The Last Days of Ray Cobb

Chapter 6

Burke saw her out of the corner of his eye from the line at the donut shop. By the time he’d hobbled over to his seat with his coffee and Boston Cream, she was in plain sight. He took a bite of his treat and a little custard squeezed out onto his fingers. He licked them clean and watched her through the windows. An exhibit in an urban zoo.

If she was a working girl, she was out too early in the afternoon. The sun was on its way down, but this wasn’t the sort of neighborhood where men went prowling after work before they went home to their wives. Wasn’t enough time to wash the stink of street p***y off and blame the delay on traffic. Burke knew for damn sure you couldn’t cover it up with cologne. You needed to Lava Bar that s**t. Scrub your business like you just finished tarring a roof with it.

She was wandering the block with no purpose. A window shopper would’ve gone into one of the little boutiques if only to get out of the sun for fifteen minutes. She sat on the bus bench under the shelter for a while, but when an overweight cleaning lady sat down, the look she gave the girl made her get up and lean against the glass ad sheet. She periodically rummaged through the oversized purse she had on her. The one that looked like she was carrying her whole life in it. Twice she came up empty, then found what she was looking for. A piece of gum stuck in some receipt paper. The girl peeled it apart carefully and scraped the crusty old piece of gum into her mouth with her front teeth. Burke could see that it took a bit for her to work the crunch out of it, but eventually her jaw did the work and sated her oral fixation.

Burke didn’t like running girls near his home base. It was bad for business to mix the two. But the raid on Solish’s clinic took the little girl off of his roster. Pissed him off to lose such fresh, innocent meat, but he counted his blessings that he planned to pick her up after the procedure rather than wait around. It was the closest he’d come to being pinched in a long time. Might as well try to recoup some losses.

He pulled out his phone and dialed. A cough answered.

“You got Baby Brim, who dis?”

“Brim, it’s Burke.”

“What you want, Skee Lo?”

“You running a girl off Beverly by the B.K.?”

“Where on Beverly?”

“In the Bello.”

“Why the f**k you care? That ain’t your block,” Baby Brim said over the phone. Burke could sense his hackles were up.

“I know it ain’t. I see something I like and be askin’ a courtesy. You got a girl here or not?”

“Little too Eastside for me, but if I were around, it’d be my girl.”

“So is it?” Burke asked, sick of the back and forth.

”Is her feet pretty?”

“How the f**k I know?”

“Cuz you low to the ground muthafucka, you notice that shit.”

“Her feet nasty, a’ight,” Burke lied. “She your girl?”

There was a pause on the other end. Burke could tell that Brim was deciding whether to gamble.

“Nah, man. Ain’t mine. Do your thing.”

“Thank you. How’s your moms?”

Baby Brim laughed on the other end, “Muthafucka, go get yo d**k wet. Askin’ bout my moms like you give a f**k. Shit.”

Burke ended the call and finished his donut. He checked his face for frosting and left his half-full coffee cup on the table. He didn’t want her to see him coming, so he hobbled down to the corner and waited for the light. He knew he had to be careful with the antsy ones. Approach them slow like a lion on a gazelle. Wait and see what chemicals they like. Then give ’em too much of something else. Tricks almost made it too easy.

“Hey girl.”

She nearly leapt out of her skin as she swung on him. Her dark hair came out of the loose twist she had it in and hung ragged at her shoulders. There were edges of an old bruise around her left eye. He didn’t see any grab bruises on the forearms she had crossed over her belly, accentuating a pair of titties that were more than a handful. Whoever she worked with hadn’t beat on her on the regular. Good sign she was a free agent.

“Get the f**k away from me,” she said, her voice graveled, but shaking.

“Just wondering if you wanted some gum,” he said, a pack of Extra held out to her.

“You get that at the chocolate factory you work at?” she said without smiling.

“Trying to be nice,” Burke said, hiding his rage. He’d make her pay for that one. Later.

The girl bit the skin on the inside of her lower lip, still giving him the stink eye, then spit the hard piece of gum she was chewing out into the street. She took a piece of gum and popped it in her mouth, then flicked the wrapper from her middle finger and thumb into the lap of the cleaning lady at the bus stop.

“Thanks,” she gnawed loud on the gum and turned away from him.

“You need somethin’?” he asked. She didn’t answer him. Just kept looking across the street. But she hadn’t left. And that was all Burke needed.

A bus pulled to a halt in front of the shelter and the cleaning lady got on. The girl made no move to get on and gave the bus driver a slight nod “no” when he asked if she was coming. The bus pulled away, and the girl shuffled around Burke to take a seat on the bench. Burke turned around on his crutches, but didn’t make a move to sit down next to her.

“Damn sure you ain’t got nothin’ I need,” she said, almost a whisper.

“Looks can be deceiving,” Burke smiled.

“Yeah? What you got?” she asked, shifting in her seat.

“Like I said, what you need?”

“You a cop?”

Burke let out a guffaw.

