No Room for Mercy (8 page)

The Perez sisters remembered the little girl as well; they’d
surmised what they’d done and what the conversation was about
as they watched Carmella and the little girl converse from inside the
home through the kitchen window just before Carmella reentered the
front yard.

“Boss,” Toodie said through light laughter as she and
Phoebe stepped out of the house, “I swear on all I love I ain’t
know that was that girl momma out there last night.”

“I take responsibility for this, Kathy. But we have to take
care of her now because she hasn’t a mother anymore,”
Carmella responded softly as she placed her hands on her hips and
stared back at the little girl, who was kicking over rocks with her
dirty sneakers as she clung onto the fence, staring pitifully down at
the ground beneath her feet.

Toodie looked over to Phoebe, her eyebrows hanging low and her face
wrinkled looking perplexed. She felt felt nothing over shooting the
little girl’s mother; it was all business as far as she was
concerned.

Phoebe wouldn’t have cared about the dead woman either had not
the full scope of the shooting be thrown at her feet. She looked at
the little girl standing outside the gate and felt pity. The Perez
sisters’ mother had died in a bus crash back in the city when
Toodie was thirteen and Phoebe was eleven.

Phoebe and Toodie had grown up on their own. She understood how rough
things were on the streets of Valle Hermoso. She and Toodie were
lucky to have survived, having met Carmella and her brothers a year
after losing their mother. They were able to make their own money and
raise themselves working in the tomato fields until they moved over
into the Lapiente` family’s cocaine operation. Phoebe, like
Carmella, felt the least she could do was help the little girl out in
her plight because it was a good chance she would not make it on her
own.

“The boss wants us to bring the little girl with us, Toodie,”
Phoebe said a few seconds later as she eyed the little girl, feeling
a little sorry that she’d lost her mother. “No big deal,”
she shrugged.

“What are we gonna do with that girl, boss?” Toodie
asked, all the while wiping the constantly reemerging smirk on her
face that was hard to suppress.

“We will look after her until she can fend for herself. We’ve
killed her mother and it is the least we can do.” Carmella said
in a near whisper.

“Fuck her and her mutherfuckin’ momma! They asses
shouldna been out there!” Toodie snapped.

Carmella hauled off and punched Toodie in the mouth, knocking her to
the ground.
No podemos hacer
nada, de veras!”
(
You
don’t run shit, I do!)

Toodie backed away from Carmella and leaned against the side of the
house and wiped her bloody mouth. She was stunned by Carmella’s
reaction to her statements. “Carmella, I’m sorry. I never
knew you to care about
shit
!” she said in shocked
manner.

“I
don’t
care about shit! But this isn’t
shit
! She’s a human being, Toodie,” Carmella said
under her breath as she pointed back at the little girl. “This
is a child whose innocent mother we’ve killed. She was a woman
I had promised to help. I’m going to keep that promise. If
anything happens to this child during my absence you will have to
answer, Toodie.”

“I’ll, I’ll look after her, boss,” Phoebe
replied as she helped her sister up from the ground, trying to
reinstate the peace.

“You both will look after her. She needs a surgery. Her Ma-Ma
told me that a few days ago. Wait here,” Carmella said as she
walked back to her Jaguar and went up under her seat and opened a
duffel bag. She reemerged a couple of minutes later and gave Phoebe
thirty thousand dollars, all in hundred dollar bills. “Take her
to a hospital in Saint Louis and get her the help she needs. Buy her
clothes. Keep her fed and keep her safe until I get back up there to
Saint Louis.” Carmella ordered before turning and walking off.

“Si, boss,” Toodie said lowly as she and Phoebe eased
over to the front gate.

Carmella walked out onto the dirt sidewalk and knelt down before the
little girl and put on a wide smile as she grabbed her hands. “What’s
your name again? I forget.”

“Peppi Vargas.”

“Okay, Pepper,” Carmella said as she ran her hands
through the yellow-skinned, dark-eyed, thin framed little girl’s
head of hair. “I will call you Pepper because you have such
thick and shiny black hair on your head. You’re very pretty,
too. My girls Toodie and Phoebe over there will take you to America,
but you have to stay here and leave with them today, okay?”

