BABY GIRL II For the Ones We Love

by Scott Hildreth

  “Fuck.”

  “You.”

  “I have no idea why you’ve been impossible to deal with. I can understand why you might have been earlier, but now? Just doesn’t make sense. You could be a free man. Why won’t you talk to me? Tell me where you were?”

  “I hate cops.”

  “Listen, you were a Marine. I was a Marine. The Chief was a Marine. Hell the department’s full of former Marines. It doesn’t mean I owe you anything, but Marines have tact, and respect. Now there’s a girl in the other room that claims you went to her dealership to get air in your tire. Do you remember how much air pressure you needed? Did she tell you? She says she filled the tire, which I find hard to believe, hell she’s a girl.”

  “Who were you with?” I looked him in the eyes.

  “The two-seven. Haditha, a few other places.” he answered and then looked down.

  “Fifteen pounds.” I said, looking up in the corner of the room.

  “Damn, wow. Okay. I’ll be back in a minute.” He walked out and down the hall.

  “I have one more. Which tire, Jacob? Front or rear?” he stuck his head in the door and asked.

  “Rear. It was the rear.” I smiled.

  Fuck, I never smile.

  ERIK. “Fuck, here that sum bitch comes, everybody act stupid,” Teddy said as he tipped up his bottle of beer.

  “Ought to come second nature for you, Crash, you big dumb bastard,” The Bone said.

  “Bite me, Bone,” Teddy said, as he grabbed his crotch.

  The sound of the motorcycle stopped outside the garage door, and almost instantly I could see his shadow in the doorway. Smoke rose from his mouth as he came through the door into the shop. Kelli squeezed my left arm and squealed. I reached around her and pulled her close to my side. She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me tight.

  “Damn, baby girl, settle down, it’s all going to be just fine,” I said as I looked over my left shoulder.

  “A-Train, you crazy prick, I knew you didn’t do it,” Jake screamed.

  And at that time everyone started talking, screaming or clapping. In the club, there had been considerable talk about Train, and his stubborn nature. Without a doubt, it was agreed that he would not deal with authorities at all, not accept a plea bargain, and would probably spend the remaining portion of his life in prison for first degree murder. The charges were for premeditated murder, based on the events that led up to the murder - the theft of Nacho’s bike and the purse.

  The evidence was purely circumstantial; they had finally found a bullet, and ballistics matched it to a rifle barrel that was found in a pond behind Slick’s house. The barrel was a typical barrel for an AR-15 rifle, a civilian version of the military M-16 rifle. It was a common rifle, a common barrel, and could have been possessed by any number of people. In this part of the country, about one in ten people own an AR-15. The problem arose when they found the former owner of the barrel. When questioned, he stated that he sold it to a one Alec Jacob, aka. A-Train. A-Train claimed that it must have been stolen, and he was unaware of the barrel’s absence from his arsenal. It wasn’t convincing enough to prevent his arrest.

  “There’s one person here I need to see real quick, in private - then we can start drinking,” A-Train said.

  Bone began stepping through the crowd to make his way to Train.

  “Kelli. Baby girl. Whatever your name is, come here,” he said, still standing half way between the garage door and the crowd.

  Kelli looked up at me nervously.

  “Well, he isn’t going to hurt you, that’s for sure, go…” I said as I slapped her on the ass with my hand.

  She walked through the crowd up to Train, and stood in front of him, her hands at her sides. Train opened his arms. Kelli turned around and looked at me.

  I nodded.

  And they hugged.

  As she hugged him, he picked her up from the floor and spun her in a circle. While they were spinning, he whispered something in her ear. She moved her face to beside his and whispered back. He lowered her to the floor and she smiled from ear to ear.

  “Somebody get me a beer,” Train screamed, pointing to the refrigerator.

  Jake reached in, pulled out a beer, and tossed it to Train.

  “Break that beer on my shop floor, there’ll be another killin’,” The Bone laughed.

