Road Dogs Read online

  He never told me what you're asking.

  What I'm getting, not asking. Fifteen thousand for this one. But we'll avoid going to trial again. Thirty years, according to sentencing guidelines, is the maximum you can get. I'll ask the state attorney about a deal, consider the minimum sentence less time served, and see if I can get no parole as part of the deal. I think Jerry already sees the problem with the case and will go along with what we want. He's a no-bullshit kind of guy. Why hang you up that long for no reason? One of these days he'll run for judge and make it.

  All that work for fifteen grand, Foley said, even if it takes you a couple of days.

  It could take twenty minutes, Megan said, you get back as much as twenty-seven years of your life. Put a price on that. She said then, You're wondering how you'll repay your buddy, aren't you? Or how he might ask you to work it off.

  It's crossed my mind, Foley said.

  You'll owe him at least thirty thousand before we're through. The next court appearance will be an exam on the escape case. Corrections would simply extend your sentence. But this examination will focus on kidnapping, the abduction of a federal officer you held as hostage.

  Karen?

  It was the first time in months he had said her name out loud.

  Foley eased straight up in his chair.

  Karen Sisco, Megan said, with the Marshals Service. Also an attempted robbery and several homicides the prosecutor in Detroit wants to know about. So there could be more court time up north.

  I have to appear in Detroit?

  You thought you were getting away with it?

  Karen shot me. What am I getting away with?

  We'll go over it the next time I see you, Megan said, later in the week. I want to talk to Karen first.

  I'll tell you right now, Foley said, I didn't kidnap her or hold her hostage.

  Megan put her legal pad away and got up from the table, her expression pleasant enough.

  Let's see what Karen has to say, all right? She'll be a witness for the state. There's also the guard, Julius Pupko, who was injured. I forgot about the Pup, Foley said. I thought 'the Jewel' would be a good name for him, but everybody liked Pup better.

  Well, if you didn't hit him over the head then someone else did, Megan said. We'll do the escape-abduction hearing first, then appeal the bank robbery sentence. See if we can make a deal. Jerry knows I'd kill him if he retries the case.

  Foley said, Why don't we do it first? Get the robbery appeal out of the way. Why don't you leave it to me? Megan said.

  They met in the bare office once more before the escape hearing. The first thing Foley wanted to know, Did you see Karen?

  We'll get to Karen, Megan said, wearing off-duty designer jeans today with a narrow navy blazer. I see the appellate court assigned an attorney Megan looking at her notes and he told you there were no issues in his judgment worthy of appeal?

  I never saw him, Foley said. The guy turned me down with a half-page letter.

  You keep drawing dump trucks, Megan said. This one is blind or didn't read the transcript, it would have hit him between the eyes. Don't worry about it. Right now I want you to describe the escape, how you got involved.

  He told her the muck rats dug a tunnel that went from under the chapel out past the fence toward the parking lot. I happened to be in the chapel saying my rosary, meditating I believe on the Sorrowful Mysteries. You know there're also Joyful Mysteries you can meditate on.

  Megan said, Yes ?

  When the muck rats came in that's how I think of the guys that dug the tunnel. They came in the chapel, grabbed me and said I was going first. I get shot coming out, they have to decide if they want to try it.

  Wasn't a guard there, Mr. Pupko?

  That's right, he was looking out the window, watching 'em play football in the exercise yard. Sometimes a play ends, a guy doesn't get up from the pile. The muck rats sneaked up and clocked the Pup with a two-by-four, put him out.

  They had it with them?

  There was scrap lumber lying around. Some inmates were doing fix-up work in the chapel. Anyway, I made it through the tunnel and the five rats followed me out.

  At that point, Megan said, couldn't you have put your hands in the air, indicate you want to surrender?

  I was about to, Foley said, a Sorrowful Mystery look on his face. But I saw Karen. Her car's right there and she's getting something out of the trunk, a shotgun.

  She sees what's going on.

  By then the siren's going off.

  Before you could give yourself up.

