by Selina Rosen
"Wait for a while. Wait for everyone to forget that you have any interest in this guy. Then we find him out one night, he happens to be mugging a little old lady, and we accidentally beat him to death."
Spider laughed and gave Tommy a real smile this time. "You know that would be poetic and very cleansing. But I don't want to wait."
The type written letter had been addressed to him. Inside was two hundred dollars in cash and a note that said . . . Take the kids to the zoo. And a date on which to do it.
The postmark was from Piedmont, but Robby knew who'd sent the letter and the money, and he wasn't about to pass up a chance at meeting with her or going to the zoo.
He slapped the camper shell on the truck and loaded up the kids. They were all really excited. None of them, including Robby, had ever been to a zoo before. When he told them they were all eating at Waffle House for breakfast as well they went ape shit crazy.
Robby took one of his siblings to work with him each month. At the end of the day's work he took them out to eat at the Waffle House. Then he took them over to Wal-Mart and gave them ten dollars to spend any way they liked. It wasn't much, but it was a hell of a lot more than he'd ever had.
The kids marched into Waffle House single file and sat down where Robby told them to.
The waitress hurried over to wait on them. "My goodness, Robby! You got all the children with you today."
Robby smiled back.
"We're going to the zoo," Colistia told her.
"We're going to see the monkeys," Elvita said, clapping her hands together.
"They'll put you in a cage if you aren't careful," Devan taunted.
"You!" Elvita screamed.
"That's enough now. You children promised to be good," Robby reminded them.
"Yes, Robby," Devan and Elvita said together.
"Well, it sounds like great fun," the waitress said. "Same as always?"
Robby thought about that for a moment. He usually brought them in and ordered them a short stack because it was the cheapest thing on the menu. He'd called and found out that the zoo cost five dollars each for him, Evan, Janice, and Donna, and it was only three dollars each for the other kids. That was only going to cost him thirty dollars. With drinks . . . and if he let them each get something at the gift shop . . .
"Let them order whatever they want."
The kids let out little excited noises.
He looked at them. "Get what you want, but eat what you get."
They all started ordering at once.
"Shush!" Robby ordered. "Mary can't hear herself think. Now, do this one at a time, starting with Evan and going around."
Robby had thought that he would enjoy the zoo, but he had thought he would be too old to experience the magic of it. He wasn't. The kids were done looking at one exhibit and ready to go to the next way before Robby was.
There was a playground beside the ape habitat, and while the kids ran around playing on the equipment, Robby watched the apes. He studied a display showing ape handprints and humans. He looked around to make sure no one was looking, and then he held his own hand over the ape print. He successfully covered the entire print.
"Funny, I used to do that same thing when I was a kid," she said. "Don't turn around. I don't think I've been followed, but it doesn't hurt to be careful."
"Thanks. I never could have afforded to do something like this for them without your help."
"Well, I kind of need your help, kid." She slipped a piece of paper into his hip pocket. "I made out a shopping list. Take care of it when you can. These are some really bad guys who slipped through the cracks. The guy on the top of the list I want you to pay particular attention to. Make a record of the things in his brain—all his crimes. He killed my brother, and I want you to see if he just did it for fun, or if someone paid him and his buddies to do it. I put a picture of my brother in your pocket with the paper, and the paper is self explanatory."
"Who do you think wanted your brother killed?" Robby asked.
Spider pointed past him into the ape habitat a huge silver backed male. "You see that guy sitting there?"
"Yes."
"He was born and raised here in this zoo. Do you think he knows he's in a cage?" she asked.
Robby thought about that for a minute. "I guess not, but . . . "
"There's a group of people who . . . Well, I think that's what they did to me and my brother. I think my brother figured out that he was in a cage, and so they killed him. I think you are like an ape running wild who hasn't been put into a cage yet, and that's why they are looking for you. Because they don't know how you got out of your cage."
"I don't get it," Robby said.
"If you're lucky you never will. Good luck, Robby."
"I don't need luck, Spider," Robby said smugly.
"Don't get cocky, kid." That said, Spider left.
Elvita walked up to him and started jerking on his arm. "Let's go see the elephants, Robby. Let's go . . . "
Robby laughed. "OK, OK already. Let's go see the elephants then."
As they were leaving the ape house, his eyes focused on the book that cataloged all the different apes by name and told their genealogy. Robby stumbled a little as he realized what Spider had been saying.
Spider had made his job easier than ever. She told him exactly where these guys would be and at what time they would be there. But he didn't kill them in the order they appeared on the list. He put Sammy Two Toes—so called because he had two toes cut off—Franklin in the middle of the list. He waited outside the back door of a club called Hoochies. At eleven forty-five, just like clockwork, the sleaze walked out and made his score. His dealer went back in the club and Sammy started down the alley towards Robby. Robby backed up into the shadows and waited. When the guy was close enough, he stepped into his trail.
