by Graham Marks
His hand flew up, grabbing his T-shirt, the sharp edges of the small gold cross digging into his palm, and he whirled round, expecting to find the old man in the faded red baseball cap right behind him.
He was nowhere to be seen.
Standing alone in the street, normal, ordinary life going on all around him as if everything was totally fine, Gabe didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He wished he could go back a few days, to when all he had on his mind was getting through a Time of No Money; how simple did that seem now? Monday, when he could get the stash in his locker and give it to Father Simon, looked a long, long way off.
Anything could happen between now and then. The quiet voice from the dark place in his head reminded him, as if he needed it, that that also included him dying.
Chapter Twenty
“You want to do what?”
Gabe and Stella were sitting at a corner table, right at the back of The Pizza Parlor. Under other circumstances it might have been the romantic choice, the place for a private tête-à-tête, but not tonight. Stella, hair up and wearing a beret, sat with her back to the rest of the room. She looked different, but it was no disguise. His attempt at being incognito had been riding every back double he knew to the restaurant with his hoodie up. He’d pushed it off his head as soon as he’d arrived, not wanting to look ridiculous. They’d done the best they could.
“Go over to Morrison tonight, OK?” Gabe took a sip of his Pepsi. “I mean, why wait till Monday, right? Do it now and I get my life back. You got a better idea?”
Stella looked like she didn’t know where to start, and then couldn’t anyway until the waitress, who’d just appeared, had delivered their order.
“You want to break in? To the school?” She leant over the table, whispering. “Are you crazy? I know I’m new to the place, but even I know it’s got security up the wazoo since a bunch of tech was stolen last year. Maybe you didn’t hear yet…”
“Sure I know. I’m not a complete doofus.”
Stella smiled. “And I know that.”
“You do – how?”
“I know you a lot better than you know me. I’ve watched you.” Stella took a bite of her slice.
“You stalked me?”
Stella rolled her eyes. “No! Like not as such, just kinda sussed you out, but when we met the other day? You didn’t really have much of a clue who I was, did you? Took a moment to place me, didn’t it?”
“Yeah…” No point in denying it. “Seen you around, but, you know…”
Stella took another bite, Gabe getting started with his slice. “So, tell me, Gabe, what’s the plan? How’re you going to get into school?”
“OK…” Gabe bit off a real big mouthful, buying some more time to think on his feet and sort out the tiny germ of an idea that had occurred to him on the ride there. “I never did it myself, but I was told there was a way in, through a window in a storeroom. It doesn’t shut properly. Apparently.”
“You’re going to risk doing this because there’s apparently a way in? Isn’t the system supposed to be computer-controlled?”
“Yeah, but this one window doesn’t have the gizmos on it, you know, the little electronic things which tell the computer what’s open and what’s closed? Or it has them, and they weren’t wired up right and don’t work. Like that.”
Gabe leant an elbow on the table and cupped his chin. This was one of those friend-of-a-friend stories he thought maybe he’d heard from Anton. He didn’t remember. But it didn’t matter where it came from because, listening to himself, he kind of agreed with the look of disbelief on Stella’s face which said it all. This wasn’t a plan, it was sheer stupidity. Except, Gabe squared his shoulders, it was the only stupid plan he had and the thought of doing nothing until Monday was driving him crazy.
“You’re gonna go, aren’t you?”
“Sure.” Gabe slumped back in his chair. “Can’t sit around and wait.”
“I’m coming with you.”
It was Gabe’s turn to look incredulous.
“No arguments.” Stella shook her head. “You’ll need a lookout, backup, whatever… Gabe, you wouldn’t be thinking about this if I hadn’t taken you to meet Father Simon. I’m responsible.”
“No, you’re—”
“Yes, I am.”
