by Alice Quinn
She shook her head. “Sorry. This is my life.”
WTF.
I insisted some more. The least she could do was point us in the right direction. It wasn’t much to ask.
She caved in to the pressure, finally. I’ve always been good at pressure. I also took the opportunity, now I had her where I wanted her, to ask if she’d take the girls to my trailer and babysit until I got home. I needed her to cook their dinner and put them to bed. I didn’t know what time I’d be back.
But one thing was for sure, I wouldn’t be coming home without Sabrina.
Was Bintou OK with staying with them? There was more than enough room for everyone.
She accepted all my demands, though she sulked about it. She had a long face when she sulked. Like one of those high-class horses.
“I want you to stay by your phone and that lap machine thing. Laroche, is that all right with you?”
“No probs,” he replied. “I’ll stay with Bintou and the girls. And I’ll keep my laptop and cell with me.”
With that, we all left.
56
Once we were outside on the street, Bintou asked, “So, what is it you want me to do, exactly?”
I explained my plan. With her help, we were going to find Monsieur Charles and kidnap him. Léo approved enthusiastically.
But Bintou busted out laughing. “Oh, you’re going to kidnap him just like that, easy as pie?”
I opened up a tote bag I’d brought with me so she could see the contents. Laroche’s gun was wrapped up inside a piece of fabric. His pistol, his revolver, whatever you want to call it. A killing machine with bullets. And I intended to use it. I’d found it under a cushion on the famous couch in Amar’s office. Pirla must have shoved it under there before he’d had to leave with the cops. Thanks to Sabrina, I’d thought to look there.
“With this thing, he’ll listen to me. He won’t mess around with us. He’ll do exactly what I say, and he’ll be quick about it too!”
She surveyed us closely. I think I saw something like pity in her eyes. “And then what?”
“Then we’ll get what we want. He’ll let Sabrina and Erina come home. He’ll call his minions and they’ll bring the girls to us. Listen, we’ll just see how it goes, OK? We’ll improvise.”
“You really are dense,” said Bintou. “You’ll only have one option. You’ll have to take him down. It’ll be you or him, believe me. Do you think he won’t have his gun on him or something? If you don’t kill him, he’ll search all four corners of the earth to find you. And he’ll find you. And he’ll make you pay. He’ll kill you and anyone who’s with you. And quite honestly, Madame Maldonne, I imagine you’d have some difficulties killing a person, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Stop calling me Madame Maldonne!” This was now becoming a sore point.
Léo was walking around in circles, getting overexcited. “So, what are we doing?” he asked, his voice rising. He was smacking his fist into his palm and cursing (again!). He was whispering to himself like a madman. “All that for nothing! For fuck’s sake! Bastards! I’ll never see Erina again. There’s a chance she’s dead!”
Bintou looked at him and let out a long sigh. “Here’s what I propose,” she said. “I’ll show you where they were hiding out when they were doing their . . .” She was obviously embarrassed to be talking like this in front of Léo. “Their . . . well . . . when they were selling different things. So it may be that Erina’s there too? Sorry, Madame Maldonne. I really can’t show you any more than that. I have no desire to see you in a body bag. It wouldn’t help anyone, least of all Sabrina. Where I’m taking you, if it’s still used for what it was used for, is dangerous. So you’re going to have to tread very carefully if you want this to work.”
And she strode off down the road. Were we supposed to follow her? Léo tried to keep up with her (boy, was she striding!) and I moped way behind with a twin holding each hand. I had to more or less drag them so they wouldn’t do their famous stopping trick every five minutes. Laroche stayed at the back. He was the slowest, because he had his computer bag and Pastis. I was proud that my boy was being so cooperative.
We left the old quarter, crossed the main street with all the shops, and started making our way through a neighborhood with lots of old vacant storefronts that had been left to rot—people who’d gone out of business. The residential buildings were a little worse for wear, to say the least. Basically, the whole area could have done with some sprucing up.
