Chapter 19

Somebody took the comforter off me. It was too heavy to wear in summertime. I felt better after my nap. Arnie’s face loomed over me. “Goddamn. I knew I should have crippled that fucker. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. My head is killing me. Where’s Leroy? Did he get away?”

“Yeah. All the way to forever.”

I slowly moved my head. He was lying next to me. One of his headlights was out and most of his control room was gone. I was getting sick again. I rolled away and slowly got upright.

Arnie went out the door and came back dragging Randi with him. He was tight-lipped and tense. She was sullen. “Let go of me, you bastard.”

“Shut up, shithead, before I lose my temper.”

“And what, hard guy?”

I looked quizzically at Arnie. “Trouble communicating?”

“Fuck, no. This bitch communicates fine. She just doesn’t know what’s good for her.”

Randi continued to wriggle against his hand on her arm. I took a moment to look at her. Her blonde hair was tangled. Her face was transformed by her sullen vermillion pout and glaring black-rimmed eyes from child to ageless bitch. She was slim, firm and beginning to ripen. Past buds but the fruit was not yet full. Long legs, short torso. She was on her way to womanhood. I wasn’t sure if that would be a blessing or a curse or whether she’d ever look or feel like a child again.

“Where’s Tony?” I asked.

Arnie smiled. “Tony had an accident. He fell in the stairwell. I fucked up the elevator when I got here and then foamed the staircase with the fire extinguisher you set out. He took a header going down and bounced a flight or so. What took me so long was getting some rope to tie him up with, and this bitch.” He shook his head at Randi. “She acted like we were the bad guys. I was tempted to leave her with the jerk. She tried to bite me while I dragged her up here. I told her she’d eat baby food for a month if she didn’t cut that shit. All she seems to understand is threats.”

“All right, let’s get out of here. The police are going to be here soon and I’d just as soon not have to explain you to them.”

“What about Tony?” Her voice was a whine.

“Oh, good old Tony. Good old Tony arranged with good old Leroy to kill you on screen for the eternal delight of necrophiles everywhere. Do you understand? He sold you out for money. He was going to let Leroy fuck you and then kill you on film. It was going to be your last film for sure. Your last anything. So much for good old Tony. Let’s get out of here.”

I went to the camera, yanked out the film and stuffed it inside my jacket. Then we each grabbed an arm and hustled her out the door.

As we were going out of the building we stopped at Julian, tied up in the stairwell. I asked Randi, “Anything you want to tell him?”

She looked down at him. He started to turn his face away. Arnie rudely realigned him with his foot. “I loved you. How could you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?” Julian looked at her without remorse, contrition or comprehension, just annoyance at having to explain himself.

I squatted down in front of him and got his attention along with a fistful of his jewelry. “We don’t have time for you to think about this yourself so repeat after me, douche bag: ‘You never did anything to deserve it. It was all my fault. I never loved you. I just used you to make me feel good.’” Julian lay there dumbly. I banged his head to remind him. “Say it.” He responded well to that. “I’d ask you to tell her you’re sorry but you’ve lied to her enough. Let’s go, school’s out.”

We got to the bottom of the stairs. Arnie looked at us. “This won’t fly. Two guys in black pajamas with a nymphet in a baby doll bathrobe. No way. Olde Towne isn’t ready for this.”

“Okay, you go get the car. We’ll go out the back way and meet you in the alley. Say one block up at Interarms.”

Arnie sidled out the door and we went down the corridor to the back door and out into the alley. I looked both ways and seeing no one began to steer her up the alleyway to the next warehouse, keeping close to the walls. At Interarms we ducked into a walkway leading to a loading office to wait for Arnie. Randi had been quite subdued since we’d left the building.

She looked up at me. “Where are you taking me?”

“We’re taking you out of this nightmare. Everything is going to be okay. As soon as we can get to a phone I’m going to call your father to pick you up.”

Randi wrenched herself away from me wailing, “no no” and tried to fling herself into the roadway. I grabbed her about the waist from behind and pulled her back toward me. Arnie better get here soon or I’m going to be shot as a rapist. I spun her around to me and said, “What’s the matter?”

The acid rain of her tears tracked her face and ran through her harlequin’s cheeks. She looked up at me and said, “Who do you think started me?”