The Girl They Couldn’t See (Blind Spot #1) (Blind Spot Series)
Page 9
When he didn’t continue, Roni waited until her patience was up. “Thinking what?”
“Maybe we… could do something.”
“About the Castanos?!” Roni said, horrified that her little brother was even thinking it.
“Um, yeah.”
“The FBI can’t stop these guys, but you think you can?”
“The FBI has to play by the rules…”
Roni had already opened her mouth to start telling Hax all the reasons why he was absolutely crazy to think of doing anything. But her thoughts tripped over Hax’s simple statement. It seemed profound, but her mind spun in circles for a moment thinking that of course there had to be some things she could do that the police and the FBI weren’t allowed to do. She didn’t come up with anything reasonable, but wondered what Hax was thinking. “So?” she said, a single word, filled with doubt.
“Like the program we did for Hallie,” Hax said, warming to his subject. “Instead of just wiping pictures, it could wipe the entire hard drive.”
Roni blinked, “And you think if we wiped Vito’s entire hard drive it’d put the Castano organization on the run?”
“Not Vito’s hard drive,” Hax said, as if he thought Roni was dense. “The Castanos’ hard drives.”
“First of all,” Roni said, cynically, “I’m not at all sure that an organized crime ring depends on computers. It’s not like they probably keep track of inventory or pay taxes or anything.”
“Sure they do. Everybody uses computers. They need to keep track of who’s paid them and who hasn’t, don’t they?”
“Maybe they keep track,” Roni said, granting that, “but I’ll bet that if they lose track, it doesn’t put much of a cramp in their system. They’ll still go around the next month to make their collections, and the month after that. It might piss them off, but it’s not going to help the little people they’ve been screwing…” She paused as she had another thought, “Besides, how are you thinking we’d get the program on their computer? They aren’t going to plug a memory stick into their system just because it has a girl’s name on it, you know?”
“I thought… you know… you could go invisible and…”
“And I could just walk into the lion’s den?!” Roni said, cutting him off. “Oh my God! I’m invisible, not invulnerable, you know?” In her mind’s eye, she pictured some goon bumping into her in a narrow hallway.
Roni turned to stare at Hax in the dim light. She couldn’t really see his face, but he’d stopped bouncing his knee and sat completely motionless. After a moment, he said hoarsely, his voice breaking, “I’m sorry… I don’t know what I was thinking.” He stood suddenly and walked to the door.
Roni said, “It’s okay… keep thinking. I don’t like that plan because I don’t think it’ll hurt them very badly and it seems really dangerous, but it’s better than any plan I’ve come up with. We should be thinking of things that only I can do because of my…” She didn’t know what to call it. Talent?
Hax said, “I’m so sorry. That was a really stupid idea.” He pulled open the door and was gone.
Chapter 3
Roni thought to herself that it was a good thing it didn’t take her much time to do her homework. Partly because working in the store didn’t give her as much time as her classmates. Partly because her ability to get it done so quickly left her time to keep sharpening her programming skills. And tonight, it gave her time to go through the police hard drive.
She’d forgotten about it the night before, but found it in the pocket of her heavy coat this morning. Frightened at the possibility of having it discovered at school, she’d run upstairs and put it under her pillow so she wouldn’t forget to look at it tonight.
On the whole, the drive was pretty disappointing. She’d reviewed the video from the security camera at the Med Delhi. She recognized herself in the video, but wasn’t sure anybody else would have. Still, she was glad she’d stolen the hard drive so she didn’t have to test that theory.
And, she felt guilty about it.
Not guilty enough to keep her from looking through some of the other files to see if there was anything interesting. She didn’t find anything else on the drive that applied to the Castanos. There were a couple of folders of what looked like accounting files, perhaps related to some kind of white-collar crime. She found security cam footage of various episodes of vandalism and a couple of break-ins.
