Courage Matters: A Ray Courage Mystery (Ray Courage Private Investigator Series Book 2) by R. Scott Mackey

Author:R. Scott Mackey [Mackey, R. Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Big Hound Publishing
Published: 2014-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

twenty-four

Rubia’s non-profit foundation, It’s My Life, resided in the city of West Sacramento, across the river from Sacramento. Long the poor stepchild to Sacramento with its state capitol, larger population, better restaurants and nightlife, West Sacramento had undergone a revitalization starting when it built the baseball stadium for the Triple-A River Cats and then developed the land adjacent to the Sacramento River with upscale condos, business parks, restaurants and shops.

It’s My Life, or IML as it was commonly called, could not afford the rent in this new, tony part of town. Rubia settled for a former auto repair service station in a less-than enviable part of town where her neighbors consisted of a Vietnamese nail salon, a Mexican Mercado, a Hmong hubcap and tire reseller, a Korean massage parlor, and an American Goodwill Industries store. The businesses on either side of the IML office were long shuttered, weeds sprouting through cracks in their parking lot.

Rubia and I pulled into the small parking lot fronting the IML office and saw a kid no more than fourteen sitting on the step by the front door.

“Que pasa?” Rubia said to the boy after we parked and approached the entrance.

“Nada,” he replied, remaining seated, his eyes cast to the ground.

“Why aren’t you in school?” Rubia’s voice was soft, consoling, not accusatory.

The boy did not answer. He did not look up from the ground.

“Is there a problem?”

Again the boy did not answer. Rubia squatted down and gently slid her hand under the the boy’s arm to stand him up. The kid stood maybe five feet tall and couldn’t have been much more than a hundred pounds. We went inside the office, where four desks were crammed together along with a battered couch and an easy chair smudged with grease.

“I like what you’ve done with the place,” I said.

“My Feng Shui consultant is on vacation,” she said. She sat the boy down on the couch and sat beside him, putting her arm around his shoulders.

I could see now that the boy had been crying. I went to the desk as far from the couch as possible to give them some space.

“Carlos, tell me what’s wrong,” Rubia said.

“They said if I go to school they will beat me up,” Carlos said. “And if I don’t join their gang then they will burn down our house when we are sleeping inside.”

“Which gang is this?”

“The Willow Creek Mob. But they can’t know I came here. It would be bad.” Tears started to stream down the boy’s face.

“Why have they picked you?” Rubia said.

“They live in a house one block from mine. About ten of them. And there are others in the gang that don’t live there.”

“I know the Willow Creek Mob,” she said. “They have maybe thirty members. All punks. Do you know anyone who’s in the gang?”

The boy nodded.

“Who?”

“Kid used to be my best friend in elementary school. Antonio. He used to be nice to me, but in middle school he changed.”

“When he hooked up with the Willow Creek Mob?”

Again the boy nodded.

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