Текст книги "Drift Away"

Автор книги: Jeff Shelby

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 12 страниц)

TWENTY-SEVEN

We picked up Jackson at the restaurant and both he and Bella came to the beach with me. I knew she was nervous about going home and I didn’t want to leave her alone, just in case I was wrong about the frat boys going to David. I didn’t think that I was, but I didn’t want to leave it to chance. I couldn’t discount the fact that I’d been out of the game for a few months and my instincts probably weren’t as sharp as they needed to be to make sure she was protected.

They found a spot a few yards from the shed and settled in as I unpacked chairs and umbrellas. An hour later, I was rented out for the day, the tourists making up for lost time with the poor weather the day before. The sun was brilliant against the blue sky, not a single cloud on the horizon. I locked the shed back up and sat down on the towel next to Bella.

“He’s making a city,” she said. She lounged on her towel, propped on her elbows, her eyes on Jackson.

Jackson was covered in sand, scurrying around at light speed, using buckets and spoons to create his imaginary land.

“Think he’s gonna be an architect,” I said.

She smiled and nodded. “Maybe so.”

We sat there in silence, watching him create, letting the sun beat down on us. I knew she was waiting for me to explain and the longer she sat silent, the harder it became to keep it from her. Or maybe I just needed an excuse to let it all out.

“Her name was Liz,” I said. “And she’s dead.”

The words didn’t sound right coming out of my mouth and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d spoken her name.

Bella turned to me, hugged her knees to her chest and didn’t say anything.

“And it was my fault,” I said. The water blurred in front of me.

I don’t know how long I talked for or if all of it made sense. Words came out of my mouth in a rush, snagging on my tongue, stinging my lips. I lost sight of the water and Jackson and the sand.

All I could see was Liz.

At some point, the words stopped coming and I stopped talking. Things came back into focus and Bella was closer to me, her hand on my arm, tears running down her cheeks. Down mine, too.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “So sorry, Noah.”

I nodded. “Me, too.”

“I don’t know what else to say.”

“There isn’t anything to say,” I said. “I just wanted you to know. I didn’t want you wondering.”

But I knew the truth was that she’d still be wondering. There were still blanks that needed filling in, even if she didn’t ask. Even if the story made sense, she’d still have questions about me.

And I knew that my time in Fort Walton was now running out.

“The guy the other night,” she said. “Is he somehow involved?”

I glanced at her, surprised. “Not involved, but he knows me. How you’d know?”

“You were spooked,” she said. “It was pretty obvious.”

“He surprised me.”

“Good guy?”

“No.”

“So you’re worried.”

“Worried isn’t the right word. I’m not sure there is a word.”

We watched Jackson scamper down to the edge of the water and rinse his hands.

“I shouldn’t have dumped all of my shit on you,” she said. “You have enough going on.”

“You didn’t dump anything on me.”

“Yeah, I did. I saw you and saw someone who might be able to help,” she said. “I told you no, but I really wanted your help. And when Jackson took to you…I absolutely wanted your help.”  She sighed. “And probably more.”

“I can help,” I said. “But I can’t give you more. I’m sorry. Has nothing to do with you. I hope you realize that.”

“I do,” she said. “I didn’t an hour ago, but I do now.”  She smiled. “So thank you for telling me. It helps me. I’m sorry it doesn’t help you.”

I dug my fingers into the sand, lifted up my hand and let the sand fall back to the ground. “It did, I think. I needed to tell someone.”  I hesitated. “And I trust you.”

“Good,” she said, squeezing my arm. “You can. Trust me.”

For the first time in a long time, I felt like I really could trust someone.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Bella insisted on going home with Jackson by herself. I offered to go with her, but she wouldn’t hear it.

“I’m not going to live in fear,” she said, throwing the sandy towels into the trunk of her car. “I want out.”

“Check the house before you take him in,” I said, nodding at Jackson in the backseat. “Just make sure nothing looks weird. Anything is off, drive right back to my house. But I really think it’ll be okay.”

She took a deep breath. “Right. Okay. And we really need to get you a phone.”

I shook my head. “I can’t have my name on anything.”

“Let me worry about it,” she said. She gave me a quick hug and opened the driver’s door. “We might come check on you tonight.”

“Okay.”

She slid into the driver’s seat and I watched them turn out of the lot and head up the highway toward the bridge.

I collected the umbrellas and chairs, locked up the shed and left the stragglers on the beach.

The breeze picked up as I crossed the highway, providing a little relief from the brutal late day sun. Heat radiated off the asphalt, blurry waves rafting upwards. As I stepped onto the sidewalk and headed for the cul-de-sac, I felt good for the first time in I wasn’t sure how long.

