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.”