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'Hey.' he said. 'What the hell do you think you're doing?'
'You failed to show for a court hearing. I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you in to get rescheduled.'
`I'm working.'
'You're leaving an hour early today,' I told him.
'I gotta tell my boss.'
I snapped the second bracelet on him and gave him a nudge toward the door. 'We'll make sure your boss knows.'
'No, wait a minute. On second thought, I don't want anyone to know. This is embarrassing. Jeez, is everyone looking?'
'Not everyone,' Lula said. 'I think there's a guy over by the popcorn counter who's not looking.'
'It's all a big mistake, anyway. I'm not the one who killed her rosebush.'
'I suppose it was the phantom leaker,' Lula said.
'It was Grizwaldi's dog. He lifts his leg on that bush every day.
This is discrimination. I don't see Grizwaldi's dog getting hauled into court. Everybody knows he pisses on everything, but it's okay because he's a dog. It's not fair.'
`I see your point,' Lula said. 'Not that it makes any difference.
We're still gonna cart your chunky ass off to jail.'
Pancek dug his heels in. 'No way. I'm not going to jail.'
'You're making a scene,' I told him.
'Fine. I'll make a scene. I have a cause.'
The mutants would never have stood for this,' Lula said. Those mutants didn't put up with anything.'
I gave Pancek a yank forward and maneuvered him through the lobby, up to the exit door. I was talking to him all the way, trying to get him to cooperate. 'It's not like you're going to get locked away,'
I said. 'We have to bring you to the station to reschedule. That's just the way it's done. We'll get you bonded out again as soon as possible.'
I held the door open and nudged Pancek out the door, into the lot. Cars were at least ten rows deep, parked under the glare of the overhead security lights. I was parked five rows back.
Lula and I led Pancek through three rows of cars and stopped.
An SUV was idling in the aisle between parked cars. A silver compact was nose-to-nose with the SUV. A black guy in a silky white oversized warm-up suit was standing beside the SUV, talking to a white male dressed head to toe in Abercrombie & Fitch. Both men were late teens. From what I could see of the silver car, there was a couple in the back seat and a girl in the passenger-side front seat.
'We don't want to be seeing this,' Lula said. 'Used to be you had to go looking for the dope, and now the dope comes to you.'
I called the Hamilton Police and told them they had a problem in the multiplex lot. Then I called the theater and told them to send security into the lot.
The guy in the silky suit and the kid kept talking. The silky suit was stoic and the white kid was agitated. The girl in the front passenger seat got out of the car. Impatient.
This isn't good,' Lula said. 'She should never have got out of the car. These are gang guys. They got a philosophy about women makes Eminem sound like he's writing nursery rhymes.'
Three big guys in homey clothes, all wearing red scarves flying from pants pockets, got out of the SUV and did their I'm a big had gang member shuffle over to the negotiation. One of the big guys jabbed a finger into the Abercrombie & Fitch lad's chest and got into his face. The kid pushed back. The gang guy took out a gun and held it to the lad's head.
'Crap,' Lula said on a sigh.
I looked over my shoulder, wondering what was taking security so long. Probably this happened all the time and no one wanted to come into the lot until the police arrived.
