Watcher

by Andrew Weis

  Nemo opened the dock door and inside glimmered a dark metallic blue 1965 Ford Galaxie. When Nemo started it, its engine sounded like a lion’s deep purr.

  I struck up a conversation to help build a closer bond with my new best friends. I knew we struck a deal, but I was already forgetting about it.

  “This is a totally kick car,” I said.

  “Thanks,” Nemo said.

  “Did you fix it up yourself?”

  Before my dad died, I had no appreciation for the amount of work required to fix up an old car to brand new. The more I hung around the finished cars as an angel, the more respect I started having for them. Hard work was still hard work.

  “Yeah. It’s what we do,” Nero said.

  “What we used to do,” Nemo said, correcting him.

  “Hey, we don’t lay our problems on others.”

  “True dat, but we’ll get it back one day.”

  “Get what back?” I asked.

  “Our shop. Damn that Tyrone,” Nemo said, mumbling colorful profanity.

  “Nemo, what’d I say two seconds ago?” Nero said.

  “Right, man. Sorry. Gets me mad thinking it.”

  “Can I help?” I asked, looking at them but didn’t get a response.

  We sat in silence while the engine continued its soft rumble down the street. I figured if I offered help instead of asking for it all the time, I stood a better chance with my long-term prospects with these guys.

  “Well, I’m throwing my services out there,” I said. “If you need anything, let me know.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Nemo said.

  “It makes me wonder, though. If you guys fixed up this car so nice, why don't you start your own business? This car proves you don’t have to work for Coz.”

  “Thanks for the advice. We’ll keep that in mind,” Nero said.

  “Do you like taking orders from him? I saw how he pushed by you the other day.”

  “He didn’t push nothing,” Nemo said.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “You guys didn’t look too happy about it. Let me put it another way. Would your mother be proud of what you do?”

  Nemo mumbled, but I didn’t understand him.

  “What did you say? I can’t hear you because the wind’s blowing me around bad back here,” I asked.

  “You ask a lot of questions, Abbey,” Nemo said. “How about you answer a few?”

  “Fair enough. Ask away,” I said.

  “How do you know Reggie is missing? The cops ain’t made that call.”

  “A guy who overturns a cement truck can’t walk away without a cut or a bruise. Someone would’ve taken him to a hospital, and nobody did. Someone got him.”

  “Okay, what makes you think they kidnapped Daniel?” Nemo asked.

  “Coz and Rico broke into Daniel’s house. They beat his aunt to death and raped his sister. They both died, but his aunt was able to ID Coz and Rico. I think that’s when they took Daniel.”

  “What’s Daniel to you? Why you so interested in him?” Nero asked.

  I pondered that for a moment. I couldn’t tell them about my ARV or that I was an angel. Telling them I didn’t want to answer wasn’t the way to earn trust either.

  “He’s my, uh, boyfriend,” I said. The split second after the words left my lips, my heart raced.

  “You’re looking to take your boyfriend from Tyrone?” Nemo asked. “Damn, girl. Heart like that must make your momma proud, huh?”

  I nibbled my quivering lip as we drove by an endless row of commercial and industrial businesses.

  “Something wrong? Abbey?” Nero asked.

  “I think she’d be proud,” I muttered.

  “You think? You two don’t get along?”

  “She’s gone, now.”

  “Oh, damn. I’m sorry, girl.”

  “Yeah. Damn is right.”

  I leaned back in my seat and stared at the passing urban blight. I never got to say goodbye to my mom and it festered like an unhealed wound stinging my heart. Somehow, I had to get rid of that pain.

  Chapter 13

  WHILE WE CRUISED by block after block of the Englewood Rails’ industrial complex, the warm summer breeze swirled my hair around my face until we arrived at Avalon Range.

  Avalon Range’s north entrance was situated in the shadow of the Great Overpass Rise and next to the Union Pacific rail yard. It was a perfect set up. Semi trucks loaded with old metal drove down a one-way road, dumped their loads beside an assigned shredder, then drove to the exit at the opposite end of the property, about a mile south.

