by David Haynes
“What’s that supposed to mean? Is that some kind of lame-ass threat?”
“Take it as you like. I don’t care. Whatever it is you think you know, I can tell you right now, you don’t know shit.” He spat the words, his contempt for Kim and her position obvious. It was taking time, but the man’s true colors were coming out.
“You arrogant fuck,” she said, backing away. “You slimy, self-absorbed prick!”
He laughed then; the sound was loud and ugly. He turned to Kenta and said something in their own language. Kenta did his best to laugh too but he was clearly in too much pain for it to appear anything but forced. He turned to Leo, who still held his arm.
“You can let go of that now, cowboy,” he said and laughed again. “We’re all good here.” He winked at Kim. “Isn’t that right, Officer Knowles?”
“Dick,” she replied. “Stay out of my way.”
Leo released Ookami’s arm and joined Kim. “That goes for both of us,” he said.
Ookami laughed again and joined Kenta on the mattress.
Leo couldn’t stand to be in the same space as either of them now, but he was running out of options. Upstairs, Alison seemed to be getting crazier by the hour. She was literally a loose cannon. Did he trust her more than either Kenta or Ookami? Possibly, but if he took Kim and Sam up there to spend the rest of the night that would leave Kenta to plunder the shop, the register, the alcohol, the cartons of cigarettes. He’d be damned if he was going to let them have another cent out of him. He would stay, on his own if he had to, but he was going to make sure they didn’t try anything else.
“We should take Sam upstairs,” he said. “Lay him on the couch and wait for him to come back to us. Help me with this.” He grabbed the corner of the mattress and pulled it. He could manage it on his own but he wanted to have a private conversation with her.
Kim nodded. “You think he’ll be okay up there? I mean, Alison doesn’t seem to be holding it together too well.”
“I don’t think she was lying about the knife. Do you?” They dropped the mattress in the corner, as far away from Ookami as possible but keeping him in view.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “We looked for it. Sam got under the bed and he couldn’t see it either.”
The knife – the knife Sam had tried to stab Kenta with. Where was it? He walked back to the front of the store, scouring the floor. It had flown out of Sam’s hand when Ookami turned his wrist, but after that his only thought was stopping Ookami from killing the kid.
“Where is it?” he shouted, walking around behind the register. He came back out, turning full circle with his eyes directed at the floor. There was no way Sam carried a knife, no way. Some of the kids did, he knew that, but not Sam or any of his friends. So where had he got that one from? Maybe he’d found something under the bed after all.
He turned to Ookami who was watching him with no little trace of humor in his eyes. “Where is it?”
“Where is what?”
“The knife. The one Sam tried to put through your little pet’s head.”
He saw Kenta stiffen. Being called Ookami’s little pet was obviously not something he enjoyed. It gave Leo a warm feeling inside. He was way past hurting feelings.
“I didn’t see any knife,” Ookami replied.
“The hell you didn’t! You forced it out of his hand.”
Ookami slowly and deliberately shook his head. “You’re mistaken. There was no knife. Just a fist.”
He smiled and picked up a bottle of water taken from the refrigerator. A free bottle of water. He took a long, theatrical drink from it. “Seems to me there’s a lot of people seeing knives around here.” He screwed the cap back on the bottle and then held it up. “Maybe there’s something wrong, something bad, with your supplies, Leo? I think you should call the city health department and get them to test a few of…”
“Fuck you!” he shouted, turning his back.
Kim walked toward him. “Let’s get him upstairs,” he said quietly, and then loud enough for the other two to hear, “Can’t get any sense out of those assholes.”
19
They lifted Sam, putting one of his arms around each of their necks, and dragged him to the stairs and then up into the apartment.
“You saw the knife, right? I didn’t imagine it, did I?”
“I didn’t see anything until you ran across the store but if you’re telling me you saw one, I believe you.”
“It’s got to be the same one Kenta had when he came up here. Sam found it under the bed and didn’t tell us.” He was piecing it together as he spoke. “He didn’t tell us because he wanted to kill Kenta and the knife was too good an opportunity to miss.”
They reached the top of the stairs, holding Sam at an angle. The stairwell wasn’t wide enough to accommodate three of them.
Alison sat up when she saw them, her hand reaching for the gun that lay beside her.
“Easy!” Kim shouted.
Alison kept her hand on the Taurus but didn’t make any other movements. Michael was in the same position as he’d been in the last time they were here. The way he stared forward, his eyes flickering black and gold, was disquieting.
“We’re just putting the kid down on the couch,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because he’s unconscious!” Kim snapped.
Alison said nothing as they laid him down.
“There’s a blanket on the bed,” Leo said to Kim and then changed his mind. “I’ll fetch it.” He didn’t want another confrontation between the two women. The way things were heading, it would end badly.
Leo grabbed the blanket. Alison made to take it off him. “We need that.”
“You’ve got the duvet,” he said. “Get under that.” He pulled it away from her.
“Did he do it?” Alison asked.
“Who?”
She sneered. “Either of them. They’re both animals.”