The girl sounded so confident, so like she had made up her mind, and that was that. Breaking into the school hadn’t been how he’d intended to spend his first date with Stella, but it looked like he wasn’t going to have a choice. On top of everything else he had to deal with, having Stella with him would be extra pressure. Except, if it all worked out, the worst of the hassle he was getting – the you-could-end-updead part – would go away.
“Penny for them, Gabe?”
“Look, Stella…” Gabe made a thing of swirling the ice in his 7Up with the straw; they both knew he was playing for time. “OK, see, it’s like this. Here we are, making a lame-assed attempt to keep off of Benny’s radar because he thinks he owns me and, for some reason he wouldn’t say, you are a no-go zone. And I am wearing a freaking cross to ward off the walking dead. So us breaking into Morrison to get the stuff from my locker was not the top of my ‘To Do’ list. And I am glad you’re coming with me…”
“But?”
“OK, yeah … but why is Benny so fired up about you, anyway?”
It was Stella’s turn to take a moment, rearranging the pepperoni on her slice.
“I was careless … he saw me taking pictures.”
Gabe watched as she kept on with the pepperoni rejigging, thinking, OK, so I got that much right.
She took a deep breath. “I never believed Ed died of an ‘accidental overdose’, like they said. For a start, he wasn’t a user, I know he wasn’t. Someone did that to him. I think Benny did that to him, for some reason, and I want him to pay for that.”
Benny? Gabe couldn’t get his head round the idea of him as a killer. Sure, he could be mean as a snake, and would no doubt hurt any number of flies, given half a chance, but murder?
“Why would he want to kill your brother?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Gabe … maybe that’s what I’m trying to find out?”
Stella’s angry sarcasm almost physically pushed Gabe back in his chair.
“Gabe, Gabe – I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean…” Stella reached across the table, squeezed Gabe’s hand and wouldn’t let go. “It’s been such a weird day.”
“Yeah, it kind of has. And we’re going to top it off by going all Mission: Impossible…”
“It’ll be OK.”
“And if it isn’t? Why should you get the heat as well as me?”
“Look –” Stella squeezed Gabe’s hand again, then let go – “if it looks at all like there’s any chance we might get caught, we’ll bail, OK?”
Gabe stared across the restaurant at the world outside, the early-evening traffic flowing by the windows. Benny and the old man were out there, and he couldn’t help imagining them as roaming like a couple of hunting packs, him and Stella the prey. But they couldn’t stay and eat pizza forever and if they were going to leave it might as well be to actually do something positive. Not hide like mice from a cat. Or an owl.
“OK.”
For no good reason it had taken twice as long as the first time they’d done it to get the bike into Stella’s car, but they’d finally tortured it into a shape that fit into the back of the Toyota and were on their way to Morrison High, Stella taking an off-the-main-drag route. Gabe was head down, fiddling around with the stereo, trying to find a station playing something decent, when Stella slammed on the brakes.
Gabe sat up. “Geez, Stella – what happened?”
Stella pulled over to the kerb. “I meant to ask you…”
“Ask me what?”
“The news … did you see it tonight?”
“No, why?”
“There was a report on the murder, at the antique store…”
“And?”
“There were
two bodies…” Stella trailed off.
“Two?” Stella nodded. “Did they say who the other one was?”
“Apart from the owner, the guy you met, Cecil whatever, they figure the second one must’ve been a customer. The reporter said it was, you know, unconfirmed, but he’d been told by a ‘reliable source’ –” Stella quote marked with her fingers – “that it looked like they’d both had their throats ripped out. By an animal.”
Gabe stared at the digital read-out on the stereo, thinking, yeah, an animal all right; a coyote, had to be. And the second man, that was the person Cecil LeBarron had called, the client. Also had to be. He must have gone over to pick up the bracelet, and so been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Gabe, not realizing what he was doing, reached up and touched the crucifix. “Let’s get going, I really need this over with.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Stella parked in the shadow of a tree overhanging the street that ran down one side of the school, sat back and looked at Gabe. “So?”
“What?”
