The Hunted Girl

by Lawrence J Epstein

  “I’m sorry. No, I don’t. I never visited here before and I didn’t learn about it when Jennifer and her Mom visited my neighbor. So I can write news articles and cheer you on. I think we’ve reached the limits of my skills.”

  “We might be able to use both. Let’s see what information we get, but I should take you around to some places so you get a taste of the place.”

  “I’d like that very much, Danny.”

  We sat there in a sort of peaceful silence you can share with only a few people.

  I liked it very much.

  Sometimes you remember the second before something terrible happened. That was the case for me. I remembered that feeling of peace in the circle of silence in the room. I wish the silence had stayed that way for five more minutes to give me the strength to deal with what happened.

  But reality plays by its own cruel rules.

  It did then.

  The telephone rang.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Ari was screaming. His English sounded more halted. He took deep breaths between words. It took me a few seconds to adjust to all these changes in his voice.

  “Say it again, Ari. Slowly.”

  “They tried to kill her, Danny.”

  “Is everyone all right?”

  “You think I trained for all those years to let someone kill a kid?”

  “Take it easy. Slow. Easy breaths. Tell me what happened.”

  He took in some air.

  “Jennifer was sleeping. Your father was sleeping. Alden was reading a magazine. It was maybe an hour ago.”

  “All right. And what happened?”

  “Two men broke in. They had Kalashnikovs. There was some shooting.”

  “But you’re all okay?”

  “Yes. I approached them. I thought I had knocked one out. I don’t know how it happened, but he escaped.”

  “Is the other dead?”

  “The other is tied up on a chair in the family room.”

  “He can talk?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

  I turned around.

  Hannah was facing me, maybe two feet from my face.

  “You had her the whole time?”

  “That’s not the story here. Someone tried to hurt her. She’s fine. We have one of the men who attacked her.”

  “You lied to me.”

  “That’s what you get out of this story?”

  “No. I’m just angry. Don’t even try to stop me. I’m going with you.”

  “I don’t think that is a good idea.”

  Betsy walked into the room.

  “Come on. We’re going to my father’s,” I told her.

  “The three of us,” Hannah said.

  Betsy looked at me.

  “I go with you or I go straight to the cops.”

  “Blackmail doesn’t suit you.”

  “You’re right. It’s almost as bad as kidnapping a child.”

  It wasn’t the time or place to argue.

  “Come on. There were shots. Maybe a neighbor did call the cops.”

  We were driving on a one lane road. The car in front of me was going too slowly. I screamed at him. He didn’t seem to hear me. I began reciting his license plate aloud.

  “What are you doing, Danny?” Betsy asked.

  “I’m memorizing the plate. I’ll find out who it is later and have an unpleasant conversation with the guy.”

  “Just go around him,” Hannah said. “Look. After that red car goes by there’s an opening. You can make it.”

  It was going to be close.

  I swerved into the oncoming lane, accelerated, passed the slow car, and got back into the right lane. The slow driver honked at me. That made me feel better. The driver who had been coming at me honked at me. I wish he understood.

  I picked up the speed.

  There were no police cars in front of my father’s house. That was a good sign. I parked and jumped out. Betsy and Hannah were right behind me.

  We went inside.

  “Just sit here,” I told Hannah as I pointed to a couch. “I’ll take you to see Jennifer if you stay right there.”

  I walked into the family room.

  Ari was bleeding. Only then did I notice he had been shot in his right arm.

  The man in the chair was big. His hair was cut very short. I recognized him. He didn’t quite have a beard but a growth of a few days. His face was black and blue. I knew who did that to him.

  “I’ll call a doctor,” I said.

  “I took out the bullet,” Ari said. “I’ve done it before on me and others.”

  I just shook my head.

  Ari sent Betsy out for some supplies he needed. He began to look faint.

  He ignored his own feelings.

  We took two chairs and sat opposite the man with the bruised face.

  I stared at him hard. “You have no idea how lucky you are that you’re not dead. This man usually kills people without bothering to rough them up.”

  “I saw what he can do. Just keep him away from me. There are witnesses now. He better not do what he said he would.”

  “You tried to kill a little girl. You kidnapped her from my house and then took her someplace and tried to murder her. She’s six years old.” I couldn’t stop my hand from shaking. The last time I had seen him, he had been standing next to Jennifer’s hanging body.

  He shrugged.

  I punched him in the stomach. I had to admit it felt good. Except for my hand. Which hurt.

  When I calmed down a bit, I said, “I’m going to sit here and talk to you as long as you talk to me. You don’t talk or you lie or you tell me it’s none of my business, then I leave and you’re left with the tender mercies of my friend. He once personally killed four armed terrorists in fifteen minutes. You decide if you want to be left with him.”

  “I don’t know nothing.”

  “We’ll see. I assume you know your name.”

  “Helmuth.”

  “First name?”

  “Everyone calls me Fingers.”

  “And why is that?”

