Gun Games - Faye Kellerman [114]
Gabe wiped his hands on his hospital gown. “Like how far back should I take it? Like when I first met Dylan?”
“Yes, that’s good,” Marge said. “Tell me about the first time you met Dylan.”
“I only met him one other time until today. I was in Starbucks, minding my own business . . . I think I was reading. This posse of kids comes through the door and I kinda see them out of the corner of my eye.”
“When was this?”
“About four to five months ago.”
“Okay. Morning or afternoon or evening?”
“Like four in the afternoon.” Gabe bit his bottom lip. “I knew right away that they were messed up. They just had that look, like they were spoiling for something. Anyway, they come up to me and I know I’m about to be crowded. You know what crowding is?”
“Kind of.”
“It’s when a group just totally surrounds you . . . they don’t hurt you usually, but its purpose is to show you who’s in control.”
“Menacing,” Marge said.
“Exactly. So they surround me and then Dylan comes up to me and tells me that I’m sitting in his chair . . . like it’s his makom hakavua or something.”
“Excuse me?”
“You know . . . like his designated seat.” Gabe looked at her. “That’s what Rina calls Peter’s Barcalounger.”
“I don’t speak Hebrew.”
“Neither do I, but I’ve picked up a few things. Anyway, the guy wants my seat.”
Marge nodded. “And you’re at Starbucks?”
“Yeah. The place was empty! He’s playing mind games. Asshole. So he just tells me to move it, and I pretend not to hear him. So he tells me to move it again, and the second time around, he shows me that he’s packing.”
“He shows you a gun?”
“You betcha, as the lieutenant would say. Now I know that if I accede right away and I see this guy again, I’m screwed. I’m a target. But I’m not about to take him and his gang on. There were three guys.”
“So there were three of them?”
“And also two girls—a blonde, Cameron, and a brunette—same girls as this morning. Anyway, they’re not gonna do anything to me inside the place, but I know they’re gonna jump me the minute I walk outside if I don’t do something clever. So instead of backing off, I like pull open the dude’s jacket to take a better look at the gun. It was a Beretta 92FS.”
“You know guns, Gabriel?”
“I know some guns and I happened to know that gun. So I start giving him my opinion on the weapon he’s packing, and then we start talking guns. He’s still standing up and I’m still sitting in his chair, but in the end I get up and offer him my seat. But I’m doing it on my terms.”
“Okay.”
“So the dude invites me to sit down with him and his buddies. Not wanting to be antagonistic, I sit. That’s when I found out his name was Dylan. Then he starts asking me how do I know all about guns.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“I told him the truth. I told him about my dad, and I told him I was living with a police lieutenant. I did it because both Chris and Peter are impressive dudes and I wanted to scare him a little.”
“Go on.”
“Then Dylan asks me if I want to hang with them. Like they’re so ‘cool.’ ” He rocked his open hands back and forth. “I say thanks but no thanks. And that was that. And I stopped going to that Starbucks because I didn’t want to run into any of them again. So I started going to the Coffee Bean near Rina’s school. That’s where I met Yasmine. She came up to me.”
Gabe looked up at the ceiling. His voice got soft.
“She had these tickets to the opera. She loves opera.” Gabe’s expression became pained. “She was supposed to go with her sister, but her sister crapped out on her. She offered them to me. I took one of them, but I could see she was disappointed. So I asked her if she wanted to come with me.” He smiled at Marge. “I think initially she just wanted a ride. But then I told her I didn’t drive, so we went by cab. It wasn’t even a date or anything. I was just doing her a favor.”
He stopped.
“It was a wonderful day.” His eyes got far away. “I mean Rina and Peter are like the nicest people in the world, but they have their own lives and that’s really good. I don’t need a second set of parents. But I do spend a lot of waking hours