Sleight (50 page)

“I’m telling you
I
admitted him. They weren’t there. Now they are,” said a rail thin male doctor. He was tapping a sheaf of papers that he held in one hand.

The other doctor, a curly-haired blond, who was almost as tall as him, shook her head. “Teeth don’t grow back Ahmed. You made a mistake.”

The hair on my neck stood straight up. I glanced at Breno, who was lying in the bed with his eyes closed. No cast, no tubes or wires. He looked pretty good for a guy who had been assaulted by a rogue Natural. In fact he looked really good.

I stared at him while the doctors continued to argue.

“It’s not just that, Cathy. When he came out of the coma an hour ago his metabolics were ridiculous. Perfect,” said Ahmed.

Cathy shook her head. “Okay, that’s unusual, but they’re two different things. Don’t go telling the chief of staff that you think an adult regrew missing teeth. In less than a week!”

Hi Benny!

I kid you not, I almost screamed.

Breno?

His eyes were still closed, but I thought I could see his mouth turned up at the corners.

I’m tired of talking to doctors. They just talk and talk and talk. I’m pretending to be sleeping.

You’re pretending? Since when have you been able to talk like this?

While the doctors’ argument went on, they didn’t notice Breno’s brows furrow into a frown.

I don’t know. But the bad dreams are gone.

The bad dreams?

Yeah. Ever since the bad lady. I been having the bad dreams. But now they don’t come no more.

You look good.

I’m all better. Can you ask Mr. Goodturn to come get me. I don’t like to talk to these doctors.

Hang on. Don’t say anything out loud. I don’t want the doctors to know I’m here.

“If he’s improved this much we’ll have to release him. Have you notified family?” asked sensible doctor Cathy.

Her colleague shook his head. “Without exploring how a grown man regrew teeth? I could contact his dentist. Pull records. It would be—”

“Don’t go there again. You made an error. Get over it. Come on. I’ve got rounds,” she said, pulling Ahmed the confused physician after her.

When they’d left I let my camo dissolve and tapped Breno on the arm. He cracked open an eye.

“Hi Benny,” he said, a big grin slowly spreading over his face. “Can I go home?”

My arms were covered in goosebumps. I’d never expected to see him like himself again, or better than he had ever been since I’d known him. Breno had been missing several teeth in the back of his mouth. According to doctors Cathy and Ahmed, he now had a full set.

“Yeah, I think so,” I said. “Look, cooperate with the doctors. Mr. Goodturn will be here soon. Okay?”

He smiled at me and winked. He made a big show of closing his eyes, but the smile gave him away.

Okay Benny!

I stumbled back out into the hall and walked to the elevators in a daze, letting my camo fade. The doors closed and I pulled my phone from my pocket. I started to send a text to Mr. Goodturn, and then stopped. Another night of rest would probably do Breno some good. Knowing him he’d probably strip and re-wax the lobby floor on Christmas morning if we let him.

The elevator doors opened and I got off, moving slowly through the lobby, heading for the exit to the street.

“You sure get around.”

I’d been so preoccupied that I’d almost run her down. The vampire/photographer/rescuer.

“Hi Ms. Sanders,” I mumbled, jerking to a stop, and looking over her shoulder to the exit doors that now seemed much too far away.

She grabbed my sleeve. “Not so fast David Copperfield. I have a couple of questions for you.”

“I’m late for dinner with friends,” I said desperately. Seriously, how much can a guy take in one day?

She nodded, her long black hair shining in the lobby lights. She’d exchanged her sneaky-black photographer get up for a bright red winter coat, black boots and white sweater.

“Sure, I’ll just have to go with the story I’ve been working on without your input, Mr. Brown.” She smiled.

Giving up on a quick getaway, I groaned. “Okay, what?”

“Haven’t you wondered why your picture hasn’t been in the news?” she asked.

Well, yeah I had actually. I nodded.

Her smile took on a sly quality. “I had to ditch my camera before the police showed up. They would have confiscated it and there goes part of my story. So I went back for it a day later. Went through the shots I’d taken. And guess what?”

I didn’t want to play. So I shrugged.

She got serious and the smile disappeared. “I’d thought Crush stabbed himself.” My heart started beating faster. “But instead...the knife jumped out of
your
hand and stuck him by itself. That seem weird to you?”

The conversation was starting to feel a lot like an ambush.

“He tried to kill me. Why are you here? Have you been following me?” I asked, even though I knew that with my heavy use of camo it would have been nearly impossible for her to tail me.

She laughed. “Follow you? Not quite. So, here’s how it goes: I got a great story but I can totally feel a bigger one under the surface. Too many links. Too many connections to other things, and not enough answers. You up and disappear on me, so I decide to stay close to the other guy that got knifed. Crush’s bodyguard, Miguel. Then I remember seeing him at some Dungeons and Dragons bullshit in the underground. I run some data and turns out he’s a member of the Thirteens. You know who they are?”

I nodded again.

“Of course you do. ‘Take care of my friend’ you said so it figures that you’d know. It seems interesting that you would consider a dangerous gang member a friend. So tonight I decide to see if I can get some time with him. A buddy with the SPD points me in a good direction. Then I go to his hospital and guess what? He’s gone. Yup, just got up out of bed with a chest wound that required almost thirty stitches and a couple of hours in surgery, and walked out the front door. They have it all on video, not that they let me see it. They said that it seemed like he could tell exactly when he needed to hide or duck into a room. Like he knew what everyone around him was doing. Or thinking.”

