Page 19 of Captive

"Don't want to know anything about sister neighbors or anything close to your sex day dreams, Silvana." I lean forward to get a better view of the pool hall. Like so many bars on this side of town, the street in front of it is sticky with old puke, spilled beers and blood from the occasional bar fight. Sometimes I get lucky and Norville is sitting on the benches outside the hall. Lady Luck isn't with metoday.

I climb out of thecar.

"Should I come too?" Silvana calls before I shut thedoor.

"Or you could stay there and knit a sweater. Up to you." I hear the passenger door open and shut behind me. Silvana's feet skitter across the asphalt to catch up to me. "I used to be a pretty good pool player back in the day," he says betweenbreaths.

I glance sideways at him. He's in terrible shape, but he can't be more than thirty. "Back in the day?" I repeat. "You sound like my grandpa telling me how they used to have to get up to change the television channelback in theday."

We reach the sidewalk in front of the pool hall. A hooker known on the street as Pretty Polly is sitting out front on the bench shining up her knee high boots. "Wooee, if it isn't the mouthwatering Detective Maddox. Hey, my offer for a freebie still stands,baby."

Silvana hits my arm. "Did ya hear that? Free. Boy, the perks that come with those jade green eyes ofyours."

I stop short. He slams into me and wobbles like a punchingclown.

"Why are you talking? And stop talking about my eyes. It's fuckingcreepy."

Silvana laughs. "I didn't label them jade green. That's what the girls down in forensics say about them. I sure as hell wouldn't ever say anything like that about another dude's eyes. You catchmy—"

"Silvana, you're still talking. Stop." I pull out my phone and text Norville to get his assoutside.

"Are we going in?" Silvana asks. "I could use a cold brew to wash down that dry cereal. Ten didn't have any milk. The refrigerator sure looked empty. Maybe she went to Europe or someplacefaraway."

He follows me around the corner of the building to wait for Norville. "Told you Ten doesn't like to fly. And don't bother to bring up a cruise ship. That's just not herstyle."

"True." Silvana laughs dryly. "Ten's style is a little hard to pinpoint. She's definitelydifferent."

Norville slinks around the corner of the building, searching around as if people were following him. His hands are shaky and he has dark rings under his bloodshot eyes. "What's up, Maddox? I got nothingnew."

"I know." I hand him twenty dollars, which he grabs from me like I'm handing him a million bucks. He shoves it into his pocket and crosses his arms tightly around himself. His feet can never stay in one place, and he dances around like a little kid trying to hold his pee. He looks at Silvana and searches aroundagain.

"Where's my copper haired cutie, Ten?" Norville asks and then pulls a cigarette out of his pocket. It's been smoked halfway already. He lights it with a shakyhand.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Isay.

Norville waves the smoke away from his face and squints up at me. "What do youmean?"

"Ten took a leave of absence. I was hoping you might have heard word on the street about something . . . anything. Fuck, I'm just grasping at straws here. So you haven't seenher?"

"You mean like undercover?" He smiles, showing off brown mottled teeth. "I still remember when she was posing as a hooker. She was good. Bout nearly had me convinced she was a lady of the night." Norville motions with his cigarette toward Silvana. "Who'sthis?"

"Never mind that," I stop Silvana from answering. "If you hear anything let me know. And don't spend all that twenty on drugs. Put some food in your stomach. You look like a walkingcadaver."

Silvana's clumsy footsteps pound the sidewalk behind me. "Do you ever watch that?" He puffs as we head across thestreet.

"Watchwhat?"

"The Walking Cadaver. I mean the Walking Dead. It's a coolshow."

I climb in the car and once again consider not letting himin.

"Oh come on, Maddox," he says as he taps thewindow.

I unlock the door and he climbs inside. "Where tonext?"

I stare through the bug crusted front windshield. She has a new boyfriend but self-preservation and raging jealousy kept me from trying to find out anything about him, even his last name. The only information I had was that he worked as a longshoreman and his name was Brodie or something like that. We have a few other street connections but after the conversation with Norville, it seems I would just be wasting time withthem.

Damn it, Ten, where the hell areyou?

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