Andrew Vachss - Strega

I cracked my window and lit a cigarette. By the time I turned to the redhead, she was already unbuttoning her blouse.

WHAT THE HELL are you doing?" I snapped at her, my voice louder than it should have been.

"What does it look like?" she asked. "I'm showing you I'm not wearing a wire." She smiled in the darkness, her teeth so white they looked false. "Unless you have your little whore-friend with you in the back seat…" she said, looking over her shoulder.

"There's nobody here," I told her.

She kept unbuttoning the blouse like she hadn't heard me. She wore a black half-bra underneath, the lace barely covering her nipples. The clasp was in front. She snapped it open and her breasts came free, small and hard like a young girl's, the dark nipples pointed at me in the cool air. I didn't say anything, watching her. When I felt the cigarette burn my fingers I pushed it out my window without looking back.

The redhead reached behind her and pulled the wide belt loose. "I have to unzip this. I've got a big ass for such a small girl and the skirt won't go up. I'm sure you noticed."

I wanted to tell her to stop butmaybe it was a bluff…maybe she was wired and this was a game. I kept quiet.

The zipper made a ripping sound. She wiggled in her seat until the skirt was down past her knees. Her panties were a tiny black wisp, the dark stockings held up by wide black hands across her thighs. If she was wired it had to be inside her body.

"Yes?" she asked.

I just nodded-I'd seen enough. But she took it the other way. She hooked her thumbs inside the waistband of her underpants and pulled them down too. There wasn't enough light to see if her flaming hair was natural.

"Look out the window-smoke another cigarette," she hissed at me. I heard her struggling with her clothes, muttering something to herself. A tap on my shoulder. "Okay, now," she whispered, and I turned around.

"You have another cigarette for me?"

I gave her one and struck a wooden match. She came close to catch the fire. She didn't move her face, but her eyes rolled up to look at me.

I reached over and took her purse from her. She didn't protest while I went through it. She had her own cigarettes, a matchbook from a midtown restaurant, a few hundred in cash, and some credit cards. And a metal tube that looked like lipstick. I pulled off the top. Inside was a nozzle of some kind and a button on the base. I looked a question at her.

"Perfume," she said.

I pointed it outside the window and pressed the button. I heard the thin hiss of spray and smelled lilacs. Okay.

"I'm listening," I told her.

The redhead shifted in her seat so her hips were wedged into a corner, her back against her door, legs crossed, facing me.

"I already told you what this was about. I want you to do something for me-what else do you need to know?"

"Is this a joke? You're nothing to me-I don't owe you anything."

"It's not a joke. I'm not a joker." She drew in hard on her cigarette, lighting her face for a second.

"You don't owe me but you owe Julio, right?"

"Wrong."

"Then why did you do that other thing?"

"What other thing?" I asked her.

"In the park…"

"You're riding a dead horse, lady. I don't know anything about a park. You got me confused with someone else."

"Then why did you come out here at all?"

"Because you're pushing me. You're playing some silly rich-girl's game. I want you to get off my case, and I wanted to tell you to your face so you'd get it."

"I don't get it," she snarled at me. "And I won't get it. You work for money-like everyone else-I've got money. And I need you to do this."

"Get someone else," I told her.

"No!" she snapped. "You don't tell me what to do. Nobody tells me what to do. You think I want to use you for this? I told you, Julio said you know the Nazis."

"What's this about Nazis? It sounds like Julio lost it during his last stretch."

"Julio never loses anything," said the redhead, "and you know it. It's got to be you, and that's it."

"Because of these 'Nazis'?"

"Yes. And because they're the only lead I have."

I lit another cigarette. The air in the car felt charged, like just after a hard rain. The redhead sounded like she wasn't playing with a full deck, but what she had left were all wild cards.

I got out of the Plymouth and walked down toward the water's edge, not looking back. Before I got more than a few feet I heard the car door slam angrily behind me. I heard the tap of her high heels on the pavement and then felt her hand on my arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" she said, trying to pull me around to look at her.

"To the water," I told her, as if that explained everything.

She kept pace with me, tottering on the heels when we hit the grassy area, but hanging on.

"I want to talk to you!" she snarled.

The moon was out-almost full. Maybe it was making her crazy, but I didn't think so. Maybe she just didn't know how to act. I stopped at the water and grabbed her tiny chin in my right hand, holding her face so she couldn't move. I put my face close to her. "I don't give a flying fuck what you want, understand? You're not my boss. Julio's not my boss. You and me are square, okay? You think I'm some senile old uncle like Julio, you make a big mistake."

She squirmed in my hand, twisting her face but keeping her hands down. Her eyes slashed at me, but she didn't open her mouth.

"And if you think I'm some halfwit cock-hound like Vinnie, you're even stupider than you've been acting, understand?" I said, giving her face a quick shake. Her eyes flashed-I knew it hadn't been Julio's idea to send the Cheech with my money.

"Let. Go. Of. Me," she whispered, every word a separate sentence.

I pushed her face away from me, hard. She went sprawling away from me, lost her balance, and hit the ground. I walked away from her until I found one of the vandalized benches and sat down. Looked at the water. Tried to think my way out of the box I was in.

It was another couple of minutes before she sat down next to me, fumbling in her bag for a cigarette. I didn't light this one for her.

"You get your kicks shoving women around?"

"I wasn't shoving you around, princess-I was shoving you away .

"Don't do that," she whispered, her face close to mine again. "Don't do that-I can make it all right, just give me a chance, okay?"

I didn't say anything, waiting.

"I want this so bad," said the redhead. "I don't have much to go on. If I go to some private detective agency they'll just rip me off. I know that. I know the whole thing's a long shot."

I kept staring at the water, waiting.

"Let me just sit here with you. Like I'm your girlfriend or something-let me tell you the whole story. If you don't agree to help me when I'm done, we're quits. You take me back to my car and that's the end."

I lit another cigarette, still quiet. She put her hand on my arm-a fat diamond sparkled in the moonlight-cold fire.

"You swear?" I asked her.

"I swear," she said, her eyes big and glowing and full of lies.

I looked down at the diamond. "Tell me," I said.

SHE GOT off the bench and walked around behind me. She leaned over against my back, her elbows on my shoulders, her lips near my ear. Like she'd been doing it all her life. Her voice was breathy, but she wasn't trying to be sexy now-she just wanted to get it all out.

"This is about Scott. He's my friend's little boy, like I told you. He's the sweetest little boy in the world-blond hair, blue eyes. He's a perfect little boy, always has a smile for everyone. Nobody's spoiled him yet- he loves everyone. He loves my Mia the most.