Running from the Dead

by Mike Knowles

  Jones pretended to think about it and then said, “Oh.”

  Tony smiled. “Yeah, we’re in the O business. What room is she in?”

  The question surprised Jones. He hadn’t expected there to be more than one girl. He glanced over his shoulder at the second floor and saw the single room lit up. Maybe another room had looked like that before another kid like Lauren turned off the lights.

  “You don’t know?”

  The tone brought Jones’ eyes back to Tony. “Sorry. It’s two oh three.”

  Tony brought his vape pen out of his pocket and took a long drag. He spoke through the dense plume. “Money up front.”

  Jones had expected this and he had already decided how to play it. He took a step back and hardened his voice just a little. “I don’t think so.”

  Tony invaded Jones’ personal space and shoved him. “You don’t think so? Listen, you booked time with one of my girls and that means you owe me money. If you want to cancel, that’s okay, but there’s a fee.”

  “How much?”

  “Four hundred.”

  “On the phone she said it was five. Is this a different girl?” The words came out fast. His panic was real.

  “Tonight is your lucky night,” Tony said. “There’s a discount. Think of it like a garage sale.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Tony stepped closer and Jones could smell the artificial fruit on his breath from the vape pen. “It’s cheaper ’cause it’s used junk.” Then, he smiled. “Relax, it’s a good deal. It’s not like there’s anything wrong with her pussy.”

  Jones knew there was no point in arguing, but he made a show of being upset about the situation. Eventually, he pulled the money from his pocket and used his thumb and index finger to lift off five twenties.

  Tony watched Jones slip the hundred dollars into his pocket and looked at Marvin. “You see how he does that? That is funny.”

  Jones held out what was left in the wad and Tony took it.

  When Tony finished counting it, he looked at Jones. “You got an hour. You go over and it’ll cost you another hour. Do you have the money for that?”

  Jones shook his head.

  “Then you better be on time.”

  Jones nodded and Tony started back toward the car. Marvin stared at Jones for a few seconds longer and then he followed the pimp.

  Jones went up the stairs slower than he wanted to and forced himself to walk down the concrete landing to room 203. Jones passed the first two rooms and noticed that the curtains on the second were a warmer shade of red than the first; there was someone inside. Jones walked past room 203 as though he had missed it and checked the curtains on 204; the room was dark like the first had been. Jones made a show of craning his neck to look at the door he had just passed before shaking his head for the audience of two below and walking back to 203. The motel room door had once been the colour of a candy apple, but over the years the red paint had been chipped and scuffed so many times that the door now resembled a raw wound. Jones knocked twice and stepped back so that he could be seen in the peep hole.

  Almost a minute went by before Jones heard the loose doorknob grind as it turned. The face that greeted Jones had the dimensions of a catcher’s mitt. Her cheeks were swollen and her lips split. Jones took a small step closer and examined the girl. He wasn’t sure if it was Lauren; her features were too distorted.

  “Hey, Daddy.”

  The sound of her voice forced the breath from his lungs. It was her. “Hey.”

  She tried to smile and Jones felt his throat catch. Someone had hit her hard enough to break bones in her face. He had to clear his throat before he spoke so that she wouldn’t hear the revulsion in his voice. The girl in the photograph had been broken inside and out, and there was nothing left that wasn’t bent out of shape.

  “Can I come in?”

  She nodded and tried to look coy. “Sure.” The words were slurred, but not from the beating. The men outside had beaten her and then doped her up until she couldn’t feel anything at all. She backed up just a little, and Jones did his best to slide past her without making contact with her body.

  Lauren leaned against the door in an attempt to close it with her back. She was unsteady on her feet and misjudged the distance; her arms went rigid when she realized she was falling backward and she was unprepared for the door when she hit it. Her head struck the wood with a loud thump.

  Jones stepped forward and took her by the shoulders to keep her on her feet. She leaned into his grip and smiled.