It felt good to talk about Liz. I didn’t have to lock her away. And I wasn’t paranoid about telling Bella my story, wasn’t worried that it was going to backfire on me. I wasn’t looking at her with the same sideways glance I’d viewed everyone else through for the last few months. It was a relief to let down my guard. I knew it wasn’t permanent, but the temporary respite felt good.

But as I turned into the cul-de-sac towards the house and saw Zip at the curb, the respite melted away, replaced with paranoia and fear.

Zip was leaning on a motor scooter, cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. His eyes were fixated on the phone in his hands, his thumbs typing away. He didn’t notice me until I was at the end of the drive.

“Hey, Noah,” he said, grinning and shoving the phone in the pocket of his shorts. “What’s up?”

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“Just came to see what you were up to,” he said, shrugging.

“Just getting off work,” I said.

“You weren’t there yesterday,” he said and gestured at my face. “And looks like you had a little accident.”

“I took the day off. You come looking for me yesterday, too?”

“Yeah, at the beach.”

“You need an umbrella or something?”

He laughed, sucked on the cigarette and exhaled the smoke in a dirty little cloud. “Ha. No. Just checking up on you.”

“I don’t need to be checked up on, Zip,” I said.

“I didn’t say you did.”

“If you want something from me, you need to ask for it,” I said. “I’m done with the small talk.”

He shrugged again, his eyes widening. “I can’t just check in on an old friend?”

“We weren’t friends.”

“Yeah, but here we are, in Florida, neither of us knows anyone else,” he said. “I thought we could hang out.”

“You thought wrong.”

“You still didn’t tell me what happened to your face,” he said, squinting at me through the cigarette smoke. “You in some kind of trouble?”

Seagulls flew over our heads, squawking and crying. I watched them pass over the house toward the bay.

“I’m fine, Zip,” I said.

“You don’t look like it.”

“I’m fine.”

He nodded slowly, then sucked hard on the cigarette, the end glowing red. He pulled it from his mouth, studied me and exhaled. “You talk to Carter lately?”

I wanted to grab him by the neck and throw him in the bay, but I’d already had too many confrontations in Florida. I was taking my chances every time I made myself noticeable. I needed to stop.

“No, not lately,” I said.

“He doing okay?”

“Like I said. Haven’t talked to him lately.”

“Heard you two might’ve gotten in a little trouble in Cali,” he said.

I let that hang in the air for a moment.

“We were always in trouble,” I said.

“This sounded different.”

“Oh, yeah?  What did you hear?”

He finished the cigarette, dropped it to the ground and stepped on it.

“Probably just bullshit,” he said, smiling as the smoke streamed out of his nostrils. “You know how it goes.”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Just stories and shit, probably.”

“Probably.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Okay, cool. I’ll get out of your hair.”  He lifted his chin in my direction. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything else. About you, Carter, whatever.”

“You do that.”

“Peace,” he said, walking past me.

I watched him head out of the cul-de-sac on the scooter, his phone in one hand. He stared at the screen, typing as he steered. He turned around when he got to the corner, gave me a half-hearted wave.

I didn’t wave back.

TWENTY-NINE

I tried to sleep, but failed.

Air that felt like it had been cooked in an oven smothered the garage and sweat coated my body. Thoughts of Liz and Carter and Keene and Zip and San Diego ran through my mind like a freight train. Nothing I did could slow it down and I spent the entire night flat on my back, staring at the ceiling.

It was early when the birds roused, chirping their good morning. I pushed myself off of the cot, rinsed my face, threw on some clothes and headed to the beach.

Waves crashed in choppy, uneven segments, the wind turning them into unpredictable mush. Two guys were trying to navigate the mess, flailing around on what looked to me like rented long-boards. It had been so long since I’d been in the water, I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to tell them how to get up on their boards, even if I’d been inclined to do so. Instead, I watched them fail, time after time, before they finally gave up, trudging up the beach and to the parking lot, exhausted and frustrated.

There was a time when I would’ve offered to help, to show them what they were doing wrong or at least told them why the waves were impossible to ride. I was never one of those territorial surfers who reveled in watching people struggle, like I owned the ocean and the right to surf. If people were polite and looked like they just wanted to have fun, I’d go talk to them, help if I could.

But I just didn’t have a lot of that in me anymore.

I was unlocking the shed when Ike wandered down to the sand, holding up a hand in greeting.

“What the hell happened to you?” he said, squinting at my face.

“Nothing.”

“Looks like some kind of nothing.”

