Part 20 (1/2)

A guy walked back toward me. I could see him coming in the reflection from the window. He wanted the toilet, but he was out of luck. He shrugged, like he was used to it.

The skinny girl finally came out. She had to put her hand on the top of the seats to get down the aisle, but she made it.

I felt sorry for the next person to go in there.

Then I must have fallen asleep.

It was bright outside when I opened my eyes. The toilet was what I expected. When I came out, I poured some of this clear stuff over my hands, and rubbed until they were dry. Then I took out one of those tubes for keeping your lips from cracking and used it on each nostril.

I had two of the power bars and a whole bottle of water. I made them last a long time.

It was still light when the bus pulled into the last stop. There were a couple of cabs waiting, but I moved in the opposite direction.

One thing for sure, I didn't want to hang around the bus station. Places like that, they get bad at night, no matter where you are. And I knew I didn't look too good-a day and a half on a bus, n.o.body would. Solly should have told me more about this Solly should have told me more about this, I was saying to myself when a horn beeped. A little beep, like, polite, almost. A dark-blue car was at the curb. The window nearest me slid down. I didn't think that had anything to do with me, so I moved away a little bit...but the car followed along.

I looked in the open window. It was a woman-her face was shadowed, but I could see her legs.

”Get in,” she said. ”I'll take you where you're going.”

I knew she had to be Rena. No woman goes to a bus station to pick up guys.

”You are are a big boy.” a big boy.”

”I'm not any kind of boy.”

She blew smoke at the winds.h.i.+eld. ”See, that's one of the differences between us.”

”You and me?”

”Men and women. Call a man a boy, he's all insulted. Call a woman a girl, she's all happy and sweet.”

”I never thought about it.”

”Men don't,” she said, like she was done answering a lot of questions I never asked.

I didn't look at her real close, either-you don't do that. The windows of the big car were tinted, so you could look outside without sungla.s.ses or anything. There wasn't all that much to see.

The car was like a room with the curtains pulled. Every time the woman finished with a cigarette, she pushed a b.u.t.ton and her window went down so she could snap the b.u.t.t out into the street. Like opening the curtains for a second.

All I could really tell about her was she had long hair. Some dark color, but not black. I couldn't see much of her upper body-she was wearing a light jacket and a dark blouse-but her right leg had a lot of definition around the calf. Dark nail polish, big flashy stone in a ring on her left hand-I saw it every time she made a right turn.

I didn't see how she could drive with such high heels. White ones, with red soles. I remembered what this one girl I stayed with for a while was always telling me about the tricks women used to look thinner. White made you look bigger, she always said. So either this girl had small feet or she didn't give a d.a.m.n.

No way this one doesn't give a d.a.m.n, I thought.

”You're Albie's niece, right?” I said, just to make certain-sure I was in the right car.

”His what what?”

”Solly said-”

”Uh-huh,” she half-laughed. Sounded like sandpaper on soft wood.

I just shut up.

The longer we drove, the less the place looked like a city...and it hadn't looked much like one when we started. It took about forty-five minutes before we came up on a pair of big stone piles, with a s.p.a.ce between them just wide enough to let a car through. As we turned in, the girl reached into her purse. Her hand stayed there for a couple of seconds, came out empty.

We went down a long road. It was paved, but no wider than a driveway. Ran pretty straight, but sometimes it curved around a giant tree or some swampy-looking water.

She reached in her purse again just before we took a sharp right and then an even sharper left, like a zigzag. That's when I saw the house.

It was more like a warehouse than a place people lived. Not that it was a dump-you could see it cost a lot of money. But it was only one story, and everything around it was cement, like a parking lot.

A garage door lifted. She pulled the car inside. I got out and waited for her to pop the trunk. That's when I saw the car was one of those Lincoln Town Cars the limo companies buy.

”That one's mine,” she said. I looked in the next bay. A little turquoise convertible, two-seater. ”I thought you might have too much stuff to fit in it.”

Yeah, that's why, all right, I thought to myself. The Lincoln was something you wouldn't look at twice-but a long-haired girl in a little convertible...

”Follow me,” she said.

We went down a corridor. The carpet was so thick we didn't make a sound.

”Yours is there,” she told me. I figured she meant where I was supposed to stay, so I dropped my bags.

It looked like a hotel suite. Not just a bedroom, but a living room, too. Lots of closets. A big chest of drawers, with the bottom drawer opened. No kitchen.

I wondered if that had been Albie's idea of a joke: every decent burglar knows you start with the bottom drawer, saves you a few seconds on each one, because you don't have to close it before you move up to the next.

”You can take off those gla.s.ses now.” I did it. One glance at my eyes was all she needed.

”You need to unpack?”

”I guess so.”

”So ...?”

She stood right there, watching me put the stuff from the suitcases in the closet and the drawers. I didn't open the duffel.

”Come on,” she told me, turning around and moving off.

I followed her again. It wasn't just the heels that gave her the height-I put her at around five nine. I could see muscle flex all the way up to her lower thighs. From the way that little jacket bounced, I guessed the muscles didn't stop at her legs.

We ended up in a white room. Not just the paint; it had all white furniture, too. The floor was white gla.s.s tile-her heels started clicking as soon as she stepped on it-and even the walls looked like they were made of some kind of white stone.

She knew exactly where she wanted to sit. A white leather chair with padded arms. She crossed her legs, opened both hands, and made a ”pick your own” gesture.