Charges (19 page)

“I’ve fired a few. Don’t really care much for the grip,” Rob said.

“You get used to it.”

“Yeah.” Rob opened a bottle of water. “I guess I’d get used to anything pretty quick, right about now. But hey, at least I’ve got Wonderboy, here.” He patted his walking stick.

“‘Wonderboy’?”

“Yeah. You know, like the bat in
The Natural
,” Rob said.

Jody rolled her eyes. “He loves anything baseball.”

“Hell, yes. You a Yankees fan, Tony?”

“Of course. I was born in New York. You?”

“Hate ’em, of course,” Rob said with a big smile. “But New York does have a hell of a team, the Dodgers. Oh wait, they went to LA. You follow them, too?”

“Of course. Have to, since I spent most of the last decade out there. They’re first in the western division, right now. Or they were, anyway.”

“Oh, God.” Jody buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know what’s worse, morning sickness or listening to men talk about baseball.”

Vincenzo laughed. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m more of an NFL kind of guy.”

Jody whimpered. “Yeah. That makes it all better.”

“Bengals all the way, baby!” Rob pumped his fist. “Damn, I hope those boys play ball this season. If not, I have no idea what I’m going to do.”

“Gathering a lot of firewood might be a good first step,” Jody said.

“Yeah, you guys are up there in the snow belt,” Vincenzo said. “You given any thought as to what you’ll do during the winter?”

“Not yet,” Rob said. “We haven’t even gotten through the summer. But if things don’t get squared away by then, it’s going to be one tough time. I guess you won’t have to worry about it, so long as you make it back to Los Angeles, huh?”

“We still need heat, even in southern California,” Vincenzo said. “But no snow, at least, not normally. So I’ll have that going for me.” Sudden movement on Essex caught his eye—two youths on bicycles. Then four or five more appeared, pedaling like gangbusters and weaving around disabled vehicles. Vincenzo recognized Julio in the lead as the kid bolted into a Shell gas station at the end of the block.

“Well, time to book,” Vincenzo said, rising to his feet and snatching up his bag.

Rob and Jody looked down the street and saw the toughs as the rest of the pack rolled into the gas station.

Rob grabbed his walking stick. “Crap, is that them? Think they followed us?”

“I think they’re just looking for easy pickings.” Vincenzo paused long enough to polish off his soda then tossed the bottle and sandwich wrapper in the dun-colored garbage can next to the bus stop. “Let’s get out of here before they see us and decide we’re it.”

They left the bus stop and turned right onto Kaplan Avenue. The furor from the hospital was still rumbling in the distance—Vincenzo had no idea what was going on over there and no desire to find out—but overall, the neighborhood was quiet. A moment later, they heard the sound of shattering glass and hooting hollers coming from the gas station.

“Sounds like they might have found what they were looking for,” Jody said.

“Not counting on that. You guys go on up ahead. And, Rob?”

“Yeah?” Rob hitched his pack up on his back and fiddled with the strap around his thick waist.

Vincenzo reached into his knapsack and pulled out the Glock. He handed it to the bigger man, who took it with a surprised look. “Try not to shoot your balls off,” Vincenzo said.

“Damn, man. Thanks!” Rob’s grin was almost a yard long. He inspected the pistol quickly. “Glock 17. Should be a decent weapon.”

“Rob, do you seriously know how to handle that?” Jody asked.

“Well, yeah, but let’s hope I don’t have to prove it.”

“Just keep it out of sight, and be careful,” Vincenzo said. “I don’t know a lot about that Glock, but it only has a trigger safety, so be damn smart about where you carry it.”

“Okay. Shit, do you have a holster? I don’t want to just stick it in my waistband. I’m used to guns that either have a manual safety or can be decocked.”

“Sorry, man. I got nothing for you.”

Rob ejected the magazine and shoved it into his pocket. He then racked back the slide. The cartridge in the chamber flew out and landed on the ground. He picked it up and tried to put the cartridge back in the magazine, but it was already topped off. With a heavy sigh, he dropped the bullet into one of the cargo pockets on his shorts and reinserted the mag back into the pistol. He stuffed the Glock back in his waistband and pulled his shirt down over it. “Well, that’ll have to do. I sure hope I don’t short-stroke it when the time comes to use it.”

“You guys take the lead,” Vincenzo said. “I’ll watch the back door.”

Rob took off, and Jody followed. Vincenzo checked behind them every so often. He also looked at the houses. Other than a few people sitting or standing on their property and watching them hurry past, no one said or did anything. They came to another intersection with a DEAD END sign on the opposite corner.

Rob indicated they had to turn right. “That’ll take us back to Essex. It’s either that, or go down to the end and try to cross through someone’s property.”

“Let’s not do that,” Vincenzo said. “No one’s going to want strangers in their backyard.”

“But is it safe to go back to the main street?” Jody asked.

Vincenzo shrugged. “Safety’s probably a thing of the past. But we have someplace to get to, so let’s make the best of it. All right?”

Rob nodded. “Fine by me.”

Jody didn’t seem enthused by the prospect. “Maybe we should just detour,” she said, pointing to the left. The street sign read Rowland Avenue.