“I’m fine. And I’m sorry I wasn’t here yesterday. Won’t happen again.”

He frowned and waved off the apology. “Please, kid. You’re fine. The weather sucked anyway and you’re the most reliable employee I’ve ever had. One day ain’t gonna kill us.”

“Still. Sorry.”

“Whatever,” he said, still frowning. “But, hey. I did wanna talk to you about yesterday.”  Concern shimmered in his eyes. “Dude came looking for you.”

I nodded. “Skinny little dude?  Looks like a crackhead who hasn’t showered in weeks?  Don’t worry about it. I got him covered.”

Ike shook his head. “No. That ain’t who I talked to.”

My stomach dropped.

“This guy was well put together,” Ike said. “I’d put him around your age. Good lookin’, not that I go that way, but you know what I’m sayin’. Dark hair, tan, almost as big as you. Asked for you by name.”

The muscles in my gut clenched.

“I played dumb at first, but he knew I was full of shit,” he said. “So then I just said I hadn’t seen you in awhile. Tried to get a name or number out of him, but he just said he’d come back.”

I shuffled my feet in the sand. “Okay.”

“He didn’t seem pissed or nothin’,” Ike said, pulling the sunglasses on the cord around his neck up onto his face. “But he was definitely looking for you. And I don’t think he’s going away.”

I ran Ike’s physical description through my memory banks, but came up empty. I was drawing a blank.

“Okay,” I said. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“You need help,” Ike said, nodding at me. “You holler at me. Any kind at all. You holler at me. Got it?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“And you need a different place to stay, I’ll work it out,” he said. “Just let me know.”

“I’m good,” I said. “But thanks. I’ll let you know if it changes.”

As Ike disappeared over the sand dunes, I was anything but good.

THIRTY

I spent the entire morning looking over my shoulder.

Anytime someone came up the shoreline or I heard footsteps in the sand behind me, I scanned their faces, trying to see if anyone looked familiar. I’m not sure who I thought I might see or who might show up, but after my conversations with Zip and Ike, I was anxious and on alert.

Bella and Jackson showed up after lunch, towels and a bag of beach toys in hand. Jackson ran straight to the water and Bella stripped out of her white sundress, revealing a matching white bikini. She sank down on her towel, reached into her bag and handed me a small cell phone. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

“Certainly, you haven’t been out of the loop for, like, twenty years, have you?”

“Funny. Why are you giving me a phone?”

“Because you need one,” she said.

A soaking wet Jackson had returned and started his castle building operation.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s one of those pre-paid deals.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know.”

“Why do I need a phone?”

“So I can call you,” she said, adjusting the big white sunglasses on her face. “Or you can call me. Or anyone else you need to. It’s pre-paid so your name won’t show up anywhere. If someone, somehow, wanted to trace it, it would come back to me anyway.”

I squeezed the flip phone in my hand then slid it into my backpack. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Just didn’t think it was practical for you to be phoneless.”

“I haven’t had anyone to call.”

“Well, you do now,” she said, smiling into the sun. “If you need me. Or if you wanna talk to Jackson.”

I laughed and nodded. “Yeah, he seems like the phone type.”

“Totally.”

We watched him for a few minutes as the castle he was building began to take shape. He’d opted against a moat this time and was concentrating instead on building towers nearly as tall as him. The hard-packed sand cracked under the weight of brick after brick being piled on top of each other, but it didn’t topple.

“You were fine last night?” I asked.

She hesitated, then nodded. “I brought Jax in with me. Slept off and on. But we were fine. Nothing happened.”

“When do you need to get the money to David?”

“Today,” she said. “He always wants it twenty-four hours later, not right after. He thinks that’s smart. It’s not. I could totally rip him off and take off with the money, but he’s trying to avoid connections.”

“Your phone have Internet access?”

“Yes. It was actually hard to find you a phone that doesn’t,” she said, digging in her beach bag once again. “I figured you didn’t want that.”

“You were right.”

She produced a small handheld and punched in a few numbers. She handed it to me. “It’s open.”

I tapped the icon for the browser and it came up instantaneously. I punched in the AOL address for email and checked the account.

I closed it all out and handed it back to her. “Thanks.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar.”

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to go forward with David. I really did want Carter’s help to make a run at him. I wasn’t sure I was capable of doing anything by myself anymore and he’d have a plan. So I was frustrated that I didn’t have an email response from him.

“I’m just trying to figure out how to go at him,” I said. “David.”

“He’s gonna go nuts,” Bella said. “I can promise you that.”

