THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 12 continued

Eden held her hand out to the boy and shook his limp hand. The thick metal door in front of them opened slowly and the hum of many machines waited on the other side of the doorframe. Deakin raised his voice slightly and asked,
“Alden, may I bring my friend in with me? She helped me get away from Joey and has been traveling with me.”
A raspy, seldom-used voice called out from the center of the large room. “Did you say ‘she’? Did you bring a girl into my home? You know the rules, Deakin. No girls, well, no real girls, well, no physical girls. Hell, you know what I mean.”
“Alden, she’s not a street girl and she certainly won’t tell anyone about you. She’ll even swear on your operating system, won’t you, Eden?”
“Yes, I swear.”
Two eyes behind the lenses of a pair of black-framed glasses stared over the top of a large computer monitor. Eden stepped away from Deakin and positioned herself in the middle of light coming through the doorway. Then she held her hands together in front of her face and bowed slightly in Alden’s direction.
“Well, she does have a respectful attitude all you others could learn from. Okay, bring her in and shut the door. It’s been open way too long already.”
Deakin took Eden’s hand and led her through the maze of machines. As Eden looked around, she realized the room must contain at least twenty full computer set-ups, if not more than that. Teenaged boys of all sizes and types sat in front of about half the monitors. They each looked out of the corners of their eyes at Eden as she passed by. She smiled at them all and stopped near the center of the room. Deakin dropped into a chair and pushed another one over to Eden. She stopped the chair from rolling into a desk and sat down in it.
A large circle of homemade desks opened out in front of her. The desks seemed to be old doors propped up by various types of small tables. Some of them were held up by sawhorses and some even by cement blocks. A heavy man who looked to be in his mid-twenties sat in front of the largest monitor and watched the data scrolling down the screen. Then he slid his chair to the desk directly behind him and turned around to check the data on that monitor. He would speedily click on the keyboard and then move on to another computer monitor. As he moved around the circle, Eden could imagine him spinning a web. He continued his quick darting slides from keyboard to keyboard as Deakin related the events of the last few days.
At the end of the recital, he looked into Deakin’s face and said, “Some really serious shit going down, Deke. I don’t know what you’re in the middle of but it ain’t good. No way. That data I already sent you is all I’m getting for now. I went back into the government databases and those names have been deleted. The hospital records have been deleted too. The death certificates have gone and so has the police report. I kept a copy of the police report for you. That’s the last piece of real information we’re getting. I didn’t send it to your laptop ‘cos I have some little wigglies nibbling at my toes. Someone’s trying to follow the trail back to me. I’ve been slamming doors and windows as fast as I can to block them. That’s why I haven’t answered you. They haven’t found me yet so it was probably all right for you to come here. Ron and Davy have already moved to the backup house and transferred all our data to the computers there. We’ll blow this place if we have to.”
Eden looked at Deakin to see if he took this man seriously. Deakin obviously did and leaned forward even more to hear what Alden was saying. Eden let them talk on and on about moving to a safer place as she watched both faces. The older man had the pasty look of someone who hadn’t felt the sun on his skin for months, maybe even years. His dark brown eyes peered through the magnifying lenses of his glasses but they never stopped moving. They would fleetingly touch Deakin’s face and then move from monitor to monitor, touch on Eden’s face, and return to Deakin’s. His long dark hair was pulled back and held in place with a rubber band. The ponytail hung halfway down his back and swung back and forth as he slid his chair around. His fingers were in constant motion also, flicking over the keyboards and then touching a mouse before moving on to the next keyboard. A large cardboard box on the other side of the circle was full to the top with empty orange juice bottles and coke cans.
Deakin stared at the copy of the police report while he listened to Alden’s raspy voice. When he’d finished speaking, Deakin asked if he and Eden could stay the night. This time Alden stared directly at Eden for a minute before he answered.
“Yeah, one night but you probably should leave before it gets light in the morning. I’ll work tonight on what you need. I’ll get you everything I can on those people your parents used to work with – you know, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, whatever I can get. And then the two of you can go.”
“Let me settle Eden down and then I’ll be back to help you.”
A mulish look descended on Eden’s face and she shook her head decidedly. “No, you’re not sending me away while you two get to play. I’m playing too or I’m leaving. Take your choice.”
Deakin pushed her chair up to a keyboard and said, “It’s all yours. Just watch the monitor and do what Alden tells you to do. Here’s the police report. Keep it safe for me.”
Eden opened the folded piece of paper and read the bare phrases describing the accident that had killed Deakin’s parents. Alex Kimbrough had been driving on one of the high curving ramps that littered the highway system in Los Angeles. An eighteen-wheeler pulling a load of gasoline had smashed into the back of his car. The two vehicles had run through the guardrail and fallen thirty feet to the road below them. The gasoline ignited on impact and burned Deakin’s parents to death. The driver of the truck had died also.
She looked at Deakin as he peered into the monitor on her left. “Was there any record of the bodies being sent to the medical examiner? You know, ambulance records or records from the morgue, something like that. They might give us another name to check out. Someone must have signed for the bodies.”
Deakin slid over next to her and opened up another window on the computer. He clicked on the keyboard until he’d moved through a maze of different screens. “Here you go, Eden. These are the medical examiner’s files and here’s the date of the accident. Do what you can.”
Eden moved slowly through the unfamiliar files as she searched for the information she wanted. She found nothing under the Kimbrough name and nothing under Rimchova, the name of Deakin’s mother. Then she pulled up the sign-in page for the day of the accident. She worked down the list until she found one man who had been burned to death. She pulled up the information on his autopsy and found another dead end. There was no autopsy filed under that name. She back-tracked again and read the entire list of admissions for that date. There were three bodies listed that had been burned but no autopsies filed for any of them. She printed out the list and marked the names of the three burned bodies. She ran the three names through all the files she could find and came up with nothing. She stared at the screen of the monitor as she tried to imagine the path all the paperwork would take as the body moved through the system. She finally hit on a file that listed funeral homes and crematoriums. This must be the sign-out sheet for the bodies.
Eden worked this list forwards and backwards. She tried to pull out the information using the date of the accident and then she tried the next day and the next. When she finally reached the end of the list, she realized she had matched up the transfers of all the bodies but three. It wasn’t until she found the total transfers of each funeral home that she found the missing bodies. One of the funeral homes had transported three more bodies than it had signed for. It must have picked up two bodies on each run and only signed for one body. She printed out hard copies of the lists and the totals. Junipero Funeral Home and Crematorium of Sausalito. She folded all her pages and slipped them into her pocket with the police report of the accident.
Then, just for fun, she pulled out the police report and entered the names of the officers who had responded to the accident. She wasn’t totally surprised when both their names showed up in the medical examiner’s files. It seemed that even police officers couldn’t be trusted to keep their mouths closed unless it was a permanent closure. Just to be thorough, she printed out the files for those officers. One of them had drowned during a picnic at the beach and the other had been shot to death during a drug raid. Eden hoped they’d been paid well for whatever they’d done but somehow she doubted it.
Deakin’s chair slid noiselessly up to hers and he quickly read the screen of the monitor. Eden pulled her pages out and handed them to him. She reached out to close her link to the county records when Deakin’s hand shot out to stop her. His eyes were wide open and one of his fingers stabbed at a page. Eden followed the pointing finger to the name of the driver of the truck. She frowned as she read the name: Daniel Rivers. It sounded vaguely familiar but she couldn’t place it.
“One of the people who worked with my parents. He wouldn’t have been driving a truck. He was a goddamned intellectual. He had doctorate degrees out the ass. What would he have been doing in a gas truck?”
Eden opened more files and searched for the name but she came up with nothing. So far it was just one more piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit anywhere. With a shaking finger, Deakin closed the connection and left the files where they’d found them. Deakin stared at the computer screen blankly for a few minutes and then started Eden on a trek through the files of the police department. She printed out information from the files of the two dead officers. One of the men had been in trouble most of his police career. He’d been censured by the department five times for beating up prisoners and shaking down drug dealers and users. He had been divorced when he disappeared at the beach. His body had never been recovered and identified. So, in reality, he could have been spirited away and living under an assumed name for the last fifteen years. The other officer was a rookie and had definitely died in the shoot-out with the drug dealers. No wife, no children, and a departmental funeral for his elderly parents. Nice finish to a day’s work.

