Page 87 of Switch
I think I remember buying coffee for a woman I accidentally bumped into at Buzz Buzz Buzz.Maybe ice cream for a kid I bumped into a few blocks later.Was that real, though?I don’t remember actually talking to anyone.
I recall going to campus a few times but not actually going to class.Facing Fallon while I still have this wide-open wound in my chest could only end in disaster.
In between everything else, I drove past his house a few…several times.I didn’t stay because I didn’t want him to see me and call the cops, but I needed to be sure he was okay.Lights turning on and off inside was the only proof of life I got.
What I know for sure, as I wander into the laundromat on the North Side where Brennan keeps his office, is there’s a stain on my favorite shirt and I smell like a disturbing mix of exhaust, coffee, and pistachios.
I don’t remember eating any pistachios.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”Ravi pops his head up when I walk into the back office of the laundromat.He’s kicked back in a chair on the other side of Brennan’s desk with a textbook open in his lap.The man in question isn’t behind it, but his bodyguard/first in command, Jalen, is.
“Uh, where is he?”I blink, looking around the room as if seeing it for the first time.Have the lights in here always been this bright?
“You okay?”Ravi sits up in his seat, squinting at me.“You sick or something?You missed class all week.I tried texting you.There’s a quiz Monday.You can borrow my notes if you want.”
“Oh.Right.”I search my foggy memory.“I think maybe I dropped it.”
He blinks, looking confused behind his glasses.“But you’re a senior.If you don’t take it, you don’t graduate.”
I shrug.“I’ll take it next semester.”Or I won’t.I’m having trouble caring right now.I do know one of the things I did today was my usual tour of the East End, where I showed Evan’s picture around.Once again there was nothing, except pity on the faces of the people at the Mission, who recognize me after showing up every week for so long.
For all I know, Evans is gone and there’s no point in any of it now.
“Fuck it, man.Who fucking needs a college degree?”Brennan comes marching out of what looks like a storage room, followed by three more of his guys.Scott or something, I think?The other two don’t look familiar.
All of them are hauling duffel bags of what appear to be guns.A lot of guns.
Is this real?Did I wander into a Tarantino film when I wasn’t paying attention?
“You robbing a liquor store or something?”
Brennan laughs.“Please.I haven’t robbed a liquor store since I was twelve.And if I was gonna do that, I wouldn’t need this many guns.”
“What’s all this for?”
While Brennan and his guys are laying weapons and ammo out on his desk, Ravi’s the one who answers.“So, B said most of the people who have gone missing on the East End were last seen near the old train tracks.He’s had his guys staking out that peach factory you told him about.He thinks they’re using decommissioned shipping trains to transport people and other contraband over the border.”
“You remember Simon’s boyfriend had some clients go missing,” Brennan adds.“They were moved out on yachts and private jets too.Gotta figure it all ties together, but we’re not exactly sure how.What we do know is there’s been a ton of activity in the last couple days.Looks like they’re getting product ready to move out.”
People, my fuzzy brain supplies.“You’re talking about people going missing and calling them product.”
“If I didn’t think of them as people I wouldn’t be trying to rescue them, asshole.”
“You’re rescuing them so the guy running them won’t take over your turf,” I grumble.“Everyone’s self-serving as fuck.”
Brennan puts down the gun he’s checking and braces his hands on the desk.“Do I want to stop humans from being treated like cattle?Yes.Cattle shouldn’t even be treated like cattle.Do I want to stop the piece of shit who’s trying to take over my territory?Of course I fucking do.Both things can be true.We contain multitudes, you dick.At least some of us do.Anyway, this interloper sounds like a real piece of shit.They call him?—”
“Eric Leslie,” I mumble.
“What?”Brennan looks at me like I’m off my rocker.Which I very well might be, to be fair.“They call him the Ghost.No one seems to know his real name.What makes you think you do?”
So, I recount the story, the one about Fallon’s brother-in-law, leaving out the attempted murder part, only saying they’d thought he was dead, but that Fallon had identified him, that the same guy had left cameras and creepy messages for Fallon.
Ravi’s eyebrows shoot up.“Wait, you’ve been sleeping with Mr.Monroe.Our lit teacher?”
“If you tell anybody, I’ll murder you in your sleep.”
Ravi smiles.“Oh, you don’t need to worry about me.You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen that nobody knows about.”Then he smiles and returns to his book.
