by Jan Tailor
***
Karin stopped Josh from playing his game.
“Josh, I’ve got to gotta go to work. Janice next door will put you to bed in a couple hours. You can play your game or colour, but no TV. If you need anything call me or Janice. Okay?”
Josh nodded and she kissed him on the head. Her cell phone rang. She looked at the number and rushed out to meet Buddy.
Upon opening the door to the beat-up SUV Buddy was driving, a waft of gas or other fuel hit Karin. “Fuck, you huff gas?”
“No, it’s my younger bros work truck. He landscapes. It’s from the lawnmower.”
On the short drive, Buddy explained the job to Karin. She would be one of four people at the door. They were to search people for weapons, booze, and drugs. If the partiers turned the contraband over freely, they could go in. They would not arrest anyone for drugs or booze unless they put up a fight. There was a sealed bin all the contraband would go in that he would turn over to the police. A joint or two getting by was one problem, but drunk, violent people, and those who did not turn over weapons, could not go in. There were four other guards with radios inside, and he would be there but not always available.
As they got out of the car at the back of a warehouse in an industrial area, Buddy threw Karin a jacket. She checked her belt with cuffs, mag-light, shear-proof gloves, mace and pocket mask was on tight. She caught the jacket before it fell to the ground and put it on.
“Ichchhadhari Nag, our company name.” Buddy turned to show the back of his jacket, “Its a shape-shifting snake that guards a valuable gem. My bro is a bit weird.”
They walked to the front of the warehouse where it looked like three defensive linemen—two brown, one white--from the BC Lions were standing. The white one walked up to shake Buddy’s hand and Karin recognized him.
“Dan? You worked at the distribution centre… I met you at cuffing training, remember?”
Dan stuck his hand out to Karin. “Yeah, vaguely.”
“Since you guys know each other, I’ll see you later.” Buddy walked back around the warehouse.
Dan motioned for Karin to follow him, and she did. He pointed to brown guys.
“Gurdeep and Sanjit. The door is here. I pat down guys here. You take girls behind this curtain. Adjust the light so you can see the silhouette of those around you through the curtain. Don’t be afraid to toss anyone out or ask for help. Most of the people are happy on E but a few are gangsters who we kick out, and worse fuckers on PCP or with meth psychosis. Best let ‘em go and get the cops. Don’t count on Gurdeep or Sanjit for timely help—big and strong but very ESL and don’t get the culture. If I say ‘Buddy’s coming back from break’ check out the guy I am with and we're not letting him in. Its normally a whole bunch of kids high on E with soothers and glow sticks, with nothing to worry about. Nothing happened last time, but the time before… well, I’ll tell you later. Knock on wood. Oh, there are cameras there and there but no one watches them.”
A line began to form, with electronic music thumping from inside the warehouse. As Dan had said, the ravers did not have the time of day for violence or enough clothes to hide anything. But many drugs and bottles were sacrificed to the locked bin. One or two had been turned away for being drunk or putting up a fuss to get back their drugs.
Dan gestured with his head and said, “Buddy’s coming back from break.” Karin looked and saw a guy more suited to a hair metal band with a goth girl who breasts did not look right. She looked to Dan, who nodded and told Sanjit to come close. In the loose huddle, Dan said, “The metal-head and goth girl almost always have sharps on them and can be… they are dealers.”
Into his radio, Dan said, “Up front if you’re free.”
The line moved quickly and Karin was in the curtained room patting the goth girl down. She felt the familiar shape of a needle as she patted down her front. Karin ordered the goth girl to turn around. The goth girl did.
“Do you always stuff your bra? What do the guys say when they find out? Take the stuffing out.” The goth girl moved her hands to her side.
Outside the curtain, the metal-head shrieked, “Boys, you’re turning me on!”
“KNIFE!” Dan yelled. “He’s got a knife. Stay back man! Put it down!”
The goth girl put her finger into her pocket. Karin already had the cuff out and the goth girl’s hand that was reaching for the syringe was cuffed before Karin felt any resistance. The second cuff went on with ease.
Karin look at the silhouette of the metal-head. She judged she was behind and to the knife side of him, if he was right handed. She slipped through the curtain, mag-light in hand. The metal-head’s back was to her and Dan was keeping him from the crowed, impotently yelling, “Put the knife down!”
