Jhondie
We were right on time. I had gone home for a little while, and listened to a lecture on why only heathens aren't at church on Sundays. Mom told Irene that it was my choice how I wanted to worship God, and that was final. I didn't remember the last time Mom went to church without Irene being present, but I didn't mention that. Mom could back Irene down and that was good enough for me. I was so glad they were leaving in the morning. I was going to take the week off of school, and I didn't want anyone to annoy me. I was trying to keep everything down so I could concentrate on finding my father's killer, but I knew I needed time to mourn him for real.
I told Mom I had something important I had to do that night. I knew she thought Zack was in town, and I needed to see him. She still was a little weirded out by my relationship with him, but she was okay with it. I didn't tell her what was really going on, but Kayla gave me a couple of looks that told me she had a better idea than Mom did.
The alley seemed deserted, but I spotted her right off the bat hiding in the shadows. I didn't let on that I could see her. She looked terrified as it was. It was definitely the delicate-looking Oriental girl from the gang. She wasn't wearing any colors, and that said she was not doing this with leader-boy's blessings. I scanned the buildings and made sure we were clear. It didn't feel like an ambush, but you can't be too careful.
I nodded slightly towards where she was. Justin covertly glanced over there, and looked at me a little confused. Sometimes I use him to check and see how well someone really is hidden. "We're here," I called out to her. I held my hands up so she could see they were empty. Not that it mattered after my display earlier.
She crept out of the shadows like a mouse. "I knew you were not the servant," she said. "You have the air of the strong, not the weak."
Like I could resist a setup like that. "It was required so I could look around properly." I patted Justin's cheek. "Be a good boy and make sure nobody disturbs us, will you? Just stay at the end of the alley. I'll tell you when I want you again." He paused and if looks could kill…I felt better.
I looked back at the girl as he walked away. "He's not that bright, but he has some…finer assets." She glanced at his back as he faced away from us, and smiled a little. I wondered if Justin heard that too.
"Why are you really looking for the killer?" she asked suddenly.
I didn't know how to answer that. I thought about what Justin had said earlier. "My boy said the doctor had a debt owed to him. I'm the one who owes it." I had to fight back how hard my stomach clinched. I owed Dad so much. He had done more than save my life. He'd helped me reclaim my soul from Manticore. "I always repay my debts," I said evenly.
"You know more than you are telling." She looked at me sharply.
I shrugged. "I always know more than I say," I replied airily. "But then again, so do you." She suddenly looked scared again, but this was why she called me here, and we both knew it. "You saw Man Bai Lee get killed, didn't you?" I pressed. "By the same person that killed the doctor."
She nodded. "My brother will kill me if he knew I talked to you," she said quickly.
"I've kept better secrets than this." I guess she could tell I was serious.
"Man Bai said he did not want to be in the gang, and I respected that," she said quietly. "But…I liked him anyways. We were friends. He was honorable in a world that has lost its honor. I was there, but he saw Spanky and the other one, and told me to hide. He didn't want a gang fight at his father's business, so I went behind the fence before they saw me." She wiped a tear away.
"Spanky had seen him with my brother at a club. Spanky called him names and said he was a member of the Posse, but he was too afraid of the Waves to come out. He said he was going to fight him. The other person, he was not dressed like a gang member. He was wearing slacks, and a nice shirt and sports jacket, and very expensive shoes. He looked like a country club member. He leaned against a wall and looked very bored."
"Spanky tried to hit Man Bai, but he could not. Man Bai was very skilled in martial arts, and he did not want to really hurt the boy. He threw him down on the ground, and then the other man, he…he…he said, really, Spanky, are you always going to screw up everything in your life? Then he sighed, and said go find your baby bottle, and I'll take care of this. Then he pulled out a gun and shot Man Bai. Spanky yelled out, why did you do that? He looked at him and said, men take what they want, and they don't play around. Uncle Darryl taught me that. Then I ran away before they could see me."
She was crying harder now, and I realized that Man Bai was more than just a friend. I knew exactly what it felt like to see someone you care about get gunned down in front of you. I could still see every detail of when Lydecker shot Eva.
"Didn't you tell your brother?" I asked. They should have retaliated in some way.
"He said that we could do nothing. There was more to it than I knew, and I was to drop it, and not persist." That figured. Darryl Knight had his hands in a lot of places. Made sense that some gangbangers would be scared of him. A light switch went off in my head. That's whom they thought we represented. No wonder they wouldn't talk. They thought it was a silence test, maybe? Who cared, we had something more to go on.
"You will not tell that I said anything?" she asked.
"Said anything? I never saw you before." She turned and disappeared down the alley's other end, back into the shadows. I saw her move a board, and slip into a building. It would have been impressive for someone to see if they didn't have my visual abilities.
I went back to Justin, who was still fuming.
"Sucks, don't it?" I said with a smirk.
He glared at me. "It's a good thing I'm too much a gentleman to hit a girl," he replied icily. "Finer assets, huh?" I know I blushed. So, I'd checked out his rear. Maybe more than once even. No laws against that. He knew he'd gotten me back, and continued, a little nicer. "What did she say?"
I told him what she had said as we walked back to the car. "I can ask Dink about it in the morning," he said finally.
"Morning?" I couldn't believe it. It wasn't even ten. "The night's still young. There's plenty of time to do some recon."
"However," he overrode me. "Some of us are mere mortals, and cannot go several days without any sleep.
