Shaunessy Goes West in Winter. by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Chapter 9

The duo changed into their uniforms and took the police car. Striker peered at the digital clock and said; “Lunch time.

Let me show you some of the local sights.”

Shaunessy said; “Fine,” in an offhand manner, not looking forward to a possibly contentious, useless talk with Gentile.

“You’ve got to see this place in Albuquerque called ‘The Boobie Hatch.’ The prices are a little steep, but it’s worth it once in a while.”

Shaunessy had heard of “The Boobie Hatch” previously. He had never been in one as his New York attitude toward porn, or anything else for that matter, was one of; “If you’re going to do it, do it.” He didn’t have much of a desire for watered down, half-assed presentations. He didn’t want to say anything disparaging, however, so he feigned ignorance and replied; “The Boobie Hatch?” I hope that’s not something with cattle calling competition.”

“No, you have to get out into the country to see that.

This place is very human. The waitresses wear only bikinis and they have to have big ones to work there. The town zoning commission won’t allow anything like this in Vista de la Feria.”

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 155

As Striker steered the car onto the interstate and went up the ramp, Shaunessy put his hands on his chest and quizzically said; “Really big ones?”

“Yeah.”

Shaunessy said; “You’re surprising me. I thought you were against all this big city corruption.”

“I am, but I didn’t say that I was a perfect saint. Put it this way; If it weren’t close I wouldn’t go out of my way looking for it. But, now that they put the sirens right against my ears, you know.............I’m human. It’s weird. Sometimes I feel so out of date at the advanced age of 28. Families go there,......You know, husband, wife and kids; little ones and these waitresses are barely contained in their outfits bending over making cutesy baby talk with the toddlers.”

“Oh, come on, you’re just trying to justify yourself. The place is probably really filled with drooling, filthy old men with bugging eyes, their busy hands under the table.”

“No. No lie. I might have missed the sick old farts, because I’m not interested in them, but about half the tables are taken by real families. Surprised me too.”

“How often do you go make these societal observations?”

“I know you’re fooling around, but only like twice a year.

It’s kind of expensive.”

“Really big ones?”

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 156

“Yeah.”

“All right! I’ve gotta see this.”

The patrol car negotiated the twenty mile trip at a steady, five mile per hour rate above the sixty speed limit, passing and being watched by others determined not to get a ticket.

Shaunessy idly looked out the passenger’s window, seeing a plethora of metal warehouses, vacant land and car repair establishments, looking neglected in the dismal winter non-light. The gray sky periodically flashed some indirect sun through the high haze, only to be gone right after it was noticed. One of Shaunessy’s surprises after moving to New Mexico was the simple fact that a desert was merely a place with little precipitation, whereas he previously associated it with sun, heat, sand and cactus, probably the result of seeing too many cowboy movies.

Striker broke the silence after a few minutes, saying;

“What are you daydreaming about?”

“It’s hard to explain. I was kind of thinking back to what I expected before I moved here and what I’ve seen.”

“Disappointed?”

“With some things. Pleasantly surprised with most.”

“What did you expect?”

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 157

Shaunessy breathed deeply and the corners of his mouth turned up. He sighed and was amused at his own folly, when he replied; “Shangri-La.”

Striker laughed and said; “That’s somewhere near Tibet, isn’t it? I never had an urge to find it. It’s freezing up in those mountains.”

The car exited the highway and the duo quickly saw the revolving electric sign saying “The Boobie Hatch”. Striker said; “Speaking of mountains, here they are.” They stopped in the half empty -- or was it the half full? -- parking lot, one hundred feet from the entrance and saw an obviously freezing, bikinied young white girl, seemingly distraught, standing with a dark, young Spanish man, who agitatedly was trying to make some point with a loud voice and frantic hand gestures. Striker jumped out of the squad car, charged over to them and said; “Is there a problem here?”

The Spanish guy said; “No problem, man,” as the girl remained quiet, perhaps a tear in one eye that she turned from the officer.

Striker aimed his forefinger and said; “I’m talking to her.”

The guy said; “Hey, man. You’re not a cop here. So why don’t you mind your own business?”

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 158

Striker calmly looked at the young man, grabbed his green, New York Jets, number fifteen football jersey and pushed him into the establishment’s wall. He said; “I feel like talking to this girl. Are you gonna stop me?”

The embarrassed Spanish guy offered no resistance and put up his hands, palms forward, as if he were about to catch a football.

Striker let go of him, turned to the girl and said; “Is everything okay?”

She clucked her tongue, shook her head and replied; “Yes.

