Page 55 of Takedown in Savannah
“You know.”
Shrimpy shook his head. “What are you talking about?”
“The San Maris Gang.”
“Oh, them. Yeah. They’re making a name for themselves around here.”
“Causing all sorts of trouble,” she said. “I heard they’ve been hanging out in these parts.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” he answered evasively.
“So you know something about them.”
“They have connections. If I were you, I would be careful who you talk to,” Shrimpy warned.
“Even you?”
“C’mon, Dernice. We’ve been tight for a long time. You were the first friend I made when I got here. You even helped me get this job.”
Dernice met Shrimpy while working one night along the river. She found him wrapped in a blanket, huddled in the doorway of a building she was hired to guard after hours. His eyes were filled with defeat, rejection…hopelessness. She knew the look well, had seen it many times since she’d started working for EC Security Services. Instead of demanding he pack up and move along, she took the time to listen to his story.
He’d gone through a rough stretch, become involved with the wrong people and ended up addicted to drugs. Shrimpy got caught stealing from his employer and was promptly fired.
After wearing out his welcome, sleeping on the couch, floor or whatever spot he could find from sympathetic family members and friends, he met a trucker at a gas station who bought him food and gave him a little money.
The trucker told Shrimpy that jobs up in Savannah were plentiful. He was heading north and offered to give him a ride.
Thinking a new start was what he needed, Shrimpy jumped at the chance. With a lead on a job, the trucker took him as far as a gas station off the interstate. From there, he hitched a ride into Savannah.
The ride into town was where Shrimpy’s luck ran out. Not a single person would hire him. He didn’t have an address, a car, or even a job reference. In other words, he’d traded one sad set of circumstances for another.
He arrived about a week before Dernice found him in the doorway. She recognized the desperation in his eyes…because she’d had the same look years ago after befriending the wrong people and ending up in prison.
She took him to a nearby late-night diner for the first hot meal he’d had in days. Dernice always believed she was a good judgeof character. People made bad decisions, but that didn’t mean they were bad people.
Using her own money, she paid for the meal and drove him to a mom ‘n pop motel on the outskirts of town. After checking in and paying for a few nights, Dernice ran next door to the twenty-four-hour convenience store and picked up a few toiletries.
When she got back, she found Shrimpy sitting on the edge of the bed, tears rolling down his cheeks. It broke her heart when he told her she was the only person other than the truck driver who cared about him.
His family and friends no longer cared whether he was dead or alive.
Right then and there, she promised Shrimpy she would help him get a job. Keeping her promise, she went down to the dock early the next morning and spoke to the owner, a man she knew on a first-name basis. Dernice explained Shrimpy’s situation and practically begged him to give the guy a chance.
God must’ve been looking out for Shrimpy, because the owner told her to bring him by and he would see what he could do.
Before the owner could change his mind, Dernice drove straight to the motel, got Shrimpy looking as presentable as possible and took him back. He hired Shrimpy on the spot. From that day on, the man who had been at the end of his rope got a fresh start, thanks in part to Dernice.
With a vested interest in Shrimpy’s welfare, she made a point of stopping by to check on him regularly. True to his word and the promise he’d made to the owner, Shrimpy had become an exemplary employee. Never late. Never complaining. Always doing what was asked of him…not only completing the task but doing it with a smile on his face.
“The San Maris Gang is a rough bunch. I would steer clear of them if I were you,” Shrimpy repeated.
“I can’t. The cops are breathing down Luigi’s neck.”
“What’s Luigi got to do with them?”
“He was on patrol the other night and happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“But if he was working, he has a reason to be patrolling around downtown.”