Her eyes were narrowed, gauging my reaction. Seemed like a really good time to not say much.

“So, where’s my big story right? My hot lead has taken off. Then I remember something you said when my flash saved your bacon. You said I looked better without fangs.”

A big weight descended into my stomach. Probably splashed around in the acid down there. Stupid wiseass comment come back to bite me. I felt queasy.

“Oso was in this hospital?” It seemed beyond farfetched, and I hoped the question would distract her, throw her off.

Not even close.

“Nope. He was in Mercy, before he, you know, went for a walk. Oso? Hmm, that would be his street name. You do know him. Oh, why am I here? Oh, let’s see: your apartment super is in here and your girlfriend is recovering here. I’ve been waiting for you to show up.”

“How’d you figure out my name?”

“You were at that underground meeting, even though I don’t remember seeing you. And when I went through stuff I’d shot earlier, guess what else I figured out?”

“I’m the kid at the awards banquet,” I said.

Her expression had been excited, preparing to drop another bomb. It slipped a little when I let the air out of her balloon by fessing up. But it didn’t stop her.

“Right. Too much. So you save the entire student population at Roosevelt High, show up at a cult meeting that I’m investigating, almost get killed by Crush, who I’m investigating, and then you vanish right in front of me.”

“Yeah.” My head felt like an overinflated beach ball. “So what are you going to do? What do you want?”

The sly smile made another appearance. “You’re not a
bad
guy. You’re the
good
guy. You know things that no kid should know, but I won’t publish the photos. In fact I’ll erase them.”

There had to be a catch. I rubbed my forehead but didn’t say anything.
‘Better to be silent and have people think you a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt’
. Thanks mom. Actually pretty good advice.

“What I want in return is to be your friend. And interview you. Off the record. The big story I can feel, I keep you out of it. But I get the story. You trust me. I trust you.”

She had no idea what she was messing with, a lot like she hadn’t realized how lucky she’d been to keep her skin when she’d been thrown out of the meeting by Griff. If Brock and Kenwoode hadn’t taken out the goons who had been lurking around outside the meeting she would have ended up getting hurt, or worse.

“How do I know that you’ll actually erase the photos?” I asked.

Grinning she wagged a short unpolished nail at me. “See? You’re smart. That’s very heady thinking for a teenager. The answer is: you don’t for sure.”

“Doesn’t seem like a very good deal.”

She unslung her purse from her shoulder. Pulling out her wallet she dug a small square out of her coin purse. “That’s the memory card,” she said, handing it to me. “Sure, I could have another one. But I don’t. You think it over. I know where you live and some of what you’ve been dealing with. Seems like you
need
a friend.”

I watched her turn and leave through the double doors at the front of the building. I needed a friend. She was right about that.

I also needed a fricking break.

Leaving shortly after she’d walked out I experienced a moment of vertigo. Dizzy. It felt like the end of the rope was very close.

My mind was spinning and whirling as I rode the bus to Maddy’s. My relief at Breno’s unexpected recovery was bumping into thoughts of Justine’s impending trip out of the country to some medical facility in Switzerland, and my new very best friend.

When I got off the bus and started the climb up the steps to Maddy’s condo building I was reconsidering the advice that Aiden and Mr. Goodturn had offered. Was another potentially intense social gathering really a good idea?

Then I saw Maddy standing behind the entry doors, bouncing on her feet.

It made me smile. I needed some Christmas cheer. She opened the door, hung onto the handle, leaned out at a crazy angle, and greeted me with a huge smile.

“Get up here Mr. Mister! It’s cold outside!”

I hustled up the steps and walked in. She let the door close and wrapped me in a hug. What I’d been going through, the new variables I’d been juggling in my head, they all faded. I hugged her tight. Her hair smelled like pine cones.

She pulled back, her arms around my waist and smiled. “I can’t wait, I can’t wait! I. Can’t. Wait!”

I laughed, a smile trying to fight its way onto my face. “Can’t wait for what?”

She hugged me again and swayed from side to side, making us both move in unison.

“The big thing I wanted to share with you!”

My heart skipped a beat. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any surprising secrets. I’d had plenty.

She saw my expression. “What? I really have something I’ve been dying to tell you. What’s that look for?” She let go of me.

“Look, can we just go upstairs, do the dinner thing and wish each other Merry Christmas and leave it at that?”

“What is
wrong
with you?” She hauled off and landed a hard punch. In my chest. I resisted the urge to massage it. For such a small person she can really bring the wood.

“Nothing,” I shrugged.

Not the best move when talking with her. It’d seemed like a good response from inside my head.

She hit me again.

“You are not going to ruin this you big idiot. Stop it.”

She put her arms around me again, and laid her head on my chest.

“Stop being such a
dumb boy
.” Her arms tightened. “You seriously haven’t guessed what I’ve been wanting to tell you?”

I swallowed hard. “No.” Please don’t let it be about the guy in all your social posts.

She looked up at me, tears in her eyes and a smile on her lips. “We’re moving back to Seattle.”

And then she stood on her tiptoes and kissed me.