“It’s not the nuts part that worries me. It’s the severing ties part I want to make sure happens. And to do that, I need a plan.”

“What does that have to do with my phone?”

Jackson squealed and we both looked over. He stared at his collapsed castle, his balled-up hands waving in frustration. He tossed his shovel and bounded down to the water.

“I’m looking for some help from a friend,” I said.

“I thought you weren’t talking to anyone.”

“He’s the one guy I trust.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I said. “And he’ll know what to do. He sort of…specializes in this kind of thing.”

“Specializes?  That sounds crazy.”

“You have no idea. But I trust him. Completely.”

She nodded and we watched Jackson splash along the edge of the waves, kicking up water. He sprinted away from us and nearly ran into the legs of a man walking toward him. The man spun and smiled at Jackson, said something to him that made Jackson smile. The man continued walking and then glanced in our direction.

Tall. Dark hair. Dark skin. Sunglasses. White T-shirt, black shorts. He held up a hand and gave me a quick wave.

I leaned forward in my chair.

“You know him?” Bella asked.

He walked slowly up the sand toward us and I blinked several times. “Yeah. Actually, I do.”

“Really?” Bella said. “Is he the friend you were talking about?”

“No,” I said, standing up, completely confused. “That’s Liz’s brother.”

THIRTY-ONE

I hadn’t seen Alex Santangelo in a couple of years. The last time I’d seen him, Carter and I had helped him get out of a jam that involved Zip and I never expected to see him again. He and Liz weren’t close and he’d spent most of his adult life in the drug world. She’d cut him off and didn’t even know that I’d helped him out. So to see him walk up the sand to me was more than just a little surprising. It was a shock.

“Hey, Noah,” he said. He held out his hand and pushed the sunglasses from his eyes to the top of his head.

We shook. “Alex.”

“You look surprised.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

He looked from me to Bella. “Hi. I’m Alex.”

“Bella.”  They shook hands. “That was my son who almost took you out down there. Jackson.”

“Ah, yes. I told him I thought he was a sea creature.”

“He’s a creature alright.”

Alex smiled at her. “He’s cute.”

“Thanks.”

Alex looked at me. “So.”

“So.”

He waited, his expression clear.

“I haven’t seen you since…in a couple years,” I said. “Running into you here is a little weird.”

Confusion spread across his face and we stood there awkwardly for a moment.

Bella stood. “I’m gonna go check on Jackson.”

She trotted down the sand toward her son.

“Look, if you’re in trouble with Zip again, I’ve got nothing for you,” I said when she was out of earshot. “I’m knee-deep in my own shit and I don’t have time…”

“Hey,” Alex said. “Whoa.”

I closed my mouth.

He ran a hand over his forehead, wiping away the perspiration. “I got out, Noah. Totally.”

I didn’t say anything because I found that hard to believe. For years, I hadn’t even known Liz had a brother. When we ran into him one day, she gave me the story and it wasn’t pretty. Got into dealing at an early age and it spiraled out of control. She’d cut ties with him because he’d let her down so many times. She’d finally had enough. And the only reason I’d helped him was because I wanted to do something for Liz, whether or not she knew about it. So I was skeptical.

“The day you and Carter saved my ass, I started pulling out,” he said. “I was tired. Tired of looking to score, tired of not knowing who was on the other side of the door, tired of disappointing everyone. So it took me awhile, but I cut out.”

“What are you doing now then?” I asked.

“Working construction,” he said. “And I’m back in school. Getting my degree.”

“No drugs?”

“None,” he said, looking me square in the eye. “Free and clear.”

His eyes drifted away from me, toward the water. “When Liz was killed, that’s when I decided on school. I was out, but just spinning my wheels, no direction. But after all that, I decided I wasn’t going to waste any more time. Day after the funeral I went over to Mesa, enrolled and made a plan.”

I winced at the mention of her funeral. I hadn’t gone. And it wasn’t that I wished that I’d gone. It was just something I didn’t like to think about.

“So I’m good,” he said, turning back to me. “I think that I always thought I’d have time with her, you know?  Eventually, I figured I’d get my act together and I’d fix all of the damage I’d done. Same kind of lies every loser tells himself to justify what he’s doing. I was no different. But I always meant it, at least in my head I did. Then she was gone.”  He paused. “I may have missed out on having a relationship with her while she was alive, but I can make sure she’d be proud of me now. It’s all I have.”

I nodded and was envious for a moment. At least he had something to tie himself to her. I felt like I had nothing.

“So what the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

A crooked smile spread across his face. “Carter sent me.”

THIRTY-TWO

“Carter sent you?” I asked. “To me?”