He’s my boyfriend. Sometimes he’s an asshole.”

“Are you sure, because you shook your head ‘No,’ but you’re saying ‘Yes?’”

She laughed, saying; “I’m sure he’s an asshole.”

The Spanish guy turned his head to one side, rolled his eyes and laughed, too.

Striker said; “All right. But I don’t want to see any garbage going on here. You’re disturbing customers.”

The guy said; “All right,” put his arm around the girl’s shoulder and lead the jiggling, cold girl away. Shaunessy said;

“Get some clothes on. It’s only forty degrees.”

By this time the young couple was laughing to each other and the Spanish guy called back; “I got some blankets in the car

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 159

and she ain’t goin’ back in there,” pointing at “The Boobie Hatch.”

Striker turned to Shaunessy, raised his eyebrows and said;

“Lucky guy.”

The law enforcement duo entered the establishment and was greeted by the sounds of dropping cutlery, a deep base musaak version of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” and, most importantly, a very well developed Spanish girl of about twenty in a white bikini and white high heels. She saw how the two smiled at her and smiled back, bending forward slightly to pick up two menus from a small, three foot high table. She said;

“Two?” as she adjusted a strap.

All of a sudden words took on different meanings, as Shaunessy and Striker looked at her two, Striker finally smirking and saying; “Yes.”

This interchange was standard operating procedure for the girl, who had gone through it thousands of times, so she merely turned and led them to a table, Shaunessy fascinated by how much the addition of heels added to the sexiness of a woman in a bikini and focused on her rippling panties, wondering what was under them and Striker was looking higher, in awe that he was able to see some of both boobies from the back.

They were seated and she again leaned forward to place menus in front of them, saying; “Your waitress will be right

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 160

with you.” They both mumbled “Thank you” and their eyes stayed on her behind until the view was blocked by customers sitting at tables.

Striker said; “Told you, man.”

Shaunessy made a very contented smile and nodded. His gaze panned the room and he said; “Yeah, I’m really surprised that I do see families with little kids eating here. The world must have changed sometime when I wasn’t paying any attention to it.”

Carla was the waitress assigned to the area and her short day was now preoccupied with a volume of thoughts and fears when she saw her new patrons. She considered asking someone to cover for her, or playing it as if she didn’t know them, with the hope that they wouldn’t recognize her undressed, or saying “Good to see you again,” and playing it straight, or just going home pretending an immediate violent illness.

She tried to imagine it from their viewpoint. She guessed that this visit probably wasn’t a mistake. Though she couldn’t recall having told them where she worked, she surmised that cops have ways of finding out such things. She feared that if she got someone else to cover for her, or if she pretended not to recognize them, or quickly left, it would be seen as a guilt-inferring attempt to be evasive. If their visit was a coincidence, too often a bad bet, they might recognize her anyway, resulting in any evasive tactic unnecessarily raising

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 161

questions about her. In any case she surmised that the inevitable could be closing in and the best thing she could do was meet it with the valor with which she prided herself. The best, but, she thought, unlikely case, was that maybe they just wanted to see her close to au natural and, if so, perhaps she could turn that to her advantage.

“Hi, gentleman, I’m your waitress, Carla. Did you make the trip to see little me? What can I get you to drink?” She immediately realized that she just nervously blurted out three things and that she should have waited for a response to one before going to the next.

Again, another language took the mental forefront, but the duo didn’t spend much time on words, as they admired the 40D’s.

She was probably in her upper twenties, about 5’8” and weighed 140 pounds, 40 of them in her breasts. Her pink bikini was more of a G-string and the top showed cleavage from above and below, the nipples obvious. She had wavy black hair, parted in the middle, which ended in the middle of her back.

Striker suddenly thought he recognized her, helped by the

“little me” remark and said; “Carla?” When she curtsied, he added; “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

She wondered if this was a ploy and did her best to affect a polite smile.

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 162

Striker said; “You don’t look like the same person; quite an improvement.” His eyes were on her, as they elevated from floor to ceiling.

She smiled and did a wiggling pirouette for the mesmerized audience.

“I’ll take a Bud,” Striker ordered without making eye contact, as they had found a temporary resting place on her 40D’s.

Shaunessy uttered; “Make that two,” immediately realizing that his mind had reverted to the other form of speech, as Carla shot her eyes skyward, having become accustomed to dozens of two

“jokes” daily, smiled, then wrote on her pad.

As she turned to walk away, she rolled on one of her white high heels. The patrons watched as she quickly corrected herself, noting all the pale white skin and a rectangular square jawed face, with only artificial colors of red lips and heavy blue eye makeup.