  “You got a name, Daddy?”

  Jones let her go, and when he was sure she could stay on her feet, he stepped back. “My name is Sam, Lauren.”

  Jones waited to see if her name and the sound of his voice registered. It didn’t.

  “That’s a funny name.”

  “What happened to you?”

  She smiled again and her lip started to bleed. “I fell.”

  Jones shook his head. “Was it Tony?”

  “No, Daddy. I fell.”

  “It’s Sam.”

  “Men like it when I call them Daddy.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Okay.” Lauren stumbled past him and fell onto the bed. Jones could tell that she was trying to be seductive; it was the opposite. Her injuries and whatever she was on left her slow and disoriented, and it took her a long time to roll over. When she finally looked at Jones, he noticed the strap of her bloodstained white tank top had fallen off her shoulder.

  She draped a bruised leg over her knee and dangled her cheap shoe. “What do you like?”

  “I’d like to leave, Lauren.”

  “You don’t like me, Daddy?”

  “It’s Sam.”

  “Sorry.”

  Looking at her and hearing her apologize made Jones sick. “It’s okay, and I like you, Lauren. That’s why I want to leave with you.”

  She shook her head. “Nu unh. That’s against the rules. I’ll do anything you want. Anything but that. Tony’s rules.”

  “I don’t care about Tony’s rules.”

  Lauren’s mouth formed a dark circle in her pink inflamed face. “Ooooh, don’t say that around him. He gets angry. He is mean when he’s angry.”

  “I see that.”

  Lauren rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow. She winced and clumsily rolled onto her other elbow. “I made him angry.” She said the words like they were a fun secret she was sharing with a friend.

  “What did you do to make him angry?”

  “I stabbed him.” Lauren lifted her hand, pointed at Jones, and then turned the finger and dropped it onto her side. “Right there.” She giggled. “He did not like it.”

  Jones remembered Tony holding his side. “Why did you stab him?”

  “I was stupid.”

  “I don’t believe that.”

  Lauren flopped back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. “I was. For a second, I thought there might be a way through instead of out.” She shook her head. “It was stupid.”

  Jones heard her say the words, but they were his.

  “That wasn’t what I meant, Lauren.” He kneeled beside the bed and quietly said, “I’m sorry, Lauren.”

  His proximity triggered something in her, and she turned her swollen face toward him. “Do you want to lay on the bed with me, Sam?”

  Jones stared into her dull eyes. “No, thank you.”

  Lauren rolled over and lifted her ass on the bed. “How about now?”

  Jones stood and took a step back. “I just want to talk.”

  Lauren sighed and worked her way back onto her elbow. “I bet we can find something more fun to do than talk.”

  Jones went back to the door and glanced out the window to the parking lot. Both men were still in the front seats of the BMW; the b
ass from music was back and loud enough to make the glass buzz. “I can think of something fun,” he said as he started back across the room. The sparsely decorated space was surprisingly larger than Jones had expected it to be and it made him wonder if the motel had once been something more elevated than a pop-up brothel when it had opened. The cheap flat screen television on the dresser was the only obvious update—the dresser and wooden chair in the corner were both decades out of date and the picture frame above the bed had a hairline crack running across it that Jones noticed as he crossed the room to the large window overlooking the back lawn. He slipped his phone out of his pocket when he saw the Jeep parked on the service road.

  “Oh yeah? What?”

  Jones turned on the phone’s flashlight. The paint on the sill had begun to peel and Jones could feel a draft weaving its way through the pane when he pressed the face of the phone against the window. “Leaving.”

  Lauren groaned. “I told you. That will make Tony mad.”

  “Lauren—”

  “Wait. How do you know my name?”

  It had taken a while, but the mental fog that had settled in was starting to lift. “Norah told me.”

  The name got her attention. She looked at Jones and then she pulled herself up and crossed her legs under her. “I called you.”

  Jones nodded as he put his phone away.

