Stalking The Angel

Chapter 26

When Frank came back with Mimi, I took her out the back and down along the terraced walks and past the rows of little potted fruit trees with their fruit rotting on the ground. Frank and Bobby walked behind us, the Ruger still dangling down alongside Frank's leg.

At the tennis court, I opened the gate and said, "Let's go out here."

Mimi and I went to a table and some chairs they had near the outer edge of the court. Bobby started out on the court after us, but Frank pulled him back to wait at the gate.

The court had been cantilevered out over the slope, which fell away sharply and bowled down into a deep ravine. On the fall-away side, the chain link fence hadn't been woven with green fabric so you could enjoy the view while you played. Standing there was like being at the edge of a cliff.

I said, "You want to sit?"

Mimi went to the table and sat.

I said, "You don't have to sit if you don't want to."

Mimi stood.

"You staying here full time?"

"Uh-huh."

"Anyone forcing you to do something you don't want to do?"

"Uh-uh."

"Could you leave now?"

"I don't want to."

"If you wanted to."

"Uh-huh." Mimi was staring down at the court. Little scout ants were searching along the white court lines as if they were great white bug highways. Maybe she was watching the ants.

I leaned against the fence and crossed my arms and stared at her. After a while she looked over and said, "Why are you staring at me?"

"Because I am the Lord High Keeper of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, and I am trying to figure out what to do."

She blinked at me.

"Jiminy Cricket," I said. "He was also Counselor in Moments of Temptation, and Guide Along the Straight and Narrow Path. You need that."

Mimi shook her head. "You can't make me go back."

So much for Jiminy Cricket.

"Yeah, I could. I could shoot Frank and Bobby and throw you over my shoulder and bring you home." The skin around her eyes looked soft and nervous. "But I couldn't make you stay. You don't want to be there and you'd leave again as soon as you could. Besides that, I don't think your going home is necessarily the best thing."

She looked at me with Traci Louise Fishman out-from-under eyes. Suspicious. She said, "You don't bring me home, my dad is gonna fire you."

"He already did."

"He fired you?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because I was supposed to provide security for his family and it didn't stop his daughter from being kidnapped."

Mimi giggled that sort of nervous, red-nosed giggle, like maybe she was giggling at something else, not what you thought she was giggling at. She took a crumpled pack of Salem Lights out of her pocket and lit one with a blue Bic lighter. She took a quick, nervous puff. I said, "Was Asano part of that?"

She shook her head.

"You get Eddie to help you?"

She cocked her head. "How do you know about Eddie?"

"The Blue Fairy told me."

"You're strange."

"You know what the yakuza is?"

Shrug. "I don't care."

"Eddie's in the yakuza. He's a professional thug. You like him and you think he likes you, but all Eddie wants is the Hagakure."

She took a nervous drag on the Salem, then pushed it out through the fence and let it drop down the slope. Mid-summer with the brush dry, the whole ridge could burn off.

I said, "I'm trying to figure out what to do, kid, and you're not helping me. You have supposedly been kidnapped, and the cops and the FBI are involved.

They are looking for you and they are looking for the book. They are going to find you, and when they do they are going to take you home. They won't stand around and wonder what's best."

She crossed her arms and chewed at her upper lip. The lip was chapped and split and had been chewed a lot. "I won't go back."

I said, "Your parents are assholes, and that's rough, but it's not the end of the world. You can survive them, and you don't need guys like Eddie Tang or Kira Asano to do it. You can work past them to be the person you want to be. A lot of kids do."

For just a moment the nervousness seemed to pass and Mimi grew still. She looked at me as if I were a silly, offensive man and then she rubbed at her face with her hands. She said, "You don't know anything."

"Maybe not. If you don't want to go home, there are other places."

"I like it here."

"Here sucks. You're going to have to talk to the cops and let them know what's going on and deal with them. They don't like it when people steal valuable things and pretend to be kidnapped and cost the taxpayers a lot of time and money."

She recrossed her arms so that her right hand was beneath her left arm. The right fingers began to pinch her left side. Hard, nervous pinches. "You don't understand," she said slowly. "I will kill myself first."

Great. High drama in Teen Town. "You've been found. Sooner or later you are going to have to talk to your parents."

"No."

"Now, without the cops involved, is better. There are people that work with kids and their parents who can be there to help. They've been known to help bring a family close together again."

Mimi Warren made the little smile, then looked directly at me. "My father is close enough."

I took slow deep breaths and felt myself grow cold. She pinched at her side and chewed at her lip, then stared down into the valley at things that were too far away to see. Her eyes took on the jumpy vacant look I'd seen on street kids down on Hollywood Boulevard, kids who'd had it so hard back home in Indianapolis or Kankakee or Bogalusa that they weren't right any more and never would be. When she said she would kill herself, she had meant it. "Mimi, does your father have sex with you?"

The red eyes leaked and she began to rock. She said, "I hope they changed their minds and didn't give him that fucking award." She didn't say it to me. She just sort of whispered it.

I said, "Does your father sexually molest you?"

The right fingers moved faster, digging into the soft flesh of her side and squeezing. She probably didn't even know she was doing it. I wanted to reach out and stop her.

"Does your mother know?"

Shrug. The tears dropped down her cheeks and into her mouth. She dug out another cigarette and lit it. Her fingers were wet from wiping away tears and left gray marks on the paper. She made the giggle and it was confused and crazy. She said, "Eddie and I are going to get married. He said we're going to live in a penthouse apartment on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood and I'm going to have babies and we'll go to the beach a lot." She said it in the to-herself voice.

"You want to stay at my place?"

She shook her head.

"There's a woman I know named Carol Hillegas. She works with kids who have problems like this. What if I take you there?"

She shook her head again. I'm with people who love me.

I took a deep breath, let it out. "Okay. I'm going to let you stay here. I'm not going to call the cops, and I'm not going to tell your parents. You won't have to go home and you won't have to see your father if you don't want to." I took out one of my cards and I put it in her hand and she looked at it but probably didn't see much. "That gets me at home or my office, and if I'm not there a machine picks up. I want you to stay here. I don't want you to go nightclubbing and I don't want you to go out with Eddie Tang."

The giggle.

"Eddie Tang is a bad man, babe."

The giggle again, and then she made a wet sound. Her slight body shook and heaved and she put her face in her hands and she cried. I put my arms around her and I held her and I glared at Frank. I said, "I can't tell you things are going to be wonderful. I can't tell you that things will ever be right. All I know is that things have happened to you that shouldn't have and you're going to need help straightening it all out and I will make sure you get that help. Okay?"

She nodded. She was still rocking. She said, "I'm so messed up. I don't know what to do. I don't know. I don't know."

I held her until she ran out of tears. I said, "I'll talk to Carol Hillegas and then I'll give you a call. We can fix this."

She nodded again.

When I left, Mimi Warren was standing at the edge of the tennis court, staring out at the valley, rocking. Bobby stood in the gate, blocking my way and acting tough. He said, "Have a good time?"

I went very close to him and said, "If anything happens to her, I will kill you."

Bobby stopped smiling. Frank took a step in, then pulled Bobby back. Bobby licked his lips and didn't move. Frank looked at me. "Forget him," he said.

I stared at Bobby hard enough to stop his heart, and then I left.