  Once the steel was shredded, front-loaders dumped loads onto rising conveyor belts that ferried the metals over the rail yard. The scraps then unloaded into a stamping plant’s mini steel mill furnace which melted the scrap for sheet metal used for car body panels.

  “You guys weren’t kidding about the size of this place,” I said.

  “The place never shuts down,” Nero said.

  Nemo parked the Galaxie in front of the Avalon Range office, which was nothing more than a worn, filth-encrusted trailer home nestled beside the Rise. A boarded-up two-story red-brick building next to the trailer might’ve served as an office before the yard was automated, but the trailer looked like the Ritz Hotel by comparison.

  Two slow-moving commuter trains clacked over rail seams as it rolled across the Overpass Rise. In front of the trailer’s rickety wood steps was a green 1971 Chevy Camaro.

  “Wait here, Abbey,” Nero said, climbing out of the car. He closed the car door and headed for the trailer door.

  Yeah, right. Wait here. I inrepped, passed through the trailer wall, then stopped beside a desk. Akio spoke on his smartphone as Nemo and Nero entered. The thin plywood floors flexed and creaked under the weight of their steps.

  Rico, seated on a torn black vinyl kitchen chair with chromed tube steel legs, propped his feet on the desk like a bigshot businessman. He acknowledged them with a smug half-assed nod. His phoniness was one thing my circle of friends often joked about. On the outside he acted mean, but underneath he didn’t fit the gangster mold. He always followed Coz’s lead like a fearful Pomeranian puppy.

  Nero seemed to look at me again, but his eyes returned to Akio who continued his conversation without interruption. I looked in the direction I thought they were and saw a large poster on the wall behind me of topless eye-candy in a pink thong bent over the hood of a sky blue 1970 Plymouth Satellite. I’d never porn out myself like that.

  Akio ended his call while Nemo and Nero watched him with impatient eyes. Akio swatted Rico’s arm. Rico got off the chair and stood beside the desk while Akio sat like a pathetic ruler on a pretend throne of cheap tube metal and black vinyl. Rico and Akio stared back at Nemo and Nero.

  “So, what brings you drones here?” Rico asked as he sat back on the chair.

  “We’re looking for Tyrone,” Nero said. “We tried here because we know you like to think of this place as your little kingdom.”

  Rico huffed; his poor ego bruised. I thought it was funny.

  “Check it out,” Akio said. “I got a seventy-one Charger I want you to look at.”

  Rico dashed to the door, making sure he got in front of Nemo and Nero. What a chump.

  “What’s the deal with the car, Akio?” Nemo asked.

  “I’ll show you,” Akio said.

  Akio picked up a scrap piece of pipe and smacked flattened cars as he passed them. He stopped at the shell of the Charger situated in front of one of the shredders. He gave the trunk an angry swat with the pipe and smiled.

  “What do you think?” Akio asked.

  Nemo scanned the car and shook his head.

  “It’s a piece of crap, man. It’d cost eighty grand to bring it back to life.”

  “I thought so. Might as well shred the bitch now then.”

  Akio swung his pipe like a baseball bat and struck Rico’s head with a metallic clunk. Rico dropped to the ground in a crumpled pile. Akio pried open the trunk of the Charger.


  “Throw him in,” Akio said.

  Nemo and Nero stood in mild shock.

  “What’d I say?” Akio shouted as he pounded the car with the pipe. “Throw that piece of road kill into the damn trunk!”

  Nemo and Nero put Rico’s battered groaning body into the trunk. Akio slammed the lid shut.

  “What’d he do?” Nero asked.

  “He talked to the cops. Damn near gave us up from what I heard.”

  “Who allowed the hit?”

  “T did. That was him on the phone.”

  Akio stepped over to a control panel and started up the car shredder. The Charger vibrated up a wide conveyor belt like roller coaster cars climbing the first hill. After clearing the top, the Charger dropped into the shredder front first. The car screeched as the shredder chopped the car into bits along with Rico’s screaming body. Once the blood-soaked steel bits finished tumbling out of the shredder and rained onto a moving conveyor belt, Akio shut off the machine. He then led Nemo and Nero back to the office trailer.