There were garages and key-cutting joints that hadn’t heard the sound of a motor or cutting machine in years. There were some real-estate signs dotted around the place. Some of them were showing artistic impressions of what was to come. Some of the old buildings were to be knocked down to make room for giant new structures. It all looked very pretty. Flashy, but pretty.
Not far from a church, Bintou turned down a street and disappeared from sight. By the time we reached that street, I’d lost her.
“Hey! Pssst!”
We all turned our heads at the same time. She was waiting for us behind some kind of warehouse or shed. The sort of place you’d expect to find heaps of electrical stuff and grease.
She whispered, “Listen up! This is where the fun and games end, OK? No more bullshit! I’m not ready to leave this mortal coil just yet, not now that I’m feeling a heck of a lot better about life. Nor should you. So, you see that old body shop over there? That’s it.”
She pointed to some 1970s-era building. It was dirty—as if the windows hadn’t been cleaned for decades. The shutters were all busted up. On the ground floor, the storefront was protected by a rusting security grille and padlocked doors. There was a small parking lot out front, but no rides.
“This is the place. Well, as far as I know, it’s here. I can see it’s not abandoned. They change their places often, from what I understand, but this one is still being used.”
“How can you tell?” asked Léo. “There aren’t any cars or anything.”
“Exactly! That’s one of the signs. All the cars are parked farther down the road. From out here, the whole place looks like it’s empty. But can you see that little circle just below the ‘For Sale’ sign above the door?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s a camera. That’s why I’m not going any nearer than this.”
“I’m going in,” declared Léo.
Bintou whispered, “I’ll leave you guys to it. Let me take the girls to safety. I have no problem letting the cops know what’s what if you don’t make it back tonight.”
I gave her the key to my trailer-sweet-trailer, along with the directions, and warned her about the water issue. I told her about the plastic-bottle deal. I gave my twinnies big kisses and told them to be just as good and clever as they always were and to listen to Bintou no matter what. She took each of them by the hand and scampered off as quickly as she’d come. Laroche followed as best he could.
“Christ, she could enter the Nice-Cannes marathon, couldn’t she? She might even win the thing!” I said. “Anyway, it’s up to us now, kiddo. We need to get this raid of ours thought out. We can’t leave any traces.”
I was overcome by a wave of extreme cold. It froze me to my core. Rage had given way to an intense need. A need to get this thing right. There was no room for mistakes. Failure was not an option.
The body shop joined onto two decrepit-looking garages, which themselves neighbored a crusty old house. We could try to get in through one of the adjacent buildings. It was maybe a way of avoiding the camera. The place was surrounded by houses, sheds . . . streets and streets of urban decay.
“OK, you ready?”
Léo was about to head straight for the front door, but I pulled him back.
“No! Not that way! Do you want to get us wiped out from the start? We’ll go to the other side of that house thing there. Or we could try to be tricky about this. Like dress up as the mailman or a pizza-delivery boy.” I think he was embarrassed for me. “Yeah, I know,” I said. “Not o
ne of my best ideas. OK, forget what we said earlier. Major change of heart. I’m calling Borelli.”
I dialed his number, but of course he didn’t pick up. Not only did he not pick up, but the darned thing didn’t even ring. I got his voice mail. What good would that do me? I hung up and sent a quick text to see if that might get his attention. Nope. No answer. What was the point of having a cell?
We’d just have to figure it out on our own.
We made our way around to the back of the body shop, taking the long way around, past the garages and the house. There was a gate leading to a little yard. Well, yard might be an exaggeration. Let’s just say a patch of scrubby land. There was a lock on the gate, but Léo managed to bust in pretty easily.
“OK, we should be able to climb up to that window and jump onto the roof of the first garage. I hope I can manage it. This wrist is acting up pretty bad.”
One thing I was pleased about was that I was still wearing the pink sneakers. They were as ugly as sin, but much more practical than my usual stilts.
