Chasing The Dragon by Nicholas Kaufmann Read Free Book Online Page B

eyes peeled. She’d been scoring long enough to know what to look for. Cornerboys with shifty glances, cars parked together in groups for no discernable reason, lone musclemen standing guard outside unmarked doors. But after half an hour she still didn’t see any of the telltale signs and began to wonder if the town was dry.
    No, it couldn’t be. Roy had said his brother scored in Buckshot Hill. She just had to look harder. But time was running out. The Dragon could already be on the move. If she lost the Dragon now, there was no telling how long it would be before she picked up the trail again. She didn’t have time to wander aimlessly.
    She thought of the vision, her dream-father’s words — She’s killing again — and the sight of all those screaming faces. The Dragon had struck again sooner than expected. The crate she’d seen in her vision had been from a company called Bristleman Corp. in Buckshot Hill. But that didn’t make sense. The Dragon never struck twice in the same place. It was how she stayed off the radar. Why change that now?
    First things first , she thought, trying to clear the jumble in her head. The heroin took priority. Without it . . . she didn’t even want to think about what would happen without it. Then, she promised herself, then she’d go after the Dragon.
    There was still no sign of a dealer. Was she going to have to go back to Roy and take him up on his offer? Jesus. Even Zack had never asked her to trick, though in the darkest days of her addiction she probably would’ve been willing. But now? The thought of Roy Dalton’s hands on her, his half-toothless mouth, repulsed her.
    There was one more place she could look. She turned the car in the right direction as best she could remember and passed through the small downtown area. The tables in front of the ice cream parlour were empty now. Bits of trash blew and tumbled in the breeze where the young couples had sat. It filled her with a sudden and inexplicable sadness. She kept driving, past the quiet little houses, abandoned now for work and school. A few minutes later she found herself back in the warehouse district. Her last, best chance.
    She slowed as she drove past the wide, boxy buildings. Boards were nailed across the doors and windows, the walls spray-painted with everything from simple tags to a block-long mural of a lasso-spinning cowboy on a winged horse. Someone had sprayed what looked like a Chinese character on the horse’s rear end.
    Unsure of where to go, Georgia drove up and down the streets between the warehouses, looking for any sign of drug activity. She didn’t see anything. She felt itchy. She thought of the screaming faces from her visions, of the Dragon getting away and killing more people, of Roy Dalton’s hands all over her, and she started to panic.
    Rounding a corner, she spotted someone walking at the end of the block and slowed the car. It was the hobo she’d seen last night, swinging the same Dunkin Donuts coffee cup in his hand. She tailed him, driving slowly and staying far back so she wouldn’t spook him. She followed him for three more blocks until he came to a warehouse with yellow cement walls and boarded windows. She stopped the car and watched. The hobo tapped on a metal door at the corner of the building. It opened a moment later, and a kid who looked like he couldn’t have been older than thirteen stepped out onto the sidewalk. His skin was pale white, as if he didn’t spend much time outside. His skinny body swam inside an oversized Lobos basketball jersey. Gold chains hung around his neck. He wore a yellow bandana on his head, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses that were too big for his face. When he spoke, something in his mouth gleamed in the sunlight.
    The hobo tipped the coffee cup into his hand and passed the pile of coins over to the boy. The boy counted them and stuffed them in his pocket. He disappeared into the warehouse for a moment. When the boy came out again, he shook the