"Where's that smart mouth
now," a voice growled in her ear. "You're about to find out that a
few years for grand theft auto won't be as much fun as a quiet night at die
county jail."
She managed to get one hand
around the nightstick that was crushing her windpipe and relieve enough
pressure to speak. "I'm not stealing it," she croaked. "I have
keys. I told you—"
He tightened the pressure on
her throat before grabbing her other arm and twisting it behind her back.
"Save your breath. Anything you've got to say can be said to die
police."
"I'm telling you—"
He cut off any further
conversation by tightening the pressure on her arm. "Wrong, bitch. You
ain't telling me nothing." He shoved her forward while keeping her arm
twisted behind her.
Rona tried not to cry out, but
each step sent a searing pain through her shoulder. It seemed to take them
forever to reach a side door. The security guard fumbled with a large ring of
keys for several seconds before he finally found the one he needed. He opened
the door and pushed her inside a small room that smelled strongly of sardines.
As the door slammed behind him, he fastened the key ring back on his belt.
Rona barely had time to see a
metal desk and a long row of filing cabinets before he pushed her to the floor
and slapped one end of a handcuff over her wrist. With an ease that led her to
suspect he had done this before, he passed the cuffs around the desk leg and
snapped the open end around her other wrist. "Will you listen to me?"
she tried again.
He slapped the nightstick
against the desk near her head without answering and reached for the phone.
She wiggled her body into a
more comfortable position and listened to him explain how he had caught her
breaking into a car in the parking lot. She closed her eyes and told herself to
remain calm. The keys to the car were in her pocket. Hopefully this Anastasia
Pagonis wasn't so rattled that she wouldn't remember that Rona had driven her
to the emergency room, and all of this would be straightened out as soon as the
police arrived.
She forced herself to stay
silent. The guy was nuts, and provoking him would only make it worse. If she
pushed him too far, there was no telling what he'd do. She kept her eyes closed
even when he paced back and forth in front of her, occasionally tapping her
shoulder with the stick.
It felt like hours before the
police, a tall, handsome African-American woman and a blond man with the
physique of a bodybuilder, finally arrived.
The security guard started his
explanation of catching her stealing the car, but the woman cut him off.
"Why is she on the floor
handcuffed to that desk?" she asked.
"Do you see a jail cell
around here anywhere?" the guard replied, clearly unhappy that he was
having to explain himself to a woman.
"Unlock the cuffs,"
the bodybuilder said in a voice so soft Rona almost missed the order.
The security guard hesitated
until the bodybuilder took a step toward him.
As soon as the cuffs were off,
Rona pulled herself upright and grimaced as pain shot through her right calf.
She was certain there would be a nasty bruise where the guard had struck her
with the nightstick.
The policewoman extended a
hand to steady her. "Are you okay?"
Rona nodded.
"What's your side of the
story?" the woman asked.
"Why you asking
her?" the security guard demanded. "You know damn well she's going to
lie about what she was doing out there."
The policewoman hooked her
thumbs over her belt. "Why don't you sit down somewhere and wait until we
need you?" she instructed. Before the security guard could claim the desk
chair, the woman pulled it around and motioned for Rona to sit down. The
officer perched on the corner of the desk before pulling a notebook from her
coat pocket and flipping it open. "Okay, let's hear your story."
Rona had been on the streets
long enough to know that you didn't reach into your pockets or make any sudden
moves around police officers. She carefully related a somewhat altered version
of what had occurred, careful not to mention Tammy. When she had finished, both
officers were staring at her.
"So you're saying you
have the car keys and wallet that belong
to
this woman, and she's in the emergency room right now?" the woman asked.
Rona nodded. "The keys
and wallet are in my pocket. I can show them to you, if you'd like." She
waited until the woman nodded, before reaching two fingers into her pants
pocket and slowly pulling out the items.
"She probably stole them
too," the security guard complained.
The policewoman turned to her
partner. "David, would you go over to the ER and see if you can locate
this"—she checked her notes—"Anastasia Pagonis."
"You come with me,"
David said to the security guard.
As soon as both men were gone,
the policewoman began to flip through her notes. The minutes ticked by slowly
for Rona. The overheated room made her swelter under the double layer of
clothing and blanket she was wearing. She let the blanket fall off her
shoulder, but was too embarrassed to remove her top sweater because the one
beneath was full of holes. To make matters worse, her unwashed clothes were beginning
to give off a stale odor. She tried to bathe whenever she could sneak into the
office complex, but it was impossible for her to be able to wash her clothes
and get them dry before having to go back out into the cold come morning.
As the minutes ticked away,
Rona wondered if Tammy was still waiting for her in the car or if she had
gotten scared and run. If Roach and Harper had recognized them, they all might
have to leave San Antonio. She considered where she would go to next. Since she
no longer had the option of a nice set of wheels to take her somewhere, maybe
Corpus Christi would be a possibility. It was a long walk, but it would be
warmer. She might even be able to find a vacant spot to claim as her own
somewhere near the water. Of course, being near the water would be too cold
during the winter. She recalled a conversation she'd had with another homeless
woman who had moved from Corpus to San Antonio because of the mosquitoes.
During the summer, the pesky insects swarmed without mercy. The thought of
black clouds of buzzing mosquitoes made her shudder. Maybe she could hop a
freight train to Dallas. She had never hopped a train before, but she had
talked to several people who did so regularly. One woman traveled cross-country
that way twice a year. As soon as the temperatures started to rise, the woman
hopped a freight train headed north and eventually made it all the way to New
York. When the first cold snap came, she headed back toward California. Rona
had always wanted to see San Francisco. She wondered if she'd have the guts to
try to hop a freight train for a journey all the way to San Francisco. Tammy
probably wouldn't agree to go with her. If she did, they certainly couldn't be
hopping on and off of freight trains with the twins.
