The Golden Sparrow

by Samantha Latshaw

  I opted for a mauve dress with a ruffled skirt, though I prayed that it stayed clean.

  My stomach flipped over and over with fear and anxiety and I stuffed my feet hastily into my shoes, forcing myself to forget what I was going to do, and quickly headed downstairs.

  After breakfast, where most of the food suddenly seemed to taste like ash in my mouth, I waited restless for the hour when Robert and Al would pick me up. A tiny part of me hoping Judd would be there, too. He was the only solace I could find when I was in the lions den, but I knew my wishing would be useless. Judd went wherever Basso went and that would not be with me today.

  At five to twelve, I got up and, after checking to be sure that Danielle wasn’t around, I popped my head outside.

  They weren’t there yet, but knowing that it wouldn’t be long, I stepped back inside and grabbed my hat, stuffing it unceremoniously on my head, then snatched up my handbag and hurried outside to wait.

  Not even a minute later, a tan car pulled up and Al got out.

  He was smirking at me as he opened the car door for me, his greasy hair looking worse and more matted than usual.

  I didn’t say a word to him as I slid into the back seat and did not speak at all as we drove out of the city.

  The roads were heavily trafficked until Robert took a sudden left onto a narrow, dirt road about thirty minutes outside of the city.

  I lost track of time entirely as we bumbled along the road and sat back, watching the countryside pass by as I began to feel my back become slick with sweat. Even though they had the windows rolled down, the air was still hot and did nothing except muss my hair.

  I thought about asking a few times where we were going. A few times, I wondered—my heart skipping into an erratic rhythm—if they were taking me somewhere to finally end it. Emerson would simply have to arrest Basso without me, I found myself thinking as the sun continued to beat down on the car.

  The sun was high in the sky when Robert took a right and, after about another five minutes, we came to a stop before a rundown, clearly abandoned house. Windows were broken out and vines crept up along its face and sides. Boards were missing in the porch and some of the siding had fallen off. My eyes lifted to the roof and saw that the back of the house had, it appeared caved in.

  “What is this place?” I couldn’t help but ask as Robert opened the car door for me.

  “You can leave your bag in the car,” he said without answering my question. His eyes lifted to my head where my hat sat snugly but didn’t say anything more other than, “This way.”

  With Al in the lead and Robert close behind me, we stepped up to the small house.

  It was, I noticed, leaning precariously, supported mostly by a tall, wide tree. The front door was hanging off its hinges and, again, I began to fear they had brought me to the middle of nowhere to kill me.

  “What is this place?” I asked again, fear thick as oil in my voice.

  I balked at the caving stairs and Robert gave me a hard shove forward.

  Al had stepped aside just as I made it onto the porch and I began to accept that I was going to be the next victim of Walter Basso.

  The porch beneath my feet creaked ominously with every step I took towards the hanging door.

  Once inside, I saw, first, that there was a hole in the ceiling that showed the blue sky outside. There were three rooms and a set of dilapidated stairs. In the room directly across from the door, I saw an old style range sinking into the floor, rust and dust coating it.

  A low moan reached my ears then and, just as my head turned in its direction, I was shoved hard into what appeared to have once been a dining room.

  Cobwebs covered every inch of the room and vines had snuck their way into the broken windows. I was certain that every woodland creature I could think of had made this house their home. But that wasn’t what had me stopping dead in tracks a few steps inside the room.

  Sitting dead center was Leo, bound and gagged to a chair that looked awfully similar to the one Basso used in the back room at the Golden Sparrow.

  I had been right, I thought miserably, dread spreading like molasses through my veins.

  Al gave me a hard shove. “In you go,” he said and I could hear the malicious humor in his voice. It made me want to slap him. Or worse.

  Cuts covered Leo’s face and blood stained his shirt. His left eye was swollen almost completely shut and when he lifted his eyes at our entrance, I saw his good one widen in alarm. He began struggling in earnest and Al stepped around me to slam his fist into Leo’s face, quieting him again.

