Nothing Is Negotiable (7 page)

But then he wondered if it might be more than a coincidence. Could it be related to Bonnie’s disappearance? Doubtful, but how did he know? He opened the glove compartment where Bonnie had put their passports and insurance papers. All still there.

But the more he thought about it, the more he felt like he needed to let the RCMP know about this.

Leaving the car behind earlier turned out to be a mistake, so this time he’d drive to their office. But, if Bonnie came back and found the car gone she’d panic. He looked in the backseat and saw a cardboard box with their picnic supplies. He unloaded all of the paper plates, napkins and other things onto the backseat, then with a black marker, he wrote on the side of the box:
Bonnie—I’m looking for you—I’ll be back about 7:00 PM—Stay Here!!! Luke.

When he got back to the police station, Ernest’s cruiser was about to pull out. Luke screeched to a stop in front of him and rushed over to his window. He thrust his arm back toward the broken window. “Now someone broke into my car.”

“What’d they take?” Ernest said.

“As far as I can tell, they only took a camera and my cell phone,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “Do you think it would have something to do with Bonnie?”

Without answering, Ernest got out of his vehicle and ambled over to check out the damage. Before looking inside he walked around the car, looking it over the way a prospective buyer might. When he got to the broken window, he leaned close and looked inside. The brick sat on the console and broken glass was scattered everywhere.

“Where was the camera and the phone?”

“Right there on that seat,” he said.

“Hell, you were just inviting trouble leaving a camera out in plain view like that.”

“I know, I wasn’t thinking.” Luke bent over and looked closer at the door handle. “Would it do any good to get the fingerprints?”

“No. I doubt they even touched the door handle. I’ll make a note in your file, and if the rental company needs a police report, let me know and I’ll get you one.”

It was what he expected but he felt better at least reporting it. When he got back to the clinic, the box with his note was still there. No sign of Bonnie.

Luke quickly downed one of the now-cold burgers and when he was finished he was in no mood to sit and wait. He changed the note on the box to say he’d be back at nine, and started driving.

First he went down all of the streets north and south, then he did the same thing on the streets east and west. The town was small and in less than an hour he’d seen the entire town. He went back to his parking space across from the clinic. The street was deserted and after a few minutes he got out and paced up and down the street until finally stopping to peer across the roof of the car back toward Main Street.

He saw two, maybe three cars a minute drive past on Main, and none on the side streets. Just like any other small town, even back home in Lampasas, after the workday was over you might as well roll up the streets. Everyone’s gone home for the night.

But, he wasn’t home. And neither was Bonnie. Something was wrong. And for the first time in his life, Luke didn’t know what to do.

As the starlit sky gave way to dawn, Luke leaned across the roof of the car, his thoughtless stare transfixed on the glowing horizon to the east.

He rubbed his eyes and stretched. His night had been restless. It took a while to fall asleep and he dozed for only a few hours before a barking dog woke him. That was about two in the morning. After that, he never was able to get back to sleep. His mind constantly worked through all the different things that could have happened to Bonnie. None made sense, and he came to the same conclusion each time; something was horribly wrong. He wouldn’t allow himself to consider anything beyond that.

After a long drink from a bottle of water he realized that he really needed to take a leak. Though the streets were still deserted, he wouldn’t piss right there; it would be best to find an alley. He locked the car and crossed the street to the sidewalk in front of the clinic where he walked toward the end of the block. Next to the clinic he came to an empty storefront with a
For Lease
sign that hung on the dirty plate glass doors. Inside the store, brown paper covered all of the windows from the ground to about six feet high, hiding whatever was inside.

He slowed when he came to an area where the tape had lost its hold and one corner of the paper had partially fallen. When he peeked inside he could barely make anything out since the windows were dirty and a large cabinet blocked most of his view. So, with pressing business at hand, he walked on. At the end of the building, he turned and went down half a block to the alley. The cool morning breeze hit him in the face and old yellowed newspapers cart wheeled toward him like tumbleweeds. Half a dozen brown dumpsters dotted the alley intermittently and weeds grew in the cracks of the pavement against the building.

While he looked for an appropriate corner, he noticed graffiti on the back door of the vacant building. It wasn’t the common gang script as he’d seen in big cities, like Austin, but written more in the style of a sixth-grader with a can of spray paint.
LNR loves CB
was legible across the top and below it was a pretty good drawing of two dogs having sex, missionary style. If Luke weren’t so tired, he would have laughed.

Then something weird caught his eye. The back door of the vacant store appeared to have been opened recently because some weeds growing next to the building were closed inside the door. This was interesting since the front door looked like it had not been opened for a year or more. For the hell of it, he tried the handle. And as expected, it was locked.

