Best Pickpocket in the South

It was near dark and Racetrack sped up to a slow jog, his haul of coin jingling in his pockets as he whistled to their sound. He was in a tremendously chipper mood. After nearly three weeks of winning squat, he'd finally managed to pull a bet that had proved to be fruitful. His luck was turning around and the thought caused him to have an almost dance in his step. He broke into a full-on sprint once he saw the lodging house looming in the distance. He wasn't athletic in any sense of the word, his stature too short for him to be good at most things physical other than fighting, but he was willing to break a leg if that meant rubbing his pal's noses in it all the faster.

Race took each step two at a time, eager to tell the fellas his news. He barreled through the doorway and into the lobby, rushing up to the table that his friends were situated at.

"Who is laughing now, boys?" he shouted with glee, leaning over to smack Kid Blink's hat off his head. Kid Blink bent down to pick it up, grumbling something about mussing up his good hat, but Race wasn't listening. "You guys told me I was wasting my time, that I was an idiot for trekking to Sheepshead every day. Well I fucking did it! I won! So you sons-a-bitches can cool it with the smartass remarks! 'Cause Racetrack Higgins ain't no idiot!" He pulled out a cigar and beamed triumphantly at them, his eyes scanning each of their faces before landing on one that caused his own to drop.

"You!" he bellowed, pointing a finger. "What are YOU doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Flash said coolly. "But please, do carry on. It was nice to see you with something other than a scowl on your face. I was beginning to think you had no other expression."

Jack frowned and looked between the two of them. "You two know each other?"

Racetrack gestured toward Flash with one hand, his cigar in the other. "This is the broad, Jack. The one from Sheepshead. The one that told me I needed to learn manners."

"Seems like you still need work on that," Flash remarked, causing Racetrack to shoot her a dirty look.

Jack let out a hearty laugh before lightly punching Flash on the arm. "You're the one that got my pal Race in such a tizzy? Why does that not surprise me, Flash? You always knew how to push a person's buttons."

Flash let out a groan and rubbed her face with her hands. "Yes, unfortunately I had the displeasure of meeting Pony Boy earlier this week. Not once, but twice. What was it you told me, Race? To go play with my dolls and leave the selling to the real men?"

This got a laugh from around the table and Race reached out to smack Kid Blink's hat off his head again. Racetrack made a face and turned to glare at the girl. "Don't call me that."

"Call you what?" Flash asked him wide eyed. "Pony Boy?"

"Yes," Racetrack hissed through gritted teeth. "And don't call me Race. That's reserved for certain people. Can't find stuff of your own so you gotta resort to thieving? First my spot, then my chair," he gestured toward where she was sitting, "And my friends? Dammit, can't I have something without you taking it?"

Flash held up her hands in defense, and tilted her head to the side. "Technically, Jack was my friend first. You took him from me. Hate to burst your bubble and all."

"That's neither here nor there," Race grumbled and waved his hands. "Blink, Mush, Itey, let's go. We don't need bad company."

The guys looked at each other and back up to Racetrack. When they didn't move, Racetrack snapped his fingers in front of their faces, trying to spark some sort of confirmation that they were tagging along. All three of them shook their heads, causing Flash to let out a giggle.

Flash sat back in her chair and propped her feet up on the table. Race's attitude towards her was getting tiresome and all she wanted to do was enjoy the company of people that she hoped to one day call her friends. Racetrack being at her throat every time he got a glimpse of her was really putting a damper on things.

"Does Spot know you're here? You usually have to ask to attend one of our poker nights. I swear, I'm going to talk to him tomorrow. Try to placate him so he will keep you the hell away from me," Racetrack threatened.

Flash let out another groan and rolled her eyes before speaking to him slowly. "How many times do I gotta tell you, I don't know who Spot is. I have no damn clue what in the hell you are talking about."

Racetrack looked at her with a frown before scratching his head. Now he wasn't so sure that Spot had anything to do with this girl. Maybe he wasn't sending her just to get under his skin like he had originally thought. "So you really don't work for Spot?" he asked, his voice getting a little quieter than before.

