“I ain’t smoking weed. Damn! It’s a cigarette…”
“I should make you take a pee test.”
“Give me the test, I don’t give uh fuuuuck! Hey, where the bitches at?” Axel rolled his eyes. Legend still had the attention span of a gnat when he was forced to be sober. “I remember there being more nice-looking women here in Portland before I got locked up last time. Now all I see is flat booties and missin’ teeth. Where are they hiding, man? I’m trying to fuck.”
“Maybe if you stopped calling women bitches, you’d find someone.”
“Look, Bret Michaels, you think just because you’re in a relationship you can poke your chest out now, huh?”
“No, I’m just saying a little courtesy goes a long way. Be what you want to attract.”
“Fuck that, and fuck that relationship guru shit. I’m not getting serious about anyone for a long ass time, and you said the same thing. Now here yo’ ass is, all boo’ed up.” Axel smirked and swallowed a big gulp of his beer.
“I said that a long time ago, man. Things change, Legend…”
“I remember how you used to run through them hos, Axel, like water down a drain, so you can miss me with the Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes act. So, what time you need me to come in tonight?”
“Uh, let’s see,” He looked at his watch. “I know you worked this morning, so I appreciate this. ’Round ten would be good. I told you it’s like this sometimes.” He kicked a pebble across his mama’s porch, and it skidded. “We either go a day or two without anything happening, or boom, we’re getting back-to-back calls, nonstop.”
“What happened with this one? I need to figure out if I can eat first. Todd was in the middle of training me and then he threw up all over my fuckin’ jumpsuit this morning.”
“Yeah. I heard. That lady had been in there for three weeks before anyone found her. Not exactly the best situation for you to cut your teeth on. Todd flaked out I see.”
“That smell…. Fuck, man. It’s crazy. Her boyfriend put her in the basement, wrapped in a carpet, then fled. That’s some sick shit.”
“I know. The one tonight isn’t like that. Natural death. The police said it’s over there near Josh’s place.”
After ending the call, Axel went back inside to find his mother eating a hamburger and watching some game show.
“An E!” she yelled around a mouthful.
Just then, his phone rang. Legend again.
“Who’s that? You’ve been on the phone more than you’ve been here visiting me. You could have taken phone calls at home.” She sucked her teeth, her gaze fixed on the television.
“It’s Legend. He probably just butt dialed me. Hold on.”
“What’s up? You change your mind about tonight?”
“Channey just called and said Master attacked English! She had—”
“WHAT?!!! Where is she?! Is English Okay?!”
“She’s in front of her job, and I think so, but—”
He ended the call, grabbed his keys, and raced to the front door.
“Axel, what’s wrong, honey? Axel?” He heard his mother saying his name, but he was afraid that if he slowed down to listen, to truly listen, he’d explode. There were no words to describe how he felt at that moment—panicked came nowhere close. “Axel!”
He sped down the steps, to his truck, his heart slamming against his ribs.
“AXEL! What’s going on?”
“MAMA, I’LL CALL YOU LATER!” he managed to say, then hauled ass out of her driveway…
Chapter Seventeen
They call it intuition…
I felt different. Something was off. Askew. Wrong.
I felt like the sun was melting, and the moon was freezing, and the once happy celestial couple were arguing over the fall and winter. Two out of four of their children who were always competing with one another, at odds.
There was confusion in the air and the music of my soul kept skippin’ like a scratched record. The song hurt my ears with its strange, uneven rhythm and bizarre guitar riffs. I put one foot in front of the other as I left work, the museum closing for the day. There was that feeling again. Invisible fingers along the hairs on the back of my neck. I turned around, but saw nothing. I kept on heading to my car, while thinking about how I’d left my coffee cup in there, and how its contents would need to be tossed out as soon as I got home.
I looked up at the sky, where the sun hadn’t set. She was sitting low, but not yet finished shining. It had been a great morning, followed by a fine afternoon… but now, all that remained was an unseen terror. The early evening felt tight and twisted. A forewarning.
English looked at her car, about forty feet away from her work building. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as a black Land Rover slowly meandered around the parking lot, then parked in a spot it wasn’t supposed to be. Her boss’ space. He was gone for the day.