Sparkle

by Rudy Yuly

  Eddie didn’t answer.

  “Do you even understand a word I’m saying?” Mark was leaning forward. His face was tense and ugly. A family walked by and looked at them curiously. Mark straightened up and smiled at them.

  “Hey, folks. Have a great day.” He watched them go through the gate, then turned on Eddie. “Jolie’s not going to make it, one way or another. She’s not going to make it. You understand? And it’s your fault. You were there. I know what you did. You’re the prime suspect. You see this?”

  Mark pulled the baseball out of his pocket. Eddie’s jaw tightened. “You do recognize it, don’t you?” Mark went on. “I got it at Jolie’s house the night before she got shot. You broke into her house, didn’t you? I should call 911 right now.”

  “It’s…Jolie’s,” Eddie said, staring at the ball.

  “No, it’s not. Jolie gave it to me. She didn’t want it. She thought it was stupid.”

  Eddie’s expression didn’t change, but there was an effort involved.

  “She laughed at you, Eddie. And she was scared of you. She said you were a bad person. You broke into her house. You’re responsible for her getting hurt. And if she dies, you’ll be responsible for that. And you know what? You’re going to jail.”

  A suddenly agitated part of Eddie wanted to grab the ball from Mark and bash his head in with it. He let the disturbing sensation float through his consciousness and away.

  Just let go.

  “I’ll…trade you,” he said, concentrating hard to form the unfamiliar words before he spoke. But it was getting easier. Letting go of his mom had unstuck something that had been stuck almost forever. He could almost feel the new pathways blooming in his head, forming tender delicate bridges between thought and speech.

  “I guarantee you don’t have anything I want,” Mark said.

  “You never know.”

  Mark’s radio squealed. He took it off his belt and put it to his mouth. “Mark here.”

  “Can you come to the office for a second?” a crackly voice on the other end said. “Sorry to bother you, but it’s kind of important.”

  “I’ll be right there,” Mark said, trying to mask his irritation. He glared at Eddie. “You stay put. I’m not done with you.” He walked away.

  Eddie turned and waved to the cab driver. The driver waved back.

  Chapter 57

  When Louis got to Eddie’s hospital room, he wasn’t particularly surprised to see that Eddie was gone. Joe had told him that Eddie was going to have a brain scan. He needed to check in on Jolie Walker, anyway. When he got to her room, several nurses and a doctor were clustered around her bed.

  “Excuse me,” Louis asked. “I’m a police officer. Can I ask what’s going on?”

  “And you are?” the doctor asked.

  Louis identified himself.

  “I see,” the doctor said. “Well, she seems to have made a breakthrough. She opened her eyes, and she’s been partially responsive for the past half-hour. We’re going to try taking her off the respirator. If you want to check back in another half-hour or so— “

  “I’ll just wait here,” Louis interrupted.

  “You’d be more comfortable in the waiting area down the hall.”

  “That’s okay.” Louis settled himself into the chair near the door. “I won’t get in the way. This might be the only chance we get to hear her side of the story.”

  Louis’s phone rang. The caller ID told him it was Joe. When he noticed the doctor giving him an irritated look, he decided he’d call Joe back in a little while. He switched the phone to vibrate and put it back in his pocket.

  Louis could see Jolie trying to open her eyes. She was moving her head from side to side as if she were looking for something. After the doctor removed the respirator, she began breathing on her own.

  The big cop watched the doctor and nurses bustling around Jolie’s bed, feeling small and insignificant. It all looked mysterious and slightly intimidating. Louis had never liked hospitals, and he was glad he hadn’t spent much time in them. But this was a special case. If Jolie Walker had anything to say, he was willing to go to just about any lengths to hear it. She continued to stir uncomfortably, as if she were trying— weakly—to shake something off.

  Then she opened her eyes. She tried to speak, but Louis couldn’t hear any words. The doctor shone a light in her eyes and asked her a few questions, and she nodded and shook her head. She even gave a weak thumbs-up on request.

  The doctor stood up and nodded at the nurse significantly. Louis stood and moved as close to the bed as possible.

