Jared stayed in the shadows, waiting. Reaching the sixth floor took forever, a noisy journey of squeaky pulleys and wobbling metal. He was glad he had taken the stairs up. Finally the doors opened.
Danny Ramerez looked smaller in this crappy light. Jared watched him walk down the hallway, one of those jerky walks with quick little steps. Ramerez was at his door with the key in the lock before Jared started down the hall after him.
"Hey, man," he said and Ramerez nodded without looking up. "How ya doing, Danny?"
This time Ramerez did a double take, his eyes getting wide as he recognized Jared.
"I brought us some takeout," he told him, wanting to calm his worries and holding up the bags. "Chinese."
"What are you doing here?"
"What are you talking about? You didn't think I'd come by and say hey?"
Ramerez finally got the door opened, but now he hesitated.
"You did me a big favor," Jared said, this time with a smile. "I just wanted to buy you dinner and say thanks."
Ramerez was studying him, meeting his eyes as if looking for the truth there. Then suddenly he looked away and shrugged. "You don't owe me anything. Your redheaded friend already paid me. Even threw in a laptop computer."
Jared smiled again; it didn't take much to buy off someone like Danny Ramerez. He understood him all too well. That's why he couldn't trust him. "Hey man, it's just some kung pao chicken and chow mein. A few egg rolls. It's no big deal."
He let Ramerez think about it while he stood there pretending it was no big deal, still not making any attempt to leave. Finally Ramerez shrugged again and waved him into the small apartment that looked like a cross between a rummage sale and a garbage dump. A pile of clothes covered a threadbare recliner, and Jared could smell what had to be dirty socks or rotten eggs. Magazines and comic books were stacked on the floor. A collection of beer bottles and cans shared the shelves with discarded take-out wrappers and foam containers. A cardboard pizza box lay open on the coffee table with two pieces left, the toppings suddenly skittering out of the box.
Ramerez started shoving things aside as if to tidy up for his guest. While he moved stacks and collected trash, Jared pulled out an oversize, black trash bag from one of the takeout bags and began laying it over the scuffed linoleum floor in the middle of the room. Ramerez glanced at him a couple of times before he stopped.
"What are you doing?"
"I don't want to make a mess," Jared told him.
Ramerez laughed. "You're kidding, right?"
He came over to take a closer look, examining the plastic and even walking onto it, stepping carefully as if looking for a trap. But, of course, he didn't see it. He was still looking down at the black plastic under his feet when Jared whipped the knife out from the same take-out bag. All it took was one slash up under and across the throat, so quick that Ramerez saw his own blood splatter the plastic. He grabbed at the wound, his fingers slipping into the gaping flesh as if attempting to hold it together. His wide eyes met Jared's, shock and realization contorting his entire face before he finally crumpled onto the plastic.
Jared looked around the room and decided on the recliner. He shoved the clothes off, checked for cockroaches, then grabbed the other take-out bag and sat down. Danny Ramerez wasn't going anywhere. There was no big hurry to take out the trash. Jared Barnett pulled out a plastic fork and the container of kung pao chicken and began to eat.
CHAPTER 3
Wednesday, September 8
7:00 a.m. Omaha, Nebraska
Melanie Starks quickened her pace. The sun peeked over the bell towers of St. Cecelia's Cathedral. The days were already growing shorter. Summer was almost over but was making one last grand stand. It was only the beginning of her walk, and already Melanie could feel her breathing becoming labored. The air was thick and heavy with moisture. She studied the horizon in the opposite direction. Having cursed sunrises for years she almost hated to admit how much she enjoyed them now. But this morning's sunrise gave her a bad feeling, even a sudden chill as a trickle of sweat made its way down her back. The sun was barely able to squeeze through the storm clouds that were gathering, a gravestone-gray sky streaked bloodred. It was an eerie combination, and she could hear her mother repeating one of her silly superstitions:
"Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning.
Red sky at night, Sailors delight."
The weather only seemed to fuel her restlessness, to ignite her disappointment, her frustration… Oh, hell, she should call it what it was-her anger. Yeah, that's right. She was angry, pissed off. Jared hadn't been back two weeks and already things were changing.
She resented having to cut short her morning walk. What was it about his sudden freedom that took precedence over her own? That's what it felt like when he called last night and left the message to meet him for breakfast. Summoning her as if he could still boss her around just like when they were kids. He used that brief yet demanding tone of his, "Meet me at that place we talked about. It's time."
"It's time," she mimicked under her breath. She had no idea what the hell he was talking about. It was as if he was talking in code. As if they were kids again, plotting one of their childhood conspiracies. Ever since he had gotten back he had been planning something, something big or so he kept saying. But, of course, he couldn't tell her until it was time. That was Jared, so secretive and always calling the shots. He expected complete loyalty with no questions and no hesitation. It had always been that way. Like the Rebecca Moore thing. Jared didn't even bother explaining, instead he insisted the police got it wrong. Melanie knew that could happen. She'd seen it happen years before.
She pumped her arms, keeping her pace and not letting her anger slow her down. She hated that Jared made her feel like she still owed him. It didn't help that she wasn't there for him during the trial.
It was as if nothing had changed in the five years he had been away. And yet everything had changed. She had changed, or at least, she thought she had. Although it couldn't have been very much. Why else would she be rushing to meet him, rushing once again to do whatever her big brother told her to do? Like cutting short what had become her daily ritual, her daily gospel and the replacement for a quick fix of nicotine and later still, for four cups of hot scorching coffee. The coffee had helped her get through the initial withdrawal from the cigarettes. Now this new addiction, a three-mile morning walk, replaced the caffeine.
She didn't need Dr. Phil to see she had simply transferred compulsions. She took the same walk every day at the same time. Even walked at the same pace. Only today she had to quicken the pace if she intended to meet Jared. Quicken, she decided, but not cut short. She pushed back her shoulders as if this one defiant thought was the same as standing up to her big brother. Something she had never been able to do in the past. But that was the past. Maybe Jared needed to see that she wasn't that same little girl he could boss around. She was an adult, a grown woman with her own son. She had been forced to grow up while Jared seemed to live in the past, even moving back in with their mother when he was released from jail.
That was a mistake. Their mother was crazy with all her black magic and superstitions. Certifiably crazy or so she and Jared liked to claim, making up any kind of excuse for why she kept picking loser husbands like both their dads. Saying their mother was crazy seemed better than admitting she was simply stupid. Maybe that was Jared's problem. Melanie thought about teasing him that maybe he had inherited Mom's crazy gene, though she knew full well that she would never dare to tease Jared. He would see it as a betrayal, and he would remind her, again, that all they had were each other because of the past they had survived and the secrets they continued to share.