One Safe Place (17 page)

Tylowe spoke to her in a soft, caring voice giving a short and informative, but truthful story. They had no intention of coming in and misleading anyone as to why they were there. This extraction was not about taking the kids against their will or forcing anything on anyone. The factual information the woman knew to be true, and it disarmed her. She invited Tylowe and Suzie Q into her home.

“Do you mind if I have a glass of water, eh?” Suzie Q asked.

Suzie Q made a beeline for the kitchen and didn't wait for an answer.

“Please give the lady a glass of water,” the woman told the kids who followed her into the kitchen.

The lady's name was Princess Rose, and she had no idea where her niece, Queen, had disappeared to. She had left the kids a year ago. When Queen had brought the kids, it was clear her niece was in some trouble. As far she understood, people wanted Queen and the kids dead. Princess Rose understood the kids were with her because so few knew their bloodline connection.

Suzie Q sat quietly with her head moving slowly from side to
side, listening to the kids in the kitchen with her directional- listening sunglasses that she had left in the kitchen. Their conversation transmitted from the sunglasses to the Bluetooth in her ear. “Bring the kids in here,” she said abruptly.

“Are you here to kill us?” Princess Rose asked.

“We don't kill kids or someone who could be my mother.” A relaxed expression almost seemed to erase away years from Princess Rose's face. She lived under stress from taking care of the kids and all the uncertainty that might be affecting her health.

Tylowe was a bit amused at Princess Rose's French accent and Suzie Q's British-Canadian enunciation.

Princess Rose called the children into the room.

Suzie asked them to repeat what they were talking about in the kitchen. The kids looked amazed, trying to understand how she'd heard them talking from such a far distance.

“You said you were different from the other people. What do you mean?” Suzie asked.

The kids looked scared. Princess Rose said both kids were in the ninth grade. The boy, Cleophus, a handsome young man who looked nothing like Elliot, was the younger one, and had advanced to the same grade as his sister. In Celia, the young lady, Tylowe could see the same beauty as in his stepdaughter, Mia. There was no doubt of the biological relationship.

“Cleophus and Celia, I'm like an uncle; I'm like family. I'm not here to cause you any harm. I'm here to protect you.”

Cleophus spoke assertively. “Do you know the whereabouts of our mother?”

“Son, I do not know, but I will try to find her for you and your sister.” Tylowe nodded his head to the boy and girl. The children fidgeted nervously, and he felt for their young hearts.

“Tell us what you were talking about in the kitchen…please,”
Suzie Q asked, but then suddenly held up her finger to her lips. A few seconds went by. Suzie Q whispered with harsh direction, “Get on the floor and keep quiet—not one sound.”

Sitting next to Princess Rose, Tylowe reached to help and to reassure her as she went down to the floor. The kids followed, seeing their great-aunt do as she was told.

“Be quiet; don't make a sound if you wanna live. Don't scream or shout, no matter what you think you hear, mates.” Suzie was all about protection and she meant business.

Tylowe's worst fear didn't come true. He wasn't fearful; he was only about the business of being a warrior. He hoped that he and Suzie being there hadn't put the kids and the old lady in danger, but right now it was about doing what he had to do. Not one bead of sweat rolled down his head or back. He checked his leg holster to release the safety on a .38 snub-nose revolver. The gun was the protection Suzie Q had left for him on his bed, along with a bulletproof vest.

Suzie Q ducked into the kitchen while Tylowe guarded the kids and Princess Rose. They moved, first behind a wall, then into the bathroom. He closed the door behind them, but first put his finger to his lips to remind them to be silent.

Following Suzie Q's lead, Tylowe crawled on all fours with no clue as to how deep of a situation he was in. He went to the curtains, but didn't move them: that would be a mistake, and signal of his whereabouts to anyone outside. He moved to the end of the curtain and peeked down the line of sight of the wall. He saw nothing with his limited view.

Pop-swoosh-pop-swoosh
sounds, as if someone had stepped on bubble wrap, plus the sound of glass breaking, jarred Tylowe's heartbeat rhythm. Silence. Two minutes passed. Tylowe had his gun out and pointed up, but not aimed.

“Clear. But, wait five minutes. I'll be back,” Tylowe heard Suzie Q say.

Four minutes later, she walked back into the living room with a gun with a long silencer attached to her carpenter's belt. A little blood dripped down her cheek.

“What's going on, Q?”

“Come in the kitchen so the kids and the old lady can't hear us.”

Tylowe went to the bathroom door. “Everything is okay, just stay put a little longer. Don't come out yet. You're safe.”

Tylowe met Suzie Q in the kitchen.

She was putting her sunglasses back on a sweaty face as she spoke about what had happened. “Earlier, when I asked the kids what they were talking about in the kitchen, I overheard the boy saying someone was watching them, and a man with a funny-sounding accent had approached them.” Suzie Q stopped talking and took several deep breaths, and reached for a glass of water and gulped quickly.

“You okay?” Tylowe asked.

“Yeah, just a little winded. That man had asked them if their mother's name was Queen. He said no, as they'd been instructed by their great-aunt. The boy also spoke to the man in Spanish, which he had learned quickly in the time they had been here, and had many Spanish-speaking friends.

“Good thing I left my sunglasses in the kitchen, mate. First, for hearing the kids, and then for the footsteps I heard on the terrace after they came in the room with us.” She took another deep breath, and reached for a paper towel and wiped her damp face before she continued to talk with shallow breathing. “We have a man down, a Russian, but he's not dead. The pain in his ass from two hollow points and me twisting off his nut sac probably makes him wish he was though. His wish is coming true with a few more heartbeats.”

