AN UNEASY ALLIANCE
CHAPTER 1- PROLOGUE
It was several hours before the sun would come up in Bay City, but there still was activity along the streets. Some of the working girls walked along together, comparing their evening activities. They traded gossip and whispered about what they'd love to do with their money, had it all actually belonged to them. Lights came on in the coffee shop down the street. As the women walked into the diner, the proprietor waved to his regular first customers of the day.
Nobody paid any attention as the garbage truck rounded the corner. It chugged and rattled down the street. The driver had already been at work all night and now this neighborhood was the last on his schedule.
Larry yawned as he shifted gears, grinding them instead of the smooth transition he usually mastered. He was tired and sore and just wanted to finish this last section. He'd already done the alleys parallel to the street he was on. Now he had to go a few more blocks, down by the warehouse district. He always saved that section for his last round. From there it was a straight shot back to the refuse collection point where he'd unload the garbage truck then head home.
There were a lot of vagrants in this part of the city. The abandoned warehouses were crawling with them. Most of them were harmless, just grouped together for protection and companionship. Mindful of what appeared to be garbage to him, might be a treasure to someone less fortunate, he thought about how the homeless always scavenged through the dumpsters, looking for food, clothing or some other useful item.
Larry scanned his manifest, checking off the grid number and date of last pick up. He was only supposed to do this section once a month so he always did it on the last day of his schedule. It was a ritual and one that he'd stuck with for the last two years.
Larry parked the big truck and got out to take a look around. The last dumpster he had to empty was a few feet away. Scattered around it were a few things that caught the garbage man's attention. He found a magazine, only a few months old. But it was too wet and soggy to bother with. He noticed several cigarette butts. It always amazed him that no matter how small the butt, as long as there was something to smoke, somebody would count it as a treasure.
He sniffed and rubbed his grimy hand over his nose. He walked to the side of the dumpster and peered down at the ground. A perfectly good shoe. He scooped up the blue shoe, thinking somebody would be glad to have it. It may not have a match to it, but most of the street people weren't that fashion conscious to care whether their shoes matched, only that they had one for each foot. He wrinkled his nose at the stains on the shoe. He didn't want to think about what may have caused them.
It was while he inspected the shoe that he heard a mournful sound from inside the garbage receptacle.
"Probably a damn cat." He spoke out loud, trying to ignore the hairs prickling the back of his neck, as he moved closer to the dumpster. Peering over the edge, he looked down into the container.
Caught in frozen fascination, he looked at the shoe in his hand and recognized its mate, still fitted to the body among the garbage.