  “Well, Hazel,” Al said, turning a wicked smile back to me as he unconsciously massaged his knuckles, “Mr. Basso wants you to take car of a little problem he has.” He turned back to Leo, who was breathing heavily against the gag, chest heaving, and jabbed his finger into his bruised cheek. “This animal was sneaking around with Mimi.” Al looked back to me, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “We can’t have that.”

  Anger and fear waged a terrible war inside me and I had to clamp my mouth shut to keep from screaming at the sight of Leo’s bloodied face. But now I opened it, though I only released a shuddering breath through trembling lips.

  “And what exactly am I supposed to do?” I asked, voice shaking slightly.

  Robert stepped forward, lifted one of my hands, and placed a cold gun into my hand.

  “Kill him,” he said gruffly before moving back. “Or else we do it and Mr. Basso won’t be happy if it’s one of us. He wants you to do it.”

  The gun felt heavy in my hand and I held it limply at my side as I stared helplessly down at Leo.

  I can’t kill him.

  Al withdrew a knife and, after shooting me an evil grin, jammed the knife into Leo’s leg.

  Leo screamed against the gag and I lurched forward, maybe to pull the knife out or maybe to attack Al. But Robert held me in place, as if he knew what I wanted to do.

  “Kill him,” Al said as he ripped the knife. “Kill him and I’ll stop doing this.” He stuck the knife into Leo’s other leg and now Leo was sobbing against the cloth in his mouth.

  His dark eyes were on me, pleading with me to do it, but I couldn’t. He had been a friend to me even though I had barely known him. And he was one of my last links to Mimi. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.

  “C’mon, Hazel,” Al said as he pulled the knife out and began dragging it slowly up Leo’s left arm, just hard enough to draw blood. “Show us exactly why Mr. Basso talks about you all the time. Prove to us that you’re as worthy as he seems to believe you are.”

  “No!”

  I lifted the gun and aimed it, not at Leo, but at Al, who looked momentarily stunned. Then a wide grin spread across his thin face and he stepped towards me.

  “Stop!” I warned, my finger tightening slightly around the trigger. I felt Robert’s hand clench painfully around my shoulder, but as I was pointing at his friend, he wasn’t likely to try and stop me. “If you come any close, I swear to God, I’ll kill you.”

  Al laughed coldly.

  “I’m not afraid of you, little girl,” he said, inching closer. Behind him, Leo was still as a statue as he watched us. “You think you can shoot me and get away with it? You think he’ll let you live after that? You’ll end up just like your friend—six feet under.”

  I took a step closer and Al, taken slightly off guard, paused.

  “Hazel,” Robert said in a warning tone, but I ignored him. All I could see was Al.

  “I know it was you,” I said through clenched teeth and took another half-step forward. “It was you that night.”

  The smirk was back and Al continued his slow advance towards me.

  “So what if I killed her?” he asked with a careless shrug.

  “Al,” Robert warned.

  “I knew she’d been sleeping with that animal,” Al told me. He was now inches from away from the gun. If I moved even an inch closer, the gun would be pressed against his chest. “That bitch knew she was going to die, that’s why
she brought you. But it didn’t save her and she needed to go.”

  My mouth twisted in disgust and hatred. “So do you.”

  The gun exploded and Al’s face was fixed in permanent surprise as he fell.

  He landed with a surprisingly solid thud, sending dust flying into the air, choking and blinding me.

  I felt the gun get wrenched from my hand and heard Robert swear colorfully behind me.

  “Damn it,” he was saying. “Damn it! Are you trying to ruin everything?”

  The dust cleared and my heart froze when I saw Robert standing with the gun at Leo’s head.

  “No, don’t!” I cried, my hand outstretched to stop him, but it was too late.

  I couldn’t close my eyes fast enough and the image of Leo’s head snapping to the side with the force of the impact seared itself forever into my brain.

