Hollow Dolls, The (25 page)

Returning toward town along the path, she found a garbage bin to
throw her shirt in. She kept Vic’s straight razor with the scrimshaw wolf-theme
bone handle.  

Winnie.

Melanie needed to find her right now and be close. She realized
more and more something about the energy between them when their bodies
touched. She felt her heart pound as she walked and took deep breaths. What was
happening? She took the alleys back to the parkade in Chinatown. Melanie
covered the blood patch on her leg with a scarf she found on the way to the
car. Tied it to her leg like fashion statement camouflage. Driving to The
Dodson she caught a red light at Carrall and Hastings. Street folk and
residents loitered around Pigeon Park. Their voices echoed with a timbre that
said they were far away in a drainpipe or a wormhole.

Another block down Hastings and she passed Potter’s Mission on the
left and parked around the corner.  Wandering back toward the mission she
noticed that she was staggering a bit. Out front of the Dodson she stopped to
look around. She saw a white kid and a native kid side by side sharing a bottle
in a paper bag while they traded with other shopping cart folks. A Korean and a
Jamaican were hawking armloads of pirated DVD’s. Across the street under a
storefront sign that read ‘Logger’s Social Club’, a Goth Girl took a long drag
on a blunt and placed it in between the lips of her girlfriend. They were in
love. Melanie could see it.

Where’s my breakfast in bed?  She wanted Winnie more and more.

Lost in her madness, sitting on the stairs at The Dodson she
pressed her palms against her temples to hold back the pulsing. It seemed so
absurd suddenly. Her whole life of chasing some mysterious thing she’d never
find. She remembered her first time with Winnie. She stood and started up the
stairs. In The Dodson there were no names, buttons, buzzers...nothing. She
crept up the creaky planks to the second floor and walked around the halls finding
an occasional number on a door.

“Winnie.!” She whispered as she walked by the doors hoping to get
lucky. A door opened a crack.

“Hi, can you help me? I’m trying to find my friend Winnie.”

She could see the thin older native man sizing her up. A bit of
light glimmered in his eyes.

“Keep going. Two forty-two.” He pointed down the hall.

She saw the bent out of shape metal numbers. 2-4-2. Each number had
a little tack nail holding it to the door. The tin numbers rattled when Melanie
knocked.

“Winnie, it’s me!”

She turned the handle and the door eased open on its own. There was
Winnie lying in a metal frame bed, tangled up in some greyish sheets and
blankets. To the right was a rickety little desk with her laptop open. Under
the desk was jammed with empty bourbon, whiskey, and beer bottles. Melanie sat
on the bed and touched Winnie’s forehead. She had no fever. Her face was
looking haggard and sick as ever.

“Winnie.” she shook her. “Wiiinnn!”

“Stop! Leave me alone.” Her eyes had opened for a second.

Across the hall, through the open doors a man that looked fifty
and was probably thirty tended something on a Coleman. They were hot dogs. Melanie
could smell them.

“Want one?” He’d caught her looking.

She got up, closed the door, and started pacing around the little
room. The uneven wooden floor boards creaked a weak cry for help. The room had
a strange, alien green paint covering the trim, the radiator, and even the
floor. There were junkie ghosts and their dead dreams. The love that they
chased here a thousand times and never caught. Melanie imagined Winnie here
with Timmy. She was jealous, covetous. She looked over at the bundled, matted
mess on the bed. That was her dark princess.

“Melanie, you’re pacing. Quit it,” mumbled Winnie.

“Tell me!” Melanie yelled it to the ceiling like she could connect
with the Man-Rabbit, that he might appear and finally say what was really
happening to her. What love really was.

“Winnie!” she cried.

She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled hard getting Winnie up
into a sitting position. She brushed Winnie’s mop of hair aside. When she
looked at her lip corner curls, her freckles, Melanie felt like crying.