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

Eden parked two blocks from her apartment and got out of the car. Deakin followed ten feet behind her as she walked to the front entrance of the building. He saw two men sitting in a car directly across the street and another one at the bus stop on the corner. He walked deliberately past the door and bumped Eden on the shoulder. She leaned into the shadows at the side of the door and waited for some cars to drive down her street. When a bus and a delivery truck growled by, she slipped away from the building and ran down the alley to the small fenced yard at the back. Deakin waited for her next to the trash bins and whispered in her ear.
“Three men. Two in a car and one at the bus stop.”
Then he ran up the alley to the street and stopped in the shadows to watch the front of the building. One man stepped out of the car, threw his cigarette on the sidewalk and ran across the street. The man from the bus stop was already walking in the door. Deakin watched the end of a cigarette move from the watcher’s mouth to the car window and then back again. Finally the man remaining in the car held a phone to his ear and nodded. He started the car and drove away. Deakin hurried back to Eden and pulled her deeper into the alley. He pushed on every door and gate they came to until an unlocked one. They stepped inside a small dark yard bordered by a tall wooden fence. Deakin latched it shut and turned to look around. The evening darkness covered the corners of the small yard but the perpetual lights of the city showed them the barren dirt and the back door of another apartment house. Trash bins lined one side of the yard and discarded furniture and boxes were stacked on the other side. Deakin grabbed Eden’s hand and pulled her to the back door. The sound of a car driving through the alley propelled them through the door and onto the floor.
After a minute Deakin peered through the small window next to the door and saw lights and movement through the slats of the fence. Eden had already moved along the hallway and stood at the side of the front door. She saw no one watching the street and raised her hand to signal Deakin. A door on the second floor caromed open and noise filled the hallway of the building. Loud music rolled down the stairway to Eden’s right followed by six or seven young men and women talking loudly. Deakin zoomed up to the crowd and pulled Eden into the center of the group. As they chattered their way out the front door and down the steps, Eden turned her jacket inside out and turned her baseball hat around backwards. Deakin leaned down and introduced himself to a thin girl with short spiky white hair. The streetlights shone on the six earrings hanging off each ear and the rings on her eyebrows. The whole group moved down the sidewalk to the small store two blocks away.
Deakin and Eden drifted into the darkness under a line of trees around the corner from the store. The white-haired girl looked around in surprise as she walked through the door of the little shop. Then she shrugged her shoulders and forgot about the tall boy. Deakin and Eden moved from tree to tree until they were next to their rented car. They leaned against a large tree trunk until the next wave of traffic was roaring along the small street. They calmly drove into the stream of traffic and headed away from Eden’s apartment. They’d found out what they needed to know. The men chasing them had found out Eden’s name from her credit card and tracked her to her apartment.
Eden drove immediately to the airport and turned in the rental car. She and Deakin had carefully wiped the whole car, inside and out, in an attempt to get rid of their fingerprints. They hurried to the wide road at the side of the car rental office and stood in the shadows until a city bus appeared in the distance. It swooped to the side of the road and stopped in a cloud of diesel exhaust. The two young people quickly climbed on board and dropped into seats near the front.
“What do we do next, Eden?”
“Well, I guess we head for your friend’s place. With luck, they won’t trace us to the car rental place until we’ve changed buses at least once. Ask the driver how to get to Allen’s place.”
“Alden, his name is Alden.”
Deakin slid out of his seat and slipped into the empty one behind the driver. After a few minutes, he returned to Eden and said, “Change buses twice and get off about half a mile from his place. I already got the transfers from the driver and he’ll let us know where to get off.”
Without thinking, he slipped his hand around Eden’s smaller one and held it in his lap. Eden watched out the window but they were sitting up too high to see into most of the cars on the road. When the driver waved to them, Deakin stood up and pulled Eden to her feet. He kept hold of her hand as they climbed off the bus. Eden smiled at the driver and Deakin patted his arm as they left. They leaned in the corner of the bus shelter with their arms around each other and waited for their next bus.
By the time they arrived in Alden’s neighborhood, it was late enough for most people to disappear inside their shelters, whatever they might be. The only other people on the streets tended to walk on the wrong side of the law. The druggies who needed their next fix, the gang-bangers cruising for victims, the muggers searching for the weak and vulnerable, the car-jackers choosing their next pick-up, the dealers holding open house for anyone desperate enough to come out at this time of night, these were the ones Deakin and Eden passed by as they walked toward Deakin’s friend.
“Why don’t these people bother us? We certainly look like we have more money than they do.” Deakin looked around in surprise and said, “I know a lot of them and they won’t bother me. I’m one of Alden’s bandits. Anyway, they know I don’t have any money and I don’t do drugs and I don’t trick so they’re not going to waste any time on me. This is my neighborhood, you know, and I’ve never had any real trouble. You just gotta know how to talk to them and how not to be afraid of them, that’s all. Walk like you belong out here and they’ll all think you have protection of some kind.”
Eden gave up scuttling like a crab and raised her eyes from their contemplation of the sidewalk. Deakin dropped his arm across her shoulders and pulled her close. Eden stared interestedly at the people on the street, noticing how they dressed and how they walked. Deakin kept a running commentary going in her ear.
“That’s Ali, drug dealer extraordinaire. His men are spread out for two blocks around. He deals in crack. Anyone who looks you in the eye is selling. Anyone who looks anywhere else is buying. Annette, Megan, and Rache are leaning against that storefront across the street. Hookers. The dude smoking a cigarette in the Jaguar is Julio. He takes care of the girls. He owns that sleazy hotel in the middle of the block and that’s where all the girls go. Druggies from the suburbs heading our way. They’ll meet up with Ali to score and then leave. Cops driving the brown Ford up at the corner. You can’t tell whether they’re Vice or Narcotics until they make their move. Don’t look back, but Ali will have disappeared and so will the girls. As soon as the cops move on, they all come back. Don’t worry if they pick on us. They’ll just check us for drugs and let us go on. By the way, you’re not holding, are you?”
Eden shook her head and walked steadily down the sidewalk. “How much farther do we have to go?”
“Six blocks, maybe seven, depending on which streets we take. Sometimes, the cops are shaking down everyone on a certain block. We’ll take a different path in that case. Two blocks directly in front of us is full of abandoned buildings. Lots of street people hang out there. Winos, druggies, runaways, that sort of person. I don’t like to walk past them because they always bug you for money. If you ever give them any, they’ll never let you get away. We’ll go left at the next intersection and cross the street to that closed liquor store. That’s Deanie’s store and he sleeps in the back of it. His mom lives in the apartment above it. Remember where it is ‘cos it’s a safe place to hide. Deanie’s a good friend of mine and he’s let me sleep in the storeroom lots of times. Just tell him you’re a friend of mine and he’ll take care of you, okay?” Eden checked out the street signs and the name of the store. “Is there a back door?”
Deakin nodded and showed her the narrow black alley down the side of the store. “The door for his mother’s apartment is on the other side of the building. She’s a real crazy person. She’s actually been in hospitals before but they always let her out. She’s not violent, just not on the same page as the rest of the world. Get ready, cops are coming back. Don’t get upset when they pat you down. Play like it’s happened tons of times before. Boredom is always a good defense. Cops can smell fear and tension a mile away. Move up against that building.”
Eden angled across the sidewalk and leaned back against the cold bricks of the old apartment building. Deakin put his arms around her and kissed her hard as the policemen drove past. A bright light slashed across them and a hard voice called out,
“What you kids doing? Come over here. What you doing out this late at night?”
Deakin and Eden shambled over toward the police car and covered their eyes when he turned his spotlight directly in their faces. Eden peered through her fingers at the man driving the car. He was a big man who’d put on the pounds since the last time he’d lifted a weight. His eyes were small and mean and the smile on his face never reached up to them. He looked Deakin and Eden up and down and then silently communicated with his partner.
“Are you two holding?”
“No, sir. We don’t do drugs.”
“Then, why the hell are you hanging around this part of town? Huh, answer me that.”
“We live here.”
“Well, get your asses home. You’re lucky I’m feeling lazy tonight. Otherwise, I’d get out of this car and search you both. Now, get out of here and don’t let me see you again.”
The policeman watched them walk away. When they’d made it about halfway down the block, he flicked off his spotlight and drove away. Deakin and Eden turned right at the next corner and walked in the shadows next to the buildings. Other people populated those shadows too. They were offered four different kinds of drugs before they walked another block. They also had chances to buy watches, boomboxes, televisions, and guns. Deakin hesitated over the gun but Eden pushed him down the street.
“We don’t need to get caught with a hot gun the next time one of those cops decides to stop us. We carry nothing illegal, okay? That way they have no reason to take us to jail.”
“Eden, they’ll take us in no matter what we have or don’t have if they really want to. They’re the guys with the power and they won’t let any of us forget it.”
“Yes, but we don’t have to ask for it, do we?”
“Okay, no guns. Another left turn at the next corner. Then it’s only two more blocks to Alden’s place.”
As they neared a rundown warehouse building, Deakin pulled Eden into the shadows across the street and held her in front of his body. Then he scanned the street until he found a teenager standing in the black doorway of the next building. They walked to the corner, crossed the street and drifted up next to the doorway. Deakin leaned against the building and Eden followed suit. The boy flicked his lighter and held it away from his face. Deakin leaned into the glow of the lighter and lit the cigarette that had appeared in his mouth. The lighter clicked off and the cigarette dropped to the ground. Deakin stepped on it as he followed the boy down a nasty alley to the side of the warehouse. The boy knocked on a heavy wooden door. As the door creaked open, the boy dematerialized. For all Eden knew, he turned into a puff of smoke and was blown away forever.
Deakin stepped through the door and pulled Eden in after him. He tried to shield Eden with his body but she stepped up next to him. The door closed behind them and a high, thin voice spoke from the shadows.
“Where have you been, you naughty boy? We’ve all been so distressed. Alden found out Joey had tried to grab you and he was just livid. Well, get yourself up the stairs. By the way, who is your little friend?”
A slim boy about sixteen drifted out of the darkness behind them. His hair was curly blond and he wore a tight tee shirt and tight jeans. A brightly patterned green scarf was threaded through the belt loops and tied in front. The boy wore more makeup than Eden ever had in her whole life. Eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, blush, and lipstick turned him into a pretty child trying to look like a grownup. Eden thought immediately of the little girls who dressed up like adults and competed in beauty pageants. The boy swayed up the stairs and led them into a dimly lit room filled with old couches and chairs. Several other boys lay on the couches, either sleeping or playing video games. Their guide fluttered his hand in their direction and continued on to a dirty hallway. They followed him to a heavy metal door.
As the boy raised his hand and slipped his plastic card into the scanner, he looked sideways at Eden and said, “You still haven’t introduced me to your friend.” He batted his eyelashes up at Eden and gave her a melting smile.
Deakin put his arm around the boy’s thin shoulders and gave him a squeeze. “Jade, this is my friend Eden. She rescued me from Joey and has been helping me ever since. Eden, this is Jade. He takes care of all the boys who live here.”

