Gold Hill (38 page)

“
Tanni gave me one with
her name on it,” Yvonne said. “And cash.”

“
Good,” Dionne said. “I
got Bumpy to agree that I should have anything I want.”

The back door to her sedan
opened and Yvonne gave a startled yelp. Delphie slipped in the back
followed by Maresol.

“
Where are we going?”
Delphie asked.

“
We’re counting our
funds,” Dionne said. “Ladies?”

“
I have a card on Sam’s
account,” Delphie said. “And Jake left a thousand or so dollars out
for me. He said we might need it.”

“
Pfft,” Maresol said. “I
have my own card.”

Dionne and Yvonne turned to
look at her.

“
Which Seth pays,” Maresol
laughed. They all laughed.

“
What will we do with our
riches?” Yvonne asked.

“
We need dresses,” Delphie
said. “But I was thinking . . . ”

“
What?” Yvonne
asked.

“
I could use some yarn,”
Delphie said.

“
I was just thinking the
same thing,” Maresol said.

“
Yvonne can’t knit
anymore, Delphie,” Dionne said.

Delphie nodded to
Yvonne.

“
I learned to crochet with
my left hand,” Yvonne said. “But it’s been the longest time since
I’ve had some nice wool yarn and good friends to do knit
with.”

“
Maresol and I think we
should re-start our knitting group,” Delphie said.

“
Our children are grown,”
Maresol said.

“
And our men have money,”
Dionne laughed.

“
Would . . . I mean, can
I . . . ?” Yvonne’s eyes filled with tears at
the idea that her friends might not want her in their knitting
group. “I know you might be embarrassed to
be . . . ”

Delphie laughed.

“
You’re our inspiration,”
Dionne said. “We’re just waking up to the fact that we are free
women . . . ”

“
Women who want to knit!”
Delphie said.

“
Knit?” Maresol laughed.
“We’re gonna do whatever the hell we want.”

“
On their dime,” Dionne
laughed. “You know they wouldn’t have a red cent without
us.”

“
It’s true,” Maresol
said.

Yvonne clapped her
hands.

“
Did you have lunch with
Jeraine?” Maresol asked.

“
No,” Yvonne said. “Dionne
took me to get my hand looked at.”

“
And?” Maresol
asked.

“
They think they can fix
me. I mean, my hand,” Yvonne smiled. “But not right away, because
I’m getting married and settled and stuff. I haven’t seen Rodney’s
house yet or . . . I lost all my clothes
and . . . ”

Overwhelmed, Yvonne’s voice
trailed off. Dionne reached over to squeeze her hand.

“
Great,” Delphie said.
“Lunch, yarn and then . . . ”

“
Wedding,” Dionne
said.

“
Valerie said her designer
could make a dress for Yvonne,” Delphie said. “Plus, the designer
brings a bunch of clothes with her. Yvonne’s so tiny. She could fit
into almost anything. And Val needs a dress for the premiere of her
action movie. We could play today and stop off at the Castle
later . . . ”

“
And get custom fitted
with designer dresses?” Maresol asked. “I’m in.”

“
Me too,” Dionne said.
“It’s been forever since I’ve had something really
nice.”

“
Me too. I’m wearing
Tanni’s clothes,” Yvonne’s voice was soft and sad. She looked from
one friend’s face to the next. “But . . . I’m free
today and . . . ”

Yvonne beamed a
smile.

“
Let’s just have fun,”
Yvonne said.

“
I was thinking the Brown
Palace for lunch,” Dionne said. “How does that sound?”

“
I bet Sandy could fit us
in to get our hair done,” Delphie said.

“
That girl is always
booked,” Maresol said.

“
I have to schedule a
month out,” Dionne said.

“
I bet she’d have time if
Yvonne calls,” Delphie said.

“
I bet she will,” Dionne
dug in her bag for her phone.

“
Ok,” Yvonne took Dionne’s
phone from her. Dionne showed her how to scroll down the list and
call Sandy. She chatted with Sandy for a few minutes before Yvonne
looked up, “Three o’clock? Can we make three?”

The women
nodded.

“
We’ll be there,” Yvonne
said. “Thanks!”

Sandy must have said
something sweet because Yvonne sniffed and wiped her eyes before
she thanked Sandy again and hung up. She stared out the front
windshield for a moment before turning around.

“
Lunch, yarn, hair, then
dresses?” Yvonne beamed.

“
And whatever the hell
else we want to do!” Maresol laughed.

“
You should write that
down,” Delphie said to Yvonne.

Nodding, Yvonne took out
her book.

“
What should I put?”
Yvonne asked.

“
We can do whatever the
hell we want,” Maresol said.

Yvonne wrote that
down.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday morning — 11:45
a.m. MT

“
You’re going to give him
the deal?” the DPD Major Crimes Captain asked. He glanced at the
Deputy Chief of Operations and then back at the Federal
Prosecutor.

“
I don’t see how we
can’t,” the Federal Prosecutor said. “He knows we’ve been trying to
make a case against the Givolini family for years. And if he has
information that can make our case? He’s worth every
penny.”

“
What about the woman?”
the older detective asked.

“
What about her?” the
Federal Prosecutor shrugged. “From what he says, she’s one of his
prostitutes. I bet she’d be thrilled to move somewhere
new.”

“
But . . . ”

“
She’s a
prostitute
,” the Federal
Prosecutor said. “Getting the Givolini family will save
lives.”

“
And her life?” the
younger detective asked.

“
What’s one whore compared
to the larger objective of ridding the country of this pestilence?
She should be honored to help, gives her worthless life some
meaning.”

The Deputy Chief of
Operations gave the Federal Prosecutor a long hard
stare.

