by Mike Faricy
The town-home looked just like all the others on the street, two stories high with grey aluminum siding, white trim, a tuck under double garage and two gables on the roof.
All the shades were drawn and the drapes on the ground floor were pulled closed. Other than the yellow porch light hanging over the front door the place was dark. But then, so was every other home on the block at this early hour.
“Come on, honey, she’s got an extra bedroom,” Rikki said then squeezed my thigh one more time before she slid across the seat to slip on those silver heels. I was out of the car and almost up the driveway to the front door before the passenger door creaked loud enough to wake the dead as she climbed out and I automatically took a quick look around the neighboring units to see if any lights were flashing on.
She shuffled around the trunk of the car as I walked up to the front door ready to ring the doorbell. There was a worn mat in front of the door that said “Go Away.”
“Hang on a minute, baby, I think her doorbell ain’t working. Let me just give her a call,” Rikki said then pressed a speed dial button and waited. “Shit,” she swore a moment later. “It went into her message center. God, I hope she didn’t pick up some guy again and ended up at his place, no telling when in the hell she’ll be back if that’s the case.”
I opened the screened door and pounded violently on the door for a very long moment. The noise echoed off the aluminum sided walls and seemed to bounce off the town-homes across the street.
About ten seconds later Rikki sort of waved at me, indicated her phone and said, “Yeah hi, Dee, glad we caught you, are you home? Well, you better open up, honey, we’re downstairs at your door.” She made it sound like it was a special treat to have someone pounding on your door and making a social call in the middle of the night.
I pounded again.
“What?” Rikki said. “You’re shitting me. He did? When? No, no I didn’t, really, I didn’t. Well, I think you better open up anyway. See the cops are kind of like involved, sort of. Hey, calm down will you. Don’t blame me, I didn’t know, honey, honest. Okay, okay, just open the damned door, will you, Dee. We’re standing out here in your damned driveway. My head is starting to kill me and I really, really have to use your bathroom, bad.”
A moment later a light flashed on up on the second floor, that was followed by another one apparently illuminating the staircase and then finally one inside the entry way just on the other side of the front door. A hand pushed a curtain to the side and a head appeared looking out the glass panel next to the door.
Then a woman I guessed was Dee opened the front door, looked at us and said, “You are a royal pain in the ass, Rikki. What the hell do you want?”
“I’m sorry to bother you, I just want to get the girls, take them off your hands and I’m out of your hair,” I said.
Dee stood blocking the door in a ratty beige Terricloth robe with brown trim. The Terricloth belt was cinched tightly around her waist and her arms were crossed in a no nonsense sort of pose. She did not look very happy. Her dark hair was matted on one side of her skull with a serious case of bed-head. She sported a fat lip and a black eye. She sort of blinked awake as she registered the bruises on my face, then glanced past me at Rikki standing out in the driveway and just shook her head.
“You get that eye compliments of Rikki’s friend, Carlos?” I asked trying to build some rapport.
“Carlos? I’ll shoot that bastard if I ever see him again. He came in here all impressed with himself, and then tried to grab some of my action without even paying. Now how in the hell am I supposed to dance looking like this, Rikki?” she yelled past me. “Huh, you tell me that, girl. Just what the hell am I supposed to do?”
Rikki had been hanging back about ten feet down the driveway and she backed up another step or two when Dee shouted at her.
“Just what the hell am I supposed to do, bitch?” Dee yelled.
“Sorry to interrupt the discussion ladies, but I’ve come for those two little girls. I’ll just take them off your hands, Dee, and let you get back to whatever you were doing” I said.
“What? She didn’t tell you? I just told her a minute ago, that bad assed friend of her’s, Carlos come and took both of ‘em, right after he bitch slapped me around. Didn’t pay me nothing, either. Rikki, you owe me fifty dollars, girl. I oughta just charge your ass a damned hundred dollars is what I should do. Coming over here unannounced with them two kids, bringing that Carlos into my life, and now this shit,” Dee yelled past me again at Rikki who backed a few more steps down the driveway.
