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Joey and the Cop
Joey and the Cop
Joey and the Cop
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Joey and the Cop

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When the mother of his best friend is framed for murder, a wise-cracking kid sets out to put matters straight.

"Engrossing, vivid, at times frightening."

"Surreal, innovative fiction."

"Noir at its best."

LanguageEnglish
PublisherT.L. Peters
Release dateMar 28, 2013
ISBN9781301479023
Joey and the Cop
Author

T.L. Peters

"There's no question that Peters is a master wordsmith." Gerry B's Book Reviews About the author: T.L. Peters is an ex-lawyer who enjoys playing the violin and giving his dog long walks in the woods. In between, he writes novels.

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    Joey and the Cop - T.L. Peters

    JOEY AND THE COP

    By T.L. Peters

    Smashwords Edition

    Copyright 2013, T. L. Peters

    License Notes

    This e book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

    This book is a work of fiction. Any reference to historical events, real people or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

    To read more about the author and his other books, go to http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/tlpeters.

    Chapter 1

    Joey told me to be down by the creek right after school. He said we have to get moving fast or he'd get away. I didn't know what he was talking about but I was afraid to ask him because he was so mad, glaring at everybody like he was going to punch them out. But Joey was always mad about something. I knew him better than anybody because I'd sat right behind him since kindergarten.

    Where you been? Joey yelled, running up behind me puffing. Come over here and look at this.

    I looked to where he was pointing but didn't see anything except dirt and some leaves. I'd gotten there as fast as I could, but Joey was too excited to listen to me. It never mattered what I said anyway.

    Well, don't you see it? Joey yelled, his eyes getting even bigger like they were about to take over his whole face. It's right here, almost everything we need to know. Now there's almost nuthin' stopping us from making our plan.

    I don't see anything, I shot back. What are we gonna be planning anyway?

    I was getting a little mad too. I hated it when Joey started hollering at me and spitting and talking out his ear. It meant that a scrap was coming and I didn't feel like scraping now, especially after what mom had told me. She said I've got to try to be real nice to Joey from now on with his mom getting killed and all. Joey didn't care about me being nice to him or not. But it wouldn't have done any good to tell mom that because she never listened to me when it came to Joey. She was just as stubborn as Joey sometimes. But I knew I'd get into big trouble if she ever heard us yelling at each other. She'd blame me for sure.

    Joey tightened his fists like he always does when he's about to jump on someone. I got ready for him to come at me, but all of a sudden he held back and started talking softer.

    Listen, Tommy, he said, edging up real close, close enough that I stepped back, not so much because I was scared but because his breath hitting me in the face made me a little queasy. We can figure this all out by ourselves. We don't need anybody else. We can do it all by ourselves just like we always do. Nobody's gonna help us out anyway.

    Figure what out? I said, trying to calm down. What are you talking about now?

    He flared up red again.

    Figure out who killed mom is what, he yelled, jumping up and waving his arms. You been pretty stupid lately, Tommy. What's got into you?

    I still don't know what you're talking about and I don't care.

    I stood as tall as I could now, trying to back him off. I was taller than Joey but he'd always been better at sports, always getting picked ahead of me in gym. I figured he could beat me up but didn't know for sure. Joey's secret weapon was that once he started fighting he'd keep going until he'd either smashed the other kid or got smashed himself. I only saw him lose once after he threw an ice ball at a ninth grader at the bus stop.

    I kept standing tall with my chest pushed out trying not to shake. Then I remembered something my mom had told me and decided to try it out on him just to see what he'd do.

    You're not supposed to be acting nasty like this, Joey. You're supposed to be sad. You're supposed to be crying and be all broken up like your dad. You're gonna be all broken up for a long time and all of us gotta try and help you out. That's why mom's been bringing food over for you and your dad. You're not supposed to be trying to get back at whoever done it either. The cops will do that. That's what mom says. She says that big cop knows what he's doing and that he'll catch the guy who did it for sure.