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Eden woke with a stiff neck when the attendants announced their imminent landing in Salt Lake City. She leaned over Deakin’s lap and looked out the window for her first view of the Great Salt Lake. Then she woke Deakin and made him look at the lake. He grumbled and hunched his shoulder at her before he closed his eyes again. She poked him again and said urgently, “We have to decide what to do when we land. You let me get off the plane first. Let four or five people get between us. I’ll look around and meet you in the first shop to the left.”
Deakin nodded and gathered up his backpack. Eden twisted her hair into a large bun on her neck and stuck a couple of pencils through it. She followed the slowmoving conga line out of the plane and through the passageway into the airport. Several people stood around the arrival gate with signs in their hands. “Dr. Smith” and “H. Rees”. Eden ignored them and checked out the other people standing around the area. Deakin followed about twenty-five yards behind her and noticed one of the chauffeurs stare at Eden’s face with indecision before he stared at the rest of the passengers exiting the plane. Deakin fell in step with a boy who trudged behind his large parents. He used the parents as a shield and even followed them through the airport for a short distance. He stopped at a magazine rack and used it as a cover to watch the man. Eden touched his shoulder as she walked out of the shop and into the steady stream of passengers moving through the airport. Deakin watched the chauffeur nod to another man who stood at another gate before he stuck his little sign in his pocket and walked to a different arrival gate.
Deakin slipped up behind Eden and whispered in her ear, “Two men watching for someone. One had a sign in his hand. They’ve gone to meet another plane.”
Eden moved steadily through the crowd and then stopped at a coffee shop near the security check area. She bought two cups of coffee and joined Deakin at a small table with a view of the crowds walking past.
“Another flight or rental car? Which do we go for?”
Deakin stretched out his long legs and studied the people filing by the window. “Can we do either one with cash or will you have to use your credit card?”
“Credit card. I only have one in my name. The other one is in my mother’s name. We can use it. She doesn’t have the same name as I do. She’ll be mad but all I have to do is pay her back. She did give it to me for emergencies and I think this qualifies.”
Deakin quickly picked up his coffee cup and covered his face with it. Then he opened his mouth wide to cool his overheated tongue. “Damn, that is hot coffee. The chauffeur guy just walked past but he didn’t look in here. What did you buy at the gift shop?”
Eden pulled out a baseball cap and tucked her hair inside it. She handed Deakin a pair of sunglasses. Then she stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a nickel. “Heads, we take a plane. Tails, we rent a car.”
Deakin nodded in agreement and watched her flip the coin. “Heads, it is. Let’s go shopping at the airline counters.”
Deakin shook his head and pointed to a bank of phones against the opposite wall. “We’re much safer right where we are. If we move to the other side of the security checkpoint, we could find knives poked into our ribs. Let’s try to stay on this side where these people have all been through the metal detector.”
Eden nodded and headed for the phones. Deakin stayed in the coffee shop and watched her back while she found them seats on another plane. She returned fifteen minutes later and said, “Ticketless travel is the only way to go. C’mon, our flight leaves in thirty minutes.”

Eden left the plane before Deakin and walked into the San Diego Airport. She joined a group of college girls headed back to school and walked with them clear through the terminal. Deakin joined her at the bus stop and climbed on board the car rental shuttle with her. They were delivered to their car and drove away from the airport. Deakin pored over the map of San Diego and navigated them through the city. As the traffic finally thinned and the bulk of the city lay behind them, Deakin hunched his shoulders and clasped his hands.
“Some food for a starving beggar, my lady. Just a few crusts or even a few cold french fries. That’s all I want.”
Eden looked into his “Bambi” eyes, laughed at him and said, “Okay, we’ll stop in a minute. Let me find the right place.”
She finally pulled into the parking lot of a fast food restaurant and joined the line at the drive-through window. Then she drove off with bags of food and drinks. Not far down the road she found the turnoff for a roadside park. A cold wind blew off the ocean and whipped through the small trees grouped around three picnic tables. Eden refused to get out of the car to eat. Sand and dust in her food was not what she was hungry for. Deakin gave in with good grace and stayed in the car with her. They ate every bit of food they’d bought. Then they both got out of the car and chased each other around the tables.
“Your turn to drive, Deakin. I’ll be the navigator and scout for a while. All this caffeine should keep us awake until we get to LA. Pull over when we get close to the city and I’ll drive through the heavy traffic.”
Deakin took the wheel of the car and drove carefully away from the small park. He pulled into the traffic on the highway and joined a large group of cars going the same speed. After ten or fifteen minutes, he shook the tension out of his neck and leaned back in the seat. He eased the desperate hold his fingers had on the steering wheel and glanced casually over at Eden. She pretended she hadn’t seen him hunched over the steering wheel like a madman and checked the road signs against the map lying in her lap. Then she raised her eyes to Deakin’s and said,
“We’re on the right road. Just follow it all the way to LA. Then I’ll get out my nickel and we’ll decide where to go.
Deakin grinned and stared out the windshield at the traffic in front of him. Eden put her head between the seats to check out the back window. Cars, cars, and more cars met her gaze. Their pursuers could be driving any one of those hundreds of other cars on the road with them. There was nothing she could do about it so she’d just watch for something out of the ordinary.

