FOLLOW THE LEADER - Chapter 24

Chapter 24


It was 9:20 pm, ten minutes before the end of a night school session at Lowell High. I had been waiting in my car, hoping to see Zack Tyler so that I could question him.

A long ten minutes crept by.

I heard a loud buzz from inside the school. Seconds later I saw students leaving one wing of the main building. Many more students streamed out of the portable classrooms.

          Most were tapping their smart phone buttons. Some dug out cigarettes. No Zack in this bunch. Then came the laggers, stupefied with boredom, shuffling ahead like zombies. They were pulling out cigarettes or joints and sticking them in their mouths to taunt the campus cops. The cops did not bother them unless they actually lit up on campus, which seemed to extend as far as the sidewalk.

         Confident that he would be in this bunch, I got out of my car.

         I saw a kid that resembled the picture I had and caught up with him. His Levis’ hung precariously above his knees. One deep inhalation and they would slide down to his ankles. He was blowing smoke like the badass he wasn’t when I caught up to him.

         “I have a message from Katherine Rollins,” I said, hoping to shake him up.

         “I don’t know no Katherine,” he said.

         “But you’re Zack Tyler, aren’t you?

         “I wish.”

         “Yeah?’

         “He’s rich, bro. Live up in a mansion. And he always got him a skank or two.” He turned around to point, revealing his butt crack. I turned away. “That’s Zack,” he said. He was referring to another slouching kid with a cigarette dangling in his mouth. What you want with him?”

         “Just a little blow.”

         He took my measure.

         “You a narc?” 

         “Hell no!”

         I could see he was skeptical.

         “I don’t do that shit,” he said. 

“Dealing, you mean.”

 “Yup. I try to stay out of trouble. Thing is, Zack don’t deal here. Too dangerous. He got his own spot.”

“And where is that?”

“Little bridge by Dolores Park.”

I was surprised at how easily he gave out the information. He doesn’t much care for Zack, I thought.

         The kid turned around to check on Zack, who was talking to a guy in a hoodie. They were being secretive, checking to see who was around them.

         I said, “It looks like he’s doing a deal right now. Other guy’s tryin’ to score something. They’re not talkin’ about their homework.”

         A knowing chuckle. The kid shuffled away.

         I turned back too late to catch any exchange between Zack and the guy in the hoodie, who was walking away. 

         I walked toward Zack. His hair was long and greasy. Unkempt. He squinted at me. I saw a trace of a smile, as if he knew what I wanted. He motioned for me to follow him. I did. I wondered if Daddy had warned him about me. But how would Zack know what I looked like?

         Zack led me around to the back of a portable classroom and lit up a cig. I saw at once that his pupils were dilated. He was on something.

         “’S’up?” he asked in a monotone. 

         I guessed that Zack was either going to sell me drugs or make a buy.

         “What’s up, yourself?” I answered. “Did your father tell you about me?”

         “What the fuck you talking about?”

         “Nothing much. I just want to ask you some questions. You used to date Katherine Rollins, right?”

         “You’re a cop.”

         I dug out my wallet and showed him my card. 

         He didn’t question it.

         “If you ain’t a cop, then I don’t gotta talk to you.” He started off.

 I grabbed his backpack and pulled him back.

         I whispered into his ear. “You want me to open this pack? Ten to one you’re carrying. Or we could talk in my car. Which is it?”

         “Where’s your car?”

         I pointed to my grey Honda in the visitor’s lot.

         “Let’s make it fast, then. I got an appointment.”

         “With a buyer?”

         No reply.

         We were walking now and I knew he was not going to answer any questions about Katherine Rollins on our way to my car.  A guy in a black Escalade watched us approach. He looked like the guy that Terry had described. And the car was right.

         Zack saw him. His expression changed.

         They know each other.

         “Can we hurry it up?” he asked.

         I increased my speed.

         We reached my car and got in. I glanced over at the guy in yellow shades. He was backing out of his space. He sure as hell wasn’t waiting for his kid.

         But he could have been waiting for Zack.

         I heard a loud click.

         Zack held the point of a long switchblade against my ribs with his left hand. I knew at once that he knew about knives. The blade was angled up in a perfect spot to do the most damage. Adding to my precarious situation, passers-by would see nothing amiss. It was too dark for that. Maybe they would see a kid who was leaning toward an older man. Okay, I thought, that wouldn’t look so hot, either. But who would report it?

         “You’re not dumb enough to try and shiv me in a school parking lot,” I said, my eyes roaming the area around us. “The cops ’ll think there was a fight over drugs.”

         “Or they’ll think you were trying to molest me and I protected myself.”

         The kid had a point. 

         So did his knife. It pierced my shirt and hit skin.

         Zack said, “Neither of those things is gonna happen. Instead, you’re going to drive out of this lot and go where I tell you. One move and you die hella fast.”

         We had been spotted. 

A campus cop was heading our way.

         “Start it up,” Zack ordered.

         “A cop’s coming,” I said.

         “Yeah, right.” He was not about to turn his head.

         The knifepoint broke skin.

         I said, “I’ll describe him for you: Black male. Late forties. Slight limp.”

         Now he believed me. He turned his head slightly and I grabbed his left wrist and twisted it back and downward. He grunted in pain.

         “Drop the knife,” I said.

         “And if I don’t?”

         “I’ll snap your skinny wrist in two. That’ll tear the ligaments in your elbow. Your left arm will be ruined for the rest of your life. Go on, try me.”

         He dropped the knife.

         The cop approached the car on Zack’s side.

         “What’s up, Zack?” said the guard.

         “Just chillin’.”

         The cop came around to my side, blinding me with his flash.

         “What about you?” asked the cop. “Got some I.D.?”

         I noticed he had one hand on a Glock and that his holster was unsnapped.

         “I gotta get home,” said Zack. Without taking no for an answer, Zack opened the door and left. “Catch you later,” he said. It was addressed to both the guard and me. In seconds he would be leaving the parking lot and stepping onto a city sidewalk. Off school property.

         For the first time, the guard glanced down at my driver’s license, and next to it, my P.I. license.

         “Hey. You’re bleeding,” he said.

         My hand was bloody but I hadn’t noticed it.

         “I’ll be damned!” I tried.

         “Don’t shit me. That little punk shived you. What were you quarreling about?”

         I decided to play it straight.

         “I’m investigating the murder of Katherine Rollins,” I said.

         He shook his head sadly.

         “She wasn’t no angel, but she didn’t deserve that. Guess you know she and Zack were an item.”

         I nodded.

         “Where’d he get you?” he asked.

         I showed him.

         “Best get home and tend to it.”

         “Thanks, I will.”

         “You could be dealin’ with that Death Valley bunch,” he said. “Word is they started up again.”

         “Surely you don’t think Zack is involved with them.”

         “Naw. But that’s who killed Katherine Rollins.”

         “Proof?”

         He shook his head. “Just a hunch.”