Read Online October 1970 by Louis Hamelin - Free Book Online Page A

was livid. He looked away and lowered his head.
    â€œDid you find any bits of glass inside the store?”
    â€œNo,” admitted the officers, their curiosity piqued.
    Coco squatted on his heels and pointed to several small pieces of window and a small amount of powdered glass on the sidewalk.
    â€œSee that?” he said. “It ain’t complicated: the debris fell outside, therefore the rifle was fired inside the store.”
    The two police officers turned toward the hardware-store owner, who had turned green. They waited for an explanation.
    But Monsieur Dufour stuck to his story: the rifle shot had come from a passing car. The officers had to choose between the eyewitness account of a respectable citizen, a pillar of the community, and the ravings of a juvenile delinquent.
    Coco was walking down the street when the patrol car pulled up beside him. The officer who was driving rolled down his window.
    â€œWhere are you off to, Coco?”
    â€œTo fuck my girlfriend. You okay with that?”
    â€œYou got something you want to tell us?”
    â€œNot here.”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œDon’t feel like it.”
    â€œThe street’s all right as far as it goes, Coco, but you can’t stay a fuckin’ bum all your life.”
    â€œThat’s none of your Christly business.”
    â€œYou should come back into the Force.”
    On voting day, the provincial authorities proclaimed the Riot Act. The situation on the South Shore seemed to have got out of control. As well as the usual clashes at the polling stations, this time there were direct attacks on members of the League. Cars overturned, death threats issued. Someone even fired a rifle through the window of a downtown hardware store. The owner of the establishment, a Monsieur Louis-Georges Dufour, publicly vituperated against the young thugs who had dared to vandalize his brand-new Lincoln Continental Mark II. He noted that his position as a League organizer, as well as his irreproachable standing as a citizen and parishioner, had made him a target in the eyes of the bandits. “You’d think we were living in the Wild West,” he concluded.
    It was generally thought that Quebec’s reading of the Riot Act led to the restoration of law and order, and favoured the re-election of Mayor Giguère, the candidate for the League of Social Vigilance.
    Three days later, Coco knocked on Dufour’s door. The hardware-store owner wasn’t happy to see him.
    â€œNot a good idea, coming here like this  . . . ”
    â€œAfter paying my guys,” Coco said, “there wasn’t anything left for me. I need more money.”
    â€œI don’t have any more work for you. The elections are over, Coco  . . . ”
    Coco looked over the man’s shoulder, toward the hall. The hardware-store owner’s daughter was walking down it to the brightly lit kitchen. Her father saw Coco looking at her.
    â€œI don’t have anything for you, my boy.”
    â€œI don’t want money  . . . ”
    Coco looked him in the eye with a tight smile on his wide face. He was a head taller than the master of the house.
    â€œThe Lincoln.”
    â€œWhat about the Lincoln?”
    â€œHow much?”
    The hardware-store owner burst out laughing.
    â€œI don’t think it’s in your price range.”
    â€œIt would be if you gave me more work.”
    â€œCome see me before the next elections, okay?”
    â€œNo. I’ll be paying a visit to Big Raymond Girard before that.”
    His smile equalled that of the hardware-store owner, who was the first to look away.
    â€œI just want to try it out,” Coco said quietly.
    â€œYou just  . . . what?”
    â€œThe Lincoln. Just for a spin. Afterward I’ll bring it back. I’ll be careful with it,” he added as the hardware-store owner handed him the keys.
    Dufour didn’t like the smile he saw flash across