“He came back here and took the girls? Did he say where he was headed with them?” I asked.
Dee focused her good eye on me. “Said he was going for a ride on his boat, planning to take a little vacation trip. You find him, you tell him he better just keep on going. I get hold of him there won’t be enough of him left to wipe up off the damned floor. You hear that, Rikki? Your man Carlos is as good as dead if I ever have the misfortune to see his worthless ass again.”
“Dee, honey, how was I supposed to know? Honest, I had no idea he was a frigging nut case,” Rikki whined.
“You had no idea? That’s about the only truthful thing you said in a long while. Truth is you never have any idea, you are clueless. You know what? From now on, I don’t want nothing to do with the likes of you. You hear me, Rikki? Not one thing, I never, ever, want to see you again, ever. Just stay the hell away from me,” she screamed.
“How long ago was he here?”
Dee sort of snarled as she looked at me. “Not more than an hour ago. God, I tell you, I barely got back to sleep once he finally left and then you and Little Miss Easy Money started pounding on my door, phoning me, waking me up in the middle of the night and all.”
“Yeah, I told Rikki not to do that. So an hour ago?”
“Well, it was probably more like about a half hour. Them two little kids crying for their mama all night, I couldn’t keep ‘em quiet. I was thinking I should maybe call the cops, but then they finally fell asleep. Course, I ain’t in bed more than ten minutes when Rikki’s old love toy Carlos shows up. Then the two of you come storming in. And now this here is all the thanks I get,” she said and turned her head to give me a better view of her fat lip and the black eye.
“A vacation trip and his boat. You got any idea where in the hell that might be?” I asked Rikki.
“He said something about having a boat over in Two Harbors. I figured it was just a pickup line and didn’t think much about it, just thought he was feeding me a line and trying to impress me.”
“Two Harbors?”
“Yeah, I guess. Who the hell wants to sit in a damned boat all night and freeze your ass off? I just figured it’d be a lot more fun to party over in the casino.”
“Two Harbors,” I repeated to myself and hurried down the driveway to the car. I reached for the car door and stopped then marched back to Rikki. Her smile seemed to grow with every step I took.
“I knew you couldn’t wait, you know a good thing when you see it, and believe me, I’m good, baby. So, you’re looking for a little something before you get going. I got just the thing, and since we’re friends I’m gonna cut you a deal. How’s two for one sound to you?” Rikki said glancing over at Dee, then she smirked, cocked a hip and flashed her sequins.
I reached up and yanked my jacket from her shoulders then half spun her around and pulled the jacket off sort of sending her forward a couple of steps toward Dee glaring in the doorway.
“Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing? Get your ass back here, you can’t do that. I’m not done with you. Wait, a minute, I … I can give you a better deal. He can’t do that, can he, Dee?” she screamed as I hurried to the car.
Rikki stood in the middle of the driveway with her hands on her hips and watched with a shocked look on her face as I climbed behind the wheel.
Just as she looked like she was about to say something else Dee screamed, “You are such a stupid bitch.” Then she slammed the door
and turned off the front porch light. Rikki looked to be in shock as she stood there in the dark and stared at the closed front door. She turned back toward me with a look on her face suggesting she was about to open her mouth.
“Don’t, just don’t say a thing,” I said.
“But what about me?” she said.
I reversed up the street and sped off.
Chapter Twenty-One
The town of Two Harbors was over to the east and then north up Highway 61 running along the shore of Lake Superior. I shot across three counties doing about ninety miles per hour. I only stopped once to gas up, paid sixty-five bucks including two coffees, and kept going.
The forest on either side of the highway was a mixture of birch and pine then once I hit Highway 61 along Lake Superior the trees were interspersed with outcroppings and bluffs of red rock. I came around the bend and drove into the town of Two Harbors just as a hairline of grey signaling the dawning had begun to appear on the far eastern horizon.
