Robin found a suitable hotel and checked in. It wasn’t the classiest of places by any means, but her room was clean, smelled of lilac, and best of all had free high-speed internet. She had grabbed a few pieces of clothing from Mama G’s closet, though she didn’t intend to have to change into them. Hopefully she’d be able to hit a big box store somewhere. That was of course provided that she couldn’t just go home in a day or two. She still clung to that hope.
The thought of a hot shower was really attractive, but she’d had a thought on the drive up. The first time she decided to take a weekend off Jose had hooked up a couple of web cams the she could access from a secure url. She booted up her laptop and fired up the web browser. It was her own customized flavor of Firefox and had a lot of home brewed tools built in most of which were dedicated to preventing anyone from tracking her moves through the net. A few passwords later and she was logged in to both. One gave her a view of the register and bar. The other was pointed at the central computer island. She trusted the few people that worked for her implicitly and most of her customers were good people too, but better safe than sorry had always been one of her favorite clichés.
Everything checked out just fine. Susanna was pulling a ristretto from the look of things. There was a line of customers and it looked like the petite little redhead had recruited her roommate Donna to help out during the busy part of the day. She was a large young woman, Mom used to say Rubenesque. Long black hair, almost as kinky as Robin’s, hung to her waist and was a stark contrast to milky skin. She had a big smile as she rang folks up and took their money. It wasn’t the first time she’d worked at the shop so Robin was satisfied that everything was in good hands.
After minimizing both windows, she decided to have a look at the email address she’d set up to handle the drop box. What she saw practically made her pack everything up and jump back in the jeep. Instead she said a quick prayer and grabbed her cell. It rang three times and by then she was hissing ugly sounds through her teeth.
“Hey Robin. What’s up?” answered Matt’s voice.
“What’s up? What’s up? I’ll tell you what’s up. Sanders is going to my coffee shop and want his goons there. You give me one blessed reason why I shouldn’t some down there right now or call my people and have them close up shop.” She was hot and it came through full steam in her voice.
“I can give you several good reasons. We got the message too and for the record were just about to call you and make sure that you had seen.”
“Uh-huh, I’ll bet.” She stood and began to walk in tight rings.
Matt let that one go. “If you do anything now Sanders might get wind. For all we know he has a whole goon squad watching the place. I doubt it. I doubt that even he’s there yet, but we don’t know. Second, Lee is going to go stake it out here in a bit. And after Jose and I get a few things straight we’re going to be there too. Everyone will be fine.”
“Just like things were fine at Mama’s?” She regretted that as it came out.
“I deserved that. I really did.” Silence filled the air for a few seconds.
“No you didn’t.” Robin said. “No way you could have known what was going to go down, just like you don’t know here. Don’t make me promises that you can’t keep.”
“Alright, but at least in this situation we do know that Sanders will be there. And we know that he has hostile intent. From what I know of the man though, he’ll want Lee and I more than he’ll want you’re people.”
“So you’re gonna throw yourselves on a grenade for them. Great.”
“Look lady, I don’t know what to tell you. We need to bring Sanders down. We know where he’ll be. We know what he wants and we’re pretty sure we know what his intent is. We’ll get him.” Matt sounded exasperated.
Robin stopped and sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re right. Have you stopped to consider that this might be a trap? He could have seen through our message. For all we know we missed some sort of deep level encoding.”
“Yes, it could be a trap. If it were though I think he would have directed us somewhere else. Why the shop if it’s a trap? I’m sure there’s even an answer for that. But trap or not we have to go in. At least we go with our eyes open and it’ll be multipronged. That way if it is a trap he’ll likely only get one of us.”
“I’m going to trust you on this. I’m going to keep right where I’m at but you’re going to do something. I have eyes in the shop thanks to Jose. When you get a little close to moving in I want you to call. That way it’s like you have someone on the inside.”
“Deal. That’s an excellent idea. I love that you’re so smart and so beautiful. Total package, that’s you.”
“Sweet talk won’t get you everywhere white boy.” Her heart ached and she forced the catch in her throat down. “We aren’t through this thing yet. There’s still a long way to go.”
“I know, Love.” Matt wanted so bad to be there with her. “We’ll get there. Together or apart we will and when we do I never want to leave you again.”
“Call me when you’re ready.” Robin didn’t wait for an answer and hung up before she let herself melt into tears.
Jose looked at his brother. “Guess she found out huh?”
“That’s what I like about you Jose, very perceptive.”
“You’re gonna have to do some penance for that little white lie you told about calling her to tell her.”
“Is it a lie if you knew that they would know it’s a lie? Never mind, I think I know the answer to that.” Matt scrunched further down in his seat.
“So what was the thing was so smart about?”
“Those webcams you installed. She’s gonna be the ghost in the machine and keep an eye out for us when we go into the shop.”
“Lord, she is smart. It’s a wonder she ever hooked up with you.” Jose grinned.
Matt smiled back. “There’s something you should know.”
“What is it now?”
“We said our vows. It was corny I’m sure and we still want to have a real church wedding, but I wanted her to know how I felt.”
“You did? Wow man that’s great, fantastico.” He beat a little tattoo on the steering wheel. “You guys should have done that years ago, for real I mean.”
“You’re telling me. So where the heck are we going anyway?”
“You’ll see. You said you wanted some cover right? That’s all about local color and I’m going to get us some. Be patient, you’ll see. One thing though, the guys that we’ll be dealing with are a little rough around the edges. I rolled with them for a while before I got to Mama’s and I have a cousin that still hangs with them.”