"You had last night," I pouted as we got in his car. He shot me a look, and I had to cringe.
"For some reason I don't sleep after strange nocturnal visits," he said, in a slightly strained tone.
So maybe it did need to be discussed. "I'm sorry about that," I said quickly. "It was really not cool of me to do that to you, and, um, you know."
"Yeah, I know how it is."
"Sure."
"Okay."
"Cool."
"Good."
We didn't say much else as he took me home. At least we had worked it out.
Nobody noticed me sneaking back into the house. Irene goes to bed at nine thirty, so I didn't have to listen to her yapping. I sat down in front of my computer and thought for a while. Uncle Darryl? I got on-line and started to go through local society news. I had to weed through the celebrity garbage, but I started to find what I was looking for. Society events for the wealthy. Charity balls, that sort of thing. I saw a local golf tournament from two weeks ago to benefit a juvenile cancer hospital. The name Knight caught my eye.
"Darryl Knight teamed up with his nephew, Emerson Bradshaw to help raise money for this worthy cause," I read aloud. "We have to do everything possible to help those in need", Emerson was quoted later as he accepted the first-place award. "We can't forget that cancer is impartial to anyone's sex, race, religion, or economic situation."
I almost gagged. Was this the nephew? He could have more than one. This one had that slick country-club charm to him. I looked, but I couldn't find any information about Knight having another nephew, or any siblings at all for that matter. There was only one thing to do. I called Dink.
I could almost see him fall out of his chair when he heard me on the phone. I told him that I needed to find out who Darryl Knight's siblings and their children were. Then came the hard question seeing that the market was closed and I really needed that information ASAP. "So, what will I owe you for getting me that?" I asked. Please let it be a fruit that is possible to get. Please don't let it be a crude suggestion.
"Well," he replied. "You can meet me at this bar called Fiesta. You buy the first round, and I'll give you what I can find."
It hit me then. He wouldn't suggest I go to his place for the payment. Saying he had a pretty girl at his place, his buddies would never believe that. But if he showed up where his buddies were with the pretty girl, they would be congratulating him for weeks abut whatever stories he made up.
"When?" I asked.
"Give me two hours." I checked my watch. That would put it at almost one in the morning. Not a big deal for me as long as I was back with the car in time for Mom to take her parents to the airport. I wouldn't screw up her getting them out of here for anything.
Dink was a perfect gentleman at the bar. From the looks he was getting from some of the others, I realized my theory was right. This was a show for them. Still, I got a pitcher of beer, and he showed me what he had. Darryl had one sister who had three kids, but only one was a son. It was the guy from the article. I was looking at my father's killer. Son of a bitch.
I thanked Dink, and hung around for a while, making small talk, mostly for his friends' collective benefits. They were all obviously impressed at who Dink had showed up with. I needed to get home, so I leaned over and kissed his cheek. I thought for a second he was going to faint. "I had a great time tonight," I said loudly. "See you real soon," I drawled, and left.
Justin
"You did what?" I asked furiously, not believing what I'd heard.
"I went ahead and did the legwork like I always seem to be doing," she replied heatedly.
I wasn't mad that she'd gotten the information out of Dink. That was just Jhondie, although she'd never gone to him without me before. It was the other thing she'd said that floored me. She'd found out that Emerson Bradshaw had just started working for his uncle's company. So, she called him and told him she was with an organization for people that had cancer as children, and she wanted to meet with him that afternoon because her organization wanted to give him an award for his charity work.
"Jhondie, do you really think I'm going to let you meet this guy?" Maybe a direct challenge wasn't the best idea.
"You think you can stop me?"
"You think I'm going to help you kill him?" I snapped back. There were limits to my devotion to her. That obviously stung her though. We'd been having breakfast after I took the twins to school and her mother had taken Irene back to the airport. I didn't have any classes that day, but I wished I were in a classroom, taking a killer comprehensive final rather than hearing this.
She jumped up. "I'm not meeting him to set my mark," she hissed low. "I can push everything to the side like I was trained to do. I want the truth!" We were eating at an outdoor café, and she started to stalk off.
I followed her. "Wait," I called. She paused, but didn't turn around. "After the last few days, I have no idea what's in your head right now, and to be honest, taking him out is what I would be wanting to do in your place."
She turned back to be, still furious. "I am not a genetically engineered killing machine," she said under her breath. "Regardless of what you think, I do want to get to the truth."
"I'm sorry," I said simply. It was hard to get around some things with her. In truth, she was designed to be a genetically engineered killing machine. And sometimes, I could see it. "Come on," I urged. "Sit down, and we'll talk, okay?" She wasn't happy, but she sat back down with me.
I tried to begin again and be a little more open-minded. "What good is meeting him going to do?"
"I'm going to get him talking," she said firmly. "Ask him about his family and things like that. Start out if he'd ever had a family member with cancer, and then move into the state of the world and kids in general. He's 23, so he'll think a teenager is just a kid. I'm not thinking I'll get him to confess, but I'm willing to bet I can get something."
I was willing to bet that too. She'd mentioned interrogations once, and I had a feeling she'd been trained on how to get information from someone. They'd probably given some pretty intense demonstrations back at Manticore. "You don't think he'll dismiss you as just a teenager?" I asked. She was only 17.
She raised one eyebrow. "He'll think I'm much older," she replied. "I'm not exactly your typical teen." And that point I had to concede to her.