Lousiana Hotshot

car. She parked in someone’s driveway, praying they weren’t home and wouldn’t be till she could get back.
    Ah, that was better— like getting rid of a couple of tons of excess weight. This way she could slither unobserved. A car shadowing at five miles an hour was about as unobtrusive as a spaceship.
    There was no sign either of Toes or his two thugs. She was doing fine until the group split in half, some kids continuing their happy, giggling journey, the others settling at a bus stop. Shaneel was among the latter.
    Talba cursed. The kid would see her if she got on the bus, and she wasn’t ready for that. She’d have to get the car. She took off running, hoping Shaneel wouldn’t glance in her direction.
    She arrived back at the bus stop, once more behind the wheel, just as a bus was closing its doors. It peeled out, and Talba didn’t see Shaneel in either direction; she could only hope the girl was on it. She followed its stop-start progress, inspiring hatred in her fellow drivers as she halted at each stop, inspecting the exiting passengers. Just as she was about to decide she’d been tricked, that Shaneel wasn’t on the bus at all, the kid alighted. And once more the trick was to follow her home.
    She lived in the Magnolia Project, or at least she was going there. The idea of entering alone made Talba shiver. Miz Clara’d kill her if she knew. And yet, this kid apparently did it every day— unless she wasn’t going home, but was paying a visit to one of the thugs Talba’d seen at the school. Her blood ran cold. Goddess help her if that was the case.
    Shaneel pulled something from around her neck and inserted it in the lock— latchkey kid, true to stereotype. Talba hollered, “Shaneel!”
    The girl turned and, to her surprise, broke out in a grin. “James Bond.”
    Sometime she really did have to enlighten this kid about the difference between a spy and a detective— if they both lived long enough. Right now she said, “How’re you doing?”
    “What you doin’ in the projects?”
    “I came to talk to you. This where you live?”
    Shaneel nodded, once, hand still on her key, still half-turned toward the door, half toward Talba. A perfect metaphor for ambivalence.
    “I’ve been worried about you. Who were those two guys you were talking to?”
    Talba almost answered with her: “What two guys?”
    She said, “I saw you with them at school. Adults. Looked like gangsters— I don’t know what your mama would say.”
    “Oh, you mean Bingo and Pork? They’re real nice guys.”
    Talba’s gut jigged. “Pork? Is he ever called Pig?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t even know ‘em. They were waiting for me when I got out of school, said they were friends of Baron Tujague’s and they had to talk to me. Man, you should have seen my friends when they said that. I was a hero. You ‘magine that?”
    “What did they want?”
    Evidently whatever it was was important enough to distract her attention. She released her grip on the key, turned toward Talba, and reached in her pocket. She pulled out a handful of cardboard strips. “They gave me free concert tickets. A whole
lot
of ‘em— for me and all my friends.”
    “Did they ask you to do something in return?”
Like keep your mouth shut about half a dozen serious crimes!
    She looked bewildered. “Do something? No. Why would they do that?”
    Either she was so slow on the uptake the bribe hadn’t worked, or it worked so seamlessly she’d forgotten what she knew. Talba wasn’t sure which, but at any rate it beat the hell out of kidnapping. If Shaneel had been followed home— that is, by anyone else— Talba was reasonably sure she’d have spotted him. She decided to find Tony now and catch Shaneel’s parents later that night. “This where you live?” she repeated.
    “I told you I did. Why you care?” The girl was almost pouting, an unusual attitude for this kid.
    “Maybe I want to bring you a present too.” Perhaps some candy— she’d have to remember to pick something up. “When do your parents get home?”
    Shaneel shrugged. “It’s just me and my mama.” She barely spoke above a whisper.
    “Well, when does your mama get home?”
    “I don’t know.” She turned the key and disappeared.
    Talba fast-walked to her car and dialed Tony. She’d snagged Eddie’s cell phone for him, and they’d agreed to leave both phones on, but for some reason he didn’t answer.
Take it easy,
she told herself.
If Shaneel’s okay,