Emily Kimelman - Sydney Rye 03 - Insatiable (26 page)

Izel giggled and then clamped her hand back over her mouth. Malina was smiling so hard her cheeks had to hurt. “I don’t know, my English not so good,” Malina said. That sent another wave of laughter through all of us. Blue was infected by our excitement, his tail hit against the leg of the table and my shin.

“All right, all right, I’ll think of something,” I said. I climbed into the front seat, my weapon at the ready. I was about to write Place Balls Here on Mulberry’s brow when a cry went up from the paparazzi. Mulberry snapped to attention. I jumped into the passenger seat.

“What’s going on?” Mulberry asked. I peered through the windows, squinting against the sun’s reflection and there she was, posing for the camera, wearing all black. Blane was at her side standing up tall in a dark suit, a severe expression on his face, the obligatory dark sunglasses resting on his nose. Still gripping the eyeliner I leaned toward them. I was trying to tell what she was thinking, trying to read her next move. Her eyes wandered to where I sat but she didn’t see me. She was staring off into space. She looked so fucking sad.

“Hey,” Mulberry said. “What are you doing up here?” Malina and Izel burst into laughter.

Blane took Ana Maria’s arm and she followed him, like an obedient child, into the waiting limousine. “Follow her,” I said over Malina and Izel’s laughter. Mulberry was looking back at them so I said it again. “Follow her!” He looked at me only for a second and then started the vehicle.

Following the dark, sleek car flanked by motorcycles through city traffic proved to be impossible. It was only ten minutes later that they made it through a red light we missed, turned a corner and disappeared. The sky was dark and a soft drizzle turned the windshield misty as we headed back to the hotel to wait for her return.

They came back a little more than an hour later. Malina jumped out and joined the crowd of other interested citizens to listen to Ana Maria speak. “They went out to dinner,” she told us when she came back, her coat covered in a fine layer of silver droplets. “She sounded really sad.”

“I bet she did,” I said. “She’s real good at faking feelings.” No one said anything to that.

“Wait,” Mulberry turned to me. “What were you going to write on my forehead? You were going to write something, weren’t you?” Izel and Malina’s fit of giggles confirmed his suspicion.

“Doesn’t matter now,” I said, staring at the building across the street. “You know we should get out of here. I wouldn’t consider this vehicle stealth.”

Mulberry pulled away from the curb muttering under his breath. We parked in a motel parking lot in a neighborhood where trash blew down the streets until landing in a puddle sludgy enough to hold it. Malina and Izel worked together to turn my hair brown with red highlights. Then with nervous, though not unsteady hands, Izel shortened my hair to just below my chin.

Blue picked up a chunk of chopped hair and tossed it across the small room. He pounced on it and lowering his front half, warbled at Mulberry. Mulberry laughed, and reaching forward, pushed on Blue’s left shoulder. Blue play growled and hopped to the right. Mulberry growled back and Blue turned in a very tight circle. “I think he needs a walk,” Mulberry said. Looking at me, half my hair still reaching my shoulders, he picked up Blue’s leash and smiled. “It would be my pleasure.”

We went to bed early knowing that we had to pick Dan up at the airport at dawn. Mulberry got the master bedroom. Izel, being the shortest, ended up in the dining area. The table flipped down and the benches stretched to meet each other. Malina slept on the bench across from the table, and I was above the driver’s seat.

It was dark up there, the ceiling less than six inches from my nose. It smelled musty and I buried my face into the pillow breathing in the comforting scent of detergent. Of course I couldn’t sleep and judging from the rapid breathing coming from below, neither could the two other girls. I leaned toward the small window running across the front of the RV and looked out into the dreary parking lot.

A rat ran from a dumpster into the yellow pool of a street light and then under a parked car. I waited for the sun to come. When I woke up, the sky outside was slate gray and I heard movement down below. Rolling over I saw Mulberry struggling with the small coffee maker. He had the grinds out of the cabinet but couldn’t seem to figure out how to put the filter into the machine.

Izel climbed off her bed and went to help him. He smiled at her, his eyes still puffy with sleep. “Good morning,” I said. They both looked up at me and smiled. “What time is it?”