“He said he got an email from you,” Alex said. “Something about Zip.”

My brain spun.

“He said he was going to email you and let you know I was on the way,” he said.

“Yeah, well, he must have forgotten.”

He studied me for a minute, then slid the glasses back over his eyes, the sun getting the better of him. “You’re wondering why the hell he sent me, right?”

“Crossed my mind, Alex,” I said honestly. “Like I said, last time I saw you was, I thought, the last time Carter saw you, too.”

Alex nodded and stared out toward the water. “Fair enough.”  He cleared his throat. “A few days after the funeral, I came looking for you. To talk to you. But you were…already gone.”

I shifted my feet in the sand, uncomfortable under the weight of his words.

“I hung out. I waited,” Alex continued. “Carter finally showed up.”  He chuckled. “I think I actually scared him on your patio because I was just sitting there. Anyway, he tried to blow me off, said he didn’t know where you were, some bullshit. But I sniffed it out, you know?  I knew he knew where you were.”

I tried to picture them having the conversation on my patio, but I had trouble even recalling what my home looked like.

“So I badgered the shit out of him,” Alex said, turning to me. “Because I wanted a piece of whoever killed my sister.”

Landon Keene’s face flashed somewhere on the horizon and I turned away from it.

“Carter tried to put me off, but I was relentless,” he said. “I wouldn’t leave him alone. I found his house. Basically camped out. Finally, he caved. He told me. About you and Keene.”

The words hung there in the air and it felt as if they were lit up in neon for the entire world to see. I wasn’t sure I cared.

“So before I forget…thank you,” Alex said quietly.

I didn’t move or respond. Wasn’t sure that I could do either.

“But Carter and I started talking,” he said, shrugging. “He helped me line up a couple of construction jobs, lent me the money to start the classes at Mesa.”  He smiled at me. “Don’t worry. I paid him back two weeks later.”

I nodded.

“So, then he needed to get outta sight,” he said. “Cops started breathing down on him a little bit, you know?  I knew a couple people, I gave him the names. We’ve stayed in touch. Two days ago, my cell rang. He said you needed some help, told me where you were.”  He shrugged. “So here I am. Because I owe you.”

“Owe me?  How do you figure?”

Alex folded his arms across his broad chest. “Three reasons, Noah. One, you bailed my ass out when you had no reason to. Helped get my head on right.”  He glanced at me. “Two, you took out the motherfucker that killed my sister.”  He turned all the way to me, shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts. “And, three, you made Liz happy. Really happy. She loved you, Noah. Really loved you.”

I blinked hard, letting the words surround me, swallow me up. Images of her face flashed out on the horizon, faster than I could look at them.

“So, thank you, Noah,” Alex said. “Thank you.”

There was nothing to thank me for and I couldn’t imagine anyone feeling grateful to me for what I’d brought to Liz’s life. I’d have given anything to have her back, to have no one feel the need to thank me.

“Okay,” I said, because there was nothing else to say.

“So I’m in,” Alex said. “Whatever you need, whatever you want, I’m in.”

“Okay.”

Bella ushered Jackson over to the water, had him bend down and wash his hands off.

“Carter,” I asked. “How is he?”

“He’s alright,” he said. “Heat’s on a bit, so he’s staying quiet.”

“What kind of heat?”

“Those two cops that found Keene’s body.”

“Klimes and Zanella?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Them. They’ve been all over him.”

The tide was starting to roll in and the waves were crashing harder.

“Tailing him, pulling him in for questions, just staying on him,” he said. “He told me that he heard they were working on warrants for him. And for you. So he decided to make himself scarce for awhile.”

“What about Wellton?” I asked. “Where’s he at?”

“He’s kind of a mess,” Alex said. “Took some time off. He’s back now, but he really hasn’t been in any shape to help or run interference.”

It was hard for me to picture Liz’s old partner imploding. As much as he and I didn’t get along, I respected him as a cop and after she died, he was the one who gave me the heads up that Keene’s body had been located. But it sounded as if both he and Carter were suffering in different ways.

Because of me.

Jackson chased Bella down the shoreline, both of them giggling as the water splashed around their ankles. I couldn’t stay much longer. I didn’t want them to be hurt because of me. I needed to figure out her situation and move on to wherever I was going to move on to.

“You really up for helping me?” I asked.

“Anything,” he said. “I’m in.”

“May mean getting your hands a little dirty.”

He smiled. “Done it before, I can do it again.”

Bella scooped up Jackson and swung him around, his legs flailing as he screamed and giggled above the water.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s figure some shit out.”