    It was the most I had ever said to Joey at one time in my whole life. I waited to see what he'd do but he didn't do anything. Instead he just stood there with his mouth open looking at me--so I decided to talk some more when all of a sudden he cut me off. Joey was always hogging the show.

    My dad's been crying and I been crying a little but I'm through with all that. He kicked the dirt and then looked up at the sky, his fists shaking fiery red at his sides. Then he raised his chin up at me real slow like he was a king or something. I'm going after him because I already know who did it. I know who killed mom.

    You know who the killer is? I asked, my mouth opening as wide as it could get. I must have looked funny because Joey almost laughed. And Joey hardly ever laughed.

    I got a fix on him, Tommy, and I'm not letting him slip away, not for anything.

    Who is he?

    I'm not saying yet.

    What do you mean you're not saying?

    I'm not saying, that's all.

    You gotta say if you know.

    I know who did it, he shot back, hunching his shoulders over. Don't think I don't.

    I could see the veins in his neck. They were always popping out whether he was mad or not. Then he started looking around like he was worried somebody was listening. But I'm not saying anything until I can prove it. I won't tell anybody, Joey. You can count on me.

    I ain't telling until I can prove it for sure. Then I'll tell everybody. I'm not gonna keep it a secret forever.

    He stood real still all of a sudden and stared at me cold and hard.

    But I'll tell you first, Tommy, like I always do. You're my friend and I'm not gonna leave you out.

    Who'd want to kill your mom, anyway? I said. She never hurt nobody.

    Mom wasn't giving me any good answers to my questions and the teachers at school just kept asking us how we were feeling and then went on and on about how we're supposed to be nice to each other and stuff. Joey was the only one I could count on to give me a straight answer.

    Why don't matter, Joey spit. Then he started walking around kicking up dirt. People always want to know why you did this and why you did that. It don't matter, Tommy. You just do stuff and that's it. There don't have to be no why. It's just what you do.

    There's got to be a reason, Joey. People don't do stuff like that for no reason.

    He circled me and then grabbed my shirt and pulled me in close. He'd never grabbed my shirt so tight before and I thought I was in for it.

    Listen to me, Tommy. There don't have to be no reason. I know it because I done stuff before without even thinking about it. I do stuff like that all the time. You ought to know that, Tommy. You ought to know that better than anybody.

    He let go of my shirt but didn't back off any. It made me nervous him standing so close to me like that. He must have felt a little sorry about it because he softened up all of a sudden.

    We'll figure out why he did it once we nab him. Then you'll have all your answers, Tommy. Then you'll be happy as a clam.

    He moved away finally and I started breathing almost normal.

    I want to catch him too, Joey. I miss your mom as bad as you.

    His eyes flared up again but he kept his distance.

    Listen Tommy, I want you to remember this, and he pointed his finger at my chest. I don't miss nobody. I don't care about nobody and I don't miss nobody, not mom, not dad, not even you. That's the way I am. You ought to know that about me, Tommy. We been hanging together for long enough.

    One thing nobody really understood about Joey was how much he liked to fake stuff. It was the main reason he was always getting into trouble. I could usually tell when he was faking it because his eyes would start blinking. I figured he was faking this time too so I didn't push him too hard, his mom just dead a week after all. His eyes weren't blinking now but he had to be faking, all this big talk about not caring what happened to his mom, not caring about me either. Joey and me had always done everything together. He'd take my side in fights no matter who started them and sometimes he'd even take the blame for stuff I'd done so I didn't get into trouble. But I still liked it when he talked tough like he was talking now, especially at school where we'd strut around on the playground together with everybody watching us. I pushed my glasses up onto my nose.

    I heard some teachers talking. They were saying that whoever did it smashed your mom over the head with a rock or something hard like that. They said it must have been real bloody.

    Joey just kept walking around in circles kicking leaves.

    What's your dad say, Joey? Who does he think done it?

    Dad don't say nuthin'. He just looks out the window and waits for your mom to come over. He don't even go to work anymore.

