No offence Intended - Barbara Seranella Read Online Free PDF Page B

people did than to what
they said.
    She lit her cigarette with the car's lighter. The
smell of a match's sulphur still reminded her too much of dope, and
she didn't need the sensory memory in such already dangerous
territory Venice, god. It felt weird to be there again, like she'd
been away for years instead of just months. She briefly considered
stopping in and seeing her old boss, Wizard, but decided that she was
better off sticking to what she came for and leaving the social calls
for another day
    Instead of turning left on Rose Avenue, she cut
through side streets until she arrived at the alley running parallel
to Hampton. The building where she had once lived with Sleaze was a
horseshoe-shaped collection of single and one-bedroom apartments.
Sleaze liked Number 6 because it was a corner unit. The front door
faced an overgrown hedge of oleander instead of the street. On the
other side of the hedge and sharing the same alley was the abandoned
Jewish Center. A morning glory vine, flush with large purple blooms,
had taken over the Centers back fence and formed a web between two
palm trees. She parked in the alley behind a gold Impala balanced on
Jack stands and stripped of its wheels, rear bumper; and
differential.
    Ducking between the two buildings, she picked her way
over trash, following the ten-foot-tall shrubbery separating the two
buildings. Halfway to the street, she crouched. The same
opening—their secret route—still existed. She slipped through it,
pushing aside damp white sheets that had been stretched across the
bushes to dry.
    When she got to Sleaze's apartment, she knocked
first—softly' No one answered. She slipped the key in the lock and
opened the door. The apartment was small and dark, but she didn't
reach for the light switch. She stood very still. Her ears filled
with the sound of her own heart. She took deep breaths to calm
herself.
    Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the lord my
soul to keep .
    The tiny kitchen, consisting of a sink, stove, and
battered refrigerator, stood at the other end of the room. The
closet-size bathroom lay to her right. She could hear the steady drip
of a leaking faucet from behind the room's closed door.
    She righted a baby's car seat lying on its side and
picked up a rattle. The words DADDY'S GIRL were written on the pink
plastic face. She stuck the toy in her pocket and stepped closer to
the bathroom door. "Sleaze?" she called in an urgent
whisper, willing him to appear and aggravate her with that grin of
his.
    No answer.
    "John?" Please. Please be all right.
    She didn't want to open the door, but just standing
there wasn't the answer, either. She put her ear to the door The
dripping was louder, maddeningly rhythmic, like Chinese water
torture. She imagined all sorts of horrors: slit veins and throats;
open mouths; a lifeless face staring up at her through inches of tub
water.
    Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and reached
for the door handle.
    And if I die before . . . Stupid prayer
    She put her hand on the knob. It twisted in her hand.
    "Oh, fuck it," she said through clenched
teeth and pushed the door inward.
    No one was in there, dead or alive. She laughed out
loud, relieved, embarrassed. The medicine cabinet hung open. It was
empty save for a box of Band-Aids and a jar of Vaseline. A box of
dried-out baby butt wipes lay open on the top of the toilet tank lid.
Inside the bathtub was a collection of infant float toys and a bottle
of Johnson No More Tears baby shampoo. The drains steel seat was
eroded from the constant drip of the leaking shower faucet. She
touched the side of the tub where perhaps he had leaned kneeling as
he washed his baby
    But where was he now? And where was the baby? Which
neighbor?
    She gathered Asia's car seat and the float toys and
took them out to her car. Returning to the building, she started
knocking on doors. The man who answered at Number 7 was dressed only
in a stained, threadbare white T-shirt and sagging briefs.
    "I'm looking for