Short Ride to Nowhere by Tom Piccirilli Read Free Book Online

Danish.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “A stale cheese Danish.”
    A laugh edged up his throat but never escaped.   What the hell, a stale cheese Danish; that made as much sense as anything.  
    Two guys reaching for it at the same time, both wanting this thing, this little piece of, what, cake, right here.   They couldn’t have anything else in life, couldn’t even keep a roof over their heads, couldn’t keep a woman, couldn’t feed the dog, couldn’t pay for their own funerals, but by Christ, they could have a stale cheese Danish.   They were still men.   They still had pride.   They were still hungry.   But then some other motherfucker had to get in your way and try to take even that from you.  
    Jenks couldn’t see Hale wanting to fight, but imagined the other guy going berserk.   The brawl would have been merciless, a fight to the goddamn death.
    “Did the man he had the altercation with have a daughter?”
    “It was a woman.   And I don’t know if she had a child.”
    “What was her name?”
    Angela almost hiccoughed the name.   “Trina Beck.   She became enraged and began screaming.   Hale didn’t want to argue but she was relentless.   She started hurling food and hot coffee at him.   She chased him out the door.   We tried to stop her and we couldn’t.   I never saw him again.”
    Jenks still wanted to laugh, but if he started he wasn’t sure he’d ever stop.   A strange kind of pity welled in him for this woman, who had lost her great love after only three days, thanks to a disagreement over a Danish.   It sounded so ridiculous, it made you want to shake your head in disbelief.   But then, so much did nowadays.  
    “Has she been back to the shelter recently?”
    “No.”
    “Give me her last known residence.”
    “That’s not allowed.”
    “Who cares?”
    “I care.”
    “Break the rules.”
    “I won’t.   I can’t.”
    “Do it for him.”
    “No.”
    Jenks studied her a moment and nodded.   “Then I’m sorry.”
    He moved in on her quickly, swung with his right fist, held back and tapped her neatly on the chin.   She let out a bleat, her eyes rolled up in her head, and she collapsed to the floor.
    He checked her as if he knew what he was doing.   Mostly he wanted to be sure he hadn’t broken her neck. He made her as comfortable as possible and then sat at the computer.
    There was nothing on there that got him into the shelter system, only private files.   He clicked on a few at random and didn’t see anything of interest.   He’d botched the job.   He was going to have to go back to the front desk and try to get Trina Beck’s address that way.  
    What the hell.   He left Angela lying on the floor of her office and shut the door behind him.   He moved quickly up the corridors to the front counter. There was some activity back in the office area, but Jenks ignored it as he leaned against the counter, lifted his legs, swung around, and jumped down.   He got on the nearest computer and found a database.   He typed in Trina Beck.   Nothing came up.   He tried T. Beck and still nothing.   He typed in Katrina Beck and there was an address on 210 th Street.   Jenks had never been that far north in the city.  
    He glanced up and Angela was standing there looking at him from the opposite side of the counter, a thread of blood leaking down her bottom lip.   Christ, she was strong.   A shot like that should have knocked her out for a half hour, minimum.   The bruise on her chin would easily be covered by pancake if she cared that much, and he knew she didn’t.    He was curious to see if she would yell.   She didn’t.   He got out from behind the desk and made it to the front door.   He felt her watching him, thinking about him, wondering if he could actually find out who had tried to kill Hale.   He had nothing so far, but he was starting to get used to having nothing.   He faltered before he hit the street and looked back at her, but she was gone.   In