  “I never should have listened to you,” Lauren said. “I tried to go through instead of out and look what happened. I can’t even kill myself. Tony took all my things away. I was stupid to think there was anything for me but this.”

  “What if I took you to my place.” The words came out fast and desperate—like a scream from a man drowning close to shore.

  She laughed again. “So I’ll just exchange one pimp for another.”

  “I don’t want to be your pimp.”

  “My john then? Let me guess, fucking me whenever you want should be just enough to cover room and board.”

  “I don’t want that either.”

  Lauren shimmied back to the wall. “Sure you don’t. You just want me to come live with you in your house. No strings attached.”

  “There aren’t any strings.”

  “There are always strings.”

  “Not this time.”

  She shook her head and mimicked his tone. “Because you’re different.”

  “Because I won’t be there.”

  “What?”

  Jones sighed. “The cops are going to pick me up tomorrow, and they don’t plan on putting me down.”

  “Because you killed that guy.”

  “Because I killed that guy,” he said.

  “So you’re just going to let me live at your place?”

  “I’m going to let you stay at my place until you figure out what you want to do next. I know some people—a woman—who might be able to help with that if you’ll let them.”

  That was it. Jones had offered all that he had and there was nothing left that he could do. Jones wondered if Lauren noticed the quiver in his voice.

  She didn’t laugh this time. Lauren sat motionless staring at Jones, trying to read something in his eyes. Jones didn’t dare look away. He waited, holding his breath, and prayed for a single word. She saw whatever she had been looking for and opened her mouth to deliver her verdict. Jones never heard what she said. Lauren was interrupted by the sound of blunt force against cheap wood.

  38

  Tony’s Air Jordan punched a hole straight through the motel door. The jagged perforation snagged his pants, and Jones heard Tony swear as he tried to wrench his leg back through the hole he had made. The second kick hit closer to the door knob and sent the door swinging inward. The door rebounded off the wall and Tony swatted it out of his way as he stepped into the room. The climb up the stairs and taking down the door had winded him again and Tony paused with his hand on his side to catch his breath. Behind him loomed most of Marvin; the bigger man’s eyes loomed above his partner’s head and were staring at Jones. Marvin’s chest showed no signs of his partner’s exhaustion.

  “You think I wouldn’t figure out who you were?” Tony pointed a finger at Jones. “Did you really think I wouldn’t know that you were the guy who got in her head?” Tony jerked his head in Lauren’s direction. “This is him isn’t it?”

  Lauren lifted her palms up toward the red-faced angry pimp. She was terrified and her fear evaporated the rest of the fog she had been in. “I didn’t call him, Daddy. I swear. I don’t know how he found me. You gotta believe me.”

  Tony pointed a finger at Lauren. “Shut up.”

  Lauren nodded and closed her mouth.

  “I thought I taught you a lesson. I thought you understood how things are, but I guess I was wrong.”

  “No, no you weren’t. I learned my lesson. I did. He wanted me to run away. He did. He told me that I could live at his place, and I said no. I said no, Daddy.”

  Tony pointed at her again. “I told you to shut up.” He moved the finger toward Jones. “You got in her ear and you know what she does? She stabs me.” Tony looked at Lauren shaking on the bed. He shook his head and looked at Jones. “That wasn’t her. My baby girl wouldn’t do that. No, that was you. You stabbed me.”

  Tony stepped into Jones’ personal space. The pimp’s cologne was nauseating. “You—stabbed—me.” He tapped his side to emphasize each word.

  Jones looked at Lauren, but she wouldn’t meet his eye. She hugged her knees and stared at the wall.

  “I should fuck you up, ” Tony said. “I should. But the doctor said I had to take it easy. He said I could wreck my stitches if I wasn’t careful. But that’s okay. It’s perfect actually. You got someone to hurt me, so it feels just right that I get someone to hurt you.” Tony took a step back and spoke over his shoulder. “Marvin, come hurt this guy.”