Shaunessy asked; “Are you all right?” as he got up and held her forearm gently.

Carla was a bit embarrassed and said; “Yeah, thanks. These heels take some getting used to,” and immediately wished she had said something else, or cut the gab at “Thanks.” She also wished that she hadn’t been nervously moving too fast to begin with, causing the slip. She had been in this profession for two

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 163

years and had seen many waitresses move too quickly and lose their balance, but she didn’t want to call attention to her clumsiness right now.

As they had spoken, making contact at eye level, Shaunessy noted her distinct Adam’s apple. He recalled working vice as a young cop, being with his older partner on Ninth Avenue behind Port Authority. The six lane street was littered with delivery trucks and “girls” dressed in the skimpiest of outfits, much as Carla wore today walking right up to them in the middle of the street and carrying on some conversation. There must have been fifteen of them on the one block in the 9PM summer darkness, dancing from truck to truck under the tall street lights. He excitedly said to his partner; “Look at those girls,” to which the more experienced man replied; “Those aren’t girls.”

Shaunessy thought for a few more seconds and realized that they were patrolling an area with more than a few gay bars and sighed; “Oh, shit.” His wiser companion informed him that; “The transvestites and transsexuals have an Adam’s apple. Real women don’t.”

Shaunessy sat back down and smiled broadly as Striker again said; “What did I tell you?” The older cop decided that it was better not to blemish his young partner’s day with an unwanted reality and better not to bullhorn what Carla probably considers none of anybody’s business.

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 164

Carla quickly came back with their drinks, leaned over and slowly poured the bottles into glasses, as Striker’s eyes assumed the expected vantage points and Shaunessy reconfirmed the throat protuberance, then looked down to see that her high heels were about size eleven.

“Ready to order?” she asked, perhaps continuing the double entendre game.

Striker said; “What’s your favorite meal?”

Carla noted that the game took a step up, overtly glanced at his now tight dark brown pants and surveyed the uniform of authority, always to her liking. She calmly said; “Married?”

hoping the answer was yes.

Taking it as a put off, Striker said; “Yes, ma’am. For six long years, with two kids who can’t sit still and a wife who can’t do anything else.”

Carla decided to go to the next level and replied; “I like the sausages. I can eat them all day and they always make me feel full.”

Shaunessy interrupted with; “Exactly the kind of girl a man would design,” and looked at her face.

The comment made her feel a bit uneasy and she looked at him coldly and curiously, annoyed that the dialogue was now a trialogue and fearful of the vague inference connoted by “man would design.”

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 165

Striker took Shaunessy’s comment as a compliment to her, but was also mildly annoyed at the interference from the widower. He shook his head and muttered; “My partner here must remember the old days.”

As he was now certain of his-her sexual charade, Shaunessy decided to get off his track before he would risk stepping on Striker’s toes and unnecessarily upsetting him. He was not certain if Carla was a transsexual or a transvestite. He was briefly amused picturing Striker finding out that it was the latter. Aiming at more frivolity, he said; “An old man’s dream.” He put his eyes back on her focal points and added;

“I’ll have two of your jumbo hamburgers with all the trimmings.”

Carla smiled and appeared relieved, while she wrote down the order. She turned to Striker and used her left hand to adjust her top, the result of which was a short lived nipple revelation. She said; “I really recommend those sausages. They give you a lot and if you can’t finish them, I’ll be glad to help you out.”

Striker liked the cuisine review, but was also a bit intimidated by the flash and what he interpreted as unexpected directness. Not wanting to appear “all talk” to his new buddy, he said; “I like what you recommend.” As she wrote it down, he added; “We should become better acquainted.”

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 166

She said; “You boys know where I live and I’d really like company.” She reached forward and touched Striker’s “Vista de la Feria Police Department” emblem, sewn on his shirt pocket.

Striker said; “Can I come any time?” as he ogled the contour of his-her low pelt.

“Any time. I might need to make a police report.”

Shaunessy silently thought about the new information and how it might fit into the investigation. Nothing useful struck him. The thought that seemed most likely to him was that Carla merely didn’t want her private business known and that Jorge was aware of the situation and was afraid that his involvement with Carla, whatever that was, would become public knowledge.

Striker said; “I’ll be there. You know we’re working right in the area.”

Carla said; “Everybody is. The corner house is now full of construction people.”

Striker said; “That’s the Albuquerque forensics squad, still trying to find some evidence regarding that skeleton.”

Carla had just heard the last thing she wanted to discuss, sensed that her face was displaying fear and searched for the right thing to say, with one cop’s eyes on her tits and one looking at her face.

