Twenty minutes later, I was sitting on a bench in my least favorite place in The Hammer. Paulo, my slick lawyer cousin, met me there.
The bench lined one side of the room, which was the perfect place to watch Paulo’s entrance. As usual, it was dramatic. Every female in the place was aware of him the second he walked into the station. Something about pheromones, I’ve been told. As always, he looked like he had just walked off the cover of gq. Paulo scanned the room, found me and strode over.
The first thing out of his mouth was, “Zia Sophia saw a crow.”
“FUCK THE STUPID CROW!” Oops. I might have yelled that a little too loud. Every head in the place turned.
“Watch the potty mouth, Gina. These cops have tender ears.” Paulo was grinning.
Spence started over to us. His face turned to a snarl when he saw Paulo. But that was nothing compared to when Aunt Miriam came charging in seconds later.
“Jesus Christ,” muttered Spence.
Aunt Miriam stood at the entrance, wearing a massive coat of sheared beaver. Her eyes were fierce. She looked this way and that. All five feet four inches of her marched into the room and took command.
“Where’s that boy?” she demanded. Her mouth was fixed in a grim line. Her black helmet hair was solid, as was her sturdy body. I was never so glad to see someone.
“There you are.” Her beady brown eyes fixed on Spence, who was attempting to sneak into one of the back rooms. “You come here. I wanna talk to you.”
Spence froze. And I knew why.
He and my aunt were not unknown to each other. In fact, you could say there was a faint odor of blackmail in the air.
I may not have mentioned that Spence and I went to the same Catholic high school. Suffice it to say that my aunt worked there and had the dope on him. By this I don’t mean drugs. I mean the stuff of adolescent embarrassment nightmares. The kind you don’t want your mother to know about.
Or any of your co-workers, for that matter. Even better.
“You all right, Gina? This shameless boy bothering you?” She poked her cane at Spence, who was managing to look green.
“I’m fine,” I said, enjoying the show.
Aunt Miriam turned to my older cousin. “You need help, Paulo?”
Paulo was still grinning. He shook his head. “I got this.”
“Then I wait here until you say go.” She parked herself on the bench beside me. It rocked dangerously.
No sooner did she plunk down than her nose started to twitch. “What’s that smell?”
“Probably motor oil. I rolled in some when I fell out of the truck cab.”
“Sammy told me about the truck. You’re a good girl, Gina.” She patted my arm.
“How’s Jimmy?” I said, remembering why I’d gotten involved in this in the first place.
“Not so good.” She shook her head solemnly. “Too old to pull jobs like that anymore. But what can you tell men? So like children. Never listen.”
That made me smile. I couldn’t imagine anyone not listening to Aunt Miriam and living to tell about it.
“What you got in your hair, Gina?” she said. Then she reached over and pulled out something icky.
Paulo did his magic. All I had to do was give a description of the thugs who hijacked the truck and shot at me. We were out of there in five minutes. I suspect no one in the station wanted Aunt Miriam staring at them with her evil eye for longer than necessary.
I waited until we were out of the building before stating the obvious. “Before you say anything, I know about the crow.”
“It was a flock of crows,” she said.
Of course it was.
***
I dreamed about birds that night. You know that Alfred Hitchcock horror movie with Tippi Hedren?
In my dream, birds were following me everywhere, squawking at me. Little birds, big birds and one especially scary black bird that, unfortunately, reminded me of Zia Sophia. I forced myself awake when the other birds started to acquire faces.
My relatives had turned into birds.
Even I had to admit it was not a good omen.