  “Ever seen me miss?” A-Train asked, as he raised an eyebrow slowly.

  “So you did do it?” Shakey said, laughing.

  Train shrugged his shoulders and took a drink of his beer. None of us would ever know if he did it or didn’t do it. Not that it mattered, but he would never tell. It’s a trust issue with people like him. I suppose any person in his position would be reluctant to say anything to anyone. Tell one person, and they can tell the world. Eventually, most do.

  I looked at Kelli as she held my arm. All of this happened so fast, but it was extremely difficult for me to fully understand her level of devotion to me. Without a doubt, she didn’t do this solely for me. She took a tremendous risk. Tremendous. If some fact, some event, anything that she wasn’t aware of would have cropped up in that interview with either her or Train - something that proved she was lying – she would have went to jail right then and there. Lying or impeding an investigation is serious. Certain celebrities have even gone to prison for five years for lying in an investigation.

  Yet.

  She took the risk.

  Because she believed in what she was doing. She believed he was innocent, and believed that she could help him. She took tremendous risk in doing so, and I was proud of her. It was a different pride that I felt – a deep down in the pit of my stomach pride. Pride that I wasn’t used to feeling, and had not felt prior to this day.

  I looked to my left and smiled.

  My baby girl.

  As I looked down at her, she faced the crowd, her eyes moving from person to person, taking everything in, and smiling. She rarely spoke around me unless I spoke to her first. Sometimes when we were deep in a conversation, she would go on a tangent, but never unprovoked or uninvited.

  Surely she had plenty to say. Given an opportunity, she’d probably never shut up. I wanted her to be comfortable with me. I wanted her to open up, to be herself. To feel as if she had no risk in truly being her natural self. I wanted, and I would accept nothing less than being in control, sexually. Sexual control, for me, is a requirement. Sex aside, I wanted Kelli to be Kelli.

  I looked her direction again. She continued to smile, hug my arm, and watch the crowd. As she noticed me looking at her, she looked up and smiled. Without saying a word, she looked back into the crowd and laughed.

  “I have a half-assed announcement,” The Bone said as he raised his hand.

  He walked toward where Kelli and I were standing, and took an empty floor space beside Kelli.

  “Listen up,” he screamed.

  Every eye was on Bone.

  “Some crazy shit has happened in the last few days. Someone killed some sack of shit, as Teddy called him…and our man A-Train was wrongly arrested. Just to be clear, he didn’t do it. It is the general consensus of this club that one Alec Jacob, on last Monday night, on or about 7:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., was with one Kelli Parks, at her father’s dealership, getting air in his tire,” he said, and paused.

  “Fifteen pounds,” he said.

  Everyone started screaming and raising their beers to a toast.

  “Hold on God damn it, I am not done,” he screamed.

  “You all know how this works. To become a member of this club takes proving yourself. It takes a year of prospecting. It takes being voted in. It takes someone vouching for you. These colors are earned. It takes being a man, and riding an American v-twin bike. No women and no jap bikes,” he paused again, holding his hand in the air.

  “Being accepted by this club isn’t easy either. Being a hang around isn’t offered to any swingin’ dick that walks up. It takes character, it takes devotion, the ability to put up with all of
our shit, and it takes trust,” he took a drink of his beer.

  “Earning a nick-name around this fucking club is about like earning a patch, ain’t it?” he asked.

  ‘Fuck yeah’s’ and ‘Hell yeah’s’ sang out through the crowd.

  “Hold, on god damn it,” he screamed, “damn near done.”

  “Somebody trusted that fucking Slick. It sure wasn’t all of us that vouched him in, but someone did, so in a sense, we all did. That’s how it works. People make mistakes. He’s dead now - the son-of-a-bitch got what he had coming in my humble opinion. Trust is a bitch,” he took a drink of beer as the crowd waited.

  “I’m asking that you all trust me on this,” he grabbed Kelli’s hand and held it in the air.

