Mr Majestyk (1974) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the newsman with the mike come around and mount the steps. Th e n ewsman turned, facing the bus, and the TV camera swung toward him.
    Majestyk was close enough to hear him and stood listening as the TV newsma n s aid, "Today, Frank Renda is being taken to the county seat for pretria l e xamination on a charge that will undoubtedly be first-degree murder. Renda, a f amiliar name in organized crime, has been arrested nine times without a c onviction. Now, it would appear, his luck has finally run out. The prosecutor' s o ffice is convinced Renda will stand trial, be convicted of the murder charge , and spend the rest of his life in prison. This is Ron Malone with TV-Action New s c oming to you from Edna."
    Majestyk walked down the steps past the newsman, came up behind the deputie s s tanding by the bus door and said, "Excuse me."
    The two deputies nearest him turned, with momentary looks of surprise. One o f t hem took his arm then and said, "Get in there."
    He got in, moved past the driver and the deputy standing by him, and took a sea t o n the left side of the bus, in front of the black guy, who leaned forward as h e s at down and said over his shoulder, "You get on TV? Your mama'll be proud t o s ee you."
    Renda sat across the aisle, a row ahead of him. The two Chicanos sat together on Renda's side, two rows closer to the front. When the door closed and the bu s b egan to move, circling out of the parking area with a squad car leading an d a nother following, the deputy standing by the driver moved down the aisle t o t ake a seat in the back of the bus. Both he and the driver, Majestyk noticed , were unarmed.
    He said to himself, How does that help you? And settled back to stare out th e w indow at the familiar billboards and motels and gas stations, the tacoburge r p lace, the stores that advertised used clothing, Ropa Usada. Railroad tracks ra n p arallel with the highway, beyond a bank of weeds. They passed the warehouse s a nd loading sheds that lined the tracks, platformed old buildings that bore th e n ames of growers and produce companies. They passed the silver water tower tha t s tood against the sky--edna, home of the broncos--and moved out into miles o f f ences and flat green fields, until the irrigation ditches ended and the subdue d l and turned color, reverted to its original state, and became desert country.
    Looking out at the land he wondered when he would be coming back. When, or if h e w ould be coming back. He said to himself, What are you doing here? How did i t h appen? Sitting handcuffed in a prison bus. His fields miles behind him. Goin g t o stand trial again. The chance of going to prison again. Could that happen?
    No, he said to himself, refusing to believe it. He could not let it happen , because he could not live in prison again, ever. He couldn't think about i t w ithout the feeling of panic coming over him, the feeling of being suffocated , caged, enclosed by iron bars and cement walls and not able to get out. H e r emembered reading about a man exploring a cave, hundreds of feet underground , who had crawled into a seam in the rocks and had got wedged there, because o f h is equipment, and was unable to move forward or backward or reach the equipmen t w ith his hands to free it. Majestyk had stopped reading and closed the magazine , because he knew the man had died there.
    Prison was for men like Frank Renda--sitting across the aisle with his ow n t houghts, slouched low in his seat, staring straight ahead, off somewhere in hi s m ind. What was he thinking about?
    What difference did it make? Majestyk forgot about Frank Renda and did not loo k a t him again until almost a half hour later, when the land outside the bus ha d c hanged again, submitting to signs and gas stations and motels, and the empt y h ighway became a busy street that was taking them through a run-down industria l a rea on the outskirts of the city.
    He noticed Renda because Renda was sitting up straighter now, stretching