"Hey, nigger," the black man snarled, "don' get in Sammy Two Toes way."
Robby concentrated and started pulling a catalogue of the man's crimes from him. He saw him in prison, beating a man to death then framing another prisoner. Saw him raping a serious of young men who had the misfortune of being put into his cell. Back, back through his crimes, he got what Spider wanted. Then he fragged the guy and moved on. He still had two more to do before morning.
Carrie would have liked to have been surprised to find that Sammy Two Toes was among the dead found last night. But she wasn't, and now she knew for certain—beyond a shadow of a doubt—that Spider knew who the Fry Guy was.
Spider looked at the body on the ground and kicked at it with her toe. Then said in her least convincing bit of acting to date. "Oh! Look! If it isn't Sammy Two Toes."
Carrie wondered when everything had gone so horribly wrong. This thing was spinning out of control, and there was nothing she could do about it.
The So-what-if guys pulled up, and Carrie's flesh crawled. They got out of their car and headed straight for Spider. No beating around the bush this time.
Carrie'd had everything she had ever wanted, ever even dreamt of, and now she was going to lose the only thing that really mattered. Their exchange was—if quiet, very heated. She was the DA, and she had never felt so powerless in her whole life.
"You want to talk now, Webb?" Kirk asked in a hiss.
Spider could feel his frustration, his anger. He had hoped for one response and had gotten another. It didn't help that she was smiling smugly at him. "Talk about what?"
"Where is he? Who is he?" he spat back.
"Who can see through a super hero's clever disguise? A super hero only keeps his superhuman powers as long as no one knows his true identity. I can't believe that you idiots haven't moved on to greener pastures. Surely if I knew who the fuck he was I would have brought him in myself. Me being a thrice-decorated law officer of this city and all. I don't appreciate the implication . . . "
"Cut the shit, Webb. This guy just iced one of the guys who helped kill your brother. Now either you had something to do with that, or it's the god damnedest most convenie
nt piece of murder to take place in this city in a long, damn time."
"It would have to be the latter, dirt bag. Because obviously I, a trice decorated law officer of this city, would not be in cahoots with a cold blooded killer," Spider said. She made her face a mask of calm. "What I'd really like to know is why you stupid trench coat wearing fucks are so goddamned sure that I know something. So sure, in fact, that you would bug my car, my home, interrogate my father, follow me, and threaten my old lady. There is certainly no evidence that points to me knowing one goddamned thing more about this case than you or anyone else. So there has got to be some reason, something the rest of us don't know, that makes you so damned sure that I know something. And you know what? I'd give almost any amount of money in the world to know what that is."
"Quit fucking with me, Webb," Kirk hissed. "You had better quit fucking with us, or . . . "
Spider stood toe to toe with him. "Or what . . . I'll tell you what. You had better not fuck with me. You had by God better not fuck with me, because you bastards may kill me and everyone else, but before I go, I'm going to make damn sure that I take you with me."
She walked away to join Tommy in looking at some piece of dirt he'd found.
Kirk walked over quickly and got in the car. Jason into the car beside him. He made a face and opened the window.
"Goddamn it, Kirk!"
"Shut up! You shut up right now! I've had just about all I'm going to take out of you!" Kirk screamed.
"Nothing came out of me, Kirk." He waved his hand in front of his nose. "Christ on a crutch, Kirk! What did you eat?"
"That fucking bitch is going to pay. I swear, I'm going to wipe that smug look off her face, if it's the last thing I do," Kirk hissed.
"While you're at it, you can wipe your ass, too."
Apparently no one thought Sammy Two Toes death was a simple case of serendipity. The FBI talked to her, the captain called her on the carpet.. Fortunately she had an airtight alibi; she had been in bed with the DA. Their house security system recorded people exciting and entering their house by time and code, and no one had entered or left the house after nine o'clock. Neither Carrie nor Spider's codes had left the house for sure.
Spider guessed it was his turn to ask.
"I'm sorry I have to ask you these questions," the lieutenant said. "I know everyone and his brother has already asked them, but . . . "
"No, I don't know who the Fry Guy is. No, I did not have anything to do with Sammy Two Toes murder. Yes, I am glad he's dead. Last night I was in bed with Carrie all night. I most certainly do not possess a weapon that will do anything like this. As I have said, you can search my house any time you want."
"Well, that basically covers everything I wanted to ask. Except . . . I know we never really liked each other, but why are you giving me such shit lately?"
She started to scream at him that it was because he was a narrow minded little bigot, but then she felt the genuine confusion coming from him. "Because you never liked me, but as soon as you found out for sure that I was gay, that was all the reason you needed to hate me. You treated me with no respect, and I demand respect. I deserve it. But then you dared to question Carrie's integrity, and that's what really burnt it. I thought I made that pretty damn clear when it happened."
