The yard was empty except for a rain barrel and a broken crate. I stopped the borrowed automobile beside the gate and looked through the fence again, hoping the truck might somehow be hidden behind an absence of buildings. Leo sat beside me with his injured arm tucked inside his coat. Paul had said seven o’clock. It was ten minutes past. “You brought me to another promise,” Leo said. I got out before I had to agree with him.
I pushed the gate open. Its lower edge dragged a shallow furrow through the dirt. There were old wheel tracks but none I could identify, and no reason to think studying them would tell me anything. I walked to the shed at the rear and tried its door. Locked. From there I could see Frank’s garage roof beyond an adjoining street. The truck might still be under it. Leo followed me inside the yard, ignoring my instruction to wait in the car.
Paul arrived on foot with Frank several minutes later. Neither carried keys. I asked where the truck was. Frank said the arrangements were incomplete. “You made them,” I told Paul. He tipped his chin toward Leo. “I got him here. Now everybody can talk.” A motor sounded behind us. Bruno’s car rolled up, followed by another carrying two men I recognized from outside the garage. Their faces changed when they saw the vacant yard. I stepped toward the gate to meet them.
Bruno passed me without stopping. He asked Leo where his truck was, as if Leo had been entrusted with bringing it. Leo pointed at Paul. “Ask him what he promised.” Paul spread his hands. “Ask your employer what he owes.” Leo shoved him with his good arm. It was a foolish, off-balance movement, but Paul caught his coat and drove him backward against the fence. The boards cracked. I seized Paul around the chest and hauled him away before Leo’s bandaged shoulder struck again.
Paul’s heel landed on my instep. Pain shot through my foot, and I nearly let go. Bruno’s men started forward. “Stay there,” I shouted, though I had no standing to command them. Leo caught a fence post and remained upright. I pushed Paul toward the rain barrel and stood between them with my arms out. Nobody had drawn a weapon. I held to that fact as if it were something I could keep true by watching every hand.
“Where is it?” Bruno asked Frank. “At my place. Where it stays until I’m paid.” “Then why bring us here?” Frank looked at Paul, who brushed dirt from his coat. I could see the answer taking shape without knowing which of them had devised it. They had expected Bruno to come angry and Leo to be blamed for what followed. I could not prove even that much. What I could see was Leo trembling against the fence while the men around him waited for permission.
I went to him and put his hat into his good hand. “Go with Bruno.” “Not without the truck.” “You can argue tomorrow. You can’t hold yourself up tonight.” He looked past me at Paul. Then he let me guide him to Bruno’s car. Bruno caught the door before I could shut it. “You said possession.” “I was wrong.” It cost less breath than an excuse, and more pride. Bruno told me there would be no second evening arranged on Paul’s word.
Once the cars left, Frank demanded the balance. I took out his receipt, softened at the folds from carrying it. “Keep the deposit against your claim. There’s no more from me tonight.” He reached for the paper. I held it back until he wrote that the money had been applied. I did not accept his account of the damage, and told him so. He laughed, but signed. The deposit had bought no repairs I could inspect and no property I could deliver.
Frank walked away toward his garage. I remained beside the borrowed car, working my sore foot inside my shoe. Paul came to the passenger door as if we were returning from an ordinary errand. I locked it before he could climb in. “You knew?” I asked. He looked down the street after Frank. I thought of the burning car I had once pulled him from, how fiercely he had held my wrist afterward. I had mistaken surviving together for agreement.
“Tell me before I drive another foot,” I said. Paul rested his palm on the roof. For once he did not offer a joke or tell me what I owed him. “I knew Frank wouldn’t release the truck tonight,” he said.