“
You’re talking about
forcing this woman, against her will, to live in secret with
Alvin,” the Deputy Chief of Operations said.

“
What’s wrong with you?”
the Federal Prosecutor sniffed. “No one gives a shit about some
prostitute. No one. It’s just another woman who made bad choices.
If she winds up dead in the process? Whoop de fucking
do.”

“
But . . . ”

“
Find the whore,” the
Federal Prosecutor said. “My guess is that she’ll make it worth
your time. She’ll probably be so grateful, she’ll make it worth all
of our time.”

The Federal Prosecutor
leered.

“
She’s quite attractive,”
the Federal Prosecutor said. “She can’t remember a
thing . . . uh, that’s what Alvin says.”

Disgusted, the older
detective scowled at the Federal Prosecutor and left the room. His
partner followed him.

“
Are they going to get
her?” the Federal Prosecutor asked.

“
Sure,” the Detective
Captain said.

“
I have a tee time at the
Country Club,” the Federal Prosecutor said. “You’ll let me know
when we can complete this deal.”

“
Sure.”

The Major Crimes Captain
watched the Federal Prosecutor leave his office.

“
Keep me in the loop,” the
Deputy Chief of Operations said. “Do not make a deal without
running it by me. There is too much . . . We get a
new Chief in less than a month . . .
and . . . ”

The Deputy Chief nodded to
the Major Crimes Captain and left his office. He waited for a
moment before his men came back in.

“
There is no way, no way,
I’m going to get that woman,” the older detective said.

“
You know who our witness
is? The child in those photos?” the younger detective asked.
“Tanesha Smith. You know, Rodney Smith’s daughter.”

“
The Rodney Smith? Rodney
‘I spent twenty-years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit’
Smith?”

“
Alvin prosecuted his
case,” the older detective said.

The Major Crimes Captain
looked from one man to the next.

“
We need a judge,” the
Major Crimes Captain said.

“
Judge Alberts,” the older
detective said. “Tanesha Smith’s best friend is his
niece.”

“
Go.”

The detectives scrambled
out of the room. Shaking his head, their Captain watched them go
before picking up his phone.

“
Seth?” he asked. “We’ve
got a problem.”

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon — 3:45
p.m. MT

“
Dad,” Tanesha whispered
into her phone.

“
Tanesha?” Rodney stood up
from where he’d been bent over a glass case filled with
rings.

“
Where are you?” Tanesha
whispered.

“’
Bout five minutes from
you,” Rodney said. “I wanted to get your Mom a nice engagement
ring. Some fool said this was the place to go. Bambi told me to go
to Cherry Creek but I wanted to pick you up so you could help. I
thought we could . . . wait, why are you
whispering?”

“
There’s a
guy . . . Dad, I think he wants to hurt
me.”

“
You think?” Rodney walked
out of the store.

“
He’s been following me
since this morning,” Tanesha whispered. “He tried to grab me before
my last class. I thought he just wanted to know what time it was
but he was . . . hyped up and
then . . . ”

Tanesha stopped talking. A
door squeaked and heavy footsteps clomped across the tile floor. He
kicked open the metal doors.

Wham! The automatic toilet
flushed.

Wham! The toilet
flushed.

Wham! The toilet flushed.
There was a faint smell of chlorine and water on the
air.

“
Hey, this is the woman’s
bathroom,” a woman said. “Get the hell out of here.”

“
Hey!” another woman
said.

“
Call campus police,” the
first woman said.

“
I’m leaving!” a man’s
voice said. “No need to be a bitch.”

The squeaking door slammed
closed.

“
Asshole,” one of the
women said.

“
I called all my girls but
no one answered. They’re working. Then Jill called,” Tanesha
whispered. “She said this guy is going to rape me as a warning so I
won’t testify against . . . Alvin guy. Jill can’t
come because she’s spotting again
and . . . ”

“
Where are you?” Rodney
started his truck.

“
Just off the breezeway in
Education 2 North, women’s bathroom, right outside the café,”
Tanesha whispered. “Jer’s in a cab on his way out here. He can’t
drive because he had treatment today. He’s going crazy.”

“
I’m on my way,” Rodney
said.

“
That’s the second time
the guy’s come in. I keep moving stalls. He’s not going to wait
much longer.”

“
And campus
police?”

“
Jill told me to call
you,” Tanesha said. “She said she’d call the police but she said
they would be too late. Dad, please come.”

“
I’m on my way.” Rodney
turned up Colfax toward the UC Anschutz campus.

Tanesha screamed and the
phone went dead.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Eleven
Critical

Thursday afternoon — 3:50
p.m. MT

Before Tanesha could react,
the metal door flew open. A slender, light skinned man grabbed her
hair and threw her out of the stall. Her phone flew out of her hand
and shattered against the tile wall. She stumbled and slammed
against the sink cabinet. He caught her foot and dragged her to
him. Holding her up by the shoulder, he gave her a hard back hand.
She spun in place. Dazed, she grabbed the edge of the counter to
steady herself. He yanked down her pants and slammed
forward.

Tanesha raised her foot. He
jammed into the hard heel of her calf-high black Frye boot. She
pressed back in a slow practiced back kick. When he shifted back,
she spun around.

Tanesha attacked. As Colin
Hargreaves had taught her, she folded her finger tips in and
slammed her right palm toward his throat. She caught his chest. He
fell back into the stall. She ran to the door. He tackled her
before she got there.

Facedown under him, she
shimmied her body, kicked her heavy boots, and struck him anywhere
she could reach. When she was able to turn over, she slammed her
knee up and hit him somewhere near his groin. She pushed him
away.