Return of the Nomad

by Beatrix Banner

  “What the heck is this?” he asked as he dropped the sheet in his lap and picked up another. “It’s totally unintelligible. Some sort of code? What are these weird symbols and stuff?”

  “All excellent questions. I wish I had an answer for ya,” I replied as I shrugged. I sat back down next to him.

  “You say these were in a locked drawer in Jesse’s desk?”

  “Yep.” I nodded, picking up my beer and taking another sip.

  “Bizarre,” he replied. “Good call on taking them with you, though.”

  “Thanks, Detective. Anyway, so I had a little root around, but I didn’t find anything of much interest. Oh, well, there were a few stacks of hundreds in there too, but I gave those to the girls when I told them to run.”

  Archie looked at me with alarm.

  I shook my head. “Not important. So I leave the office and sneak back out of the house. Everyone’s still downstairs by the pool, drinking, eating, having a good time. Once I’m out of earshot, I call Jesse’s cell—”

  “Ah, that’s why you wanted his number,” he cut in.

  “—and I tell him I’m up in his office. He hollers at a group of his guys to get up there and I hang up. While I was in there, I’d planted one of my burners—”

  “You and your freakin’ burners….”

  “And I dialed that. Oh, I had opened the valve on the tank when I was in the office. Yeah, so, when I dialed the burner…”

  Archie took a deep breath. “Boom.”

  I nodded. “Boom. So that took out a few of ’em, I then went back to the house and had a bit of a, uh, scuffle with a few more.”

  “Which, I’m assuming, ended up with them getting taken out, too.”

  “It did. I found those girls I mentioned, huddled together in a cupboard under the stairs, so I told ’em to run and gave them the money I had found up in the office.”

  “You’re a regular Mother Theresa.”

  “Don’t you forget it. Then, Jesse comes outta nowhere and tries to knock me out, so I put one in his knee. He retaliated by shoving a knife in my thigh.”

  “The war wound?”

  “No. The other wound in my thigh. He ends up crawling out to his car out front. I follow him, slower than I would’ve liked, and get out front as he’s speeding off in a goddamn Ferrari. I jump in one of the other cars that are still out there and follow him out into the desert. I managed to run him off the road and he flipped his car into a river.” I paused to take another swig of beer and collect my thoughts. “So, I get out of the car and make my way over to him. He’s pretty battered and bruised, and I pull a gun on him and tell him to give it up, tell me what the hell happened to Pam.”

  “How did you know he knew what happened to her?”

  “Man, you don’t avoid the police to the point of driving down to Mexico if you don’t know what’s what. He was clearly not innocent to some degree, from the moment he wouldn’t give you shit in the interview.”

  “Okay, fine, that makes sense,” he replied, bobbing his head from side to side in reluctant agreement.

  “He pulls a gun on me, but he’s messin’ around, too, acting all cocky. So, when he’s not paying attention, I throw my knife into his arm. He drops the gun.” I took a deep breath. “I’ve got him where I want him.”

  Archie sensed my hesitance and placed a hand on my arm. “Take it easy. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

  I gave him a half smile in thanks. “He starts laughing at me and tells me I haven’t got a clue. I ask him what he means and he tells me… Archie, he told me that Pam was the vigilante.”

  Archie’s brow furrowed and he tilted his head like a confused puppy. There was silence for what felt like several minutes. In reality, it was probably only fifteen seconds or so.

  He blinked. “I… I don’t understand.”

  “Pam was your vigilante. She was going around ‘killing his boys’. Poisoning all the mobsters. Anyone that had a connection to Porcino, to Jesse. Porcino was the worst, I’m guessing, because he was the one that sold her the heroin that caused the miscarriage.”

  “Holy… Shit.” He sat in shock for a second and then slowly got to his feet. He began to pace back and forth across the living room in front of me. I watched the cogs turn as he began to process the information in the only way he knew how. “So—so, okay. Pam’s seeing Carter, he gets her hooked on different kinds of drugs.”