“Exactly.” Stella glanced out of the car, towards the high fence marking the extent of Morrison’s grounds. “What next?”
“OK –” Gabe released his seat belt and reached for the door handle – “what’s next is you stay here in the car and wait for me. I won’t be long.”
“So now I’m what, just the cab driver here?”
“I’ve been thinking…” Gabe opened the door, the courtesy light coming on; Stella’s lips were a thin, straight line, her eyes slightly narrowed. “Look, OK … anything goes wrong, Stella, and I get caught? There’s no need for two of us to get carpeted for this. Right?”
“Wrong.” Stella grabbed the ignition key and her bag and opened her door. “I told you I was coming, and like I said, you’re only doing this because I took you to see Father Simon.”
Gabe shrugged as he got out of the Toyota. There was obviously no point in arguing, so best get the show on the road as quickly as possible. He shut his door and stood looking up and down the street. He’d chosen this place as it was quiet and there weren’t so many street lamps, but since the break-ins the school was now also protected by some rent-a-cop company – at least, they had put up signs saying they were.
“We’d better keep an eye out, OK?” Gabe said. Thinking to himself, Yeah, we really had, what with real cops, Benny and a guy in a red baseball cap to think about as well.
Stella nodded. “What happens now?”
“We get ourselves over the fence, get into the school, and we don’t get caught. By anyone.”
“Amen to that,” Stella said.
Gabe spotted what he was looking for. “This way…”
Gabe had been on night walks in the school grounds a couple of times before as a dare, and it had gone like a breeze. Now that Stella was with him, though, he was doubly on edge walking though the grounds in the pitch dark, every tiny noise a potential threat. But they made it and reached the annexe with the supposedly hinky window without any trouble. As far as he remembered, it was a part of the school admin block, or maybe it was a storage facility. It wasn’t somewhere students ever went, but it was connected directly to the main building.
“Keep your eyes and ears peeled, OK?” Gabe whispered, getting out the screwdriver he’d brought with him from his backpack and moving down to the first set of three windows, all of which were shut tight, as were the next ones.
“You sure this is the right place, Gabe?” Stella whispered from where she was keeping watch.
Gabe nodded. A lot of the buildings on the school grounds looked alike, but he thought he had the right one. This was not the time to look unsure of himself. Moving along until he was standing opposite the last window, he gave the wooden frame a sharp tug. It gave, and a bit more than slightly. This was it. If he’d been sold a bill of goods then alarms would start going off and they would have to get out – and quick.
Nothing happened.
“Is this the one?”
Gabe jumped as Stella came up beside him. “Uh, yeah … yeah, looks like it…” He ran the shaft of the screwdriver up the narrow gap until he came to the loosened catch and then pushed. He’d expected it to flip up, but it didn’t. Every minute they were left standing out in the open was a minute too long, in his opinion, and he pushed up even harder, wishing he’d thought to bring a hammer with him. Hell, the whole toolbox…
“Anything I can do, Gabe?”
“Not unless you happen to have a hammer with you…” Gabe placed the business end of the screwdriver on the latch and jabbed the base of the handle hard with the flat of his palm.
Once, nothing.
Twice, a slight movement.
The third time, his palm really hurting now, the catch gave and the screwdriver flew out of his hand, clattering on to the concrete pathway. Gabe froze.
“It’s OK,” Stella whispered, picking up the screwdriver. “No one’s here…”
Gabe gingerly pulled open the window; his armpits were prickling and he was hyped from the tension and they hadn’t even really started yet. Gripping the sill with both hands he took a deep breath. “Nothing ventured, right?” he said as he hauled himself up.
Gabe slipped through the door into the main building, followed by Stella, and started running down the unlit corridor that went front to rear straight through the centre of the structure. The slap of their footsteps echoed off the walls, so loud he felt sure the noise could be heard out on the street. Gabe zigged left at the first turn, sneakers squealing like piglets as he took the corner, thirty metres down zagging right, finally coming to a halt midway down a wall of lockers. He dug into his jeans pocket, bringing out a key ring on the chain he had attached to a belt loop. Finding the right key, he opened the oversized, heavy-duty brass padlock on his locker, unhooked it and flipped open the clasp.
