Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (34 page)

Charlie looked at Nash and then at Teddy. He
was silent for a moment then nodded.

“
Go ahead,” he
said.

‘
My sister and me, we take
care of each other,” Nash said. “We don’t use drugs, no alcohol,
and we don’t hang around scumbags. If you come to live with us,
then you have to act like us. You have to go to school, stop taking
drugs, and get your shit together.”

“
You think I’m a total
loser,” Charlie said.

“
I think you’re an addict…
and a dumbass,” Nash said. “Teddy and me, we could have made the
same choices you’ve made. We have bullshit families. Parents who
suck. But we didn’t give up everything to hang out with losers and
scumbags.”

“
Hey man, I’m
addicted…”

“
Oh bullshit,” Nash said.
“No one made you take drugs. You chose to do them. You didn’t have
to. You’ve been clean before. Sandy said you’ve been to rehab
already. You decided to go back to drugs.”

“
You don’t know how hard it
is,” Charlie said.

“
You wanna bet,” Nash said.
“Teddy, me, Noelle, we’re very sensitive to drugs and alcohol. We
could be addicts like that.” Nash snapped his fingers.

“
But we’re not,” Nash said.
“You made shitty choices,
bro.
If you want to live with us, you’re going to have
to man up to your choices and get your shit together. You’re not
bringing me or my sister down.”

“
What about that guy?”
Charlie pointed at Teddy. “Can I bring him down?”

“
Fine, be an asshole,” Nash
said. “Loser. You’ll be dead soon enough.”

Nash got up and walked toward the door.

“
Would I have to go to
school?” Charlie asked. “I’m not good at school.”

Nash turned around to look at Charlie.

“
What’s wrong with school?”
Nash asked.

“
Can’t read,” Charlie said.
“I’m good with numbers but I can’t read.”

Nash was so surprised that he blinked. He
and Teddy looked at each other.

“
Listen, if you tell
anyone, I’ll kick your ass. Tell Sandy and I’ll totally deny it,”
Charlie said.

“
What if we teach you how
to read?” Nash asked. “Will you promise not to be an asshole? Not
bring your scummy friends around? Make a real stab at getting your
shit together?”

“
And not bring drugs around
us or Noelle?” Teddy asked.

“
I don’t know if I can do
it,” Charlie said. “It’s a lot easier to live on the
streets.”

“
Yeah, I can see that,”
Teddy said. “How many diseases do you have?”

Charlie’s eyes shifted over to look at
Teddy. He looked like he heard something he’d never thought of
before. He opened his mouth and then shook his head.

“
I don’t think I can,”
Charlie repeated.

“
Why not?” Nash asked.
“About six months ago my mother tried to sell me and my sister to
some men for sex. Then she was all ‘I want my babies’ so we have to
see her again. And she breaks Noelle’s cheek bone. Teddy’s Mom is
bat shit crazy. Drugs are just the start of it. You can’t imagine
the stuff Teddy’s been through to keep his sister and brother safe.
What makes your life harder than ours?”

“
I only fit in on the
streets,” Charlie said.

“
Don’t fit in? Welcome to
the fucking club,” Teddy said. “I’ll help you with school but
you’ve got to get your shit together. You could even take martial
arts classes with us.”

“
I knew you were spoiled
rich kids,” Charlie said.

“
We take martial arts
classes from a friend of Teddy’s Dad’s,” Nash said. “He doesn’t
charge us. We have to do community service to pay for our classes.
We’ve been working at the Rescue Mission.”

“
I have a sister,” Charlie
said.

“
Sissy, yeah, we heard,”
Nash said. “Do we have a deal?”

“
No really, what about
Sissy?” Charlie asked. “Seth said she could live with
him.”

“
You can’t pretend that you
care about Sissy,” Nash said. “You didn’t care about Sissy when you
were getting high. You didn’t care about Sissy when you let your
lame-o friends beat you up or…”

“
I get the point,” Charlie
said. “Ever thought of being a drug counselor?”