Matt knew what rough around the edges meant and what he saw when they got to the apartments verified it. He recognized the place. Some folks from Westridge had worked with a local Hispanic church to help the school age kids with their English. Unaffectionately nicknamed the Cliffs, the drab, government subsidized complex consisted of three fifteen story buildings. When they were built in the fifties they were supposed to help people who were struggling get back on their feet. Most of the families who lived their back then were African American. That remained the case until the last ten years or so when the population started to change. Hispanic families moved in and gradually became the predominant minority.
The complex and surrounding neighborhood were plagued by crime of all kinds and the poverty that always seemed to go hand in hand. Most of the families in the Cliffs were honest and hardworking, but there had been a number of drug busts recently and Westridge had stopped sending volunteers because they feared for their safety. He hated that as had Chris, but they tried to mollify those feeling with the hopes that the local church still sent people out.
A large courtyard with what had once been a no doubt beautiful fountain was filled with a good dozen motorcycles. They were the kind that one of Matt’s buddies in the army called a rice burner, Japanese bikes that were built for extreme speed. A riot of different colors, their riders sat on the low brick wall drinking beers, smoking and listening to loud rock with a Mexican flair. None of them looked anywhere near Matt and Jose’s ages, barely out of their late teens. As the car got closer he did see one or two men that looked like they might be older.
Jose looked over. “Sit tight and don’t say a word. I’m not sure that this is going to work.” He pulled the car to a stop and the men gradually filed up, with appreciative looks in their eyes. Several whistled and hooted. Jose got out and rested one foot on the door frame with the other on the ground. “Ernesto here?”, he asked in Spanish.
Matt was glad that he had stayed fluent, since it looked like it might come in handy. He did as he was told and stayed put though.
One of the older men, who still probably wasn’t much past twenty-five, answered. “Maybe he is. Who asking?”
“His cousin. I’m Jose Gutierrez.” There was a murmur among the crowd and a few men pulled weapons.
Matt considered leaning back and grabbing something from the back seat, but he had a feeling that he wouldn’t live long if he did.
The man, dressed in dark green, white, and red leathers with a cougar on his shoulder patch took a drag off his cigarette. “Bullshit man. You aren’t Jose and Ernesto isn’t here. You need to turn that pretty car around and go home.”
One of the men closer to the Cuda and dressed in all black spoke. “Nah I think he and the white boy need to walk home. We can keep the car.” He tapped on the window near Matt with the barrel of his pistol. “Roll the window down white boy.”
Matt didn’t follow the instructions. He did tense a bit, ready to lash out if necessary.
“I am Jose and whether Ernesto is here or not I need to ask a favor.” He stepped fully out from the car, conscious of the weapons he saw and more acutely of those he didn’t see. Hundred of windows looked down at them.
“A favor?” The man walked up to Jose and put a finger in his chest. “What right do you have to ask a favor? You ain’t shit to me.” He lapsed into moderately accented English. “I don’t owe you nothing man and neither does this gang. Ernesto is dead and you been gone a long damn time, Santo.” He spat the last word out with derision.
Another voice cut through the crowd, this one female. “Santo? Esteban, you get away from him.” The men parted letting a pretty lady through. Her beauty was partially hidden by layers of drug abuse and a hard life. Black hair cropped brutally short framed an angular face. Everything about her was severe except her blue-gray eyes, which were just tired. She wore skin tight black jeans and a white lace top that was covered by a gray and white leather jacket at least two sizes too big. She slapped Esteban hard on his chest. “You’re spitting on your brother-in-law’s memory. This man is his cousin and saved his life more than once.” She turned her gaze on Jose. “And he saved yours by giving you to Mama G.”
“I know.” Jose said. “And I know that I’ve been away too long. I didn’t know that Ernesto was dead. My condolences Carla.” He bowed his head.
“The same thing’s going to happen to all of these hard headed fools.” She crossed herself. “At least you got out.” Then she crossed her arms. “But you’re back. So what’s up? What favor do you need?”
Jose began to talk and as he unfolded the plan several smiles broke out.
Lee drove the old car into a parking spot just outside the door to a Quick Mart. He felt safe running this quick errand since for right now his description had only gone out over the police band. The chief wanted to keep this as low key as possible for now. As easy as it would be to pin something on a cop in this town, he didn’t want a whole lot of publicity yet. That’s what Lee’s instincts said anyway. And so far they were still batting better than Hank Aaron.
He bought some sunglasses, a navy hat that said “Keep On Truckin”, a newspaper, a six pack of Coke and a bag of nacho chips. Once he was back in the car his phone rang. It was the good doctor so he answered right away.
“Have some good news for me doctor. No have some great news.” He waited.
“Well Sara’s condition hasn’t gotten any worse. Unfortunately it hasn’t gotten any better either.” There was a hesitation in her voice.
“So why call me? I know you don’t like toying with folks.”
“Well Lee, I have a message to pass on to you that I’m not sure I should. But at this point even something like this is worth considering, no matter how odd. A man said that he had the antidote and that if we wanted it he would be glad to pass it on to us, but you had to call him first.”
A shiver ran through him. “Did the man leave his name?”
“No. That was one strange thing. He said you’d know who he was and left a number to call. She gave it to him. “If this is legitimate in any way you might want to consider it. She can’t stay like this forever.”
“Thanks. Thanks doctor. I’ll call you if it pans out.” He hung up the phone. His body was almost completely numb.
He had no idea how long he sat there. Eventually his fingers dialed the number.
“Detective?” Sanders voice managed not to sound smug.
“Hello Sanders.” Lee answered, his voice flat as the metallic taste in his mouth. “I got your message. What do you want?”
“Oh it’s not about what I want. It’s about what you want and what that’s worth to you. We make a fair trade, life for life.”
“I need some specifics.” He didn’t feel like it was him saying the words.
Sanders sighed. “Fine. I’ll spell it out for you. You tell me where your little friend Matt is and I’ll tell you where you can pick up the package for your lady. It’s really that simple.”