    Mom says we shouldn't be worried. She says that everything will turn out good.

    Joey stopped walking and grinned at me kind of funny.

    Well that's just fine, Tommy, 'cause I ain't worried about nuthin' either.

    Joey was talking a lot cockier now from just a couple days ago at church where he sat up front with his dad by the casket bawling his eyes out. I couldn't stand watching him cry like that but I figured it was okay since it was at church. I wanted to go to the cemetery too and watch her get lowered into the ground but mom wouldn't let me. Joey picked up a stick and was waving it at the dirt.

    Don't you see them yet?

    I looked closer this time. They were footprints all right, big ones, just sitting there in the mud like a couple of ducks.

    But what's it prove, Joey? There are footprints all over the place.

    The high school kids came down here into the woods all the time to smoke and drink beer. Some of them played football and they'd bring their girls down and start kissing and hugging them. Sometimes they'd wrestle around and the guy would pretend he was losing and they'd both be rolling on the dirt laughing and stuff. Sometimes they'd roll right into the creek and splash around. I'd even seen them take their clothes off once. Joey and me had been down here plenty of times watching them from behind the bushes. They'd never spotted us though, not even once, the big jerks, always picking on us little kids.

    But these are new ones, Joey said, still waving his stick. Can't you tell? And look how big they are. I ain't never seen footprints this big. We match these up to the killer's and we got him.

    How are we gonna do that?

    We gotta get the killer down here in the mud is all. We get his footprints down here and we'll have something to compare with. We'll be able to match them up.

    Then he dropped the stick and pulled out one of those drugstore cameras that you can only use once. He snapped two pictures because he said he wanted to make sure he got them and then he flashed a smile at me with his big teeth. Joey had the biggest teeth I'd ever seen, crooked too and pointy. Maybe that's why mom liked him so much, that smile with all those big, crooked teeth, like some happy dog panting up at you.

    Where'd you get that camera?

    Stole it. Do you think I'm rich or something?

    You're nuts, Joey. You're just gonna get us into trouble again. I'm tired of getting into trouble on account of you.

    I didn't really care if Joey stole stuff or not but I didn't like being around him when he did it. Seeing him there with that stolen camera made me nervous and I started walking away. But I didn't get too far before I remembered what everybody at school always said about Joey, that you never turn your back on him, not even for a second. The girls said that too and they weren't really even scared of him because he never bothered them much. I'd never even seen him hit a girl. But with boys it was different. Joey would lunge at them with his chin stuck out and his fists flying. And he didn't care how big they were either unless they were really big and then he'd sneak up on them from behind. He'd never hit me before and I'd seen him whack a lot of other kids bloody across the head, but never me. We were close, Joey and me. But I still didn't really trust him all the time. Joey knew I was a little scared of him and that's one of the reasons why I think he liked me--that and the fact that I usually did what he told me. He liked my mom too because she was always inviting him over for peanut butter and crackers. Joey loved smearing big piles of peanut butter on his crackers. Go home and be a sissy then, Tommy.

    I hated it when he called me names but I wasn't about to start something now with him being so worked up.

    We're not even in sixth grade yet, Joey. How are we gonna catch a murderer? C'mon, let's go up and ride our bikes, and I started walking again, hoping he'd come along but not expecting him to.

    You can go ahead and ride your bike if you want but I'm going after him, with you or without you, Joey answered, crossing his arms hard over his chest and staring at me like he expected me to fall over and die.

    I stared back now thinking that Joey would get bored with this wild goose chase sooner or later and give up and then we could go back to normal. I'd play along with him until he got bored, I thought. That's all I had to do. Pretty soon everything would be like it was and we could go back to riding our bikes and hanging out in the woods building forts and playing war games. I missed Joey's mom a lot too but I wasn't going to let her dying mess everything up. I just wasn't.

    Okay, you win like usual, Joey, I said. What do we do now?

