“Kelly, come with me, please; just step away, I’m sure these gentlemen have other things to do…” said the newcomer, managing to make the word ‘gentlemen’ sound like ‘pieces of shit’.
The girl started to walk to him, and one of the three, Mookie reached out to try and stop her. That’s when he discovered John was behind him, as the instep of John’s boot intercepted his crotch with crushing force. Mookie screamed, and dropped to the ground, choking and retching and cradling his battered testicles. Arno and his remaining goon whirled, right into John’s hands, which clamped around their throats. Arno made the mistake of trying to pull the long, slim-bladed boning knife in his sleeve, so John slammed his head into his friend’s with a hollow ‘Bok!’ noise, and let them drop unconscious to the ground, blood gushing from their flattened noses.
The well-dressed man looked warily at the tall young man standing in front of him, possibly expecting him to take up where Arno and his boys had left off, only relaxing when John fished out his badge and showed it, his jacket swinging open to reveal the Glock 22 pistol in its SERPA belt holster.
“I’m Deputy Jean-Bastienne Deaucette sir, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Department. Anyone feel like tellin’ me just what was goin’ on here?”
The girl was trying to keep her face away from his direct gaze, but it didn’t stop the sudden flash of recognition; of course she had looked familiar, her face had stared out from enough movie posters and magazine covers in the last couple years, and yet, somehow, she’d ended-up down here trying to score adulterated rock-salt from Arno and his crew of feeble-minded ass-heads and yard-apes.
John put his badge away, hitched his belt, and leaned against the alley wall.
“I’m still waitin’ folks, and I don’t get answers I like you-all can come downtown and explain yo’selves to the Chief; I’m sure you don’t want that, and I know fo’ a fact he don’t, so Miss Kelly, and yeah, I know who you are, you best get to tellin’ it…”
The man tried to interject, but John held up a warning finger.
“No, not you; I see you come in after she already here, so you know ‘smuch as I do; I want to hear her tell it. I’m waitin’, miss…”
The girl stared at him, big-eyed, then looked pleadingly at the older man. John snapped his fingers impatiently.
“Hey, I’m over here, an’ I asked you a question; now you speak up, or we finish this downtown. I already know why you here, whyn’t you tell me, jest so’s I hear it from your mouth. And don’t you go looking for no hints and tips, miss; my lunch is gettin’ cold and I don’t get to finish too many these days, so I was really lookin’ forward to it, and my patience is wearin’ real thin ’round about now. Spit it out, or I’m arrestin’ you both for attempting to purchase illegal narcotic substances an’ lyin’ to a duly-appointed officer of the law, an’ you think I cain’t do that, you jes’ watch me. I’m waiting, and you gonna start talking, or I’m callin’ fo’ a cruiser come get you!”
The girl stared at him, her mouth hanging open, mesmerized by him, only giving a small start when he clicked his teeth impatiently.
“The… the concierge at the hotel… I asked him where I could… some … some crystal… I really needed… he gave me a bar, I went there, this girl told me to come here, her boyfriend could… could ice me, good price, good shit, I came here…” she trailed off, unable to continue under John’s steady gaze. Finally he sighed, and looked away into the distance.
“He was gonna ‘ice you’, that right? Where you learn that from? Miss, I ain’t gonna bust you, even though I really feel I should, jest to teach you a lesson; you didn’t actually buy meth, what you were tryin’ to buy from that frogs-dick Arno was rock salt, soda crystals, an’ powdered pigeon-shit; ain’t no law agin buyin’ that aroun’ here, and whatever that did to you, it warn’t gonna get you high, prolly jest make you puke. I don’t know why I’m tellin’ you this, me bein’ deputy an’all, but there’s other places to tweak, more public places to buy uptown, if’n your concierge knew he would have told you so; there’s dozens of dealin’ bars uptown, any junkie on the streets would have tole you where. Why you come all the way down here, miss; don’t you know what this place is?”
John frowned at her, making her tremble.
