Colin Fischer (17 page)

Colin and Wayne stood
on the walk outside a stucco box of a house with a weed-choked lawn and a heavily fenced-in backyard that had never seen a clump of sod. Two pit bulls snarled and hurled themselves against the sturdy wire mesh with an angry, metallic rattle. Their job was to deter visitors, and for the most part, they did it well. Colin didn’t see danger; he merely stared back at the would-be monsters, cocking his head to one side. The dogs licked their lips, sighed, and sat back on their haunches.

“How the hell did you do that?” Wayne asked,
IMPRESSED
.

Colin shrugged.

“Whatever,” Wayne said. He pointed at the house. “Here’s the profile: I’ve dealt with these guys before, so let me take the lead here.”

“Okay,” Colin said, writing this down.

“Don’t mention the cops or the school investigation.”

Colin nodded, writing this down too.

“And if they ask you questions, just be cool.”

“Cool,” Colin repeated. He wrote
I’m cool
in his Notebook.

“And put your Notebook away. Don’t let them see that.”

Colin considered this a moment, then stuffed his Notebook in his backpack. He would have to record the particulars of the experience later from memory.

“You know what?” Wayne said finally. “Just don’t say anything.”

Wayne took a step in front of Colin and drew a deep breath, then started up the walk. Colin followed, silent as a mouse. Wayne rapped on the front door.

For a moment, it seemed like no one was going to answer. Then the door swung open, answered by a boy who couldn’t have been older than ten. The boy looked at them.

“Hello,” Colin said.

Wayne shot him a withering look, but didn’t touch him. Colin fell silent, making a mental note to put aside his usual social scripts. Wayne turned back to the boy at the door, taking charge. “We’re here to see
El Cocodrilo,”
he declared.

Colin tried not to betray his surprise at Wayne’s use of the name. If Wayne knew who this
El Cocodrilo
person
was, he hadn’t mentioned him before. Colin resisted the impulse to search his Notebook for an earlier reference—successful mainly because he knew there could be none. What else was Wayne not telling him? Colin was determined to
investigate
the matter later. For now, the danger before him was more than enough.

The boy didn’t answer. Instead, he turned back inside, leaving the door open. It was a non-answer and an invitation, all in one. Colin was impressed with his efficiency.

Wayne and Colin followed the boy into the house.

Colin’s nose twitched, detecting chicken, ham, and cheese cooking together. It smelled good, a welcome and comforting surprise. He occupied himself by wondering what could be on the stove as they passed through the living room. On the television, someone—probably the boy, Colin imagined—had paused a first-person shooter video game with something that looked like an alien or a demon caught in the crosshairs of a rocket-powered grenade launcher.

In the kitchen, three monstrous
vatos
with half-consumed beers watched them enter. The
vatos’
expressions changed rapidly at the sight of them, from
CONCERNED
to
CONFUSED
to…well, Colin wasn’t sure, but it looked a little like
AMUSED
. There was laughter, a few words in Spanish that Colin couldn’t understand, and then they went back to drinking their beers. Colin surmised they were
La Familia.

A tall, lanky man in his early twenties worked the stove, making what Colin now knew to be chicken cordon bleu. “If you’re selling magazines,” he said, “I get it cheaper at the newsstand.”

“Wow,” replied Wayne with a genuine enthusiasm that led Colin to conclude that he didn’t smell many expertly prepared meals in his own home, “that smells really good.”

“Yeah, but it’s coming out dry.” The lanky man frowned at his pan.

“You should turn it down to simmer,” Colin offered helpfully, “and cover it the last five minutes.”

Wayne looked at Colin again. His
PAINED
expression was lost on Colin, but it was enough to remind him of his promise to remain silent. The lanky man looked at him too, considering his advice. Then he opened his huge mouth to laugh, revealing rows of perfect white teeth. He turned down the stove and covered his pan as Colin suggested.

“
El Cocodrilo
,” Colin guessed aloud, unable to help himself.

“The very one,
ese
,”
El Cocodrilo
said. “So what’s your name, L’il Emeril?”

It suddenly occurred to Colin that offering his real name could be a strategic mistake. This was an undercover investigation, which classically required an alias. Colin decided to provide one. Lying was getting easier all the time.

“Tommy Westphall,” Colin said, trying very hard to keep a blank expression.

“You boys are a long way from Tarzana.”

“Chatsworth,” Wayne corrected. The last thing he needed was for
El Cocodrilo
to get caught up in a geography lesson, courtesy of Colin Fischer. “We heard this was the place to come if we want
something
.”

“
Something
, huh? Who says?”

“A friend,” Wayne answered.

“Which friend?”

“A
good
friend.”

El Cocodrilo
stared Wayne down in what Colin recognized as pure animal assertion of dominance. Wayne refused to show submission, instead asserting himself as a social equal to the gang leader by meeting
El Cocodrilo’
s gaze and staring back at him evenly. A risky strategy, Colin surmised, unless Wayne believed he could back it up—or he simply didn’t care if he could or not. It was impossible to say. In the end, it was
El Cocodrilo
who looked away first. He shook his head in
DISGUST
, though it didn’t seem directed at Wayne. He turned to his
vatos
. “As soon as I saw the fool and that gap-toothed freak friend of his, I knew he’d shoot his mouth off,” he lamented.

“Truth,” one of the
vatos
said.

Colin realized immediately whom
El Cocodrilo
was talking about. The only “gap-toothed freak” he knew was Stan. Which strongly suggested “the fool” was—

“Eddie,” Wayne said, having figured it out on his own. Colin was impressed with Wayne’s unanticipated and welcome display of deductive powers. Wayne had now managed to catch Colin off guard three times in less than ten minutes. It was quite a feat.

