Vicky's Secret Read online

  “What about you,” she asked kind of nodding her head. “That’s creepy, Bobby…I mean, if you stay up here with the dead chick.”

  I didn’t think it was right to just leave her here at the side of the road. If anyone saw us driving down the hill, the law would be on me for hit and run.

  “No,” I said. “I’ll stay here Vicky. Just drive down the hill to the payphone and call an ambulance.”

  Vicky got in and started the old Dodge. I can’t tell you how lonely it felt to watch that car go by and remain there in the dark with a dead woman at the side of the road. I didn’t have insurance and I had let an unlicensed driver behind the wheel for a joyride through the mountains. Fuck, was I going to be in some trouble.

  Making a textbook perfect three-point turn, Vicky came back in my direction lighting up the dead gal and I down in the ditch. She pulled off the road, killed the engine and got out real fast.

  “What’s wrong, Vicky,” I asked as she hustled to the back of the car where I was standing.

  She wraps her arms around me like she’s going to kiss me. I didn’t mind, but didn’t think it was right at the moment. “There’s a car coming up the hill,” she says still holding close.

  The longest fucking limousine that I’ve ever seen rolls to a stop alongside our car in the dark. Vicky had left the marker lights on so they would see us parked there. The back glass comes down and some heavyset fellow smiles as he talks to someone else inside of the car.

  “Ah,” he says almost laughing. “You see that Pauli, young love, that’s what that is.”

  I figured that they couldn’t see the dead woman in the ditch as they pulled in from behind. Probably saw what they wanted to, a couple of kids kissing in the dark.

  “Hey kid,” he says leaning close to the window. “You see a hot gal walking through here tonight?”

  “No sir,” I said, getting a little space between the girl and me. “I haven’t. No one on the road until you came up.”

  “Okay,” he says smiling. “If you should she a gal walking out here, you tell her that her husband is tired of looking for her.”

  “I will, sir,” I said nodding and trying to get a look at the guy sitting just inside of the window

  “Hey kid,” he says laughing again and reaching a fat hand out. “Take this and get you a room, huh? You’ll be more comfortable that way.” He said something agreeing with someone inside and added. “Travelodge on route one, tell them Big Joe Marzano sent you.” Three or four voices in the car started to laugh. He rolled the window and the long car started down the hill.

  Before long Vicky and I are looking at their tail lights. I shoved the fifty dollar bill that he’d handed me down in my pocket like I’d earned it.

  “What are we doing, boss,” Vicky asked standing next to me

  “Do you know who that was, who this woman is?” I asked looking around the car to make sure the dead woman was still there.”

  “No,” Vicky said. “Not really? Alicia Hamilton or Alexis something?” She paused. “I don’t think any of those are real names. She looks like an old stripper Bobby. I’m surprised we didn’t find Misty Streets or Amber Skies in her purse?”

  “That was Joey Marzano,” I said still leaning against the car. “Big Joey Marzano, like strip clubs, drug traffic…organized crime.”

  Vicky coughed like she understood what I was getting at. Her eyes widened. “He’s that guy who the feds say took out Juan Soriano, right?”

  “Never could get anything to stick from what I’ve heard,” I said standing there. “But yeah, that’s the guy.”

  Things had really changed for us standing there in the dark with the dead woman lying next to my car in the ditch. I mean, I was OK with telling the authorities what happened, the truth. I was teaching Vicky how to drive and this gal appears out of nowhere on a road where we didn’t expect someone walking. Sure, I would be at fault for allowing an unlicensed driver to get behind the wheel, but I was willing to accept that. It was an accident. We didn’t plan to run over the gal when we started out.

  “We’ve got to do something, Bobby,” Vicky said. “We can’t just leave her out here and Marzano will have no trouble finding us once they find her?”

  The girl was right, Marzano probably couldn’t ID the two kids that he’d come upon kissing at the side of the road in the dark, but there’s no way he would forget the hot-rod Dodge they were leaning against.