She was some other version of herself now. She was lost in a
transformation of some kind. Another person even. Who would she turn into now?
Tears were actually welling in her eyes, something she knew for a fact was
impossible for her. Winnie’s eyelids opened a bit producing white slits with
the occasional iris or pupil floating by.  

“Why are you here?” she moaned.

“I want you to come home with me. I need you to!”

“Alejandra let you go on purpose Melanie. She set you free just for
now, that’s all. She told me.”

“I love you Win! Only...I know you love her too!”

It was no use. She didn’t know what she was saying. She felt an
urgency build in her. Winnie was barely conscious, so Melanie stuffed Winnie’s
laptop, wallet and keys into her bag and lifted Winnie up to standing position.
With Winnie’s arm slung around her neck she walked her down the stairs to the
main floor and stood her against the wall for a breather.

Timmy was at the doorway.

“Hey! Where are you taking her?” he demanded.

Timmy came close and sheepishly tried to take Winnie’s arm.

“Timmy!” cried Winnie, like she needed rescuing. She opened her
eyes fully for a moment.

“Get lost!” screamed Melanie, pushing his hand away.

She got them moving again, half-dragging Winnie out the door of
The Dodson.

“I’ll see you soon Melanie.” It was Alejandra’s voice.  

Melanie went numb. She was paralyzed looking back at Timmy’s limp
body. Alejandra’s eyes were in Timmy’s head! Melanie broke away, hobbling
faster with Winnie along the sidewalk and he followed them like a zombie.

All Melanie could think was that Alejandra didn’t want her with
Winnie. Timmy, or whoever that was. She would try to stop her. Melanie knew
then that Alejandra was like Lilly for some reason, trying to keep everyone
away from her.

Melanie struggled hurrying to get the two of them into Blackie through
the passenger door, then slid herself under the steering wheel and fired up the
engine. After she drove a few blocks to get away from the Timmy Alejandra
zombie, Melanie parked. Winnie had gone to sleep against her shoulder. Melanie
pulled her pack out from under the seat, cracked a water and downed five
ritalin. She needed a real boost.

Now she had to find Kim Li. Man-Rabbit’s orders. Alejandra’s
orders. Everyone wanted the same thing. She flipped to auto-pilot and dialled
Holmes.

“Hello.”

“Holmes, I’ve got a job for you. It’s urgent.”

“You’re lucky I work late,” he said.

“I need you to track that video feed we were onto yesterday. The
one that was coming off the girl’s bracelet at the warehouse.”

“Okay, call me back in ten minutes. I’ll see what’s up.” She hung
up and wrestled Winnie into the back seat and laid her down. The meagre light
glanced off Winnie’s pale cheeks as Melanie pulled a blanket over her. Mel
touched Winnie’s cheek and remembered the couch. She began to relax, and that
was bad. She jumped out of the back, got behind the wheel again and called Holmes.

“Ok, I tracked the location of the feed,” said Holmes. “It looks
like a basement. I tapped the city CCTV. It’s dark in there and whoever has the
cam attached to them isn’t moving.”

“Have you got a street address?”

“It’s that construction site at Keefer and Columbia. There’s a
small office complex going up.”

“Okay, thanks, I’ll call you soon.”

“Wait, there’s more! I have a friend at B.C. Hydro Satellite thermography
department. Lauren. She got a reading for me. There’s three warm bodies in the
south east corner of the building. It’s the basement level.”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, you need some backup kid?

“I’ll be ok, thanks Eric.”

“Don’t want to lose a good customer,” he said.

It was almost midnight. Melanie figured two guys were guarding Kim
Li. They might be dozing off at this hour—even sleeping. Kim Li would likely be
tied up somewhere. Maybe in the same room. Hopefully not.

She pulled up half a block down and made her way onto the site. It
was a dark night. The city light allowed her to see what she was stepping
through in the construction site. She scouted her way along the outer shell of
the basement level and ducked under each window opening. No glass in them yet,
just bare concrete construction. Creeping along an entrance way of the basement
level on the north side, she made her way toward the south east corner where
he’d said the warm bodies showed. There was a dim yellow light coming from one
of the rooms. 