"For the thousandth time, NO. I don't know who that is. But don't worry, Racetrack. I won't be selling at Sheepshead no more. I found my own place." Flash crossed her arms smugly, a look of glee on her face.

"And where is that?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"I got the idea the other day to sell outside pubs," she stated proudly.

Racetrack snorted. "That's hardly a place. I tried that. Good luck."

Flash gave him a complacent grin. "Don't need luck when you got these," she said gesturing towards her chest.

Everyone's face turned a bright red and they all suddenly found the table to be quite interesting, except for Jack who burst out laughing. "Good old Flash, telling it like it is. That why they call you that now? You flashing people?"

Flash grinned at him. "You know why they call me that. And it's not because I show them my bare chest. In all seriousness though, I appreciate your well wishes and concern for my luck, Racetrack. But I know what I'm doing. Those guys that come out would buy a rusty can from me if I tried. All I gotta do is bat my eyes and giggle. Doesn't matter what I sell them, they're too drunk to notice anything but me."

"I wasn't concerned," Racetrack said flatly.

Mush waved his hand over the table in interjection. "Alright, alright, I gotta know. Why do they call you Flash?"

Flash puffed out her chest and jutted her chin towards Mush. "Best pick pocket in the South. Never get caught."

"Except for you did get caught," Jack pointed out.

"Shut up, Kelly, don't remind me."

"That's how you met then?" Kid Blink asked them, leaning back in his chair.

"We were just about to tell you the story until someone," she shot Racetrack a dirty look, "had to go and ruin all the fun with his incessant ranting."

Race plopped down in an empty chair and took out a pack of cards, shuffling them in his hands with a quickness that Flash found impressive, not that she'd ever admit it to him. "I'd hardly call listening to you 'fun.' You got a voice that would irritate a deaf man."

"Cool it, Race,' Jack warned, shooting him a disapproving look. "We're all pals here."

Flash gave him the finger behind Jack's back and took her feet off the table, letting her chair land back on all fours with a hard thud, startling the guys and grabbing their attention.

"Saddle up, boys. This is quite the tale," she half smiled and took out a cigarette, clamping it down on one side of her mouth. "So, as I said before, I'm the best pickpocket in the South. A real flashman, hence the name. It's a self-given title, I'll admit, but it's true nonetheless. I never get caught. Except for one time, and I would've gotten away with it if the bulls hadn't actually seen me lift the pocket watch out of the man's coat. I'm still kicking myself for that little error."

Race gave Flash a look before dealing out the cards. "Well that was stupid on your part. That's a rookie mistake."

Flash took her cards from the table and flipped through them. Of course he would deal her a shitty hand. "Can't say I disagree," she conceded, not looking up from her cards.

Race looked around the table and raised his eyebrows, shocked that she didn't take the bait at his obvious jab at her intellect.

Jack shot Race another disapproving look and thumbed through his cards. "So it landed her in the Coosa County jail down in Alabama," Jack continued, picking up where she left off. "I was doing a five-month stint for fighting. I know that sounds a little excessive, but those bastards added time for everything you did wrong. Even if you didn't do nothing, they found a reason to lengthen your stay. That place made the refuge look like a vacation spot."

"What kind of stuff happened there?" Kid Blink asked inquisitively.

"Torture," Flash cut in. "Starvation, dehydration. A bunch of stuff like that. I don't really wanna get too much into it. Those were dark times. Let's just say, to put it in the plainest terms, it sucked."

"That's an understatement," Jack muttered. "Anyways, we talked at length with a few people we had made friends with in there, and we all decided it was best to escape. Our sentences were well past what they were supposed to be and we knew we wouldn't get out any time soon."

"Gotta admit, we were a mouthy bunch. That's partly why they kept adding on to our punishments. We all had time added for one reason or another," Flash added. "I fold."

"There's a shocker," Racetrack snorted, putting more money into the pile.

"Will you shut up?" Flash snapped, biting down on her cigarette and blowing smoke out of the side of her mouth. "I'm in the middle of a story."

Jack threw his cards down on the table in a huff. "I fold too. Dammit, Race, you could have given me better cards."

Racetrack held his hands up defensively before scraping his winnings toward himself. "Don't blame the dealer, blame your luck, Cowboy." He shuffled the cards and dealt again.