El Cocodrilo
shrugged at Wayne, as if to confirm his suspicions without ever going on record with a name. “Said he had someone he wanted to show
it
to. Was gonna make him piss his pants.” The way
El Cocodrilo
said
it
, Colin understood that he was consciously avoiding the word
gun
.

“You know Eddie,” Wayne pressed. “I asked him to loan it to me, but he wouldn’t. Told me to get my own.” Wayne’s response was so effortless that Colin was suddenly confronted with the possibility that Wayne had been telling him the truth, but was also a gifted liar. In a way, it made him more credible.

“That what you’re here for,
ese
? Your own?”

Colin recognized this as what his father called “put up or shut up” time.
²³
Either they would need to explain their purpose here (put up) or
El Cocodrilo
planned to show them the door (shut up). Wayne never
got the chance to choose either. The sound of gunshots and explosions suddenly blasted through the house. Reflexively, everyone in the kitchen froze and turned toward the source.

It was the boy, finishing his video game in the living room.

For everyone but Colin, this was a relief. The others chuckled and otherwise assumed relaxed postures, thinking the threat had passed, but Colin could feel his heart thumping in his chest. He covered his ears with his hands, breathing hard. “No noise, no noise, no noise…!”

One of the
vatos
pointed at Colin with his beer. “’Sup with Tommy?”

“It’s nothing. He just gets this way sometimes. Funny, right?” Wayne smiled like it was a joke. Like it was nothing.
El Cocodrilo
and his boys weren’t laughing.

“No noise, no noise, no noise…!” Colin didn’t stop.

Wayne shifted uncomfortably. He had no idea how to make Colin stop, or even why he had started. He only knew that the air had become tense and confused as a result and that tension, confusion, and gangbangers with weapons were a bad combination.

“There is definitely something wrong with that kid,”
El Cocodrilo
said. He turned down his stove. The
vatos
stood up as Colin’s shouts became high-pitched yelps.

In the yard, the dogs started barking again.

“Colin!” Wayne snapped.

It only took Wayne a moment to realize his mistake, but in that moment, everything changed. The boy in the living room paused his video game. The room fell silent. Colin stopped yelping and tried to compose himself. His breathing returned to normal as he took note of the expression on
El Cocodrilo
’s face:
SUSPICIOUS
.

“That was inappropriate, and I’m really very sorry for doing that,” Colin said, hoping that would be enough to defuse any potential awkwardness. It wasn’t.

“Sure you are,
Tommy Westphall
,”
El Cocodrilo
said with a frown. The gangbangers moved closer, slowly surrounding Colin and Wayne. “Or
Colin
. Or whoever, man.”

Wayne made a snap decision. “Run!”

He grabbed Colin by the arm and hauled him out of the kitchen through the living room. Colin could barely process what was happening now. He was caught between understanding the need to flee from
El Cocodrilo
and irrational horror at Wayne’s touch.

“Please don’t touch me!” Colin cried.

“Shut up!”

A split second later, Colin and Wayne sprinted out the front door to safety.

Colin and Wayne
ran down an unfamiliar street.

As they raced by an endless parade of strip malls,
Colin remembered what it was like to be six years old and running for his life across the playground. He remembered the slides and the swing sets and the monkey bars, passing in a blur. He remembered the pressure in his chest, the taste of blood and his own salty tears, the dull pain in his lip. He remembered how hard it was to breathe and scream, to urge his body forward as fast it would go. In his mind, Colin could still see the faces of the other children, who weren’t sure what to make of his terror. Some laughed and pointed, like chimpanzees in a zoo. Chattering. Then as now, he feared for his life. Then as now, Wayne Connelly ran behind him.

That night when he was six, Colin made the following entry in his Notebook:

Only now, Wayne had probably just saved his life. This was yet another unexpected turn in a day full of unexpected turns, and yet another surprise from Wayne Connelly. Colin wished he had time to pause and record his thoughts, but that time would have to come later.

El Cocodrilo
and
La Familia
were close behind. This was worrisome. However, the
vatos
were older, slower, and (from the distribution of weight on their bodies) clearly not used to running long distances.
Also, they smelled like cigarettes, particularly
El Cocodrilo
. Colin calculated that he and Wayne had a reasonable chance of escape if they just kept running straight.

Wayne clearly didn’t agree with Colin’s assessment. He veered off sharply into a Vons grocery store parking lot. Colin followed him. There was no time to argue.

The lot was very busy. A car horn blared in Colin’s ears, and he realized that he and Wayne had barely avoided being run over. Colin covered his ears as the boys zigged and zagged through the rows of parked cars, occasionally doubling back. This had the effect of sowing confusion among
La Familia
, who split up to cut them off.

Wayne and Colin sprinted for the grocery store entrance, past a security guard who looked
SURPRISED
to see two boys blow by with an angry gang in hot pursuit.

As they skidded into the produce section and took cover behind a banana stand, they watched the security guard step in front of
El Cocodrilo
and the others. Colin couldn’t hear what they were saying, although the security guard’s hand on his radio told him it probably involved a call to the police. The
vatos
strained to see their prey over the racks of fruits and vegetables as the guard shooed them out, but they’d been stymied.

Wayne and Colin took a second to catch their breath. “Where the hell did you learn to run like that?”
Wayne asked, hands on his knees and sucking down oxygen.

“First grade,” Colin said. “After that time you beat me up next to the swing set.”

Wayne considered Colin for what seemed to Colin like a very long time, his expression frozen. Colin was confused. All he had done was provide a factual answer to Wayne’s question. Colin wondered if he’d said something wrong without realizing it. This occurred often, so it wouldn’t have surprised Colin at all if he had.