  Akio sat on the vinyl chair behind the desk.

  “So, where’s T?” Nero asked.

  Akio leaned back in the flimsy chair.

  “Well?” Nemo demanded.

  “I only spoke to T. He never said where he’s at and I didn’t think to ask. He’s been working over Reggie for the formula now and don’t want to be bothered.”

  “The formula for what?” Nemo asked.

  “Coca-Cola, what do you think?”

  “Punk ass,” Nemo said, charging Akio, but Nero intervened.

  “You better put that mutt on a leash,” Akio said.

  “Look, man, it’s important,” Nero asked. “Can you get him word we’re looking for him?”

  “Yeah. I’ll make sure he knows. Better yet, go to Xtremes. He’ll find you,” Akio said, leaning back in the chair.

  “One other thing,” Nemo asked. “You know where Daniel Perry is?”

  Akio smiled, then grabbed his crotch.

  “No. Love sick, that boy. With his girl gone, we pressed him to work for us. It took leverage to get him along, but he ain’t got a choice now.”

  My fists clenched while I listened to Akio talk about Daniel like that. Damn my conflicted heart! Daniel fought against joining Coz for any reason, but they worked Daniel to where they had to kidnap him to get their way.

  Out of spontaneous disapproval, I kicked in a leg of Akio’s chair. While maintaining a surprised expression, Akio twisted to the floor. After I realized what I’d done, I tried to figure out how I moved a physical object while inrepped. I didn’t think watchers like me had that type of ability.

  Nemo curled Akio up off the floor. Akio tried to pry away Nemo’s bear-sized paws when Nemo slammed him against the wall.

  “You got to be careful around chairs, but you’re right, son,” Nemo said. “We don’t need no bullshit this late in the game. Where’s Daniel?”

  “I don’t know, all right? Coz stashed him somewhere.”

  Nemo shoved Akio, who tripped over the chair and against the wall. Akio grimaced as he climbed onto the corner of the desk to straighten himself out.

  “Come on, Nemo,” Nero said, as he opened the office door.

  I darted through the office trailer wall, sat back inside the car and watched Nemo and Nero as they returned.

  “Find out anything?” I asked.

  “Nothing we can use,” Nero said. “If you want to see Tyrone, then hang around Xtremes tonight.”

  The ride back to Xtremes was quiet. Again. The clientele who made the club their home away from home began arriving. We drove around to the alley and stopped at Xtremes’s back door.

  “Hey, Abbey, if we hear anything, we’ll give you a shout. What’s your cell?” Nero asked.

  “I don’t have one, but I’ll be around,” I said.

  “Watch yourself. We’ll be here,” Nemo said.

  “All right. Oh, where did you say Reggie worked?” I asked.

  “Hoffman Material on West Lake Street about two miles from here.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Hey, just remember that we don’t work for you, girl,” Nero said. “It was bad enough you were even with us today.”

  I approached Nero while looking up into his eyes.

  “You said if I won the fight, you’d help me. The help continues until I get Daniel home safe, or shall we go for round two when I get back?”

  Nero pondered my threat while I walked around a splattering of mostly eaten fried chicken takeout someone threw out of their car window.

  At the end of the alley I noticed a homeless man sitting against a red brick wall. He cracked a smile and winked. I stepped closer, then he dashed off toward Nemo and Nero. He glanced at me before going into the club with them. Strange dude.

  The late afternoon sun shined between tall steel silos at Hoffman Material. The dusty property buzzed with trucks filling up with wet cement. Big yellow construction tractors unloaded scoops of gravel and sand onto industrial-sized conveyor belts that fed a tall mixing silo.

  To avoid detection, I inrepped and began my investigation on the company’s dusty grounds. Since I was an angel, I didn’t have to worry about showering or making sure my makeup stayed perfect; I used my angelic abilities and changed my outfit so I’d appear fresh again. This time around I went with a white leather vest and kept the boots. What could I say? I loved these things.

