THE RUDOLPH VALENTINO CRUMPTON STORY Part 7

Tommy had some rock music blaring as they drove off. “What you think about this ride,” Tommy was really laying it on now. “They say they may not make the Seville model much longer, I think I’ll get me another one before they stop, I love it, not too big but still classy,” Tommy said this knowing he couldn’t pay for this one but still trying to impress the kid. “This won’t take us long, everything is set up, we just have to go in, do our job and get out, it’s a piece of cake,” Tommy up to now was the only one to speak. “What are we going to do?” ask Rudolph. “Just something our customer doesn’t want to do himself,” Tommy responded. “I got a guy that wants to get out of the paint business,” Tommy told Rudolph. “How you gonna help him do that,” ask Rudolph. “We’re going to encourage the fire insurance company buy him out, it’s just that simple,” Tommy said smugly. “What do you mean,” Rudolph was trying to use as few words as possible. “We’re going to start a fire in the plant that will burn like hell with all the paint they have sittin around,” Tommy told him, never taking his eyes off the road while gauging Rudolph’s reaction. “Can’t we get in trouble for that,” Rudolph had now started gauging Tommy’s reaction. “We won’t if we we’re smart in how we do it,” answered Tommy. “The difference kid is that I know what we’re doing, you understand”? Rudolph unknown to Tommy was not the least scared. He had no feeling either way about what they were going to do. He did not want to go to jail but aside from the good things that happened to him today jail would be no different than his previous fifteen years. He did have enough sense to want to know why Tommy thought they could pull it off without trouble. It was time for Tommy to show him how smart he was putting something together. “Why do you think this is going to be so easy,” Rudolph was ready to hear the plan; he needed no more selling. “The owner is the one who hired me,” Tommy started, “he’s gotten rid of all the security guards tonight and left the plant open for us to get in without any trouble. Nobody really cares, the insurance company will cover the loss, hell that’s what they are in business for, it’s really a no loss deal,” Tommy explained. “Besides with all that paint the place will practically burn itself, we just have to get it going,” Tommy was convincing himself as much as Rudolph and Rudolph knew it.

The two drove to a shopping center where Tommy had parked a small dark blue van type truck. Tommy had taken the truck from a used car lot just before picking Rudolph up earlier that evening. The owner of the lot was a friend of Tommy’s and needed an insurance loss himself to move the truck out of his inventory and would not report the truck as stolen until the next morning when he went to his lot. Tommy handed Rudolph two pair of white surgical gloves and told him to put them on and keep them on until they got back into this car later. Tommy told Rudolph they would put all their personal belongings into a bag and secured them in the trunk of the Seville. Rudolph took the only thing he had, the $20.00 bill Tommy had given him earlier out of his pocket and placed it into the bag along with Tommy’s wallet, some keys and a money clip that held the same roll Tommy flashed earlier when he bought Rudolph all his new ‘stuff’. Tommy opened the trunk using a small keypad located on the driver’s side of the car and placed the bag with all the personal belongings in the trunk, pushed tightly under the spare tire. As Rudolph got into the truck he was almost overcome with the smell of gasoline. Tommy had bought 50 gallons of Amoco white gas that afternoon and stored it in 10 five-gallon buckets. One of Tommy’s mentor’s once told him on a previous job the white gas from Amoco would not leave any residual evidence once it burned and he always used it for any arson job. Tommy had no idea whether white gas story was true or not but he was afraid not to use Amoco gas for this type of work. Tommy had parked the truck in this parking lot nearly two hours before; locked with the windows tightly rolled to the top, making the truck almost unbearable with fumes, a little problem he always seemed to forget. “Don’t light a match in here,” he said laughing at the situation he created. “Let the windows down and let’s get moving,” Rudolph said, acting much more level headed than Tommy. The two drove away from the parking lot with their heads hanging out the window until they were at least a mile from where they found the truck. The plant was over four miles from the shopping center. As they drove into a small industrial park Rudolph noticed a sign at the entrance that listed all the businesses located in the park. One of the businesses was ‘Coverall Coatings’, supposedly ‘Covering Pittsburgh and all of the Southwest Pennsylvania area’. Toward the backside of the park Rudolph finally saw the ‘Coverall Coatings’ building. It was the usual metal industrial building with