  “I strangle people.”

  “And you were hired to grab the girl from the house?”

  “Mister, I was hired to strangle everyone in the house except the girl. There’s a lot less blood that way. But time was involved, so I tried just to grab the girl. They told me to bring her to the house and hang her. And then this one got in our way.” He nodded toward Ari.

  “All right, Helmuth. What was the name of the man you came with to my father’s house?”

  “I don’t know. And before you send this guy over to refresh my memory, I really don’t know. He hired me. There were no names.”

  “I asked you his name.”

  “And I answered. He was real careful not to use names.”

  “What did you call this guy?”

  “It was his nickname. Whitey. You remember the Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford?”

  “I’ve heard of him.”

  “The guy said his dad liked Whitey Ford and so he called his kid Whitey. That ain’t his real name.”

  “And just how did Whitey meet you?”

  “I don’t want to say.”

  “I bet you don’t. You strike me as a realist, Fingers. The people you think you’re going to annoy aren’t here. If they hurt you it won’t be right now. It may be they never learn that you talked. On the other hand, we’re all together right now. In ten seconds I’m going to put a gag over your mouth. You’re going to be screaming in pain and I don’t want you to scare the other people in the house. One. Two. Three.”

  “All right. You guys are worse than me. I just do it for a living. You look like you like it.”

  “You were about to say where you and Whitey met.”

  “Yeah. There’s a bar and restaurant near the St. James railroad station. Across from that supermarket and near a bank. It’s a big, fancy restaurant. The bar is just in the corner.”

  “And the name
of the place?”

  “The Green Oasis.”

  I knew it, although I had never been inside.

  “What about the place?”

  “I do some work for one of the co-owners. He needs girls. I get them for him. He needs muscle. He gets me. Anyway, two nights ago he calls and says I can make real big money, way more that he usually pays, but he’s not sure what the job is. He says this guy Whitey will explain it to me. He named the price. And I said I’d do it. He says to come to the place that night to meet Whitey who’s in charge. Whitey would pay me.

  “Anyway we met and agreed and tonight Whitey and me, we ate, had more than a few shots, and then Whitey drove us out here. And that’s all I know.”

  “What’s the name of the co-owner who called you?”

  “I just call him Rupert. I think he’s English or something. He talks funny.”

  I stood up.

  “Rough him up. Hard. He’s holding out on us.”

  “Wait. I told you everything.”

  I put my face into his.

  “You make the same mistake as every low-life, every criminal. You tell the least you think you can get away with. I know you’ve got more to say.”

  “I need something to trade to the cops.”

  “Who said you were ever going to get to the cops?”

  He began shivering.

  Ari came over and patted him a few times on the cheek.

  “I think a piece of him should come off. That’s how you send a message to his brain.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “You’re the one with the practice. I’ll wait in the...”

  “Come on. Give me a chance.” He looked at me. “Send him into the other room and I’ll tell you.”

  Ari re-checked the knots. He didn’t want to leave and have the guy be able to attack me. Then Ari walked out. He needed to take care of his wound.

  “Listen to me, Fingers. You have one chance. I’m not going to stand around here trying to coax the truth out of you. You tell me what you know. Straight out. This is your last chance.”

  “I don’t know all that much. Honest.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “All right.” He moved his tongue over his lips. He was nervous, and he wasn’t faking it.

  “This guy Whitey and me was drinking like I says. Only Whitey, he was drinking way more than me. He starts talking. I don’t know what he was supposed to tell me.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He says there’s some bank involved. He didn’t say the name. I even asked him and he wouldn’t say.”

  “What about the bank?”

  He shook his head. “I swear I don’t know. There was some plan involving a bank. I don’t know what it was. Anyway, I needed to kill the kid because of what was going to happen in the bank. I says to Whitey why don’t he do it himself. He says he heard I’m the expert with a rifle. That I will kill anyone if the price is right. I don’t disagree with him.”

  His eye flickered.

  “You’ve got more, Fingers. Give me the last of it.”

  “I don’t like you,” he said.

  “Join the club. I heard they have their own decoder ring. What else do you know?”

  “This Whitey.”

  “Yeah?”

  “He says something about the kid’s parents.”

  “Did he shoot them?”

  “I don’t know. I think he shot one of them, but what he says didn’t make no sense to me.”

  “Try to remember his exact words.”

  “My memory ain’t so good. It was just he was in the house and did some shooting.”

  A flash of recognition appeared on his face.

  “Oh, yeah. And the kid saw him. And that’s why he wanted her dead. He said just before we left that he really wanted to shoot the kid. Everyone else was just witnesses he wanted to get rid of. He was a tough man.”

  Fingers was moving around as he best could.

  “What are you going to do with me?”

  “How many people have you killed Fingers?”

  “Sixteen. And I never been caught. That’s pretty good, ain’t it?”

  “You deserve a medal.”

  “I know. Hey, mister, that there’s a good idea. We should give medals.”

