Murder Boy. Bryon Quertermous

so fond of. And a bounty hunter would give me the courage to visit some of the places I’d written about—or wanted to write about—but never felt safe enough to visit alone.

      A quick Google search gave me an address for Wade Bail and Recovery in downtown Detroit across from the courthouse. It only took fifteen minutes to get down to the office, but after parking in a fenced off lot a couple blocks down the street, I sat in the car for another 30 minutes contemplating what I was about to do. It didn’t take long for it all to overwhelm me again, but instead of leaving, I pushed it to the back of my brain, dug into my storehouse of petty resentment, and loaded up on Hostess orange cupcakes and Red Bull.

      Titus Wade’s office was unlocked and I entered feeling confident and lightheaded from the sugar rush. A door off to the side swung open and a hulking bald man stomped out, holding a bloody shirt to his forearm.

      “Who are you?”

      “Are you Titus Wade?”

      “Get out of here,” the man said.

      “If we could just talk for a minute, I’m kind of in a bad place and need help.”

      Wade ignored me and went back out through the side door. I followed. It wasn’t a bathroom as I’d expected, rather a storage room with three safes and two file cabinets. There was a closed door I figured was a maintenance closet or link to another office, and an open door that led outside where I found Wade wiping down the inside of a large black pickup truck. My confidence in my plan was rapidly fading.

      “I’m in a workshop with your sister; I’m a writer, and the professor hates me.”

      Wade stopped wiping the truck and looked at me. I knew he hated Farmington as much as I did but I didn’t want to set him off yet.

      “I need somebody to show him the nasty places in the city, scare him a little, but—”

      “I find people, I chase people, and occasionally I shoot people—”

      “Oh God, don’t shoot him.”

      “If he owes you money, I can get it out of him for you,” Wade said. “If all you want me to do is drive him around town, then get yourself a goddam cab.”

      I hung my shoulders in defeat, but didn’t move from my spot in front of Wade’s truck. I wasn’t selling my plan well enough. This is why I was a writer. I was never very good with words in person, but I could make them dance on the page. I could find just the right rhythm and combination and word choice to make even the most complicated idea or situation seem manageable. But Titus Wade didn’t seem like the sort of fellow who would read a note explaining why he should join me on a quest to capture his sister’s fornication partner. So I went with the skill of last resort: unfiltered rage.

      “This guy is fucking your sister,” I said, “and he’s fucking with my career. We need to take him down.”

      There was enough of a pause in Wade’s movement that I thought maybe I got to him. But the shields came almost immediately back up and he gave me the brush.

      “Sorry,” Wade said. “Call me if you ever need bail.”

      I LEFT Wade’s office flipping between anger and depression. I’d swear and punch things, then cry a little and wonder if I’d be able to find anything interesting to write about while working as a fast food clerk. My pain threshold eventually exceeded my anger and I stopped punching things, but I couldn’t shake the depression. I’d spent the entire year focused only on getting my thesis finished and approved for the fellowship to New York. So much so that I neglected almost everything else in my life.

      I let my car payments slide (I wouldn’t need a car in New York City), hadn’t paid rent in more than six months, (housing is included as part of the fellowship), allowed my cell phone to be disconnected (the only people who called were collection agents and my mother) and I’d neglected every personal and professional relationship once my letters of recommendations had been secured. The only person I had been more interested in than myself over the past year was Parker Farmington.

      I tolerated his jokes, snide comments, the inane revision requests; I’d vaulted through every petty hoop Farmington had thrown in my path, all to please the only person who could stand in the way of my dream. Some of it had actually made my manuscript better, and early on we shared some nice conversations about our favorite crime writers, but as the year wore on and I talked more about New York, Farmington increased his intimidation and foolishness. It wasn’t much of a reach to suspect Farmington didn’t want my success interfering with his.

      Now I was stuck in neutral in Detroit and couldn’t find any way to accept that. I tried rational discussion with Farmington, which neither of us seemed to have any skill for, and I was becoming increasingly convinced I would have to get Farmington’s signature onto that paper by force. Alone, it was an impossible task.

      But Posey could be the key. If I could convince her that it was in Farmington’s best interest to sign off on my thesis she’d be the perfect partner. We’d talked enough about how torn she was between being a poet and following in her brother’s footsteps as a bounty hunter that I knew she had the skills and gravitas I lacked. I went back to her house but she wasn’t there, so I went to a McDonald’s near campus that had free Wi-Fi.

      Since I’d stopped paying rent, my landlord had become aggressive about hunting me down. He was an old Italian guy whose office was right next to the only entrance to the building and he was always there watching ‘80s action movies on VHS. He particularly favored the work of Sylvester Stallone and I’d been able to negotiate a pretty sweet deal on my rent by giving him my copy of Over the Top, in which Stallone plays a truck driver turned competitive arm wrestler; that was the missing piece in his collection. A few weeks ago, in what I assume was an attempt to rebuild our connection, he mentioned he was heading to Philadelphia for a Rocky tour. I took advantage of his absence, loading everything I could into my car and never looking back.

      I spent most of my time in the university literary magazine office using their showers and comfortable couches to survive. My erratic hours and routine sleepovers made me look like a dedicated editorial professional rather than a landlord-dodging hobo. But after my encounter earlier on campus with Farmington I wasn’t in any mood to risk a repeat confrontation, hence the trip to McDonald’s to email Posey. She was always checking her email on her phone and this was something that didn’t seem well-suited to a text message. I waited several minutes without a reply before the employees began giving me looks that suggested I either order something or go on my way. I was leaving when Posey snuck up behind me.

      “Coffee,” she said “Black. Then let’s talk about your idea.”

      

      I TOLD Posey what I’d been up to during the first part of the day, from my conversation with Farmington at the library to my failed meeting with Titus. I told her I felt I had no other option than to kidnap Farmington and force him to sign the thesis approval form. When I was done, Posey kept her eyes focused on me without saying anything for several beats.

      “My brother saw us once, you know, during…”

      “I’m surprised Titus didn’t kill him,” I said.

      “I don’t know. Just…after what you were talking about, with your plan—”

      “A very poorly designed and barely executed plan.”

      “You and I, we don’t have anything. So maybe you can just be a regular guy. Like a friend. And my brother can see I can be with a guy and not, you know—”

      “Fuck him?”

      “It’s exhausting. Every guy. Every teacher, every fucking person I make contact with I’ve got to worry about what Titus will think. I’ve got to plan ahead and plot and scheme. It’s just getting to be too much.”

      I nodded in agreement and wondered if I had enough change