Flash made sure to keep her eye on him this time. She didn't quite trust Racetrack and she wouldn't put it past him to cheat.

"How'd you do it then?" Mush asked, clearly skeptical. He obviously didn't think this story was true.

"Yeah, Governor let you out that time too, Kelly?" Kid Blink chuckled and perused his cards. Flash could see something in his one eye, and she knew he must have some pretty decent cards.

Flash took a look at her own cards and suppressed a groan. Racetrack hadn't done her any favors, that's for sure. She definitely couldn't afford to keep giving away her money and she figured this would be her last hand.

Flash blinked in confusion, just now registering what Blink had said. "What is he talking about?" she asked, peering at Jack over her cards.

Jack shook his head dismissively. "Story for another time, Flash. We got lots to catch up on, you and me."

Flash gave him a wide-eyed stare. It didn't surprise her that Jack would have some crazy stories to fill her in on. He was a natural leader, charming and resourceful. Loyal to a fault. But he also tended to lie and over exaggerate. She had to take most of what he said and dial it back a few notches, therein lay the truth.

She shook her head to clear it and threw down her cards. "I'm done. I fold again."

Racetrack let out a chuckle and she kicked the leg of his chair. "I wouldn't have to if someone knew how to deal a girl some cards she could actually use."

Racetrack took his cigar out of his mouth and gave her a smug grin. "What, and do you a favor? I don't throw no bones when it comes to my game. This is something I'm good at, and if you don't like it, you don't have to play."

Flash rolled her eyes and sighed. "Jesus, you took that way too seriously. It was just a joke. Now where was I? I seemed to have lost my place in the story."

"Tunnel," Jack murmured out of the side of his mouth, still examining his cards.

"Ah, yes, the tunnel," Flash said, giving Jack a nod of thanks. "We decided to wait for a night where someone died. You see, they used the underground tunnel to transport dead bodies out of the grounds. A lot of people died under mysterious circumstances, so they would move them in the dead of night to avoid arousing suspicion. They would just tell families that asked that they had released them, and didn't know where they had disappeared to after that."

Mush made a disgusted face and looked around the table. "That's horrible. What kind of person would do something like that? Just lie to someone's family and have them looking for them, knowing that they were rotting in a hole in the ground. That's some messed up shit."

Flash nodded in agreement. "It was bad. Finally, the night came where Marvin, God rest his soul, died from dehydration."

"Nice guy. Always shared his food with people that got theirs taken away as punishment. He didn't deserve to die like that," Jack said solemnly. "Anyways, so we crept down to the tunnel when knew it would be unlocked. There was this window of time between transportation that the door would be able to be opened up. We took off down the tunnels and hightailed it out of there. We had just made it to the end, the smell of the outdoors in our nostrils, when this loud mouth son of a bitch in our group named Russo decided to be a pansy. He saw a rat and screamed like a baby."

"The guards had noticed we weren't there for bed check, so they had been searching for us. His screams echoed off the walls and alerted them to where we were. I swear, I wanted to kill him for that shit," Flash added. She felt old anger start to bubble in her stomach like hot liquid in a cauldron when she thought about what Russo did and the damages it had caused to Marjorie's freedom. If she was dead, she hoped that he was alive to live with the guilt of what his actions had caused.

Racetrack shook his head and glanced up at Flash. She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a glimmer of sympathy in his eyes. "I would have, pigeon-livered moron. I would have soaked him something fierce."

She gave him a small smile, nodding her head in appreciation. "For once, we agree on something, Higgins."

Racetrack let his gaze fall back down to his hand of cards, quick to dismantle any semblance of them getting along. He definitely didn't want her to have the wrong idea and think they were friends now because he had shown her a lick of sympathy. None of that negated the fact that she was still irritating and her presence got under his skin. Racetrack replaced the foreign look on his face with his signature scowl. "Yeah, well don't get used to it," he remarked under his breath.

"I'll wear you down somehow, Racetrack," Flash told him with a grin.

Mush snapped in front of their faces, drawing their attention back to the table. "Enough chit-chat, get on with the story," he prodded.