Suddenly, Léo froze. We saw movement. Someone was sneaking around back there! A white suit. Murrash. He was leaving the body shop by a back entrance. Little Kholia was with him, tottering in front as they walked, and he was holding my Sabrina by the hand.
Sabrina!
My instinct was to run to her, but Léo stepped in front and blocked me. He turned to put a hand to my mouth until I calmed down some. Then he let me go. A pretty daring move on his part, but it worked.
I wasn’t feeling that cold sense of dread. I felt ready for this. I was back. My inner rage was back. I saw red. But I wasn’t thinking straight. I wanted to get the gun and take Murrash out, but I couldn’t find it . . .
“What are you looking for?” asked Léo. And he showed me the gun. He’d taken it from me! Little pickpocket . . . or pickpurse?
I jumped on him. “Give that back! I’m going to kill that dog! I’m doing it now. Enough with the messing around!”
But he was taller and stronger than me and had already shown me that he was prepared to use his muscle. “Cricri! We have to be smarter than that. There’s no point going for him now. First of all, he’s probably armed too. Do you want him to kill one of the kids?”
His words hit me like a cold shower.
Murrash had his back to us. We were crouched down in a bush so that he wouldn’t spot us if he suddenly turned around. Sabrina didn’t seem like her normal self. She seemed floppy, dazed . . . just weird. She was just following the guy. No energy. Doing as she was told. That wasn’t like my girl.
“OK,” I said in a lowered voice. “You’re right. I can’t go in guns blazing. I have to do this safely. Let’s follow them. There’s no point hanging around here. We know that this is where they’re staying. We’ll come back.”
“But . . .” Léo mumbled almost inaudibly. “What about Erina?”
How it hurt to hear those words.
It was hard to speak, holding back the tears. It was almost as if I couldn’t quite catch my breath. But the words ended up coming out clearly and precisely. It was as if I’d stepped outside myself. I only had one image in my mind: Sabrina running to me, jumping up into my arms and laughing, with Murrash in the background lying in agony in a puddle of blood.
“Listen, stay here. Climb to the top of that garage and try to stay out of sight. Keep a lookout for any unusual movements. Whatever you do, don’t go near the body shop or the house. Put your cell on vibrate. We’ll stay in touch and keep each other in the know, OK?”
“OK.”
“Promise you won’t try and go in there without me.”
He swore. Quickly. Too quickly and too easily for my liking. I was sure that as soon as I turned my back, he’d try to get into that house. What on earth would I say to his mother if anything happened to him? Maybe he’d be our lookout and take his role seriously without attempting anything stupid. I couldn’t follow Sabrina and stay with Léo. But someone needed to keep an eye on things here.
“There’s a chance that Erina isn’t here. So risking your life for no good reason would be bonkers. I think it’d be nice if you were alive when we found her, what do you say? Did you see what he was holding? A plastic bag. Capisce? Understand? I’m going to get the kids and make sure that bastard’s picked up. And then things will really heat up for Monsieur Charles. If we ever find out who he is. If Borelli does his job right, Murrash should sing. We’ll get a handle on this trafficking thing. If Monsieur Charles is behind this group of thugs, I’ll have his ass. I swear it. Nobody takes my daughter and gets away with it.”
“Make sure you don’t do anything without backup. You need to watch your back. The kids’ backs too. Be careful out there.”
“OK. And don’t you go inside that place until I get back.”
So we both made promises we knew we couldn’t keep. It meant we could go our separate ways with confidence. Fake confidence.
I squeezed Léo’s hand and followed Murrash and the kiddos. I kept a safe distance. I couldn’t risk him seeing me just yet.