He walked a little further and ducked behind a dumpster and unzipped his pants. While he peed, he heard a faint, muffled cry. He twisted his head around and stood motionless, and focused on the noise. After he finished he stayed still and listened. Ten silent seconds later, he heard it again. It was coming from the dumpster.

He stepped on the side and lifted the lid. A small orange cat lay curled up on a pile of bulging black garbage bags about three feet below the lid. The cat meowed at Luke, stood up and meowed again.

“Come on Kitty,” Luke said as he opened the lid fully.

The cat wasted no time. He sprang and landed on the edge of the dumpster about three feet away, then jumped to the ground. It casually trotted down the alley a dozen steps then stopped and looked back, as if to thank him, and then slowly sauntered away.

Luke started to close the lid when he noticed one of the plastic bags had a tear in it, and a patch of burnt orange caught his eye. He grabbed the bag and tore at the plastic. The single item in the bag spilled out onto the dumpster lid sending a shiver down his spine.

It was an all-too-familiar windbreaker with The University of Texas Longhorns embroidered across the back. Bonnie’s windbreaker. The one she never left home without.

His heart began to pound as he held it up and examined it. Near the collar, a dark red stain about four inches long stained the fabric.

Luke dropped it onto the pavement, frantically pulled out another bag, and tore it open. Junk mail, copy paper, large brown envelopes torn in half and magazines slid out. He grabbed the next one. Soda cans, an empty box that earlier had been filled with donuts, chicken bones, and a box that said Lean Cuisine Glazed Chicken across the front. He ripped into the next one; damp paper towels and tissues spilled out and then his fingers felt something slimy. He almost gagged as he jerked his hands back. He was about to reach back for another bag when he felt something hard poked him in the leg.

Startled, he jerked his leg away and looked down to see a man looking up at him. He was a bum with a scraggly gray beard, wearing a dirty blue trench coat and black fedora. In one hand he held a crutch, the end of it pointed up at Luke.

“What ’cha doing up there?” the bum said, not smiling.

“Just looking,” Luke said as he cautiously watched the bum. Then, looking back in the dumpster, he thought quickly, and added, “Just looking for something I lost.”

The bum looked away from Luke, down the alley. Luke followed his gaze and saw two more people halfway down the block looking in other dumpsters. He shifted his focus back to Luke and stepped closer, “Come on, man. What ya looking for?”

Luke jumped down, away from the bum, and stumbled backwards a few steps. When he gained his balance he looked toward the other bums and noticed they were running in his direction. One was a stout guy with a beard that covered most his face and could have easily hidden a bird’s nest. He was about thirty yards away, and closing fast. Under one arm he carried a bedroll. The other was a squatty little woman so more than four feet tall, running as fast as her short legs would carry her.

Luke stepped over and looked to where he had dropped the windbreaker and noticed it was gone. He saw it in the bum’s other hand.

“Give me that,” he said, jerking it out of the grasp of the bum, who cowered as if Luke was going to hit him.

Luke saw the others closing in.

“You don’t look like the type to be hanging around in alleys,” the bum with the crutch said. He apprised Luke’s silver watch, clean shorts and Columbia shirt. “Especially before six in the morning.”

As the bearded one approached he slowed to a trot then walked around behind Luke, as if to surround him.

Slowly Luke took a few steps backwards, trying to position himself where he could see them both. They watched him the same way a dog watches someone eat a barbecued rib.

The little woman finally got there, huffing and out of breath. She made her way between her partners and stopped directly in front of Luke.

The bearded one glanced at her, and then to Luke. “Come on, Bud. What were you looking for? People like you don’t just look in dumpsters unless you’re looking for something really good.”

Luke didn’t answer because the woman stepped closer. He could tell she had an attitude. In a nasally voice, she turned to her bearded friend and said, “Shut up, Griz, I’ll handle this.” Her head spun around toward Luke and she pointed a finger at him. “Listen, cocksucker, this is my fucking alley and I don’t remember you asking me if you can come looking in these here dumpsters.”

“Wait a second, Queenie,” the bearded one interrupted. “I bet he’ll cut us in on it. Won’t you, Bud?”

Shooting an annoyed look at her bearded friend, Queenie scolded him. “Griz, when I want your opinion, I’ll tell ya. Now shut the fuck up.” She looked back at Luke and stepped a little closer. “So what’s the deal, prettyboy? Why are you in my alley at six in the morning?”

This unlikely trio didn’t appear to be dangerous, but Luke had never been confronted by homeless people, and he was obviously on their turf.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was supposed to ask anyone. I was looking for this,” he said, hold out the windbreaker for Queenie to see. “It belongs to my wife.”

