Gold Hill (31 page)

“
He was going out with his
dad,” Tanesha smiled. “He doesn’t have any cards so if he needs
money, he has to carry cash.”

Heather’s mother smiled and
set to work at counting fifty one-hundred dollar bills in front of
Tanesha.

“
I always worry that
. . . well, you girls are a lot luckier with men than I
was,” Heather’s mother gave a sad smile.

“
I don’t know about that,”
Tanesha laughed. “You’ve met my squirrely husband? Seen him in the
tabloids?”

Heather and her mother
laughed. Tanesha smiled.

“
Let’s put it in an
envelope,” Heather’s mother said. “And . . . you’ll be
careful.”

“
Yes Mom,” Heather’s voice
was irritated but she smiled.

“
And . . . I’m
sorry about your mom, Tanesha,” Heather’s mother’s eyes welled with
tears.

Unsure of what she meant,
Tanesha nodded.

“
They announced while I
was at lunch that she lived there and is likely to be one of the
bodies,” Heather’s mother said. “The police are looking for a man
and . . . ”

Stunned, Tanesha’s mouth
dropped open.

“
What?” Tanesha
asked.

“
Thanks Mom,” Heather gave
her a hard look and her mother mouthed ‘sorry’. She hustled Tanesha
out of the bank.

“
What was that?” Tanesha
asked when they reached the car. “Is Yvonne dead?”

Heather made a fuss over
putting Mack in his car seat and went around to the driver’s
seat.

“
Is my Mom dead?” Tanesha
asked.

“
I need to show you
something,” Heather said.

“
You need to tell me
something.”

“
Westword is running an
article tomorrow saying that State Attorney General guy, you
remember Ava’s asshole father, ran prostitutes out of that
four-plex. Well this morning, about 9:30, the place caught on fire.
They found four bodies. Female.”

“
But . . . but
. . . he said I could have my Mom for five thousand
dollars.”

“
I know.”

“
But
. . . ” Tanesha felt her entire world crumble around
her. “I have five thousand dollars.”

“
Listen. I went down there
and found these on the street outside King Soopers.” Heather pulled
the yellow tulips from the backseat and set them on Tanesha’s lap.
“There’s a receipt with a time stamp. Look. Right
there.”

Heather pointed to the
time.

“
They were in the market
when everything happened because the fire started at
9:37.”

“
That doesn’t mean he
didn’t kill her,” Tanesha said. “I always knew, deep inside, if he
would kill her rather than lose her.”

“
He always said that when
we left,” Heather said. “Bring her back or she’s dead by nightfall.
She can’t hide from me.”

Heather gave an involuntary
shiver.

“
I just try to make it
better for her, easier,” Tanesha said. “Because at least she’s
alive. If she’s alive, there’s a chance she could get away and
. . . But now . . . ”

“
Today maybe her chance,”
Heather said. “We don’t know.”

“
There’s never been much
hope,” Tanesha shook her head.

“
You know what I think? I
think we should call him,” Heather said. “Let’s see what he
says.”

Biting her lip, Tanesha
nodded and dialed her mother’s keeper. The phone clicked over to
voicemail.

“
Voicemail,” Tanesha
whispered to Heather. Leaving a message, she said, “I have the
money. You tell me where and I’ll get my mom. No questions asked.
No police. I only want my mom so you better take really good care
of her or I will hunt you down and make you pay. You will never be
able to hide from me. I will find you. Just give me my mom and you
can have your money. If you don’t give me my mom, you will feel my
wrath.”

Tanesha clicked off her
call.

“
Now what?” Tanesha’s
voice cracked with despair. “What do I do now?”

“
Let’s go find her,”
Heather said. “We know everywhere he goes, every place he takes
her. Let’s go look.”

“
You don’t mind?” Tanesha
asked.

“
Nope,” Heather said.
“Let’s go find Yvonne.”

