Popped Off

by Allen, Jeffrey

  “Whatever,” I said. “I don’t want them to cancel soccer, and if I can help prevent that, I’m going to. And we are up against it in terms of time. So I think being direct is the best route.”

  He shrugged his little shoulders. “If you say so. But I’m telling you, if these girls have any heat behind them, it could get sticky.”

  “What do you mean by heat?”

  He switched lanes quickly, and we swerved around an old Honda. “I’m just still not buying that these girls are really running this. I think they might be fronting for someone else.”

  “Like who?”

  “Like who knows? Someone who places the bets and knows what they’re doing and is making a nice tidy profit without showing their face.” He shrugged again. “Plenty of those in the world. And using the girls is actually pretty smart.”

  I thought that, too. The girls—or at least Amber—were outgoing and flirtatious. Guys would go to them and not want to look like fools. They’d overbet, play more than they should, just because they’d think it might impress. And I couldn’t think of anyone less likely to be suspected of running a gambling ring than a bunch of wealthy sorority girls.

  Victor gunned the engine again, and the Miata shot across two lanes.

  “I’d prefer not to die today,” I said.

  “Lucky you’re with me, then.”

  “Right.”

  “What’s the plan if they deny anything?” he asked, glancing over at me. “If they evade? Because it’s entirely possible that that dude with the bad wig and mustache could be lying to you.”

  “He wasn’t lying about the gambling part, with the girls.”

  “Most people who lie tell a little bit of the truth. It buys them time.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “The people who lie all the time?” Victor said. He waved a hand dismissively. “They’re easy to spot, because everything sounds like a lie. But the ones who mix in the lies with the truth? Those are the ones who are good at lying.”

  I hated how Victor could so easily make me doubt myself.

  “I don’t know, then,” I said. “I don’t have a backup plan.”

  “Of course you don’t.” He shook his head. “Telling you. This whole thing makes me nervous.”

  “Just get us there in one piece,” I said. “I’ll figure it out.”

  “Oh, that makes me feel great,” he said, frowning. “People who just plan to figure it out are usually the ones who end up dead in the movies.”

  “This isn’t a movie.”

  “Feels like one. A really bad one.”

  “Just drive.”

  Twenty minutes later he was parallel parking the Miata at a curb beneath towering oaks. The street was lined with mansions and pillars and Greek letters, and I was pretty sure if the wind blew in the right direction, the smell of money would drift along the tree limbs. Expensive cars lined the street like there was a foreign auto show in town, and college students lounged on the steps of their houses, their eyes hidden behind mirrored sunglasses and their hands occupied by plastic red cups.

  “You go to college?” I asked Victor as we got out.

  “What? You think they don’t let my kind go to college?”

  “I was just asking.”

  He hitched up his pants, pants that would’ve been nice walking shorts on me. “Nah, I didn’t go. I had better things to do.”

  “Like?”

  “Like getting a job and getting on with my life,” he said, scowling at me. “Stop being so nosy.”

  For as much time as I spent with Victor, I knew very little about him. I made a mental note to revisit the college conversation when time allowed in the future.

  We walked two blocks before we came upon the Alpha Gamma Tau house. Four giant white pillars buttressed wide brick steps. A nicely manicured lawn spread out along the front, and several girls were sitting on towels on the grass, all sporting a shirt or tank top with their Greek letters across their chest.

  They eyed us with what appeared to be a mixture of curiosity and annoyance, whispering behind their hands and pointing at Victor.

  “Hi, ladies,” I said. “Is Amber around?”

  A blonde with long hair and tan legs snorted. “Which one?”

  “Uh, the one that hangs out with Suzie.”

  They all chuckled, and I felt like the dumb kid in class.

  “You’re really gonna have to be more specific,” the blonde said.

  The others nodded, affirming my need for specificity.

  I gave them physical descriptions, and a girl with short black hair nodded. “Oh, sure. I don’t know if they’re here or not.” She moved her eyes from me to Victor. “And who are you, cutie?”