  Yes, ma'am, exactly, Foley said, starting to fall in love with his lawyer. Before the hacks could blow us away I got Karen in the trunk.

  Deputy Marshal Sisco.

  That's right.

  You threw her in the trunk.

  I helped her get in. I remember saying something like, 'Miss, this is for your own good.'

  She still has a shotgun?

  She must've dropped it. But she had a Sig .38 on her.

  Megan said, If the court believes you took Karen Sisco hostage, you're in here for the rest of your life. I asked Karen if she felt like a hostage. You know what she said?

  He was afraid to ask.

  Karen said, 'No, I was his zoo-zoo.'

  My treat. Foley grinning now. She said that?

  Not until you were in the trunk with her.

  Yeah, I got in to keep from getting shot.

  The car drives off But Karen won't say she was being abducted.

  I never threatened her. She tell you she had the Sig Sauer?

  She said she was waiting for a chance to use it.

  Maybe at first, before we started talking.

  You're both in the trunk, quite close together

  In the dark. I must've smelled awful from the muck. We started talking about movies, ones like the fix we were in, and I mentioned Three Days of the Condor with Faye Dunaway and Robert Redford. He's hiding out in her apartment and he asks her if she'll do something for him. It's the morning after they'd got it on, even though they only met that afternoon. He asks if she'll drive him someplace and Faye Dunaway says

  'Have I ever denied you anything?' Megan said.

  You saw it.

  Megan said, When the car stopped she did shoot at you.

  I believe that was nerves.

  Megan said, We don't want the court to think anything personal was stirring between you and Karen. She looked at her legal pad. They'll ask who was driving the car.

  Buddy, a friend of mine. He was visiting.

  At night?

  No, he was dropping something off.

  Get your story straight.

  I'd ask him, Foley said, but he's out of the country. Took his sister to Lourdes hoping for a miracle.

  She's an invalid?

  An alcoholic. Her liver's iffy, so she has to pace herself. Two bottles of sherry have to last all day.

  Megan was staring at him and Foley began to nod his head.

  I remember now, Buddy was working part-time for a law firm. They must've sent him here to serve court papers, one of the inmates bringing suit against the prison system.

  Megan made a note in her legal pad. That's why Karen was here, serving process. Tell me how she got away from you.

  We stopped, I let her drive off. It was her car.

  Later on she followed you to Detroit. Why didn't you give yourself up when the police arrived?

  Get sent back for my thirty years. I don't know how to explain what happened in Detroit that would help you.

  Karen doesn't either. From what I understand Megan looking at her notes again you took part in a home invasion for the purpose of armed robbery and left three homicide victims.

  Two, Foley said. White Boy Bob tripped going up that staircase and shot himself in the head.

  If she's subpoenaed, later on in Detroit, Karen will tell the truth.

  About what?

  Why you were there.

  What does she say I was doing?

/>   Holding a gun in each hand as the police arrive. They're ready to shoot to kill and Karen put a bullet in your thigh. She kept you alive.

  So I can limp around here the next thirty years.

  It still hurts?

  Aches.

  I spoke to Kym Worthy, the prosecutor in Detroit, I asked if she wanted to wait for you that long. Kym said thirty years sounds like enough. She sees no need to bring you up, so she'll pass.

  I see what you're doing, Foley said. With Detroit out of it you appeal and get the sentence reduced as much as you can.

  We'll save that for last and do the escape-abduction hearing next. Karen's their witness, but her testimony will have them wondering why they called her. We don't want to indicate you and Zoo-Zoo had anything going, so she won't mention the time you were alone together. She did shoot you, you're a fugitive felon, not to save your life.

  I couldn't believe it, Foley said.

  So I don't want you to talk to each other in the courtroom, if the opportunity presents itself. All right?

  Foley nodded.

  I have your word?

  I won't talk to her.

  We'll do this one, then the sentence appeal, Megan said, and see what's next in your life.

