Page 36 of Captive

The petite girl with a wholesome smile reaches for the bottle without asking. She tosses the liquor back like a booze-hardened saloongirl.

"Whoa there, little angel, that stuff will go straight to your head." I take the bottle back fromher.

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and sighs with satisfaction. "That's good stuff. I'm Yoli by the way." She turns slightly on the bench. "And you're even hotter up close than I expected. Isn't he,Becky?"

I turn to the rose tattoo girl, Becky, apparently, and offer her thetequila.

"He is something. Makes me wonder what he's doing in this place." It seems I've found the cynical, suspicious member of the tent crowd. She takes a long sip and hands it back. "Are you setting up camp?" she asks. "I don't see anygear."

"I'm just moving through. I'm looking for someone actually. Thought I might find her here but I guessnot."

Yoli presses her hand against her chest and makes a groaning sound. "Oh, you've only been here five minutes, and you've already broken my heart. It figures you're here for another girl. Maybe if you describe this lucky woman to us, we can let you know if she's been through. We get a lot of one or two day stopovers. A lot of people passing through use fake names, but let's startthere."

Yoli seems to be the friendlier, more forthcoming person so I focus back on her. She helps herself to another jolt of tequila and hands it back tome.

"Don't know her name actually." I shrug casually. "We just sort of bunked up together for a couple of days, you know what I mean? She's about your height," I say to Yoli, "and she has brown eyes and redhair."

"What the fuck is it about her?" Becky says sharply. "She not even pretty." She stomps off without a good-bye or nice to meetyou.

I turn back to Yoli. "Was it something Isaid?"

She laughs. "That's just typical Becky. She's jealous cuz there was a girl who passed through here last week who matches that description. Her name is Tawny. Real smart and funny too." Yoli stares off into the park with its mostly dead trees and shabby tents twittering in the night breeze. "She's gone now. I don't expect to see her again." She faces me. "Why are you looking for her?" She knuckles my shoulder with her small fist. "Don't tell me a hunk like you has had his heartbroken."

Her comment sits with me for a second, then I smile weakly and hand her the tequila. As guilty as I feel handing liquor to a minor, I need her lips to be just a little looser, otherwise this park visit is a bust. I already knew Ten came through here. What I need to know now is where shewent.

"Nah, to tell you the truth, she walked off with my wallet while I was sleeping. Not that I had much inside of it, but I was carrying a picture of my mom." The bullshit keeps flowing. The sympathetic expression I'm hoping for is blinking back at me. "She died when I was ten and that was the only picture I had of her. So I need to get it back. If you can help me find her, I'd owe ya,Yoli."

She pushes her fingers against her lips as if to stifle a sob. "That is so sweet. Hunky and sentimental. Now you reallyhavebroken my heart." She grabs the tequila for fortification. "I can't really say where she is. It's sort of a secret." Her words are slowing a bit. The tequila is taking hold. She's had enough to make someone my size good and drunk. She's doing a good job holding her liquor considering she can't weight more than a hundredpounds.

I place the bottle on the opposite side of me, deciding to hide the temptation. I rest my arm back on the bench and give her the smile that used to work real fast in high school. "Anything you can tell me would help. I won't tell anyone. I don't even know anyone on this side of town. I sure hate to lose thatpicture."

Her eyes round and she sits up, but with a slight sway. "Wait a minute. You don't need to find her. I've got her stuff still sitting in my tent. I invited her to bunk with me until she got her own tent. Turns out she wasn't around long enough to need one. She's probably living like a princess now in the Lace—" Her hand claps over her mouth. "I can't tell you." She jumps up a little too fast from the bench. I grab hold of her hand to keep her from fallingover.

She smiles down at my fingers wrapped around her hand. A sly smiles turns up her lips. "You want to come into my tent and look through her stuff for thewallet?"

She's steadier on her feet, so I release my hold. "Why don't you look through it and let me know what youfind."

Her smile twists down in disappointment. "Figures. Some girls have all the luck. Guess Tawny really has a lot of it. She even got chosen. No one ever gets chosen." She says as she heads to her tent. She returns with an uneven walk, the kind that would never pass the drunk driving test. She's carrying an old tattered army green backpack that I immediately recognize as one Ten has used on stakeouts. She would fill it with trail mix or potato chips, depending on whether she was in the mood to eat healthy or, as she liked to say, eat whatever the hell she felt like. I hadn't seen it in a long time. The sight of it thumps against my chest. She is fine, I remind myself. If anyone can handle herself in a bad situation, it's Ten. She thinks so fast on her feet, sometimes it's impossible to predict what her next move will be. She's fine. She has tobe.

"I feel a little guilty going through her stuff," Yoli says. Her words are as slow and uneven as her footsteps. She pulls out some underwear and laughs. "Guess she doesn't need these where she'sat."

The comment makes my muscles go rigid. "No? How's that?" I'm hoping the tequila has loosened her tongue somemore.

Yoli pulls her lips in and shakes her head as if telling herself, don't do it, Yoli. Don't tell him. She pulls out a pack of birth control pills. "Oh boy. She's going to regret not taking these with her the night of theparty."

"Party? Sounds good. Where's it at?" I say, without pause, hoping she'll keepspilling.

She bites her bottom lip in an attempt to stop herself but it's not enough. She drops the backpack on the bench next tome.

I try and decide if I'm just losing my fucking mind with missing Ten or if I'm actually catching the scent of her shampoo coming off the ratty old backpack. I stop myself from picking the bag up and pressing it to myface.

It seems I have sweet tipsy Yoli ready to tell me everything she knows. She scoots closer and glances around but no one else in the park is interested in our conversation. Even Becky has disappeared inside her own shelter for thenight.

"I'm not supposed to say anything." Her thin fingers wrap around my forearm. "Please, you can't tell anyone or I'll never be invited back." She sits back and gets temporarily distracted by the blanket of stars in the hazy night sky above. "And I can't lose that. Sometimes I think it's the only thing that keeps me from sinking into despair. The food." She turns her head, and it seems some of those night stars have landed in her big, innocent eyes. There is no way this girl should be out here alone, but I know for many of the younger ones, the streets are a step above life at home or foster care. It's tragic and makes me want to spit fucking nails, but I learned early on in my time on the force that most things are out of mycontrol.

"They serve good food at this party?" I ask. "Nice. What else? What do you have to do to get on the invitelist?"

She laughs. "Well, as pretty as you are, you have to be female. And it's mostly those of us who are under thirty. I'm not sure how the list gets made, but once you're on it, you do everything to stay on it. This week they gave us new soap. It smells like roses." She lifts her pale hand to my nose. "See."

---