  If this dude had the power to take out Columbian drug kingpins and not do time, he’d have no trouble knocking off a couple of kids from Reading.

  “Help me get her in the trunk,” I said, grabbing the key from the ignition. “We’ll take her with us.”

  “With us,” she asked. “Just where exactly do you plan on taking Marzano’s old lady Bobby?”

  I struggled getting under the gals arms to lift her. “Tony will know what to do,” I said as we carried the woman to my car.

  ♦

  There wasn’t much damage to the front of the car, nothing Tony couldn’t fix anyway. Vicky and I got Mrs. Marzano in the trunk—after dropping the poor woman a couple of times—and we started down the hill in the opposite direction of that which the limousine had departed.

  I wasn’t worried that the Sheriff or State Troopers would pull us over for the damaged front end, but if they decided to stop two kids out for a late night joy-ride, I hoped they didn’t want to see what I had hidden up under that rear spoiler.

  We thread our way onto sleepy, down streets deserted for hours now. Traffic lights flashed yellow in this part of town.

  Tony lived with his brother. I didn’t have any problem rapping on the door at almost two in the morning.

  “Hey. Bobby,” Tony asked pulling back the door. “What are you doing here, man?”

  Vicky had stayed in the car.

  “Look Tony,” I said. “I’m sorry to bother you man, but I need to barrow a shovel. You got one?”

  “What do you need with a shovel at two o’clock in the morning, dude?” He asked rubbing sleep from bloodshot eyes.

  I pushed him back inside the door and talked real low. “We killed Joe Marzano’s old lady man.”

  “Killed his old lady,” Tony asked thinking the comment over. “Wait man, you killed Joey Marzano’s old lady? Big Joey Marzano…?”

  “One in the same man,” I answered. “The dude even gave me fifty dollars for a room?”

  “Wait, wait,” Tony said shaking his head, “You killed Big Joey Marzano’s wife and he gave you fifty bucks? I’m sorry man, but this has got to be a dream, Bobby?”

  “No, it’s not, man,” I said. It was a hard story to swallow, I’ll have to admit. “He didn’t know we killed his wife, Tony. He saw Vicky and me kissing at the side of the road.”

  “Dude,” he says. “Sit down and explain all of this to me.”

  “I can’t, Tony,” I said leaning against the door. “Vicky’s in the car along with Marzano’s old lady.”

  “Dude,” he says rubbing his chin. “Now you’re back to Marzano’s old lady, where is she at?”

  I’m looking Tony right in the eye to make sure he’s getting what I’m telling him. “She’s in the trunk.”

  Tony Barcelona closed his eyes like he really wanted to wake up now. “Give me a minute man,” he said. “Let me get dressed, huh?”

  Pulling the door closed, I walk back out to the car parked in front of the Barcelona residence. Vicky rolls down the window.

  “Is he going to help us?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I think so?” I said watching Tony shuffle out to the car. “Ask him yourself?”

  He looks in and sees Vicky sitting there in the passenger seat with a half-assed grin. “So where’s the dead woman?” he asks, looking at me across the top of the Dodge.”

  I walk around and unlock the trunk raising the lid just enough for Tony to get a look inside and closed it again.

  “Dude,” Tony says. “Big Joey Marzano finds out you killed his old lady and he’s going to
kill you, Bobby.”

  “No duh,” I said, trying to come up with something. I needed to get rid of the dead woman in the back of my car more than anything.

  “Pull this thing into the shop,” he says with a crazy look in his eye. “I know what we can do, man.”

  “And that is?” I ask wondering what is going through his mind.

  “The Riverton coal mine,” he says. “There hasn’t been anybody out there in years, man. It’s a perfect place to dump a body.”

  I didn’t much like the idea of just dumping this gal off in the middle of nowhere. Hell, it would probably be weeks, maybe months before anyone did find her, if they ever did? She deserved something more than this. If it had been just some woman I would have called the authorities right away. Her being Big Joey Marzano’s wife, I couldn’t take any chances. It wasn’t like I could just knock on his door and explain the situation over a cup of coffee.

