“Good, then follow me out of here and come stay with me in my apartment.”
Mouse now shakes her head in a sad, slow gesture of no.
David looks at her and sighs. “Jesus! It’s like having a kid or something.”
He stomps off to the bathroom where he strips off his windbreaker to allow himself more leeway between the two walls. He climbs back out through the window, when he looks back inside, he sees Mouse standing in the doorway giving him a dejected look.
“I’m not mad at you if that’s what you’re thinking. I don’t know why you want to live in this big empty dump, but I guess you have your reasons. I’ll see you later, OK?”
Mouse smiles and nods her head.
David looks over at the rags on the sink. “I think I’ll get you washcloths and towels for a housewarming present.”
David then manages to squeeze his way back out onto the sidewalk. When he pops out between the two walls, he frightens an old woman walking her dog.
“Fuck!” Shouts the genteel looking lady. Beneath an open mink coat, she wears an ankle-length, black dress with a fine lace border at its neck, pinned prominently to the front of her dress is an antique cameo.
“Sorry,” David says, while suppressing a laugh.
“Crazy bastard,” The woman mumbles, as she pulls her white Maltese along by its leash.
David laughs as he brushes himself off with his jacket and enters his building. After a five-minute conversation in the hallway with Mrs. Johnson, he settles in at his computers.
For over three hours he searches databases looking for names in a virtual world seemingly without end. After illegally gaining access to the database of the nation’s largest vehicle rental agency he shouts out, “Got ya!” as he taps the desk with a fist for emphasis.
David routes his call from a phone booth half a continent away while electronically disguising his voice, he then dials the number of the Agency for Missing and Abused Children in Atlanta Georgia.
“Hello this is the Agency for Missing and Abused Children. This is Mrs. Marks speaking, how may I help you?”
“Hello Mrs. Marks, this is Mr. Smith calling again.”
“Mr. Smith, how nice of you to call. May I assume that this is not a social call?”
“Yes you may Mrs. Marks.”
“Mr. Smith the agency has been informed by federal authorities that you use illegal methods to obtain your information.”
“That’s true Mrs. Marks.” David says.
“Mr. Smith, all of us here who man the hotlines have been told that it is the official policy of the agency not to encourage you in your lawbreaking, we were told to hang up whenever you called.”
After a pause, David says, “Are you telling me you’re about to hang up on me?”
“Mr. Smith, how many children have you helped to locate over the years?”
“Fourteen Mrs. Marks,”
With a trace of humor, Mrs. Marks says. “And how may I help you today Mr. Smith?”
“I’m calling because I think I’ve located Robert Lucan, the alleged abductor of Chrissie Johansson.”
“Where Mr. Smith? When?” Mrs. Marks asks frantically.
“One of Lucan’s aliases, a Richard Landross, was used to rent a truck in Provo Utah at 8:43 a.m. Mountain Time. I’m sending you and the Provo Police Department a fax with the name and address of the rental company, I only hope it’s him.”
“Mr. Smith, Chrissie has been missing for three and a half years and Robert Lucan hasn’t been seen since, yours is the only information we’ve received in all that time, thank you.”
“It’s my pleasure.” David says, preparing to hang up.
“Mr. Smith are you still there?”
“Yes, I’m still here.”
“Mr. Smith…I’ve only been Mrs. Marks for the last ten months, before that I was Mrs. Johansson. On behalf of my ex-husband and myself I want to thank you…no matter what the outcome is, and may God bless you.”
David speaks in a breaking voice. “Thank you Mrs. Marks, and may God bless you also, goodbye.”
While watching the six o’clock news, David learns that wanted fugitive Robert Patrick Lucan was arrested while returning a truck he had rented under the alias of Richard Paul Landross. Along with Lucan at the time was his eleven-year-old daughter, Cassidy.
Cassidy was later identified as Chrissie Johansson, a young girl thought to have been abducted and killed by Lucan years earlier. Chrissie is soon to be reunited with her mother, a Mrs. Patricia Marks.
“This is why I don’t have a nine to five job.” David says to the empty apartment.
He then goes into the office and turns his computers back on.
3
Wednesday, October 16th, 2:06 a.m.
David is sleeping in his office chair. At least once a week this happens it seems. He’ll stay up late searching databases, looking for digital needles in binary haystacks. He’ll then lean back to rest his eyes and awaken hours later to realize he has fallen asleep. Tonight David awakes with a start. Tonight something has awakened him.
David looks around his bedroom converted office, searching for the source of his abrupt awakening. I think it sounded like something falling.
He checks the heavy glass paperweight he keeps on the corner of the desk and discovers that it still rests in its spot. Nothing in the office seems out of place. Then he hears it again, a thud sound, like something heavy hitting something hard.
Oh, it’s a noise from the street.
As he signs off his computers he hears the sound again, and again, and again. It is now that he realizes the sound is not coming from the street, but from the alley, Mouse’s alley.
Looking out of the office window he sees four dark shapes around the hole Mouse uses for an entryway, the tallest of the shapes raises something over its shoulder and swings sideways to strike the wall over the hole. On impact, David hears the same sound that had awakened him.