“Hey.”

Melanie felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and quickly
grabbed the wrist, twisted it around and dropped him to the ground with her
knee on his back. It was some street dude.  He was groaning.

“Quiet.” she said. She let him up and told him she was a cop. That
got rid of him quick. Then some voices rose out of the darkness inside the
building. She scooted along to a room with light about half way through and had
a peek inside. A kid, maybe seventeen, was in the room. He was about five-seven
with a slim build and was pointing a gun at Kim Li against the far wall. She
was on a mattress. There was a box of pizza open on the floor half way between
them. It looked like an obligatory captive’s meal. The kid was keeping his
distance. 

Kim Li was curled up foetus-like on the mattress. A damp, musty
fresh concrete chill hung in the air. Rough walls and floors of a building
still under construction. A small battery powered camping light was turned on
leaning against the mattress. The kid gave the pizza box a kick and slid it
across toward Kim Li. He held his gun sideways, pointing it at her like a
gangsta.

Kim Li stood up. “Nine mil, huh.”

The kid was silent.

“What’s up tough boy? Afraid to get too close? Shoot me like that
and the shell’s gonna burn your pretty face.”

“Shut up and suck my dick Chica. It’s the last junk you’ll ever
get a chance at.”

The kid took a few tentative steps toward Kim Li.

26

Melanie could tell the accent on the kid was Korean. He talked
like a bravado gangster kid. She guessed a southern Cal Korean accent. He was 
passing off remixed Latino. And badly.

“Come on over here sexy,” said Kim Li licking her lips.

She’s good. Trying to  coax the kid to come close. Take his gun.

A noise came form further down the hallway. The south east corner.
It had to be the second of the three heat readings Holmes girl had detected. Coming
toward her.

Melanie slipped away and into the next room. The wall between the
rooms was only half built. A bit of dim light came from Kim Li’s lamp through
the gap of the unfinished wall. Melanie stood at the front and found a hole for
wiring big enough to see into the next room. The kid was backing away from Kim
Li now. He made his way to the door that Melanie was just outside of. The kid
bumped into the second guy as he arrived. He was a lot bigger and had a good
ten years on the kid.

The boss.

“Hey Creed. I was just on my way back,” said the kid.

She was two feet away looking through the peep hole.  She held her
breath counting the four tear tats on Creed’s cheek. They had to be kills. That
made him one up on her. She knew even if she breathed too loud, he’d hear.
Everything was dead quiet. Out of nowhere Creed pushed the kid aside and went
straight for Kim Li with his gun pointed at her. Melanie was outnumbered. She
took a big breath.

It was the perfect moment to take the kid out of the equation.

Kim Li could take down Creed.

Then it all happened too fast.

Creed jammed his gun up hard by Kim Li’s throat as Melanie
watched. Creed pushed Kim Li back against the wall and brought his face in
close to hers.

“I’ll do you right now bitch! Now or later, up to you.”

He jammed the muzzle hard into her again.

Kim Li choked trying to breathe.  Creed pulled the gun away and
switched the muzzle to her stomach. Melanie could see Kim Li had changed her
expression and toned down to submissive. Creed reached down, rubbed his hand
all around between her legs and clutched her ass, dug his fingers in good and
hard, and growled in a low voice. “I’ll be back for this.”

Then he punched Kim Li in the stomach. Hard. She dropped onto the
mattress, her windpipe wheezing hard. He kicked the pizza box across the room
and pushed the kid out the door ahead of him on the way out.

Melanie spotted the yellow plastic handcuffs they had on Kim Li’s
ankle that was looped to a metal stake in the dirt floor. Kim Li’s face was to
the wall. As she heard them walking away, Melanie crept through the opening in
the partition. She crept up to Kim Li by the mattress and touched her shoulder.