  “So what do you propose, Tony?” I asked. “I mean, what’s on your mind?”

  “We’ll put her in the shop truck,” he said. “That way we can all ride out together. The law won’t give that thing a second look.”

  “And if they do?” I asked. The last thing I wanted was for my two best friends to go down with me on this.

  Tony used the shop for his shade tree work and the old truck for hauling dirty car parts.

  “We stash her in the toolbox pal,” He said, “Lock the door and tell them it’s my brother’s truck and I don’t have the key to the boxes.”

  It sounded good to me. Tony opened up the shop and I pulled forward. Once I had that Dodge inside, Tony shoved the door closed to keep anyone from seeing what we were about to do.

  “Leave the car here for a few days,” Tony says, “Give me a chance to replace the bumper and clean up the grill.”

  “OK,” I said. Up there in the dark I hadn’t really noticed the damage to the front of my car.

  It was nearing three and the city was quiet for a Saturday morning. Tony and I hoisted the gal up into the long tool box that ran along the bed. I held the door as Tony pulled out. It didn’t seem that anyone was awake to witness three tired kids pulling away in an old truck.

  ♦

  We didn’t say a lot on our way up into the low rolling hills where Anthracite coal had been mined from the ground.

  Vicky’s sitting in the middle going through the gal’s purse for the fifteenth time. “Hey guys,” She finally says, “What are we going to do with the money?”

  “Hello,” Tony says looking into her lap, “What you got there Vicky?”

  “A little over twenty-two thousand dollars,” She said, “A gun and some credit cards, some cocaine.”

  “We keep the dope and the money,” I said, “There isn’t any reason to throw that away. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Vicky nodded.

  “That’s seven grand apiece guys,” Tony said from behind the wheel. We were well up in the hills traveling on a gravel road.

  “Seven thousand four hundred and sixty one dollars each,” Vicky said from out of nowhere.

  “The gun and the purse go to the bottom of the river,” Tony said, “What do you think Bobby?”

  “Sounds good to me man,” I said watching trees go by just to the side of the road. The morning sun was still distant, but it would be coming soon.

  Vicky shook her head, “It’s going to float guys. Someone will find the purse down river.”

  “What’s going to float?” Tony asked keeping the old truck centered along the gravel road.

  “The purse,” She said, “It might not sink or sink and stay? If it does float, someone will find it sooner or later?”

  Vicky had a good point. The woman’s purse seemed to be made of leather. I’m sure the Marzano gal wouldn’t have had anything but the best, but if by chance it didn’t stay at the bottom, the authorities would have a reason to scour the countryside looking for the missing woman?

  “OK,” I said, “So fill it with rocks? That should keep it at the bottom of the river huh?”

  Tony nodded agreement. From center seat, Vicky seemed to accept my reasoning also?

  “Good thinking,” Tony said, “And I’ve been thinking about that gun there guys. It might be a good idea to hit it with big brothers sledge and scatter the pieces out some? That would make it a lot harder to find.”

  Tony rolled to a stop with a rusting chain-link gate across the road. I got out and shook the broken lock open before I swung the gate. The ball was rolling and there wasn’t any way to back out now. Vicky had hit the woman close to three hours earlier. We’d already moved the body twice during the night and were now driving across a vacant mining property. The sun wasn’t up yet, but the broken sky would prove to be another mid-Atlantic rain maker.

  Pulling the gate closed. I ran to get back in the cab of the pickup. Once the door was closed, Tony eased out the clutch and started forward again. No one said anything for the rest of the drive.

  Piles of rock tailings and some useable coal littered the area. Rusting equipment—sitting idle for years—looked on as we rolled past.

  We three kids were just about to do the worst thing we would ever do in our lives, even if we lived to 100. We’d never go through anything like this again. My stomach turned the more I thought of what was going to take place out here in the middle of nowhere. Hell, it could as well have been the surface of the moon for that matter as quiet as it was. No one would stumble upon this woman for a long, long time. I somehow knew it.