“4:30,” Mulberry answered me.

“We better get going.”

“Yeah, we’re not far from the airport so I’m not worried. He’s got to get through security, gather his baggage and stuff so we’ve got a while.”

The smell of coffee began to fill the small space. Malina rolled over and said, “Good morning.” We all returned the greeting.

I climbed down from my bunk. Blue, who’d slept in the driver’s chair, nosed my hand. I crouched down and gave him a nice petting. Then maneuvering past my bunk mates, I made it into the bathroom.

My face looked different framed so tightly by dark brown hair. The girls had done a good job. It didn’t exactly look real but it also didn’t look so fake as to draw attention. Malina insisted that when she did my makeup and thinned out my eyebrows my own mother would do a double take. I washed my face and thought that if I ran into my mother I’d do more than a double take.

As I scrubbed my teeth I tried to think of a way to get to Ana Maria. She was so protected. Surrounded by not only trained security but trained paparazzi as well. I stood in that tiny little bathroom with the sounds of domestic RV life right outside the door wondering not how, but if, I would I reach her.

Dan’s plane was late. I was pretty sure one of the airport traffic cops was looking at us funny. “Of course he is, we’re in a freaking RV,” Mulberry answered my fears. “Everybody is looking at us funny. We’re fucking funny.”

“Too much coffee,” Malina said from the passenger seat. Izel nodded. She was sitting right behind her on the bench. I was behind Mulberry and Blue was under the table. We figured people wouldn’t notice a dark-haired woman but a giant wolf dog with mismatched eyes was bound to draw attention.

“I think we should get out of here,” I said.

“Fine,” Mulberry said. “Fine!” He swerved the oversized vehicle into a moving lane of traffic and revved the engine. One of the orange-vested traffic cops blew a whistle at us, but Mulberry just zoomed right toward the exit.

“We can just call his phone and tell him to catch a cab,” I said.

“Fine. Whatever,” Mulberry said as we merged into traffic. It was 6:30 and the morning commute was beginning.

“Just get off at the next exit and we’ll tell him to take a cab to us.”

Mulberry nodded his head and Malina started to say something about coffee but Mulberry shot her a look that clamped her mouth shut. We inched toward the exit in silence. I called Dan’s cell phone and left him a message about getting a cab. I told him to just give us a call when he landed and we’d let him know our location.

We pulled into a gas station and Mulberry climbed out to fill the tank. His cell phone rang. It was Dan. I picked up.

“I just left you a message.”

“Oh, I didn’t listen to it. I just got off the plane.” I explained where we were and he agreed to meet us there.

Two badly advised cups of coffee for Mulberry, a short walk for Blue, and a drunk man falling against the side of the RV happened before Dan’s cab pulled up. I watched him climb out of the taxi from inside the RV. He looked up at our vehicle squinting against the sun. My heart fluttered in my chest. His grape-green eyes caught me in the window and I waved. Dan grinned, showing off his straight white teeth.

The cab pulled away and I watched him standing there with his luggage looking at me and it was like we were stopped in a moment of time. I thought that it was possible nothing would ever change, that we’d spend eternity in that moment but I heard the squeak of the door and saw Mulberry approaching Dan. He didn’t take his eyes off me until Mulberry put out his hand and they shook.

Blue raced after Mulberry and leapt around Dan showing him how excited he was to see him again. I broke away from the window. When I stepped out of the RV, Dan didn’t hesitate. He crossed to me with two, or maybe it was three steps and embraced me in a tight hug. Pulling away he brought a hand up and held my face, caressing my cheek. I turned away from him blushing.

“It’s good to see you,” he said. Malina cleared her throat behind me and I untangled from Dan. “Sorry,” he whispered as he let his fingers trail along my hip before dropping them to his side.

“Malina, this is Dan,” I said. “And Izel,” I gestured to Izel who stood next to Malina.

They both were grinning. “Hello,” Malina said, and reached out to shake his hand. Izel offered hers as well.

“Lovely to meet you ladies,” Dan said. “I’ve heard great things.”

