Walter packed his bags in a hurry. He had to get away before the Moretti mob found him.
But when he opened the door, a 45 was pointed right at his face. He could look at nothing else, but he heard Scotty’s voice beyond the gun. “Eli says hello, Walter.”
Walter dropped his suitcase. He fell to his knees and begged. But Scotty and Leo ignored his pleas. They forced him out into the dark parking lot of the cheap motel where Walter had thought he could hide. Who had tipped them off? Who even knew him around here?
They bundled him into the old Plymouth, and they drove him out to the Irish River Bridge reconstruction project. It was quiet and abandoned at this time of night, and far outside of town. They had plenty of time to beat him with fists and chains, compelling him to tell all he knew and who he had told.
When they were done, Scotty put a bullet in Walter’s skull. Then they dumped the corpse into the recently-dug new bridge footing, and they poured in a new load of concrete to cover the body.
As they drove away, Leo frowned behind the wheel. Scotty looked at him. “What’s your problem?”
Leo kept his eyes on the road as he answered, “What if somebody notices the new concrete, Scotty? What if they find him?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Scotty said, leaning back in his seat. “That’s Walter under the bridge.”
The last line came to me half in a dream. I have a bad habit: I fall asleep watching the TV, and often wake up to it as well. I don’t know which show it was this morning, some old Western, but it had a character named Walter. That led to the line, and the line led to the story.
So don’t blame me. Blame James Garner or Chuck Connors.
1. "When you write it, you own it, even if it's a quote"(Richard Bachte, 1922
2. "Whenthey can't blame the muse, they'll blame you" Quotes from the Medieval Play, Edited by A. E. Decker, 2002.