57
As I followed Murrash, I prayed to Saint Expeditus—my family’s special saint. He was a Roman soldier turned Christian. He saved my Jewish grandmother from the Nazis. Well, that’s how the story goes, and I believe it. Saint Expeditus keeps an eye on the women in my family. I know this to be true. He’s the saint of desperate causes. And that’s what we are! I light little candles for him in church whenever I pass by. Well, whenever things get really bad. What’s good about him is that he’s usually quick to answer my prayers. That must be one of his tricks. To expedite. It means to act quickly, right? That’s what my mom told me.
At the same time, I also prayed to the cosmos, Buddha, and my guardian angel (we all have one, apparently) that the bag Murrash was carrying contained what I hoped it contained. Snow-white powder. Snow-white powder that would see him behind bars. Drugs that he’d had little people carrying all over the neighborhood for him. I hoped we could catch him in the middle of a deal, and then he’d really be in for it.
We’d nearly reached the center of town. I recognized Erina’s route. Sabrina hadn’t noticed I was following her. She would have under any other circumstances, but she was so passive with Murrash, so weak, and Kholia was exactly the same. He was plodding along as if he didn’t really know what he was doing. That prick must have given them tranqs or something. He needed them to follow him without making a fuss.
Murrash stopped off in front of a smoke shop. Someone slouched over to them. Was this the infamous Monsieur Charles? The two men chatted awhile. They were as shifty as they come. The pair of them nervously looked left and right. Furtive. They definitely had something to hide. He handed over an envelope to Murrash, who slipped it into his inside jacket pocket, then rooted around in the plastic bag and pulled out a parcel wrapped in brown paper and string. No, it couldn’t have been Monsieur Charles. Must have been a client.
They went their separate ways as quickly as they’d met. The drug buyer ambled off into the distance, and Murrash headed inside the smoke shop. I took this chance to give Léo a quick call. I told him where I was and how far I’d followed them, and reminded him to maintain a safe distance from the house and body shop. I explained what I’d just saw. The deal.
“So there you go. What should I do now? If there really are drugs in that bag, this is the time to get the cops involved. I have to do it now before he sells the whole thing. All I want to do is grab the kids and run as fast as the wind. What do you say?”
“Sure, do it. If you want to feel a bullet in your back.”
“Grrrrr.”
“Where do you think he’s going next?”
“I think he’s doing Erina’s regular route but he’s deviated a little. We’re near the train station.”
“Good. That’s good. The station,” said Léo. “Let’s hope he’s taking the train somewhere. A public place. Out in the open. It would be the best place to tackle him. There are bound to be police or secu
rity guards at the station. You need to make sure the cops see what he’s carrying. Find a way to draw their attention to him. Good luck. I can’t do anything to help you right now. I’m still on the lookout here. If they come out with Erina and try to make a getaway, I’ll shoot.”
He chuckled. This was worrisome. It wasn’t something anyone should be laughing about. I kept my mouth shut.
He continued, “If you manage to get into the station, call me. Let me know what’s happening.”
As we hoped, Murrash made his way to the station. And the place was swarming with cops and soldiers. As I passed the Chinese fast-food joint just in front of the entrance, I decided it might be the best place to make my move. It was one of those now-or-never moments: a young cop was directing traffic, two armed cops marched up and down the sidewalk, two soldiers chatted at the crossroads, and the cherry on the cake—a riot van full of army boys parked up ahead. Everyone was out in force! I just had to calculate the right moment.
Two cops were striding in my direction when I started hurrying toward Murrash and the little ones. My heart was pounding. Murrash still hadn’t seen me.
When the cops were only a few yards away, I took a deep breath and threw myself into action. I pushed Murrash as hard as I could in the back and looped my leg in front to trip him. What I wanted more than anything was for him to let go of the bag and for the cops to see what was inside. Then it would be game over. I know it wasn’t the best plan in the world, but I was in full-on panic mode. The situation called for something urgent and I didn’t know what else to do.
Murrash was surprised, to say the least. He fell to his knee, but kept hold of Sabrina’s hand. Seeing him on the ground like that gave me a deep sense of satisfaction. I took my opportunity to kick him as hard as I could while he was down.
