2 Sisters Detective Agency(39)

“Back off, Ash,” Sean said. “We’re just having fun.”

“How much for you to go back and punch that kid in the face?” Penny asked the boys.

“What?” One boy laughed. “You serious? We can’t do that.”

“They can’t do that,” Ashton agreed. “Penny, leave them alone.”

“I’ve got…ten grand here.” Penny fingered the roll of cash. “I’ll give you five hundred dollars for every time you hit him.”

The boys glanced sideways at each other. Ashton could see scars on the knuckles of the one nearest to him, perhaps from neighborhood fights, working after-school jobs, or playing sports. He’d seen movies about kids from bad neighborhoods who skated or surfed or rode bikes to blow off steam, aggression from a bad home life, from parents who worked three jobs and still couldn’t afford to put food in the fridge. His own hands were perfect, soft. Truth was, Ashton couldn’t guess how another teenager got scars on his knuckles. He didn’t know how they lived. He cracked his window to listen as the boys backed off and murmured to each other.

“Dude, we could just hit him once.”

“Or twice, even.”

“If we’re gonna hit him twice we might as well hit him a bunch, yo.”

“He’s pretty small.”

The boys looked back at the group of little kids at the top of the run who were now consoling their friend over his stolen hat.

“Are we really gonna do this, man?” the curly-haired kid asked.

“Don’t be pussies,” Penny said.

The boys conferred again. Ashton saw hopelessness in their eyes. Already feeling remorse for what they were about to do. What they couldn’t help but do.

“Five hundred per hit?”

Penny smiled and nodded. The boys ran off across the park. Ashton sat back in his seat and watched the beating unfold, the fists raining down.

“You guys are fucking sick,” he told the twins. Sean and Penny ignored him. In the front seat of the car, Tom was staring straight ahead as he always did, watching the sun set behind the smog. Ashton wanted to speak up, to ask Sean and Penny what they enjoyed so much about the violent spectacle they had created across the park. But the truth was, he knew. It was the same thing he enjoyed about the Midnight Crew games: the power, the danger, the vengeance. Ashton didn’t know where the anger came from, but he felt the white-hot pleasure of release when he smashed the possessions of their victims, when he knocked over bookshelves and tore down pictures and lit things on fire. Ashton’s life was full of pretty things. Expensive things. Cars and bikes and toys and gadgets, designer clothes, watches. It was as thrilling to accumulate the stuff as it was to break it. To Sean and Penny, it seemed, people were stuff too. That was the only difference.

Penny waited until the boys had finished beating the little kid and turned back toward the car, their faces hungry and fists smeared with blood. The other smaller kids had bolted from the park. The talented skater was on the ground, unmoving. The teens started jogging back toward the vehicle like happy dogs ready to receive their treat.

“Now drive,” Sean said. “Quick, before they get back. “Go, Driver. Go!”

Tom started the engine. Penny and Sean erupted in laughter. Ashton saw the teenagers’ mouths fall open as the car rolled away into the growing night.





Chapter 48



Vera slipped into the car and dropped her handbag onto the console beside her, tossing her shopping bags from boutique jewelry stores onto the floor. She threw a look around the limo’s cabin that made the teens writhe in their seats at their lateness.

Sean lifted his pointy nose in the air, wouldn’t meet her eyes. “We just had a little game on the way here,” he said.

“A little game?” Ashton scoffed. “Benzo is dead, there’s some kind of sicko after us, and these two wanted to play blood sports with grade-schoolers. We need to be really careful right now.”

“Don’t talk like you’re in charge here, Ashton.” Vera gave a thin smile. “You sound like an idiot.”

Ashton worked his jaw, letting seconds pass as he recovered his dignity. “So what do we do?”

“We hit another house,” Vera said.

“What?” Ashton cried.

“Yes.” Penny was nodding eagerly. “I’m with you. I was thinking the exact same thing, Vera. We go hard this time. Break some bones. Show this dumb fuck that he shouldn’t mess with us.”

“Shut up, Penny,” Vera said. “This competition you guys seem to be having to sound like the biggest simpleton in the car is really getting on my nerves. The plan is we hit another house. We set a trap, lure this guy out.”

“This is insane.” Ashton shook his head.

“He must be following us,” Vera said. “He’s probably been following us from the moment he took Ashton’s phone. He most likely emptied the phone of everything he needed before you could shut it down. He’ll know who we are, where we live. He’ll have all our videos. That’s why we can’t go to the police or to any lame-ass private investigators.” She gave Ashton a withering look. “Tomorrow morning, we split up and try to shake him off. Then we come together again and make sure he’s following us to the next raid. While he thinks he’s watching us, we can get a good look at him.”