She felt even guiltier now. She worried that she’d impaired the cops’ ability to prosecute their cases against the vandals and burglars. She looked down at the hard drive and saw that it was plainly labeled as belonging to the police department. With some trepidation she decided to return it. First, she determined exactly where the video file from the Med Delhi was located on the drive. Then she overwrote that area with a copy of the video file from one of the vandalism cases.
I’ll drop the drive off just outside the restaurant tomorrow morning. Hopefully someone will find it and turn it back in to the police. And, maybe the officer’ll think it just fell out of his pocket.
***
Sitting on the stairs in front of the school and eating his lunch, Hax heard Hallie’s voice behind him. “It’s November 14th,” she said.
With a spike of hope tempered with some fear, Hax realized that Vito’s hard drive should have lost its pictures last night. In a low voice, he said, “Do you know if it worked?”
“Not for sure,” she said excitedly, “but I heard one of his asshole buddies complaining that some virus had erased a lot of his hard drive.” There was a pause, then she said hopefully, “Maybe I’ll be free?” again sounding like she felt enslaved at present. Presumably by blackmail.
In view of what he’d recently learned, Hax wondered if she’d really win free when Vito couldn’t blackmail her anymore. He didn’t say anything though, because he didn’t know what he could say. She continued, “I’ll move a little further away now. Don’t want him to come out and hassle you again.”
Hax shrugged, “I don’t care if he hassles me.” But he didn’t say it very loud, and when he looked around, he could see that she’d already moved further away. He reflected to himself that he wasn’t really physically afraid of Vito anymore. He’d gained a lot of confidence from his martial arts classes and increased size. However, after what he’d recently learned about the Castanos in general, he didn’t actually want to piss Vito off.
***
Roni saw Nick and Mario coming up the steps into the Buchry’s store. Her heart started thumping at the sight of the men who’d killed Mr. Demopoulos so offhandedly. She felt a kind of paralysis come over her. She wanted to get up and go get her dad, but couldn’t seem to generate the strength to rise. Nick saw her behind the counter and smiled his ugly smile. Mario had been talking, but when his eyes saw Roni, he paused. Then he grinned and said, “Looky here bossman, it’s your little black and blue bitch.”
“Shut up Mario,” Nick said, though without the emphasis you might expect if he’d really wanted the man to stop talking.
It took Roni a moment to process the “black and blue” comment. At first she thought maybe he was referring to the fight she’d had with Nick several years ago, but then she realized angrily that he was referring to her dark skin and blue eyes. Racist asshole, she thought. She opened her mouth to say something, but then a mental image of Mario casually pulling out his club and killing Mr. Demopoulos came to mind. She closed her mouth and stared at them, hoping that the resentment seething out her pores wasn’t detectable enough to piss them off.
Nick lifted an eyebrow, “Got your insurance money?”
Roni stood, her paralysis suddenly gone. “I’ll get my dad.” She turned and stepped into the back hall. Her dad wasn’t in his office. Mindful of what’d happened last time, she trotted the short distance down the hall and found Ravinder in talking to Tansey. “Castano’s here.”
Ravinder jerked like he’d been shot, then spun out of Tansey’s office and set off down the hall at a rapid pace.
After a moment, Roni stood back up, embarrassed to be so cowardly. It was good to know that Tansey’s side business had done well, but she knew that wasn’t always so. Her heart skipped a beat, What if the Castanos figure out we have another source of income? Might they tax us on that too?
Roni moved back down the short hall to listen at the door to the store. She didn’t want Nick to see her, but she wanted to know what was going on. She still couldn’t hear very well and was trying to lean a little closer when she suddenly realized she could just go invisible. She glanced back down the hall to see if her mother was watching. Tansey was back in her office, so Roni disappeared and stepped into the doorway. As expected, the three men didn’t react. However, it seemed like their business had been concluded. Nick saluted her father with an envelope, presumably containing the insurance payment, then turned and headed for the door. As he went, he stuffed the envelope in the pocket of his jacket.
