I’m lying to you now, you bastard. The key to pulling off the scheme was to let Leon think he was getting the full ransom payment. They trusted that when he actually counted the money, his glee at having fifty large in his hands would outweigh his fury at being shortchanged.
Pressing the phone to his ear, Corey strained to hear any background noise on the line that might give him an idea of where Leon was calling from. But there was only hollow silence, as if Leon were at the bottom of a well.
“Let me talk to my wife,” Corey said.
“I can’t go for that, no can do, you got the currency, you’ll welcome her into your open arms soon enough. Take my word, she’s cool, your munchkin’s cool, we’re cool, everybody’s cool as cucumbers. I’m ready to do this, I’m ready to get my money and cruise into the boogie nights.”
“How do you want to do this, then? How about I come to you, give you the money, and you give me my family?”
“No, no, no, no, no. Do not pass go, mi amigo. That’s not how this is going to go down, no. We’ll rendezvous this afternoon, sixteen hundred hours sharp, Lenox Square Mall, east side.”
Corey’s mind raced. “Where on the east side? It’s a big mall.”
“Be there at sixteen hundred, go inside the general mall entrance, wait near the doors, and I’ll buzz you and give you the precise drop-off point coordinates, you dig? I need to scope the scene and make sure you haven’t gone five-o on me.”
A car pulled into the space alongside Corey: a police cruiser. Corey held his breath as a muscle-bound cop wearing yellow-tinted aviator glasses climbed out.
He felt the officer’s mirrored gaze casually rake over him, perform a quick assessment, and judge him harmless. The cop moved on toward the bank.
Corey exhaled. He was so worried about the FBI that every cop was a threat.
“You got verbal constipation?” Leon asked. “Did you hear what I said?”
“Leon, I haven’t gone to the cops. Why the hell would I? You know me better than that.”
“Never been a snitch bitch, I’ll give you that.” Leon giggled. “I’ve missed you, C-Note. Don’t you miss how we used to rock ’n’ roll? How could you ever give it up and go legit? That crazy adrenaline buzz, that quick, easy loot, you’ve gotta reminisce sometimes.”
“I’ll deliver the money to you at four,” Corey said. “But when are you giving me my family?”
“You get the address when I get the funds.”
“I want them to be there at the mall.”
“This isn’t Burger King-you can’t have it your way. You’ve got no leverage. All out of chips. Pockets turned out. Do what I say, how I say, when I say, where I say, and you can resume your merry fuckin’ Heathcliff Huxtable life, comprende, hombre?”
Click.
Corey stared at the phone, gnawing his bottom lip. He didn’t like the plan, but Leon was right. He had no leverage whatsoever.
A blanket of shadow spread across the car. He looked up at the sky through the windshield. The sun had vanished again.
28
When Mr. Leon came into the bedroom, he made Giant leave. Jada breathed a sigh of gladness. She’d been trying to ignore Giant after she ate the Snickers, but he continued to stare at her and smile that creepy smile of his, as if he expected her to do something as payment for the candy bar, and she’d been terrified that he was going to get out of that chair, shuffle to her, and make her do whatever awful thing he was thinking about.
As Giant lumbered out of the room, he said something to Mr. Leon-Jada thought his lips spoke the word candy-and Mr. Leon shrugged, closed the door, and approached her. In one hand, he held a white plastic bag with a Subway logo on it.
She loved Subway, but she scooted against the wall and watched him cautiously as he came near. Daddy had said he and Mr. Leon had used to be best friends a long time ago, but in some way, Mr. Leon actually scared her more than Giant, though he wasn’t nearly as big. Mr. Leon made her think about the last time Mom and Daddy had taken her to Zoo Atlanta. There had been a spotted hyena there, and the animal, which she knew from class was a vicious predator, had been pacing restlessly across the dirt, hungrily watching the people beyond the fence, pacing and pacing and pacing, and she’d known that if it hadn’t been for that fence, the hyena would have pounced on them and torn them to pieces.
Mr. Leon was like that restless hyena, but there was no fence to keep her safe from him if he suddenly attacked, so she thought it best to be quiet and careful around him.
He dropped the bag onto the mattress. He said something to her, but his lips moved too fast for her to figure out what he was saying. She glanced inside the bag and saw it was full of food.
Thank you, she said, but she didn’t say anything else. He left the room, and she was alone in there for the first time ever. Finally.
The food he’d brought was even better than a candy bar: a big sub sandwich with turkey and cheese and mayo, a bag of Doritos, and a bottle of cold water. The Snickers, as delicious as it had been, had only stirred her appetite. She was so hungry that she barely thought about her parents’ warnings against taking things from strangers.
She was starved enough to eat it all, but she saved some of it in case she got hungry later. She drank some of the water, too. Normally she hated to drink plain water because it tasted blah, but her mouth was so dry the water tasted wonderful.
With all of the eating and drinking came the pressing need to go to the bathroom. She couldn’t hold it any longer, and since Giant had left, she felt safe going.
The bathroom was really weird-peculiar was a word she’d recently learned that came to mind-like the people building it had left before finishing. The knob was missing, and there was no water in the bowl, so she couldn’t flush. A roll of toilet tissue stood on the sink, though.
When she was done, she turned the faucet handle to wash her hands, and nothing came out of the spout. She frowned, tore off a piece of tissue, and cleaned her hands as best she could.
She decided to do some exploring.
There was nothing to see in the bathroom. No windows at all. There was only the sink, toilet, and a bathtub full of junk and cobwebs. She went back into the bedroom.
There was a door near where the mattress lay, and like the bathroom door, the knob was missing. She pulled it open, expecting a closet, and that was what she found. It was a small space, with lots of dusty cobwebs and a few pieces of wood stacked on the floor and leaning against the wall, but it held nothing interesting.
Next, she went to the bedroom door. The plastic chair in which Giant had been sitting was nearby, and being careful not to touch it-the idea of touching a chair in which he had sat grossed her out-she turned the doorknob. It was locked.
She went to the window, which was blocked with big pieces of wood. She peered between the slats. The sky was cloudy and gray, and there was a forest out there that seemed to go on forever.
Where was she? Where were Mom and Daddy? Was she all alone?
Tears trickled out of her eyes. Sniffling, she shuffled to the mattress and curled up on it. She slipped her thumb into her mouth, feeling like a big baby as she did it, but comforted nonetheless.
As she lay there tucked in a ball, she squeezed her eyes shut and whispered a prayer. Dear God, please don’t let anything bad happen to me. Please send Mom and Daddy here to get me and take me home soon, please, please. I want to go home, God.
She thought about Giant, remembered that smile that gave her goose bumps, and shuddered.