I CAUGHT IMPERIAL, a direct route from Lucy’s into Downey. As I drove, I thought of what I’d say to a man like JB. He wasn’t into logical debate, nor one to be deterred from his self-righteous goal, or the way Dad would put it, “Don’t try and take a bone from the mouth of a vicious dog. You’ll get bit for sure.”
This time, though, that bone happened to be an innocent and vulnerable little girl who didn’t know any better and by nature would only try to please no matter what the abuse. The story Ned told of the little five-year-old boy who put Band-Aids on his dead father returned and added fuel to my anger. Then the question, how to handle the vicious dog, and in JB’s case, a vicious and rabid dog? Only one way came to mind. I was about to get bit.
I stopped for a red signal at Atlantic Avenue and waited, the anxiety rising with each second. What would I do? What could I do?
On the sidewalk up ahead, just this side of Duncan Avenue, there lay a crumpled and abandoned kid’s Stingray bike, run over by a car. The signal changed; I hesitated. There really wasn’t time. To hell with it. I pulled to the curb by the bike, and got out. The chain hung loose with one link broken. I untangled it and wrapped the cold steel around my fist. Rabid dogs responded well to chains. The irony that the weapon came from a child’s bike wasn’t lost on me.
I got in and took off. I wanted to get it over with. I just hoped JB hadn’t hurt Beth any more than he already had.
I drove faster.
A couple minutes later I made a left onto Garfield, and all of a sudden slowed and pulled to the side. My mind had started to wander after making the decision to physically take on JB, to make him believe that Beth going with me would be the wisest choice he’d ever make.
Dad’s words from the phone conversation finally had time to settle in and process. He’d given in far too easily for someone so stubborn. Until that moment I hadn’t heard it in his words. Had I really been listening, his tone would’ve given him away. He’d promised to stay home, said it several times. And I’d missed it.
I whipped the truck around, the tires screeching. I slammed the gearshift into first and burned rubber. No way would I get there in time.
Dad would’ve had Hannah call JB and coax him to come over, coached her to tell him she wanted to make up and to come pick her up. Tell him how much she loved him. Oh, and be sure to bring Beth because she missed her so.
I punched the steering wheel and pushed the truck faster, blowing through red signals once the other cars cleared the intersections.
Dad had protected Noble and me from gang members while we grew up. I always thought of Dad as the strongest, most capable man in the entire world. Until I became a cop and saw the kind of violence that broke men like him with the flick of a finger. Three pounds of pressure on a trigger was all it took.
I turned down Nord. JB’s Silver BMW was parked the wrong way at the curb in front of our house. I skidded up and stopped, laying down a white cloud of burnt rubber.
The only illumination for the front yard came from the naked bulb over the front door. JB, the ball bat in his hand, pulled back to hit Dad again and stopped. Dad lay on the ground at JB’s feet. Dad had his arm up to fend off the spun aluminum that had rained down pain and damaged flesh and bone. Dad wore his blue-gray postal pants and a slingshot tee shirt, spotted with his blood from injuries to his head and face.
JB looked up and smiled. I turned cold inside. I grabbed the bike chain off the seat and wrapped it around my hand as I got out. JB stepped away from Dad and brought the bat back over his shoulder, ready for the home run ball to be pitched. I roared and charged. I came straight in. He swung. I stutter-stepped, leaned all the way back, and barely kept my balance. The bat whisked by, inches from my face. I recovered just as he brought the bat to his shoulder for another try.
I stepped in close so he couldn’t use it. With the chain wrapped around my fist, I hit him square in the face. He dropped with a grunt and floundered on the ground, his legs kicking in spasms. I jumped on top of him and hit him again.
And again.
I didn’t know how many times I’d hit him when someone put a hand on my shoulder. “Bruno, don’t. No more, he’s had enough. You’re going to kill him.”
I came out of my blind rage and looked over my shoulder. Dad stood on shaky knees, his face a bumpy mess like a swarm of giant bumblebees had attacked him. He put his hand back on his obviously broken arm and gently propped it up. His expression, what there was of it, looked peaceful and calm. How could that be after what had just happened?
Sirens. Lots of them.
“Bruno?” Dad said.
“Of course I am. I’ve been hurt worse from old man Levine’s Rottweiler over on Western Avenue.” His bloated lips made his words come out a bit slurred.
“You’re a rotten liar, Dad. Come over here and sit down.”
Hannah appeared, took my wrist, and unwound the bike chain from my hand. She took two steps back and tossed it up onto the roof. It clattered and slid but stopped before it came down. She’d been married to Ned long enough to know the rules of the game.
Two black-and-white patrol cars slid to the curb. Four uniform deputies from Lynwood station jumped out. I didn’t know them personally but recognized one from the wake the night before.
I held up my badge. “This man attacked my father.”
One of the deputies jumped on JB, flipped him over, and started to cuff him. His partner said, “No problem, he won’t be bothering you anymore, Detective Johnson.”
“Thank you. You might want to wait and have med aide take a look at him first.”
“He can wait. We’ll take him straight to LCMC downtown.”
“That’s a long way. St. Francis or MLK are closer.”
“Naw, it’ll give him time to think about what he’s done and give us a chance to talk to him. Make sure he understands.”
“Understands?”
“Yeah, that as long as you and your father live in our area, he better not drive within ten miles of this reporting district.”
“Thank you. Really, thanks. Can you call med aide for my father?”
“It’s on the way. The new guy here is going to take the paper on this.” The deputy helped his partner drag the moaning JB to the patrol car and shove him in the back seat. They got in and took off.
Just like that, it was over.
The fresh-faced rookie stepped up with his notebook open. His training officer said, “Put that away. I already know what happened here. I’ll write it up. We got this, Bruno.” He turned to his trainee. “Call for an 1185 for that BMW, tow it, and list it as ‘driver arrested.’”
“Thanks again.” I didn’t know how to fully describe my gratitude.
They turned and walked to the street just as the fire department and ambulance pulled up.
I looked around. “Where’s Beth?”
Hannah said, “In the house with Olivia. They didn’t see any of this. I made sure of it. I’m real sorry you got hurt, Xander. I never meant—”
“Stop it,” he said. “I told you I’m not hurt.”
He looked like he’d been run over by a truck and spit out the back. It made me want to climb in the back of that patrol car and take that bike chain to JB all over again.
The paramedics came in close, set their gear down next to Dad, and went to work. One of them came over and took my wrist; that’s when I realized blood was dripping down to the tips of my fingers and to the ground. I’d cut the web of my hand with the bike chain wrapped around it.
I stood there as he cleaned and bandaged my hand. I watched Dad try not to flinch in pain when they splinted his broken arm and placed it into a sling.
In my rage I had not realized, not stopped long enough to think, that to take JB on at his home would have put me in the jackpot. Not to mention that his house was in another jurisdiction, that cops who didn’t know the score would have been handling it. I’d have been in jail for sure pending an assault with a deadly weapon charge, or worse. Dad knew that and knew if he took on JB in front of our home, even if Dad lost the fight, JB would lose more. I said to Dad, “I still have a lot to learn from you, old man.”
He smiled. “I’m not old. Not yet. And I was about to take him if you hadn’t shown up and interfered.”