  Tony stopped and turned the key in the ignition. He got out and had a look around. I stepped away from the truck and wretched in the tall grass and weeds at the side of the gravel road. Vicky sat in the cab not saying a word.

  After my stomach settled some, Tony and I started down under broken rock into the damp soil. The digging was easy after we cleared away the scree on top. Mrs. Marzano was cold and stiff by the time we struggled to get her long frame in the hole that Tony and I had dug for her.

  It didn’t take half an hour before the deed was over. When completed, you couldn’t tell that anyone had been there, except for the foot prints we left digging around. The rains later in the morning would take care of that, washing away any trace. We buried her good and deep, maybe three or four feet. I was pleased that at least no animals would get to her with the heavy rocks on top.

  “Give me that gun sister,” Tony said as we tossed our shovels into the bed of the truck. He continued to shuffle around in one of the tool boxes.

  Vicky complied and Tony took the weapon and a sledge to a flat rock. In two swings the gun shattered. We had done what we had come for.

  The drive back into town was quiet. Vicky had filled the leather purse with rocks at the quarry. It and the shattered Glock went off the bridge along the highway at Mouton. We stopped at a little place to wash up and get breakfast. None of us ate much that morning.

  What we did was hard and cold, to just bury some poor woman under less than three feet of dirt and rock at an abandoned coal mine. But, fuck, what were we supposed to do? Anyone else and we could have simply called the authorities and explained what had happened, it was nothing more than an accident.

  We all figured that Joey Marzano wouldn’t hear of it. We’d be dead before the day had ended.

  ♦

  Well that’s pretty much Vicky’s Secret, the secret that we had promised to keep. Tony dropped Vicky off first with a little over seven grand in her pocket. I was next. Tony drove his brother’s old contracting truck home to the shop.

  It was a few days that I rode the bus waiting for Tony to replace by front bumper and see to it that the car was freshened up.

  School finally started back and I think we all looked forward to a distraction. The weight of what we had done was nearly too much.

  News stories ran nightly and the papers were plastered with pictures of the hot gal who had once been Mrs. Tony Marzano.

  Marzano himself was arrested and held for several days until his trial. Once again
, the authorities couldn’t make anything stick. Tony laughed and said, “If you throw shit against the wall long enough Bobby, it’s bound to sooner or later.”

  Big Joey Marzano was innocent in this one and the jury knew it. Word was on the street that Marzano figured someone had taken a swing at him by kidnapping and whacking his old lady?

  I knew different, but it was OK to let him think that. The more he thought that some rival had done this, the better off Vicky and I would be.

  The days grew shorter and we rarely hung out behind the airport. The law was passing through three times a night now and racing was a thing of the past, a fond memory for those of us that ran fast cars down that dark county road.

  Vicky moved back home after the fall semester. After the morning that we buried Mrs. Marzano up at the coal mine, we grew apart. We’d still talk and have dinner once in a while, but the fun that we’d had in our youth was over. I’d get a letter here and there, a call on my birthday, but that was it.

  I couldn’t hold it against her, I mean with what had happened over the summer that we spent together. Hell, in time, I’d move back home also.

  Our buddy, Tony Barcelona, and I stayed close over probably ten years. He got his degree and found a good job waiting for him with a national racing team. Tony bought a place up in the hills near where we hit that Marzano gal and built a nice shop of his own. He continued to make hotrods out of antiques. “Polishing turds,” he’d say over a long distance connection.

  I went back there once, about ten years after I’d finished school. Tony’s wife called to say that he’d been run over as he rode his Harley into town one night. Of course, I called Vicky and told her that I was flying through. I’d pay for her ticket if she’d join me at our friend’s funeral there in the town where we had been through so much together.

  Two days later we met at the Columbus airport, had lunch and continued on together—just like we had when we were college kids with our lives ahead of us.