Page 28 of Hell and High Water

I call it fucked up.

“Why the fuck you lookin’ for me?”

“Um… it’s just, I heard some news, and you know how things are down by the water.”

“You can’t even find a moldy loaf of bread out back of the pub right now, huh?” Vinny can’t coddle Clarence, but I almost flinch at his shameful glare, staring down into the floorboard.

“We have to be careful, the other kids and me. Some of them have gone missing. So we can’t get any work. Mee-maw isn’t doing so good, Mister Vinny. I know it’s not your problem, but?—”

“Hey. I always got a use for some good intel. I always taken good care of you, right?” I smack him in the arm, distracting him from the tears forming in his eyes. “You tell me what you know.”

He swallows hard and nods. “I overheard Billie Dee talking to a stranger, someone not from here, the way they talked.”

“And?”

“And I seen guys like that around, whispering to people. A lot of them saying the same thing.”

“You gonna fill me in, or am I gonna have to slap the shit out of you?”

Clarence chuckles, knowing I’m teasing.

“Someone, whoever they work for, is looking for somebody. Like big time. Like they’ll pay for info, pay to find them.”

“Who they looking for?”

“I don’t know, but it’s not just them. Ever since they showed up, the Drug King’s guys have been whispering about the same thing, like they’re trying to find the person first.”

Drug King.

Clarence doesn’t like to name names, probably doesn’t know Devonde’s actual name, just that he runs the drug gangs.

“How much, and who?” I’m starting to get impatient, a pit forming in my stomach.

“Fifty thousand.”

“Holy shit, kid. Who’s worth that? They trying to find the head of the Block?”

Or one of the Sinful, maybe …

“No. It’s a woman. With dark hair. That’s all I know.”

My chest falls. They’re looking for Hellena…

“That’s it? They didn’t say anything else?”

“Uh, wait, I think they did say something else, like a name, but more like a, you know?—”

“Last name? Title? Job?”

“Yeah! I think they said it was Hara, no, maybe Hair Doll?”

“You mean Herald?”

“Yeah! Like my Uncle.”

“Not Harold, Clarence. Herald, with an ‘a’. It means speaker, or announcer.”

“Oh! Like the newspaper.”

---