Gurdeep and Sanjit were behind him, not looking so menacing. Karin took a step and landed a blow with the mag-light to the metal-head’s wrist and knife. The knife dropped and the metal-head cradled his hand. With a second blow to the knee, he toppled with Karin’s other hand on his collar, knee ready to plow into his back. Dan grabbed the metal-head’s left hand, cuffing it and wrenching it behind him, while Dan followed the metal-head down with another knee to the back.
Dan grabbed for the metal-head’s right hand with Karin’s help while the metal-head screamed, “AHHHH, my wrist is broken!”
Gurdeep and Sanjit followed down on to the dogpile.
Dan ordered Gurdeep and Sanjit to get the goth girl. She was trying to run down the hall into the party.
“She’s cuffed, she won’t get far, Karin said, just as the goth girl lost balance and fell on her face.
In a nasal, bubbly voice, the goth girl moaned, “My noise.”
Sanjit got to the goth girl, pulled her up and to the door, while a trail of pills fell from her top.
Gurdeep picked up a broken cell phone and gestured to Karin. Karin took it, trying to make it work, but it had been stomped on in the fight. ‘That's my wage for the night,’ Karin thought.
The goth girl and metal-head cried about their injuries, as the guards from inside the warehouse took over the door and Dan, Karin, Gurdeep and Sanjit waited for the police. The wait was not long. Dan walked out to meet them. Karin was unsure about the situation; they had done everything by the book, sort of. Cuffing the goth girl was a bit of a stretch, but the real problem was if they were sanctioned by the owner to make an arrest on the property. A smiling cop that Karin recognized made her smile too, as an undercover cop car not from Surrey pulled in. An ambulance followed behind.
A pat on Karin’s shoulder turned her around to see Buddy, “Good job. You made me a lot of money.” Buddy put out a gloved hand and Karin shook it. “One thing… I was here all night.”
Absently, Karin said, “okay.” Then she wiped her brow, smelling gasoline or kerosene on her right glove. She took them off and went to talk with the Don the cop.
The goth girl and the metal-head were treated like trophy fish. The cops took statements from all involved and took the videos. But the statements and tapes were cursory to the pile of drugs dumped out of the goth girl’s D cups. Finally, after forty minutes, the ambulance left with the goth girl and the metal-head.
Karin was approached by Don away from anyone else. “Hey Karin, the guys over there,” he gestured with his head, “want you to take this card. If you have anything to tell them, they will be extremely grateful.”
Don could see Karin want to ask more. “You know who they are.”
The rest of the night went on without any other excitement. At the end of it, Buddy gathered all of them around. After giving each one an envelope with their pay in it, Buddy said, “We had a good night tonight. We should all thank Karin; she made us all the money. And Gurdeep and Sanjit ,you guys owe her the most. She saved you two statues.”
Gurdeep and Sanjit did not understand so Buddy changed languages. With Buddy’s word, Gurdeep and Sanjit took money out of their pay and handed it to Karin. They both said thank you to Karin. Buddy finished b
y saying to Karin, “Get yourself an IPhone with that.” With that said, the group began to break up and go home.
Karin looked in her envelope. There was much more than two hundred dollars, plus another few hundred.
“Dan, can I get a ride?”
“Sure.”
In the parking lot, Karin saw Buddy getting into a 300Z, and to Dan said, “Didn’t Buddy come in an SUV?”
Dan nodded. “What is going on?”
“Let’s get some drive-thru and I’ll tell you,” Dan pulled out a joint as he got in the car.
“You’re not smoking that and driving.”
“You’re not getting a ride.”
Karin thought about taking a cab, but she would walk before waste that much money.
“I will drive.”
“Ok.” Dan and Karin stopped to get some fast food, then found a secluded parking lot to eat it.
“Why did you quit the distribution centre? Eboy and Roy tell me you loved it there, just fucking around and smoking all night.”
“This calls for a drink.”
Out of the back seat Dan pulled a bottle of vodka, confiscated that night. “Yeah, I loved working there. All night I wrote, played hockey, smoked joints, got paid, but I found out that Buddy was stealing, and not just a little.”
“But that place has low theft?”
“It did after they hired me and Buddy; we caught or discouraged the graveyard shift from stealing. Before us, they had the highest theft rate in Canada. Buddy’s smart, he figured out the system and though he steals a ton, most of it is not from the distribution centre’s inventory. It goes missing from the distribution centre but not off its inventory. So the distribution centre’s shrinkage is low. He steals hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. I found out and told Sasha to put cameras in certain places. Sasha did not, because she is too scared of Buddy. I can’t trust her, so I don’t work for her. Think about it. Sasha gets paid triple what we do and she will not stick up for us. I ain’t working for her.”
