Chapter Ten
Stacy awoke with the dawn, bright light streaming between white curtains. The fresh smell of spring met her with a gentle breeze through the open window. In the new light, she could see the thick green carpet, the cheap wooden wall paneling, and the caulking around the window frame.
She got up and went to brush her teeth. She planned on getting dressed in a more demure outfit than she had been wearing when she met Silas at the club. She was saving a fancy evening dress for when she made it to California and met Bianca Contarini in person. For now, a comfortable blouse and bell bottoms would do. Events of the last day or so had been maddening and she had a lot to think about. Between how much she had on her mind and the strange bird sounds, she was amazed she had been able to fall asleep at all.
Gina met her at the bathroom door when she came out. “You can take a shower if you want, I’ll be making breakfast soon.”
“Thank you, I’d like that,” Stacy said.
Gina gave her a lopsided grin and said, “No problem. How long has Silas been your man?”
“It’s not like that,” Stacy said immediately. “This is a job.”
Gina’s eyebrows went high and she nodded. “Oh, I didn’t know you were on the clock.”
“No, I didn’t mean it like that.” Stacy shook her head.
Gina elbowed her and said with a wink, “You don’t have to explain, us sisters got to stick together. I’ll keep your secret, hoochie mama.”
“No, it’s not a secret, it’s Silas’s job to take me to California. There isn’t anything romantic going on. Nothing. He’s basically a taxi driver. His job. I’m the client.”
Gina leaned in and whispered, “Shhh, it’s okay. I won’t tell anyone your secret; you can trust me.” She turned around and went downstairs.
“It’s not a secret,” Stacy called after her. “No secrets!”
Well, that wasn’t true. She was still keeping secrets, and she was pretty sure Silas was, too. Fine. She just needed him to get to California.
Stacy took a shower. She brought the deck with her, keeping the small black box beneath her towel. When she finished, she got dressed, folded her belongings into her bag, and went downstairs. The kitchen was cramped and functional, with a linoleum floor, a table for two that leaned a bit toward the wall, and a screen door leading to a porch outside. The sizzle and smell of the bacon were inviting.
Silas sat at the table finishing a cup of coffee while Gina finished up at the stove. He looked a little haggard, his eyes sunken into dark rings. Had he had bad dreams? Gina put the last of the bacon and eggs on a plate beside two slices of toast and went outside, calling Scooter.
“How’d you like them frogs last night?” Silas drank the last sip of his coffee. “Loud, huh?”
“Frogs? I thought it was night birds,” Stacy replied.
Silas shook his head. “Spring peepers are big-voiced little guys.”
Stacy sat and leaned toward Silas, whispering, “What is a hoochie mama?”
Silas laughed. “I don’t know, but Gina told me you look like a good one.”
Stacy wrinkled her nose.
“I’ve only known her five minutes,” Silas continued, “but I suspect when she says she can keep a secret, she means she plans to tell everyone.”
“I am sure I am not a hoochie mama.”
“You’re not,” Silas assured her. “But the good people of Vandalia, West Virginia, might soon think otherwise.”
“So you do know what it is.”
“Yeah, it’s what you’re thinking.” He finished his cup and stood. “I’m gonna go help Scooter with whatever I can and make a call. Behave.”
“Behave?”
“Just have some breakfast, try not to hoochie too much, we got a long road ahead.” He went out the screen door.
Stacy ate quickly, looking out the window. Spotting a hammock hanging under a big sycamore tree outside, she decided to give it a try. She walked to the hammock and then slumped inside, adjusting herself for comfort in the cool morning breeze and enjoying the feeling of hot food in her belly. She almost felt she could fall asleep again, lulled by the sweet smells and the droning of winged things. But then the dull buzz of insects gave way to an awareness that she could hear Silas and Scooter talking, just barely. Their tone wasn’t entirely friendly.
Scooter said, “I wouldn’t be sore, if you could just give me a legitimate explanation.”
Silas replied coolly, “I told you, you wouldn’t understand, Scoot.”
“Don’t Scoot me! And ‘understand’? How about you try to understand me? I was your pit boss. We were on the verge of getting the biggest contracts for the biggest races in the country and being huge, man, huge! Your next year would have been a million-dollar year, for sure. You were my ticket, my partner, my investment. I’d walked away from my shop, broke up my first marriage. I bet everything on you! And then out of the blue, you just up and quit!”
A loud clattering sound startled Stacy. Had Scooter thrown something?
“Things happened to me,” Silas said, calm as could be.
“Your kid sister died. That sucks, but life has to go on. I’ve lost lots of people that meant the world to me. Hell, I’ve lost you, only you’re still alive and walking around, you keep coming back to taunt me.”
“You mean ‘haunt me.’”
“I said what I said. Lots of people lose near kin and lovers and they keep on going, they don’t just disappear from the world. But it’s like you’re a dead man. You’re gone, no address, just an occasional phantom on the CB, and when you show up out of the blue, you want me to work on the car.”
“I’ll pay you,” Silas said.
“That ain’t a solution!” Scooter yelled. “That’s the problem, you thinking I’m somebody you just pay! You don’t pay your friends, Silas. You know that, right?”
“I can’t stick around and be your pal, Scoot,” Silas said. “I can’t even explain why I can’t do that. It’s not what you think. If I stayed here more than a day, I would be risking your lives. There’s no way to explain that won’t sound crazy, but it’s true.”
“Try me, Silas.”