Roni watched Nick going out the door with their money. She glanced at her dad and saw him looking longingly after the money as well. Suddenly she started after Nick. Just about to open the little door in the countertop, she paused and reinforced in her mind that her dad shouldn’t notice the little door opening. She turned to watch her father as she opened the door and was relieved to see that his attention hadn’t wavered from the two mobsters. She trotted after them, reinforcing the thought that they shouldn’t notice the sound of her feet. The door had nearly closed behind them, but she caught it and squeezed through.
Roni ran down the three stairs from the stoop in front of their store and hustled down the sidewalk behind Nick and Mario. Once again, she thought about how she didn’t want them to notice her. She slipped her hand into Nick’s pocket and found, not one envelope, but many.
Roni let go and paused, letting the men get farther from her. How will I know which one is ours? she wondered. Maybe it’s labeled? She imagined reaching in, pulling out all of the envelopes, then sorting through them to find the one from her own family’s store.
Then would I really put all the rest of the money back?! That seemed crazy. Keeping it seemed like stealing, but how could she possibly be stealing from the Castanos when they’d stolen the money in the first place.
For a moment, she tried to imagine going back along Nick’s route, trying to give the money back to the people it’d been taken from. She certainly couldn’t go back into the store, hand them their envelope, and tell them she’d stolen it back from the Castanos for them! She supposed she could enter invisibly and just leave the envelope on their cash register, but even that’d probably cause panic—finding their payment back at their store and wondering what the Castanos would do if they found out about it.
No, she thought, I’ll take it all and keep it for us. After all, the Castanos have certainly taken a lot more money than that from us over… however long they’ve been extorting us.
She trotted after Nick and Mario, but just before she caught up to them they turned into another store. Suddenly she realized that if she took everything out of his pocket, that at the next store, when he went to put whatever he collected in his pocket, he’d recognize that the other envelopes were missing.
She decided that she’d have to wait until he was getting back in his car. Then he wouldn’t be going back in his pocket for a while.
Unless he counted the money while Mario drove. But by then, he’d be away from the neighborhood.
And, when he realized his money was gone, what if he went around and demanded to see the security videos from places along his route. What if he saw her following him in those videos?
A sudden chill came over her.
She turned for home.
I need a disguise, she thought. One that’ll work on video cameras.
That evening, after she’d finished her homework, she dug through her closet. It wasn’t hard to find her balaclava, but she needed something to cover her coat. It was big, bulky, green, and easily recognizable. Hardly anyone wore anything like it. Because it’s so freakin’ ugly, she thought bitterly.
She went back downstairs and got the big ugly monstrosity of a coat. Back in her room she put the coat on and tried draping other items of clothing over it. She tried to ignore the fact that whatever she put on it looked ridiculous. The big problem was that nothing she had really covered the coat. She could still recognize the ugly coat even with a couple of blouses draped over it.
Finally, she went to the cabinet and got out her spare sheets. She put the fitted sheet back and draped the flat sheet around her shoulders. She could get it to cover the coat, but if she needed to use her arms… Lifting her arms she saw the green of the coat appear under them. She sighed.
She pictured cutting holes in the sheet for her arms to protrude out of, but, even if she ignored how pissed that would make her mother, the big green sleeves would be sticking out the holes. Then she had an idea. She put the sheet over her shoulders and pinned the corners around her neck into a huge poncho. With a few safety pins, she tacked it together under the arms so that it left voluminous sleeves she could put her arms out through while the pins held the sides closed to cover the body of her coat.
Looking in the mirror, she stifled a laugh. Honestly, I look ridiculous, she thought. But, after all, nobody was going to see her in it. She took it off, carefully folded it, then rolled it up and put it in her backpack. She had to take out a couple of things to make room, but the sheet was what really mattered.
