Page 104 of Lake
I couldn’t argue with him, so with a gleam in our eyes, we both tore into the wrapping.
“She got me an old man sweater!” he said way too excitedly.
“She got me an old man sweater,” I said with much less enthusiasm.
She got us matching sweaters.
And I couldn’t stop the smile that overtook my face as I picked up the note that was in the bottom of the box.
For when you guys are hanging out and yelling at the dumb game show contestants. -Love, Bridge
Fuck.
My eyes teared up and I didn’t even care to hide it.
I handed the note over to Mr. Watkins and he got a little misty-eyed too.
“She’s a good one. You better never let her go.”
“Yeah, and what are you gonna do about it, old man?” I asked jokingly.
“String you up by your toes until you get some sense in that noggin of yours.”
And what could I say to that?
My phone vibrated. I knew what I would see even before I pulled it out of my pocket.
“I gotta go,” I said getting to my feet as I read the message letting me know that I had twenty minutes to get back.
“Yeah, yeah.” He waved me off like he got it.
I grabbed my sweater and headed to the door.
“Thanks, Mr. Watkins,” I called out before I opened the door.
“You can call me Ed when you bring her back to see me.”
I laughed all the way out to my bike.
That right there was incentive enough to go get her.
Not that I really needed it.
Iron didn’t have much more than what I already knew. I mean, I had been with Sketch last night. But I was there to fill in a few of the blanks that Iron had.
Cable was still working on trying to make something out of the locations. I didn’t really think there would be anything there since these were pretty much locations of where groups of homeless people gathered. However, Cable and Sketch had come up with an idea and were still working on getting places that weren’t on the list, figuring that we could try to get in front of their plan. That was pretty smart, that way we could do ride-bys and keep an eye out.
“There was something that pizza shop guy said,” I said, hating that I didn’t even know the guy’s name but I guessed that wasn’t all that important. Everyone gave me their eyes and ears and I went on. “He said that the girl said they had accents.”
And I was met with pinched brows like they were all trying to figure out where I was going with this.
“And Bocca said that Keften spoke in Croatian, right? So what if Keften has found men to rebuild his empire? We all thought this was a better location, on the coast, more access to ship girls off. Some men overseas will pay top dollar for an American girl.”
Iron nodded like he was trying to slide all the pieces into place.
“Cable,” I said looking at him as something started to come together in my head. “Could you find, I don’t know, maybe a recording of Keften speaking? Or hell, even some man talking Croatian. Maybe we can track down the girl that is looking for her sister and see if that was the language they were speaking?”
“That’s a good idea, Lake.” Iron may not have been smiling with his mouth but I saw the twinkle of pride for me in his eyes. “Cable, get on that. Do you think you know anyone that might have Keften recorded?”