There was a pause. “No. Not today. Maybe someday. For today, let me pay you. And know that I wish I could be as good a friend to you as you’ve been to me.”
“You could have had a real career! You could have been famous! Hell, with your looks, you’d probably be a movie star by now. We all could have been set for life!”
“Scoot, I know you’re upset.”
“Why can’t you tell me?” Scooter shouted.
“Knowing would change your life forever.”
“Drugs?” Scooter pressed. “The mob?”
“What I’m doing is for Betty’s sake,” Silas told him. “Like, her soul’s sake.”
Scooted huffed.
Silas said, “If I can get things figured out, I’ll come back.”
“I ain’t gonna hold my breath.”
“Scoot—”
“Don’t,” Scooter broke in. “I checked your oil pan, it’s fine. That car of yours can take a beating, doesn’t even seem to scratch. You got new tires and I even soaped her up this morning. You’re good to go do whatever the hell it is you’re gonna do.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re good to go,” Scooter said. “Get out of here.”
Stacy heard something slam and she wondered if one of them had punched the other. She got up and crept to the edge of the garage to peek around the corner. Silas and Scooter were locked in an embrace. They slapped each other on the back none too gently before letting go.
Silas cleared his throat. “When I get things figured out—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Scooter cut him off. “But if you do, just let me know you’re getting the crew back together. ’Til then…forget it. But I do hope Betty’s okay, wherever she’s at.”
“All right. I’ll get Stacy and be going. Thank Gina for me.”
“I’ll do that.” Scooter disappeared into the open garage door.
Silas slid into the car and reached for his CB. Stacy stayed at the edge of the building and listened to him. “Pickle Mike, what’s your twenty? You got your ears on?”
“A fella can hear you loud and clear, Danger Man. Go to channel eighteen-point-nine, Gnomish.”
Silas fiddled with his CB. “I’ve gotta call in a serious favor, code of the road, for that time I saved your bacon back in Albuquerque.”
“A fella hears you loud and clear. No need to remind a fella about what went down. What do you need?”
“I need a game of Find the Lady and we have some very unfriendly marks.”
“Who would that be now?”
Silas paused and sighed. “William Penn’s boys in blue, I’m talking the highway pa-troll. Some stony goons from the five families, Don Gargolio’s boys; and there’s always an off chance that an angry mama snallygaster might turn up. And then if we do it the way I’m thinking, we’ll be heading into East Unseelie, too.”
“Well, that’s a pickle.”
“Why do you think I called Pickle Mike?”
“Because a fella owes you one.”
“That’s true. I just wanted you to know the full deal of what I’m looking at. It’s trouble sure as shooting going into elf territory but I need to rearrange my pursuit. You got anyone available who can help?”
“I’m gonna put the word out for help from my good buddies Copperhead and Turnpike. One or the other will be good to go.”
“I appreciate you sincerely, Jocko.”
“A fella hears you loud and clear, he hasn’t forgotten when you helped me out of being in a dogman’s pie.”
Silas gave a soft chuckle. “I was in the right place at the right time and know you would have done the same.”
“A fella will be jawing at the boys and someone will be heading on your way soon enough. I’m out and over.”
“Much obliged. Over and out.”
Silas walked into the garage. Stacy went back to the hammock and acted as if she had been lounging there the whole time.
Silas sauntered around the edge of the house toward her. “We will hit the road soon, but we’re gonna get a piggyback ride to throw the wolves off the scent for a half-day trip.”
“Just a half day?”
Silas tipped his head to one side, looking like Steve McQueen’s infuriating, cocky younger brother. “Give me half a day’s head start, and I’ll outrun anything.”
“Oh really? How are you getting a piggyback ride, then?”
“Calling in some favors.”
Stacy continued to swing in the hammock and asked innocently, “Will we have time to play some more twenty questions?”
Silas grinned like a wolf. “What’s a hoochie mama like you want to know?”
“That’s not funny.”
“It’s kinda funny.”
Gina appeared with a brown paper bag. “I made you all some sandwiches. Scooter said you all are leaving soon.”
“Thank you,” Stacy said, taking the bag.
“You’re welcome,” Gina said. She winked before going back inside the house.
Stacy asked, “Why does she make me feel dirty?”
Silas chuckled. “Probably all that hoochie mama guilt.”
“Stop it. I had never even heard of a hoochie mama before this morning. I still don’t know what it is for certain.”
“You kinda do.”
“I do not.”
Silas shrugged. “Well, they have other names you would know for sure.”
“I don’t think I want to have this conversation.”
“You wanted to be playing twenty questions.”
Stacy sat back down in the hammock. “Why don’t you tell me about your sister?”
Silas nodded, slightly. “You were listening to me and Scooter, were you?”
“I might have heard a little bit,” Stacy admitted.
“I think I’ve told you enough about myself for one day.” He turned and went back to the garage and the car.
Stacy was used to commanding men’s attention; Silas’s walking away caught her by surprise. “Silas!” she called. “It’s a new day. We talked yesterday.”
He said nothing.
“Men,” Stacy muttered.
“Preach, sister,” Gina said. Stacy realized she’d been standing on the porch through the entire exchange.
Stacy turned away and rolled her eyes. “Hey, Gina, I think I’d just like some time to myself.”
“Oh, I see how it is.” Gina went back inside and let the screen door slam.
Silas kept his distance for a while, and she let him, sitting in the hammock. An hour later, an eighteen-wheeler pulled up in front of the house and honked.