    I knew Joey would love hearing me say that. Joey loved making big plans and he loved scratching them out in the dirt with a stick like he was a general--so I stood there and waited for his newest plan to come flying out of his mouth. Joey grabbed the stick again and started banging it against a tree.

    Do you see your house up there, Tommy?

    Sure I see it, I shrugged. So what?

    My house was just a few houses away from Joey's, all these little red brick blocks lined up on the edge of the hill staring down into the woods. The creek cut the valley right through the middle but on the other side there were no houses, nothing but woods and old fallen down trees.

    Yesterday I found some footprints in back of your house, big ones just like these. But today they're all gone. I know because I checked before you got here. He probably came back and cleaned them up. He must've just forgot about these ones here.

    What else did you find? I said right away.

    I knew there was something else Joey wanted to tell me by the way he was standing there now, swaying back and forth like he was some big skinny weed hanging in the wind. I wondered when he'd start scratching the ground with his stick.

    This cigarette butt, he said, pulling it out of his back pocket and holding it in front of him.

    There were cigarette butts all over the place down here, I thought right away but didn't say anything. One time me and Joey had even found half of some girl's dress. And this too, and he dragged a scrap of paper from his other pocket, walked over and shoved it in front of my face. There were some scribbles on it that I couldn't make out. I found this by the tree house.

    Mom said that we lived in that tree house. My dad made it before he left. It was stuck up between two dead oaks and my dad hammered wood blocks into one of the trees to make a ladder so you could climb up to it. It was about twenty feet off the ground and mom was always worried we'd fall out and break our necks. Sometimes she'd say that if I ever went up there again I'd be grounded for life. But Joey would always come to my rescue, telling her how we'd be more careful the next time and that we wouldn't go hanging over the edge anymore, and she'd end up letting me go back up. Mom always listened to Joey no matter how big a liar he was. It was a good thing too because we had all our stuff up there. Nobody had ever been in it but us, except dad and he didn't count. Some girls wanted to go up one time but we wouldn't let them. We didn't want our stuff to get messed up. The killer waited down here in the woods and then went up to the house and smashed her over the head after dad went to work.

    Joey poked at the ground with the stick like he was waiting for me to say something, but I was tired of talking. Talking had never changed Joey's mind before. Joey could make stuff up a lot better than I ever could anyway, so I figured he could do the talking if he wanted.

    You know that big cop? Joey whispered, looking around all over the place before staring me in the face.

    Yeah, I said. Mom likes him but I don't. He'd come over to our house asking me and mom lots of questions. I didn't know he was a cop at first because he didn't have a uniform on. Mom told me he was a detective and didn't wear a uniform. I didn't tell him anything, Joey, just like you told me.

    That's good, Tommy, 'cause I didn't tell him nuthin' either.

    The cop came the same day we cut school, the same day Joey's mom got killed. We'd been up in the woods all day and right after we'd come back home Joey's dad had told us what'd happened. Right away Joey made me promise not to tell anybody about that dog barking. It'd been barking like crazy for a long time and then just stopped all of a sudden. Whoever killed Joey's mom must have killed the dog too, or at least that's what everybody was saying. Me and Joey were way up on the other side of the woods but we could hear it barking loud and clear. We just figured the old guy who lived there, old man Johnson, took it inside to shut it up. That dog was always barking at something.

    Did you see his shoes? Joey asked, tilting his head back a little but all the time keeping his eyes right on my face.

    I guess, I answered, thinking back. But all I could remember was how bad he smelled. Mom said he'd been tramping all over the neighborhood and it was such a hot day too. Mom said he'd always sweat a lot, even back when they were in high school together. Mom was a cheerleader and he played football. She said he grew up right in our neigborhood and that the two of them used to play down in the woods just like me and Joey. I'd tried to picture mom playing down in the woods but couldn't.

    Did you see how big his shoes were, Tommy? Did you see how muddy they were?

    I couldn't remember anything about his shoes but I wasn't going to let Joey know that. Joey didn't really care if I remembered them or not and just kept talking.

    He tramped around in our house all night with his muddy shoes on. He was messing up the evidence was what he was doing.

