All That I Have by Castle Freeman Page B

have a look.”
    “What did you take?”
    “Little kind of safe or like a chest,” said Sean. “Steel. Heavy sucker. Crystal’d worked for a guy once had one like it. He kept his coin collection in it. Gold coins. It wasn’t, like, bolted down or nothing. We thought we’d toss the place a little bit, fuck it over so nobody would miss the safe right off, take the safe, take the whole fucking thing, and then, later, we had time, get some tools to it, bust it open. See what was in it.”
    “What was in it?”
    “Fuck if I know,” said Sean. “We couldn’t get into it. Took it back to Crystal’s, hid it. Then Saturday we went by her brother’s with it. He’s got a garage. He’s closed weekends. We got out the bars and chisels and shit, sledgehammer, and banged away at it for most of an hour. Fucking nothing.”
    Sean was laughing now.
    “So,” he went on, “couple days later, I went out to my uncle Fred’s, there in Humber. He’s got this big fucking magnum revolver. Told him I needed it to kill a dog, had rabies. Fred is so fucking dumb. He said sure. I got the revolver and a box of shells, and Crystal and me took the safe and the magnum way out into the woods back of her place, there. Set the safe up on a log. We were going to shoot the fucker open. You know, you see them do it on TV all the time.”
    “So you do. How did that go for you?”
    “Went like fuck-all,” said Sean. “Blam, blam, blam — we shot up half the box at it. Did nothing. You couldn’t even hardly tell where we’d hit it, just little dents and like smears from the jackets on the rounds. Great big fucking .44 magnum, there. They do it on TV all the time, you know? Shoot the lock? Shoot the door open? Bullshit. We couldn’t even knock the fucker off the log. Crystal was pissed.”
    “What then?”
    “Crystal said, Fuck it, we’ll lose the thing,” said Sean. “She told me to drop it off a bridge somewhere.”
    “Did you?”
    “She thinks so.”
    “Where is it, then?” I asked Sean.
    “It’s in a safe place, Sheriff,” said Sean. He was so stuck on himself.
    “That’s why I wanted to see you,” he went on. “Like you say, those Russians or whatever the fuck? They want their little safe. They want it very fucking bad. Ain’t that right?”
    “I’d say it was.”
    “Well, then,” said Sean, “I reckon they can pay me for it. What do you reckon?”
    I didn’t answer him. I sat there looking off over the hills and shaking my head.
    “That’s why I wanted to talk, see?” Sean said. “You, you’re working with those fuckers, ain’t you? Investigating for them? You know them. You can make the deal. Tell them to make me an offer. We’ll give you a piece.”
    “We?”
    “Me and Crystal.”
    “I thought Crystal thought you’d got rid of the safe,” I said.
    “Oh,” said Sean. “Oh, yeah. Yeah, she does. Okay, then, I’ll give you a piece.”
    “Going to cut Crystal right out, is that it?” I said. “Being kind of tough on her, ain’t you? What’s she going to say?”
    “Fuck I care?” said Sean. “Fuck her. She ain’t the only girl in the world.”
    “I guess not,” I said.
    “There’s others, Sheriff,” said Sean.
    “ ‘Course there are.”
    “More than one,” said Sean.
    “Is that right?”
    “Fucking-A right that’s right, more than one. More than two, Sheriff.”
    I started the car and got us onto the road headed back down to the Four Corners.
    “Where’s your vehicle?” I asked Sean.
    “Around back of the store,” he said. “So, what do you think?”
    “About what?”
    “About what?” Sean said. “About what we said. About you making the deal. About the plan.”
    “Oh,” I said. “The plan. I think the plan is the dumbest plan since General Custer rode down the hill after the Sioux,” I said.
    “General who?”
    “General Custer. Your great-great-I-don’t-know grandfather.”
    “Oh, yeah?” said Sean. “Well, fuck him, too.”
    “These people are not going to