The Three Wise Guides Read Online Free PDF Page B

loved me,” she cried.
    “Yeah, just
like your brother said he’d look out for you,” Philippe said, spitting on the floor.
“And look how that turned out.”
    Maria stood,
her hands clenched and rushed at Philippe. “Don’t you talk about Jose,” she
said.
    Mary pulled
Maria away before she reached the boy and guided her out of the room.   “You have to come with me,” she said.
    Once she had
pulled the door closed, she extracted an iron bar from her pack and slid it
between the knob and the doorframe, effectively keeping anyone from escaping
the room.
    Pulling her
radio out of her back pocket, she clicked it on. “Hey, this is O’Reilly. Yeah,
I got the room secured. You can come up now.”
    Pulling
Maria out of the chapel, she half-ran with her through the narrow hall and,
when she heard the footsteps approaching on the stairs, pulled her into one of
the smaller rooms.
    “What the…”
Maria yelled, before Mary clapped her hand over the girl’s mouth.
    “You have to
sit still and be very quiet for a few minutes,” she said. “And then I’ll
explain everything.”
    “Tell her,”
Jose demanded. “Tell her I sent you or she will never be quiet.”
    The girl fought
beneath Mary’s hand. “Jose sent me,” Mary finally whispered into Maria’s ear
and the girl stared at Mary in disbelief.
    “Tell her I
said be quiet, pequeño,” he said.
    “He said to
tell you to be quiet, pequeño,” she repeated.
    The girl’s
eyes went wide and she leaned back against the wall, her breath shallow and
frightened.   Suddenly, on the other side
of the door, they could hear the sounds of an army of boots rushing down the
hall. Then there was a crash of wood splintering, some yelling and finally the
exchange of gunfire.  
    The light
shining through the cubicle’s small window from a streetlight illuminated Maria’s
pale face as she comprehended what was going on in the room she had just
occupied. Mary met her eyes and motioned to her once again to remain silent.
    Finally, the
sounds of sirens echoed in the street below them and they waited as paramedics loaded
victims into ambulances and police officers filled paddy wagons with still
walking members of the gang.   After the
last vehicle drove away, Mary turned to Maria.
    “Who are
you?” Maria asked before Mary could speak.
    “Tell her,”
Jose insisted.
    Mary nodded.
“My name is Mary O’Reilly and I’m the police officer your brother shot.”
    Maria
scooted further against the wall. “You here to hurt me?” she asked. “To get
back for what my brother did?”
    Shaking her
head, Mary stepped away from Maria. “No, I’m here to help you,” she said. “Jose
asked me to help you.”
    “How?”
    “I have this
new…I don’t know…ability,” Mary said. “I can talk to ghosts.   Jose came to me two nights ago and asked me
to help get you away from the gang.”
    “Did you set
up the drug bust?”
    “Yes, with
Jose’s help,” Mary admitted. “His only condition was that I get you out of there
first.”
    “Yeah, now
what?” she asked. “They are going to think I snitched because you pulled me out
of there.”
    “Tell her
about our aunt,” he insisted.
    “Jose
discovered you have an aunt,” Mary said. “She is your mother’s older sister.”
    “But my
mother didn’t have any family,” Maria said. “Jose is all I had.”
    Mary shook
her head. “No, he wasn’t.   Your aunt
didn’t know about you.   She didn’t know
what happened to her sister. I called her.   She is on her way from Indiana.   She is coming to get you.”
    “But, I
don’t want to leave Chicago,” she insisted. “I don’t want to leave the gang.”
    “Maria, the
gang is what killed Jose,” Mary said. “He does not want the same thing to
happen to you.”
    “If it was
good enough for Jose, it is good enough for me,” she insisted.
    Jose glided
up next to her and wrapped his arms around her, as he did when she was three.
“No, pequeño, it is not good