  “You tried to kill a little girl who is six and three quarters years old. You were going to kill her before she reached seven.”

  “I got good pay for it.”

  I got up and walked out of the room.

  Everyone was in a corner bedroom with Jennifer. Betsy had bought her a chocolate bar, and Jennifer was sitting up in bed eating it.

  Jennifer saw me.

  “Hey, Mr. Ryle. Did you see Ari? He walked into a tree. Isn’t that funny? I mean how can you walk into a tree?”

  “It’s very funny, Jennifer.”

  “I got scared before, Mr. Ryle. It was on TV. People shooting, I mean, but it sounded real to me. But everyone told me it was just a show.”

  I pulled Ari out of the room.

  “Take my car for a drive. Put our passenger in the trunk. Come back in an hour.”

  “Alone?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Where do we go then?”

  “To that restaurant in St. James.” I paused. “Are you okay? You want a day or two off?”

  “You know you can’t take time off during an operation. We need to find out the whole plan.”

  Ari went to the family room to collect his passenger.

  I went back to see Jennifer and this time Hannah pulled me out.

  “You lead quite an exciting life for a politician’s helper.”

  “You can’t tell anyone.”

  “I know that. I already spoke to Alden and your dad. He’s charming, by the way. Anyway, I’m staying here to help with Jennifer. I won’t tell anyone where I am or what I’m doing. Is that all right?”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  She patted my cheek. “You’re a man. You never have a choice.”

  She looked up at me. “Where is Ari taking that horrible man?”

  “To a private detention facility. We can’t have him talking to his people or the police. He’s got to stay quiet until this is all over.”

  I was disappointed in her. She didn’t see that Fingers could send Ari and me to prison on several counts. She was out of her world. Her smile was both naïve and comforting.

  “I’ve got to see my Dad,” I said.

  I walked into his bedroom.

  He was lying down, but he sat up quickly.

  “How’s your health, Dad?”

  “I want to say bad days and worse days. But the truth is that some days are pretty good. Alden here is like a prison guard. She’s got me exercising like I’m headed to the Olympics for senior citizens.”

  “He’s not used to being ordered around,” Alden said. “It’s fun. He’s my boss and I like getting to tell him what to do for a change.”

  “Could you give us a moment, Alden?” my dad asked.

  “Of course.”

  When she left, he said to me, “That was close. Does Ari have a place to get rid of him?”

  “Ari could find a place to hide someone in the Macy’s window.”

  “It can’t come back to this house or to you.”

  “I don’t even have to answer that, Dad.”

  “Did you get information from him?”

  “Quite a lot. We’re going to start working on it.”

  “They’re playing for keeps.”

  “I know that.”

  “Just take care of yourself. You’re my only child who still talks to me. I don’t want my last conversation to be with the funeral director about my final resting place.”

  “I’ll be here. Just make sure you are as well.”

  “Hey, Danny. The Nazis tried to kill me. More than a few gangsters tried to kill me. More than a few lawmen as well. I’m still here. And I intend to remain.”

  He signaled me to come over to his bed.

  He hugged me
.

  I went outside and Alden came up to me.

  “I was very scared tonight. I think I should resign my post.”

  “It won’t happen again, Alden. It wasn’t my father’s fault. It was mine. I’ll take Jennifer away. She’s who they were after.”

  “Don’t you dare take that child away. She brings life to this sad house.”

  “She’s got to leave for everyone’s safety, including hers. But you’ve got to stay.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Alden, you can’t tell anyone about tonight. And I do mean anyone. If you do you will endanger all our lives.”

  “That doesn’t encourage me to stay here.”

  “I’ll make sure your salary is doubled.”

  “Do you really think I do this for the money?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I need to take care of people. That keeps me alive.”

  “My father is very fond of you. He doesn’t like many people, but he likes you. Listen. Stay another month. If this isn’t all resolved, then you can go. Please. I’m not just saying it. We all need you.”

  She hesitated for a few seconds. “I can do that.”

  She shook my hand.

  I went over to a couch and sat down.

  I had to decide on a plan of attack.

  And then I had to figure out what was going on at the Bank of Waterbend.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  It was late the next morning when Ari and I drove to St. James. It was an attractive small town. I drove over to the railroad station and looked at it. The actual station was locked.

  We parked along the edge of the station next to other cars whose owners had taken an early train to New York.

  I pointed across the street.

  “There’s a used bookstore there that I like.”

  “Some other time,” Ari said.

  “I know.” We passed a pizza place. There was a bank and a bar across the street. We walked another block.

  The Green Oasis was across the street. We were standing in front of a small plaza next to a 7-11.

  We went to the 7-11, got some coffee, and went back outside. We stared across the street.

  “It looks like a nice place,” Ari said. “Do we approach or look it over first?”

  “It’s dangerous if they know us or have photos of us, but I’d like a sense of the place. Who comes in? How many people are there for lunch? Any shady characters? That sort of stuff.”