help it. Who knew how Charlie’s condition could be by then?
“It’s usually like eighteen hours,” Polo said. “It’s the worst. A couple of hours less is a lot better, right, guys?”
Ben’s focus seemed to be on a point on the floor. “Hmm? Oh sure, Polo. Absolutely.”
He stood up then and walked to the back of the cabin. When he returned, it was with a small humidor. Yuri and Polo declined the offer of a cigar, but Ben lit one up almost immediately.
I checked Charlie’s pulse again. It was weak but steady. It was really his shallow breath that began to concern me.
“Put that out, please?” I nodded to the cigar.
The glare he gave me was almost threatening, daring me to ask again. Still, he produced a crystal ashtray from a side compartment and put out the butt without complaint. As I watched his strangely graceful movements, I realized the unique opportunity I had at that moment, as it was very possible Charlie would never allow me to know any more about his past than I could read in a newspaper. But Ben Walden had known him for years, and Charlie was hardly in any position to object to a friendly interrogation.
“You and Charlie met in prison, right?”
Yuri craned his head from the window. At last the conversation seemed to interest him.
“That’s correct.” Ben seemed unsurprised by the question, almost as if he expected it, even.
I remembered what the articles had said about their sentences and what they had done. I figured if Ben wasn’t going to volunteer any information, then I was going to have to choose my questions wisely enough to gain as much data as possible.
“W-were you doing this kind of stuff before then?”
He smiled. “I was doing work along these lines, yes. But Charlie Boy was still doing that mettling child’s play.” He waved the phrase away as though it disgusted him.
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and tried to prepare myself. “I take it you aren’t referring to hopscotch?”
“I like hopscotch!” Polo jumped up and started jumping from one foot to the other in the aisle.
“As a young man he acted as a bit of a motivator for some of the less refined groups of the south.” Ben scoffed at what seemed to be a fond memory. “I could see the potential here—” He kicked Charlie’s leg fondly. “So I took him under my wing.”
What was I supposed to say to this? I knew Charlie was capable of hurting people. I had seen and felt his anger inflicted on others. It was only too easy to picture him as a brooding teenager, working as a leg-breaker (or whatever it was) because he thought it was his place. And while I only had a vague idea about jail from Hollywood and the media, I understood that gang life was something of a necessity. Still, the idea of some twisted Aryan ideals and Charlie looking toward them made me sad.
Maybe he was young and stupid, I told myself.
I looked at him and smiled. Was that what he had meant when he said I wouldn’t love him after awhile?
“I’m going to prove you so wrong,” I whispered to him.
“You need to stop taking people under your wing,” Yuri mocked. “You took Wallace under your wing, and ‘cause of him, we got two dead people, a kidnapped girl, and Charlie got a hole in his gut.”
“True, true.” He weighed his hands out in mock balance. “However, we also have one less share to split, Charlie has a girl, and we have rid ourselves of a troublemaker.”
Yuri began counting off the items. “Life sentences for everybody, and all kinds of unnecessary heat.”
Ben groaned into his fist. “Hmm, well, we’ll take care of all of that when the time comes.”
I didn’t know whether or not it would be appropriate to apologize, but I had a compulsive desire to do so. I hated to be an inconvenience to people. Heck, I even hated asking the librarian for help finding something at the reference desk. But on the other hand, I hadn’t asked to be kidnapped, either. And there wasn’t any chance I would apologize for the way I felt about Charlie.
Polo poured a handful of colorful candies in his mouth. “The police won’t be a problem, will they?”
“No, Polo.” The words came out of my mouth before I could stop them “Not because of me, anyway.”
I pulled my knees to my chest and created a veil with my hair, though it was impossible