When the detectives wanted to cut up their meat they used the fork in their left hand and that pulled the prisoner’s right hand toward them. Both the hands that were fastened together were on the table. I watched the little prisoner eating and he, without seeming to do it purposefully, made it very uncomfortable for the sergeant. He would jerk without seeming to know it and he held his hand so the sergeant’s left hand was always being pulled. The other two ate as comfortably as they could. They were not as interesting to watch anyway.
“Why don’t you take them off while we eat?” the little man said to the sergeant. The sergeant did not say anything. He was reaching for his coffee and as he picked it up the little man jerked and he spilled it. Without looking toward the little man the sergeant jerked out with his arm and the steel cuffs yanked the little man’s wrist and the sergeant’s wrist hit the little man in the face.
“Son of a bitch,” the little man said. His lip was cut and he sucked it.
“Who?” asked the sergeant.
“Not you,” said the little man. “Not you with me chained to you. Certainly not.”
The sergeant moved his wrist under the table and looked at the little man’s face.
“What do you say?”
“Not a thing,” said the little man. The sergeant looked at his face and then reached for his coffee again with his handcuffed hand. The little man’s right hand was pulled out across the table as the sergeant reached. The sergeant lifted the coffee cup and as he raised it to drink it it jerked out of his hand and the coffee spilled all over everything. The sergeant brought the handcuffs up into the little man’s face twice without looking at him. The little man’s face was bloody and he sucked his lip and looked at the table.
“You got enough?”
“Yes,” said the little man. “I’ve got plenty.”
“You feel quieter now?”
“Very quiet,” said the little man. “How do you feel?”
“Wipe your face off,” said the sergeant. “Your mouth is bloody.”
We saw them get on the train two at a time and we got on too and went to our seats. The other detective, not the one they called Sergeant but the one handcuffed to the big prisoner, had not taken any notice of what happened at the table. He had watched it but he had not seemed to notice it. The big prisoner had not said anything but had watched everything.
There were cinders in the plush of our seat in the train and my father brushed the seat with a newspaper. The train started and I looked out the open window and tried to see Cadillac but you could not see much, only the lake, and factories and a fine smooth road along near the tracks. There were a lot of sawdust piles along the lake shore.
“Don’t put your head out, Jimmy,” my father said. I sat down. There was nothing much to see anyway.
“That is the town Al Moegast came from,” my father said.
“Oh,” I said.
“Did you see what happened at the table?” my father asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you see everything?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you think the little one made that trouble for?”
“I guess he wanted to make it uncomfortable so they would take the handcuffs off.”
“Did you see anything else?”
“I saw him get hit three times in the face.”
“Where did you watch when he hit him?”
“I watched his face. I watched the sergeant hit him.”
“Well,” my father said. “While the sergeant hit him in the face with the handcuff on his right hand he picked up a steel-bladed knife off the table with his left hand and put it in his pocket.”
“I didn’t see.”
“No,” my father said. “Every man has two hands, Jimmy. At least to start with. You ought to watch both of them if you’re going to see things.”
“What did the other two do?” I asked. My father laughed.
“I didn’t watch them,” he said.
We sat there in the train after lunch and I looked out of the window and watched the country. It did not mean so much now because there was so much else going on and I had seen a lot of country but I did not want to suggest that we go up into the smoker until my father said to. He was reading and I guess my restlessness disturbed him.
“Don’t you ever read, Jimmy?” he asked me.
“Not much,” I said. “I don’t have time.”
“What are you doing now?”
“Waiting.”
“Do you want to go up there?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think we ought to tell the sergeant”
“No,” I said.
“It’s an ethical problem,” he said and shut the book.
“Do you want to tell him?” I asked.
“No,” my father said. “Besides a man is held to be innocent until the law has proved him guilty. He may not have killed that Italian.”
“Are they dope fiends?”
“I don’t know whether they use dope or not,” my father said. “Many people use it. But using cocaine or morphine or heroin doesn’t make people talk the way they talked.”
“What does?”
“I don’t know,” said my father. “What makes anyone talk the way they do?”
“Let’s go up there,” I said. My father got the suitcase down, opened it up and put the book in it and something out of his pocket. He locked the suitcase and we went up to the smoker. Walking along the aisle of the smoker I saw the two detectives and the two prisoners sitting quietly. We sat down opposite them.
The little man’s cap was down over the bandage around his head and his lips were swollen. He was awake and looking out of the window. The sergeant was sleepy, his eyes would shut and then open, stay open a while and then shut. His face looked very heavy and sleepy. Ahead on the next seat the other two were both sleepy. The prisoner leaned toward the window side of the seat and the detective toward the aisle. They were not comfortable that way and as they got sleepier, they both leaned toward each other.
The little man looked at the sergeant and then across at us. He did not seem to recognize us and looked all down the car. He seemed to be looking at all the men in the smoker. There were not very many passengers. Then he looked at the sergeant again. My father had taken another book out of his pocket and was reading.
“Sergeant,” the little man said. The sergeant held his eyes open and looked at the prisoner.
“I got to go to the can,” the little man said.
“Not now,” the sergeant shut his eyes.
“Listen, Sergeant,” the little man said. “Didn’t you ever have to go to the can?”
“Not now,” the sergeant said. He did not want to leave the half asleep half awake state he was in. He was breathing slowly and heavily but when he would open his eyes his breathing would stop. The little man looked across at us but did not seem to recognize us.
“Sergeant,” he said. The sergeant did not answer. The little man ran his tongue over his lips. “Listen Sergeant, I got to go to the can.”
“All right,” the sergeant said. He stood up and the little man stood up and they walked down the aisle. I looked at my father. “Go on,” he said, “if you want to.” I walked after them down the aisle.
They were standing at the door.
“I want to go in alone,” the prisoner said.
“No you don’t.”
“Go on. Let me go in alone.”
“No.”
“Why not? You can keep the door locked.”
“I won’t take them off.”
“Go on, Sergeant. Let me go in alone.”
“We’ll take a look,” the sergeant said. They went inside and the sergeant shut the door. I was sitting on the seat opposite the door to the toilet. I looked down the aisle at my father. Inside I could hear them talking but not what they were saying. Someone turned the handle inside the door to open it and then I heard something fall against it and hit twice against the door. Then it fell on the floor. Then there was a noise as when you pick a rabbit up by the hind legs and slap its head against a stump to kill it.
I was looking at my father and motioning. There was that noise three times and then I saw something come out from under the door. It was blood and it came out very slowly and smoothly. I ran down the aisle to my father. “There’s blood coming out under the door.”
“Sit down there,” my father said. He stood up, went across the aisle and touched the detective on the shoulder. The detective looked up.
“Your partner went up to the washroom,” my father said.
“Sure,” said the detective. “Why not?”
“My boy went up there and said he saw blood coming out from under the door.”
The detective jumped up and jerked the other prisoner over on the seat. The other prisoner looked at my father.
“Come on,” the detective said. The prisoner sat there. “Come on,” the detective said and