  Victor puffed out his chest. “Victor Anthony Doolittle.” He removed his hat and bowed. “At your service, ladies.”

  They all giggled and immediately reached for their phones. They all held them up, and shutters snapped across the lawn.

  Victor stood and replaced the hat on his head. “Now, how might we find Amber and Suzie?”

  “You don’t like us?” the dark-haired one asked. “What’s wrong with us?”

  “Au contraire,” Victor said. “Nothing’s wrong with you. I’d be happy to come back and sit with you and regale you with tales of my daring after we find Amber and Suzie.”

  His new lady friend pouted. “You’re making me feel like second choice.”

  Her friends joined in the pout.

  Victor puffed out his chest again. “Ladies, I promise, you are not second choice, but we’ve promised your friends that we’d come visit them first. After that . . .” He turned his palms up. “Who knows where the day will take us?”

  They squealed with delight, and I couldn’t tell if they were mocking him or genuinely excited.

  I felt slightly nauseous.

  The blonde stood up. “I’ll go see if I can find them. Wait here.”

  She hopped up the steps and disappeared into the mansion.

  A girl with long red hair pushed her sunglasses down her nose. “I like your hat.”

  “Most everyone does,” Victor said.

  “Bull,” I muttered.

  “Can I wear it?” Red asked.

  He removed it from his head and flipped it to her. She caught it and plopped it on her head.

  Her friends applauded.

  “I think it looks better on you,” Victor said, grinning.

  “Oh, no way,” she said, shaking her head. “Not possible.”

  “Anything’s possible.”

  Red tilted the hat upward. “You should come to our party tonight.”

  Victor raised an eyebrow. “Party?”

  “Sure. It’s in the backyard,” she said. “Kegger. You can be my date.”

  “I saw him first, Megan,” the dark-haired one spat.

  “Whatever, Missy,” Red, aka Megan, said.

  “I’ll be sure to tell Robby, then,” Missy hissed.

  Megan shrugged like it didn’t matter.

  “Ladies, ladies,” Victor said, holding out his hands. “Please. Let’s not fight over me.”

  “And he’s married,” I blurted out.

  Both of the girls looked at me like I was an alien.

  I felt the color rush into my face. “Well, he is.”

  “Even hotter,” Megan whispered.

  Missy nodded.

  I tried not to throw up.

  Before anyone could say anything else, the blonde emerged from the house. She perched on the top step.

  “They aren’t here,” she said.

  “Any idea when they’re coming back?” I asked.

  “No, but they said you could come to them,” she said. “If you want.”

  I looked at Victor. He shrugged.

  “Sure,” I said.

  She gave us an address. I looked at Victor.

  “That isn’t around here, is it?” he said.

  She shook her head. “No. They’re working on a service project. It’s in South D
allas.”

  “Okay. We’ll find it,” Victor said. He turned to his audience on the grass. “Ladies, until we meet again.”

  They both sat up like cats about to pounce.

  “Yeah,” Megan whispered.

  “Until we meet again,” Missy whispered.

  Creepy.

  45

  “That was just weird,” I said.

  “What? That they weren’t there?”

  “No. That they liked you.”

  We were flying down the 35, Victor weaving us in and out of cars that were doing normal speeds.

  He smiled, and his teeth shone in the sunshine. “I’m a sexual magnet.”

  “Stop. That’s just gross.”

  “No, it’s true. My wife? She can’t get enough of me.”

  “I’ve already had enough of you.”

  “Your jealousy is ugly.”

  “So is your face.”

  He cackled as he zipped across three lanes and took the exit he wanted.

  The area we were in couldn’t have been more different from the Park Cities area around SMU. Pillars and manicured lawns were replaced by low-slung ranch homes, misshapen garage doors, and networks of weeds. The cars on the streets were on their last legs, held together by duct tape and crossed fingers. We were maybe fifteen miles away, but we might as well have been in another universe.

