimmed too hard I couldn’t stop it.”
“Chet,” said Dollard, stretching to pat the giant’s shoulder.
The giant shuddered. Little cherries of muscle rolled along Mile’s jawline. His hand was where his gun would have been if he hadn’t checked it at the gate.
Dollard said, “Gonna make it to the TV room today,
Chet?”
The giant swayed a bit. “Ahh…”
“I think you should make it to the TV room, Chet. There’s gonna be a movie on democracy. We’re gonna sing ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ could use someone with a good voice.”
“Yeah, Pavarotti,” said the giant, suddenly cheerful. “He and Domingo were at
Caesars Palace they didn’t like the way it worked out Rimmin not doing his voice exercises lee lee lee lo lo lo no egg yolk to smooth the trachea it pissed Pavarotti off he didn’t want to run for public office.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Dollard. He winked at Milo and me.
The giant had turned his back on all three of us and was staring down on the bare tan table of the yard. A short, thick, dark-haired man had pulled down his pants and was urinating in the dirt, setting off a tiny dust storm. None of the other men in khaki seemed to notice. The giant’s face had gone stony.
“Wet,” he said.
“Don’t worry about it, Chet,” Dollard said softly. “You know Sharbno and his bladder.”
The giant didn’t answer, but Dollard must have transmitted a message, because two other psych techs came jogging over from a far corner. One black, one white, just as muscular as Dollard but a lot younger, wearing the same uniform of short-sleeved sport shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Photo badges clipped to the collar. The heat and the run had turned the techs’ faces wet. Mile’s sport coat had soaked through at the armpits, but the giant hadn’t let loose a drop of sweat.