an office, identified by the different roof design attached to the front and nearest the street. Sure enough there were no security guards anywhere in sight and the gate to a fenced area to the sides and back of the plant was chained but with the lock hanging open on the chain. Tommy told Rudolph to open the gate and to bring the lock back with him. As the chain link gate swung open Tommy pulled the truck through the fence and waited for Rudolph to get back inside the truck after pushing the gate to the closed position but without fastening it shut. They pulled slowly around the plant to a roll-up door on the backside of the plant. On the backside of the plant was an area designed for shipping and receiving that provided a large open area which Rudolph assumed was to give eighteen wheelers plenty of room to move around. On that night there were no trucks in the area or around the plant. Tommy backed up to a roll-up door and told Rudolph to get out and raise the door. As soon as Rudolph had the door up and braced Tommy backed the truck into the open area inside the plant and cut off the engine. He motioned Rudolph to lower the door. “We’re going to choke in there if you close this door”, Rudolph said as Tommy was getting out of the truck. Tommy walked just outside the door and looked around at the back of the plant and beyond the fence. There was nothing to the back of the plant and beyond the fence except a wooded area and there were no lights in sight within a mile of the fence. “I guess you’re right,” Tommy said after looking around, “just pull it down about half-way and brace it with one of those old pallets laying outside.” Rudolph braced the door as Tommy instructed and walked back around to the back of the truck where Tommy was unloading some of the gas cans and two regular floor mops. “Let’s start spreading this stuff in the office area first then work our way back toward this door,” Tommy told Rudolph. Each of them took a mop and two five-gallon containers and walked through the plant area to the front office. When they found the door leading into the office area Rudolph was the first to try the door. “It’s locked,” Rudolph told Tommy as he walked up, struggling with the two five-gallon cans and a mop. “Hold on I know where they keep the key,” Tommy responded. He set his gas cans and mop down next to the office door and walked a few feet away to a time clock machine hanging on the wall separating the plant from the office. Tommy studied the metal slots holding time cards until he found the one he was looking for and then reached to the bottom of the slot and retrieved a key on a small ring. Tommy came back to the door and tried the key which immediately unlocked the lock, he then opened the door, bowed to Rudolph and said in jest, “please come into my office, I think I have a little work for you.”

After a very brief instructional period, Tommy and Rudolph begin to pour the gasoline onto the floor then to spread it over every surface they could see with the mops. The office area, including file cabinets they opened, desks, chairs, walls and even a huge copy machine they covered in Amoco white gas. The entire office area took the 20 gallons they brought in to begin with. “Let’s take these cans back to the truck and get some more to start on the plant area,” Tommy instructed. The two returned to the truck, stacked the four containers to the side of the truck, took another two cans each and returned to the front of the building. Tommy without slowing down took the south end and Rudolph the northern most part of the building. “Be sure you open the paint drums that are closed and get them all covered as good as you can with the gas. This stuff don’t need much, just something to get it started, it won’t hurt if you pour some of the paint and the other shit in those drums out on the floor. This place will go up fast once this paint gets going,” Tommy was training while he worked. The two were almost to the back of the plant, in the shipping area, before they exhausted the two containers each they had taken for the operating part of the plant. Both,within minutes of each other, returned to the truck and stacked the newly emptied cans next to the first four and Tommy took the remaining can onto the loading dock, where several drums of finished paint product had been placed waiting to be shipped. Tommy loosened the lids on drums of paint stacked on the loading dock and covered the outsides of the drums with gas from one of the last containers. Rudolph covered a pile of used pallets that had collected on one side of the dock with the last can of the gasoline and the two stood for just a moment admiring their work and trying to think of any place they had not soaked in Amoco white gas. “Let’s light this thing and get out of here,” Tommy said as he began to move back toward the truck. “We gotta put the cans back in the truck and take them with us,” Tommy told Rudolph,“somebody might figure out where they came from.” Rudolph was trying his best