Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby 1)

“I told you we were being stalked!” Felicia said.

“You said it was a bird,” Rosa said. “I was looking for a bird.”

I was in the backseat, and my heart was racing, and my lips felt numb. I’d never seen anyone shot before. In the movies and on television, but never in person. And I’d never had anyone pull a gun on me. Hard to believe, since I was born and raised in Baltimore. One time Andy Kulharchek chased me around the garage with a tire iron, but he was drunk off his ass and he kept falling down.

“I can’t believe you shot them,” I said to Felicia.

“It was one of those reactions.”

“You don’t look like someone who’d carry a gun.”

“I always carry a gun. Do you know how many times the fruit stand has been robbed? I can’t count that high. Now when someone tries to rob me I shoot them.”

“You go, girl,” Rosa said.

My heart was still skipping around. I could still hear the gunshots echoing in my ears. In my mind’s eye I could see the two men getting shot.

Felicia pulled the visor down and looked at herself in the mirror. “He called me an old lady. Did you hear that? I don’t think I look so old.”

“He deserved to get shot,” Rosa said. “He had no tact.”

“I’ve been using this new cream from Olay,” Felicia said. “It’s supposed to make your skin luminous.”

“I should get some of that,” Rosa said. “You can never be too luminous.”

I couldn’t believe they were having this conversation. Felicia just shot two men! And they were talking about skin cream.

“We have to go home,” Rosa said. “Do you have someplace safe where you can wait for Hooker?”

“You can take me back to Vana’s house. I’ll be okay there,” I said.

“Just in case, you should take the gun,” Felicia said, handing the gun to me. “It’s a revolver. Easy to use. Still got four shots left.”

“No! I couldn’t take your gun.” Don’t want to. Won’t use it! Terrified to touch it!

“It’s okay. I always get rid of them after I shoot somebody,” Felicia said. “It’s simpler that way. When you’re done with it, just throw it in the ocean. Make sure it’s someplace deep. When I’m in Miami I throw them in the Miami River. Probably if the police dive down they find the Miami River filled with guns. Probably so many guns in the Miami River it raises the high-water line.”

“I don’t know anything about guns,” I said.

“I thought you were from Baltimore,” Rosa said. “Doesn’t everyone in Baltimore have a gun?”

“Not me.”

“Well, now you have a gun,” Felicia said. “Now you just like everyone else from Baltimore and Miami.”

“It won’t go off all by itself, will it?”

“No,” Felicia said. “You got to pull the hammer back and then squeeze the trigger. If you don’t pull the hammer back the gun won’t go bang.”

Five minutes later we were idling in front of Vana’s house.

“You be careful,” Rosa said. “You call us if you need help.”

“And don’t go out of the house until Hooker gets back,” Felicia said. “Maybe I should have killed those two guys, but I would have to say a lot of Hail Mary for that.”

They waited until I got in the house and waved at them through the window that I was okay, and then they cruised off.

I had Felicia’s gun in my handbag, and there was no way the shooter could know my location. None of this stopped me from mentally cracking my knuckles every ten seconds. I made sure the curtains were all drawn, and then I sat myself down in front of the television. I put the sound on low, so I could hear suspicious noises on the porch or in the bushes under the windows. And I waited for Hooker.