  My stomach churned viciously and I just barely managed to turn away before this morning’s breakfast emptied itself all over the filthy floor.

  “Pull yourself together,” Robert snapped with disgust.

  He grabbed my arm painfully, wrenching me around, and I racked my fingernails down the side of his face. Tiny dots of blood appeared and I felt a small sense of satisfaction before he began shaking me violently. I will not die today.

  “Do you want to get out of this alive?” Robert demanded, still shaking me. “If you want Basso to go down for what he’s done and for you to see it through to the end, then you can’t keep going around and killing his men! God damn it, Hazel! We can’t protect you if you’re going to keep doing this!”

  I couldn’t fully process what he had said and, when his words finally sank in, he had released me and was crouched beside Al’s body.

  “Stupid girl,” he was muttering angrily under his breath. “He was a fool to bring you in. You’re going to get us all killed.”

  I hesitantly stepped forward.

  “Wh-what are you talking about?” I asked, voice breaking as hope sprang to life inside me.

  Robert turned a scorching glare on me. “Emerson can’t protect you if you keep acting like this. You are being reckless, Hazel. When Basso finds out you’ve killed Al, he’ll most likely punish you severely. He doesn’t want you dead yet, but you’ve done something he won’t ignore. We can’t do anything against his anger.”

  Fear gripped me tightly in its icy claws and refused to let me go.

  Shuddering cold spread out from my heart and right out to my fingertips, making them go numb.

  “You... you’re with Detective Emerson?” I asked, not caring anymore if I was blowing my cover. I was most likely dead anyways. I had killed one of Basso’s men and that was a crime that he would never forgive.

  Robert was looking over Al’s body, brows furrowed in frustration.

  “Yes,” he snapped before moving so that he was now standing over the body. Then he stooped down, grabbed Al’s thin arms, then proceeded to heave the body over his shoulder before turning to face me. “There are a few of us, but in case you get the same treatment as Emily Murdock, I’m going to keep their identities to myself.”

  Robert was moving out of the house, cursing me under his breath, but I stayed back with Leo’s body. I had even managed to save him after all.

  “Why did you kill him?” I called after Robert, my voice shaking, and he turned his head slightly to look at me. “You could have spared him. Why did you do it?”

  Robert shot me a look that was clearly testing my intelligence.

  “Do you honestly think I could’ve saved your friend without any consequences?” he asked me, his tone patronizing. I shot him a glare. “Basso always sends people to check to make sure his orders are being carried out. Leo Warren had to die and for that, I apologize sincerely. But we don’t all have death wishes like you apparently do.”

  “I don’t!” I said and even to my own ears, I could hear how childish I sounded. “I just don’t think Leo should’ve been killed, that’s all. Maybe he didn’t know that Mimi was with Basso.”

  Robert, who was now beginning to strain under the weight of Al’s small body, rolled his eyes at me.

  “I didn’t think you were this stupid,” he said and I scowled darkly at him. “Now let’s go. I don’t want to hold this cretins body forever.”

  “But Leo—”

  “Has to stay here as proof that Basso wasn’t disobeyed,” Robert explained patiently. “Let’s go.”

  Robert left but I lingered, turning back once more to look at Leo.

  His dark eyes, once kind and warm, were blank and unseeing. Since his head was resting against his shoulder, I didn’t have to see the exit wound. The tiny hole where the bullet had entered allowed me to believe that the damage wasn’t as bad as I knew it was.

  “I am so sorry,” I whispered before following Robert out.

  He had already gotten Al’s lifeless body stuffed into the backseat and was waiting for me in the front of the car where my handbag had been carelessly tossed.

  No matter what I did, I could not save my friends from Basso. He had to be stopped, before someone else got hurt.

  “Get in,” Robert ordered and I promptly obeyed.

  The drive back into the city was silent and tense. When the sun began to set, I finally asked some of the burning questions that I had had since Robert revealed that he was part of Emerson’s scheme to dethrone Basso as New York City’s elite bootlegger.

