Episodul 7 · The Yellow Truck

Maxim came back from his collection in a yellow truck that sounded as though something underneath it wanted to get out.

He parked close to the gate, climbed down and stood listening to the engine for a moment. Then he reached beneath the cab and gave something a hard pull. The rattle stopped.

Soles watched from the kitchen door.

— That usually needs a tool.

— I brought both of them.

Maxim held up his hands. Soles had watched him solve problems that way since they were children: pull harder, lift it clear, put himself between the trouble and whoever he thought needed protecting. The approach had cost them windows, a garden wall and an impressive number of apologies.

Maxim came through the gate without offering the sort of careful smile Soles had begun to dread.

— You eaten the rest of the toast?

— You said you were finished.

— I was. At the time.

— There’s more bread.

— That’s what I like about this establishment. Terrible service, limitless optimism.

He glanced at the chair in the yard and waited for Soles to sit before taking the other one.

The driver he wanted them to see worked out of Bren’s depot. He had mentioned a cash passenger while they waited at the port scales, a man asking too many questions about the garden road. The investigator’s appeal for information had made Maxim remember it.

— You’ve told the police?

— Left a message this morning. They haven’t called back yet.

— He remembers a face?

— He says he might. That’s why I want you to talk to him.

Soles asked what else the passenger had said. Maxim spread his hands.

— We were waiting to be weighed. I was watching the scale, he was talking. I wasn’t taking minutes.

The answer was useful because it left the gaps where they belonged. Soles had spent the night wanting every uncertain thing to become certain. He could feel himself doing it again.

— When can we go?

— He’s there until this afternoon. I’ll take you now.

— You have work.

— I swapped collections. The firm can survive without me until this afternoon.

— You told them why?

— I told them I was taking my cousin somewhere. If they want more, they can come and carry you themselves.

Maxim checked the time, already impatient to leave. When they were boys, he had taken the blame for a broken window because Soles had still been standing there holding the ball. Asking him to wait now would be harder than asking him to help. Soles would have to do both.

Soles left a message for the investigator with Maxim’s number and the depot address. When he returned to the gate, his cousin had opened the passenger door and was removing a collection sheet from the seat. Most days the old truck carried the firm’s parts. Today it would carry a question neither of them knew how to ask.

— You’ll have to pull yourself in a bit, he said, looking at the high step.

Soles looked back toward his chair.

Maxim followed his glance, swore quietly and went around to the loading bed. He returned carrying a short wooden step used for unloading. He set it beneath the cab and tested it with his own weight.

— Forgot that part.

He held the door while Soles climbed in. The movement pulled at his chest, but the extra step made it manageable.

They were halfway to the depot when the rattle returned.

Soles listened until Maxim noticed.

— What?

— The bracket’s loose. Pulling it sideways won’t tighten it.

— I was hoping you’d stay impressed a bit longer.

— I was impressed by the size of your tools.

Maxim laughed and shifted gears. His phone rang in the cup holder. He let it ring until they stopped at a light, then answered through the speaker.

A customer wanted a delivery brought forward. Maxim said he was already on another job. The customer began explaining why that was inconvenient, and Maxim’s grip tightened around the wheel.

— You changed the address after I loaded it, he said. Now you want a different time too?

The voice grew louder. Maxim cut the call before it could finish.

— That’s tomorrow’s problem.

— Will he still be the firm’s customer tomorrow?

Maxim gave the phone a displeased glance.

— We’ll see tomorrow.

At the next turnout, Soles asked him to stop. The noise beneath the cab had become a knock. He could see the loose bracket from the passenger side without getting underneath.

— If it comes off, you won’t have a delivery tomorrow either.

Maxim got the tool roll. Soles pointed out the worn hole and the washer that had shifted behind it. Maxim took the load off the bracket with one hand, fitted a broader washer and tightened the bolt with the other.

He checked the neighboring mount before he put the tools away.

— You used to fix my bicycle for less commentary, Maxim said.

— You used to break it less creatively.

— I was developing my skills.

The engine ran quietly when he started it again. Soles listened with an unexpected satisfaction. He had changed something, however small, and it had stayed changed.

Bren’s depot occupied a paved yard behind a low office. A truck waited beside the loading doors. Beyond it, a man was rolling a cigarette against his thigh.

Maxim drove past the gate and stopped beside the office.

— Stay here while I ask where he’s gone.

— Which one is he?

— The one with the cigarette.

Soles turned toward the loading doors.

— Then I can ask him myself.

Maxim looked from him to the open cab door and seemed to recognize a problem he had created for himself.

— All right. Slowly.

The driver raised his head when they approached. His eyes went to Soles, then back to Maxim. He crushed the unfinished cigarette beneath his boot.

— You brought him here?

— He’s the one who needs to hear it.

— I said I’d talk on the phone.

An office window slid open behind them.

— Maxim! You’re blocking the collection bay!

Maxim waved without turning. The driver started toward his cab.

Soles stepped clear of the wheel and spoke before Maxim could catch him by the arm.

— I was shot three weeks ago, he said. At the house on the garden road. If the man you drove had anything to do with it, I need to know what you remember.

The driver stopped with one foot on the step.