"It's best that I tell the rest, 'cause that is where the stories split," Jack divulged. "We could hear the guards in the tunnel running toward us, so we took off outside. We didn't realize it was storming until we made it out. It was coming down in sheets and we couldn't see where we were going. I didn't notice at the time, but our friend Marjorie was trying to coax Russo out of the tunnel. I didn't know until it was too late." Jack hung his head and avoided eye contact with Flash before forcing himself to look back up and continue. "The warden showed up and ordered the guards to haul them back inside. The remaining guards flooded out of the tunnel, almost like a stampede. I pushed the others ahead of me so that if anyone got caught, it would be me. I went to do the same to Flash, but she wasn't there. Between all the running, rain, darkness, and fear, we got separated. I honestly thought she got caught too. I didn't see her again until yesterday, the first time in three years," Jack finished.

"That's rough," Mush told them, throwing his cards down on the table.

Flash gauged everyone else's reaction around the table, sizing them up to see if they had any look of doubt on their faces. Kid Blink and Mush looked sympathetic. Itey had a vacant expression on his face and Race... well Race just looked the same as usual, signature furrow of the brow and slight frown that his face held normally.

"i guess it's my turn to pick it up now," Flash drawled. "There is a somewhat happy ending to this tale of sadness, so wipe those looks off your faces. I obviously made it out, since I'm sitting here before you. I managed to hide in the bushes and as soon as the coast was clear, I ran to the road and hitched a ride on the back of a wagon. They were able to take me all the way to West Virginia where I met Sally. Nice broad, very motherly," she added. "Sally ran a Tavern and Inn and let me stay there in exchange for doing household chores for her. Longest I've stayed anywhere if I'm being honest."

Racetrack gathered up the cards and put them back in his pocket, along with his winnings. Leave it to the rest of them to flake out on a hand because of a story. He had to admit, it was kind of unbelievable, but it had piqued his interest. So much so that it got him wondering where exactly this girl came from and why she was here if things were so great back in West Virginia.

"Well why didn't you stay there then?" Race prodded. "Warm bed, food. Hell, sounds good to me."

Flash was taken aback at Racetrack's sudden interest in her life and her reasonings in leaving the place she had called home for a while. He hadn't so much as said hello to her before and now here he was, trying to be invasive. She was silent for a moment, using the pause in conversation to take a peek at Jack. Jack gave her a knowing look, aware of the circumstances that had caused her to move from place to place. She had trusted him enough to tell him the truth, but the same could not be said for any of the others that were sat around the table. There was a time and place for the truth and she knew it may come out eventually, but today was not that day.

"Yeah, well shit happens. I've moved around a lot in my life. I started in North Carolina and from there I went south. South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennesse for like a day, and then to Sally's. On to Pennsylvania and then here," Flash explained.

Mush shook his head and gave her a pointed look. "I don't know how you have the energy to do all that. I barely have the energy to walk down to Bottle Alley and back. To move to another state not once, but so many times is just... wow," he remarked in disbelief. He stood up quickly from the table and motioned for Flash to follow him.

"Where are we going?" Flash asked him perplexed.

"Going to go get a drink, I'm buying. Just gotta pick your poison," Mush told her with a smile.

"Well hot damn. I think we're gonna get along just fine, Mush," she grinned, following him to the door. "Y'all care to join us?"

Blink and Itey nodded enthusiastically before standing and making their way to the threshold. Race stood to follow suit before Jack stopped him.

"We'll meet you guys there. Race and I need to have a word first. Try not to get too soused before we make it there," Jack joked.

Flash gave him a toothy grin. "No promises." She turned to follow the rest of the gang outside, leaving the other two alone.

Jack made sure everyone was out of earshot before turning to face Racetrack. "Skinner is gone, Race. And so is Mick. That makes three guys I've noticed disappear in the last couple of days. Spot wasn't wrong, something is going on. I need to meet with him soon. Send Boots to deliver a message to him. Don't be specific, I don't want to spark any flames or make any waves to cause worry."

Racetrack knit his eyebrows together and set his mouth in a hard line. He thought Spot was just blowing smoke, just being paranoid. But they needed to face the facts. People were missing. Gone with no explanation, and he could only agree with Spot now. They needed to figure out why.