The Beginning of the End, Part 39

THE END. Just kidding! Proceed:

When I got back to the room, Kevin apparently was just finishing up with the packing. All the lights were on, and all the drawers were open. I stood in the doorway slack-jawed as I watched him coaxing Schmauser out from under the bed. He wrapped our little furball in a towel and passed him to me.

“Here,” he said. “Get in the car – I’ve already got it loaded up.”

And sure enough, he did. All of our worldly goods were crammed into the back seat – and I was assuming the trunk as well. I tried to protest, I wanted to double-check myself, but Kevin assured me he had cleaned the place out.

“Trust me, I got everything,” he emphasized. “The last thing I want to do is leave behind any clues about us or where we’re going.”

He jumped in the mustang and miraculously, it started with the first try. The tires screeched loudly in the night and Schmauser let out a wail of protest as Kevin backed out of the parking spot and threw the car into drive. With a lurch that sent me almost into the windshield, we headed out of the parking lot of our “home,” and toward another new beginning.

The questions were flying through my head faster than Kevin was driving – and that was pretty fast. Once I managed to catch my breath, I asked, “So where exactly are we going?”

Kevin pursed his lips. “Well,” he said thoughtfully, “I saw another motel just up the road. It’s not that far from the casino, but it’s far enough away from our old place. I was thinking we could try there.”

“And are you planning on telling me why we’re moving? And how you got out of jail? Who paid your bail, Kev?” I asked, unable to stand the not knowing.

“No one paid my bail,” he answered casually.

I almost choked and accidentally squeezed Schamuser a bit too tight causing an angry hiss to emerge from the towel. “Kev, you didn’t…” My mind filled with visions of metal files hidden in chocolate cakes, bedsheets tied together to make escape ropes, tunnels dug through the walls in the dead of night…

“No!” he laughed, glancing at me sideways. “I didn’t break out. I cut a deal. Which is why we had to move.”

I listened as he told me the whole story. The DA had decided there were bigger fish to fry, and was looking for willing bait. Kevin’s public defender, Dan, had recommended he work with the State in order to regain his freedom. Kevin gave the name of one of the top guys he had dealt with, and kept the name of his rival to himself. He had figured giving up Polon and saving Arturo may have more than one benefit in the long run. Dan and the DA worked out an elaborate scheme in which Kevin would call Polon to make a buy. They provided him with money for the buy and told him where to schedule the meet. Once the deal happened, the cops would pounce and everyone would be arrested, including Kevin. Of course, his arrest would only be for show, and once they got to the station he would be released and the charges against him dropped.

Kevin’s eyes shone as he told me how he made the call and was dropped off from an unmarked car about a mile from the meet. He walked to appointed spot, and waited. And waited. And waited. He told me he was afraid Polon wouldn’t show, and his deal would be tossed, but then he saw movement up ahead in the dark. It was a guy on a bike, heading straight for Kevin.

As it turned out, Polon had sent another guy to do the actual drop. But it was good enough for the cops. As soon as money changed hands, the area was flooded with light. Kevin and the dealer were cuffed and brought in. And then – Kevin was set free. As far as the DA was concerned, they were now one link higher on the food chain and Kevin was no longer needed.

The first thing Kevin did was call the cab. He had no money, but knew I would be working. After he left me, but before he went home, he stopped and made a phone call from a payphone: to Arturo. He had rightly suspected that Polon would find out almost immediately what had happened, and he wasn’t sure Polon would believe he wasn’t involved. He explained his situation to Arturo, and swore he would never give him up, that the cops had wanted his name as well, but that he wouldn’t crack. Arturo assured him that his people would watch out for Kevin and me, but he also warned him that Polon wouldn’t be so quick to let this go. It may have only been a messenger they caught, but the betrayal was something he wouldn’t forget.

My mind spun. So now, basically, we were on the run from a Mexican drug lord. I almost wanted to laugh. It seemed so surreal. Here I was, a nice, upper-middle class girl, fleeing in the middle of the night with my boyfriend and my cat from a drug lord who probably wanted to kill us. Well, kill Kevin, at least. I couldn’t help it. I did laugh. Which caused Kevin to look at me quizzically.

“You think this is funny?” he asked.

I looked at his profile as he drove and stopped laughing. Because it so obviously wasn’t funny at all. In fact, I could feel the fear crawling up my spine.

“No,” I said quietly. “You think he’s really gonna be looking for us?”

Kevin shrugged. “Hopefully not for long. And Dan said he’s going to have the detective check in with us every now and then, once we get settled.”

Great. A detective. That actually was a good thing, we would be safer with the police watching us…

“So we’ll have to be extra careful when we party,” he stressed.

The laughter bubbled up again. Why wasn’t I surprised? Kevin give up his partying? Come on! Just because he had been arrested, had just gotten out of jail, and would now have a detective staking out our place… I laughed harder.

Until the laughter turned to tears.