Page 30 of Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters
Kyle had to jog to keep up with his partner’s long strides, and Vikash didstride, his jaw clamped so tight, Kyle worried those perfect white teeth might crack. It shocked him into missing a step when Vikash called out, “Mr. Jacket!”
The second shock of the day came when the leather jacket startled, dropped his impromptu tool, and instead of speeding away, hurtled toward them. Kyle’s hand went for his nightstick, but Vikash’s hand on his arm stopped him, and his partner’s instincts were better than his. Leather Jacket glided to a stop in front of them, gesturing frantically with one sleeve toward the car he’d been trying to break into.
“Guess we better take a look,” Kyle said as the jacket used the opening of his cuff as a sort of hand and began tugging on Vikash’s sleeve. “Maybe there’s a baby in there or something.”
“Is there a baby?” Vikash asked as the jacket dragged him along, but Leather Jacket twisted his upper half in an approximation of a headshake.
When they reached the car, Leather Jacket pointed with his sleeve, knocking against the back window with the buckle on his cuff. Vikash leaned over his shoulder to check the back seat while Kyle went to the other side.
“No baby. Or puppy,” Vikash announced, and though the back seat was trashed, the mess couldn’t have hidden an infant, human or canine.
Leather Jacket threw up both arms in an obvious gesture of exasperation and pointed again.
“There’s… It looks like a pile of baggies under the front seat,” Kyle said, squirming around to block the sun’s glare and get a better look. “Maybe, just could be—”
“White powder. Yes,” Vikash finished for him. He took Leather Jacket by the cuff and tugged him gently over to a nearby bench where he sat on one side of the jacket and Kyle took the other, with Leather Jacket perched on the wood slats on his bottom hem in his approximation of sitting.
Kyle let out a slow breath. “So were you after the drugs in the car? To take them?”
Leather Jacket crossed one arm rapidly over the other in a negative gesture.
“Ah.” Vikash stared at the car, then turned to the jacket. “Were you trying to implicate the owner of the car?”
After a hesitation, Leather Jacket did his odd bending nod.
“For revenge?” Kyle asked softly and got another negative arm wave.
“I think he was trying to help,” Vikash suggested. “Trying to catch one of the bad guys.”
The nodding was more emphatic this time, and Kyle slid down farther on the bench with a sigh.
“Appreciate that you want to. Really, it’s commendable. But if we broke into that car, and the stuff under the seat was, oh, talcum powder or icing sugar or something, then we would’ve just done something illegal.”
“Even if they are bags of drugs,” Vikash added gently. “We don’t have any reason to search that car. It’s illegal search and seizure, and the criminal walks away. Even if you know the person who owns the car and you know those are drugs for sale on the street, we’d still need a warrant. You’d have to be able to give a convincing statement for a judge to approve it.”
Arms folded across its, or perhapshisfront, Leather Jacket nodded slowly.
“We appreciate that you want to help, Mr. Jacket.” Kyle nearly reached over to pat the jacket’s knee before he recalled there was no knee to pat. “And you can, but you have to do it the right way. You can tell us when you’ve seen something. Be our—” He was about to sayeyes and ears, but choked off the words, wondering if that was offensive as well as inaccurate. “Witness out here. Let us know when you see something bad happening.”
Kyle got the weirdest impression that Leather Jacket was side-eyeing him. One sleeve came up to where a human ear would have been, the jacket wriggling back and forth and gesticulating with the other sleeve.
“We know you can’t call us,” Vikash said, obviously better at speaking jacketese, and now that Kyle knew what the gestures meant, damn it if the jacket hadn’t managed sarcasm. “But you could meet us. Here. Wednesdays?”
Leather Jacket did his version of a nod again. No smartass undertones for Vikash, of course.
“Speaking of seeing stuff,” Kyle said with a nudge to the jacket’s side. “Seen any giant turtles around lately? Say, the size of a car?”
The body of the jacket reared back and a visible shiver ran from collar to the ends of the cuffs. Leather Jacket turned to Kyle then Vikash before nodding slowly.
Vikash patted the sleeve nearest him. “Did it attack you?”
Using his cuffs, Leather Jacket spread his plackets apart to show the empty space within.
“Oh.” Kyle thought he had it. “No meat to chomp on?”
“And no interest in good leather, I suppose,” Vikash added, leaning back against the bench. “The monster turtle has no taste.”
This time when Leather Jacket shook, it was a whole jacket, rhythmic shaking while he rocked back and forth. Mr. Jacket was laughing and somehow it made him less of an oddity, less of a monster—more relatable, if not exactly human.