Ten year-old Peppi Vargas eyed Toodie and Phoebe with a hint of fear
as they stood near the gate staring directly at her and Carmella.
Peppi had witnessed the conversation between Carmella and the two
sisters. She didn’t know what they were discussing exactly, but
she’d seen when Carmella hit Toodie and knocked her down before
she pointed back at her.

Peppi wasn’t sure, but she had a feeling Toodie was the one
who’d shot her mother and she grew afraid. For all ten year-old
Peppi Vargas knew, Toodie and Phoebe may just kill her and dump her
body on side of the road before they even made it to the border, but
if she didn’t make it to America, she was as good as dead
anyways so she might as well take her chances with the people who may
have killed her mother the night before.

“
No quiero morir,”
(
I don’t
want to die.) Pepper cried as she reached out and hugged Carmella
tightly.

“Oh, my poor baby,” Carmella said lovingly as she hugged
Pepper tightly and rubbed her back softly. “You will be okay in
America, Pepper. Toodie and Phoebe will not let anything happen to
you. You have my word that you will not be harmed, okay? You have my
word, baby.”

“Okay,” Pepper said. “Will I ever see you again,
Carmella?”

“As soon as I am done here,” Carmella responded as she
wiped subtle tears from her eyes. “ When I’m done here I
will come and see you, okay?” she assured as she opened the
gate and welcomed Pepper inside. “Toodie? Somalis! Phoebe?
Hospital for Peppi! Use the inside left lane crossing the border.
They will know you are coming today,” she then reiterated
before jumping back into the Jaguar.

“Si, boss,” Toodie and Phoebe ended in unison as they
lead Peppi into the home.

CHAPTER FIVE

THEY COME FROM “THE AP”

“
Mi papá
siempre me sentaba al viejo campo de fútbol en el viejo barrio
en Valle Hermoso y corría con mis brazos abiertos como un
pájaro intentando volar.”
(And then my
Pa-Pa used to always take me to the old soccer field in the old
neighborhood back in Valle Hermoso and I would run around with my
arms spread like a bird trying to fly.) Carmella said as she sat on
Pepper’s bed with her feet tucked under her body, telling her
about her childhood.

True to her word, Carmella, after overseeing a shipment of fifty-six
kilograms that had been delivered to Houston, Texas, had flown to
Saint Louis and made her way over to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s
Hospital were Pepper was recovering with ease. The procedure Pepper
had undergone was simple; doctors were skeptical as to whether she
would need a catheter after hearing her story, so they evaluated her
with an electrocardiogram before placing her under the knife. She was
quickly diagnosed as having that of an innocent heart murmur, which
required no medication or surgery. The condition was harmless and
almost always went away once a child reached adulthood. Doctors in
Valle Hermoso had merely misdiagnosed the child. Pepper was then
given booster shots and placed under observation for a week.

When Carmella walked into the room, Pepper’s eyes lit up. She
was surprise the woman had kept her promise. She now lay back in her
bed licking an ice cream cone and listening to Carmella talk about
her younger days.

“Are you good at soccer, Carmella?” Pepper asked.

“I hate that game, Pepper,” Carmella said through
laughter. “I never wanted to learn how to play. So, tell me,
what is it that you like to do?”

“When my mother was alive she used to take me walking in the
square back home. They had a band that used to play there and me and
my mother would dance together. We painted pictures and baked bread.
I had a good mother,” Pepper sighed as her eyes filled with
tears. “I wish she wasn't dead.”

Carmella’s heart really did go out to Peppi Vargas. What a
twist of fate that things had unfolded the way they had back in Valle
Hermoso.

“Toodie and Phoebe are not really nice, Carmella. Well, Phoebe
is, but not Toodie. She yells at me a lot.” Pepper said,
shaking Carmella from her thoughts.

“I will talk to Toodie for you and tell her to stop yelling at
you, okay? They don’t know you, but they get along with
children.”

“What about you?”

“What? Do I get along with children?” Carmella asked as
she pressed a finger to her heart.

“Si.”

“Of course! I love children. I wouldn’t be here with you
if I didn’t love children.”

“I want to go to church and pray for my Ma-Ma that she’s
okay in heaven.”

