“THE TEAM”
I was sweating.It was pretty cold out, but I was sweating. I had spent the whole drive desperately trying to collect my thoughts but I was just too damn shook up. I shouldn’t have left my apartment with that guy there. Once the cops found him I’d be the prime suspect. No. The cops had to be the one’s who sent him. But why? They were grilling me just beforehand. They had to know something. Maybe somebody else was looking for the girl. The friends of the corpse from last night? Could be. Maybe the girl’s friends. But why? Goddamnit I need to get this all sorted out.
I swung the car into a parking lot and slammed on the brakes.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Tell me what happened last night. No beating around the bush.”
“I told you, it’s hard to—“
“Don’t give me no shit, I nearly got killed because somebody is looking for you. I’m sick of this shit, start talking.” I really didn’t mean to curse at the girl, it just came out. That happens when I get angry.
She took a deep breath, “Well, like I said, we were going out on patrol. The Watchman, he operates a neighborhood watch, but he wanted to expand out, cover more sections of the city. He said it would be good publicity, for us to make ourselves seen and stuff. We wanted people to know we were serious, that we put the costumes on for a reason. Sergio, he was Azul Amigo, he was especially into the idea. He did a lot of local theater back in New York and loved the performance of being a superhero. I mean, he did a lot of work for the homeless shelters and stuff, but he just loved making a show out of it.”
“Where was everybody else from?”
“Well, Watchman is local, I think Super Citizen is too. Pieces is from somewhere in California, Captain Kick is from Orlando, and I think Ombre is from Indiana or something.”
“So, you guys actually all got together as some kind of team?”
“Yeah, I guess. Like I said, Watchman really wanted to something big. He had been doing some interviews with some journalists and had a couple articles written about him and other Real Life Superheroes. So that’s what last night was going to be. We split up into pairs and patrolled the surrounding neighborhoods, everyone was real excited, we had walkie talkies and everything. Azul and I were one team, cause we already knew each other. Pieces and Ombre were another team, Watchman and Captain Kick were together, and Super Citizen was by himself. He was kind of weird, I don’t think anybody wanted to be on his team anyway. But he seemed like he already knew the area and it wasn’t a big deal to him. So that was it, we all went out on patrol, but…things didn’t go so well.’
She stopped, I thought she was trying to gather her thoughts or start crying, but to be honest, I couldn’t’ve told you either way.
“We got a call, on the walkie talkies. Watchman said there was a drug deal going on. He was actually seeing a drug deal. He wanted us to be on our guard. We were supposed to take up positions surrounding him and keep our eyes open, so we could identify anyone in the area if we needed to. Sergio and I were at the hotel. I don’t really know what happened next. Someone, Super Citizen I think, interfered. I don’t know if he started attacking them or if he was just found out, but Watchman was yelling something into the walkie talkies, but it was so hard to hear him, and then… then we heard the gunshots.
Azul and I looked for someplace to hide, but before we could even move, a guy came running out of the alley next to us. He was carrying a briefcase and a gun. He was running from someone and didn’t notice us at first, but as soon as he did, he knew who we were. He was surprised and started firing at us.”
I thought she was going to start bawling at this point, but she remained calm, almost completely detached from the whole story. It was making me uncomfortable.
She went on, “Sergio was hit immediately. I hid behind a dumpster. There were two more gunshots. Peeking around the dumpster, I could see that the other guy had been shot. Somebody else came out of the alley and took the briefcase. Then he ran off. I don’t…I don’t remember much of what happened next, until you showed up.”
I took a deep breath. I knew what we should do. We should go straight to the cops. She could tell them everything she just told me, and then she can go back to New York City, minus one friend. But it wouldn’t be that easy would it? This whole costume club would be a real mess. Media, lawyers, all kinds of crap. Hell, they’d probably institutionalize her. Then there’s still the matter of the lummox we left at the apartment. I just needed more time to think, to figure it all out, whatever it was. Fuck it, I’d already made my decision.
We were going to Gurly’s. It was still early in the afternoon, but Gurly’s was always open.
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