“And us about you,” Malina said, raising her eyebrows at me.

“Come on,” Mulberry said. “We’ve got to get going.” He walked passed us and around to the driver’s side. Mulberry climbed behind the wheel without looking at me.

Dan picked up his bag and followed us into the RV. Malina climbed into the front and the three of us settled into the back. “How was your flight?” Izel asked Dan as we pulled out into the road.

“God, I hate flying,” Dan said.

“Me, too,” I agreed. “Turbulence scares the shit out of me,” I said, feeling relief that we’d passed the awkward first moments.

“It’s not really the whole crash and burn thing that freaks me out,” Dan said. “It’s the not being able to get out of there thing. The I’m stuck in this cylinder with all these people and there is no escape.”

Something clicked in my brain. “Yeah,” I said. “All that security, no way to be alone. Being watched all the time.”

Dan cocked his head. “Yeah.”

“I couldn’t take it. Everyone always knowing where I was, what I was doing. She’ll try and get away.” I was smiling. “That’s it. She’ll sneak out. We won’t have to get to her. She’ll come to us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ana Maria. Dan, she won’t be able to stay under lock and key.” Malina, Izel and Dan were all staring at me. “She’ll sneak out. And we’ll be there waiting for her.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Mulberry said. I looked up to see his eyes smiling at me in the rearview mirror.

NIGHT FALLS

My eyes grew accustomed to the dark and my sneakers soaked the water off the wet grass. A car drove slowly down the street, its headlights cutting through the blackness. It stopped a couple houses down. The lights shut off. A man carrying a briefcase climbed out and closed the door with a sigh. His car beeped and the taillights flashed as he walked away from it. The sound of his front door opening was loud in the quiet neighborhood. Yellow glowed from the entrance before the door shut behind him.

I watched as he moved through his house turning lights on. His was the only one lit on the short block. I shifted my weight onto my other foot, my arm brushed against a branch knocking resting droplets to the soft earth. Waiting, never one of my favorite things to do, was satisfying this evening. I felt that I had all the time in the world. The evening was mild, the storm that had haunted the valley for days having blown away. The puddles glimmered in the moonlight and the smattering of fallen leaves plastered to the sidewalks shone wet and slick against the dark pavement.
 

The air was still moist and I breathed it in feeling that for the first time since coming back to Mexico I knew what I was doing. There was no confusion about why I was hunkered down in these bushes. I knew that the house I sat next to, shrouded in the darkness not only of night but also of tragedy, would pull Ana Maria to it as surely as it drew me. Here is where I would hear her confession.

This was my fifth night of waiting. It was easier for me than for the others. For some reason I had an incredible faith that she would come. Mulberry, on the other hand, was becoming impatient. That night, before I’d left he’d tried to stop me saying that I was exposing myself too much, that there had to be another way. But I knew this was it.

So Dan and Mulberry sat in the RV back at the motel watching a monitor that connected to a camera hidden in the folds of my sweatshirt. They could see and hear everything that happened around me. I imagined that Blue was also watching the monitor. I decided not to bring him; it is easier to hide one body in the bushes than two. Besides, I needed to do this alone.

I missed him, though. I was so used to him being at my side it almost felt like he was there. I could sense his breathing but when I turned to look, nothing. I imagined that this must be what it felt like to lose a limb and still feel it.

I heard her before I saw her. My ears followed soft footfalls across the yard. I saw her silhouette walk right up to the front door. She was only a couple of yards away. I heard the lock turn then she ducked under the crime scene tape and disappeared inside. My heart raced. Ana Maria closed the door behind her. I waited a moment catching my breath and calming the adrenaline coursing through me. Now was a time for calm, not for action, I reminded myself looking at the closed door.

I saw the beam of a flashlight run over a window and then disappear. She was heading to the study. I followed along the outside of the house, staying low and out of sight not only to anyone inside but also nosy neighbors. I found the window I’d jumped out of. Pulling a small mirror on a handle out of my pocket, I raised it to the window’s ledge. The door opened and a round light entered. It raked across the floor until it fell on the dark red stain. There it stopped, steady as any spotlight.