Page 35 of Three, Two, One [321]

I spy a hooker I know coming out of the bus station and whistle. “Shadow!” I wave her over.

She takes a long drag on her smoke, probably wondering what I want. Maybe wondering if I’ll pay her to suck off JD. But we don’t do whores. They can’t pass the health tests.

Shadow knows this, so that’s why she hesitates. I don’t want her for work, so I must want her for something else.

She drops the cigarette and stubs it out with the toe of her four-inch heels, then waves back as she looks both ways and crosses the street. Her short skirt is gold and barely covers her ass, and her top is sleeveless and beaded with black and gold sequins. “I ain’t seen him,” she says as she steps up on the curb. “I know you only come here to look for JD and I ain’t seen him.”

I nod. “OK. Well, thanks for letting me know.”

“Now wait, sugar. I said I ain’t seen him. But I heard something that you might find interesting.”

I don’t bother being suspicious. Shadow wants a little bit of cash and truthfully, I’d have given it to her just for crossing the street. So I’ll take whatever she’s got. I grab a wad of bills from my pocket and count out three twenties. “Buy some breakfast, Shadow. You’re too skinny.”

She smiles and I notice she’s missing a tooth. Not one right in front, but off to the side a little bit. “You always were a sweet talker, Ark.”

I put my hands up like I’m guilty.

“Anyways, I was just coming from Charlie’s and I overheard some men talking about you.”

“Me?” Charlie is her pimp. Not some corner dude, either. A guy who knows his business.

She pulls out another smoke and lights it up, taking her time with a long drag. “Uh-huh. Someone called in while I was talking to him. They tells him there’s a girl missing and do Charlie know anything about it. Then Charlie says talk to JD and Ark, because you keeps track of the street girls.”

“Do you know who called him?” I ask, feigning disinterest.

“Nah,” she says. “Charlie just hung up without saying names. But he was talking all polite and shit. So my intuition figures it was someone more important than him.”

“OK. Well, thanks for that, Shadow. I guess he’ll get in contact with me if it’s important.”

She flashes me her new smile. “Any time, sugar.”

“What happened to your tooth?” I point to the missing one she’s flashing, but her smile fades quick.

“Nothin’. Just a misunderstanding.”

I smile at her. “OK, Shadow. Stay safe.”

“You too, honey.” But she’s already walking off.

I sit on the wall for a little longer trying to figure out what that bit of information might add up to. Blue is running, that’s for sure. And they were violent with her. Beatings, torture maybe, possibly rape. They’ve got her ID. They marked her as property. And she’s afraid to call home.

Add that to JD’s missing girlfriend from four years ago and that means something.

Back in the early days, before the money started pouring in, JD and I were winging it hardcore. It took weeks to clean him up and he had like two dozen relapses. Every time I took him back to rehab, they asked me why I bothered. And I always told them the same thing. Because no one else will.

Everybody’s got a past. Everybody is running from some demon or another. Everybody needs a second chance. If there’s a person out there who has not fucked up royally and needed a second chance… well, that person hasn’t lived yet.

And four years later, I do not regret one moment of all the effort it took to drag him out of his depression, his addiction, and his self-loathing, and hand him the opportunity of a lifetime.

Because no matter what JD is, he’s smart. And he took that chance. He moved on. He made movies with me. He made money with me. Hell, he did more than move on. He moved up.

But that scar…

I saw his face last night when he lifted her hair. I saw him look up at me like that kid I found trying his hardest not to get his ass kicked in front of this very wall of concrete four years ago.

He expects answers this time.

And he expects me to help get them.