He couldn’t disagree with her about that. He placed the blanket over Sam, checking the back of his head for any blood loss or injury. There was a small lump but that was all. Hopefully, he’d just have a bad headache when he woke up and nothing worse.
“He’ll be okay,” said Leo.
“Men like that…” Alison hadn’t quite finished. “If it were up to me, I’d…”
“Good job it isn’t then,” Kim cut in. There was a tension between them that was largely driven by Alison. For reasons unknown, she seemed to dislike Kim. The feelings were fast becoming mutual.
“If it were up to me, I’d do a real deep street clean, take out all the garbage and start again. Men like Ookami, like Kenta and Sota, they’re no better than the roaches or the rats. They need exterminating. Michael knows it too. We both do. We’ve talked about it.”
Leo ignored her, gently propping Sam’s head on the pillow, but Kim couldn’t help herself.
“Extermination? This isn’t Nazi Germany, Alison.”
“Oh, don’t get theatrical! Don’t tell me you wouldn’t like to take that gun of yours, stuff it in Kenta’s mouth and blow his brains out. It’s only the badge that’s stopping you.”
“That and knowing what’s right and wrong. Maybe you’re missing that part, huh?”
Alison laughed. “You think so? Maybe you ought to live down here with the rats and roaches for a while and then see how blurred those lines are.”
“Those lines are set,” she said. “For some of us.”
Leo tried to ignore their exchange. He didn’t feel the need to get involved.
“What about you, Leo? What do you think?” Alison asked.
He groaned inwardly. “I think we should just try and get through the rest of the night and then all go our separate directions. I think that might work out just right.”
“You seem like a nice guy,” she continued. “You’re smart enough to know what I’m talking about.”
“No,” he replied. “I’m just tired, that’s all. Nothing else.”
“What do you thi
nk of your new friends?”
“Friends?”
“Ookami. Kenta. What do you think of them? I mean, really?”
He got to his feet. “They’re not my friends,” he said. “And as for what I think of them? Well, that’s between me, myself and I. But if it weren’t for this storm, I wouldn’t choose to be in their company.”
Alison laughed and rubbed Michael’s arm. “You hear that, honey? Wouldn’t choose to be in their company.”
He didn’t like to add that he wouldn’t choose to be in her company either.
“Maybe if you knew them a little better, knew them like I do?”
Kim shifted from one leg to the other. “Do they bother you, Alison? Do they come to the store and try to…”?
“I can handle them,” she interrupted. “They wouldn’t try anything with Michael anyway.”
“What do you mean?” Kim asked.
Alison paused. “Doesn’t matter.” She stared at Leo until it was uncomfortable. He turned away, looking at Kim.
“Maybe you should stay with Sam until…”
“Tell me Leo, do you speak any Japanese?” Alison interrupted.
“Almost none,” he replied without looking at her.
“Do you know what the translation of his name means?”
“Who?”
“Ookami? Do you know what that actually means?”
He turned to face her now. “No and I don’t care.”
“Wolf,” she said, smiling. “Wolf. Got a nice ring to it, I reckon. Don’t you?”
Leo swallowed, the moisture in his mouth suddenly turned to dust.
“Wolf?” he repeated.
“Sure.”
Michael groaned, moving his head just a little, and with all the effort it might take someone to lift a heavy box.
Alison laughed again, and this time she quietly howled too. The woman was mad.
“What are you talking about?” he said.
She shook her head. “Not as smart as I figured,” she said. Alison lowered herself and put her head on Michael’s chest.
“Alison?” he called. “What do you mean?”
Kim took his arm. “She’s crazy,” she said. “Don’t listen to her.”
Wolf. He didn’t have to close his eyes to remember the mask worn by one of the guys who tried to rob him. The imprint of those features was burned onto his brain forever. The bastard who shot the Oliver kid in the face. Was that Ookami? Was that what she meant? How did she know that, even if it were true?
“I don’t know what her problem is,” Kim added.
He heard her but his mind was racing. He tried to recall the build of the man, his height, his walk, his demeanor, to superimpose it all on Ookami but all he could see was the wolf mask; the wolf mask and the way he crouched over Oliver’s body and pulled the trigger.
“You know about the robbery, right?” he asked Kim. “You know about the wolf mask. Do you think…”
“I think she’s crazy,” Kim whispered.
“It’s possible, right? I mean it could be him. You guys all said it was a closed shop, no leads, no evidence. Well, that would fit. If he’s got the whole community scared then nobody would speak out, would they? And then…”
“You’re making a big leap. We’ve got nothing. Whoever it was left us nothing to go on.”
Leo didn’t bother whispering; his mind was running away from him. “But it could be, right? It could be him.”
Kim glanced up at Alison and then pulled him back to the couch. “And if it was? Suppose we had evidence, which we don’t, what do you want to do about it?”
“Ask him!” Leo shouted. “We ask the bastard. Right out.”
“You want to go down there and ask him, right now?”
“Why not?”
“And how do you think that’s going to go?”
“Don’t patronize me, Kim. Those guys are murderers, we know that. They…”
“Kenta’s the only murderer we’ve got evidence on. If we go down there, accusing Ookami of anything, it’s going to go sideways in a heartbeat. For everyone. It isn’t the time or the place.”