They’re trying to break in to get to Mouse, it must be those same four punks again. I’ve got to help Mouse.
As his eyes adjust to the gloom of the alley, David can now tell that the tall man is swinging a sledgehammer at the wall, and the wall is crumbling.
Damn, a few more swings and they’ll be able to fit in there.
David looks around the apartment frantically, searching. I need some kind of a weapon, hell there are four of them, I could use a tank.
David spies the knives in the kitchen and grabs the longest one.
God how I wish Vinny the chauffer were here now.
He charges down the stairs and out into the night. With his breath leaving a trail in the cold autumn air, David makes his way around to the alley. It’s empty, save for a pile of rubble lying near the wall.
Christ! They’re already inside. I’m coming Mouse I’m coming.
He feels his way through the now substantial hole in the side of the theater and listens warily for any sounds of movement other than his own. As he rounds a corner he can make out four shapes on the other side of the theater huddled near the edge of the seats, in front of the stage. David can hear them talking but cannot make out what they’re saying.
Mouse must have gotten out already, if those four were crowded around her she’d be screaming her head off by now. Fuck, what am I saying? Mouse can’t talk, she could be over there. Oh man, four against one and God only knows what weapons they have. Maybe if I attack them quickly it’ll give Mouse a chance to run…well here goes.
As David starts toward the four men he feels a hand clamp onto his left wrist. He spins with knife at the ready.
“Mouse! You scared the hell out of me. Thank God you got away, come on, follow me.”
David leads her to the apartment house entrance, after a slight hesitation, Mouse follows him up the stairs and into his apartment. She goes over to the living room sofa and sits huddled in one corner of it, near a floor lamp, her knees drawn up to her chest, still terrified.
David looks at her and gasp
s, on the right side of her forehead is a nasty scrape that he hadn’t seen in the dim light of the street. There’s little bleeding, but it looks painful.
David takes her by the hand and leads her into the bathroom.
Using a damp washcloth, he gently cleanses the scraped skin and after treating the wound with an antibacterial cream, he applies a skin-toned bandage.
“You must have gotten this while you were squeezing out between the buildings, thank God you had another way out of there.”
Mouse simply stares at him with a glazed, frightened look.
They return to the living room and David sits on the sofa. Mouse comes over and squirms as close to David as she can. He puts his arms around her and whispers a “Shhh” sound, saying, “It’s OK Mouse I won’t let anyone hurt you, you’re safe here.”
Mouse turns and looks into David’s eyes, David looks back and sees tears well up and then gently fall upon her cheeks. Mouse wipes her face with her hand and loosens from his embrace. She then lies on the sofa and rests her head on David’s lap, within minutes she’s sleeping. David lies his head back against the top of the sofa and closes his eyes.
He says, “Goodnight roomie,” while turning off the lamp, soon he fades off to sleep.
The morning light awakens him to a stiff neck and the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. He rises from the sofa and stretches mightily, removing some of the kinks that the sofa left him with. As he nears the bathroom he sees that the door is open. Mouse stands at the bathroom sink and bathes from water in its basin. She is naked. Upon hearing David at the door she turns to face him and smiles her innocent smile.
David stands there with his mouth agape, staring at her. David has only seen Mouse either covered in her layers of street rags or wearing the sweat clothes and heavy jacket he purchased for her. He never in his life would have thought that the body beneath those clothes was anything special or arousing. He now knew he was wrong.
He always thought she had a beautiful face and now he knows she has a body that matches it. Her legs are nothing short of remarkable in their shapeliness, breasts that are both high and firm, and she possesses the powder white skin that David has always found attractive in a woman.
David feels a lust rise within him accompanied by an equivalent amount of shame. This girl, despite the evidence of her body’s maturity is more child than woman, and she thinks of him as a brother. David knows if he were ever to touch her in any way other than a platonic nature that it would damage her trust in him.
He also knows it would be a betrayal of self so deep that he could never recover from it. Were he to hurt this girl in any way, but particularly in that fashion, it would be a disgrace from which he could never recover.
David grins shyly at Mouse and closes the bathroom door.
Mouse grabs the handle on the other side and opens it again in a panic.
David stares at her, confused by her actions, then he comes to a realization. “You’re claustrophobic aren’t you? That’s why you’re bathing with the door open, isn’t it?”
Mouse simply stands there naked, looking up at him, her hand still gripped on the doorknob. David lets go and puts both hands in the air.
“It’s OK. I promise I won’t try and close the door again.”
Mouse gives David another smile and turns back to the sink to complete her bathing.
David walks back to the office and looks down into the alley. The small hole that Mouse had used for weeks is now the size of a cave opening.
Off in the distance he hears the sounds of some sort of commotion and the squeal of car tires. Seconds later, he sees one of the punks who was after Mouse run into the alley. He’s carrying a bag and one of those cardboard cup holders that are used to cart multiple cups of coffee. This one holds four Styrofoam cups and is leaking coffee as the punk runs. He takes a look back at the street, then disappears into the hole.
Looks like they’ve moved into Mouse’s hideaway.
David turns from the window and finds Mouse standing right behind him.
“Jesus! Mouse you scared me, I’ve got to get you a bell or something.”
