Wild Horses (36 page)

“I know what you mean. The feelings are mutual.”

A
TTILA
paid five dollars to park the car in a large lot by the Allegheny River. The Strip District sprawled upstream of the parking lot. Visitors often assumed it was the red-light district, named after strip clubs, and often avoided it. Skin clubs were few and far between, and the locals knew the area’s true worth. The flat piece of land by the river used to be where merchandise from river barges was loaded onto trains and trucks. Warehouses used to hold all manner of goods, but as river traffic lost its commercial importance, the area evolved into a tangle of streets full of old warehouses, ethnic stores, new restaurants and clubs, and was thick with street vendors every weekend. The Strip teemed with entrepreneurial activity, enlivened by new immigrants and anchored by a number of specialty food businesses that had been in the same families for generations. Old factories were being redeveloped into snazzy condos. The area’s future was torn between the developers, eager to capitalize on both the location and flavor of the place, and old-timers, who fought to preserve the organized chaos that made the place so special.

“Where would you look first?” Attila asked.

Kai shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “She would be looking for a job, and she’ll want to be within walking distance of downtown so that she can meet up with her dad. I’ve told her what kinds of jobs I used to be looking for, but I’d peg her for something other than dishwashing or unloading trucks.”

“Lindsey is young and pretty. If she is even looking for a job, she would probably try to waitress.”

Kai nodded. “Yeah. Only the breakfast places are open now, and we can hit the restaurants and bars later.” They sauntered down Twenty-First Street to the top of Smallman, where St. Stanislaus Church anchored the top of the wide street with its gilded spires and amazing stained-glass windows. As they passed the back loading dock of the old Produce Terminal, Kai noted the big trucks were done with their deliveries and the smaller vans parked there probably belonged to a local restaurant. He caught the familiar whiff of the Dumpster, redolent with decaying produce.

“That used to be my home.” He nodded toward the stained concrete pad.

Attila stopped and stared. “For how long?” he asked when the faculty of speech returned to him again.

“Six weeks or so.” Kai shrugged. “I was sitting right by that door, the one that’s open right now, when I got your first text.”

“But, why here? Were there no better places?”

Kai shrugged again. “The better places were already taken, and see the roof overhang? It kept you dry if you slept right by the door. Unless there was wind off the river, in which case I moved to the loading dock on Smallman Street.”

“Why didn’t you just sell my phone?” Attila asked.

Kai stopped, forcing Attila to do the same. He looked at Attila with just a hint of a smile playing around the corner of his mouth. “You texted me.”

“I did.”

“Don’t you see? That changed everything.”

The weight of Attila’s arm settled on his shoulders as they stood still for a long time. Then he pulled Kai in for a brief, protective hug and broke their silence. “If I run into Nelby, I shall not hold myself responsible for my actions.”

L
INDSEY
’
S
picture was recognized at two diners. She did apply for a job with both of them. The mustachioed man at the first one refused to divulge any information, but Attila and Kai had a bit more luck at the place next to the kitchen supply store. The owner was a short, older woman with a doughy face and hair dyed black; her tired eyes were made up with layers upon layers of mascara and accented with pale-green eye shadow.

She looked at Lindsey’s picture and shrugged. “Yeah, she was here. I don’t think she given me a real address, nohow,” she said. “‘Blue Heron Acres’, she said. What kinda a place is that? If I don’ know it, it’s too far to drive in every day, anyhow.”

“When will she be coming by to find out if she got the job?” Kai asked.

The woman narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “And why do yinz wanna know? You two don’t got nothin’ on me, an’ it seems like you’re askin’ questions that are none of yer business. How do I know you ain’t some psycho creepers or somethin’?”

Attila cleared his throat. “Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Attila Keleman, and I own Blue Heron Acres. It’s a riding stable, and Lindsey is one of my students.” He reached into the breast pocket of his pressed linen shirt and produced a business card. “I can be reached at this telephone number at any time. Also… here is my ID.” He pulled out his wallet and showed the woman his driver’s license.

She fixed her beady eyes at his picture and his name. “You look familiar,” she said. “Like I’d seen you before, but I can’t remember where.”

“It is possible,” he allowed. “Although I do not come here often anymore.”