“You want me to forget about it?”
She shook her head and nodded over at Alison. “Why do you think she told you that little tit-bit?”
He shrugged. “Maybe, Ookami and his gang of roaches have been terrorizing her and Michael for a while and this is the best chance she’s got of doing something about it? You heard what she said earlier. She knows them, they go to the store. They talk to Michael. It sounds like a good old-fashioned protection racket to me.”
“She might have different motives.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Not yet.”
“So why ignore what’s staring us in the face? You want the community to talk? Well open your ears and listen!” He was frustrated. It made sense, perfect sense. The wolf was sitting downstairs, brazenly sipping his water, eating his snacks. He was the reason Oliver was dead. He should go down there and beat the shit out of the guy. Make him talk, make him confess.
Kim took his arm, as if sensing his intentions. “Alison look scared to you?”
He glanced over. She was whispering to Michael on the bed.
“At any point when Ookami or Kenta came up here, did she look anything except angry? I don’t remember her being intimidated, not by them, not by me. Not by anyone. This isn’t a woman who takes shit.”
Alison held the enormous gun. She knew how to shoot it. She was clearly an intelligent and strong woman, and not the feeble panic-stricken wife she’d first appeared. Kim was right about that. It looked like it would take more than a couple of hoodlums to scare her.
But was that any reason not to believe her? Not everyone reacted the same way when they were scared. Her husband was lying on the bed in some kind of vegetative state, talking garbage and staring into space. On some level she must have known how bad it looked for him, and yet she continued to talk to him as if he could hear her. Maybe he could. Who the hell knew what to think any more?
“All I’m saying is that right now isn’t the time. Let me do my job, Leo. Whoever did that to the kid, we’ll put him away but we’ll do it the right way.” She released his arm. “Okay? You good?”
He licked his lips, the moisture returning to his mouth. He looked down at Sam. He wasn’t good, he was a long way from that. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Just a few more hours and the utility company would have the problem sorted, the storm would pass and he could lock the doors forever. No more customers. No more Ookami, Kenta or Alison. Just a few more hours.
Part Three
1
They called her Yuki-onna. The snow woman. She had other names. Snow Girl. Snow Nanny. Yukiba – Snow Hag. She came from the old country, a place where her name was spoken only in a hushed whisper. Yuki-onna. They called her vampire, witch. She did not know why these words were important to the people, why the stories about her had lasted through the centuries, but they had and that is what kept her tethered to the world.
She did not know what she was or when she had come into being. She did not remember entering the world. Yet there was resolve in her heart.
She smoothed the wisps of silvery hair away from the child’s face. Such perfection, such beauty in something so small, so fragile and yet with a soul that was as ancient and strong as herself. They were bound. Fastened together for eternity.
Yet there had been a time a long distant age ago – a time of the men in masks, the Samurai – when the child had not been at her hip. In what she called dreams, a word she held onto as precious, she remembered a time when she had been alone.
She wandered through the mountain forests, thick with snow and the smell of pine, listening to the chattering snow monkeys, feeling the silky powder beneath her feet. Pale, gray sunlight filtered through the canopy, filing the forest with a smoky, cool haze. She found a rock and sat for a while, nibbling at a piece of bread. The stone was cold, damp from the
moss that crept up its side, alive with insects that made this their home, feeling their legs and bodies against her skin, tingling and tickling. A smile, a laugh. Things she no longer understood or knew how to do.
She slid down the rock, sitting on the snow, feeling the icy spikes sting her skin and bones. She turned her face to the mottled sun and closed her eyes. She was in that moment, her body was immersed in the mountains, in the snow, in the trees and everything that lived there. She was part of it. Something she remembered as happiness washed over her body then, replacing the cold ice in her bones, turning into warmth, to a glow that radiated from her, a brilliance matched only by the stars in the night sky.
She giggled, a natural thing for any young girl to do. A gesture her muscles and bones no longer allowed. They were fused now, set.
They said she was beautiful; the most beautiful girl in the village. Her hair was tied back but when it fell from its binds, it dropped below her shoulders, down to the middle of her back in a great wave of fathomless black, sleeker than any of the other girls. They called her tenshi – angel.
When she woke from the sleep, stiff-necked and thirsty, her waking eyes clung onto the darkness that filled her dreams. She rubbed them, shivering now, for the sun had gone and dusk was crawling between the trees. It sent the insects, the birds and the chattering monkeys to their sanctuaries.
The shadows touched her feet. She pulled them toward her, hugging her knees to her chest. She must go now, back to her village and the warmth of the fire. She had stayed too long, and those who loved her would soon worry for their tenshi.
The forest was quiet now, and the air filled with blooms of falling snow that further silenced the growing gloom. She had walked this path many times but always in the daylight, when the monkeys called down to her, showing the way. But now it was dark and the wind blew the snow into her eyes, cutting her skin with a cruelty she now knew so well.
Yet she had never felt such callousness from the snow before, never heard the wind snarling with such malicious intent. It was as if the place she loved so much had become something else, was trying to hurt her, to punish her for…for what? For staying too long, for falling asleep against the rock?