  Marvin ducked his head and stepped into the room. Tony clapped him on the back as he switched places with the much taller man. Marvin brought his fists up and angled his body into a boxer’s stance. Jones noticed the way he positioned his shoulders and the distinctive way he placed his lead foot and realized that he had been half right—Marvin was a Thai boxer. Jones began to back up slowly. Marvin read the movement as a retreat and began to follow.

  “Get him, Marvin.”

  Marvin ignored Tony and slowly advanced. Jones stopped inside the bathroom and brought his right hand up to his jaw. He kept his left arm bent so that his elbow was out in front.

  The door frame created an awkward buffer that limited the kickboxer’s options. Marvin paused at the threshold and glanced left and then right. He understood what Jones had done and what he was suddenly unable to do. Marvin let Jones know how he felt about the restrictions with a jab into the bathroom that came at Jones faster than he expected. Jones parried the attack with his elbow and held his ground. There was no point in punching back—Marvin’s reach kept him too far away.

  Marvin sent another jab through the doorway and followed it with a right cross that hit Jones on the jaw and sent him stumbling into the toilet hard enough to crack the ceramic. Marvin used Jones’ momentary disorientation as an opportunity to enter the bathroom.

  “Now you’re in trouble,” Tony called from just outside the doorway.

  Marvin took hold of the back of Jones’ head and pulled him tight. Less than a second later a knee drove up into Jones’ chin and set off fireworks in his head. He managed to get an arm in the way of the next knee and everything went numb below his left elbow. Luckily for Jones, there wasn’t much below his left elbow. Jones drove his knee into Marvin’s groin and heard a whoosh of air leave the big man. Marvin stumbled back and Jones wrestled free from the clinch. Jones grabbed hold of the top of the toilet tank and swung the ceramic rectangle as hard as he could against the side of Marvin’s head. The ceramic exploded and the big man stumbled sideways. The low lip of the tub caught Marvi
n by surprise and he fell through the shower curtain. Jones reached up and yanked the rod down on top of Marvin. The man was a trained fighter and he was probably deadly in a ring with rounds and rules, but in a bathroom with no referee, he was average at best. Jones took advantage of the couple of seconds it took Marvin to get his feet under him to snake a hand inside his coat and then waited until his hands went low for the curtain. When Marvin took hold of the rod, Jones drove the knife forward into the long target. Jones heard a whoosh of air leave Marvin as the knife went in deep and then a gasp when he yanked the blade out. He was trained to aim better, and to keep going, but he didn’t want the man dead; he just wanted him out of the way.

  Jones wiped the knife on the only bathroom towel and stepped out of the room. Tony had moved to the bed and taken Lauren by the hair so that he could use the girl as a shield. The fistful of hair didn’t make her cry out or cringe; she just stood there in front of him as though it were a regular Thursday night. Tony glanced at the knife without a trace of fear in his eyes. He wasn’t afraid of a knife fight because he’d brought a gun.

  Tony rested his elbow on Lauren’s shoulder to steady his aim. “Look at all the trouble you caused.”

  “I didn’t do this,” Lauren sobbed. “I didn’t. You gotta believe me.”

  Jones lifted his hand and arm. “I just want to get Lauren somewhere safe. That’s all.”

  “Oh, that’s all? And what about all the money she earns. Where is that going to go? You going to keep that safe for me too?”

  “I told you, Daddy. I said no to him. I want to be with you.”

  Tony tightened his grip on her hair and Jones saw her lift to her tiptoes. “You hear that? She don’t need saving.”

  “Lauren,” Jones said. “I meant every word. You can be done with all of this.”

  Tony let go of Lauren’s hair. She stumbled forward but didn’t try to move any farther away. “Make your choice. Do you want to go with him, or do you want to stay with me?”

  She didn’t look back at the gun pointed in her direction. Jones watched her walk back to the bed. She looked up at Jones from the cheap mattress and said, “This is my life.”