Mouse doesn’t respond, she’s busy looking around the room at all the computer equipment. It’s then that David realizes Mouse is wearing the same clothes she had on last night. Her other clothing is in the theater with the four Rats.
“I’m meeting Al for breakfast this morning, when we get there I want you to come inside and eat with us OK? Please?”
Mouse looks out the window at the demolished theater wall and then looks up at David and nods her head yes.
“Good, oh look at the time, I better get ready and then we’ll go.”
As David and Mouse leave the apartment building they find Mr. Diehl from apartment 2B sitting on the steps holding a handkerchief to his bleeding nose. Diehl is in his mid-fifties with graying hair and a thin build. David sits next to him as Mouse leans back guardedly upon the railing.
“Mr. Diehl what happened to you?”
“Oh David, hi, some punk came up to me as I left the bagel shop and told me to give him my coffee and bagels. I told him to go fuck himself and he grabbed my tray of coffee with one hand and punched me in the nose with the other. I hit the ground and he was gone. I chased after him and was nearly run over by a car, and then I walked back here and sat down.”
“Are you OK?”
“Yeah, it’s not the first time I’ve been knocked on my ass. Shit, David who mugs someone for coffee and bagels? I’m gonna go upstairs and change my shirt, I got blood all over this one. I guess I better call the job and tell them I’ll be late too, see you later.”
“Yeah, goodbye Mr. Diehl,” David’s anger flares up. First the bistro, then the attack on Mouse, and now this. I was right, they are rats. “C’mon Mouse, let’s go eat.”
To David’s surprise, Mouse walks alongside him this morning instead of her usual two steps behind. David looks over at her and smiles, Mouse gives him a shy smile back. David then playfully bumps her with his hip. Mouse bumps him back and laughs at him in that soundless way she has, then the two of them walk along in silence to the diner.
David finds Al’s limo, containing the enormous Vinny, already parked at the curb. Inside the diner, Al sits in their booth reading the menu.
When Al looks up and sees Mouse, he smiles.
“I see company is joining us this morning.”
“I hope you don’t mind, she had a rough night.” David says.
“Little Miss Mouse is welcome anytime, but what’s this about a rough night?”
David tells Al about what happened last night along with that morning’s incident, at the end he tells him about the confrontation at the bistro. When David finishes, he notices that Al is suddenly reddened.
Al looks over at Mouse for long seconds and then back at David.
“You’re telling me those four scumbags took a sledgehammer to that wall to get in there at her? That they were trying to gang rape her?”
“I can’t imagine why else they’d break in there, there’s no shortage of abandoned buildings to squat in. You saw the way the tall one was eyeing her last week. After breakfast I’m checking the classifieds for a new apartment. We sure as hell can’t stay there now.”
“Excuse me a moment.” Al says. He slides out of the booth and goes outside to talk to Vinny. After a few minutes he returns.
David looks at his friend very closely. “Al, what did you just do?”
“Nothing that you want or need to know about.”
“I sometimes forget who I’m talking to.”
“Who did you think you were talking to?”
“I thought I was just talking to my friend.”
“You were, and I am. Friends help friends, if anything happened to you or Miss Mouse here and I could have prevented it, I would never forgive myself.”
Mouse, now aware of the tension between the two men, grabs David by the arm and looks at him quizzically. David smiles at her and pats her
hand.
“It’s OK Mouse, everything’s OK.” Mouse relaxes again.
Al cocks an eyebrow. “Is that true? Is everything OK between us?”
“Yes, but know this, after what they tried to do to Mouse, if I could take care of them myself I would.”
Al notices that David’s hand still lies atop of Mouse’s. “I believe you would.”
“Thank you Al, for being my friend.”
“You’re welcome, now let’s order.”
After breakfast, David hails a taxi and tells the driver to take them uptown to one of the city’s major department stores.
Mouse appears fascinated by the mechanics of driving as she looks through the Plexiglas partition and watches the driver’s every movement.
Once inside the store, David takes Mouse to the Women’s Department and is approached by a pleasant middle-aged woman.
“Good morning Sir, how may I help you today?”
“Good morning, my name is David and this is my…cousin, we call her Mouse.”
“I see.” The woman says. Her gray-streaked hair sparkles under the fluorescent lighting.
“Mouse is a mute, so I think I’ll need to help her shop—she’s unaccustomed to it.”
“I see.” Says the woman again, now eyeing David oddly.
“If I’m not being too nosy, may I ask, do you work on commission?”
“Ah, well yes I do actually.”
David smiles. “Then you are going to love us.”
They shop for hours. The saleswoman, a Mrs. Parsons, proves invaluable in determining Mouse’s size requirements. Mouse, to David’s delight, seems almost giddy as she tries on outfit after outfit.
However, David is near panic at one point when he loses sight of her in the vast department store, then he sees the top of her head over near a selection of hats. As he joins her near the display, he sees that she holds a bright red hat with a broad brim.
Mouse seems fascinated with the hat as she looks at it strangely, almost forlornly.
“That’s a sad face to wear when looking at such a cheerful hat.”
Double or Nothing Page 3