  I cut him off. “No, all we know is she was hooked on heroin. Realistically, she probably did take others, but it was the heroin she got addicted to, it was the heroin she overdosed on and that’s what caused the miscarriage. The heroin is what’s important here.”

  “Okay, yes, you’re right. So she’s getting heroin from Carter. But, judging by what I’ve seen of him, his stuff probably wasn’t the greatest quality, or he probably charged a lot regardless of the quality, and we know he was definitely charging her for it. Maybe he even stopped supplying her ’cause she refused to pay any more. So she starts muddying his name and looking for other dealers, people that can give her the fix that’s better.”

  “And that she could afford,” I added.

  “Right. People that are getting it wholesale, for want of a better word. So she goes downtown, comes across Jesse, who’s looking for an easy sell. But, he can see she’s causing trouble. He hasn’t got much patience for her and pawns her off after a little while by sending her to Porcino, hoping he’ll deal with her instead.”

  “Don’t you think it’s a little odd that a drug dealer would send business elsewhere just because someone is a bit difficult?”

  “Don’t forget, the kind of difficult she was being ended up murdering drug dealers across the tri-state area. This wasn’t cute difficult, this was dangerous. The kind of dangerous Jesse was super familiar with. He probably saw the red flags and called time.”

  “Yeah, okay, that makes sense. He most likely told her she would get it cheaper or something like that. And she does get it cheaper. Porcino was probably too dumb to be able to read the red flags.”

  I scoffed and nodded in agreement. “Jesse didn’t get those massive houses from being a moron.”

  “Right? Porcino just wants to make sure he gets her hooked so she keeps coming back, and she ODs. Loses the baby. The pain she must have felt. I mean like, physically and emotionally, stirred a rage in her she couldn’t overcome and she became extremely focused on getting revenge. First, she starts sharpening her body and mind, she starts going for walks, hikes, she joins a gym. She begins researching and plotting, planning what she’s going to do. She starts off small—as sick as it sounds—kind of, test murders? Trying out the method, figuring out dosages and stuff, until she’s ready to take down Porcino.”

  “And then she does,” I continued. “Jesse hears word of all this and he goes to Jimmy.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t know this bit. Is this us speculating some more or is this what you know? Did Jesse tell you this?”

  “He told me this.”

  “Well, why didn’t you say!”

  “I was going to, but then you went all Poirot on me.”

  “All right,” he said, rolling his eyes.

  “Jesse went to Jimmy—”

  “Why would he go to Jimmy? How would he even know him, why would he care?”

  “Because Jimmy was paying him protection.”

  “He WHAT?” Archie exclaimed.

  “Yeah. Jimmy was paying protection to Jesse. So he goes to Jimmy and tells him if he doesn’t get his daughter in check, one of Jesse’s boys will do it for him.”

  “Holy shit!” he shouted.

  “I know,” I replied. I was about to go on when his eyes narrowed at me.

  “Wait. How long have you known about this?”

  “I found out right before I asked you for his address.”

  “Ana.” He sighed and gritted his teeth. “You… I wish you would have shared that with me at the time.”

  “I know.” I didn’t know how else to
respond. I couldn’t have told him. Like I had said, the law was protecting Jesse. The only way to find out what had truly happened was to go after him then and there.

  “So, one of his guys killed Pam?” he asked with a pained expression on his face. “This is insane. How—I… I can’t wrap my head around it.”

  “I know,” I repeated. What else could I say? My head was reeling, too. I stood from the couch and started heading back to my room.

  “Where are you going?” Archie asked me as he got up, too. He followed me down the corridor.

  “To break the news to Jimmy,” I replied as I began to change into something slightly more respectable than sweats.

  “Well, I’ll come with you.”

  “No. Let me do it alone.”

  “Why?”

  I had to lie. “Because, I practically grew up with them. It’ll be better coming from me.”

