Sweet Dreams, page 20
She stepped on something, looked and saw a brick wedged in the grass. Yumi went down on one knee, clutched it in her tiny hand, and stood as the man came at her. She swung the brick into his face. He howled and brought his hands up as blood spurted from his nose, and she ran.
Yumi heard a train and felt the ground shake. She saw it on the overpass, looking down a street called John R. She ran under it and saw the tall buildings of Detroit in the distance. She had to get off the street but was not sure where to go.
The black men were coming toward her three abreast, their bodies gliding over the cracked, rutted pavement. As they came closer, she could see they were teenagers. There was nothing menacing about them, and now she felt relieved. They had no reason to harm her. She had no money, nothing of value.
Yumi studied them as they approached. The first one was a foot taller than the other two and skinny. The second one had a shaved head and a scraggly beard. And the third one wore a small hat with a brim angled on his head.
Smiling, they blocked Yumi’s way, surrounding her, saying:
“Look what we got here.”
“Yo, what’s up?”
“Wanna get high?”
Now another train rumbled by on the overpass behind them and the whistle sounded. They took their eyes off her, and Yumi ran up a hill into a field but didn’t get far. The one with the bald head caught her and pushed her down. “Yo, where you going? We gonna have some fun.” And now all three of them stood in a circle leering at her.
•••
Yesterday, when they were planning the operation, Kate had said to Charlie, “Let’s give Yumi some leeway, see what she does.”
“She’s Yumi now, huh? What’re you gonna do, take her shopping and out to lunch?”
“No, what I’m saying is maybe she’ll surprise us.”
“Maybe she will.”
Given the opportunity, Kate didn’t know if Yumi would try to run or not, but it was worth a chance. The chief, initially reluctant, went along with the plan but said, “Keep a close eye on her.”
Buck and Charlie would position themselves somewhere in the vicinity with an angle on the building and follow her if she took off.
Now twenty minutes after Yumi had escaped, Kate was in the car with Charlie on the radio talking to Buck. “Where is she?”
“We don’t know. She was on Baltimore heading toward John R, and we lost her.”
Charlie gunned it speeding under the viaduct, glanced at Kate and said, “How’d you know?”
“Remember the look on her face when we interviewed her?”
“Why didn’t she tell us what she knew?”
“Maybe she doesn’t know anything,”
“Why’d she run?”
“Ever spent a week in county?” Kate said, and then, “Slow down, will you? I just saw something.”
Kate and Charlie walked up a grassy ridge to a field. There were three black guys surrounding Yumi, taunting her. Charlie was five yards to her right, Buck and Cornbread ten yards to her left. The four US Marshals moved into the scene with their weapons. Finally, the black guys noticed them and took off running. Buck fired his shotgun in the air and they froze in their tracks, hands raised over their heads like they’d been there before, knew the drill.
“That was the warning,” Buck said in his ’Bama drawl. “Next one won’t be.”
Buck brought them together, aiming the Remington 870. “On your knees, hands on your head.”
Buck cuffed them and Cornbread frisked them, taking small bags of white powder out of their pockets. “What do we have here? Look like possession with intent.”
“Found it under the tracks,” the dude wearing the pork pie said.
The tall dude had a small nickel-plate semiautomatic in his back pocket.
Cornbread grinned. “Gonna tell me you found this too, I expect.”
The tall dude didn’t say anything.
Kate holstered her Glock. “Are you all right?”
Yumi nodded.
“Stay here a minute, I’ll be right back.”
She and Charlie walked out of earshot.
“The PD can come pick up these clowns,” Charlie said. “But what about the girl? How do you want to handle this? I mean, you can see her spinning it in her favor. I can hear her telling the prosecutor and the judge that she was helping the Marshals Service, showing evidence that would most certainly help us catch a notorious bank robber. And while in our custody she was kidnapped and molested by three heroin junkies. How would we explain that?”
“I hear your concern, but I think you’re overreacting.”
Charlie said, “Where was the girl going? You think this was part of a plan?”
“Maybe she knows where Ray is hanging out and was on her way to meet him.” Kate looked at Yumi sitting on the grass, arms hugging her legs.
“Even after what he did to her?”
Kate said, “How do you explain love?”
“Oh, you think that’s love, huh?”
“I am hardly an expert on the subject, but yeah, I think so.”
Kate sat next to Yumi, who was crying softly. “Are you okay?”
Yumi lifted her head and nodded. “What is going to happen now?” she said in her tiny voice.
“Where were you going?”
“I don’t know—just trying to get away.”
Kate said, “Were you going to meet Ray?”
“If I could.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t sure how to get there,” Yumi said.
“Are you saying you know where he is?”
“There is one place he might be. If I take you, what will you do for me?”
A week in custody, and Yumi had already learned how to work the system. “I told you I’d talk to the prosecutor on your behalf.”
Yumi said, “What does that mean?”
“Try to work out a deal, get your sentence reduced.”
“I want a guarantee.”
“I can’t give you a guarantee,” Kate said. “You have two choices: you can go back to jail or you can take us to Ray. Just to be clear, we’re not forcing you to do anything against your will.”
