After a quick and very filling lunch, Andy volunteered to take me to the used car lot and help me pick out the next victim. When we were scoping out the cars, my phone buzzed. I picked up without looking at the number.
"Yo."
"Yo? What kind of answer is that for a chick?" Marcus replied after a pause.
"The kind that's a bounty hunter for a living."
"Ah, yes. Who am I to question you? I'm just part of the scum that you have to drag into jail." He chuckled a little.
"There have definitely been worse scum."
"I'm honored. I actually needed a favor. Would you mind?"
"No prob, what do you need?" It occurred to me a moment too late that it might be a teensy bit foolish to say that to a perfect stranger.
"A ride? To the impound lot?" I laughed. He sounded like a child ready to beg. "I'll take that as a yes?"
"Uh, hang on." I leaned toward Andy. "Would you mind taking someone to the impound lot?"
"Nope. Who?"
"One of my skips." I pulled the phone back to my mouth. "We'll be there in five."
XxXxXxX
Marcus and Star, the chocolate Labrador, were lounging outside waiting for us. When Marcus saw me in the car, he stood and dropped his cigarette to the ground, stepping on it. He loaded Star in the back and followed her in. I turned around so he could see my lips and I enunciated as much as I could.
"Marcus Wright, this is Andy Carson." Marcus said a quick hello and settled back in the seat, looking out the window. Andy's jaw tightened and he briefly nodded. What was that? Andy was the friendly one. He was a people person. It was his job. But it seemed like he didn't like Marcus. He would look in the rearview mirror at him every so often and the look on his face was not friendly. He looked almost mad. I glanced back at Marcus to make sure he was still looking out the window, then I whispered to Andy.
"What's your problem?" He just shook his head. After that, the three of us rode in silence except when I would point out directions to the impound. When we arrived, Marcus jumped out and headed to the office. He smiled at me on the way by. Andy and I were slower to get out.
"You know him well?" Andy asked.
"No, he was one of my skips yesterday."
"And he needed you to give him a ride? Who hangs out with the person who took them back to jail?"
"You did." I pointed out cheekily.
"Why you?" He asked again. His voice keeping the same low pitch.
"He just moved here." Andy looked like he was about to say, likely story or something like that but held his tongue this time. That was him too after all.
"Where from?"
"LA, I think." Andy just nodded to this, as if to say, I thought so. I was about to ask what his problem was again, but Marcus came out of the little shed following the officer on duty. He had to sign one more thing and we walked closer to him. His car was about a hundred yards behind him, in a line of cars. I looked it over. It actually looked like a car built for speed. My eyes were on it when all of a sudden, it blew up. Then, the car next to it. The heat from the two fires blew up the third car.
"Go, Steph!" Andy shouted and shoved me back a little. I ran a little ways back then looked over my shoulder. Another car blew up and Andy grabbed Marcus's arm and started pulling him away. Marcus fought him a little because he didn't understand what was going on. Andy pointed behind him and Marcus turned in time to see the next car explode. The line of fire was coming very close, very fast. More cars behind the line of explosive cars started blowing up. The two guys and the impound officer caught up with me and we ran out of the gates and into the streets. We stood in awe as one after another, the impounded cars blew sky high, then fell back to earth. Out of my peripheral, I saw a streak of red going over the fence a little ways down the line. I focused my eyes on it and I made out Mallory Benedict.
"Jesus, that girl is insane."
XxXxXxX
"I can't believe it, Steph! Blowing up your car is one thing, but the entire impound lot?" Eddie Gazarra asked incredulously. Eddie has been a friend since elementary school. Before I got serious with Joe, Eddie would bring beer over and we would watch hockey together. He was a great guy, who just happened to marry my idiot cousin, Shirley the Whiner. I guess he liked her because they had three kids that he was always trying to rope me into babysitting.
"It wasn't my fault!" He shook his head. "Seriously, I saw one of my skips jumping the fence after the first few cars."
"Which one?" He asked, flipping open his notebook.
"Mallory Benedict." He frowned, trying to remember the familiar name.
"A twelve year old? The preteen car thief blew up the impound lot?"
"That's what I saw." Eddie turned to Marcus who was leaning on Andy's car in between Andy and me.
"You see anything?" Marcus was looking at me and he hadn't seen what Eddie had said. I was about to tell him, when Andy tapped his shoulder, drawing his attention.
He pointed at Eddie and enunciated. "He asked you if you saw anything?" Andy pointed to his eyes on the word saw and at the end wiggled his index up and down. Marcus nodded and turned to face Eddie.
"I was a little busy watching cars blow up. I didn't see anything else." His tone was dry and a touch sarcastic. Eddie nodded and Marcus went to sit in Andy's car with Star.
"My ASL is a little rusty." Andy admitted softly, looking at Marcus.
