Reason to Believe 10

"Fuck," muttered Carlos under his breath, jumping to his feet. He was furious with himself for allowing his awareness to lapse. He should have been sitting nearer the front corner of the building so he could keep his eye on the front door. But Stephanie had a way of drawing his attention, of sucking him in so that he could see nothing but her. Julio must have sensed that and used it.

"He can't have been gone more than a minute," Lester said. "He shouldn't be far. I'll help you look."

"No," Carlos commanded, his quiet authority evident. "Go back inside and do your job. We don't need both of you getting fired. I'll find him."

"Can I help?" Stephanie asked. "I can stretch my break out for a bit."

Carlos hesitated.

"Les, tell Mary Lou and Tina to cover for me a little longer," Stephanie ordered and grabbed Carlos's arm, starting for the boardwalk.

"I'm so sorry, Carlos," she said as they matched long strides up the ramp. "It was my fault for distracting you."

Stephanie sounded so guilty and contrite that Carlos put an arm around her and planted a kiss on the top of her curls. "It's not your fault, Babe. Don't feel bad. We'll find him."

They stood together side by side on the boardwalk, Carlos looking north and Stephanie looking south. "If you haven't spotted him in fifteen minutes, go back to work, Babe," Carlos said. "I'm going to keep looking until I find him."

Stephanie walked down the boardwalk, her eyes scanning faces, glancing in stores, looking for the white t-shirt and khaki shorts that were the busboys' uniform, watching for Julio's longish, dark-brown hair and nut-brown skin. Since it was still so early in the season, the boardwalk wasn't as crowded as it would be on a Saturday evening in mid-summer, so she knew she'd spot him if he was nearby.

As she looked across the boardwalk, one of the large trash bins caught her eye. Hanging out of the closed swing-top was a long white strip. She hesitated and crossed the boardwalk to the can, pushing in the top and pulling on the white sash until the rest of the garment came out.

She knew it! It was the white bib apron Julio had been wearing. He must have dumped it right away.

Damn, thought Stephanie, I wish I had Carlos's cell phone number. Her own phone was in the pocket of her shorts, set on vibrate, and she could have called him and told him to come back this way.

She kept walking down the boardwalk at a rapid pace, carrying the apron and continuing to study every person she saw.

When she got to Fourth Street she hesitated, looking down the street. Would he have left the boardwalk? No, she decided. He wanted drugs, so he'd be looking to steal a purse or lift someone's wallet first so he'd have money. Then he'd go looking to make a buy.

She walked on. Half a block later the whirring and whistling and gonging of an arcade caught her attention. The night Julio took her wallet they were in an arcade. She walked to the doorway, her eyes searching the bodies clustered around the video games.

There!

The white t-shirt and dark hair stood out like a beacon. Julio was in a small crowd around a Tekken 5 game watching a skinny, freckled guy with spiked-up red hair playing an Asian kid who looked about twelve.

Julio was standing in the back with a slim blonde teenager, her back completely revealed by a black halter top that tied at the neck and waist. The two appeared to be pretty tight, murmuring into each other's ears, exchanging small touches and caresses.

Stephanie hesitated for a moment, wishing she had a way of reaching Carlos, and then made up her mind.

Dropping the apron she was still carrying, she marched over and shoved her way between Julio and the blonde, grabbing his arm. "What the hell is going on here?" she demanded. "Julio, you were supposed to meet me half an hour ago."

She turned to the blonde, keeping a tight hold on Julio. "And you! You just keep your hands off of him. He's mine, and don't you forget it."

The girl shrank back, holding up both hands. "Sorry. He didn't mention that he had a girlfriend." Now that she got a good look at the girl, Stephanie thought she looked about fifteen, and scared to death.

"Hmph!" Stephanie stuck her nose up in the air. "Come on, Julio, let's go. Carlos is waiting." She grabbed his hand, wrapped her other hand around his arm and pulled him toward the boardwalk, stopping to scoop up the apron from where she'd dropped it.

"Do you have a cell phone?" she asked Julio when they got out to the boardwalk.

He was sullen, pouting. "No. My asshole brother took it."

Probably afraid he'd call his dealer, Stephanie thought. She kept a firm grip on his arm as she reached into her pocket for her phone. "What's Carlos's number?" she asked, thumb poised to punch in the number.

"I don't know," Julio muttered, but she could tell from the look on his face that he was lying.

"Fine," Stephanie said, "then we'll meet him back at the restaurant." She shoved her phone back in her pocket and resumed her two-handed grasp on his arm.

Only a block and a half, she thought, dragging Julio along. But he resisted, and in spite of his scrawny build he was still several inches taller and considerably stronger than her.

When they got to the top of the ramp down onto Fourth Street Julio made his move, swinging his free arm around to smack her in the face with his closed fist. As she flew backwards he jerked his arm away, leaving her to smash into the side wall of the building on the corner.

The back of Stephanie's head slammed into the wood siding so hard she saw stars. Dizzy and disoriented, she slid down the wall to sit on the boards, knees bent, tears filling her eyes.

Julio was already halfway down to the street when Carlos vaulted the railing, dropping lightly to the pavement and reaching the bottom of the ramp just in time to catch him by the scruff of the neck. Carlos swung him around with one hand and bashed him with a stiff uppercut to the chin, leaving him lying there in an unconscious heap and tearing back up the ramp to Stephanie.

TBC