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Walt was already high above the state of Arizona on his flight to California when two of his men spotted Eden’s car between Tucson and Phoenix. The two men in the car trailed behind her for miles until the bright lights of Phoenix glowed in the distance. Then the driver pulled closer to her car. More and more cars and trucks appeared as they drove closer to the huge city. The driver sped up and pulled closer and closer to her bumper. The girl smashed down her accelerator and zoomed up to the next group of cars and trucks. The two men called in the new license number on her car and asked for instructions. Then they pulled up next to her car and the man in the passenger seat sighted his gun on her back tire. The man missed his shot and pulled the gun back inside the car. They kept Eden’s car in sight as the traffic thickened. More and more cars and trucks appeared as they drove through the outskirts of Phoenix. The men’s instructions had been to stop the car or to keep it in sight if they couldn’t run Eden off the road. Right now they were in front of the girl’s car and had changed lanes to get closer to her.
The driver slammed his hand on the steering wheel and cursed out loud when he realized Eden’s car had shot down the last exit ramp. He shouldered his car across several lanes to the right and took the next exit. His partner directed him through the surface streets until they could re-enter the highway in the other direction. They took the airport exit and entered the airport ten or fifteen minutes after Eden and Deakin had parked their car. They drove first to the parking lots closest to the terminal. Eden’s car was nowhere to be found. The agent in the passenger seat called in again and held his phone away from his ear as an angry voice bellowed out into the confines of the car. The two agents stared at each other in resignation and headed for the long-term parking lots. Twenty minutes later they discovered Eden’s car and called in again.
One of the agents popped the trunk of the car with a tire iron and cursed again at the emptiness of the black cavity. Then he peered inside the car and saw nothing on the seats or the floor. They jumped back into their car and headed for the terminal. They ran into the huge building and stared ineffectively around at the crowds of people waiting in long snaking lines in front of the ticket counters. As one person they headed for the security checkpoint and then stopped twenty feet in front of the metal scanners. The two agents turned to stare at each other in dawning awareness. There was no way they could get through the security check just by saying they wanted to. They each carried weapons under their coats and neither of them fancied butting heads with the petty tyrants of the airport security force.
Another phone call and twenty minutes later, an officer introduced himself, checked identification and then escorted the two men to the back offices of the airport. There they gave a bland vanilla story to the head of security and were relieved of their weapons. They were given four security officers to help them search for Eden and Deakin. Computer searches had already been initiated from their main office in hopes of tracking Eden’s credit card usage. The two agents with their four helpers fanned out down the long lines of arrival gates and searched for the two kids. They had no luck with their search and called it off after two hours.
Film from the security cameras had been gathered and held for the two agents. Confirmation from credit card records finally pinpointed the flight Eden and Deakin had taken. The agents scanned the security videos from the correct ticket counter and the departure gate. They came up with a good picture of Eden at the ticket counter and several shots of the two teenagers as they boarded their flight. They quickly transmitted the pictures to Walt and arranged for Eden’s car to be towed away.
Walt sent agents to Salt Lake City to watch for Eden and Deakin but they arrived after the two kids had already passed through. They matched their pictures with two people who took a flight to San Diego. More men were sent to San Diego to intercept the two there. The agents didn’t recognize Eden or Deakin and wandered around the airport for quite some time before they admitted defeat.
Walt had bypassed all these other cities and headed straight for Los Angeles. He knocked on Dr. Evan Phillip’s office door and stepped inside to talk to the professor. A thin ascetic face stared over the desk at him. The man had forgotten to cut his thin brown hair and it cascaded over his collar. Long thin fingers rested on a stack of folders filled with the work of his students.
“May I help you?”
Walt dropped into the chair in front of the desk and flipped out his identification. Before he could flip it closed, Dr. Phillips had taken it from his hand and compared the photo with the man sitting across the desk from him. Then he lifted the lid of his scanner and placed the identification face down on the screen. He pressed a few buttons, waited for the machine to work its magic, and then handed the leather folder back to the man across the desk. Walt stared at the wallet in his hand and finally stuffed it back in his pocket. No one had ever copied his identification card before. Oh, some people had written down his name or his badge number but this man had actually taken the wallet away from him. Walt shook his head and took a deeper look at Dr. Phillips who waited politely for him to speak.
“I’d like to ask you about some people from your past. We’ve been following a young man halfway across the country and we think he might try to get in touch with you. We’d like to set up a tap on your phone and keep some people around you in case he does come here.”
Dr. Phillips placed his fingertips together and regarded Walt over them. “No, I won’t allow you to invade my privacy in that manner.”
Then he calmly opened the top folder on his desk and picked up his pen. He wrote something quickly on the first sheet and then raised his eyes. “You may leave now, Mr. Rogers.”
“Uh, I don’t think you quite understood what I said, Dr. Phillips. This is a national security issue. You don’t have a choice.”
Evan Phillips stared over his glasses at Walt and said, “Man always has a choice, Mr. Rogers. I prefer not to do business with you for any reason.”
“Dr. Phillips, a young man and a young girl will probably contact you in the next few days. I can’t give you the background but they are dangerous people and must be stopped. Their names are Eden Boatman and Deakin Kimbrough and you must not talk to them at all.”
Dr. Phillips’ eyes flashed angrily at Walt and he rapped out a question. “Are you saying that Helena Kimbrough’s son is alive and looking for answers to his parents’ deaths? Is that what you’re trying to stop? I would certainly welcome a visit from that young man and I would tell him everything I could. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a class.”
Evan Phillips stood up and walked to his door. He opened it and waited for Walt to leave. To his own surprise, Walt walked out of the small office and watched the tall thin form of the professor stride down the hall. The professor would be in for a big surprise, Walt thought, when he realized he didn’t have to give his permission for the tap on his office phone. Walt’s next stop was the dean’s office where he made arrangements for four or five agents to keep an eye on the professor as well as the wiretap.
Evan Phillips was certainly not a stupid man and he knew the agent would deal with his phone line anyway. After his class, he dropped in on one of the younger professors in his department and borrowed his computer to look up both of the names Walt had given him. Eden Boatman showed up as a sophomore. He pulled up her schedule and smiled at the name listed next to her Geology class. He wandered down the hall and poked his head inside a tiny office. A large athletic young man perched behind the desk and attacked his keyboard with great energy.
“Hey, Evan, slumming again?”
“David, will you do me a great favor, a very confidential favor? One of your geology students may get in touch with you and want you to pass a message to me. Would you please tell her I’ll send a grad student to the library to meet her? Don’t let anyone know what you’re doing? It could be rather dangerous for both of us.”
David Longthorpe grinned at his boss and squirmed with anticipation. “Student’s name, please.”
“Eden Boatman.”
“Whoa, Evan, that’s one of my favorite students. She’s not really interested in my class, but she’s one great person. To tell you the truth, I have a little crush on her.”
“Be very careful, David. This could be very dangerous for all three of us.”
“Don’t worry, Evan. I’ll be fine and so will she. Shall I just meet with her and tell her to meet your grad body an hour later at the library? Would that work for you?”
“Interrupt my class if you have to but catch me in the hall or my office if you can.”
David readdressed his keyboard with enthusiasm as Evan Phillips closed the office door. Several hours later, Professor Longthorpe was visited by a rough looking man with a security identification who asked him to pass on any information about a student named Eden Boatman. David stupidly asked, “Who?”
“Boatman, Eden. Student in one of your classes.”
“Oh, she must not be very noticeable. Which class is it? And what has she done?”
“Geology. It’s a national security issue. Here’s a number for you to call if she stops you in the hall or somewhere else on campus. We think she’ll be trying to get in touch with Dr. Phillips. Please give me a call if you see her. That number is answered 24/7.”
David slipped the card in his pocket and smiled at the departing back of Walt Rogers, undercover agent of an unidentified government agency.

