Blossom - Andrew H. Vachss [5]
"We went back to court. This time, the judge made the bail. He set fifty thousand dollars on the boy. Virgil and I, we talked it over. We put up our house, and he came home with us.
"Lloyd, he couldn't go back to school, with all this hanging over his head. Just a couple of weeks left anyway. Virgil told him to stay in the house until the trial. He couldn't go back home—the judge said he couldn't leave the state. Then one of the boys at school, he told the cops how he and some other kids used to sneak around at night in the lovers' lane. Just to watch the other kids going at it, you know? He said Lloyd used to go with them. He said, one time, Lloyd was real angry for some reason. Like he was mad at the girls. The papers got ahold of it. That was enough for the cops. The black detective, he called. Told Virgil to bring Lloyd back to court again. They were going to revoke his bail."
She lit another smoke. "That's when Virgil run. He told me where he was goin'. Took Lloyd with him. He told me to find you."
"Find me and do what?"
"He said he had a question. Only you would know the answer. That's what he wants you to do. Answer the question."
"And then?"
"And then he'll know what to do."
"The cops are looking for him?"
"Every cop in the state, seems like. They got a warrant for Virgil too. Aiding and abetting a fugitive, the black cop said."
"How'd you get here?"
"I did what Virgil said. Took a plane to New York. Took a cab to Manhattan and then I called the number. I spoke to a Chinese woman. The woman who's sitting over there right now. She asked me to tell her where I was calling from. Pay phone. Told me to just wait there. Some Chinese men came up in a car, took me here. Then I just waited."
"You know the question Virgil wants answered?"
"No. But I know you'll know the answer. Virgil said so."
"Where is he?"
"You'd never find it. I'll have to show you."
"No good. The cops'll be watching. Just tell me. Slow and careful."
It took her a long time. I made her tell me again. "You don't speak to Virgil?"
"No. He figured the phones'd be tapped."
"Okay. I'll go and see him."
"Now?"
"Soon. You go on back. I'll find him."
She grabbed my eyes with hers. "I know you will. And now I know you're Burke for real."
"How d'you know?"
"You didn't write anything down."
5
REBECCA WENT along with two of Mama's thugs. They'd take her to the airport. She didn't look back.
Virgil would be okay wherever he was. He wasn't trained like I was, but I'd schooled him good, all that time we'd spent together in the cell after lights–out. He wouldn't make any rookie mistakes. He called, and I'd come to him. But I had to clear the slate first.
6
EARLY SATURDAY MORNING. I found the Prof at work. He was hunched over the tabloids in a restaurant booth in the DMZ, a block past Times Square, listening to Olivia. She's a heavy–built black lady, works as a cleaning woman, cook, hospital orderly…whatever rich people need. She plays stupid but she doesn't even come close. And she's got camera eyes.
He felt me close in, whispered something to Olivia. She slid out of the booth, eyes down.
"Remember Virgil?" I asked the little man.
"The ridge runner? Sure."
"He got himself a major beef. Out in Indiana. I got to go see about him."
"You doing social work now?"
"He's one of us."
"Yeah, you're singing my song, but you're singing it wrong. My man's a stone citizen, Burke. He picked his home, let him go it alone."
The Prof could never forgive anyone who'd rather work than steal. People like that, they couldn't be trusted.
"I got to do it."
"Yeah. You always got to do it. That white trash holding any cash?"
"It's not like that."
"Never is, seems like. You went to school, but you still play the fool. A rhino ain't a racehorse."
"What's that mean?"
"Means you can't operate outside, bro'. The city, the streets. Even the jailhouse. You know all that, right? But