The Street Rat 110

“Eddie, sit down,” Maria pleaded. He had been pacing for two hours since returning with the blood-spattered scrap of paper, mumbling to himself the whole time. “You’re not going to get any further by yourself right now. Let’s talk through it.”

“I don’t even know what to talk through. I don’t have any new information. At least not any that is helpful.”

“That’s not necessarily true. Let me take another look at the note.” Maria reached out her hand as Eddie sat against the wall with her, handing her the paper.

“Derrick,” Maria read aloud, “meet me on the roof of the Oak’s apartments on the corner of 12th and H to discuss the details of the job in person. I will be there tomorrow night at 2:00am. Don’t be late.”

“I could recite that by memory at this point, and I still don’t see anything in it that will help us.”

“I think the first step would be trying to figure out who Derrick is. That’s something you can do, and it could help you figure out how he got in contact with the killer and why.”

“How would I even start to do that? Just walk up to random people and say, ‘Oh, hey, do you know Derek? Looks like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo? Just died?’ No, I can’t do that.”

“Not with that attitude, you can’t.” Maria couldn’t help but to laugh at Eddie’s indignant expression. “I mean, I wouldn’t ask like that, and I wouldn’t do it randomly. But if you went to some of the contacts you have around the community and tell them you’re trying to figure out these recent killings and if they know anything about this Derrick guy that it would help you, yeah, I think you would have some luck.”

“I don’t know, Maria. But I guess I don’t have much of a choice. Can’t hurt to try.”

“That sounds more like the Eddie we all know and tolerate.” She laughed and gave him a light shove to his shoulder. “You should go get started on it now, during the day, so you can watch the boys later. Sal offered me a shift tonight. We’ll only be about two weeks shy of what we need for the motel room after that.”

“I get it. You’re tired of me,” Eddie said, walking out of the alley.

“I’m always tired of you. Now, go. Be a superhero.” She smiled at him as he turned back with widened eyes and a giant grin on his face.

“You called me a superhero! No take-backs!”

“Of course not. Now, go!” She chuckled as Eddie skipped the rest of the distance back to the street.

Eddie’s smile was gone by the time he reached his destination. He usually wouldn’t be allowed in Jerry’s bar, but it was the middle of the day, and Frank was working the door, so there was a shot.

“I’s don’t knows about this, Eddie.” Frank scratched the back of his head as Eddie worked to convince him to let him in through the door under the big neon sign that said Jerry’s in a script font.

“It’ll only be a few minutes. I have no interest in drinking. I’m just hoping to find some information about an old friend that’s missing.”

“It’s not e’en about ifs youse drinkin’. Just youse bein’ ins there would put me in a bind. Random checks bys cops has gone ways up these past few weeks. They’s lookin’ for reasons to shuts people down. Any reason’s good enoughs for ’em. I can’ts be servins’ them up reasons on ones of thems platters. ’Avin underage kids walkins’ around in there’s would be trouble.”

“I get that, Frank, I really do. But there are people being murdered out here, and I think the cops are sweeping it under the rug because they don’t care if we die. But I do. And I need to talk to some people that are in there to figure out how to do something about it. All I have to go off of is this scrap of paper that set up the meeting that resulted in a killing. I need more information, and this is the best place to get it.”

“I’s reckon those is some good points. If I’s sees any cops, I’ll gives three raps on this door befores I’s opens it.”

“I’ll try to be as fast as possible, Frank. Thank you.”

“O’ course. Youse alls still comin’ o’er for Thanksgivin’ in a couple weeks, right? Alice is mighty excited.”

“We wouldn’t miss it, friend.” Eddie slapped Frank’s shoulder as he walked through the door Frank was holding open for him.

Frank still had a smile stretching across his face as he closed the door behind Eddie.

Eddie stopped just inside, blinking to adjust to the lack of light in Jerry’s. As his eyes focused, Eddie surveyed the bar. To the left of the door was the long wooden bar stretching from the back wall to about three quarters of the way to the door. Two pool tables filled the space between the bar and the front wall. To the right, wooden booths and crooked tables filled the rest of the open area.

Eddie stifled a cough from the aromatic delight of alcohol mixed with cigarette smoke, cigar smoke, and greasy bar food. He was disappointed to see how few people there were inside.

In retrospect, I should have considered that coming to a bar at 1pm wasn’t going to give me a ton of options. Oh well.

Eddie approached the man closest to the door sitting on the bar’s third stool.

“Good afternoon, fellow adult.” Eddie sat on the second stool as he spoke to the man.

He picked up a small plastic display sitting on the bar to promote a weekly bingo night while he waited for the man to answer.

The man looked up from his drink but didn’t say a word before looking back to it.

Tough crowd. He sat the display back down and continued pushing.

“I’m looking for an old friend. His name’s Derrick. He’s about yea tall—” Eddie gestured the height “—with sandy-blonde hair and chin beard. Kinda looks like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo. You know him?”

“Yeah,” the man croaked without looking up from his glass. “I know him. But you’re no friend of his. Everyone who knew him for more than fifteen seconds knows how much he hates being called Shaggy.”

That’s less than ideal.

“Our conversation wasn’t much more than fifteen seconds, so I must have just missed out on learning that. The thing is, I think he’s in trouble, and I need to talk to him. Do you know where I could find him?”

The man took a long drink, then pushed his glass back. Standing, the man stepped away to leave the bar without ever looking at Eddie again.

“You’re looking for Derrick Avery.”

A voice came from halfway down the bar. Another man who wouldn’t look up from his beer.

“Excuse me?” Eddie asked, his breathing quickening.

The man looked over at him. “You’re looking for Derrick Avery, but you’re not going to find him. He’s dead.”

Eddie walked towards the man and sat on a stool next to him and took a deep breath. “I know. I saw his body the other night. The police took him. I don’t think they’re doing anything about it. They don’t care if people out here live or die. So, I’m trying to figure out what happened.”

“It’s not a long story. Derrick put a hit out on an ex. She was supposed to testify against him in a domestic abuse case. He wanted her out of the picture. He contacted a man to use, went to the meet-up, and that was that.”

“Is that what happened in all the recent killings?”

“I don’t know about that. I think some were just thieves that got caught by the wrong guy. He tends to work in the area around the grocer’s. You stay over there, you’ll find him. That, or he’ll find you.”

“I’ll look into that. Thanks for your help.” Eddie hopped off the stool and made his way to the door.

“I don’t think he’s who you think he is.”

Eddie turned back to the bar. “What do you mean?”

“This guy you’re looking for. He’s not the villain. He’s just trying to give justice to a community that doesn’t receive much of it from the systems in place. He’s not going about it the right way, but keep an open mind whenever you find him.”

“I’ll do my best.” Eddie walked out the door preoccupied, barely thanking Frank again as he made his way back towards the diner.

The Street Rat continues with The Street Rat 111.

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