The small municipal marina was the only place in town to dock pleasure boats and so I headed toward it. The marina parking lot overlooked the harbor and had about twenty parking spaces. The lot was completely empty except for one other vehicle in the far corner, a black Infiniti QX with silver rims and some brand new damage along the driver’s side.
Both of the doors on the driver’s side were now dented and scraped with a residue of yellow paint extending from the front wheel, along the entire side of the car back to just behind the rear wheel. The rear bumper on the driver’s side hung at an odd angle. I looked in the side window and saw a small doll lying on the backseat next to what appeared to be a Batman mask. I could only hope those little girls were okay and close. I hurried across the lot and then down a short set of stairs toward the white steel docks of the marina, trying not to make any noise.
I guessed there were maybe sixty slips for boats and not all of them were filled. There didn’t seem to be any activity at this hour coming from the boats that were tied up in the slips. I could hear my heart pounding as I quietly made my way along the docks checking for any semblance of life. The vast majority of the boats were draped in fitted canvas covers that were strapped and snapped onto the sides of the vessels as protection against the elements. I bypassed those covered boats and zeroed in on the handful that remained uncovered.
The first two boats I checked were empty and looked to have been that way for quite some time. On both of the boats the entrances to their galleys were padlocked. As I approached the third uncovered boat, I could detect some sort of activity going on. It was a medium sized Chris Craft cabin cruiser, blue and white with the name “Sick Leave” painted in gold letters across the rear. It was definitely occupied. I watched as the boat seemed to gently rock from side to side.
Sounds were emanating from inside the vessel, but I couldn’t make out what was being said. I heard some high-pitched squeals and I thought if Carlos was in any way hurting those little girls I wasn’t going to be able to control my reaction. I cautiously peeked through the small, rectangular window on the side of the boat and into the small galley. I spied what looked like a couple of college kids locked in a fairly vibrant early morning embrace.
It was a toss up which one was making more noise. I guessed the boat probably belonged to one of their parents and much as I would have enjoyed rapping on the window to interrupt, I moved on.
In short order I had checked out all the boats in the small marina and hadn’t found the girls or Carlos. I started to panic thinking they may have already left and then it would be anyone’s guess where they were headed. They could go south down toward Duluth with any one of a number of stops along the way, or worse head north up into Canada or even motor over into Lake Michigan in which case all bets were off. I stood looking across the harbor, out into the giant inland sea of Lake Superior and beyond at a complete loss of what to do.
Something clanked across the small harbor, metal against metal. I automatically glanced over and that’s when I saw him, Carlos. It looked like he was in the process of gassing up a fairly large cabin cruiser. He had two large grocery bags, brown paper with handles that he picked up and then carried down into a galley. I moved as quietly as possible off the marina dock then began to do some serious running up the steps into the parking lot.
It was a flip of the coin if I’d get there faster running or taking the time to fire up the car and drive over. I figured if I ran there’d be less of a chance Carlos might spot me so I cut across the parking lot and began to round the dirt road along the edge of the small harbor.
By now the slit of grey on the eastern horizon had begun to turn pink. Fortunately, there was still a little bit of early morning cloud cover keeping things in the harbor area a hazy grey. I picked up speed as I ran and prayed Carlos would stay below in the galley for just a few more minutes.
He had docked his cabin cruiser alongside a concrete pier next to a fuel pump. A hose was running from the pump into the fuel tank on the cabin cruiser. The pier had a series of car tires lashed along the side to protect boats from scraping against it when they pulled alongside. Sitting in the middle of the pier was a squat wooden structure with weathered clapboard siding and a cedar shake roof that apparently served as a store. Most likely it sold overpriced incidentals along with minnows and of course, fuel. Windows were on all four side of the place and lights were on inside.