    But it was raining hard that morning, Joey, I said. You remember how soaked we got. I was starting to feel a little sorry for Joey now in spite of what a big faker he was. But I shouldn't have been because Joey was having fun standing there making stuff up. Everybody's shoes were muddy, Joey.

    Not if you weren't in the woods they weren't, Joey said, smiling off into space.

    They'd just have been wet and soggy then.

    Maybe he came down here to look around, I said. It's his job to look for clues.

    Joey was too busy talking now and making stuff up to even hear what I was saying.

    And did you see how big his hands were? Big enough to break that old dog's neck I bet.

    Are you saying that cop killed your mom? I yelled out all of a sudden. 'Cause if you are you're as nuts as everybody says, Joey. Cops don't kill people without a reason. They're here to protect us. That's what mom says.

    Most do, Tommy, but there are some that go bad and this one's a bad one. And it's not like he's a real cop anyhow. He's just some detective. He just investigates stuff that's already happened.

    I still think you're crazy, Joey. Nobody's gonna believe that the cop killed her.

    People were always calling Joey crazy for what he came up with sometimes and he'd usually get pretty worked up whenever he heard it. I waited for him to blow his top but he just kept standing there swaying in the breeze and smiling a little, his eyes big and wide but not moving any, not blinking at all. I waited some more before finally going up to him and tapping him on the shoulder. He jumped like he'd just woke up. I'd never seen him jump like that before so I jumped a little too. My heart was pounding and I wondered if he was finally going to haul off and hit me. But instead he started scratching the dirt with his stick.

    This is what we're gonna do, Tommy. We're gonna get that cop to go walking by the creek. Then we're gonna match up his footprints. Then we're gonna tell everybody what he did.

    I got scared all of a sudden, more scared than I'd ever gotten in my whole life. I didn't really know why because Joey was just faking it like always.

    What if he figures out what we're doing, Joey? What if he really did kill her? What if he comes after us too? What are we gonna do then?

    What are you, Tommy, a wimp or something?

    I ain't no wimp. Quit calling me that.

    I started shaking a little. Joey could always rattle me when he wanted to, but I wasn't going to let him see me scared this time. I gulped and tried to hold myself still.

    Don't worry, Tommy. Then he smiled soft and gentle like I'd never seen him smile before. I got it all figured out just like always. You just do what I tell you and it'll all work out fine.

    He was standing there calm and steady when we heard mom whistling us up for supper. We trudged up the hill not saying anything, Joey dragging his stick behind him and me telling myself that he'd get bored pretty soon and then everything would be like it was.

    Chapter 2

    It's gotta be an ambush, Joey said. If he sees us, we're dead. Now after he goes down, Tommy, you kick him. You kick him hard, Tommy. Kick him in the head if you can or in the belly or wherever you can get a good shot. We can't let him get up right away. We can't let him grab us or we're dead. We gotta make sure he stays down.

    Joey rubbed the rock between his hands and then gripped its smooth edge like he was going to throw it way into the woods. But instead he pounded it up against a tree and then studied it again. Joey was wearing his baseball cap backwards, which was the way he always wore it when he meant business. I was half glad that big fat kid had made fun of Joey's mom dying. I was hoping it would take Joey's mind off chasing after the cop.

    This'll do the trick Joey said, rubbing the rock up and down on his pants like he was polishing it. Then he looked over at me. Don't forget to keep hid until I whack him. Don't move a muscle. I don't want him to have a clue what's coming.

    I'll just sit here like this, I said, crouching behind the bush. I won't give us away.

    And don't forget about kicking him either. Try to get him in the head if you can. I'll be smacking him with this rock while you're kicking him. Okay?

    I won't forget.

    Joey looked real serious for a second.

    I know you don't like hitting people, Tommy, but you gotta do it. You can't let me down. I'm counting on you, Tommy.

    Sure, Joey. You can always count on me.

    Promise?

    I promise.

    "You aren't crossing your fingers,

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