  “You’re a very lucky young lady,” the doctor said.

  “Yeah,” Jolie whispered. Her throat was raw.

  “I want someone with her at all times,” the doctor told a nurse. “If there’s any change in her condition, I want you to page me immediately.”

  “I need to ask her a couple of questions,” Louis said.

  “Not possible,” the doctor said.

  “It’s life and death.”

  The doctor looked at him appraisingly. “Then keep it short,” he said, as he turned and left the room.

  Louis moved to Jolie’s side and leaned in close. “Who did this to you? Was it Eddie?”

  Jolie tried to speak, but only a faint croak came out. It sounded as though she were asking for water.

  “Did Eddie do this?” Louis said. He wasn’t going to miss this chance.

  It looked like Jolie shook her head, although it was hard to tell. What really got him was the look in her eyes. Intelligent. Pleading. Trying to communicate…but what?

  “Who?” Louis said. “Who was it?”

  Jolie’s eyes rolled upward, her head lolled, and a monitor started to beep.

  The nurses brushed Louis out of the way. Had she said Eddie didn’t do it? If she’d only stayed with him a few seconds longer…his phone vibrated, and he took it out of his pocket. Joe again. He’d call back when things calmed down. Whether Eddie had done it or not, the Walker girl regaining consciousness would be good news for Joe. If she survived, at very least Eddie wouldn’t get popped for murder.

  Chapter 58

  The cop followed Joe for several blocks with just her lights on. Then she sounded a couple of short blasts on her siren. She was patient. The guy wasn’t speeding, didn’t seem to be trying to get away. He was simply refusing to stop. He also had a burned-out taillight, and his driving was a bit erratic. Maybe he was drunk or high. Then again, he might be off his rocker. If he didn’t pull over soon, she was going to call for backup, just to be on the safe side.

  Joe didn’t have time to be pulled over. He couldn’t even think straight. Was he delirious? The pain in his neck was bad, but the pounding in his head was so intense that he could hardly breathe. And he was utterly exhausted, moving on nothing but panic-fueled adrenaline

  Despite the pain, Joe felt simultaneously affected and detached from everything, as if he was moving through a nightmare. For a fuzzy, weird moment he almost believed he was asleep and dreaming—and the hope that he might wake up somewhere else felt wonderful for the briefest second. Then the thought entered his head that he wasn’t smoking. Didn’t feel like it. It made him laugh. The whole thing seemed like a druggy, cosmic joke. With his driving record, would he get yanked out of the van and hauled off to jail just for failing to pull over?

  No way.

  After all he and Eddie had done for the cops, they owed him a break. Joe’s vision seemed to be going in and out of focus. Why the hell wouldn’t Louis call him back?

  What was it he wanted to do? Save Eddie? From what? The truth was that he felt frighteningly alone. He missed his brother. He missed everybody in the whole stupid world.

  Except maybe his dad.

  The cop blasted her siren again. Joe fumbled for his phone.

  “Damn it!” he said, as he got Louis’s voice mail again. “Eddie’s going to the zoo!” he shouted into the phone. “I don’t know how I know, I just know. I’m going there, and there�
��s a cop chasing me. Screw it! Just c-c-call me!”

  Joe hung up. He snapped into something like focus for a moment and tried to get a cigarette going. His ears rang and his head hurt so bad he had to squint.

  “U-u-useless idiot.”

  He wasn’t sure whether he was talking about Louis, the cop following him, Eddie, or himself.

  Joe had held on for dear life for a long time. Now he was losing it. It felt like falling. There was nothing to do but keep going until he hit.

  He started to cry. The tears made his driving even worse. His sinuses clogged and it was hard to breathe. He gripped the wheel as tightly as he could.

  It kept his hands from shaking.

  Eddie waited patiently until he saw Mark coming back toward him. Then he walked briskly to the waiting cab. He climbed in, shut the door, and locked it.

  Mark hurried up to the car door.

  Eddie rolled his window down slightly. “I’ll trade you,” he said.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mark turned to the driver. “Do you know this passenger is—” Mark stopped short.