He started walking briskly for the street and they followed. The faster he walked, the faster they walked. When he was directly behind the vacant building, Luke spotted a piece of bright green paper on the ground. He stopped and reached down to pick it up.

The bums stopped too.

The paper was folded in half and Luke unfolded it and read: lettuce, tomatoes, bread, mayo. It was Bonnie’s half of the grocery list that he had put in the outside pocket of her purse.

The threat of the bums instantly evaporated as he tried to make sense of this.
Why would this note from Bonnie’s purse be in this alley?

His eyes scanned the ground. A few feet away he saw a pair of smashed sunglasses. He picked them up. Little silver hearts adorned each arm and were still intact and shiny. The lenses were shattered and the arms were splintered. He turned them over and saw the name Brighton inscribed on the inside of one arm. Lots of Bonnie’s jewelry was made by Brighton. She loved everything they made.

Suddenly he felt the presence of the bums. They gathered around him, trying to see what he had in his hand. When he looked at them, they stared back, a curious look on their faces.

Finally, the bearded one smiled and said, “So... what’s up, bud? Did you find what you were looking for?”

Luke hesitated and then said, “I don’t know. Maybe.”

Queenie said, “What do you fucking mean, ‘you don’t know’? Either you fucking did or you didn’t. Which is it, prettyboy?”

“I’m looking for my wife. She disappeared yesterday.” Luke held out the glasses. “These were hers.”

“What do you mean, she disappeared?” asked Queenie. “This ain’t New York City. People don’t just fucking disappear in Cardston.”

“While she was waiting to see the doctor in the clinic, I left for an hour and when I came back, she was gone.”

They watched him as he studied the green piece of paper and the mangled sunglasses.

“The last time I saw her, she had this piece of paper with her. And this is her windbreaker and these are her sunglasses.”

This puzzled Queenie. “People don’t just fucking disappear from the doctor’s office.”

“I know. But she did. The police are looking, but they haven’t found anything. These are the first clues we’ve found.”

“Do you think she’s in that dumpster? Is that why you were up there?” asked the guy with the crutch.

“Shut up, Doc, you fucking dumbass,” Queenie snapped at her friend. Then she looked back at Luke and said, “So, what ’cha gonna do now?”

“I guess I’m going to go to the police and show them what I found,” he said as he started walking toward the street.

The trio hurried along with him as they exited the alley and made their way back to Second Street. Doc walked along side Luke and he couldn’t help but notice that he wasn’t using his crutch.

Doc noticed his attention and said, “My neurotetronitus isn’t bothering me much today. That’s why I’m not using my crutch.”

Luke glanced toward Queenie with a confused look. She shook her head in disgust. “He’s a fucking idiot.”

“It is, Queenie,” the man said pleadingly.

“Whenever someone asks him what’s wrong he always makes up some fucking disease. He thinks he’s a fucking doctor. There ain’t nothing wrong with him. He just uses that fucking crutch so people will feel sorry for him and give him some money.”

Luke gave her a knowing nod and kept walking.

Her short legs made it hard to keep up with Luke’s pace. She broke into a trot and said, “We can help you look for her if you want us to,” The other two nodded in agreement as they crossed the street. “You know, we don’t got nothing else to do.”

“Thanks, I can use all the help I can get.” Luke approached the car and punched the button of his keychain and the door locks popped up. Luke noticed the stack of pictures lying on the backseat and considered it.
It couldn’t hurt,
he thought. He opened the back door and grabbed one of the pictures of Bonnie and handed it to the little woman.

“Her name’s Bonnie... and my name’s Luke. If you see or hear anything, could you let the police know about it?”

As she started to look at it, the other two looked over her shoulder at the photo. “She pretty,” Queenie said softly, the other two nodding in agreement.

Luke watched them as they studied the picture and couldn’t help but notice their meager possessions. Ragged clothes and bedrolls appeared to be all they owned in life.

As he turned to close the back door of the car he saw a paper sack full of groceries. Bonnie had packed it for their lunch the day before. There wasn’t much, just peanut butter, jelly, and crackers, which is why Bonnie had wanted him to go to the grocery store. He pulled it out and handed it to Griz.

“Take this food? I’m not going to eat it.”

They glanced at each other, and Griz said, “Sure, bud.”

On the floor in the backseat, he saw the small Styrofoam ice chest. He pulled it out and set it on the curb in front of Doc. He opened the lid and said, “There’s some orange juice, fruit and other stuff in there, too.”

Luke got in his car and pulled out onto the street. Griz held up two fingers in a piece sign and said, “Right on, brother.”

Luke tried to smile, but his heart wouldn’t let him. As he drove away, he glanced at the broken sunglasses and blood on the windbreaker. He knew he had to find Bonnie before it was too late.