He nodded. "I didn't hate you. I hated that you were gay. I've always been very uncomfortable with the whole thing. When you partnered up with DA Long . . . Well, I'd never really liked you from the get go because I figured you were queer, and because you're a fucking cowboy. I figured you were going to rub the gay thing in my face and I . . . Well, I jumped to some pretty despicable conclusions, and I acted like a complete jerk. I've been going to the department shrink and he's helped me to see that my homophobia is just a manifestation of my insecurities as a man. I'm sorry that I reacted in the way that I did, and I would like for us to call a truce." He held out his hand.
Well, he was full of shit, but at least he was sincerely full of shit. She shook his hand.
Tommy bounced off the side wall. He held up his hands and gasped for breath. "Enough," he said. "We have practiced enough for tonight."
Spider looked at the clock on the wall. He was right. It was almost ten o'clock. She nodded, took a few deep breaths and realized that her ribs were tender where Tommy had kicked her.
"Remember, your kicks are fine, but your hands are your best weapon. No one expects that kind of impact from a hand."
Spider nodded, grabbed up her Gatorade and took a long drink. Then she looked at Tommy.
Tommy caught her stare and held it. Something was obviously on her mind. "What?"
She walked over to her bag and pulled out a CD case. She handed it to him. It was sealed with scotch tape. "Here."
"I don't really like Metallica"
"It ain't a freaking music CD, numb nuts." She took a deep breath and let it out. "The dead FBI guy?"
"Harry Sullivan."
"Yea . . . he sent me some stuff. I didn't understand half of it. Funny if you think about it, they killed him for sending it to me and most of it meant nothing to me. What he sent me plus everything that I know or even suspect about what is going on is on that CD."
Tommy started to open it, and she slapped his hand.
"Don't open it. Leave the case taped closed. I couldn't give it to Carrie, because I know she would look at it. I'm trusting that you won't. To take away some of the temptation to look at it, the name of the Fry Guy is not on that CD. This is about what our government has been doing behind our backs." She looked at him again. "Take it and give it to someone that you trust. Preferably someone who lives out of state. Tell them not to take the tape off. Have them rent a safety deposit box and put it in there. Do not use the phone or the mail to make this transaction. If anything happens to me, I want you to get in touch with that person and tell them to take the disk to a computer—any computer with internet access—and slam this information onto the world wide web. If this goes down, the only way to save your asses will be to expose the bastards. A secret is only worth protecting if no one knows it."
"Why don't we expose them now?" Tommy asked.
"Because if we expose them, we expose me and a whole lot of other people to a brand of persecution the likes of which the world has never seen before," Spider said. "Having that disk puts your life in danger. If they find out that you have it, they'll kill you. But if you don't have it . . . It's kind of a catch twenty-two."
"I understand." Tommy paused. "Spider, how did you get into all this? It can't be because of the Fry Guy. Hell, I was covering for him as much as you were. Hell, in the beginning I was covering for him more. If you look guilty then so must I. I just don't get it, was it something that happened in the service?"
Spider shook her head no. "I didn't chose to get into anything. I didn't have any choice. I thought I did, but I didn't." She paused and looked into her drink bottle. "I knew . . . I always knew that there were an awful lot of unanswered questions about my life, about me. Simple things like . . . look how fair I am. I don't tan, but I don't burn. How many times have we been fishing, Tommy? How many times did you go home with a sunburn? Didn't you think it was funny that I—who am a damn sight lighter than you—never got so much as pink?" She didn't give him time to answer. "I obviously didn't want answers, because I never pursued any. Now all those questions are being answered, and I realize I was right not to ask the questions in the first place. But now it's too damn late. Comes a time in every venture where you've met the point of no return. Remember we talked about that once?"
Tommy nodded.
"Well, I was way past that point before I even had a clue what was going on."
Spider couldn't sleep, so she stared at the ceiling. Carrie lay curled around her sound asleep. Even Spider gently caressing Carrie's shoulder didn't cause her to stir.
Spider wished things could stay like this. But she had to look at reality. These So-what-if-guys were not going to go away until they got what they wanted. Then, if they let
her live, which was doubtful, they were still not going to really leave her alone.
She hoped she was right about Carrie being safe. Hoped she was right about Tommy being able to protect himself and Laura. She hoped there would be a time when they would be sitting around drinking some beers and talking about the whole thing as if it were no big deal.
She'd pray, but she'd tried that before. If God was there, He wasn't listening to her.
She was worried about Robby, about all his brothers and his sisters and his ageing grandmother. They needed him around, but he wouldn't be around if the So-what-if guys found him.
She worried about Henry. Who was going to take care of him if she was gone? Who'd go visit him . . .