  Eddie had held open his bag and looked down. Mark looked, too. He saw the gun. They both looked up, and their eyes met for a split second.

  “I’ll trade you,” Eddie said. “I want Jolie’s ball. Go,” he said to the driver.

  The cab pulled away.

  Mark stood dumbfounded. Then he sprinted for his SUV. He had no idea why he was following. It was like he’d gotten stuck on some fucking nightmare bus and it wouldn’t stop to let him off. He pulled quickly out of the zoo parking lot.

  He was less than a block away from the zoo when he heard the siren.

  Mark pulled over while Joe, closely followed by the police car, drove past in the opposite direction. Mark didn’t recognize the Sparkle van. He was too busy keeping an eye on Eddie’s cab.

  Mark got on his cell and called the zoo office while he waited for traffic to start up again. “I have to go…run a little errand.” He struggled to keep his voice calm.

  Eddie’s cab pulled over too, and watched Joe’s van and the police car drive past.

  Man-sized mess.

  But if Eddie went back to help Joe everything might be ruined.

  Just let go.

  Eddie couldn’t stop. For once, Joe would have to take care of himself.

  After the police car passed, the cab driver pulled into traffic again.

  Mark was following. Eddie knew he would. He looked around once or twice to make sure Mark was still there.

  “Is that guy following you?”

  “Uh-huh,” Eddie said.

  “You want me to lose him?”

  “Nope.”

  Lavonne opened her eyes and arched her back gently. She yawned loudly, stretched her elbows out, hands behind her head, and curled her toes. She felt sore all over, but better. She’d slept well.

  She missed Joe. Poor guy. Lavonne wished he were here right now so she could hold him, make him feel better, too.

  She checked the clock by her bed: after nine. Usually, Lavonne only let herself sleep in this late on her day off. What was it today, anyway? Oh, yeah—Friday. That was a question she never had to ask herself, so she was definitely knocked out of orbit.

  Lord help me.

  She’d hadn’t experienced a week this intense in her life—and she’d lived through some pretty crazy stuff. Just one short week since she’d told Joe how she felt—one week, and everything in her life had changed.

  Lavonne imagined stubborn Joe, sitting in an uncomfortable chair by Eddie’s bed all night. If she hurried, she could drop by before work, take him a decent cup of coffee and check on Eddie. The thought of doing Joe a favor he hadn’t asked for made her laugh out loud and gave her a rush of energy. Lavonne pushed herself out of bed.

  The week’s events had made Joe vulnerable, forced him to ask for help again and again. Seeing him so out of character was comforting. No matter how close he came to losing it, Joe always made a real effort to do the right thing. A relationship with the guy was definitely going to be a lot of work; but if he got enough confidence to actually share his next love letter or bouquet, it might actually be worth the trouble.

  Detective Bjorgeson sat at her desk staring hard at some meaningless form. She was not looking at it, just brooding, feeling her ire rise. When she was on the scent this hard, her manner changed. She wouldn’t be denied. No more joking around.

  Louis was too close to the Jones brothers. Pinky patted her pocket unconsciously. The receipt Joe had given her—another supposed Detective Eddie score—was still there. She had no intention of passing it along to Louis, but her cop instincts wouldn’t quite allow her to do what she should and just toss the damn scrap in the trash. Three hot, active investigations, and one—the Walker girl’s shooting—was a slam dunk.

  Eddie needed to be taken off the street. But lumbering, sentimental Louis was going to drag his feet as long as possible. For all the wrong reasons. And Louis was the boss. It wasn’t the first time—by far—that Pinky had been irritated with the big guy. But it was probably the worse.

  Pinky reached into her desk and pulled out a Sparkle Cleaners card. She studied it for a long time. Then she got up without bothering to sign herself out and went out the door.

  Joe bounced a curb pulling into the zoo lot, then drove the van as close as he could to Eddie’s bench. He didn’t bother to park. It wasn’t a parking zone, anyway. He just jumped out and started limping stiffly to where he was certain he would find his brother.