“
I’m going to program video
games,” Nash said. “Anyway, do we have a deal?”

“
We have a deal,” Charlie
said.

“
One more thing,” Nash
said. “If you make my Mom cry, I will personally beat the crap out
of you. You think the beating you got was bad? It was nothing
compared to what I’ll do to you if Mom cries over you.”

“
How did Sandy get to be
your Mom?” Charlie repeated.

“
I wanted her to be my
Mom,” Nash said. “She says she’s my Mom. So don’t make her
cry.”

Charlie nodded. Nash gave Charlie another
hard look to show his sincerity. Teddy scowled to show that he was
the sincere back up for Nash’s plan. The boys looked at each other
and left Charlie’s room. Charlie waited a few minutes. Grabbing his
crutches, he went after them. He had to crutch fast but he caught
them at the elevator.

“
What?” Nash
asked.

“
You won’t tell anyone
about the reading thing, right?” Charlie asked.

“
Not a soul,” Nash said.
“That’s what family does.”

“
Oh, good,” Charlie said.
“You know I wasn’t always like this. When my Dad was alive, I was
like you.”

“
So what happened?” Teddy
asked.

“
I don’t know,” Charlie
said. “I got lost.”

“
Me too,” Teddy said. “My
Mom was doing drugs. Dad was in Afghanistan. I used to stay home
with her to make sure she didn’t burn the house down or whatever. I
missed a couple years of school. But I found my way. You can
too.”

Charlie nodded. He turned and crutched back
to his room. He was almost here when he turned to them again.

“
Nice to meet you,” Charlie
said.

“
You too,” Nash and Teddy
said.

The elevator bell rang and Nash and Teddy
got in. Charlie nodded and went back to his room.

Lying down on his bed, Charlie thought about
calling Sandy and telling her that Nash was here. Sandy would be
pissed that Nash wasn’t in school. Charlie smirked at the idea of
little perfect Nash getting into trouble. With his hand on the
phone, Charlie changed his mind.

He couldn’t help but like the little guy.
Nash and his friend were tough and smart. Charlie leaned back
against his pillow. He could always ride this out and leave when he
wanted to. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt a burst of
hope.

As soon as hope appeared, he squashed it
down with the cynicism he’d learned as street smarts. Good things
didn’t happen to Charlie. Charlie’s life would be one long string
of crap until he died. That was the truth. No way around it. His
hand reached for the phone again.

“
Hey Charlie,” Sandy said
as she came in the room.

She was wearing a bright yellow top covering
her bulging belly. Just seeing Sandy made his mood shift. He smiled
at his sister and she beamed back. She leaned over to kiss his
cheek.

“
Whatcha doing?” she
asked.

“
Waiting for you,” he
said.

“
Oh great,” Sandy said.
“The doctor said you can leave today.”

“
That’s good news,” he
said.