to figure out how Tommy intended to ignite the fire he knew was coming. The two loaded the empty cans into the truck and Tommy told Rudolph to wait by the door while he pulled the truck out of the plant. “How you gonna get this started,” Rudolph asked,getting a little concerned about all the fumes that were by now filling the plant. If Rudolph knew anything, coming from a family of underground miners he knew that the fumes were the most ignitable part of gasoline. He really was concerned about just starting the engine on the truck in that plant because he knew it would not take much to get this place going under any circumstances. Tommy told Rudolph to open the door all the way while he pulled the truck out. Rudolph did as Tommy told him and Tommy pulled the truck just barely outside the plant door and left it running. Rudolph was still standing by the open door when Tommy walked back into the plant and picked up one of the gasoline soaked mops they had been using since they first got there. “I’m gonna light this mop and throw it onto those pallets laying on and around the loading dock, that stuff will get it going and give us some time to get out of here before everything blows,” Tommy told Rudolph. “When I throw the mop you pull the door down and haul ass to get in the truck,” Tommy explained to Rudolph. “You can’t do that Mr. Douglas, these fumes will explode as soon as you light that mop and blow us both up,” Rudolph had seen fumes ignite before. “I’ve done this a hundred times, Rudolph, you just pull the door and get in the truck, we’ll have a few minutes before it blows,” Tommy actually had never done this large of a plant and had never thought about what Rudolph was saying. Rudolph stepped in front of the truck now sitting few feet outside the plant door and watched as Tommy, standing just barely outside the building, lit the mop using a Bic lighter and held it for a moment to allow it to become totally involved in flame. Tommy, standing just outside the plant and near the back door of the truck one the passenger side, drew the mop back over his right shoulder and trying as hard as he could to throw the flaming stick into the building got almost to the release point when the fumes in the building ignited in a huge flash of light, flames and energy. Rudolph watched as Tommy was blown upward and through the air and completely over the truck. Tommy came down in front of the driver’s door, knocking the rear view mirror off the side of the truck with his body. Tommy standing close enough to feel the shock and wave of scorching heat ran immediately to Tommy who seemed unconscious. Rudolph pulled Tommy to his feet while trying to determine if he was alive or dead. Rudolph threw Tommy over his shoulder and carried him to the passenger side of the van, threw him in and closed the door as quickly as possible. All the time what Rudolph imagined must be like being in the middle of a bomb explosion was raging just inside the plant door. Rudolph ran immediately to the drivers side of the van and sliding in under the steering wheel quickly put the truck in geared and got out of that place as fast as possible. When he got to the gate he remember he had closed when they came in, he stopped, eased the gear stick to the P on the display, jumped out, opened the gate, got back into the truck and pulled into the street as fast as possible. The kid never once thought about closing the open gate as he drove away. Rudolph had never driven a car or truck before in his life. His total experience came from watching his dad, mom and uncle before leaving Kentucky and Tommy on the earlier drive to the plant. Fortunately, Tommy began coming around almost as soon as the little van got back to the street. Rudolph was scared to death, he was trying to drive for the first time in his life, he had no idea how bad Tommy was hurt and he had no idea how to get to a hospital to save Tommy’s life if needed. Tommy looked like a lump of coal from Matewan but he was at least beginning to move around and grown soon after they got through the gate. “Wake up, wake up,” Rudolph was screaming. “I’m o.k., I’m o.k.,” Rudolph heard Tommy say. “Can you drive?” Rudolph was pleading more than asking. “I think so,” whispered Tommy, “stop right here and let me take it.” Rudolph had not even driven past the front of the plant. Just as he open the door to run to the passenger side as Tommy slid across the front seat and under the wheel, the fire, having spread quickly through the plant and into the office area, exploded and blew the few windows on the front out and scattered glass all around Rudolph and the truck. Rudolph felt several shards of glass cut into his left side, which was exposed to the building as he ran. None of the cuts were serious; it was more like multiple bee stings but scared the hell out of Rudolph as he ran. By the time the kid got back into the truck on the passenger side Tommy had the truck rolling and was soon speeding away from the inferno they had just started.

