“You know, you should watch the company you keep,” he said, still looking at me.
I kept my hands down at my side. I didn’t want to scare Mr. Gillian into shooting me.
“Thank you again, Mr. Gillian,” she said.
Bonnie moved to push the door closed.
“You can come on down with me and Cheryl if you want, Miss Shay,” he said.
I liked him. He was worried that I was a threat and that she was scared to run from me.
But Mr. Gillian didn’t like me.
“Why’ont you come on with me, Bonnie?” he said.
He leaned forward to cut off my approach to her, balancing the gun so that he could swing it up into action with speed. The only problem he had was the length of the barrel. If he wasn’t used to wielding it it might take a second too long.
Gillian knew what I was thinking. He gave me a little smile that dared, “Go on, boy. Try it.”
He said, “Come on, Bonnie. Let’s go.”
Bonnie saw what was happening. She held the broken door by the knob and looked at me. Who was I? At least she knew Mr. Gillian. Mr. Gillian and Cheryl were safe.
They were safe but what did they know about the man pounding at the door?
“It’s okay, Mr. Gillian. Mr. Rawlins was helping me.”
“You sure?” There was disappointment in his voice.
“I’ll come down and talk to you and Cheryl later on,” she said while pushing the cracked door to usher him out.
“Okay now,” he said as the door was closing. “But I’ll be keepin’ a ear peeled.”
The moment the door was closed Bonnie gasped and brought her left hand to her breast. I moved to help but she held up the other hand to ward me off. Then she shook her whole body, head and all, making a noise with her flapping cheeks like you do when you’re very cold. The shiver subsided slowly until only her head and neck quivered slightly—her eyes shut tight. Then she took a deep breath and opened her eyes to look at me.
“Do you know who that man was?” she asked.
CHAPTER 29
RUPERT WORKS FOR TWO WHITE MEN,” I was saying at the Dunkin’ Donuts franchise down near La Cienega and Pico. Bonnie had taken her coffee with two creams and two sugars. “Philly Stetz and a guy named Beam.”
We had gone down to the back of the building and out through the laundry window. I didn’t know if Rupert was outside, if he was armed, or if Li’l Joe was with him. But even if he was alone and unarmed, I doubted my ability to stop him from taking Bonnie.
We tripped and stumbled through a cluttered cement deck that offered the building’s trash cans to the alley. A German shepherd growled and barked once but he backed down when I took a metal lid from the nearest can. Dogs had become my least favorite creatures over the past few days.
We caught a bus to a cab stand on Jefferson. From there we took a taxi to the doughnut shop. I was in no rush to take this woman into my home. I mean, I liked her but I loved those kids.
“You know either one of them?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Well, what do you know?”
“I don’t know much, Mr. Rawlins. For instance, I don’t know if I can trust you.”
“Hey.” I held up my hands. “You sure in hell cain’t trust Rupert.”
For some reason that made her laugh. She brought her hand to her lips in an attempt to suppress the giggles.
“What’s so funny?”
She tried to talk but the laugh wouldn’t let her.
Bonnie put her fingers at the back of my hand to steady herself.
“You looked pretty funny there,” she said.
“Where?”
“At my place. Your face got all cockeyed and you were holding that pan like it was a fly …” She couldn’t manage to finish for laughing. “A flyswatter.”
I laughed then. I was thinking that Rupert did resemble a fly. A big ugly fly who had had his wings clipped.
“You were so scared.” She laughed some more. “Kinda cute though.”
“More than cute,” I said in a somber tone. “If you would of opened that door you’d be dead right now.”
“You don’t know that,” she said defiantly.
“They killed Idabell, Bonnie.”