  “This girl is golden. And from this day forward, she should be referenced by all of you, when you see her at functions and events as ‘Sis’, because although we don’t allow women in this club, she’ll always be our little sister,” as he finished, he bent down and kissed Kelli on the cheek.

  As everyone screamed and several people ran up to Kelli, I felt a lump rise in my throat.

  A lump of pride, and a realization.

  A realization that I wasn’t the only one.

  There was at least one more person that truly trusted this woman.

  KELLI. I bent down alongside the dumpster outside my apartment building and looked around to see if anyone could see me. I looked under the steel frame. I couldn’t see anything. I slid my arm underneath and stretched back as far as I could. I swung my arm from left to right.

  There. Right by the edge.

  I grabbed the sack and pulled it to the edge.

  I looked around. I opened the sack and looked inside. I pulled my purse from the sack and tossed the sack in the dumpster. Just like A-Train said, and right where he said he had left it. I opened the purse and looked inside. I pulled my wallet out and looked inside. All the credit cards and my driver’s license were there, but my money was gone. I looked inside the purse again and sifted through the bottom of it under the streetlight. I felt a round object and pulled it out. It was a roll of money with a rubber band around it. I held the roll over the purse and rolled the rubber band off of the roll. I unrolled the bills and started counting. There were various bills, but primarily fifty and twenty dollar bills.

  $2,800.00.

  Considerably more than the three hundred dollars I had in my purse. I put the rubber band back around the roll of money and stuck in in the purse.

  I walked back into the building and to the elevator. As I got off the elevator and walked down the hall I remembered what A-Train had said, our little secret. I clutched the purse under my arm and unlocked the door.

  I could never tell Erik where I found my purse or how. It would truly have to remain a secret. I had considered on my drive home just throwing the purse away, but quickly ruled that out. A-Train went to considerable risk to get this purse, and to toss it out would be disrespectful.

  I decided, after much thought, that A-Train went to Slick’s house with the express intent of getting my purse, and something must have gone wrong. At minimum, he went there to get the purse. If he just wanted to kill Slick, he would have done it on Saturday or Sunday, after the poker run.

  Monday was the day that the club was told that my purse was stolen. Slick was killed on Monday. The fact that it was on Monday, and the fact that A-train recovered the purse was proof that he went there with the intent of recovering the purse. If not, he would have killed him and left.

  My head was spinning.

  Think Kelli.

  What if…okay, what if. What if he went there, killed him, and left the purse, or never looked for it? Let’s see. The police would have found the body, found the purse, found my driver’s license inside, and then they would have…

  He found the purse to protect the people that were important to him. Erik. Me. The club.

  Erik told me A-Train was a decorated Marine in the war. If he was a Marine, he definitely would be sneaky. He probably snuck out to Slicks house, found the purse, and retrieved it. After that, he waited for Slick to come home, and shot him – for being a thief.

  I got your purse back. It’s under the dumpster at the corner by your building. This is our little secret.

  Who knows. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. A-Train is where he should be, with his friends. Erik is safe. I am safe. My father is safe. And the club is not in question. This is over.

  I reached back into my purse and got the roll of money out. I took six fifty dollar bills, and put them in my wallet. As I put the wallet back in the purse, I noticed a small square piece of paper rolled up. I pulled it out and looked at it.

  Kelli –

  Don’t know what you had, but 2800 is all I could find

  Train

  It was probably wrapped around the roll of money and fell off in the parking lot. He did go out there to get my purse. He even checked it for money. When he didn’t find any money, he got what he could find and put it in the purse.

  I carried the $2500 to the kitchen and opened the silverware drawer and put it inside.

  This has been a long week, and I need to take a shower and go to bed.

  I looked up at the ceiling and wondered what next week might bring. I recalled the events of the day and the week.

  Sis.

  I like the way that sounds.