“
Listen Charlie, I have a
proposal for you. Now hear me out before you say no.”

~~~~~~~~

Monday afternoon — 3:20 P.M.

“
Did you pick up anything?”
Seth asked.

“
From this site? Or from
the other one?” Delphie asked.

Seth had asked if she would tour all the
places they’d found bodies before she left for her first ever
Mexico vacation. He was hoping she would pick up something about
the killer. While they had established most of the identities of
the victims, they still had no leads on the killer.

The killer was fastidious. After he killed
each victim, he shaved off all their hair and bathed them. He even
made sure to clean under their fingernails. Then the killer wrapped
each body in butchers block paper and moved them to the burial
sites. The police had gone over the victims with microscopes and
found no physical evidence. They had sifted through tons of dirt
and found nothing. There were no fibers, no DNA, and no physical
evidence linking back to the killer. Even the butcher’s block
paper, what little hadn’t decomposed, was ordinary.

The police had no leads, no evidence, and
the bodies were piling up.

“
Are you avoiding the
question?” Seth asked.

“
No…” Delphie bent down to
touch the ground. “I’m not.”

“
Then…?”

“
It’s funny because Jake
said something about this when they were taking the bodies from the
Castle,” Delphie said. “In fact, would you mind if I called
him?”

“
No, go ahead,” Seth said.
“Anything you can give me…”

Delphie took her cell phone and her reading
glasses from her purse. She looked at her phone with a whiff of
suspicion.

“
What’s wrong?” Seth
asked.

“
I don’t know how to find
the contacts,” Delphie said. “The whole phone thing is new to me
and…”

“
Let me help,” Seth said.
“These things are confusing to me too. You wanted to call Jake? Did
he set up the contacts?”

“
He’s on my speed dial,
whatever that is,” Delphie said.

Seth pushed a few buttons and gave the phone
back to Delphie. She smiled.

“
Jake?” Delphie yelled into
the phone. “Are you there?”

“
Hi Delphie,” Jacob said.
“You don’t have to yell. It’s a cell phone not a tin
can.”

“
Oh, that’s right. Sorry,”
Delphie said.

“
What’s up?”

“
Remember when you were
watching the police at the Castle? You said something about a
smell,” Delphie said.

“
Sure,” Jacob said. “Still
smells like that down there.”

“
Like what?” Delphie
asked.

“
It smells like the
detergent we used to clean the grill at Bowden,” Jacob said.
“Remember I worked at that burger place on campus for a
year.”

“
I remember the ‘hot chick’
who worked there,” Delphie said. “I was afraid she was going to
become a permanent fixture.”

Jacob laughed.

“
Yes, I’m glad she isn’t a
permanent fixture either,” Delphie said. “Do you remember anything
about the detergent?”

“
You bought a case of it on
some super sale,” Jacob said. “You wanted me to use it to clean all
the stoves but I couldn’t handle it.”

“
You threw it out,” Delphie
said. “Yes I remember. Can you do me a favor? Are you at the
Castle?”

“
I’m at home,” Jacob said.
“We’re leaving in an hour. Can I help?”

“
Is Jill or Sam
there?”

“
They aren’t here,” Jacob
said. “Jill’s with Katy at her sister’s and Dad’s at
work.”

“
Is there any other normal
there?”

“
You mean a non-psychic?”
Jacob asked. “I think MJ is here. They got in late last night. I
think he’s off this week. Why?”

“
Can you see if he smells
it?”

“
Sure. Just a
second.”

Delphie listened to Jacob jog down the
stairs to the basement. She heard MJ’s good natured laugh and their
movement around the Castle.

“
Ok, we’re here,” Jacob
said.

“
What do you
smell?”

“
Same thing,” Jacob
said.

“
Ask MJ,” Delphie
said.

She waited while Jacob asked MJ what he
smelled. She heard the men talk back and forth for a moment before
Jacob got back on the line.

“
He smells sand, dirt and
moisture,” Jacob said. “He said he can smell burned concrete from
when the police cut out the subfloor to get the bodies. He said you
never forget the smell of something that blows up in your
face.”

“
That’s what I thought,”
Delphie said.

“
Is that it?” Jacob
asked.

“
Yep, thanks. And thank MJ
too.”

Delphie heard MJ laugh as she clicked off
the phone.

“
What was that?” Seth
asked.

“
Jake and I both smelled
this industrial cleaner when we were watching the police clear out
the bodies from under the chapel,” Delphie said.

“
And?”

“
I smell that cleaner here
and at the other site,” Delphie said. “Do you?”

Seth made an exaggerated sniff and shook his
head.

“
That’s what occurred to
me,” Delphie said. “It’s a psychic smell. We smell it because we’re
psychics. It’s not a real smell.”

“
What does that mean?” Seth
asked. “Come on Delphie. Give me something I can really
use.”

“
Your killer works in food
preparation,” Delphie said. “I bet if we test the bodies, they were
all washed in a cleaner used for food preparation.”