“What else are you stashing in there?” Stella pointed at the padlock.
“Nothing.” Gabe swung the door back, reached in and felt around at the back of the locker for the package. “My dad gave it me when I started here, kind of a joke.” He tried to ignore the tingling sensation he got when he touched the cloth. Tried to ignore the idea that the gold pieces were somehow aware of his presence.
“Is it there…? Have you got it?”
Something in Stella’s voice made Gabe stop, package in hand, and look up at her. “What’s the matter?”
“Thought I heard something…”
Gabe stuffed the gold in his backpack and refastened the padlock. “I’ve been thinking that ever since we came over the fence.”
“We should go.”
“I wasn’t thinking of stay—”
Before he could finish, Stella took off at a sprint and he had his work cut out to catch up with her.
“Wait a second!” Gabe grabbed her arm as they were about to turn the first corner. “What are we running from?”
Behind them, headlights raked through the front double doors like the spotlight on a prison tower and they both ducked down.
“That.”
“Geez, are you psychic or something?”
Stella shook her head as they slipped down the corridor that led to the annexe. “Who knows, I just thought I heard something…”
In the distance car doors were being slammed, one after the other. As if life wasn’t complex enough, he did not need to add ‘fugitive from the law’ to his list of problems.
They reached the room with the open window and Gabe nodded for Stella to get out first. While she made her exit, he waited by the door, listening for any clues as to what might be happening out the front of the building. He saw torch beams randomly stabbing into the darkened corridor and heard the front doors being rattled.
“Come on!”
Gabe looked round and saw Stella beckoning him from outside. He shut the door and was about to make for the window when he turned back and pressed in the lock mechanism on the handle.
“Gabe!”
“I’m there…�
��
“Hurry, before they come checking round the whole building.”
As soon as he was out, Gabe reached for the screwdriver that should have been in his back pocket, but wasn’t.
“Here.” Stella gave it to him. “I picked it up when you dropped it.”
“Right, thanks…” Gabe used the shaft to hold the catch up as he closed the window before letting it drop down. The second it had they both ran at full pelt, only stopping when they reached the tree by the fence that they’d used to get in.
Just as Gabe was about to give Stella a boost up, a sedan, tricked out to look like an actual cop car, came down the street. It was being driven slow, the occupants obviously ticking all the security company boxes by doing a final check round the school property. They both dropped to the ground until it had gone past.
“Close.” Gabe stuck his head up and peered down the street. Seeing the rent-a-cops had gone, he stood up. “All I gotta do is unclench my butt-cheeks, but we did get away with it.”
Stella grinned at him. “Father Simon, here we come.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gabe took the folded duster out of his backpack and put it on the table in front of him. Father Simon, sitting in his armchair with a mug of coffee in one hand and an Oreo in the other, took a sip from the cup, then a bite of the cookie.
“I don’t condone for one moment what you did, the two of you –” the Father shot them a mildly disapproving glance – “and you are more than lucky not to have been caught. That said, I fully understand why you did it, so let’s see what you have, Gabe.”
Gabe leant forward and unknotted the cloth, opening one corner at a time. In the middle of the frayed, faded yellow square sat the rest of the gold pieces he’d taken from the skeleton. Father Simon finished off his cookie in one bite, put down his mug and reached straight for the twisted and deformed crucifix.
“A terrible thing…” Father Simon turned the cross over and then back again, and looked closely at the second hole in its base. There was such a sadness in his eyes Gabe half expected he might be about to cry. “Apostasy at its worst and most dangerous. Faith lost and its power turned to evil… I’ve read about this, but never thought to see it, hold it in my own hands.”