A Detroit police van picked up Trey Lewis, Eron Hall, and Lonzo Williamson, arrested them for possession of a firearm and possession with intent to distribute what appeared to be about twelve grams of heroin.
Thirty-five
The ferry was waiting when they drove into the lot. The ferryman guided the two marshals’ cars onto the barge. A few minutes later they crossed the St. Clair River to the island. Marshal Kate turned, looking at her through the mesh screen. “Where’re we going?”
“It’s a cabin off the highway,” Yumi said. “I will tell you where to turn. I don’t know the names of the roads.”
The terrain looked familiar—fields of wild flowers on the left and a wall of milkweeds and marshland on the right. Ray told her the cabin was on the most remote part the island. “If you ever wanted to hide, this is the place to do it.” That was the reason she was bringing the marshals here.
She saw the sign and remembered the name Rattery Lane, and she told Marshal Charlie to turn. She was nervous, afraid of Ray and what he would do if they didn’t protect her. Yumi’s heart was beating faster and then pounding in her chest.
Kate said, “Where’s the cabin?”
“Down there,” she said, pointing. “At the end of the lane—about four-hundred meters.”
“How do you know about this place?”
“I came one time with Ray.”
Kate said, “Is there another way in?”
“Just by boat.”
“What kind of weapons does he have?” Charlie said.
“Maybe a rifle or a shotgun. Ray brings the guns with him in the car.”
Kate said, “Anyone else in the cabin?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. Please don’t tell Ray I brought you here.”
They left Yumi in the cage. “I’ll be back to get you as soon as I can,” Kate said. She got out of the car and locked the doors. Buck and Cornbread were in their vests holding long guns. Kate told them what she knew. “There’s a hunting cabin at the end of the road. There’s a good chance Skinner’s in there with a rifle or a shotgun, maybe both.”
Buck cracked a tin of Happy Days, filled his lower lip with tobacco, and glanced at Kate. “QD, care for a dip?”
“It’s tempting, but I think I’ll pass.” She was standing at the open trunk putting on her heavy vest.
•••
Kate moved through the woods, holding the AR-15 across her chest. The sky was overcast, and the air smelled musty, like grass clippings and rotting wood. She heard dry leaves crunching under her boots and saw glimpses of Charlie to her right moving through the trees.
The cabin was in a small clearing ahead. Kate stood just inside the tree line, raised the binoculars, and swept them across the front, holding on the windows and door. Charlie came up next to her, whispering, “See anything?”
Kate shook her head and got a text from Cornbread. “Eye on the back door. No sign of S-1.”
“Do you see a vehicle?” Kate texted back.
“Negative.”
“They’re in position,” Kate said. Charlie nodded. Kate texted, “We’re going in.”
Cornbread texted back, “10-4.”
The door was unlocked. Charlie went primary into the cabin, entering the main room that had log walls, a vaulted ceiling and fieldstone fireplace, sweeping the room with the shotgun. Kate followed Charlie and now stood next to him, aiming her AR-15. Buck and Cornbread came in the back door and Buck shook his head. There was a bedroom to the right. Kate pointed. She and Charlie moved toward it and went in. There was a duffel on the unmade bed and men’s clothes piled on a chair.
Charlie, gripping the shotgun, went into the adjoining bathroom, slid the shower curtain open with the barrel, looked around, and came back in the bedroom. “Shaving kit on the sink, towel on the floor.”
Kate unzipped the duffel, looked in, and saw a bundle of currency held together by a rubber band—hundred-dollar bill on top—“Proceeds from the Huntington Bank of Monroe would be my guess.”
“Well, we know he’s staying here,” Charlie said. “But where’s he at?”
“I don’t know, but the car sitting in plain sight with Yumi in back troubles me.”
“I’ll have Buck bring it up to the cabin and keep watch.”
Kate left everything where it was and went into the main room and met Cornbread coming out of the kitchen. “There’s beer and cold cuts in the refrigerator and a loaf of bread on the counter.”
“Skinner left clothes and a pile of money, so I’ve got to believe he’s coming back,” Kate said. She moved across the room and looked out at the yard, a short stretch of overgrown lawn that extended to a small lake. She thought she heard the drone of a motor in the distance, walked to the door, and opened it. “Do you hear that?” Kate said, turning toward Charlie.
“I hear something.”
Kate aimed her binoculars at the water and saw an open boat appear, its lone occupant sitting in the stern, guiding it toward the cabin.
Charlie said, “Is it Skinner?”
“He’s wearing a cap,” Kate said, binoculars pressed to her eyes. “I can’t see his face, but who else would it be?”
The man steered the boat to shore, tied it to a metal stake, stepped out with a fishing rod and two fish hanging from a line. He moved toward the cabin, semiautomatic in the waist of his Levi’s, dropped the fish in a plastic cooler behind the cabin, and opened the door.
Charlie pressed the barrel of the shotgun against his rib cage. “Man, you better play it cool.” The man raised his hands, but to everyone’s surprise they were looking at Lowell Hodge. “I generally don’t argue when there’s a shotgun pointed at me.”