  His face looked like a mixture of disappointment and relief, but he nodded. “Okay. But I’m just a phone call away if it goes south.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  I climbed back in the Ford and began the journey to Jimmy’s bar. The sun had completely disappeared from the sky, and the handful of stars you could see in Los Angeles were beginning to appear out of the underlit blackness. I rolled down the driver’s side window and let the cool night air whip across my face. There was a knot in my stomach the size of Texas and I felt jittery and vaguely nauseated. I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Jimmy had been paying protection money to Jesse. I felt betrayed, and I found that bizarre. Why was I taking it so personally? A number of reasons, I told myself, none of which were wise to get into while hurtling down a freeway.

  The drive was over before I knew it, and I found myself turning into the parking lot and pulling into a bay before I was ready. The lot was empty and I turned the ignition off and sat in the cab of my truck for several minutes as I steeled myself for the upcoming conversation. Once the knowledge that I couldn’t put it off any longer became unavoidable, I dragged myself out of the cab and across the parking lot. I took a deep breath as I approached the door. I pushed inside.

  The bar was empty. I knew that Jimmy liked to go through ‘the financials’ on a Tuesday evening, since it was usually quiet, so I had been expecting as much. I walked up to the bar and knocked on the hardwood. A couple of seconds later, his head appeared around the corner of the office.

  “Hey, kiddo,” he said as he pulled his glasses down to the end of his nose to observe me. “What’s going on? Gimme two minutes and I’ll be out.”

  I nodded and he disappeared back around the corner. I took a seat on one of the stools at the bar and spun around to look at the knickknacks and hangings on the walls.

  “You want a beer?” Jimmy’s voice re-appeared behind me and I jumped.

  “You scared me.” I laughed as I put my hand over my heart.

  “What’s got you so jittery?” he asked as he began pouring us two glasses of beer.

  I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I didn’t, wordlessly accepting the beer when it was handed to me. I took a sip to buy myself a few more seconds.

  “I’ve gotta talk to you about somethin’, Jimmy.”

  He finished pouring his own beer and walked around the bar to come and sit on the stool opposite me.

  “Oh yeah?” he asked as he shuffled in his seat to get comfortable. “You find out something else about Pamela?”

  “Yeah, I did. I found Jesse. The other drug dealer?”

  Jimmy’s eyebrows climbed up to his hairline. “You did, huh?”

  “Yeah, followed him and a convoy of his boys all the way down to Mexico.”

  “No kidding… What was he doing down there?”

  “Looked like he was meeting some folks. He had visitors at this huge compound on the Gulf of California. They had a party. I crashed it.”

  Jimmy sighed. “You’ve really gotta be more careful, kiddo. You’ve been like this since you were a kid, just jumpin’ in without thinking it through.”

  “I know. But it was worth it this time. I got the answers I was looking for. I found out what happened to Pam.”

  Jimmy didn’t respond verbally. His eyes widened and he nodded his head gently.

  I continued. “I ended up having to chase Jesse into the desert. I had taken care of… a few of his guys back at the compound, and Jesse bolted after he got me in the leg.”

  “Jesus, Ana. Are you okay? I mean, obviously you are, but… Jesus.” He rubbed his hands over his face.

  “I’m fine, Jimmy. I managed to catch up to him and we got into a standoff. He had a weapon on me, I had one on him. I convinced him to talk.”

  Jimmy’s brow furrowed in concern, but he didn’t say anything. I wanted him to say something. He cleared his throat.

  I sighed. “He told me you were taking protection from him.”

  His eyes darted away from mine for the first time and he stared a hole in the floor for what felt like hours.

  “I know you were taking protection from him, Jim.”

  Jimmy stayed silent and I wasn’t about to help him out with small talk. A minute or two passed before he spoke.

  “I don’t know what you want me to say. I was. I had to.”

  “Bullshit you had to, Jim, you could have come to me or Archie and we would have helped you out.”

  “And put you in danger? Are you crazy?”

  “Archie is in the police, for Christ’s sake, what were you thinking?!”

  “I was thinking I wanted to look after my daughter, and you! I wanted to protect you!”

  “Oh, come on, Jimmy,” I said as I turned away from him in anger. “That’s ridiculous, don’t plant the guilt trip on me, man. Seriously, how could you do that?”