  The cop stopped behind the van. She left her lights on but flipped off her siren. She spoke urgently into her radio before walking quickly and purposely after Joe.

  Joe made it to Eddie’s bench in a matter of seconds. He looked around wildly. Where the hell is he? What the hell has happened to my brother?

  His panic intensified to a level that threatened a blackout. He was cold with sweat, hyperventilating, dizzy, and disoriented, dripping tears and snot. He scrambled awkwardly into a standing position on the bench, his twisted logic telling him he could see farther that way.

  “Eddie!” Joe tried to yell, but his throat was so dry that it came out more like a loud croak. “Eddie!” He looked around, but he had to move his whole body to do it, since his neck was getting stiffer and stiffer.

  “Sir!” the cop said, “I need you to get down!” A few passers-by stopped, not knowing what to make of the suddenly tense scene. “Sir! Now! Get down! Lie down on the ground with your hands on your head!” She was standing about ten yards away with her hand on her holstered gun.

  Two more police cars pulled into the lot with blaring sirens.

  Joe couldn’t believe what was happening. He looked around wildly, but his field of vision seemed to have shrunk to a pinhole. He raised his voice as loud as he could. “What? No! Are you f-f-friggin’ crazy? You d-ddon’t understand! I just need to find my brother! Eddie! Eddie!”

  As Eddie’s cab pulled up at his house, Mark pulled his SUV to the curb half a block away. He watched Eddie get out of the cab and walk into the house, watched the cab pull away. He looked up and down the street. No one was around. He got out of his SUV and opened the hatch in back, where he kept his box of tools, rummaged around for a minute before he found what he was looking for: his hoof knife. Its thick, eight-inch German steel blade had a wicked, gracefully curved ninety-degree hook at the end. It was the perfect tool for trimming a horse’s tough hooves, and Mark was an expert with it. It might come in handy. If nothing else, it was scary looking.

  Mark put the knife in his jacket pocket. He’d forgotten what was in there already. Eddie’s ball.

  Chapter 59

  Two other cops ran up to where Joe was standing on the bench, stopping a few feet away.

  “Get down, now!” the cop who’d been chasing him warned him once more. She had drawn her gun, but was pointing it at the ground. “I’m not going to tell you again, sir!” she said. “Get on the ground!”

&n
bsp; It was all too much. Joe looked at the scene, and his universe became deathly calm. All sound faded, and he was free from his body, looking down from above. The world had mercifully slowed down so much that it almost—not quite—stopped. He felt a slight breeze in his hair. He was up high, so high, and everything suddenly made sense. The sun was really warm now. It was a beautiful day.

  He was watching a ball game from far, far away. The cops were no more mysterious than any other players on the field. Joe sized them up, read them, and he knew for sure what was going to happen. But there was no one to make a bet with to prove it.

  Joe’s cell phone rang: Lavonne’s ring. He’d programmed it in when she first gave him her number. Funny thing was, this was the first time she’d ever called. Part of him said to leave it alone, but he wasn’t going to listen. For once, Lavonne was calling him, and he was going to answer. One way or another, Joe was going to break free of whatever it was that had held him for so long. He reached a shaking hand into his pocket.

  “Stop!” the cop said.

  Joe pulled his phone out of his pocket.

  The cop raised her gun and fired.

  Joe crumpled off the bench and onto the ground.

  “Lavonne,” he said weakly into the phone, “you’d better come to the zoo.” It snapped shut and disconnected as he dropped it.

  Then everything went black.

  Eddie was on his way upstairs to Joe’s room when something hit him that took his breath away. He stood stock-still and clenched his jaw. He tried to stop it, but his head was suddenly filled with a clattering din that knocked him out of his meditative state.

  Something had happened to Joe.

  Eddie forced himself to start breathing. He rubbed his head roughly and continued up the stairs, carrying his bag. He had to let go, trust, and keep moving. Now more than ever.

  Outside, Mark stood at the front door. He looked up and down the street. It was empty. He knocked on the door, quietly.