Cornbread cuffed Lowell’s hands behind his back, patted him down, and took his gun and cell phone. Charlie grabbed Lowell’s biceps and escorted him to the couch.
“Jesus,” Kate said to Charlie. “You believe this?”
“I guess I have to ’cause I’m looking at him.”
Cornbread checked the call log on Lowell’s phone. “Looks like he and Skinner have been talking. Needed a place to lie low for a while, called his old buddy.”
“You’ve got all the answers, huh?” Lowell said to Cornbread. And then, “Take off the bracelets, let’s see what you’ve got.”
“Lucky for you it doesn’t work that way,” Cornbread said.
“You marshal pussies are all the same—hiding behind your badge.”
Kate said, “What time are you expecting Ray?”
“Who says I am?”
•••
Buck parked Charlie’s G-ride in front of the cabin, nodded at Kate in the doorway, and walked into the woods with his long gun. Kate moved to the car, got in behind the wheel, and slid around so she could see Yumi in the cage. “Where’s Ray?”
Yumi tried to look surprised. “You mean he isn’t here?”
“You know he isn’t. Listen, I’ve tried to help you. Stop fucking around and tell me where I can find him.”
“I don’t know.”
“Why do you want to protect him after what he did? What’s his hold over you?” Some women didn’t get it. They’d been mentally and physically abused and kept coming back for more.
“I’m not protecting him,” Yumi said. “I’m trying to help you.”
“Did you really expect him to be here?” Kate waited for an answer.
“It is the only place I know, the only possibility.”
Frustrated, Kate got out of the car.
Charlie came out of the cabin and met her. “She tell you anything?”
Kate shook her head. “What about Lowell?”
“He’s been in contact with Skinner; that’s obvious looking at his phone. But does he know where Skinner’s at? I don’t think so. When Skinner took Lowell’s calls, tower had him in Royal Oak.”
“Do you think he’s going to show up here?”
“No, I don’t,” Charlie said, “but I’ve been wrong about him more often than not.”
“I’d like the opportunity to question Lowell while we have him,” Kate said. “Just me and him, see if I can get anywhere.”
“Go for it.”
Kate walked in the room and set a can of beer on the coffee table in front of Lowell. “What the hell’s that?”
“Looks like a can of Miller High Life. You thirsty?”
“Is this where you promise to put in a good word for me with the court if I help you?”
“I don’t know that there’s a whole lot I can do,” Kate said.
“That might be the first honest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Turn toward me.”
He did and Kate unlocked the handcuffs and put them on the table. Lowell picked up the beer, popped the top and took a long drink. “Jesus, that’s better than gettin’ laid.” He looked behind the couch and noticed they were alone in the room. “Where is everybody?”
“They’re around somewhere,” Kate said.
“You’re not afraid, are you, keeping company with an ex-con?”
Kate smiled. “You think you’re my first?”
“What do you want?”
“Tell me about your armed robbery conviction in Florida.”
“That’s ancient history.”
“Was Ray involved? We know you were roommates at Hope House and took off together.
Lowell guzzled the rest of the beer. “Get me another cold one, I’ll tell you.”
Kate got up, saw Charlie watching from the bedroom, and went into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator, lifted three beers by the plastic tightener, pulled one off, went back to Lowell, and handed the beer to him. He popped the top and took a drink. “Yeah, we hit a Walgreens in West Palm one night. It was Ray’s idea. Got like eighteen grand.”
“How’d you get caught?”
“Caprice seen my share of the money and asked where I got it at.”
“Who’s Caprice?” Kate glanced at his pale muscular arm with tats scattered on it in blue ink.
“Babe I’d hooked up with who looked like a Coppertone model. I said to her, ‘Can I trust you? Promise you won’t tell anyone?’” Lowell drank some beer. “She says, ‘Want me to swear on a Bible?’ I remembered seein’ one in the drawer of the table next to the bed, and just for fun I went and got it. I said, ‘All right, put your hand on it and repeat after me. “I, Caprice Newman, promise to never tell another person where Lowell Hodge got the money at.”’ Then she tells me she was brought up in one of those strict wacko Christian families and thought it was sacrilegious to make fun of the Bible and wouldn’t do it.”
“I thought it was her idea?”
“Yeah, but when push came to shove, she freaked.” Lowell finished the second beer.
“That’s a fun story, but you still haven’t told me how you got caught.”
“Caprice got busted for possession. She had half a lid in her purse. Gave me up for the Walgreens’s job and got probation. And it was all ’cause she wouldn’t swear on the Bible.”
“But you never divulged the name or whereabouts of your accomplice, Ray Skinner. Why?”
“’Cause you don’t rat out your partner.” Lowell drank some beer. “How’d you know I was here?”
“We didn’t. We thought you were Ray Skinner till you walked in the back door. Is he planning to stop by?”
“Who the hell knows?”
“If you were looking for him, where would you go?”
“What’re you gonna do for me?”
“Get you another beer.”
“That’s a step in the right direction. There’s a fifth of George Dickel in the cupboard, why don’t you bring that too?”
“If this was me, I’d be trying a little harder to improve my situation. All I can think is maybe you don’t understand the trouble you’re in or you enjoy spending time in jail.”