“Strange as it sounds, you lucky you met Arno and his boys; they hyenas, but they the stupid kind; there’s more n’ bigger hyenas down here and they ain’t stupid ‘t’all; they get their han’s on you and you done; they gon’ know who you are an’ what you worth, an’ that make you prize trophy, a Class-A scalp fo’ their belts. See, this place like the jungle I read ’bout when I was boy; if’n you don’ fit in, yawl stand out. I saw you right away, an’ you can bet a heap o’ other folks nuthin’ like me saw you too. You not from here, you standin’ out, and ‘roun’ here, that’s a bad thing; that make you easy prey for what we got swimmin’ roun’ down here.”
He paused to look carefully up and down the apparently deserted street.
“This ain’t Rodeo Drive, Miss, or Sunset Boulevard, or Malibu, or Beverley Hills, and it sure ain’t Broadway or Fifth Avenue; hell, it ain’t even Bourbon Street, or even the Iberville Projects; this is where people like you disappear, and no-one ain’t gonna do nuthin’ to stop it; you come down here bein’ all ignorant an’ you pay the price…”
He fixed her with his gaze, watching closely as his words sank in.
“See here, miss, this here is the seamy underbelly o’ the Big Easy, this the part they don’ tell you about in all them glossy brochures an’ fancy hotels, an’ once you in, you ain’t never gettin’ out. Down here, away from the French Quarter, and the food and the fun and all the parties an’ parades, you got to remember one thing, you paste it into your hat, an’ you read it every chance you get: you ain’t in Kansas no more, Dorothy, an’ you on your own. Ain’t no movie action hero gon’ step in an’ save yo’ ass neither; the folks down here don’ like folks like you, they hate that you got what they don’t. They get the chance they grab you, use you, an’ when they done with you, they cut yo’ throat an’ dump you in a backwater somewhere an’ let the ‘gators an’ catfish an’ blue crabs do the rest.
He paused, gauging the effect his words were having on her, seeing the horror rising in her eyes.
“You go home, Miss Kelly, you go keep on bein’ a star, make movies, make money, let people see you in the magazines, just don’t think none o’ that protects you down here; it don’; you come back, they ain’t gon’ ask no questions, likely not even ‘please’, they just take you, use you, sell you aroun’ fo’ while, ’cause you a prize trophy for sure an’ they all gonna want a go with you, and when they done with you, they lose you in a slough somewhere an’ go ’bout their day like nuthin’ happened.”
Kelly stared at him in terrified shock as his words sank in. John felt he’d gotten through to her, so he piloted the girl and the older man out of the alleyway, and whistled for a cab.
The older man grinned at John over Kelly’s head, and rolled his eyes at the thoroughly cowed, trembling girl.
“Would you believe, this is the first time a lecture from a LEO has made any kind of impression on her?” he murmured, and John returned his grin.
“I warn’t kiddin’, this place is a shit-hole, and them four idjits back there is just the flies that circle any bowl o’ turds; there’s other, nastier things swimmin’ around in there; she lucky I got to her afore Arno got ’round to sellin’ her to one o’ them.”
The older man stuck his hand out.
“Jerome Barker, Baxter-Harkoff, and Kelly’s one of my clients. We owe you a great deal, Deputy Deaucette, whatever I can do to repay you, all you have to do is ask.”
John shook his head.
“Ain’t no call for that, sir, I’m just doing what the parish pays me to do; I just never thought I’d ever meet me a real-live movie star, no sir! So you her lawyer, then, or her bodyguard? ‘Cause I gotta say, you weren’t doin’ too well at it…”
He jerked his thumb at the four prone men in the alley.
Jerome shook his head.
“I’m her handler. My agency in New York handles a lot of very well-known figures in the sports and entertainment industries; they all have their problems of one sort or another, like Kelly, so we try and keep a lid on them, but sometimes they slip the leash. That’s what happened today, and I was looking for her when all this happened. I have to say, you handled it magnificently. Have you ever considered a change in career? I could use a man of your talents…?”
John shook his head, smiling. John slipped Jerome’s card into his wallet, and leaned into the driver-side window of the cab.
“Hey there, Sissany, you all take this gennelman an’ young lady back to their hotel, an’ then you forget where you took them, an’ jest so’s you know, I mo be callin’ him in thirty minutes, in his suite; if both of them ain’t there to answer, then I guess you an’ me be havin’ a private conversation far away from pryin’ eyes an’ twitchin’ ears, you un’stand me, ole frien’?”