  “This must be some kind of service project,” Victor muttered.

  “Probably like a Habitat for Humanity thing,” I said. “Where they build a house for someone who needs one.”

  “Couldn’t they do it in a nicer looking place?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you.”

  “I don’t need you, Stilts. And I ain’t afraid, either.”

  “If you say so.”

  Victor followed the directions on his GPS through a maze of neighborhood streets, each row of houses growing a little less cared for each time we turned. I was having a hard time envisioning Amber and Suzie being thrilled to come into this area of town to do good. I knew most Greek organizations required a certain number of service hours each year, but I had to wonder if they hadn’t tried for something else and got stuck with something that didn’t please them.

  The Miata slowed, and Victor guided us to the curb.

  He raised an eyebrow. “This is it.”

  A rectangular mass of brick and shingles was masquerading as a house. The glass in the two front windows was cracked, and the yard was a wide expanse of thick dirt and clumps of thistle. Two weathered and broken rocking chairs sat on the front stoop, which was barely big enough to hold both. The front door hung crooked on the hinges.

  “Doesn’t look like they’ve done much to service it,” Victor noted wryly.

  I could see movement behind the dusty, cracked windows. “Maybe they’ve just started.”

  “Well, they’re gonna be here awhile, then.”

  We got out and walked up the concrete path that bisected the yard. Except it wasn’t so much a path as a trail of busted hunks of concrete.

  I pushed one of the broken rockers aside and knocked on the door.

  Feet shuffled behind the door, and it swung open.

  Amber held up a hand in greeting, another hand perched on her hip. “Hey!”

  “Hi, Amber,” I said. I motioned to Victor. “This is my friend Victor.”

  Her smile widened, and she put her hands on her knees. “Aren’t you just the cutest thing ever?”

  “I pretty much am, yeah,” Victor said.

  “Do you go by midget? Or little person?”

  “I go by Victor,” he said, his smile fading.

  “Of course you do!” Amber squealed. “Hello, Victor!”

  I couldn’t tell whether he was happy to be the center of her attention or annoyed at her ignorance.

  She stood up. “I didn’t know you were coming. Or bringing a friend.”

  “Well, after we talked, I was feeling a bit impatient,” I said. “The money was getting heavy in my pockets. If you know what I mean.”

  “Oh, do I,” she said, grinning.

  “And Victor was at my house,” I continued. “I hire him to do landscaping. . . .”

  “What the . . . ?” he said.

  “Small bushes, not the tall trees, obviously. And he wondered where I was going, and I know he’s a big sports fan, so I thought he might be able to, you know, participate, as well.”

  “I’m gonna kill you,” he muttered.

  “We could hire you to do the landscaping at the house!” Amber exclaimed. She clapped her hands together. “That would be so totally fun!”

  “I keep him on a tight schedule, but I’m sure you could work something out,” I said, enjoying myself.

  “Def!”

  “Can we come in?” I asked.

  Her eyes shifted away from me. “Sure. We’re all out back.” She stepped aside to let us pass.

  The interior of the house matched the exterior. Half of the carpeting was missing, and most of the furniture looked at least thirty years old. Holes in the plaster dotted the walls like a puzzle, and what little paint I saw was cracked and flaking. The room felt damp and cool, and a musty odor hung in the air.

  Which I thought was a bit odd since they were supposedly cleaning it up.

  “You guys just start working on this house?” I asked.

  “Working on it?”

  “For your service project?” I said. “That’s what the girls at your house told us you were doing.”

  “Oh, right!” Amber said. “Service project. Totally. We’ve just started. So it’s obviously still pretty icky.”

  “Icky’s one word for it,” Victor said.

  I followed Victor through a torn-up kitchen missing all its appliances and to a back door with a dirty curtain covering the window. He reached up, opened it, and we stepped outside.

  I surveyed the scene in front of me and felt stupid.

  Victor turned to me and confirmed my stupidity. “You idiot.”