“But you will work with Buddy.”
“Yeah, he’s honest with me. He knows I will do what I do. Just don’t steal on my shift. He kind of respects that. And I’ve never let him buy me off. I always pay him back if he gives me a present--even if it means I have to go in to debt--and I never take his charity. He bought off the whole distribution centre. I like to think he respects me for not taking what he offered, and I don’t fear him.”
Worried, Karin asked, “Was that money from Sanjit and Gurdeep a present?”
“No, that was rightfully earned.”
“So what the fuck was going on tonight? Buddy thanking me for making him money? The gas on his gloves and in his SUV? The undercover cops watching us?”
Dan laughed, “Our job at the door is not to keep drugs out of the party. It is to keep drugs not sold by Buddy out of the party. The metal-head was causing a diversion to get the goth girl in with the drugs that she would hand off to a deal inside and undercut Buddy. You put his competition in jail. And that was like ten grand in E and meth.”
Dan took another swig, “Ah, good, it’s the top of the hour. Turn on the new channel on the radio.”
After a couple bigger news items, the radio spoke of a fire bombing that happened in Richmond. The residence was known to police. Crime Stoppers offered a reward for of five thousand dollars to anyone with tips leading to the arrest and conviction of the arsonist. The arsonist was last seen in an older SUV. Karin stopped gawking at the radio and said, “That’s why Buddy told me to say he was there all night.”
“Where there is accelerant, there is an arsonist.”
Dan took another swig, “The undercover cops were there to watch him after this battle in the gang war was fought.”
“Give me the bottle. What the fuck should I do? I’m tearing myself apart Dan. I need money for my boy and I work my ass off. Now I can get it, but I have to deal with this. How do you get away with it?”
“I don’t. I don’t have a problem with the drug dealing; liquor stores and pharmacies are just as bad. I stay away from the violence. But can I really ever live a straight life… I’m good at what I do. I’m not good at being part of society or I don’t have the skill to be successful in their game. You got five choices: Take that card you got and be a paid rat.”
“What are you talking about?!”
“I’m not naïve. Those gang cops gave you a card like they did to me years ago. They pay well enough to put your kid in a good school, but for how long, and how fucked up will you be at the end? Call Crime Stoppers, get some money to get you to a better place and hope Buddy does not find out. Be like me, have a bad day job to keep up appearances, and work at not being all in, while making just enough to survive, worrying Buddy may pull me too far in. Be with Buddy, have money, but you’re a criminal and you’ve gotta fire bomb the competitions house. Or, sink slowly, work too many hours for too few dollars.”
Karin took another swig, “I’m fucked.”
“You said it.” Dan took the bottle, “It’s nearly morning and you’re not drinking anymore and driving, so let’s get out of here.”
Karin pulled up to her apartment.
“Thanks for the lift… sort of. Can I buy the bottle off you?”
“Here, take one.” Dan opened the trunk. All the liquor they confiscated was in there.
“Thanks.” Karin took a mickey of whiskey and walked to her apartment as dawn broke. There was a note on her door that said Josh was at Janice’s. Karin knocked loudly at the door, instantly angry at the smell of pot coming from it. It took a minute, and Karin was sure Janice or Terry, her boyfriend, was sizing her up before opening the door.
“It’s me, Karin.”
The door opened and Janice said, “I thought it might be the cops, or family services.”
“Where is Josh?”
“Sleeping… he got scared and came over when you didn’t answer your cell phone.”
“You’ve been toking with him here.” Karin shook her head.
“Hey, its medical… and I would not shake my head, you’re the one who left your kid alone with only the kindness of a stoner neighbour to take care of him… what would child services say? Just saying, don’t throw stones in a glass house.”
“You’re right, Janice. Thanks, and I’ll get you back soon. You’re great. I’m just touchy about the pot.” Karin stuffed her anger.
“Mom?” Josh came running from the living room and attached himself to her leg. “Where were you?”
“Later, we got to get you back to bed.” Karin lifted him up and carried him into their apartment.
As Karin went to put him to bed, Josh said, “How come your jacket smells like Janice’s house?”
Choking down tears and anger Karin thought, ‘I’ve got to get him out of here.’
Karin kissed Josh, “Go to bed, darling, go to bed.” She walked to the kitchen table, grabbing the phone and the bottle of whiskey. She took a swig, then took out the gang cop’s card and Buddy’s number.
“Buy in or rat out.”