As the two drove through the small industrial park and by the neighboring plants Rudolph saw lights being turned on and even saw one security guard running toward the street carrying a flashlight while struggling to pull on a jacket. In less than a minute they were back on the main road and headed back in the direction they had originally come earlier that night. Tommy was soon driving at a reasonable speed and made at least two turns before they met the first car. They had gone at least a couple of miles and were sure no one was following before either spoke. “Are you hurt bad”, Rudolph ask Tommy as both begin to settle down from the scared and nervous rush they had just experienced. “I don’t think so”, answered Tommy, “I burned the shit out of my clothes and hair but I don’t think I’m really hurt too bad, are you O.K.?” “Yes, I just felt the blast and the heat”, replied Rudolph, “I didn’t get any of the explosion.” “Good”, Tommy said, “let’s get rid of these cans and dump this truck, I’ve got to get cleaned up before anybody sees me.” The two stopped at five different dumpsters along the way to dispose of the five gallon containers they had carried their Amoco white gas in for the job. After dumping the containers Tommy drove another twenty minutes before pulling in behind a small strip shopping center and parking the truck. “We’re about ten minutes from the car but we need to be careful about not being seen”, Tommy told Rudolph as they got out of the truck. “It’s going to be dark so you need to stick with me as close as you can,” Tommy told Rudolph as they started down an extremely dark ally. Rudolph had no idea where they were and where they were going, he just knew that he’d never been any place like this before in his short life. The two wound their way up and down back streets for what seem like hours to Rudolph but finally emerged within sight of the parking lot where they had left Tommy’s Seville. After watching for several minutes, Tommy said “Come on let’s go, nobody’s around”, they ran to the car and waited for Tommy to punch in the magic numbers on the driver’s door key pad to pop the trunk and retrieve their small bag from under the tire and quickly got into the car and pull away. As they drove back onto the street in front of the shopping center Rudolph noticed that he still had the two pair of rubber gloves on that Tommy had given him earlier. “What do I do with these?” Rudolph asked Tommy as they drove away. For the first time Tommy broke out into laughter. “Can’t say you don’t follow instruction,” Tommy said, “throw them out one at a time while we drive, not too close together, just scatter them as we go”. Tommy seemed to be loosing up now that they were back in his car and seemly safe. The two soon stopped in front of Maxine’s place and both Tommy and Rudolph got out and eased into the boarding house without waking anyone. They went straight to Rudolph’s new room and quietly closed the door before turning on the light. Rudolph had never laughed much in his entire life, but when he saw Tommy in the full light of his room he almost laughed out loud. The front of Tommy’s clothes was literally singed to the point of burning. Tommy’s hair, his eye brows and all the hair on the backs of his hands and arms was gone and even his eye lashes were gone. The flash from the explosion had stripped Tommy hairless and the stubby singed hair looked like tiny balls or specks everywhere hair had once been. In addition to that he smelled like some kind of wet animal. Rudolph had not smelled the burned hair and clothes as long as they had been outside but now the smell was almost sickening. “You’ve got to get cleaned up now”, Rudolph said. “If anyone saw or smelled you like that they would think you’d been in a fire not started one,” Rudolph continued. “Is it that bad,” Tommy asked as he pushed Rudolph aside to get to the small mirror over the dresser Rudolph was so proud of. “Holy shit”, Tommy said when he saw his reflection in the little mirror, “what am I gonna do”? “You get a shower right now, while you’re here”, Tommy told him, “be quite and don’t wake anybody up, I’ll take mine in the morning”. Tommy took one of Rudolph’s bath cloths, some soap, a towel and eased back into the hallway and into the bathroom at the end of the hall. Rudolph sat in the chair near his bed, his mind still racing, while Tommy was trying to clean up. In a few minutes Tommy came back into the room. This time he looked stranger than before. Without a shirt and dressed only in the black jeans he had worn earlier and without a shirt or shoes the loss of hair was even more evident. The burned and singed areas of his body were as smooth as a newborn baby, while the parts that had been covered and not exposed were as hairy as ever. Tommy looked like a freak. “What am I going to do?” Tommy asked the younger man that was staring at him. “Take a shirt from my stuff and my other sweatshirt and get back to your apartment and stay low for a couple of days, if anybody ask what happened tell them you got too much lighter fluid on some charcoal you were trying to light and it exploded on you”, the kid was giving the instructions. Rudolph had seen this happen one time when his dad had tried to start a fire in their small home with some gasoline and he had also watched his uncle trying to start a charcoal grill one time after his mother sent him to Pikeville to live. He’d never seen anyone burned like this but he figured something like this was possible. Tommy took the clothes and after using some of Rudolph’s new after-shave to both soothe the singed areas and to remove the still strong smell he once again quietly eased back into the hallway and left Rudolph’s room and the boarding house. Rudolph was left sitting in his new chair, a sixteen year old kid, pondering everything that happen to him that day. He had not slept more than an hour or two in the park near the church where he first met Tommy Douglas. Since waking to the sound of garbage trucks clanging dumpsters they were relieving of their trash until this very moment had been less than twenty-four hours but what a day it had been. For the first time in his life Rudolph Crumpton felt like a real person. In less than twenty-four hours he had acquired a room, more new clothes than he ever owned and he hoped had a job that would pay him more than anyone in his family ever made. What would all those who snickered at him when he walked into a school room or laughed when they saw him and his impoverished mother come into the little grocery store in Matewan to plead for the out of date milk and browning produce.

(to be cont'd)