“We can’t detour around everything,” Rob said with some irritation in his tone.

“Excuse me for not wanting to walk into anything we might not be able to walk out of, Rob,” Jody snapped.

“Guys, let’s head up to Essex and check it out,” Vincenzo said. “If we go down this way, we’re moving away from where we want to go. We need to start making some time, and I guarantee you, if anyone rolls up on us, I’ll make sure we’re the only ones left standing.”

Jody eyed him. “Have you ever shot anyone before?”

“No, but I’m pretty sure I might have to before my trip is over.”

“That’s not very comforting. Were you a military guy or a police officer or something before?” she asked.

Vincenzo only shook his head. He was pretty sure admitting he was a TV producer wouldn’t dampen her fear.

“If we’re going to do something, let’s do it and not stand here on the corner,” Rob said.

Vincenzo motioned toward Essex Street. “After you.”

Rob grunted and set off, his walking stick clunking against the pavement. Jody followed him up the sidewalk, while Vincenzo stepped into the street. He checked behind them, saw nothing of import, then faced forward and scanned the upcoming intersection with Essex Street. There were no pedestrians and, of course, no moving vehicles. A stripped-down police cruiser sat in the middle of the intersection, apparently killed by the CMD . The vehicle looked as though it had been picked clean then basically destroyed.
Okay, so I guess the cops don’t get high marks from the community.

They crossed over to the parking lot of a nail salon. Opposite the street sat a quiet and empty dentist’s office. One window had been shattered, and judging by the lack of glass on the outside, it had been done by someone going in. Vincenzo suspected the intruders had been looking for drugs, though he didn’t know what kind of medications someone would want from a dentist. Then he remembered a dentist’s office seemed as likely as a pharmacy to have some oxycodone lying around.

A row of apartment houses faced across the street had a lot of black and Latino faces hanging around outside. With expressionless eyes, they watched Vincenzo’s group cross the parking lot and mount the sidewalk. He wondered how long it would be until they turned into predators. The lights had only been out for a few days, so some veneer of civility still remained. He figured it wouldn’t take very much longer for that facade to begin to crack, especially when desperation began to take hold. Despite the two pistols, his little band was very vulnerable. While Rob looked formidable with his big walking stick and tree-trunk legs and arms, in a few more days it would take a lot more than looking like a badass to keep the goblins at bay.

Gunshots rang out.

As Vincenzo spun around, he saw Julio and his merry band of ne’er-do-wells running to hop on their bikes. They started pedaling away like mad. Another gunshot sounded, and one of the teens crashed to the street, rolling and writhing. He began to scream a moment later, his voice high and shrill.

“Oh my God,” Jody gasped.

“That kid just got gut shot,” Rob said.

An older man emerged from the Shell gas station the kids had been trying to loot. He held a wicked-looking shotgun. Shouting in Spanish, he raised the weapon to fire again at the flock of boys retreating on their bikes. A startled
oooh
went through the crowd standing in front of the apartment block.

“Yeah, what do you say we get the hell out of here,” Vincenzo said, pushing Rob and Jody ahead of him. “Come on. Let’s not stop and stare.”

They broke into a fast jog and kept it up for three blocks, finally winding down near a Chase Bank. An armed security officer stared at them from the bank’s lobby, his eyes unreadable behind his sunglasses. Set back from the street was a Home Depot, which seemed to still be open. Several men were gathered near the open entrance. On the opposite side of the street, a car wash sat vacant and idle.
Now there’s a business that’s going to take it hard
.
A lot like, say, cable television.

“Well, that was exciting,” Rob said, breathing heavily. Sweat glistened in his beard. “You know, all this running around is really starting to get old.”

“You can hike, but you can’t run?” Vincenzo was breathing hard, too, and he didn’t have nearly as much weight on his back as Rob did.

“Hey, you want to trade packs, guy?” Rob asked.

Vincenzo shook his head. “Not on your life, guy.”

“I can’t believe that man shot that boy,” Jody said. She had a vague, shell-shocked look in her eyes.

Vincenzo was certain his eyes had looked the same when the riot broke out in Central Park South, right along billionaire row. There was no need for the people of New York to react the way they did, but they felt they were getting the short shrift, and they just exploded. It had been terrifying for him then, and he knew that Jody—and perhaps Rob, though the man hid it well—felt the same kind of creeping panic circling around them. It was inescapable, like a great white shark cruising just beneath the water’s surface as it tried to decide if a lone swimmer was worth its time. If it hit, it would hit, and there was no way to stop it.

“They were trying to rob his place,” Rob said. “No cops, no one pitching in to stop it, he did what he had to do.”

“They were robbing a
gas station
, not someone’s house!” Jody said.

“Welcome to the new normal,” Vincenzo said. “The world’s changed. This is how it’s going to be for a while.”

Jody frowned. “And how long do you figure a while is going to be?”

Vincenzo sighed. “Until late winter, I guess.”

“What is it about then that’s going to change things?”

Vincenzo gave her a direct stare. “Because that’s when a lot of people will die, Jody.”