For a fragile, crazed person, she could really haul ass. I had no idea what motivated me to do it, but I took off after her. I was probably safer in front of the building by Bumblebee. At least I was carrying the mace and Taser. Anything that came my way was going to be sorry.
Ana took a quick left at the end of the block. I was amazed her skinny legs could move so fast.
I pushed to a sprint and reached the end of the block just in time to see Ana get abducted by my favorite black van. I wasn’t sure whether Ana tripped into the van or they pulled her in. Ana was so occupied getting away from me that she didn’t even notice the people in front of her. The van didn’t even stop. They were rolling before the doors were closed.
“Dammit.” This was becoming a horrible pattern. I really wanted to choke the shit of out those witches. There was no sense in trying to chase them—by the time I reached Bumblebee, I would never find their trail. How could you hide a black van in Texarkana? There were not that many of those stupid things running around. An F-150—that was a different story. But a twelve-passenger van? No way.
Time was running out. I headed back to Bumblebee. Another trip downtown that was a total waste of time and demoralizing. I was so consumed with self-loathing that I almost missed the man sitting on the hood of Bumblebee till it was too late. Bob’s friend from Beverly Park was having a picnic on Bumblebee. I placed my hand in my pocket, in case I needed to use the Taser.
“Comfy?” I was skipping this part of my report to Constantine.
“Not a bad place to be for a Friday morning in September.” The man wasn’t even looking at me. He looked pretty defiant. He was peeling an orange and dropping the skins on the street.
“That’s lovely.” I forced myself to calm down. It was not his fault I’d lost Ana. But he was still sitting on Bumblebee.
“There’s a big price for info on your pretty self, Ms. Isis.”
I froze. I realized he wasn’t drunk today. I gave him my undivided attention.
“Is that why you’re here? To make some money?” If the underground community of Texarkana as well as the supernatural one was spying on me, I was screwed.
“Hell no, girl. Those crazy bitches took Bob, and more are missing. We’re not cattle. They can’t push us around.” The man was pissed. He spit the seeds of his orange for pure emphasis.
“Why are you here?” I was a little nervous.
“Payback.”
I wasn’t expecting that answer. “You want payback? Really? You came to me.” He obviously had not seen me fight.
“You’re friends with Bob, and you had some really gangster issues with those bitches. We heard they’d been beating you up, and here you are, still asking questions.” The little man was eyeing me up and down. If Constantine had been there, he would have approved. “You have guts, little girl.”
“That or I’m just dumb.” Honestly speaking, this wasn’t about the job anymore. I really hated those witches.
“This is our town. We refuse to be run off.” The man noticed my confused look. “The underground citizens of Texarkana stay out of trouble, and the community is good to us. We’re planning to keep it that way.”
“That’s a good plan. So why are you here?” It was way too early to have philosophy discussions about Texarkana. We needed to get to the point.
“You need help.” He said that with a smile, as if it should answer all the world’s problems. Maybe I needed to start doing drugs, because some people made no sense to me.
“OK, continue.” Why did I always had to pry the information out of people?
“Ms. Isis, you need eyes and ears in this town. I’m your man.”
“You’re here to offer your services, no questions asked? I could be a cop or some crazy nut on a vendetta.” People were not this trusting.
“I confirmed you’re friends with Bob. Bob is a good man. He helped others and never let anyone be abused. You bring Bob back, we can be square. A friend of Bob’s is my friend.” He looked sad as he mentioned Bob’s name. He didn’t believe there was any hope for Bob.
“We’ll bring him back. We just need to find these witches by tomorrow at sunset. Can you help me with that?” We had a common goal.
“With pleasure.” A devious smile spread over his face.
“What do I call you? Unless you’re cool with Bob’s friend.”
“Shorty.” Well, that was fitting. And again, no last name. The underground community could all be pop stars with this one-name thing.
“OK, Shorty, you know I need help. What do you know about this group?” I was a ready to test this new informant thing.
“They got money and connections all over the city. They have infiltrated most nonprofits to get info on the underground.” Shorty started cleaning his nails with a pocketknife.
“That explains why they can find people and pick the ones nobody notices.” Damn, they were organized and smart. No wonder ninja intern hadn’t found them. He had underestimated them.
“They also move all the time. They’re never at one location for more than a night, maybe two. They have big muscles with them.”
“Shorty, are you sure you want to get involved? Everyone who talks to me goes missing. You said it yourself about Bob.” I really didn’t want to add Shorty to this list.
“Ms. Isis, nobody’s safe anymore. A gypsy came from New York yesterday. The same thing happened there. All they found were dried-up bones. He left town.” Wow, I really had underestimated the underground community. They had a better communication system than the gossips on Facebook.
“That’s right. Nobody’s safe, Shorty.” We stood in silence, staring at the Salvation Army. “Shorty, do you have a phone?”
“Obamacare, baby.” Shorty pulled a cell phone from his pocket. Blessings for government programs. If
