[20] Roach Town

[20]

Zone pulled the van into the grocery store parking lot. They got out and went inside. Pop music was playing in the loud speaker. There was almost no one else inside except for the people that worked there. The two detectives wandered around looking for something to eat. They walked up an aisle and turned. A deli counter appeared. Inside a food warming display sat some burritos and breakfast sandwiches. They took all four burritos. Gagger holding them. He walked down the dairy aisle. Zone walked down the chips aisle. They met at the check out stations. Zone holding a bag of chips. Jalapeño potato chips. Gagger was holding the burritos and two bottles of chocolate milk. Zone grabbed two chocolate bars. Put them and the chips on the conveyor belt. Gagger put the milk and burritos next to the other stuff. Zone looked up and said hi. The cashier said:

"Hello." Zone looked at her. She was a large woman who had a haircut that was about as bad as Bonny's from the Park House. She was kind of goofy. Had a nice demeanor about her. Her name tag said: Tina.

Zone said: "What's the good word, Tina?" Tina giggled.

She said: "Oh, the normal stuff, Summer is nice."

Zone said: "It sure is. Busy day." He was being ironic. Tina didn't see it that way.

She said: "Tell me about it! It's impossible to get any help around here." Zone didn't know anything about it, but he pretended to.

He said: "Yeah, kids these days. They don't know what work even looks like." Tina agreed.

"Yeah, you can get them to come in for a week or two, then they run off to Warren and don't even bother calling in. And guess who gets a call when they don't show up?" The word Warren piqued Zone's ears up. He remembered that Misty had met some kid at some party in Warren or something like that. Named Gravel or something. He decided to check it out.

He said: "Yeah, that Gravel and his parties, right?" Tina perked up.

She said: "Oh! You know Gravel?" Zone didn't. That didn't stop him though.

He said: "Who doesn't? He throws wild parties." Tina got jealous.

She said: "You get invited to those parties?" Then she looked at Zone, up and down, then at Gagger, who was standing at the end of the conveyor belt eating a burrito. He smiled. A mouth full of food. Chewing.

Zone said: "Yeah, I am good friends with Misty." He decided to leave it vague. He wanted to ask Tina where Misty was, but he didn't. He wanted to see what Tina would say. Her face went white. Then she looked over at the register.

She said: "$13.79." Zone took his wallet out. He handed Tina a $20. She gave him change.

She said: "You want a receipt?" Zone shook his head. He had played his hand too quick, so he tried to pull it back.

He said: "I been looking for Misty, she seems to have dropped off the map, you seen her in a while?" Tina looked down. Then away. Then at something else in the distance. She really didn't want to answer the question. Just then another costumer showed up. Someone local, because he said "Hey, Tina." Zone wasn't done with Tina, but Tina was done with Zone. She said hi to the new costumer. Started running his groceries across the scanner. Zone looked at Gagger. Gagger shrugged. Zone gave up. He could come back if he needed. Or even wait there until the transaction was finished, but he didn't. He said thanks. Tina pretended to be too busy to answer. They walked out of the grocery store and got back into the van. Gagger handed Zone two burritos. Put the chocolate milk in the cup holders. Opened the bag of chips. Put it on the floor between them. Reached down and took a few chips out. Started chomping on them. Zone opened the burrito wrapper and took a bight. He said:

"What is that? Beef?" He looked inside. The burrito guts looked like brown soup. "Cheese?" Gagger didn't know. Zone continued: "Damn, needs hot sauce. The chips are alright, though." He opened his chocolate milk and took a drink. A stream of milk leaked down his chin. He wiped his face with the back of his hand. He kept talking: "Well, word is out, huh? I don't know, man, these parties are suddenly seeming very interesting. We need to find out where Warren is." Gagger agreed.

He said: "Poor Tina. Left out of the loop like that. I bet Bondo could tell us where Warren is."

Zone said: "Agreed. But first we need to find that fucker. We should have trailed him earlier. What was I thinking?" Gagger laughed. He knew exactly what Zone was thinking. The entire afternoon was designed specifically from Zone's myopic thoughts. About getting to the reporter. Just to spend a few moments in her presence.

Gagger said: "You were thinking with your dick, my good man, that is what you were thinking."