  Foley didn't see Karen until she was called as a prosecution witness and took the stand. They were in federal court for the escape examination. Karen glanced at him. He smiled and she looked away.

  Megan asked if she was placed in the trunk of her car as a hostage.

  Karen said the guards were firing at everyone outside the fence. For all they knew I was providing the getaway. She said, I have no doubt that Mr. Foley's action was protective.

  But he was escaping from prison, the prosecutor said.

  Forced to go first, Karen said, a shank jabbing him in the back. I saw he was bleeding from several wounds. Then Megan asked how she got away. Once we reached the turnpike they let me have my car. I asked Mr. Foley if he intended to surrender. He said yes, but wanted to clean himself up before they threw him in the hole. He was saturated with blood as well as muck from the tunnel.

  Karen looked at him again, Foley staring at her. She turned her head before he could see what was in her eyes.

  More questions from Megan and Karen said that subsequently she arrested Foley in Detroit. He'd learned a former Lompoc inmate, one he knew, was planning an armed robbery. Mr. Foley saw a chance to stop him.

  Rather than call the police, Megan said, and give himself up?

  Jack Foley, Karen said, also knew that the intended victim of the robbery, a well-known investor, did a year in Lompoc for insider trading. I saw Foley's intention as redemptive. To show, if you will, he's basically a good guy.

  He saw her eyes for a moment with a look he remembered.

  The state prosecutor asked Karen, Weren't there homicide victims at the scene in Detroit? You were there. Don't you see this 'basically good guy' as the shooter? Since he's the only one who came out alive?

  Megan stepped in.

  Detroit's bodies, she said, Detroit's case. We'll see if they want to talk to my client, already doing thirty years for bank robbery.

  Foley watched the judge finally look at the prosecutor and say, I don't see it. Your own witness Ms. Sisco testified that all this happened under extreme duress. I see no criminal intent, therefore no escape, no kidnapping. Case dismissed.

  Chapter THREE

  THEY WERE TAKING THEIR WALK THE DAY AFTER FOLEY'S robbery conviction was reversed on appeal, Cundo saying, I don't believe it. She got you off on the escape then got you down from thirty years to a few months? Come on

  They were passing the chapel Where the muck rats found me meditating, Foley said, both of them looking at the chapel, a dismal shade of red, no life to the look of buildings that made a prison. They came to the gun tower on their left. Where most of the firing came from, Foley said Foley almost a head taller than Cundo, Mutt and Jeff coming along in their tailored prison blues to the exercise yard.

  'Cause you save this chick's life, Karen Sisco, they cut you a deal because you put her in the fucking trunk?

  Thirty years reduced to thirty months, Foley said. That's two and a half years less time served. And no parole. That could've been the deal breaker and Megan got it for me.

  Man, me and you be out almost the same time, but you ahead of me. You always lucky like this?

  When I have a rich little Cuban paying my way.

  Foley was grateful but didn't feel good about it.

  I'm gonna pay you back, but it might take a while.

  Or you do five grand a bank six times in a row and not get busted. Forget about it, we friends.

  I'd rather pay you back, Foley said, than have you come around later and tell me I owe you one. Okay?

  We friends or what? You the only white guy in this joint I ever tole about my life. You smart for a fucking bank robber. You and Miss Megan, you both sound like you know what you talking about.

  She never used a tone of voice in court, Foley said, to irritate the prosecutor. She'd make a remark passing his table and the guy would grin. It was like they're both on the same side. Then she'd look up and toss her hair, but I never once saw her touch it.

  Knows it looks good, Cundo said. I'm trying to remember how she fix it.

  Like Paula Zahn's on the news. She and Megan have the same style hair when they don't change it for a while.

  She say anything about me?

  Who, Paula?

  Miss Megan.

  She thinks you'd be fun.

  Yeah ?

  If she ever went for a little greaser.

  Foley played basketball every day, nine black guys on the court they'd flip to see who got Foley pressing each other, hands in the face, talking trash, Foley showing his moves, his jukes, faking guys out of their jocks, passing behind his back, throwing in swishers, all net, with either hand. Cundo watched.