I was maybe thirty yards away and closing when Carlos climbed up from the galley then strolled along the lower deck holding what looked like a glass of orange juice. He stood there sipping as he gazed out toward the lake with his back to me. As he sipped, his head seemed to slowly follow along the shoreline, gradually turning and studying the small marina where the two college kids were probably still going at one another. Then he turned round toward shore and ran his eyes along the road until he caught sight of me. He stood sipping and watching me for a very long moment.
He took another casual sip from his glass and watched as I continued running toward the pier and his cabin cruiser. It seemed to take a while before he registered on me churning down the road, he watched me for another long moment and then something suddenly seemed to click and he sprang into action.
He hurried up a little three step ladder onto the upper deck, being careful as he climbed up not to spill his orange juice. He hurriedly glanced over his shoulder back in my direction just as I came up to the concrete pier. He turned the key in the console and pressed the starter button in an attempt to get his engine going, frantically glancing back a couple of times.
I could hear the starter grinding away as I gained on him. He threw another anxious glance over his shoulder and seemed to push the starter all the more as it continued to grind. He pounded the console with his free hand in a frantic effort to encourage the engines.
I ran up the concrete ramp leading onto the pier just as a grizzled looking guy with a cane came limping out of the wooden structure. He was dressed in overalls, with the sleeves rolled up on a red and black plaid flannel shirt. He wore a sweat-stained baseball cap at an angle and scuffed up work boots.
“Hey, hey,” he yelled at Carlos. “Just what in the hell do you think you’re doing, you idiot? Hey, God damn it, I’m talking to you. You hear me? You ain’t paid yet. Stop it, you can’t be going nowhere til you pay, damn it.” He started taking some steps toward Carlos, all the while shaking his cane and continuing to scream incoherently as I shot passed him.
The engine suddenly caught and roared to life. Carlos glanced over his shoulder as I shot down the pier almost alongside of him. He shoved the throttle down and the boat lurched forward then halted for just a second as the two ropes lashed to the pier briefly stretched taut and held.
I jumped and went sailing through the air as both steel cleats suddenly tore off from the fiberglass hull and the boat shot forward. I landed on the rear corner of the lower deck then got banged across the back of my head as the hose that had been refilling the tank flew up into the air and flopped
around on the concrete pier. I slipped backward, grabbing frantically along the slick fiberglass for a handhold. I clung onto a chrome corner railing, more decorative trim than anything else just as I was about to go over the side and pulled myself back into the boat.
Carlos continued to pick up speed as he rocketed past the sign declaring a “No Wake Zone,” cleared the harbor and headed for open water. He glanced over his shoulder again, grinning this time after having made his escape. The sight of me suddenly climbing up the little three-step ladder and heading toward him on the second deck quickly wiped the smile from his face.
He cranked the wheel hard, first to the right and then to the left just as I stepped onto the upper deck. The boat lurching to one side and then the other caused me to stumble and fall, more or less landing right at his feet. It was all the time he needed and when I glanced up again I was staring into the barrel of a pistol that looked an awful lot like the Sig Sauer I had stashed in my glove compartment, only from this angle the end of the barrel looked about the size of one of the tunnels I’d driven through racing up here on Highway 61.
“Looks like you’re just gonna have to learn the hard way, once again,” he said then smiled.
“You can keep the money, Carlos, I really don’t care about it. I just want to bring those little girls back to their mother. Just pull back into the harbor so we can get off. I won’t call the cops on you, I promise.”
“Sure thing, no problem, I believe you,” he said then laughed. “Just kidding, actually I’m pretty sure you’ll probably just haul ass to the cops and then, in like thirty minutes I’ll probably have some helicopter hovering over me and once again, I’ll get royally screwed. So, no thanks.”
“Just let me take the girls and get them out of your hair. They’re just going to slow you down, anyway.”
“Oh yeah, right. Gee, now why didn’t I think of that? No way, pal, those two little brats are the best insurance policy I got right now. So you’re not going to be taking them anywhere.”