“Church?,” Carmella smiled. “Okay. We’ll go
to the chapel here in the hospital before you leave, okay?”

“Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

“It is all my pleasure. Oh, if the doctors ask you, I am your
aunt and you’re staying with me and your cousins here in Saint
Louis, alright?”

“Okay, Auntie.” Pepper joked.

Carmella laughed and touched Pepper’s face with the back of her
hands. “You are such a darling,” she said sweetly as she
pictured Peppi Vargas years from now, all strong and healthy. “You
will definitely be okay as long as I have a say so in the matter,
baby,” she said as her phone vibrated.

Carmella picked up her phone and looked at the text.
Old warehouse
in East Saint Louis in one hour.

“The Somalis. Good job, Toodie,” she said lowly. “Pepper
I must be going now. But I’ll be back to have dinner with you
tonight, mi amiga.”

“I’ll be here.”

Carmella got up off the bed and kissed the top of Pepper’s head
before she left the room and told one of her workers, whose job it
was to sit outside of Pepper’s room, to notify her of DSS
should they ever visit, and to make sure that Peppi received any and
everything she asked for.

After leaving orders with her soldier, Carmella left the hospital and
jumped into a yellow 2001 convertible Ferrari 360 Spider and hopped
onto Interstate-70 and crossed the Mississippi River over into East
Saint Louis and took Interstate-55 north for a few miles. She could
see the old warehouse where she normally held meetings off in the
distance to her left as she exited onto to Saint Clair Avenue and
entered an abandoned warehouse district.

This part of East Saint Louis was a pure dump. Dilapidated
multi-story brick buildings that should’ve been torn down years
ago lined pot-hole filled streets that were littered with debris. Old
abandoned rail lines with rusted out rail cars still perched on the
tracks sat out front some buildings that once thrived with human
activity. The new tenants were now the incalculable amount of
pigeons, rodents and stray animals.

Carmella cruised under the pylons holding up the expressway and
turned onto a service road and grabbed her .50 caliber and cocked it
as she turned into the abandoned warehouse’s back shipping dock
which was hidden from the highway. She rounded the bend and saw
Toodie and Phoebe, along with six other females from Fox Park sitting
out on the concrete dock in the shade smoking blunts. She scanned the
area briefly and noticed that only her girls’ SUVs were parked
in front of the building. Everybody was waiting patiently, but the
soldier on the phone had caught Carmella’s attention. She
reached under her seat and grabbed a mini-Uzi and tucked her
gold-plated handgun into the back of her waistband and stepped out
the car door.

“Where are they, Toodie?” Carmella asked as she went and
stood before the docks with her Uzi on display.

“Dumb asses got lost and rode way over to Saint Louis. One of
the girls on the yap now guidin’ ‘nem in. They should be
here in five minutes or so.”

Carmella, for a brief moment, thought she was walking into a trap
given the nature of the scene upon her arrival. Realizing she’d
only had a brief case of paranoia, she walked over to the stairs.
“Pepper tells me you that yell at her, Kathy. I’m a tell
you once to not let it happen again. She’s a child without a
mother and on the strength of what she’s going through she
deserves to be treated better.” Carmella said as she knelt down
on one knee beside Toodie and reached for Toodie’s blunt. She
toke a few tokes before passing it back. “Do I make myself
clear about Peppi?” she asked through a cough.

“We clear on that, boss. That little girl is a burden, though.
She act like she can’t do nothing on her own.”

“Peppi can’t do anything for herself right now, Toodie,
and that is why we must look after her,” Carmella said as she
sat down on the edge of the concrete dock. “Peppi is only ten
years old. She has lost her mother, believed she had a heart
condition and was about to die, and she is in a strange place with
people she doesn’t even know. How could she be strong right now
given her age and circumstances?”

Toodie reflected on Carmella’s words as she blew smoke from her
nostrils. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Peppi Vargas,
she just didn’t want to be bothered with tending to, what was
in her eyes, a baby. The crew was about to get money and Toodie felt
Pepper would only get in the way. “I’ll make sure she’s
okay, but it’s Phoebe here that is actually cool with her li’l
ass.” Toodie told Carmella as she passed her the blunt.