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 167

Trying to moderate her expression from fear to concern, she said; “I’ve heard there are unmarked Indian burial sites around.”

Striker said; “It doesn’t look like that.......”

Shaunessy cut him off, saying; “And chatty Mr.Striker has already said more than he should concerning an ongoing police investigation and his sausages are getting cold.”

Striker nodded at him and said; “Probably, but you’re wrong about the sausages.”

Carla was still unnerved and said; “Can I get you another drink?”

“Another Bud.”

“Another Bud.”

Carla nodded “yes” and again managed to roll one high heel as she turned to leave. This time Striker jumped up and unnecessarily supported her by putting his arms around her exposed waist. He softly whispered in her ear, unheard by anyone else; “I’ll see you soon.”

She responded in a low-spoken, overly formal tone; “I’ll be looking forward to it,” and walked away, second guessing her so far, seemingly successful plan, wondering if under the circumstances it was better to have a close cop friend, two close cop friends, or none at all.

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 168

She handed in the order and knew she had to get out of there to do some quiet thinking, but she didn’t want to rush out now and give the appearance that something was wrong, so she told the manager; “I’m not feeling well. I’ll finish off the two cops and then I’m going home.”

He said; “Okay, feel better. Let me know as early as possible if you’re coming in tomorrow.”

She said; “Sure,” as she watched him, now with an excuse to go to Donna and put his arm around her and ask for a favor flesh to flesh. Carla re-confirmed her belief in how easily distracted men were and needed to distract two herself and she thought she knew how.

The sausages and burgers sat on a tray rolling her way.

She retrieved two bottles of Budweiser from the refrigerator and carried it all to her customers. She slid down particularly low as she placed the plates in front of Shaunessy and Striker in each case placing almost bikini-top covered, shaking melons close to their faces, happy when Striker was compelled to move forward and concerned when Shaunessy coldly kept his distance.

She giggled and jiggled as she poured their beers, said; “See

‘ya soon” to the general audience, turned and added; “You guys remember the TV show ‘ Three’s Company?’ I always liked that one.” She slowly licked her lips, smiled, eyeballed the ceiling

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 169

and walked away, with four eyes on the bikini bottom that found a resting place deep in her crack.

As soon as she arrived at the common dressing room behind the scenes, she hurriedly put on a deep blue dress and sheepskin winter coat, went out the back way to her 2003 dented silver Toyota and blasted down the interstate at ninety, hungry for the solitude of her house.

Striker was very pleased with himself and was content to make small talk, eat, drink and watch the flesh parade, comparing each to Carla and finding her the winner.

Shaunessy made the small talk, but had lost his appetite and picked at his burgers, wondering what, if anything, he should say to his partner. Some things seemed strange and needed substantiation, but he was sure that Carla was born a man. What if he said that to Striker? What would it accomplish? He decided that there was no percentage in discussing it with the younger man. If he did, Striker might conclude that it was just stupid nay-saying, a twisted mind, jealousy; professional or otherwise, or that he was out to spoil the fun. If he didn’t tell Striker, what would be the worst thing that could happen? Striker would get it on with Carla and somehow the town of Vista de la Feria would become aware of it and that she was a he and laugh about it. No problem for Shaunessy. He didn’t have to admit that he knew.

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 170

His appetite returned when clarity appeared. He too watched the skin show and also concluded that Carla, who was missing for some reason, was the best of the bunch. He wondered why people get so hung up on technicalities. She looked and sounded like she would be one hell of a good time. He decided to ponder that question some leisurely day, as he remembered his own open display of unease, when Carla last leaned over their table.

Carla’s decisions were not as easy. She screeched into the driveway of her little house, rushed inside and shut the door.

The silence was comforting. She liked it here and didn’t want to leave. She guessed that DNA would eventually identify the skeleton, but it was unclear what police action, if any, would come next. Could they directly link the skeleton to her? Jorge might know part of the story, but no one else did and he loved Carla’s body and she his. Maybe he knew a place she could hide.

But if she left now, wouldn’t that prompt suspicion? No brainer; clearly yes.

Think, Carla, think. You’ve overcome big problems before.

This is no different.

She turned up the heat and took off her clothes and looked at herself in a floor mirror. She thought; “Go back to the beginning.” This is the body she wanted and she had gotten it.

She’d just had no idea of the complications and price tag that

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 171

would come along with it. It was unfair that it seemed unavoidable. “Whoever made me ought to go back to school for some more architecture courses.”

Shaunessy Goes West In Winter Page 172