Push Comes to Shove (14 page)

Killer grabbed Smitty’s hand and placed it on his own forehead. “See, Smitty, I told you I had a fever, but you wouldn’t listen.” He led Smitty to the door.

“Hey, what’s the rush? I—”

“I got the flu. A nasty one. Trust me; you don’t want to catch it.” Killer locked the door and turned to his nurse. “It hurts all over.”

Suzette scanned house addresses as she spoke into her cell phone. “Todd, what more do you want me to say? I apologize. It slipped my mind. Let’s reschedule; I’m really doing something important.”

“And trying to save our marriage isn’t important?”

“Don’t do that to me. It’s not fair.” She was getting closer. “I told you that I’m helping someone out.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Suzette! That’s always the case with you. Your priorities are totally screwed up. What’s important is home; not every Tom, Dick, and Harry. You can’t save the Goddamn world.”

“Give me an hour, Todd. One hour and I’ll be there.”

“So help me God, Suzette, if you don’t come now, forget about the marriage. I’ll have my lawyer fax you the divorce papers.”

Suzette sighed at the same time as she found Kitchie’s address.
“Must you be stubborn…all…” She saw two children coming down a flimsy ladder. “I’ll call you back.”

“Don’t bother. Let the record show that I tried. You just became a waste of my time. Have a ball saving the world.” He hung up.

Secret screamed.

Suzette saw the older white man in the window above the children. She jerked the Ford in Park and rushed across the yard.

Junior’s feet hit the ground. He helped his trembling sister off of the ladder.

“Secret, Junior,” a frail white woman called out as she ran toward them.

They cut through the tall bushes in their backyard, running as fast as possible.

Sheriff Colin watched from above. “Crazy bunch of kids.” He unhooked the ladder. It fell to the ground. He locked the window after it.

Hector came out of Mr. Doughnuts sipping an espresso.

Detective Thomas leaned against a mailbox. “Hector Gonzales.” He flashed a badge. “Mind if I have a few words with you?”

Hector grunted and turned in the other direction.

Detective Crutchfield stepped out of a phone booth and produced a badge. “Maybe you’re more comfortable with talking to me.”

Hector stopped in his tracks.
Crutchfield
.

Detective Thomas guided Hector to the phone booth, kicked his feet apart, and frisked him. Thomas took a bag of dope from his own pocket and held it up to Hector’s face. “You know better than this. You could have at least tried to hide the shit.”

Crutchfield stepped closer. “Looks like you’re on your way back to the joint with a new case and a parole violation.”

“What the hell you want from me?” He eyed Crutchfield, then Thomas.

“Now that’s what you call a freedom question.” Crutchfield grabbed Hector by an arm. “Let’s go downtown and talk about it.”

“Where’s your other shoe?” Secret huffed and puffed.

Junior paused. “In the house. We gotta keep going. They have people looking for us like we broke out of prison.” He led the way through the woods.

“We did. Are you sure this is the way?”

“Me, Rasheed, Rashaad, and them come in these woods all the time to find salamanders. The street is straight ahead.” His once-white sock was beyond cleaning.

“We have to get something to put on your feet.” She dodged a tree branch.

“Buy me some shoes at the shopping center.”

“Can’t.”

“Why?”

“I left the money in my other pants. I should’ve put it in my sock again.”

Junior stopped. “So what am I supposed to do? We haven’t even ate.”

“Don’t look at me like that. We’ll figure something out.” Secret could see the traffic on Green Road through the trees a few feet ahead.

“Told you this was the way.” Junior walked with a limp.

“Bet Mom and Dad don’t know you and the twins be in the woods this far. They told you not—”

“Only way they’ll know is if you tell them—if we ever see them again.”

“Get that out of your fat head; we’ll all be together soon.”

“You hope.” He paused and leaned against a tree. “My foot hurt.”

They left the woods behind them and started their journey to the bottom of Green Road.

“Aunt Jewels will get you something to put on your feet when we get there. It’s not that far from here. Will you be all right until then?”

“Do I have a choice?” Junior detoured around some broken glass on the sidewalk. He stopped when he saw more ahead. “Gimme a piggyback ride.”

Secret drew in a breath and squatted. “I swear, you’re lucky.”

Junior poked his tongue out at the back of her head while climbing on. “Secret.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t really think you’re a sissy. What if Aunty ain’t there?”

“Then we’ll wait until she comes.”

A Ford slowed to a snail’s pace beside them. Suzette lowered the power window while keeping an eye on the winding road. She shouted through the front passenger window. “Listen to me, Secret, your—”

“Why don’t you leave us alone?” She started taking backward steps. “You’re not taking us back.”

A city bus was almost kissing Suzette’s bumper. Its husky horn was blown. Secret and Junior ran for the safety of the woods.

“How long has he been in there?” The captain observed Hector in the interrogation room from a two-way window.

Crutchfield kicked his feet up on a desk. “About eleven hours now.”

“Then question him or turn him loose.” The captain sipped a cup of coffee laced with vodka.

Thomas pushed Crutchfield’s feet off the desk, then sat on the cleared area. “Crutchfield likes to make their imaginations drive ’em crazy, Captain.” He pointed to Hector, who seemed to be taking it well.

The captain raised a brow. “How much longer do you plan on leaving him in there?”

“Patience is truly a virtue.” Crutchfield smiled. “He’ll be good and ready to talk by morning.”

The Captain sighed, then left to refill his drink.

Darkness threatened to consume the sky. Junior and Secret sat back to back on a large oak stump.

Junior rubbed his sore foot. “Do you think Daddy talks to Mommy the way that Brandon guy talked to Shea? You know, when they…”

“They what?”

“When they get ready to do the oochie coochie.”

Secret shrugged. “After hearing them, I don’t ever want to do it to nobody. That’s nasty. No boy can ever talk to me like that.”

“So, am I supposed to say to a girl: Suck my you know what, and let me hit that p-u-s-s-y?”

She shrugged again.

“I’m hungry.” He scooted next to Secret. “And I’d rather go back to Mr. Reynolds’s than stay in these woods at night.”

“It is getting dark. I’m hungry, too, and I have to pee.”

“The tree is free.”

“Imagine that.”

“Then pee on yourself. Let’s eat at Pizza Hut at the bottom of the hill.” He lifted Secret’s pant leg.

“What are you doing?”

“Let me have your socks.”

“We can’t eat pizza. I told you that I left the money at home.” She kicked her shoes off.

“We don’t need any. I saw this movie where these high school kids ordered a bunch of food, ate it, then one by one they pretended to go to the bathroom and snuck out. We can do it, too. I’m hungry for real.”

“That’s stealing.” She slipped her shoes back on.

“Daddy does it when he has to.” He put both of Secret’s flowered socks on one foot. “Let’s go eat. That lady ain’t looking for us no more. Well, for a little while anyway.”

“You little bastards!” The Pizza Hut manager waved a fist in the air as Secret and Junior ran down the avenue with full bellies.

T
hursday morning, Jewels exited a Greyhound bus and stretched her limbs. She took the pillow from beneath Ndia’s arm and gave her a handful of change. “Call us a cab while I get the luggage.”

“I’ll check out front first. There might be one already available.”

“Handle it, then, baby.” Jewels smacked Ndia’s globular ass.

She giggled and sashayed away.

Jewels stuffed the pillow in a nearby trash receptacle, then claimed their luggage inside the terminal.

“Jewels!” Ndia called out from the terminal’s entrance. “There’s a cab here.”