Later, as she waited to fall asleep, she thought, I can’t rush this. I’ve got to wait until I run into Nick leaning on stores that aren’t near ours. I certainly shouldn’t do it on a day when he’s collecting at our store.
***
Sitting on the steps and looking through his lunch bag, Hax felt someone sit down next to him. He turned and his eyes widened when he saw Hallie sitting there. She grinned, “I’m a free woman!”
“Really?! The program worked?”
“Yeah! Vito was bitching to John that the virus had wiped his computer too. I just turned and walked away.” She gave a little fist pump, “Came right out here to tell you the good news.”
“Um,” Hax said unhappily. “It might not be that simple. His family… they’re in the mob, you know?”
“Yeah,” Hallie said uncomfortably. “But I figure his dad doesn’t care what goes on with us kids, right?”
Hax glanced around, “No, I don’t think his dad would help him either. But Vito might be more… comfortable with violent solutions as a way to solve problems.”
Hallie turned and glanced out over the school’s athletic fields. Hax turned with her. Her eyes focused in the distance, she said, “So you think… if he can’t blackmail me, he might do something else? Hurt me or something?”
Hax was turning to give Hallie a nod when a sudden shove sent him rolling down several steps. At least he didn’t sprawl like he would have in the past. Turning in a defensive crouch, he saw Vito with Hallie’s upper arm in a tight grip. Vito growled in her ear, “I told you to stay away from the spaz!”
Hallie looked shocked, but now she turned a firm expression up to Vito, “I don’t have to do what you tell me to anymore.”
“You’d better or…”
“Hah!” Hallie interrupted resolutely, though Hax found it hard to believe she felt as confident as she looked. She leaned close to Vito and continued, “I heard you tell John your hard drive got wiped by some virus. You don’t have any pictures to blackmail me with anymore.”
Vito sneered, “Don’t worry bitch, they’re backed up.”
Hallie gave him a knowing grin, “I’m betting your backup’s gone too.”
Vito pulled her close. From the alarmed expression on her face, he’d painfully tightened the grip on her a
rm. “Did you have something to do with that?” he said menacingly.
A frightened look in her eyes, Hallie mutely shook her head. Hax ascended the two broad stairs between them, saying, “Let her go!”
Vito gave Hallie a violent shove, sideways and up a step. She stumbled over a stair, falling. Hax started to go to her, but then realized Vito was recoiling from shoving Hallie to swing a big roundhouse punch at Hax’s face.
As he’d been taught, Hax turned, pulling his head down and to the side. As Vito’s fist shot by his ear, Hax reached up to grab Vito’s wrist, spinning under Vito’s body and planting his shoulder under Vito’s armpit. He heaved down on Vito’s forearm and Vito’s body flew up over Hax’s. Hax kept an eye on his opponent just long enough to watch him land full-length, upside down on the stairs below. If he hadn’t hated him so much, Hax would’ve winced at the way Vito’s head banged down onto a stair.
Hax turned and strode to Hallie. She was sitting up. He asked, “Are you okay?”
Hallie grimaced and rubbed at her arm where Vito’d gripped it. “Yeah,” she said grimly, “though you were right. The pictures weren’t the only thing I had to worry about.” Suddenly her eyes tracked to the side, and she said quietly but urgently, “Watch out, he’s coming back.”
Hax turned to find Vito charging up the stairs, low, with his arms spread wide. He’s trying to tackle me, Hax thought, surprising himself with the dispassion of his analysis. Hax, being higher on the stairs, found it relatively easy to reach out, plant his hand on the back of Vito’s head and vault over Vito’s straight-on charge, incidentally forcing Vito’s head down to smash into another of the steps.
Hax suddenly worried that he’d thrown Vito into Hallie, but by the time he’d fully turned around, he saw Hallie skittering back up the steps away from the fight.
The other kids were reacting, some moving toward and some backing away from the fight. Hax looked around but didn’t see the school’s security officer this time. He wondered if the man had seen the fight coming and fled.