"You knew someone that was deaf." Andy hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"Yeah, for a while growing up. I was an only child and my parents aren't close with either of their families, but Father was still on good terms with his brother. When Uncle Mason and Aunt Diane were killed in a car accident, their only remaining child came to live with us. We all tried to make it easier on her and learned sign language to help her out. She was a great girl, a couple of years older than me. I adored her. She had been born deaf and I guess it was all to much for her. You see, she had a hard time connecting to people because she had to have a lot of faith in them before she became close.
"I don't think she ever attached to us and high school became too much for her. My parents were pretty wealthy and they sent her to the same prep school I went to, instead of a school for the deaf. It was the beginning of a new school year while we were in high school when I came home to find her." He stopped.
"What happened?"
"She slit her wrists in warm bathwater."
"Oh, god, Andy. I'm so sorry." I whispered and he looked at me with tears in his eyes. I reached up and hugged him tightly. He hesitated before wrapping his arms around me. We stood like that for a while then we seemed to remember Marcus in the car. As we pulled apart, I looked at the car. Marcus was watching us. He nodded his head toward Andy, asking if he was okay. I nodded. I think he would be.
"Is that why you were so cold to Marcus?" Andy gave me an unreadable look.
"I didn't know he was deaf until the cars started blowing up."
XxXxXxX
Andy took us to the car lot to look at cars. Marcus wondered off to another section of the lot, leaving us to look for mine.
"Your dad told me to make sure you buy American."
"Naturally."
"Ooh, how about this one?"
"Um, too male?" I said when he went to a Hummer. "Oh, I love this!" I walked to a green Corvette. Andy shot me a look.
"With the money you make?"
"Buzz kill."
"How about this one?" He walked to a black Dodge Colt. It was a nice car. Compact. It was about 14 years old with under a hundred thousand miles. Plus, it would accelerate like a muscle car and fly.
"This is it."
XxXxXxX
The three of us parted at the car lot. Andy seemed warmer toward Marcus, but something about it sent up red flags for me.
Marcus had found a Jeep Wrangler that he seemed to love. He waved to us as he cruised away.
Andy and I went back to our separate apartments to get ready for our very different nights. I warned him to make Grandma leave the crowbar in the car and to make sure he stayed by her side. She could be a tricky one.
I got dressed in the Tae Kwon Do uniform. It looked like a bath robe with pants. I made sure to tie the belt properly and evenly. The little things mattered in the dojo. Lula called to see if I needed a ride. I told her that I would pick her up. I wanted to show off my new baby.
We learned something very fast in Tae Kwon Do, patience is a must. If you expect to become a master fighter over night, then you were going to be terribly disappointed. It was very repetitive. Kick, kick, kick, kick. Punch, kick, punch, kick. You learn it until it is a subconscious motion, which is the point. Ironically, I've noticed that since I've started learning how to fight, I have fewer reasons to fight. Not many of my skips mess with me now that I have confidence in my body.
But there is always that one.
The dojo master greeted his class for the night and we bowed low to him, until he acknowledged us. We started by doing knuckle pushups, which were a real pain in the butt. He led us through some warm up things, then started the lessons. See, in the dojo, everyone trains together. You have black belts down to white belts. The people are arranged so they are amongst their own colored belt.
In every discipline the belts are different, but in our dojo they went from: white (pure soul), yellow (souring up to the sun), blue (sky), green (life), brown (returning to the earth), red (these were the most dangerous, because they had the knowledge of a black belt, but not the patience or experience) and black belt (knowledgeable teacher). Lula was a blue belt and I had just earned my green belt. Tae Kwon Do was a tournament sport and it was usually required, but since we used our learning in our daily lives (umm, not quite, but hey, tournaments are scary) we got a break from them.
We did our warm down, both relieved that the work out was over and regretful that we were about to leave the peace of the dojo. The twenty students bowed to the master and Lula and I left the dojo, sweaty and relaxed. The street was quiet and the air was crisp. I dropped Lula off and drove home to Ranger.
He was sitting on the couch with a beer, watching baseball. Must have been a violent day otherwise he would be watching the Ranger's game. I grabbed a beer and dropped down beside him. He kissed me.
"That uniform is sexy on you." I laughed and we settled into the game. On a commercial, I asked him how the take down went.
"Good. We surprised the creep. He tried to take Tank down, but Tank was…well, Tank was Tank." We laughed. "How did your day go?" He asked softly watching me.
"Oh, just took down the chop shop ring and blew up the impound lot, nothing big." I got the rare and breathtaking 200 Watt grin.
"The impound lot, babe?"
"It wasn't my fault! It was Mallory." He just nodded. Was he the only person in the city that believed me?
"She's probably mad that you took down the chop shop. No doubt that she was making good money off it." I nod. My cell started buzzing on the coffee table. It was Andy's number.
"Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Stephanie! Someone kidnapped Eddie Calhoun!" Grandma shouted. Oh, boy.