  ERIK. In locales where the weather actually has seasons, it’s disappointing for a biker to see the weather change from hot to cold. The change is gradual, but this time of year the changes are very distinct. One day a cool wind blows in a temperature change that ends up being autumn. Soon thereafter, another gust brings in the winter.

  I looked out of Kelli’s window and thought about taking a vacation to Belize. The Keys. Somewhere warm. Kelli would look good in a swimsuit on the beach. I smiled at the thought. I looked at my watch. 4:18.

  I turned and walked into the kitchen to get a bottle of water. I heard Kelli turn off the shower, and smiled thinking of the day we were in the shower together. As I opened the refrigerator, I looked at the jar Kelli kept her treasures in. Her keepsakes. The more I thought of it, the more it was apparent what I meant to her. I needed no reassurance, I knew. I closed the refrigerator door and glanced again. What the fuck?

  I picked up the jar and turned it in a circle.

  How in the absolute fuck?

  The number seven chit from the poker run was in the jar. Her first chit from her first poker run. Her lucky or favorite number. I looked up at the ceiling, thinking, and tried to figure out how she got her hands on it. She must have gone back to the sponsors after the event. They certainly would have needed the chit for the entire poker run. I turned the jar and smiled.

  What the hell.

  A name caught my eye.

  I picked up the jar and turned it. I shook it to reposition the contents, and looked inside again. As I rotated to jar to see the paper, I read what it said.

  Kelli –

  Don’t know what you had, but 2800 is all I could find

  Train

  The paper used for the note was clearly from the note pads that were used in the shop. On the bottom of the paper it was marked ‘Bones Barn’ in gray letters. We all used the pads, and originally, we were going to call the repair shop Bone’s Barn.

  Feeling guilty for snooping, I placed the jar back on the refrigerator.

  I reached over and turned up the volume on the iPod Dock.

  I had my suspicions about Kelli’s purse. She had told me some story about the police calling her and how she gone to pick it up at the police station. She knew damned good and well I would never go to the police station to verify that story.

  I shook my head thinking about just what this note to her from Train might be regarding. Quickly, I decided it really didn’t matter. We all have our secrets. Kelli was as good of a woman as I could ever find anywhere. All that she did regarding the police, A-Train, and her purse was to protect me.

  W
hat we do to protect the ones we love.

  As I walked to the living room, Them Shoes by Patrick Sweany began to play. The motivation of music…

  As the bathroom door opened, I looked up from the desk. Kelli stood in the doorway wearing nothing but a towel.

  “Come here,” I demanded.

  “Let me get dressed, I’ll be right…”

  I didn’t let her finish, “Come here, Kelli,” I said in a stern tone.

  “Why are you sitting here at the window, Sir?” she asked as she walked up to the desk.

  “That’s better,” I responded, looking at her feet.

  “When Kelli,” I paused and looked up, “When am I in charge, always?”

  “Uhhmm. Well, during sex, only. Other than that, we’re equal, right?”

  “Correct,” I said, looking to her eyes.

  “You know what time it is, Kelli?” I asked.

  “Uhhmm, probably got to be close to five now, I took a long shower,” she responded.

  Damn, she is beautiful.

  “Correct, it is close to five,” I said as I looked at my watch.

  “The towel, Kelli. What’s with the towel?” I asked.

  “I dried off with it?” she responded, “What’s with calling me Kelli?”

  “Drop the towel, baby girl,” I said as I stood up on the desk.

  She dropped the towel on the floor and stood in front of me naked. All this woman had to do to impress me was exist.

  “Remember when I said, ‘I want to witness you exist’?” I asked.

  “Yes, you texted it to me the night before we met at the coffee shop the first time.”

  “Well, you naked little fucker, I’m enjoying it.”

  “Mouthy little fucker,” she laughed.

  “You’re probably mouthier than I want to know,” I laughed.

  She smiled.

  “But this, Kelli, is my time,” I said.

  “How so, sir?” she asked, tilting her head to the side smiling.