Tanesha pulled on her
seatbelt and they started their search.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday afternoon —
12:25 p.m. PT/ 1:25 p.m. MT

When the cab pulled up in
front of a building, Ava leaned forward.

“
Are you sure this is it?”
Ava asked.

“
This is the address you
gave me,” he said.

Ava paid and got out of the
cab. Standing on the sidewalk, she looked up at the Cedar Sinai
Medical Center. She took out her phone and called
Schmidty.

“
I’m here,” Ava said. “But
. . . ”

“
Great,” Schmidty said.
“We’re on the fifth floor.”

“
Of Cedar
Sinai?”

“
The medical center,”
Schmidty said. “Seth gets his treatments on Wednesdays.”

“
What treatments?” Ava
asked.

“
The one’s you ordered,”
Schmidty said. “Come up and we’ll explain.”

In a flurry of anxiety, Ava
jogged into the building. She took the elevator to the fifth floor
and went to the nurse’s station. The nurse pointed her in the
direction of Seth’s bed. Wearing headphones, his eyes were closed
and his body hooked up to a machine which filtered his
blood.

“
He gets these every
Wednesday,” Schmidty said. “So do the other guys. I thought you
knew.”

Ava shook her
head.

“
It’s the only thing that
seems to help,” Schmidty said. “The docs think that he can go to
every other week after this treatment.”

“
Just Seth?”

“
The other guys aren’t
doing as well,” Schmidty nodded. “But they’re alive, thanks to you.
We think they’ll get there.”

Ava nodded.

“
Are you all right?”
Schmidty asked.

Ava shook her head.
Schmidty put a protective arm around her.

“
I need to talk to Seth,”
Ava said.

“
I haven’t told him what
happened,” Schmidty said. “We went to the studio and picked up a
tape. He’s been listening to it since then. He’s pretty irritated
at what he’s hearing, so I didn’t bother him. Best to let him be
irritated by himself. Mad artist and all.”

“
Can I ask you a
question?” Ava bit her lip with anxiety. Her eyes scanned the young
man’s face.

“
Sure,” Schmidty
said.

“
Do you think Seth told
Westword about . . . ” Her emotions flooded forward.
She paused to put them in check. “About my dad?”

“
We haven’t seen Barton in
. . . couple of months,” Schmidty said. “Since Seth’s
doing music work, I’m with him twenty-four hours a day pretty much.
Unless he called while he was in Denver . . . I mean,
you’d know if he called then, right?”

Ava nodded.

“
You can’t believe
everything people say about Seth,” Schmidty said.

“
Even if it’s true?” Ava
asked.

“
What’s truth?” Schmidty
shrugged.

“
How’s Lizzie?” Ava
asked.

“
She’s
. . . ” Schmidty’s face flushed with color. Unable
to respond, he nodded.

“
I’m happy for you,” Ava
said.

“
Me too,” Schmidty beamed.
“We’re going really slowly but . . . She’s my dream girl.
Always has been. Just to have the chance to hold her hand, spend
time with her, listen to her talk . . . It’s
. . . a dream come true. She says the same thing, so
that’s . . . ”

He beamed and Ava
smiled.

“
How long does he have?”
Ava asked.

Schmidty looked at his
watch and wagged his head back and forth.

“
Half hour or so,”
Schmidty said. “Then we have to get to the studio where heads will
probably roll. You wanna tag along or head out to the
house.”

“
I need to know,” Ava
said.

“
Ok,” Schmidty said. “Do
you mind waiting for him?”

Ava shook her head. They
sat down in some chairs near the bed to wait.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday afternoon — 2:25
p.m. MT

“
You need to sleep?” Bumpy
asked Jeraine after they’d been driving a while.

“
Oh, I probably should,”
Jeraine said. His swollen mouth created a kind of lisp. “I’m
enjoying the jazz, the drive, and the company. But
. . . ”

“
But?” Bumpy
asked.