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Eden was taking her turn at the wheel when Phoenix appeared on the horizon. The lights from the huge city lit up the surrounding area for miles. Deakin was curled up in the passenger seat snoring softly. She pulled off at the next exit and stopped under a street lamp. She spread the map out on the hood of the car and searched for a route around Phoenix. She was hoping for a loop around the city but she was disappointed. She quickly folded up the map, and drove back onto the highway. According to the clock on her dashboard, it was 3:45 in the morning which, translated into Mountain Time, meant it was 4:45 in Arizona. If she pushed ahead, she could get through the city before traffic piled up and slowed to a crawl. Her only other option was to wait until 10:00 to drive through the city.
A pair of bright headlights appeared in her rearview mirror and temporarily blinded her. She changed lanes to give the car a chance to pass but it stayed close behind her. It stayed on her bumper for several miles. Eden slowed down about ten miles an hour and then speeded up but the car kept its position behind her. She was getting a little nervous now. This car could have been following them all across Texas, New Mexico and Arizona and now its driver might be feeling uneasy about keeping Eden in sight through the big city traffic. He obviously was making sure he stuck like glue to her bumper.
The closer she drove to Phoenix, the more cars appeared on the highway. Eden slid from lane to lane smoothly moving farther ahead of her pursuer. She poked Deakin in the shoulder enough times to wake him up. He sat up quickly and banged his head on door as he shook off his deep sleep. He groaned and glared at Eden.
“Why’d you do that? We’re not in town yet.” Then he noticed the tenseness of Eden’s hands on the steering wheel and the mulish set of her mouth. “What’s wrong? Is something wrong with the car? Or is someone following us?”
Eden nodded curtly and said, “They roared up behind me about ten miles ago. I saw two heads in the car. At least we aren’t the only two cars on the road. That’s probably why they got so close. They don’t want to lose us in the middle of Phoenix. They must not know about Sedona. I’m not even sure which car it is. I only really saw their headlights.”
Deakin turned in his seat and stared at the lights on the road behind them. They all looked exactly alike to him. “Poke me again when you think you see them.” Then he settled down in his seat again.
“Don’t you go back to sleep again. I need you to help navigate through this place. Find the highway to Sedona on the map. I think it’s 17.”
Deakin rattled the map and pulled out a flashlight. Just as he was searching for his place, the interior of the car filled up with light. Eden sucked in her breath loudly and said, “Holy shit, what in the hell are they doing now?”
Deakin peeled himself off the dashboard and scrabbled on the floor for the map and flashlight. Eden slammed down the accelerator and sped around the car in front of her. The bright lights behind her kept pace with her car and then closed in on her bumper again. She ran her speed up to 90 mph and searched the distance for some kind of help. Deakin turned around in his seat and stared out the back window of the car at the approaching headlights. Out the front windshield, Eden watched the approaching lights of the city.
“Quick, find us an airport. We need a change of plans. Here he comes again.”
Just as the car moved in close to her bumper, Eden changed lanes and dropped her speed. The other car shot past them and then slammed on its brakes. Eden chanced a quick look at the license plate and noticed the Arizona plate along with the decal of a rental company. The car picked up speed when Eden did and drove alongside her car. Deakin glanced up from his scrutiny of the map and noticed the side window being lowered. A long black gun barrel pointed in their direction.
“Gun, Eden, gun!”
He ducked down in his seat as Eden’s mouth dropped open. She turned her head to the left almost in slow motion and slammed on her brakes at the same time. The other car shot in front of them again and slid to the right into her lane. She pulled into the left lane and shot past the other car. She’d just reached the tail end of a line of cars and trucks heading for Phoenix. She wove in and out of the traffic and then slipped her little car in between two large trucks. She relaxed a little and took one hand at a time off the steering wheel and shook the tension out. Deakin took the time to check out the map again.
Deakin kept his eyes on the map and called out to Eden, “Stay on IH10. We go past Chandler and then at Tempe the highway curves to the left. Just after that there’ll be an exit for the airport. I’ll watch the signs and let you know in plenty of time.”
Deakin slid down in his seat so his head wouldn’t show and watched the cars zoom past in the left lane. More and more cars appeared as they neared the huge city and traffic slowed down. The truck in front of their car moved to the center lane when the highway broadened into five lanes. Eden pulled to the right of the truck and inserted her car in the middle of a large group of commuters. She wove through the traffic and always kept three or four cars around hers. Deakin spotted the car as it nosed past another large truck and moved ahead of them. Eden dropped back a little to stay in the shadow of the huge truck and watched them maneuver through the dense throng of cars and trucks. The car full of bad guys was a couple of hundred yards ahead of them as they headed into a large, swooping left –handed curve. Deakin began calling out street numbers as they drove toward the center of the city.
“40th Street coming up. Sign says 32nd Street is next. Okay, I see a sign for the airport. Two miles to the exit. Do you see the car?”
“Yes, it’s up in front of us, over there in fourth lane. Uh, oh, they’re blinking to move into the center lane. Why are they doing that?”
Deakin craned his head to the left and then glanced at the signs overhead. “Our exit is less than a mile ahead. When are you going to change to the right lane?”
“At the last second, that’s when. Someone will let us in. Okay, they just moved back into the left lane. They must have been passing a slow car. Help me look, ‘cos I’m changing lanes without turning on my blinker.”
Eden cut directly in front of a slowmoving RV and joined the long line of cars taking the airport exit. She drove directly into the long-term parking area and backed her small car in between a pickup truck and an elephantine SUV. Then she rested her head on the steering wheel and let her body relax a little.

Deakin slid out his door and inched his way to the trunk. He stuffed everything into two backpacks and slammed the trunk lid. Eden emerged with the laptop and they joined a small group of people waiting for the bus that would deposit them at the front door of the terminal. Eden looked around at the other people and then looked down at her own clothes. Her eyes fell on the knife hanging from Deakin’s belt. She nudged him to the back of the group and whispered in his ear. They waited until the small bus zipped up and they climbed aboard with the rest of the people. Eden led the way to the back seat and then sat down, leaving enough room for Deakin. Eden screened Deakin as he unthreaded the knife from his belt. He slipped it into the pocket of his jacket along with the one from Eden’s backpack. He walked immediately into the men’s room and checked for occupants. Then he washed his hands and dried them on a paper towel. He used the towel to take out the knives and wipe off their fingerprints. Then he covered each knife and scabbard with liquid soap. He wrapped them in a bundle of towels and pushed them to the bottom of the trash.
Eden had spent the time standing in line for tickets. Deakin stayed at the edge of the crowd and watched the entrances. He wasn’t sure what the men following them had looked like but he hoped he could pick out someone who’d just come in search of someone else. Several men scanned the crowd as soon as they entered the large building but they soon joined other men or family groups.
Eden touched his arm and spooked him into jumping away. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Let’s go. Gate 32A and a ride out of this place.”
Deakin fell into step behind her and they joined the line at the security checkpoint. Eden threw an interrogative glance over her shoulder and Deakin smiled in return. They turned right and joined the other travelers on the moving sidewalk. As they neared their gate, Eden turned quickly into a gift shop and just as quickly returned to Deakin’s side. She pushed a bag into his hand and nodded to the men’s room across the corridor. She disappeared into the ladies’ room and reappeared wearing a windbreaker from a famous golf course in the Phoenix area. Deakin emerged with a sweatshirt emblazoned with the logo of the University of Arizona. She checked them both in with attendants and Deakin followed her to the crowd waiting to board the plane.
Eden handed him his boarding pass and said, “You’re listed as Michael Boatman.”
Deakin nodded and stepped a pace or two away from her. From his taller vantage point, he scanned the crowd. Most of the passengers looked like businessmen and women who were completely decorated with bags and briefcases. Eden boarded the plane first and Deakin followed her. They settled in their seats along with the rest of the passengers and waited until the plane was in the air before they spoke.
Deakin stared at the seat directly in front of him and spoke out of the corner of his mouth. “Why are we going to Salt Lake City when we need to get to LA?”
Eden poked him in the ribs and said, “Those guys were too close so we’re going in the wrong direction first. We’ll get to LA as soon as we can. Maybe we’ll fly to Sacramento or San Francisco or even San Diego and then drive to LA. I’m trying to make it as hard as possible for them to follow us, but I don’t know what their resources are and ours are limited. I’m leaving a paper trail behind us because I used my credit card.”
Deakin took a glass of orange juice from the attendant and watched the clouds out his window. Eden pushed her seat back and closed her eyes. Out of the corner of her mouth, she said, “Finish your nap. We have nothing else to do right now.”

