It hadn’t taken her long to learn who in New York she could contact if she knew the identity, and even the whereabouts, of the Gremlin. Maybe the Gremlin was back in St. Louis. That was where they’d departed the train, and near where they had left, sprawled alongside the dark tracks, the body of a railroad dick.
Surely the man had died. Jasmine could still remember how the knife had felt when she slid it into his side, the surprised and frightened cry that he couldn’t suppress. Had she really heard the knife’s sharp blade scrape a rib? That was how it was in her memory.
Whatever the reality, Jasmine and Jordan had known that after the man died, the sooner they got out of St. Louis, the safer they’d be.
The wisdom of that had been confirmed by the next day’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. Railroad detective Ellson Ponder had been stabbed to death and was found alongside a train car. Police theorized that Ponder had discovered his killer or killers hiding in what was thought to be was an empty boxcar. A struggle ensued. Ponder had tried to fight off his attackers, but he was beaten, stabbed, and apparently had then been left to die. Ponder had lived with his wife, Charlotte, and their ten-year-old son, Ivan, in the St. Louis suburbs.
While Jordan and Jasmine had known they’d be safer somewhere other than St. Louis, they’d also known the police had most likely tracked them as far as St. Louis. From the police’s point of view, the two of them might still be in the city, made to lie low so they couldn’t run. They were pinned down.
At least for a while.
Two people running from murder could attract a lot of attention in ways they couldn’t guess at.
It was just a matter of time.
57
New York, the present
It was easier to find Jordan than she’d thought it would be. Jasmine knew where people who didn’t want to be found might be located. The invisibles who took form only when worlds overlapped.
Past and present worlds overlapped here, as Jasmine and Jordan stood on opposite sides of Canal Street. While he was unaware of her presence, she studied him.
He seemed even smaller than she remembered. His light jacket was wrinkled, as were his brown slacks. There was no shine on his shoes, and he was wearing a shabby fedora that looked too large for his head. Jasmine noted his dark hair was tufted beneath his hat brim, and that he needed a shave. The stubble on his chin and along his jawline was also dark.
He raised both hands and held his palms pressed to his ears, as if a loud noise that no one else could hear was torturing him.
The traffic signal changed to walk and he dropped his arms, stepped down off the curb, and came toward her.
As they passed each other, their eyes met only briefly, but it was enough to make her breath catch in her throat.
He looked older (of course he did). And he was slightly bent forward as he walked. He was the shorter of the two, even with the fedora.
After five steps she turned around and followed him. That was when she noticed that something didn’t ring true about him. It took her a while to figure it out. His forward bend was more a matter of posture than of age and hard luck. His clothes were those of a homeless person, but they didn’t match his attitude.
She said something not usually heard in New York City: “You finish shuckin’ that corn?”
Jordan took a few more steps, slowed, and turned around.
He looked at her, and a smile slowly formed. She wasn’t surprised to find that she couldn’t look away from him. She had already felt the attraction.
He said, “Jasmine?”
“’Fraid so.” She was trembling. Could he see that? Could he not?
He reached forward and touched her shoulder, as if assuring himself that she was real. She laid her hand on top of his.
They realized, at the same time, that the past had bound them, and now they shared the future.
“Come with me,” he said through a smile. “We’ll have some coffee.”
She looked at him, then bowed her head and surveyed herself. “Will they let us in? I mean, we can’t go someplace where I usually check the Dumpster for leftovers.”
The traffic signal had changed again. Now a horde of cars was moving toward them. He held her elbow and escorted her up on the curb and safety. She felt like a parody of royalty. “I don’t know about this, Jordan.” Saying his name felt good.
“Don’t worry about how we’re dressed. I have money. I wear these clothes to walk around the city without drawing a lot of attention. It works if I stay in the right neighborhoods.”
“Clever,” she said. “You always were clever.”
They were walking now, him leading her slightly, toward the coffee shop.
“Had breakfast?” he asked.
She shook her head no, and was astonished when he drew a fat roll of bills from his jacket pocket. The top bill was a twenty.
“This’ll fix that,” he said.
“Are you always in disguise?” she asked.
“Not all the time. But I’ve found it’s the best way to take advantage of the city’s gift of anonymity.”
“I can vouch for the invisibility,” Jasmine said. “Sometimes I think I could walk right in and rob a bank and nobody’d notice.”
“That would be a crime.”
They exchanged a secret smile.
Both were aware they were exploring the bond between them. It was powerful. Binding in a way that neither of them quite understood. After all, this was the man who had claimed her virginity. The man with whom she had murdered.
Jasmine found herself wondering, Is murder an aphrodisiac?
She remembered the Gremlin, and decided it wasn’t time yet to bring up that subject.
“I always wondered,” he said, “why you left me in St. Louis with no explanation.”
“I was young, afraid, and I was going to go home. But then I didn’t.”
After they’d gotten doughnuts and coffee, he said, “I’ve been thinking about going where I can be even more unnoticeable.”
Jasmine added cream to her coffee and sipped. She had been beautiful, in her way, and still was, even though time and events had worked their way with her. Hers was an indestructible kind of beauty. The crow’s feet, the mottled complexion, the crazy hairdo that was all curls. It was as if wear could change her, but she was impervious to time.
“What city would we go to?” she asked.
“Where we’d be least likely to go. St. Louis.”
58
St. Louis, the present
Now here they were, back near the banks of the Mississippi and its muddy secrets. Jordan had a friend in St. Louis, name of Christopher, who would lend them a vacant apartment he often subleased while he was away on business trips in Mexico. There would be no paperwork. The rent money had to be fast and up front, and beyond the attention of the IRS.
Jordan didn’t ask Christopher what kind of business he tended to in Mexico. And Christopher didn’t ask Jordan why he wanted to keep a low profile in St. Louis. Jasmine didn’t ask where the money came from. Or how.
If pressed hard enough, she would have to guess it involved gunrunning. Or perhaps people smuggling. There were a fair number of illegals in and around the city, and trafficking in them was said to be wildly profitable. She deliberately didn’t think too much about it.
Everyone profited by not knowing too much.
Jasmine and Jordan had finally stopped running, in body and spirit, the first time since they’d originally arrived in St. Louis.
The landlord Christopher, from whom they’d subleased the condo unit, was short but hefty in a muscular way, built like an offensive lineman. He had a nervous air about him. Jordan and Jasmine were sure he was wanted by the police. That would explain why he was so eager to leave St. Louis.