Chapter 31
I didn’t know if Tragic was hit or not, or how bad, and I don’t even care. I’m just glad Cisco and I are hustling back into the rental car and Golden is sliding behind the wheel. My heart begins to slow to a normal pace as I realize we’re heading back toward the Crystal Pointe Apartments.
“Is he dead?” I finally ask Cisco.
“Does it matter?”
I’m about to suggest that we should at least call the police. If he’s dead or dying, I suppose it doesn’t matter. If he’s alive, that means he can still come after me and Lana. And it looks like Cisco’s now on his hit list too. But I know better than to suggest that to bad guys, even ones who saved my life. I mean, after they almost got me killed in the first place.
“Thanks for not letting the crazy man kill me.”
“Aurora Ave people have to look out for their own, right?”
“I wish you’d thought of that before you took me in there.”
“I didn’t know he wanted to kill you. I thought he just wanted to use you to send a message to MJ.”
“MJ doesn’t know anything about an arms supplier. If Lux got those cop-killers, he did it on his own.”
“I know that now.”
“But MJ’s in jail. And Lux—”
“Lux is alive. The police will find him soon, and MJ will be exonerated.”
“What about you? All of this so you can keep Lux off your territory?”
“At first that was the reason. If there was going to be a Down Homes operation in Denver, I wanted to be the one to run it. Then Tragic offered me an opportunity in Los Angeles. He needed someone to run his operation until he got out.”
“I guess that’s the least of Tragic’s worries now,” I say.
“Time will tell.”
This is a lot like our conversation at the bus stop that day. Cisco gets a kick out of being mysterious.
“What you said back there about the feds reducing his sentence in return for information. Was Tragic out of prison because he’s working as a confidential informant?”
“The man was right when he said you were smart. Maybe too smart for your own good.”
“Well, all I have to say is Tragic has a really bad handler.”
“Handler?”
“I watch TV. And my mom is a cop, as you apparently know. What kind of handler lets his CI get hold of a gun and just run off and do his own thing? I mean, seriously, dude needs some extra training or something.”
Cisco just smiles at me, and I even get a tiny chuckle out of Golden, who except for being an excellent shot, has been quiet the whole time.
I stay quiet and start replaying everything that’s happened in the last twenty-two minutes. Seems like a lot longer, but that’s what the clock on the dashboard is telling me how long it’s been since I got out of Lana’s car. I think about Golden and her fake tattoo, the unlocked doors and open window. And how Cisco didn’t zip-tie my hands until after we were inside that house. If I required such a “precaution,” why not do it when he first put me in the car?
“You sound different,” I say.“I mean, not like that time we talked at the bus shelter.”
“You mean the ghetto-speak?”
“Yeah, and using words like exonerated.”
“Not everything on the street is as it seems.”
I don’t speak cryptic, but when we pull in front of the Crystal Pointe Apartments, I decide I can live with not knowing all the details for once. I just want out of this car. When Golden stops at the curb, I don’t ask permission; I just jump out. But instead of walking away, I lean into the still open window.
“Just one last question, Cisco. Are you true blue?”
He doesn’t answer, just gives me that weird smile that now makes a lot of sense. Golden drives away.