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

On the drive back to their motel in Dallas, Deakin flipped through all the high school annuals he’d found in the boxes his grandfather had brought. Just before they’d driven away, Wayne had pulled a notebook from his pocket and handed it to Deakin.
“These are all the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the family. When I get back home, I’m going to call them all and tell them about you. That way, you can call any of us if you ever need any help. At the back is a list of Alex’s friends. Fran told me some of the names and I asked my other sons too. I don’t know where any of these people are now but they might could help you.”
Then Wayne pulled out a small pocket camera and stepped back from Deakin. He took four or five quick shots of the boy and a few shots of Deakin and Eden together.
“I can’t walk away from here without something, Deakin. If I never see you again, at least I’ll have a few pictures to help me remember.”
Deakin walked up to the elderly man and put his arms around him. “Thanks for everything, Wayne. I am so glad we found you and you didn’t chase us away. Don’t worry about us. Eden and I can take care of ourselves and we’ll get back to you when we can.”
Then he walked quickly to the car so Wayne wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes. Eden kissed Wayne on his cheek and whispered in his ear.
“We’ll be all right, really we will. We probably won’t call until this is all over. We don’t want anyone connecting us with your family. It’s enough for Deakin to know he does have someone to belong to. Take care.”
Eden jumped into the car with Deakin and drove out of the small town. Deakin had leaned into the small backseat and pulled open one of the boxes. Dust filled the inside of the car and Eden opened all the windows.
“Well, we know where those boxes have been for the last fifteen years. Garage dust is definitely nasty stuff. What’s in there?”
A muffled voice answered her. “Books, mostly. Down at the bottom are some spiral notebooks full of handwritten equations. It’ll take some time to go through those. The school annuals aren’t in this box. I’m opening the other box. Get ready for another blast of dust.”
Surprisingly, this box had been dusted. The top book had been cleaned but the rest of the box was covered in soft brown dust. Deakin picked it up and read the title of the book. It was a hardback copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. He flipped through the pages and money fell into his lap. He went through the book page by page and came up with fifty twenty-dollar bills. Eden glanced at the money in his lap and asked,
“Present from your grandfather?”
Deakin nodded without looking at her face and stuck the money into the glove box. The next book held pictures of the Kimbrough family. He flipped through the recent ones and studied the older ones taken when the children had been younger. Deakin picked out several pictures of his father. Names and dates had been written on the backs of all the pictures. He put them all aside for later and reached into the box again. This time he pulled out a high school annual and opened it where a piece of paper marked a page. The same picture of his father looked out from a host of other pictures. The piece of paper said only “Alex’s senior year.” Deakin opened his grandfather’s notebook and read through the list of Alex’s friends. He looked each one up in the book and studied each picture. Then he read all the notes written by his classmates. Some of them were nothing more than children’s poetry on the order of “Alex and Dana sitting in a tree”. Dana’s name had not appeared on the list in the notebook. Deakin searched through the book one more time and found the picture of a studious brown-haired girl named Dana Sterling. At the back of the book, he also found a page of neat writing signed by Dana. It didn’t make much sense to him but Eden might understand it. Deakin added her name to the list and looked for messages from the other names.
“These names probably don’t mean anything. If they knew something and they still lived in town, then something would have filtered back to my grandparents. We’ll keep the list but I don’t see any reason to call them now.”
Eden nodded in agreement and drove swiftly and carefully through the thick traffic. She wove from lane to lane and constantly checked her rearview mirrors. She finally pulled into the parking lot of their new motel and scanned the cars already parked. She left Deakin in the car while she checked their room. Then she leaned over the railing and waved him upstairs. He brought the two boxes with him and dumped them on the floor. Eden quickly emptied them while Deakin worked his magic on the Internet. She sorted the books into categories and flipped through the pages of each one. The math books all had notations in the margins but none of them made any sense to Eden.
After a time she realized she was the only one making any noise in the room and she glanced at Deakin. He sat totally still and stared at the small screen of the computer. She quietly crawled across the floor and knelt next to his chair. Her eyes were on a level with the keyboard and she looked up to read the words on the screen. After the first few words, her brain shut down and she had to shake her head to make it work again. Then she started over at the top.
Helena Rimchova Kimbrough – born in former Soviet Union – sent to UCLA in 1978 to study mathematics under Dr. Evan Phillips – still seems to be at UCLA - Also part of group working with Dr. Phillips – Andy Yang, Mala Goswami, Alex Kimbrough, Marianne Wolfe, Daniel Rivers, and Dr. Gretchen Falk
Dr. Phillips still at UCLA – Yang at Los Alamos – Goswami now called Allen and is head of math dept at Stanford – Kimbrough in New York - no mention of Rivers anywhere – will keep looking
Wolfe at UChicago – Falk retired and writing textbooks – lives in Sedona, AZ
More info as soon as possible

Eden reached up with one finger and saved the information. She typed in a two-word question and sent it back. “Which Kimbrough?” Then she closed the connection and stood up. She reached over Deakin’s shoulder and searched for the UCLA website. She entered her student id # and waited impatiently for the entire website to download. Deakin slowly came to life and his fingers took over for Eden’s. He clicked on the icon for faculty and leaned back to wait.
“I didn’t know you went to UCLA. What’re you studying?”
“It doesn’t matter. I was getting ready to change anyway.”
“Come on, Eden, tell me.”
“Okay, I was planning to be a lawyer. I have since decided I’d rather be just about anything but a lawyer. I guess that’s why I decided to come with you. It put off that decision for another day or maybe even another life. Thanks, Deakin. You really came to my rescue too.”
Deakin shot her a quick smile and scrolled down the faculty list. He easily found Dr. Evan Phillips but there was no listing for a Kimbrough or a Rimchova. He then scrolled through the entire faculty of the math department looking for an Alex or Helena. No luck there either.
“I’m sure your friend has already checked this list out. He’s still trying to find out more. Let’s not give anyone our address just yet. Let’s skip talking to your ex-father. I think we should head west again. Sedona is only a couple of hours north of Phoenix. We could talk to this Dr. Falk who lives there. Maybe she can give us some help.”
Deakin looked back at Eden and watched her repack the books into the boxes. “Okay, but leave those spiral notebooks out. I want to look at them again.”
Eden nodded and shoved the boxes closer to the door. “What do we do with these boxes?”
“Take them with us. We can’t just throw them away, you know. Do we leave now or in the morning?”
“Early in the morning. We need a good night’s sleep.”
Deakin returned to the screen of the computer and checked to see if more information had arrived. He sat at the keyboard of the small computer most of the night. When he realized it was after 5:00, he shut down the computer and took a long shower. Then he sat in a chair and watched Eden sleep until the alarm sounded at 6:00.
She returned from the shower and found him sitting in the same chair. “What’s happened? Did you get some more news?”
He nodded his head and stood up. He gathered up the boxes of books and carried them out the door. He had already stowed them in the small trunk when Eden carried down the rest of their luggage. Deakin stowed the computer in the back seat and curled himself up in the passenger seat while Eden turned in the keys and paid for their room. Then she drove slowly through the parking lot and out to the nearest highway. Traffic was already thick and moving slowly but she made it through before any traffic jams stopped them from leaving town. She passed quite a few restaurants but she told her stomach to keep quiet. Deakin slept in the seat next to her until she decided she was starving and pulled into a Denny’s in Waco. She’d been driving for two hours and needed a pit stop too. She poked Deakin awake and prodded him in the direction of the restaurant’s front door. He peeled off to the restroom and left her to get a table.
They ate their eggs and pancakes in silence and left as soon as they’d finished. When Eden walked up to the car, Deakin sat in the driver’s seat so she walked around the car and got in. “I’m awake now and I would like to drive for a while. I promise I’ll be careful. Anyway, I need the practice.”
Eden watched him closely as he drove onto the highway and then relaxed when he settled into a smooth speed slightly under the speed limit. After a boring thirty minutes of farmland flashing past her window, Eden slipped into an uneasy doze. She woke when the car slowed down and Deakin pulled into a roadside park.
“Where are we? What time is it?”
“Don’t worry, Eden, there’s nothing wrong with the car. I just thought of something important I need to do. You want to get out and walk around a little while I power up the computer?”
Eden opened her door but then a frown creased her forehead. “Are you trying to get rid of me? Is there something you don’t want me to know?”
“Well, yes, there is. You’re going to have to know sometime though. My friend is acting kinda weird. He keeps blowing me off and not answering any of my messages.”
“Maybe he’s mad at you ‘cos you left town or something like that. Or maybe he’s too busy to answer you. Or he could be leaving town too. Did you ever think of that?”
Deakin slowly shook his head. “Alden never leaves his place. The other bandits bring him food and stuff but he never leaves. And he’s never off-line. He’s been connected 24/7 for the last two years at least. That’s how long I’ve known about him.”
“Who are the bandits? How does the boss bandit make money if he doesn’t have a job?”
“I never said he didn’t have a job. He has lots of them. He’s a sort of detective agency and he searches for people. Just like he’s been doing for my parents. He charges other people tons of money to sift through the government’s computer files. That’s why he calls his guys ‘bandits.’ They sneak in and steal information without getting caught.”
“Why is he doing it for you? How much is it costing you?”
“I already paid him. I had to work for him for a year before he’d do it. I ran all his errands and collected the money he made. In return, he gave me a place to stay, a computer to use, and the eventual use of his contacts. It was a trade I was happy to make.”
“Did the man in the alley who was hitting you have anything to do with this Alden?”
“Oh, no, that was Joey. He was mad at me ‘cos I wouldn’t ever trick for him? He thinks he could make a lot of money off me. Usually I don’t go to that part of town just because of Joey. I had just delivered an envelope to one of Alden’s customers and Joey showed up.”
All this time, Deakin had been clicking the keys on the computer but there was no answer from his friend Alden.
“Maybe he’s mad at you. You did disappear without a word. Did you run off with some of his money?”
Deakin shook his head. “No, I was delivering, not picking up when Joey showed up. Anyway, I’m not the only guy who lives with Alden. There are at least three or four bandits hanging around his place. After we stop in Arizona, I need to get back to LA. I’m worried about Alden.”