  46

  Suzie used the gun she was holding to motion us toward two weather-beaten deck chairs. “Sit.”

  By my count, I saw six girls with guns. Most of them were wearing their sorority letters and supercute denim shorts. They were all holding small-caliber handguns, and they were pointed directly at us.

  “I’ll come up with a plan,” Victor mimicked. “I’ll figure it out.” He sat down in the chair with a disgusted sigh.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, sitting down next to him.

  “That’s what we’d like to know,” Suzie said, frowning.

  Amber sat down in a chair across from us, crossed her legs, and smiled. “So what’s up, guys?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “What’s up?”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Seriously.”

  “Amber, all your sorority sisters are pointing guns at me,” I said.

  “Us,” Victor corrected. “Pointing guns at us.”

  “Right. Us,” I said. “We came here to place some bets with you, and now I have no idea what’s going on.”

  She looked at Victor. “And you’re sticking with this story, too, cutie-pie?”

  “It’s all we got,” Victor said.

  “Oh my gawd, yeah, it is,” she said, giggling. “And it’s totally not much.”

  Her confidence and command were unnerving. I was beginning to realize that I had severely underestimated the girls of Alpha Gamma Tau, despite warning myself to not underestimate them.

  Amber lifted her chin at one of the girls aiming at us. “Go get him.”

  The girl nodded, lowered the gun, and skipped around the corner of the house.

  “Get who?” I asked.

  Amber’s phone dinged, and she pulled it out of her pocket. She smiled and looked at Victor. “Megan wants to know if you’ll go to our fall formal with her.”

  “You’re gonna ask me this with guns in my face?” he said.

  “She’s totally into you. Majorly.”

  He turned
to me. “You suck. Majorly. I’m rethinking our partnership. Immediately.”

  “Partnership?” Amber asked, leaning forward. “Oh my gawd! Do you two, like, like each other?”

  “Jesus Christ, no!” Victor said, inching away from me.

  The girls with the guns giggled.

  “Oh, good,” Amber said. “Megan would be crushed. Anyway, let me know, ’kay?”

  Victor rolled his eyes.

  “Amber, what’s going on?” I asked. “Why are we here?”

  “Totally good question,” she said, winking at me. “You should totally answer it.”

  She was calm, cool, and collected. There was no anxiety, no worry, no fear. She knew she had us, and she was comfortable being in that position.

  I was not.

  Before I could respond, I heard footsteps coming from where she’d sent her gun-wielding sorority sister. Part of me expected to see Moises Huber, now thinking this was where they’d kept him. I wasn’t sure what the other half of me expected to see.

  Half of me was right, and half of me was shocked.

  In front of the armed sorority sister were both Moises Huber and his cousin, Elliott. I sorta knew how one got there, but I had no clue how the other had fallen into this predicament.

  Moe looked a little tired, but other than that, he seemed fine. He held up a hand in greeting. “Hey, Deuce.”

  “Moe.”

  Elliott was staring at his feet.

  “Guys, just have a seat right there, ’kay?” Amber said sweetly, waving her hand at the stairs that came up to the patio. “Lizzie, keep ’em covered. Just in case they wanna get silly or something.”

  The cousins did as they were told, and Lizzie kept her gun trained on them.

  Amber turned her attention back to us. “So still sticking to your story?”

  I looked at Victor.

  “You’re on your own, Stilts,” he said, shaking his head. “I warned you.”

  I stayed quiet for a moment. This investigating thing had started out as a bit of a lark, a way to occupy some time and help some people. Make a little money, too. I had fallen into it, but I had stayed in it by choice. But I hadn’t really considered it dangerous.

  I was sitting in an abandoned house now, though, and people were armed. It wasn’t comfortable, and I felt grossly underprepared and ill equipped. This wasn’t what I’d envisioned, and to say I wasn’t scared would be a big, fat lie. I didn’t care if it was sorority girls aiming guns at me.