  With barely any sleep, not that I needed it, I should look like a zombie. I reset my ponytail and spotted a spacious maintenance garage.

  Workers used an overhead crane to remove the dented drum from a damaged truck, which I guessed to be the one Reggie overturned. I circled the truck to check things out. The dented passenger side fenders and punctured gas tank filled the area with the noxious cold smell of gasoline.

  The crews lowered the truck’s mixing drum onto a support jig while another worker with ear protection and a small jackhammer climbed inside the drum. The jackhammer started and the ear-crushing rattle resonated out of the barrel like a massive steel drum. What an awful job.

  On the driver side door, I spotted white powdery residue in the shape of partial boot prints. I materialized a clear plastic bag and took samples of the bright white powder off the door. There weren’t any white powders in the immediate area, so I made a calculated guess that the boot and the powder came from somewhere else. So, finding out where the powder came from was one thing, but who stepped in it and climbed onto the cement truck after it overturned?

  Chapter 14

  AFTER I KILLED a few hours biding my time before seeing Nemo and Nero, I returned to Xtremes with the powder sample. The usual line to enter the club backed up as Nemo and Nero checked IDs.

  “Do you know what that is? I found it on Reggie’s truck,” I said, squeezing between Nero and the door frame.

  Nero sniffed the bag and cringed.

  “Is it cocaine?” I asked.

  Nero shook his head.

  “Thermoset polymer,” Nero said, handing the bag to Nemo, who also cringed at the chemical-like smell.

  “They use that in concrete?” I asked.

  “No, it’s paint,” Nero said, waving in a young couple. “Where did you find this?”

  “On Reggie’s cement truck. What can you paint with powder?”

  “Anything. It’s used for powder coating.”

  I’ve heard of powder coating but only in the manner that car restorers had that done to their vintage car frames.

  “How many places around here do that?”

  “Just one I know of,” Nemo said.

  “Where?”

  “We’ll take you there after our shift. Come back around midnight.”

  “Why can’t I go now? Don’t you trust me?”

  “It’s cool, Abbey. Come back later. As you can see, the night shift is getting busy.”

  With about six hours of free time, I walked down the busy street away from the show offs and their butt-ugly Calicars and encountered the homeless man I
saw earlier. A smile grew wider on his face. As I approached, he seemed more interested in me this time.

  “Hello, Jessa, it’s me,” the man said.

  “Daddy?” I asked in disbelief. “Is that you?”

  “I see you made some new friends,” Dad said.

  “Yeah, but it’s tough getting any answers without telling them why I’m here.”

  “It’s a challenge, all right,” he said with a laugh.

  Dad’s laughter always made me feel good.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  “I’m a watcher. This is what watchers do,” he said.

  “Your job is here?”

  “Yes. We’ve learned that there’s a plot to attack the angel hierarchy that governs humans. The scheme originated in Englewood Rails.”

  “How can that be?”

  “That’s why I’m here. My duties require that I look for any behavior that stands out from normal human activity.”

  “Sounds like a tough job.”

  I removed the binding from my ponytail and ran my fingers through my hair.

  “It’s also time-consuming,” Dad said. “I’ve worked this area for the last couple of years. Since that time, we detected a spike in angelic influence, so Arlen planted me here.”

  “Will whoever attack soon?”

  I set my ponytail again. On my next mission, I’d have to pick a shorter hair style.

  “We know there will be an attempt,” Dad said. “And fortunately, it’ll be a long time before it happens. We’re not even sure where they’ll enter, so it’s nothing you need to concern yourself with.”

  “Is Daniel involved?” I asked.

  “No.”

  The thought that I worked like a detective entered my mind again, and I rather liked it. The idea that the difficulty of my ARV might’ve been compounded by an angelic hierarchy issue would’ve crushed me.

  “Hey, why did you run off earlier when I saw you?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t have you recognize me with Nemo and Nero in view. It might’ve blown my cover with you. How’s it going with them?”

  “Okay, I guess. We’re going on another field trip tonight when they get off work. Do you know why anyone would kidnap Daniel?”