“Holy s**t, damn girl. That’s fuckin’ funny. Can honestly say I ain’t ever been asked that.”

“Well, are ya?”

“No. You?”

She snorted out a laugh and scratched her arm.

“That ain’t no answer, neither,” Burke smiled.

“If I was, I’d have a car to get away from your tiny ass.”

“There you go with the insults again,” Burke said. He wondered if he would crack a tooth the way he was clenching his teeth. This girl was damn fine looking under all the bullshit. He hoped her cooze was dipped in rainbow sprinkles and tasted like strawberry jam for the s**t she was giving him.

Her time on the bench was short-lived. She got up again and dug through her purse, not looking for anything in particular, then did a lap around the bus shelter.

“Sorry about the—,” she started, “thanks for the gum.”

“No problem, girl,” he smiled. “You look like you could use some taking care of.”

She shot him a suspicious look. He rarely went in for the kill so quick, but he needed to know where he stood before he wasted any more of his time. It took a moment for her to respond.

“Well,” she breathed out through her nose and snapped her gum, “I wouldn’t say no to a Whopper.”

Burke laughed and glanced over his shoulder at the Burger King.

“If you’s hungry, I can take care of that, but I can also get you something to stop your jitters.”

“I ain’t gonna f**k you,” she said.

“Who says I want to?” he shrugged.

“Everything’s got a price,” she said.

“Okay,” he conceded. “How ’bout we say this one is a kindness and another taste will cost you, if you’re willing to pay. That’s how this usually works, right? I’m being open with you.”

She stared at him for what seemed like forever. But she wasn’t still. She was trying to be. Trying to hold back the inevitable fidgeting that came with opiates leaving her system. Sweating in the cool breeze. He could tell she had it bad. Someone as far gone as her might as well be a Parkinson’s patient trying to steady their hand. She couldn’t play tough much longer. Now that she knew what she might pass up. But he knew if she tried to keep playing with him, anything other than an affirmative answer out of her mouth and he’d walk away to enjoy the rest of his day.

“A kindness?” she finally said, more to herself than him.

He nodded.

She swiped her forearm under her nose, chewed on the inside of her lower lip, her eyes doing all of her thinking for her, and finally gave him a small series of nods.

The right side of his mouth went up in a smile and he hitched his crutches back under his armpits. He knew he would have one more hurdle to get over, but the simple part was over. In her mind, she already had the drugs in hand. Once she saw the box truck, it wouldn’t be enough of a hinderance to keep the triggers in her brain from thinking that the high was already on the way.

There was no way to place the truck completely out of sight. The neighborhood was a jungle of strip malls and buildings no taller than three stories. He’d parked the truck in an alley that got little traffic except for when there were late night deliveries. Even the smattering of tags on the truck wasn’t enough to draw attention. The two of them could sit in there all day if they wanted, letting the drugs take hold, her letting him do things to her she would never allow in broad daylight, or in the right state of mind. He might even beat on her a little for the mouth she was giving him. That is, if he couldn’t find a new use for that mouth quick enough.

She stopped a few yards from the box truck as he approached the padlock on the back lift gate.

“In there?” she asked. He could sense fear, but she was doing a decent job of hiding it.

“We ain’t gonna snort this s**t in the donut shop.”

She looked up and down the alley, her eyes squinting against the sunlight, then walked up and stood at his side as he slipped his key into the lock.

The door made an echoing rattle as it went up and Burke barely glimpsed feet before the collar of his shirt hefted him up into the dark of the box truck.

“What the fu—”

“Shhh,” the girl said, still standing on the ground. He was ready to raise holy hell, but she had the blade he kept in his boot fixed on his d**k. She’d pulled it out in one fluid motion at the same time that the asshole in the truck had yanked him inside. How the f**k did she know where he kept his knife?

“You just made a big mistake, bitch.”

“Talk nice to the lady,” the man said, clutching the back of his shirt like it was a puppy’s scruff. He was wearing a ski-mask and had something disguising his voice.

“Walk away before you jack the wrong man.”

“Keep talking and you won’t be jacking anything ever again,” she said, pressing the blade into the pit between his crotch and leg. He tried not to move. He knew how sharp it was.

“Considering how conspicuous this vehicle is, you’d think you’d be better at hiding your stash,” the man said.

“Smart people know not to f**k with me.”

“You calling us dumb?” she asked. He noticed her hand was steady. The shakes gone. Her voice had changed, too. Her eyes were piercing now. Forceful. This wasn’t a couple of junkies ripping him off. This was something else.

“No,” he said, his voice quieter, “I want to know what this is.”

She took the keys out of his hand and tossed them to her partner, who jumped out of the truck and grabbed the nylon strap to close the back.

The door slammed down. They were alone in the dark briefly, then the lights flicked on. Her partner had been in the truck long enough to know where the lights were, along with his stash. Burke knew he had a problem.

“You’re good at pretending to be sweet,” she said. “How good are you at pretending to be stupid?”