Then she looked at Kai. “You look familiar, too.”

“Yeah, I know. I applied for a job here—in the late spring, I guess. You didn’t need any help at the time.”

She peered at Kai again, taking in his long, red hair and his cheekbones. “You’re the guy who lived on the loading dock, right? Darlene was talkin’ ’bout ya an’ how she’d have given you a job, ’cept you were homeless and had no ID. Can’t give a job to a man with no ID anymore these days.” There was a hint of hard-edged pity in her voice.

“Nah, don’t worry ’bout me. I’m with Blue Heron Acres now.” Kai pointed to the white logo embroidered on his navy blue shirt. “He gave me a job and helped me get my papers straightened out.” Kai gestured at Attila, who stood by his side like a pillar of salt, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

The proprietor of the diner thought a bit. “Here. I’ll hold on to your business card and let that girl know that yinz stopped by. I ain’t givin’ out none of her information, no way—a nice girl like that, bein’ looked for by two guys! If she’s gone, I’m sure she’s got her reasons.”

A
TTILA
and Kai pounded the pavement of Penn Avenue, going from store to store. People recognized Kai, mostly—especially at the cheese shop, where the big-screen above the deli counter ran a soccer match with the sound turned off and subtitles in Italian.

“Kai, dearheart! Where have you been for so long?” The question was a common one, and Kai found his answer was getting shorter and shorter at every stop.

“People know you around here,” Attila murmured. “You seem to be as good with people as you are with horses.”

I’m a regular people-slut.
Kai paled at the intruding thought. He had never thought of himself as particularly good at anything, so he just cleared his throat and checked the time. “I’m getting hungry.”

“Hal will be here soon,” Attila said. “He texted when you were talking to the girl at the Fudge Factory. Where would you like to eat?”

A greedy gleam possessed Kai’s eyes as he pointed at the large fish store down the street. “Andy’s sushi!” Kai saw Attila’s look of incomprehension, and elaborated. “There is a sushi stand in there, and the guy Andy makes the best sushi in town. I told Lindsey about it. Watch out, though. Andy’s a bit of a wiseass.”

A
TTILA
found himself enduring the crowded queue around the sushi stand. He lifted his eyes toward the ceiling in an effort to tune out the press of people around him. Not even the ceiling provided a calm respite for his eyes, though, because a toy train passed overhead at regular intervals. Then Hal arrived, and Attila focused on his nephew in an effort to tune out the rattling of miniature tracks and the hurried conversations around him. Just as he thought he would need to excuse himself and leave, their turn came up.

The short, Asian proprietor fixed him with a curious look. “You new here. I know your friend, though. Kai, right? He’s too picky.”

“I just don’t want any spicy sauce,” Kai said.

“No sauce? Ha, no speak English!” Andy joked, cackling while his hands moved as though of their own accord, assembling several orders at once with amazing speed. He ran his eyes up and down Attila, and winked at Kai, adding few slices of white tuna sashimi.

“Say, Andy, have you seen this girl here? She’s a friend of ours.” Kai held his phone with Lindsey’s picture in front of Andy’s face.

The man stilled his hands, freezing in mid-motion, then he nodded. “She was here,” he said. “She had some sushi. Then she asked where to fill out a job application.” He shrugged as he finished the roll and sliced it up into eight even pieces. “Ask in the office.” Then he nestled the food in the tray together with wasabi, ginger, and a container of soy sauce, and smiled at Attila. “Here you go, beautiful,” he said as he handed the Styrofoam trays across the counter with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

A few minutes later, they sat in the upstairs dining room of the Fish Warehouse, sharing three trays of colorful raw fish and rice with Hal.

“The office won’t divulge any information, just like most places. What bothers me most is that she hasn’t texted me back,” Hal said, poking at his food. “We’d text several times a day, and now nothing at all. So I figured maybe her phone died. But there are places to have your phone fixed. She could have even gone to a café and Facebooked me, but she didn’t.”

“What did she have with her?” Attila asked.

“Two or three changes of clothes, all of her money, her phone, and some toiletries. Her backpack was stuffed, but it was just an oversize school bag.”

“How much did she have on her?” Kai asked.