  Foley limped over to smoke a cigarette and Cundo said, Man, how can you keep running like that? Lose some pounds I get you a job as a lifeguard. There six hundred lifeguards, man, watching thirty miles of beach, Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice, I was buddies with the crew on Baywatch, how I know about lifeguards. Man, I believe I can fix you up.

  Foley said, If I lose some pounds, would I have to know how to swim? Tha's the thing, Cundo said, all you know is how to rob banks. You tell them in court you swear you not doing it no more?

  Nobody asked me.

  I know you can't rob jus' one. I bet is the same you can't rob a hundred and quit, find something pays as good.

  That was Lou Adams's point, the FBI guy. After his testimony was thrown out and we were done, he came over to me in the courtroom. He said, 'From the day you get your release the Bureau's gonna be on your ass, and I mean every day of your life. You understand? Nod your fucking head.' Foley was smiling as he said it.

  You think is funny? Cundo said. This guy watching you all the time?

  I think it's funny he believes he can do it. Assign a squad around the clock to watch one guy? They'd never do that, Foley said. Would they?

  He started telling Cundo a little about Karen Sisco, knowing he'd never see her again, and her part in the hearing: how she told the court she never considered herself a hostage, she was armed the whole time. She believes I saved her life by putting her in the trunk.

  The fucking hacks shooting at you, Cundo said. I believe it too. That's all Foley was going to say. But then he told Cundo he wasn't supposed to speak to Karen in court.

  Megan asked me when I first saw Karen. I said she was coming around from the trunk of her car with a twelve-gauge. Foley paused thinking about it. But we didn't get to speak to each other in court.

  Why not?

  Megan didn't want us to show there was anything personal between us. Foley stopped there and Cundo said, Yeah ? I hadn't seen her since Detroit, months ago, Foley said.

  When she was on the stand she glanced at me a couple of times, but that was it. I said to myself, Okay, it's over,
not meant to be. Wait a minute you telling me you and this marshal had something going? Foley told it because it was an event in his life, one of the best things that ever happened to him. See, what we did, Karen and I took a time-out from who we are and spent the night together in Detroit. At a hotel.

  Cundo said, Jesus Christ, you took the chick marshal to bed?

  We made love, Foley said. There was nothing else we could do.

  Man, you fucked a U. S. marshal?

  A deputy marshal. It was real, not like a score. We both felt it, but knew there was no future in it.

  No but you gonna remember her as long as you live.

  The next day, Foley said, she shot me.

  Listen, before we get out of here, Cundo said, I tell you about a woman who came to me and changed my life forever.

  By the time Foley was looking at a few months before release, Cundo was telling him he should move to the Coast, have a look at Venice.

  Experience the show it puts on, tattoo artists, fortune-tellers, drummers in a circle beating the shit out of their drums, their snares, congas, tin cans, all these people watching. You know Jim Morrison, the Doors? His ghost live in the hotel where he like to stay. This woman I tell you about sometime, Dawn, saw him one time in the hall. Cundo serious, then grinning, showing his teeth. You on that walk by the beach, look out. Here comes this chick in a bikini and the longest fucking legs you ever saw, she's Rollerblading through the crowd. Guys step aside and turn to check her out.

  Cundo said, All right, now the real Venice.

  Walk away from the beach. Now is homes, all size homes, old ones, new ones, some new ones so new they don't look like homes. Remember the hippies, how they were? Easy does it, never lost their cool. Tha's how I see the people who live in the homes, hippies who grew up and are good at whatever it is, painting there lot of artists here people in the movies, people design homes, own restaurants. You have to be a star at what you do to live here. But they don't care if anybody knows it. They don't make announcements, build high-risers on the beach. They leave the beach to the beach. They like to talk to each other and drink wine.

  Cundo said, You see young gangsters giving each other serious eyes. You know how to talk to those guys. You can buy ganj, blow, whatever pleases you. I can get you numbers to call.