At some point in her travel
fantasies she dozed, but the door opening woke her. David and the security
guard had returned. David was pushing the woman in a wheelchair.
"Her story checks
out," David said as he parked the wheelchair to one side.
The policewoman slid off the
desk. "Okay, then our business here is done." She turned to Rona.
"I'm sorry this happened."
Rona could see the security
guard bristling. She shrugged and turned to the woman she now knew as Anastasia
Pagonis. She looked much more alert.
"Are you all through
here?" Rona wanted to get out of there before anyone started asking more
questions.
"No. I need my wallet and
insurance card and, by the way, my name is Anna Pagonis. Thank you for helping
me." She hesitated a moment. "Wasn't there a woman with kids—"
Rona glanced at the glowering
security guard and interrupted. "I'll walk back over there with you to get
that taken care of," Rona said as she handed the keys and wallet over to
their owner. She didn't want to hang around and give the security guard another
chance to use that nightstick.
The paperwork took much longer
than Rona would have ever anticipated. As they were getting ready to leave, the
nurse turned to Anna and asked, "How are you getting home? You can't
drive."
"She'll drive me home,"
Anastasia said, massaging her temple.
Rona and the nurse stared at
her in surprise. The nurse slid a sideways glance at Rona. "You were
attacked. Perhaps you should call someone you know and trust. Is there anyone,
a family member or a friend, you can spend the night with?" she asked.
"I'll be fine. The doctor
said it's nothing more than a nasty bump." She pointed to Rona and
continued, "She drove me here." She stopped. "I'm sorry. I
didn't mean to assume . . . would you mind driving me home? I'll pay you and of
course I'll pay for a cab to take you wherever you need to go."
Humiliated, Rona glared at the
nurse. "I'll drive you, and you don't have to pay me."
The nurse shrugged. "Suit
yourself, but the hospital is not responsible for your safety once you leave
here. Remember, Ms. Pagonis, no driving for at least twenty-four hours, and if
the headache persists you'll need to contact your family physician."
It took another twenty minutes
to finish the paperwork, but at last they were ready to leave. Rona parked
Anna's wheelchair out of the way of the emergency room doors. "I'll go get
the car."
"Thanks."
Rona shuffled from foot to
foot and played with the keys until Anna finally glanced up. "Is something
wrong?"
"I don't remember where I
parked it," Rona replied gruffly.
"Once you're out in the
parking lot, push that button," Anna said as she pointed to the keyless
entry gadget on the key ring. "The lights will start to flash."
Rona walked out into the
frigid night. The cold wind cut through the thin blanket and sleet stung her
face. She hunched her shoulders against it and headed back around to the
general location of where she thought she parked the car. As she walked, she
began to berate herself.
This is what you get for trying to be a goody two
shoes. From now on, I won't worry about anyone except myself. If I hadn't gone
all softheaded and tried to rescue Tammy and the kids, I'd be sleeping in a
nice warm chair right now.
She vaguely acknowledged that her assumption
didn't ring true because the cleaning people hadn't shown up for work, but it
didn't stop her from feeling sorry for herself. She pushed the locator button
and gained a small measure of satisfaction in knowing that if Tammy was still
in the car, the sudden flashing of the lights would scare the crap out of her.
For good measure, she pushed the button again.
Chapter Three
Rona's calculations on the
location of the car weren't off by much. When the lights began flashing, she
was only two rows away. A small sense of relief rushed through her when she saw
that Tammy was still in the car.
"What took you so
long?" Tammy asked as soon as Rona got in.
"Same old bull—"
Seeing the kids were awake, she cut the curse short. "They made her fill
out a dozen forms." She wasn't going to tell anyone about how the security
guard or the nurse had humiliated her.
"What are we going to do
now?" Tammy asked.
Rona could hear the fear in
her voice and experienced a small measure of regret for her earlier pettiness
with the lights. "She wants me to drive her home, but not to worry, she'll
call a cab to take me home."
Tammy gave a harsh laugh.
"That's decent of her."
Rona cranked the car. She knew
she didn't have to tell Tammy that they were in trouble. At this time of night,
all the best places would be occupied. Maybe just this once they should try to
find a shelter or a church that would have room for them, but that was probably
a pipe dream too. Those places would already be filled beyond capacity. The
best they could hope for now was finding an unlocked car somewhere in Anna's
neighborhood, and she wouldn't place money on those odds.
When Rona pulled the car up to
the entrance, Anna was standing inside the doorway waiting. She came out before
Rona could stop the car. As soon as she climbed inside, she turned to the
strangers in her backseat.
Rona watched as Anna slowly
assessed the kids. She could almost feel Tammy trying to blend into the car's
upholstery.
"I'm Anastasia Pagonis,
everyone calls me Anna. Thanks for helping me. I'm sorry you had to sit out in
the cold waiting," she said as she smiled at the kids.
"Pagonis? Is that
Greek?" Rona asked in an attempt to direct her attention away from Tammy.
It seemed to work as Anna
turned around and fastened her seat-belt. "My paternal grandparents came
from Lakonia. That's—"
"Part of the Peloponnesus
peninsula that forms the southern part of Greece," Rona finished for her.
Anna looked at her and nodded
carefully. "Yes. Have you been to Greece?"
"No, but you'd be
surprised by the amount of useless knowledge the human brain can store. I used
to spend a lot of time at the public library until having to see the
'increasing number of derelicts and misfortunate' began to make the
well-meaning citizens of San Antonio uncomfortable."