“You're bleeding on the other cheek. Don't let the kids see that.”

She quickly searched the cabinets and found some honey. She rubbed it on her cut. “Yeah, I shot through the glass here at the door. A bit blew back. Eh, I'll be okay. I twisted a little info out of his nuts, but let's get the kids and the old lady out of here.”

“What about the man you shot?”

“He had a gun drawn, and if you have a gun out, you know the rule. Shoot it, or don't have it out. He wasn't here as a Jehovah's Witness to give away pamphlets. Now put your gun back in your holster.”

“We cannot have him die here on this property, Q.”

“He won't. I'm trying to catch my breath from carrying him down the alley and putting him in a recycling bin, no blood trail, no tracks leading back here. We're all right, mate. I carry extra-large garbage bags for the trash.” It dawned on Tylowe why Suzie Q wore workman's attire. She had added extra-large for the tools of her trade.

Suzie Q got the kids out to the SUV, and Tylowe helped Princess Rose gather clothes, important papers, and a few pictures. He told her he would have a moving company come clean out her house, and store her things safely until her home was secure to return to. They hit the highway.

T
he Sirius Satellite Radio DJ has a voice like Sammy Davis, Jr., talking in the hip-tones of the sixties. I'm tuned in to
The All Sade and Maxwell Monday Show.
The DJ recites poems or passages from movies, books, and famous quotes between songs.

“This is DJ Soul Space, and to all those within range of my soul satellite, let me get a little closer to your ear and tell you about a woman I think about hearing from the moment I wake. I have a poem for you, titled ‘Sade.' ”

SADE…I MISS YOU…IS IT A CRIME

From the
Diamond Life
of your acoustical sensual aura

You sing to me “Your Love Is King”

You have touched every part me of me as you are the queen of smooth groove,

You “Flow” like no other

I'm a slave to what you say, and how you say it, and how good it feels

Call it foolish maybe even a schoolboy crush…yet I am not ashamed of the jones in my bones for the waterfall of your velvet lips that sing to my heart

You and I, no
Ordinary Love,
I've missed you

All I do is play you while waiting for you

What is old is new

Ageless

I'm tireless of the need for you to whisper in my ear

I'm lost, alongside the road of hit repeat, hitchhiking the airwave of every smooth jazz station I can stop at and request you

The first note, the first song, the first look, and I became a lost boy looking for you

I've become a grown man…with a Sade fetish

“Stronger Than Pride,” I have no pride, when it comes to the soul of the 30-plus years of our love affair

I'll never “Turn My Back On You”

I still love you

“I Cherish The Day”

I ran to buy you

I had to own you

I wanted to know you

In blue hues, an album cover said “Promise” I wore the grooves out

Pinned you to my wall

I don't recall ever seeing your kind of beauty…ever

You became my video queen

I stalked any image of you

Your long lines curved your body in mental visual frames

Lips wide enough engulf the Blue Nile

Ethiopian eyes

Egyptian stride

Nefertiti backside

Even the turn of your head held my attention

“Nothing Can Come Between Us”

With your sensual allure

Nigerian painted vocal chords

English words steeped deep in passionate soul

“Never As Good As The First Time”

I remember the first time

“Love Deluxe”—it was happy times

Making love to your sultry deliverance heightens the romance of “Hang On To Your Love”

I caught a plane to Toronto

I had to see you Sade

I wanted to be “By Your Side”

Stood in line in the rain for hours, imagining raindrops were kisses from you

The hell with upper deck, I paid three times the face value to be close to you

Three rows away from your femininity

I never closed my eyes

I'm sure our hearts kept the same beat

In a trance, I could hardly breathe as I lay “By Your Side” after we…yeah

You gave me the “Kiss Of Life” in a glance

Our eyes met…

I think…and that's all that matters

Smooth Operator
you were and I know you still are

You stripped me clean of any thought of any others

I wanted to
Lovers Rock
with you

I had an innocent as deep as a “Cherry Pie” cooling and waiting for my finger to taste your sweetness

You danced, like no other had ever moved me before

Ahhhh, huh…you stepped down and out of your shoes

I wanted to eat the polish from your toes as you pranced

My fixation has never gone away

The times I have stepped through my door to an empty room, I had to play “Somebody Already Broke My Heart”

You make sad songs seem fine

I'm happy hearing you…period

I hear you sing

“It feels fine, so fine, I'm yours, you're mine, I want to share my life with you”

Thoughts of you are pure “Paradise”

But baby don't go away

I've been waiting, as a “Soldier Of Love”

You give me the “Sweetest Taboo” I want you any way I can have you

I'll stand in line…underwater

Sade, I miss you

“Is It A Crime”

“As you heard, many Sade song titles as a part of the poem, and we'll be playing those songs in the coming hours, along with many Maxwell songs. It is said that Maxwell's music is the male version of Sade's. However their music touches you, sit back in your car or home on East Coast lunchtime, mid-morning in the middle lands, or West Coast rush hour and feel the groove from DJ Soul Space.”

• • •

Between shifting gears on the freeway in what has to be one of the worst rush-hour cities in the U.S., I get word that the kids and their great-aunt, are safe. All five are on their way back here to Seattle. Q called and told me about some complications, but all is well…at least for now. Troubling news, though, the info she got out of the Russian. If they are so willing to come into a neighborhood where they can stand out… This is not over—far from it.

I get Gabrielle out of here on my plane back to Cali. I don't own a plane, but the economy of the last few years has rich folks leasing out their toys. Gabrielle will be back in a couple of days, and we
are going to spend some time in nature, as we love to do. She loves being outdoors, but that is typically problematic for her when so many people recognize her and won't give her space, even in open spaces.