The Killing King of Gratis Read Free Page A

some nights. He also knew that a lot of folks came because they were hoping for those drinks. They drank and paid quite a bit while waiting for the free ones. Newt’s generosity was a drink special Kero didn’t have to guarantee.
    Like Kero, Newt grew up in Gratis. He played linebacker at Gratis High School, home of the “Purple Hurricanes,” and stayed there after graduation. He tried junior college for a couple of semesters, but Newt was never made for going to class.
    The truth was that Newt wasn’t made for much of anything. He could joke around with anyone and had the luck of being very good looking. Basically, those were his only two life skills. Even so, most of the men in town, including his friends, envied him for his ease with everyone, especially women. He appreciated women, and was quick to show that appreciation, whether they had boyfriends, fiancées, or even husbands. His appreciation didn’t stop at a woman’s looks, either. When those he spent time with were generous, Newt was more attuned to their inner beauty.
    Generous women, however, weren’t enough to pay all the bills. Newt was a regular customer at Daddy Jack’s and finally convinced Kero to give him a job. He was as sorry as a person could be, but being upright wasn’t a prerequisite in the juke joint business. Kero grew to trust him, if just barely, and Newt was discrete when taking extras. He limited himself to giving out free drinks and taking a few dollars out of the till on special occasions. Newt was fun to have about and just seemed to fit. He was the old dog on Kero’s porch.
    On this Saturday morning, Newt was an extremely hung over old dog. “I’m working on the numbers,” he yelled up to Kero, “but it’s gonna be later.” With Newt, everything in life was going to be later.
    Kero yelled back down the steps.
    “As long as later is in the next fifteen minutes, that’s fine. I’m counting and you got about fourteen left.” Kero chuckled after saying this. They had a give and take consisting of Kero giving shit and Newt taking it.
    Newt was having a hard time focusing. He looked at every receipt four or five times, never registering a single figure. Knowing he wouldn’t be worth anything until he got more sleep, he stumbled to his hiding place for a nap. He went into the downstairs beer cooler, moved a creaking board behind the cases of Pabst, and crawled into the tunnel under Daddy Jack’s.
    Gratis was underscored by a vein of limestone sitting a few feet higher than the soft sedimentary stone surrounding it. Ages ago the Bird flowed into the depression between the stones and Gratis was eventually founded on the high side. This same vein of limestone rose up, slightly, down river and caused the blockage where water backed up to form the Neck.
    Over the years locals carved small tunnels into this soft stone for various reasons, but most were dug in the 1920s. Gratis was dry in those days, but those who wanted to drink never had a problem until federal agents showed up to enforce prohibition. The townsfolk responded by sneaking liquor in by way of the Bird, getting it into town through tunnels coming from the river’s bank. After Prohibition was repealed some of the tunnels caved in from neglect (these were locally known as “drinkholes”) and some were purposely filled in, but many remained.
    Newt found the tunnel under Daddy Jack’s one day while moving a balky freezer. He dug out the parts filled with dirt and braced the shakier ones. Not far from the back of Daddy Jack’s beer cooler he found a section just big enough to keep a cot and the occasional companion.
    There he hid from Kero that morning, taking a nap before looking at another number.
Kero will have to wait on those numbers, and can yell all he wants to.
Closing his eyes, he was soon chasing women in his dreams. He didn’t wake up until he caught one.

5.
The Turtle Palace
    B efore Delroy left for the jail that morning he got a call from Anna. She was