Zone said: "Nah, man, we needed to get to the Pottery Barn post haste." Detective Gagger didn't understand why Zone was lying to himself.

He said: "Like hell! You got the van stuck in a ditch pursuing your love, man! There is nothing more obvious out there." Zone couldn't deny it, so he ignored it.

He said: "But still. We need to find the guy. He can't be far." Gagger agreed.

He said: "Ya think Tina knows?" Zone thought about it.

He said: "Probably. If she doesn't, I'd imagine the post office dude has and inkling." Gagger was done eating. He got out of the van and went back inside of the grocery store. A few minutes later he came out again. He got back in the van and took his package of cigarettes out. He lit one and handed it to Zone. He lit one for himself. He opened his bottle of chocolate milk. He took a drink. A while went by. Zone started the van. He backed up and turned around. He pulled up to the highway going through town.

Gagger said: "Take a left." Zone took a left. They drove for a while. The speed limit changed. Zone sped up. They drove past a few farms. Then they came to the berry farm that the grandmas and Gagger and Bonny had gone to earlier. Gagger pointed it out. Zone's understanding of Gagger's morning was now coming into focus. They kept driving. Passed a few more farms and turned a corner. The speed limit changed again. Zone slowed down. They passed a gas station that was also a car garage. Then they came to a road called Quarry Hill. Gagger told Zone to turn right. Zone turned right. They drove up the hill. Past the quarry. Went around a corner. Gagger told him to turn right. Zone turned right. He drove until the road stopped. Then he pulled into the driveway of the last house.

In Zone's mind he was mapping out the scene. From where Rochester was, to where the greenhouse was, to where they were right now. It was all a big loop. There must be a connecting road, he decided, that was probably a dirt road, but it went up and over the hill and then went back down into the town. He wasn't wrong. He was actually quite right. They were basically in the back part of Rochester that was the front part of this next town over called Hancock. Zone parked the van. Shut it off. The two detectives got out. Zone looking more and more like a vulture as the day went on. He was now getting tired. He wished they would have bought a couple ciders for the road, because he was fading. He perked up though when he remembered the Orange Sunshine. He took his wallet out and rooted around for a while. Producing a couple chunks of the good stuff. He took one and handed the other one to Gagger. Who said: "Don't mind if I do." They started walking towards the house.

The house was very normal. Kind of super normal. In the sense that it was a house at the end of a dirt road in Vermont. There were quite a few warnings that the road was ending when they drove up. Zone and Gagger didn't understand what these signs meant. Because, now, in the Summer, who cares? A dirt road ends, what is the big wow? But they didn't know about Winter in Vermont. About driving down a road that is about to end and without warning. That at least two times, if not more, the Constable would have to get up, leave his cozy house, and pull some ignorant fool that had some idea that the road kept going, but was sadly mistaken. And that would mean at least an hour of dealing with snow and ice and freaked out lowlanders. Who were not expecting getting their cars stuck in the middle of Winter. A thing that annoyed the Constable so badly that he had put signs up to warn people. Not that that helped. He still had to deal with the idiots every single time the thing happened, but still, he would at least try to warn them off. The biggest part of the problem was that the road used to go through. And all the maps still said you could go through. But that was just not the case anymore. The Constable had, at one point, tried to get the Select Board to put up a sign that restricted any travel at all on the road, aside from local residents, but nobody agreed with him. On two grounds. One, that the sign itself was too expensive and unnecessary, and two, restricting people's rights to drive down that road in particular was against the law. And making new laws to restrict travel was against the spirit of what laws already existed on the charter. Meaning, the Constable adding a sign to a road that he lived on to prevent travel because he was annoyed with people getting stuck in the snow next to his house was unconstitutional. And therefore, he was SOL, or, as the people who voted down his suggestion would say it, Shit Out of Luck. And as a person defined by law to respect the law, he had to respect the law. Which meant that he could only put up signs near his house, on his own personal land, which meant that by the time the people that got stuck in the snow, it was already too late. And therefore, it was his own problem. And as such, the Constable had no issue being drunk at all times of the day, because, it's not like he could do anything to stop it anyway. Which is why he was surprised when Detective Zone and Detective Gagger knocked on his door in the middle of July, in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of a drinking session that he had no plans to share with anyone. When Constable Bondo heard the knocking he ignored it. Not because he wanted to ignore it, but because he only assumed it was something other than persons knocking at his door. He was merely sitting there, staring at his wood stove, an open bottle of cheap vodka next to him. A lemon, cut in half. A miniature sieve. With three lemon seeds in it. Sitting on top of an empty glass. A full glass of vodka and ice. The Constable was feeling nothing. He was glad his phone had stopped ringing. He was glad that nobody was trying to reach him. He had on desire to be constable, but the money was good, and there was basically no work to do to get it. But at the moment, there was all sorts of work, and the way he dealt with this was to drink. Nobody could make him do anything if he was drunk. And there was normally no recourse to that thinking. It was not an election year, and nobody else wanted the job anyway. Even if it was free money. So he didn't answer the door. He didn't think he needed to. For all he knew it was just the same ol' noises he always heard when he went around ignoring things. Living like an isolated drunk, waiting for Winter to come and give him the annoying excitement of idiots crashing their cars into the snow. He didn't understand that things were immediate and present until Detective Zone yelled:

"Hey, buddy! What the hell, yo? I can tell you're in there! Bondo!" Constable Bondo snapped out of his vodka induced Zen and stood up. He wasn't drunk, but he was getting close to it. He walked to his door and looked through the screen door. It took all of his emotions to collect what he was seeing. The two asshole detectives from before. From when they were all at the greenhouse, with the dead body. Misty Sergeant. The Constable was trying to remember. Was that last night? He sighed about this thought. Suddenly he was filled with anxiety. Like he had done something wrong. His hangover was now his emotions. He stood there looking. He didn't want to let these vampires in. Zone looked like a vulture, and Gagger looked like a Gestapo Policeman. Straight out of Nazi Germany.

Bondo said: "You need a warrant to get inside!" Zone looked at the guy. He was more worm than person. But he also agreed with his disposition.

Zone said: "Buddy! We have no designs on your liberty, we just want to talk. No pressure." For some reason this way of speaking led the constable to open the screen door and come outside. The detectives backed up. Constable Bondo walked a little further, forcing the detectives down onto the grass before the steps. Suddenly they were as tall as he was. They were looking eye to eye.

Bondo said: "Am I under arrest?" Zone looked at Gagger, Gagger looked back.

Zone said: "Well, no. Do you want to be under arrest? We could tie you up, if you are into that sort of thing?" Detective Zone said this with a very marble-mouthed way of speaking. Which, did not help matters. The Constable was half-drunk so Zone speaking nonsense sounded like gravel on wet sand.

He said: "What?"

Gagger interpreted: "You are not under arrest, we just got some questions is all." Constable Bondo sighed. He wished he was drinking his drink and none of this was happening. He was focused on Gagger's smile. He wanted it to stop. Both of these people did not seem like good people. There was something stupid about them, but also really smart. Like a bone filled with marrow. They were coming out of nowhere. So very disarming that they seemed like children almost, children that would steal your wallet.

He said: "Yeah, okay." And that was it. Zone took a stab at it.

Zone said: "Nice house you got here." The Constable understood this.

He said: "Yeah, what of it?"

Zone said: "I mean, nothing, that's all, just nice and stuff." Zone knew a hostile witness when he saw one. He listened to everything. His body, the Orange Sunshine, the vodka on Constable Bondo, he took a moment to compose himself. Trying to regain control. He heard the sound of a woodpecker in the distance. This made him feel better, He decided to take one more stab before he bacame aggressive.

Zone said: "I gotta slash, man, you mind if I use that tree?" The Constable suddenly became amenable.

He said: "Yeah, shit, be my guest." Zone walked over to the tree. The Constable stood there swaying in the wind. Gagger kept his eyes peeled. The drunk and confused Constable made both detectives sad. The inertia of Vermont was not as fun as investigating things like it was in Brooklyn. Things seemed very sad and broken, here. Zone enjoyed the seconds being removed from it. Gagger didn't. He stood there looking at the Constable, wondering what he was up to. Gagger looked over at Zone. Pissing on a tree. Then he looked over at the Constable. Then he looked up the road. He looked down at his hands.

Gagger thought to himself: "Get me the fuck out of here!"