“Mmm… close to seven hundred, I think? This was accumulated birthday and Christmas money, and some cash she earned baby-sitting.”

“You could go far on seven hundred,” Kai said.

“I didn’t think she would bolt like that. Her dad’s office is downtown somewhere…. I think she might have decided to wait it out until he gets back from China, except he lives south of Pittsburgh and we live north. I guess she wanted to intercept him during working hours.”

“What about family or friends?” Kai asked.

Hal shook his head. “They all moved here from Boston before the divorce. The family is all over the country. If she decided to hop on the bus and visit one of them, she would have told me. Or, I hope she would have, anyway.”

Kai popped a slice of a salmon mango roll in his mouth and thought while chewing. Pale-faced, Kai excused himself to use the men’s room in the basement.

As soon as Kai’s back disappeared down the metal staircase, Attila pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it to Hal. “Let me know if there are any places you recognize on here,” he said.

Hal scanned the list of names and places. “Sure. Most of these are local stores and businesses. I see some bars and—what is this, a club? The Valhalla, I’ve heard about. Didn’t it close a few years back? I don’t know Frankie’s, though. What is it, some neighborhood pub?”

“It’s a gay bar.” A shadow passed over Attila’s brow. Frankie’s played fast and loose with letting underage people inside, but he was quite certain Lindsey’s access would be restricted to the public areas. This was Pittsburgh, after all. The city was small and relatively safe, yet he worked hard to swallow the discomfort that twisted his gut. “We should check it out to make sure she did not go there,” he said finally, overcoming his hesitation.

“We? Isn’t that something you should do with Kai?” Hal looked at his uncle with considerable surprise.

“I was hoping to send Kai to Lawrenceville.” At Hal’s blank stare, he elaborated, “It’s an up-and-coming neighborhood a few blocks over, and she could be there. It’s still cheaper than downtown and with decent job opportunities, and Kai has talked to her about it.” Attila failed to mention that his former lover, Theodore Lewis, now had a flower shop in Lawrenceville. Attila would like to avoid Theodore if at all possible.

Soon Kai ran up the stairs to rejoin Attila and Hal. Attila saw him freeze, but then he walked over to their table and sat down, as casual as could be. “Let’s see,” he said, looking at his own scrawled handwriting. “Tell you what, Attila, how about you and Hal go scout out Lawrenceville? While you do that, I’ll hit a few of the remaining places here in the Strip District.”

Attila frowned, then nodded. “Alright. Just text me when you’re done, and one of us will pick you up.”

“Wait… you know where to pick me up?” Kai asked.

Attila shrugged, his eyes downcast. “I am familiar with the area. I figured you would text me with your directions.”

“Sure. How about we do that. I’ll text you for pickup when I’m ready.”

T
WO
hours later, Kai had spoken to everyone that mattered and was finally ready to face the unassuming glass door of Frankie’s Bar and Lounge. The window was obscured from within and only the neon sign proclaimed the identity of the establishment. As much as he disliked having to reenter the premises after two months of living like he figured respectable people did, he knew there was only one thing to do: get in, find out whether Lindsey had been there, and report back to Attila.

Buoyed by new energy and determination, Kai pushed the door open. The familiar chime of a bell triggered a flood of memories. He noticed there was no smoke in the air—a new city ordinance had declared bars smoke free not long ago—but Frankie’s still had that dingy atmosphere to it. A few regulars were hanging out at the low tables, working on their laptops or talking in hushed voices.

Larry was behind the bar, as always. “Look what the cat dragged in,” he drawled as soon as he saw Kai. “Man, but it’s good to see you again. Where the hell have you been?”

“I moved,” Kai said, hoping his easy smile would disguise a distinct sense of unease. He could not miss Larry’s assessing gaze, looking him up and down in his new pair of jeans, new pair of work boots, and a well-fitted polo shirt with the Blue Heron Acres logo embroidered on the right side of his chest. “I’m back just visiting… say, have you seen this kid around?” He produced his cell phone and opened a picture of Lindsey. Her blonde hair spilled from underneath a black riding helmet, and the horse she led was blurred around the edges. She was smiling in the picture like she didn’t have a care in the world.