  “How long have you been doing this?” I didn’t really expect him to answer, so I was genuinely surprised when he did.

  “Nearly three years,” he replied. His hands tightened briefly on the wheel.

  “How...” I broke off, clearing my throat. “How many women have you seen him kill?”

  “Who?” he wondered, shooting me an inquiring look. “Basso?”

  I bobbed my head, eyes fixed on the darkening sky above me. “Yes.”

  “None,” he answered and I looked at him, puzzled.

  “You’ve never seen him kill any of the women?” I pressed. “Not even Emily Murdock?”

  Robert shot me an impatient look. “Haven’t you figured out by now that he doesn’t kill anyone? He gets someone else to do it.” He jabbed his thumb at the backseat. “He gets men like Al to do it so that his hands are technically clean. In the eyes of the law, Basso’s done nothing more than bootleg alcohol. That’s why it’s been s hard to catch him. His men do all the dirty work. He doesn’t even have his clubs or his warehouse in his own name or anything.”

  My eyebrows rose at that. “Then how does he run his business if it isn’t in his name?” I wanted to know.

  Robert ran a weary hand over his face.

  “He gets others to do it for him,” he replied and I saw his hands clenching around the steering wheel again. “That’s how he operates.”

  The moon was beginning to brighten on the horizon and stars were starting to show themselves as the yellow sky faded into deep blue then black.

  “How?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “You threaten them,” he said, “and blackmail them. Those are, at least, Basso’s preferred methods. If he does a favor for you, he’ll expect one in return. There are some, though, that do it because they get a cut of whatever he makes.”

  “And they’re okay with him murdering people?” I asked, my tone harsh.

  Robert shrugged. “Most of them don’t know the exact details of what he does. They know he’s a criminal, but they let it slide.”

  “Do his high society pals get money, too?” I wondered.

  “Some do,” Robert confessed. “I believe that new stepfather of yours was getting some money out of allowing Basso to store some products at a warehouse in New Jersey. That’s why he was so pissed when Hayes backed out. He lost a warehouse. But those kinds of people often have the most to lose. Like Hayes, they have reputations and businesses to think of. So while they do help Basso with importing his whiskey and helping him keep his clubs open, they also pay attention to anyone digging into him because they lo
se more than anyone. They give Basso a name and he’ll have that person tortured and killed within two days.”

  I sat back, arms crossed over my chest as I tried hard not to think about the body in the backseat.

  The body that I put there.

  I killed him.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I asked, “Why does Detective Emerson want Basso so badly?”

  “One of his sisters was killed under Basso’s orders about four years ago.”

  My eyes opened slowly and I let out a tiny sigh of what felt like defeat. Of course.

  “Who was she?”

  “Adaline Emerson,” Robert said. I could see the city lights coming into view and my terror at what would await me once Basso discovered what I had done slammed into me so hard, the breath whooshed out of me. I began trembling all over as I worried over my fate. “She was only nineteen at the time and was just around the time when the Golden Sparrow was really picking up business. She’d gone to it a few times and when she’d been asked to have a drink with Basso, she didn’t refuse. It went on from there and she was almost as good as you. She was strong, did whatever he asked her to do. But then she started to tell him no about a year into it. He got tired of her refusing his orders, so he had her killed. Her body was found in an alley in a rougher area of Brooklyn.

  “The detective had known all about Basso by that point. Adaline had been telling him everything she could once she’d been shown the worst of what Basso did,” he went on. My teeth were beginning to chatter, so I clamped them down and clutched my arms around my torso to keep my fear contained inside. “He knew it was Basso who’d killed her, but since he couldn’t prove it—and since most of the officers in his station house were getting their alcohol from him—he couldn’t do anything about it. That’s when he decided to get a group of us to infiltrate Basso’s gang. He’s been looking for someone like you for some time now.”

  “Like me?” Even my voice was shaking now, but Robert didn’t seem to notice.