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 7 continued

“Who is he and what does he know?”
“His name is Wayne and he’ll tell you all about it if you want. He’ll probably answer any of your questions after that and kill the fatted calf too.”
Deakin glanced back and forth between the girl and the man before he sat down across the table from him. As he stared into Wayne’s eyes, confusion grew on Wayne’s face. He glanced uncertainly at Eden and then back at the serious young man staring at him. His mouth flew open and he started to stand up. Eden grabbed his hand and held it on the table to keep him seated. The man reached into his back pocket with his other hand and pulled out his wallet. He thumbed through the clear plastic pages until he found the picture he wanted. He slowly pulled it out and laid it carefully on the table in front of Deakin. Then it was Deakin’s turn to stare at Eden in confusion.
“Wayne, I’d like you to meet Deakin. Deakin, this is Wayne Kimbrough, Alexander David Kimbrough’s father.”
Deakin jerked back in surprise and tears started from his eyes. He grabbed the picture from the table and stumbled away from the table. The old man tried to rise again but his legs wobbled too much.
Eden prevented him from standing and said, “Please leave him his dignity. He’s been living on nothing else for a long time. Don’t take it away from him. He’ll come back when he’s ready to talk.”
The old man looked into her eyes with confusion and asked, “What do you mean? Who is he and where has he been all these years? He’s Alex. He can’t be but he is. He’s much taller and skinnier than Alex was but his face is right.” His mouth ran out of words but continued to open and close.
“Wayne, I think you should tell Deakin the same story you just told me. And then maybe Deakin will tell you a surprising story.”
Eden walked over to the tall young man and put her arm around his waist and her head on his chest. Deakin dropped his head into the brown cloud of her hair and she felt the heat of his tears. She took the small picture carefully from his hand and studied the serious face that looked back at her. He did look a little smaller than Deakin, not so much shorter as more compact all over. Deakin’s mouth was much softer but his eyes and cheekbones were identical to the boy in the picture. This must have been Alex’s graduation picture. It was probably the last one taken before he’d disappeared.
Eden slid the picture back into Deakin’s hand and wiped the tears from his face with her fingers. Deakin took one last look at the picture and slipped it into the pocket of his shirt. Then he looked at the shaken man still seated at the picnic table. Wayne’s hands were clasped together on the table solely to keep him from grabbing Deakin and never letting him go. There were no thoughts in his mind except the ones concerned with Deakin’s appearance. Later on, in the darkness of night, would come the thoughts that threw doubt on his kinship and its effect on the lives of all the Kimbroughs. But, now, there was only joy at his appearance coupled with fear that he too would soon disappear.
Eden rubbed her hand across Deakin’s chest and waited until he was ready to face the man who could be his grandfather. Deakin draped his arm across Eden’s shoulder and pulled her close. He studied the old man over the top of Eden’s head. Then he walked steadily over to the table and again sat down across from him. Eden stared at him in dawning wonder. All of a sudden Deakin looked years older and more sure of himself than she’d ever seen. This new person must be the one who’d survived on his own for two years in LA. She’d wondered where that person was hiding and was very glad he’d now surfaced. Wayne looked hopefully into Deakin’s eyes and closed his mouth tightly to give Deakin the first chance to speak.
Deakin carefully removed the picture from his pocket and pointed to it. “This is Alexander David Kimbrough? And he’s your son?”
Wayne nodded his head at the end of each question. “When did you lose contact with him?”
“We never saw him after he turned 21. He was at the University of Texas down in Austin at the time. He called a few times after that and talked to his mother but we never saw him again. That picture was taken when he was 18 years old, before he went off to college.”
“What did he say when he called?”
“He told my wife he was doing just fine. The last time he said he was calling from somewhere in California but he never gave her an address or a phone number. He would just say he was living with friends and he’d let us know when he got his own place. At first we thought he’d gotten involved in drugs at college and that’s what he was doing in California but the last time he called he sounded different. He must have been around 24 or 25 and he told Fran he was working on something big, something that would make a difference in the world. Fran thought he was just making up things so we’d think better of him but I’m not so sure.”
“Did he ever call anyone else during that time, like an old friend or an old girlfriend or a favorite teacher maybe?”
“Not that we ever heard. He never had many friends anyway. He was too wrapped up in his math classes. He loved numbers and he was always writing all these long strings of equations. He took every math class he could in high school and kept on in college. He won all kinds of awards and got a full scholarship to UT. He was kinda the cuckoo in the nest. None of our other kids had his kind of brains. They’ve all done well but nothing spectacular. We thought Alex would invent something or discover something important. But it didn’t happen that way.” Deakin reached into the battered backpack he’d brought from the car. He pulled out a large manila envelope and slid out several papers. He slid them across the table until they touched the old man’s fingers. Wayne picked them up with shaky hands and glanced quickly at the one on top. It was a copy of the marriage license for Alex and Helena. The next one was Deakin’s birth certificate. The last two pages were copies of death certificates. There was no death certificate for Deakin.
“I wondered how your name was spelled. I thought it was a nickname, like a preacher or something. I don’t know what else to say, son. We had no idea Alex was even married, much less a father. If we’d known about you, we certainly would have brought you here to live with us. I don’t know where you’ve been all this time and it doesn’t matter at all to me. I am just so damn glad you found us. Will you come home and stay with us for a while? According to this, you’re seventeen years old. You need someone to take care of you. Please come live with us.”
Deakin smiled slightly and shook his head. He gathered up his papers and slid them back into the backpack. Eden patted Wayne’s hands and said,
“Don’t worry about Deakin. He’s been living on his own for over two years now and has done all right for himself. He’s done more than I ever could have done at the same age.”
“But, he can’t just leave. He has to meet everyone in the family. We’ll have a big family dinner this weekend and you both can come. Now, I have to warn you about Fran. She won’t understand, boy. She lives in the past and she will probably call you ‘Alex’ instead of your real name. You can’t waltz in here, claiming to be my unknown grandson and then leave.”
Deakin reached out and touched the old man’s hands for the first time. “We can’t stay, Wayne. It would be dangerous for you and the rest of the family. You can’t say anything to anyone about us. There are some terrible people hunting for me. If I can find you, then so can they. I just need everything you can tell me about my father. Any names he might have mentioned, any places, any teachers at UT or even here at the high school. Tell me anything and everything and then tell me goodbye. I’ll be back if it’s at all possible. I’d like to have a real family. That’s why I started looking in the first place. I hoped I’d find my parents but they’re dead and you’re the only person I’ve found who knew my father. Help me, please.”
Wayne carefully placed his hands over the boy’s hands on the table and squeezed them softly. “But I don’t know anything, son. None of us have mentioned Alex’s name in years. I wouldn’t know where to start.”
Deakin chewed on his lower lip for a minute and then asked, “What about the things he left in his room when he went away to college? Do you still have his books and papers?”
Wayne nodded shakily. “There are a couple of boxes in the garage. I’ll get them down and bring them to you. What else?”
Eden leaned forward and asked, “What about his high school annuals? Are they in the boxes? There might be some names in there we could trace.”
“They’ll be in those boxes, I imagine. I’ll look around the house just to make sure but I haven’t seen anything like that in years. What else can I give you? Do you need money? I know some of the policemen here in town real well. I could take you in to the police station and you could tell them about the people who’re following you. Maybe they could keep you safe.”
Deakin and Eden both shook their heads. “It’s too bizarre for them to take seriously. And, anyway, they couldn’t keep watch over Deakin forever. These people are willing to spend a lot of money and wait a long time to get him. Actually, we’ve been here way too long already. We need to move again. We’ll drive you back to your car. Where will we meet you to pick up the boxes? You pick out a good place.”
Without letting go of Deakin’s hands, Wayne said, “The church. It’ll look like I’m taking some old things for the rummage sale. Meet me in the parking lot behind the First Baptist Church on Lake Drive in about two hours. That should give me enough time. Promise me you’ll be there. It will just about kill me if I can’t see you at least one more time.”
Deakin pulled one hand free and patted the soft cheek of his grandfather. “I promise we’ll meet you, but only you. Don’t bring anyone else with you, okay?”
Deakin helped Wayne stand up and the two men walked to car together. Eden wiped away a few tears before she drove back to the center of town. Then she and Deakin drove quickly away before Wayne could follow them.

THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Eden maneuvered her way to the eastern edge of Dallas and then through the suburbs to the small town of Rockwall. From the number of gated subdivisions they passed, she realized the town was on its way to becoming another satellite orbiting the huge area known as the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. As she drove into the center of town, she found herself wondering just where the original rock wall had been built. Deakin watched the street signs closely but never saw Live Oak Street. Finally Eden pulled into a gas station, filled her car with gas, and asked the attendant for a map. He pointed to a smeared map taped to the wall. Eden figured out that the largest grease spot designated her current position. From that point, she located the correct street. Next, she asked for a phone book and, still without saying a word, the man pointed to a pay phone stuck to the side of the building. Eden flipped up the book and looked up the name of Deakin’s father, Kimbrough. There were four names listed at three different addresses. Eden wrote them all down along with the phone numbers and herded Deakin away from the candy bars and out to the car. As she drove through the center of the small town, she saw a small sign that said Chamber of Commerce – Free Local Maps. She screeched to a halt and pushed Deakin out of the car. He returned a few minutes later with a handful of brochures and a city map. She drove directly to the address on Live Oak Street and pulled up in front of a large white house with a deep porch across the whole front of it. There was a sprinkling of chairs on either side of the front door.
Eden opened her door and walked around the car to the other side. There, she waited for Deakin to get out. When nothing happened, she leaned down and opened the door. Deakin sat inside the car and stared out the front windshield. Eden pulled lightly on his arm and Deakin turned a blank face in her direction. Like a sleepwalker, he stepped out of the car, let her slam the door, and then followed her up the wide walk to the front steps. He stopped there and refused to take another step. Eden left him there and walked the rest of the way to the front door. She pushed the doorbell but didn’t hear it ring inside. Then she knocked loudly on the wooden panels of the door. No one answered her knock so she tried again, much louder this time. Still, no one opened the door. She peered through the long windows on either side of the door and saw no signs of life. The house was fully furnished except for a human presence. She glanced at the mail box next to the door, saw no letters inside it, and then walked back to Deakin. She left him sitting on the porch steps while she walked around the house to the back yard. No barking dogs heralded her approach and nobody skittered away from her presence. She returned to the front, pulled Deakin to his feet and escorted him back to the car.
Eden then picked up her cell phone and called one of the numbers she’d copied from the phone book. The first one invited her to leave a message. The second one was busy. The third number was answered by a man Eden classified as a grandfatherly type. She calmly asked him if he was related to an Alexander David Kimbrough and crossed her fingers in the hope he wouldn’t have a heart attack or stroke. There was silence on the phone and then the man said,
“You’d better tell me who you are, girl. I don’t talk about Alex over the phone to nobody.”
“Uh, would you talk to me in person about him? I really have an important reason for asking. Are you related to him in some way?”
“Yes, yes, I am. Don’t come to the house. I’ll meet you at the café on the square. I go there every day about this time. How will I know you?”
“Medium-sized girl with long brown hair, green tee shirt, black windbreaker, and jeans. How will I know you?”
“Old fart with very little hair left, watery brown eyes, glasses, tan slacks, and navy sweater. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
The phone went dead in Eden’s ear and she started the car. She drove back to the center of town and parked around the corner from the front door of the little café. She grabbed Deakin’s arm as he opened his door and said,
“I don’t think you should go into the café with me. I’ll talk to the man and bring him to the car. I want you to wait on that bench across the street – the one by the courthouse. We’ll sit where you can see us. You watch the cars and the people all around the square. Stand up if you see anything suspicious. Walk straight into the courthouse and out the back door. I’ll pick you up there. Otherwise, meet us at the car, okay?”
Deakin stared at her with great intensity. “Do you promise to tell me everything the man says to you? And I mean ‘everything.’ Cross your heart and hope to die.”
Eden twined her fingers in Deakin’s and held his hand tightly. “Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a thousand needles in my eye. This is your story we’re unraveling so you get to know everything that happens. I promise.”
Deakin slipped out the door and walked to the small bakery on the corner. He stepped inside as Eden entered the café. After buying a small sack of cookies, he walked across the street to the bench in front of the courthouse. He glanced casually in the window of the café and saw Eden sliding into a booth where an older man already sat. Then he jerked his mind away from their conversation and watched the people who walked in and out the courthouse door. He spread a small pile of crumbs on the path by his feet and scrutinized the cars as they drove across his vision. No one stopped to look at Eden’s car and no one paid any attention to him as he ate his cookies.


Eden stopped inside the door of the café and scanned the tables. A waitress with a glass pot of coffee noticed her and gestured an invitation to sit anywhere. She discounted a table of four men with four coffee cups and four servings of pie. A couple of deputies sat at a table near the door with a radio set on the table between them. They glanced at Eden, smiled appreciatively at her and returned to their conversation. At the corner of her vision, a man moved and she looked in his direction. He was definitely an old fart with glasses, thin hair, tan slacks, and a dark sweater. She joined him at his booth and quickly glanced out the window to see if Deakin had taken his position. He nodded his head slightly at her and then smiled at a woman walking up the sidewalk to the courthouse. Eden smiled at the waitress as she materialized at her elbow and asked for a glass of orange juice. With a quick practiced glance, the waitress noticed the tension between the two people but didn’t comment about it. She returned with a glass of orange juice and two pieces of peach pie. Eden picked up her fork unconsciously and ate the triangular point of the pie.
The older man said quickly, “It’s bad luck to eat the point first. You should always save it until you eat at least one other bite.”
Eden smiled into his faded brown eyes and liked what she saw. “I’ve never heard that superstition before. Why did you meet me here? Is Alex Kimbrough related to you?”
The older man toyed with his pie and finally took a bite before he spoke again. “What’s your name? And why, after all this time, have you come asking questions?”
“Eden is my name and I ran into a big mystery out in California a few days ago. That’s the first time I heard that name. Now, will you answer my questions?”
The man blinked his eyes rapidly to dissipate some of the moisture collecting in his eyes and then said in a low voice, “Alex was one of my children. He disappeared from our lives years and years ago. None of us heard a word from him after his second year at college. Then, about fifteen years ago, we heard he’d been killed in California. We tried to get his body sent here to be buried but the police said he’d been burned to death in an accident and they’d already disposed of the remains. That’s how they referred to Alex, as ‘the remains.’ Some men from the government questioned us about Alex but we didn’t know anything. They didn’t believe we hadn’t heard from him in years. Finally, after about a year, they gave up and never came back. The news of his death was just like a period to a sentence. He’d already been gone so long. The wife and I think of him sometimes when the whole family gets together or when we look through some old pictures. The wound has healed. My wife is in poor health and I don’t think she could stand to have it torn open again. So, say what you have to say to me and it won’t go any farther. I can take it.”
Eden scraped the rest of the pie off the plate and then licked her fork. Her eyes never left the man’s face. “What’s your first name?”
“Wayne is my name and Fran is my wife’s name.”
“Wayne Kimbrough, would you consider leaving this café with me and driving away from all these people? I have some very important things to tell you and I don’t think you should hear them in public. What do you say? It’s your choice.”
Eden pulled money out of her pocket and set it down on the edge of the table. Wayne Kimbrough glanced at the money and knocked his knuckles on it, signifying his agreement with the amount. Then he stood up and said to the waitress,
“Molly, money’s on the table.” He ushered Eden past the deputies and out the door. He pulled his sweater closer as if he was suddenly cold and waited for Eden to move first. She walked down to the corner and turned to look at her car. No one loitered near it. Then, she glanced behind her at the courthouse and saw Deakin brushing crumbs from his pants.
“Don’t be alarmed, Wayne, but someone else will be joining us at the car. He’s just a boy but this is his story and he has to hear it from you.”
Wayne looked alarmed when Eden mentioned another person but his need to know about his son overrode his fear for his own safety. He followed in Eden’s wake with firm steps and his head held high. Eden glanced behind at him and said, with a small smile, “Don’t look like you’re walking to the firing squad, Wayne. It’s not going to be like that at all. We need you, we don’t want you dead or even hurt, okay?”
Wayne smiled ruefully and then looked up the street at the only car parked on their side of the street. Deakin leaned against the side of the small convertible with ill-concealed tension and watched the two people walk toward him. Then he unlocked the car and slipped into the tiny back seat. The older man dropped clumsily into the front bucket seat and Eden closed the door. Then she drove slowly away from downtown Rockwall straight to a children’s park she’d noticed earlier in the day. She helped Wayne climb out of the car and left Deakin to his own devices. She ushered Wayne to a picnic table near some swing sets and waved Deakin over to sit with him. Deakin shook his head and gestured for her to talk to him first.