  “I’m deadly serious, Ana. How else could I have kept you and Pam alive?” He realized what he said and his face creased.

  I ignored it for his sake, but I wasn’t about to let the rest of it go. I turned back around to face him. “You’re saying there were constant threats against specifically our lives which meant you needed to pay a gangster to protect your bar? How long has this been going on, Jimmy?”

  He paused again, then said, in a quiet voice, “About fifteen years.”

  “Jesus Christ.” I ran a hand through my hair, exasperated. “Fifteen years.”

  He leaned forward and grabbed my hand. “They weren’t just gonna smash my bar and break my legs if I didn’t pay them, Ana. They would have come after you two as well. You don’t understand, kiddo…”

  I had no idea how to respond right away, so I didn’t. I let his words settle and sink in.

  “But they did hurt Pam. Didn’t they?” I looked up to try and meet Jimmy’s eye, but he was staring at the floor again. “Didn’t they, Jimmy?”

  His eyes lifted and stared into mine. “What you talkin’ about?”

  I looked down and sighed. My hands were shaking in my lap. “It was you. Wasn’t it?”

  A couple of seconds passed. Jimmy stood up from the stool, suddenly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Ana, and I think I’ve heard everything I need to. I’m gonna close up and go home.”

  I stood up. “You’re not going anywhere, old man. Sit your ass down and talk to me.” He didn’t move and I placed my hand on his shoulder and guided him back onto the stool in front of me. I sat back down opposite him and took a deep breath. “Jesse came to you. Right? He came to you and told you that Pam was taking revenge for her miscarriage by going ’round, one by one, and poisoning mobsters. Right?” Jimmy was staring at me. Tears were welling in his eyes and I watched one spill over onto his cheek and gently run down his face. I continued, slowly. “He came to you and told you that if you didn’t stop her, he would have one of his guys take her out.” Jimmy’s eyes closed, in pain, and a few more tears slid down his cheeks. “Sorry. But that happened, didn’t it?”

  He nodded.

  “And you went to see her. You went to her apartment. You confronted her. You argued and
it got heated, she probably said some shitty stuff, called you names. That’s how she used to argue with me, anyway.”

  Jimmy sobbed and folded forwards into himself. His head fell into his waiting hands and I watched one of the people dearest to me in the world fall apart.

  “What happened?” I asked him after a little while. He snuffled a little and straightened back up. He rubbed his eyes with his balled-up fists and dried his nose on his wrist. He took a few deep breaths and tried to look at me. It lasted three or four seconds.

  “You pushed her, didn’t you?”

  His eyes snapped back up and this time they stayed there. “You don’t know what he told me he’d do to her! I was terrified, Ana, terrified! And then I went there and she starts shoutin’ and yellin’, God, I just wanted her to understand. But she was always so stubborn, so bullheaded. She wouldn’t listen and I got so frustrated I grabbed her arms and I shook her and I was shouting he’s gonna kill you! She tried to push me off her and her hand flew up at my face and I shoved her away from me…”

  “And she fell into the coffee table.”

  “Yeah,” he croaked.

  I leaned forward and placed a hand on his knee. “Then what happened?”

  I watched his Adam’s apple bob up, then down as he swallowed. “I… I froze. I panicked. I knelt down next to her and shook her shoulders. Called her name, checked her pulse. The blood started oozing from her head and I… I didn’t know what to do. I was so scared and that, that made me panic even more. I ran to the kitchen to get some towels and try to stop the blood and I couldn’t see them right away. I stood there in the middle of the kitchen. I was looking around the countertops and I couldn’t see any paper towels and then I spotted a, a fabric towel on the counter. I didn’t wanna stain it but, you know, what could I do, so I went over to pick it up and I saw the knife block.” He shifted in his chair and chewed on his lip for a second. “I picked up the tea towel. And then I took a small knife out of the block. Oh God…”

  He swallowed again. My stomach rolled and I unconsciously steadied myself by placing my hand on the bar.