Dead Wood - By Dani Amore Page 0,16

I pulled out onto Jefferson I thought for a moment before speaking. Clarence and I hadn’t really had a chance to talk about what happened with my hand bleeding so badly. Now that I was okay, I needed to hear Clarence’s side of it.

“So tell me what you saw,” I said.

“At first, nothing,” he said. “I was fiddling with the radio a lot, trying to find some decent music, but all I kept getting was this synthesized Britney Spears kind of shit. Then I realized I wasn’t listening to the radio, but one of your CDs.”

I could feel his eyes on me and I visibly squirmed. “I was just making sure it was acceptable for my daughters.” God, I hated being busted.

Clarence ignored me and said, “So I finally found a decent country station and laid back and closed my eyes, thought about Jesse.”

“Which explains why you didn’t see or hear anything.”

“And then I don’t know why, but I sat up and looked over and I thought I saw some shadows moving inside. I mean, it was still dark in there so I couldn’t really tell. But even so, it seemed like there were two shadows.”

“So you came to investigate.”

“I turned off the radio and heard a saw. And I thought what the fuck is he doing? Building a coffee table in the dark? And it kind of pissed me off, that you would feel like you could just turn on one of Jesse’s saws. Those things are personal to a craftsman.”

“So you…”

“So I walked in thinking you had bumped up against one of the machines and probably couldn’t figure out how to turn it off.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Hey, no offense, but you don’t seem like the handy type.”

I let that one go and said, “So you turned on the light.”

“And the guy was already through the window because I guess he heard me come in through the door. I didn’t see anything but blue jeans, a leather jacket and a ski mask.”

I nodded and waited.

“I would have called the cops right away, but I figured we weren’t supposed to be there in the first place. I didn’t want to get either one of us in trouble.”

He had a funny look on his face and I knew what was coming next before he even said it.

“It was Hornsby. I know it was him.”

“But you didn’t get a good look,” I said.

“It was him. I’ve met him. Same build. Same movement.”

“Was he wearing a ski mask the last time you saw him?”

Clarence didn’t say anything to that, but I knew he would claim it was Hornsby. My attacker could have been a black Parisian midget and Clarence would have somehow argued it was Horsnby.

We rode in silence as I drove toward Clarence’s house. I wanted to believe him, but Jesus Christ. I practically get my hand turned into a dovetail joint and Clarence had no idea anything was going on? Pretty convenient that he had his eyes closed and the radio on. See no evil, hear no evil. I imagined a scenario in which Clarence made a call to someone to come and rough me up. But that was paranoia. Why would he do that? Why would he hire me and then have someone turn me into the standard shop teacher with a missing digit or two?

“What now?” Clarence said.

I pulled into his driveway to let him out.

“Well,” I said, “A crime was committed and I guess I have to report it to the police.”

“And then what?”

“Then I talk to Nevada Hornsby.”

• • •

There are three main roads from Detroit that cross the Alter border into Grosse Pointe. They are Jefferson, Kercheval and Mack. There used to be a rumor that at those three main intersections a Grosse Pointe cop car could always be found, idling, waiting for any Detroiter, most likely with dark skin, to come across the line. At which point, the Grosse Pointe cops would spring into action.

If it ever was true, it certainly isn’t any longer. However, the Grosse Pointe police station, for the part of Grosse Pointe known as the Park, is located just off of Alter on Jefferson, one of the main intersections between the two disparate communities. Certainly, a Detroiter would think twice about ambling across the city line on a path that would take him or her directly in front of the cop shop.

I’m sure the location of police headquarters is just a coincidence. Honestly.

Like just about everything else in Grosse