“
I was thinking about Miss
T,” Jeraine said. “And I wondered . . . How did you
and Rodney end up being friends? I mean, for me, it was just a
fact, something real, like a mountain or an ocean. But now that I’m
grown, I can’t see where your lives would have crossed.”

Bumpy smiled.

“
Are you going to tell
me?” Jeraine asked.

“
You know I used to tour,”
Bumpy said.

Jeraine nodded.

“
I met Rodney and Yvonne
at a rest stop just outside of Memphis,” Bumpy said. “Their car had
broken down on the highway. They were driving from Alabama to
Denver so Rodney could go to college here. The bus pulled into this
rest stop and there they were. Rodney with his coal black skin and
frying pan hands with this thin, light skinned beauty. They were
like a tree and a butterfly.”

Bumpy smiled.

“
You don’t remember
Yvonne,” Bumpy said.

“
No,” Jeraine
said.

“
She was gorgeous,” Bumpy
said. “The most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, especially when
Rodney was around. They had this light . . . It
sounds crazy, and I was probably high at the time, but it was like
the light of God lived inside of them. Everyone noticed the
shine.”

Smiling, he fell silent
with his memories. Jeraine thought he was done talking when he
cleared his throat.

“
People say being
beautiful is a gift,” Bumpy said. “For Yvonne, it was a more like a
curse. Everyone wanted her, wanted to touch her, know her, she just
had this . . . glow about her. What I didn’t know
then was that she only had it because Rodney was in her life. Once
he was gone, in prison . . . It was like the light
just went out.”

“
Why Alabama?” Jeraine
asked. “I figured they were from here. Seems like all of Tanesha’s
Aunts are in Denver.”

“
Rodney’s from Alabama,”
Bumpy said. “Yvonne grew up there.”

“
Tanesha’s gran isn’t
her . . . gran?”

“
No,” Bumpy said.
“Tanesha’s grandmother had Yvonne when she was fifteen. They sent
her away to live with relatives to have the baby. Yvonne was raised
by the relatives. She and Rodney grew up together. Rodney’s smart,
probably brilliant. He could go to school almost anywhere. She
wanted to come to Denver so she could get to know her mother. So
they packed up and came here.”

“
Oh,” Jeraine
said.

“
I saw them sitting there
at that rest stop, and I don’t know what it was, but it was like
Rodney and I were already friends. I mean, you know how he
looks.”

“
Scary as hell,” Jeraine
said. “And those hands.”

“
They make hub caps look
small,” Bumpy laughed.

“
You didn’t want
Yvonne?”

“
No,” Bumpy said. “That’s
the weird thing. She was beautiful and alluring even,
but . . . I think that’s when I finally realized
that I was done with being on the road. It was time for me to go
home and get on with my life. Your mother and I decided to settle
down about six months later. I stopped touring full time maybe nine
months later and quit all together a year or so after
that.”

Jeraine watched memories
flow across his father’s face.

“
Rodney has been the best
friend a man could ever want,” Bumpy said.

“
Seems like you’ve been a
good friend to him too,” Jeraine said.

“
That’s how it works,
son,” Bumpy said. “With some people, you get what you
give.”

He fell silent and they
drove for a while. Jeraine was about to say that he should sleep
when Bumpy made a sound. Jeraine turned to look at him.

“
Rodney and Seth,” Bumpy
said. “You need to find friends like that.”

“
I don’t have any luck
with friends,” Jeraine said. “My so called friends have stolen from
me, fed me drugs, and . . . I don’t know. I’m pretty
discouraged.”

“
Give it time,” Bumpy
said. “When you’re more whole, you’ll find people or they’ll find
you.”

“
Doesn’t sound like you
were so whole when you met Rodney,” Jeraine said.

Bumpy chuckled.

“
Well?”

“
I think you have to give
it some time, son,” Bumpy said. “The pace you’ve been living
at . . . You’re just catching up with yourself. Give
it time.”