Once Bitten, Twice Dead Read online

  My goal was to join Sellica and her minions, but at this point I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do that. I sat there nibbling at my taco salad from the Saladworks eatery across the way. Three digs into the bowl still had not produced a way to get into that group.

  Suddenly one of Sellica’s girls began to play her radio loud, with the other members starting to move to the music. With so many people eating at the surrounding tables there had been a constant buzz of conversation, but this sound rose above all that. After two minutes of incessant noise, a man who had been at a nearby table with his family, came over to Sellica’s spontaneous party.

  “Let’s quiet the music down. I’ve got a small child over there, and she just fell asleep.”

  The girls with the radio was quick to answer: “It’s a free country, buster. We wanna enjoy some tunes.”

  The man did not back down. “I guess I could call security and have you all thrown out of here.”

  The girl with the radio was about to give another retort, when a tall broad-shouldered girl stood up and put a hand on the other girl’s arm. She looked in charge, so she must be Sellica, I thought to myself.

  “We’re sorry, mister. Tanya, cool the music.” Tanya did turn the music lower.

  After the guy went back to his table, I could hear Sellica say, “Tanya that was stupid. What we don’t want is to attract attention, and especially we don’t want a security guard paying us some attention. The more invisible we are, the more we can take. I shouldn’t have even let you turn on that blast-box; so now, turn it off.”

  “Whatever,” Tanya said. Sellieca gave her a very nasty look, and Tanya immediately turned the radio off.

  But now I had an idea.

  I projected my voice toward that table. “That music is trash, anyway.” Three faces turned toward me.

  “Who the hell asked you?” Sellica’s question had force behind it.

  “I’m just saying that the ‘Red Hot Mamas’ went out of style six months ago.”

  “I could see that Sellica was somewhat interested in my brazen attitude. “What do you listen to, little girl?”

  “I like ‘The Turncoats,” or ‘The Turtle Stabbers.’” I had done some research last night on the internet about what was hot with teens. I even knew about the latest acne cream.

  Tanya shook her head at my answer and was getting up to maybe show me who was boss, when Sellica barked out: “Sit down, Tanya!” Then Sellica looked me over for what seemed like eternal seconds. “Come over here, Sister. She pulled up a chair next to her. “Here, sit.”

  I hoped that all this was not going to take too long because my fake nose piercing was starting to itch. I also hope that Sellica would not start touching my neck tattoo because it would rub off. I had chosen a snake wrapped around a pitchfork.

  Sellica turned her face right into mine, but I didn’t look away. As young kids, Mark and I had staring contests, and I always won. Finally, after about a minute of this, Sellica asked, “What’s your name?”

  “Amber,” I said. I think I was in.

  CHAPTER FIFTY TWO

  “Well, Amber, you seem like you’ve got a little spunk. How about joining us for a little shopping blast?”

  “We don’t need nobody else,” Tanya said.

  “Tanya, if I have to tell you one more time to shut up, we won’t be needing you ever again. Sophia isn’t here today. We could use an extra. We don’t want all that good merchandise to be just rotting away on those shelves, do we?”

  “What’s this shopping thing you’re talking about?” I asked.

  “Come on, we’ll show you,” Sellica replied.

  We all walked toward the Forever 21 store. Sellica said to me, “You’ll be the distraction. Get some item and make like there’s a problem with it, or you can’t find the right size, something like that. Just distract the clerk, and we’ll do the taking.”

  I pretended to be somewhat shocked. “You’re going to take things from a store?”

  “Right on, baby—and now you’re in it with us.” Sellica took hold of my arm and squeezed. It hurt but I didn’t utter a sound. “You got that, Amber?” Sellica’s voice took on a low throaty quality.

  “Sure. . .yes. . .I’m in with you all.”

  Each of us walked into the store at two minute intervals. Sellica stayed around the corner holding each of us back until she thought the time was right. She was definitely in control of the entire operation. I did my distracting bit, but Sellica’s team was out of there so fast I didn’t have time to warn the clerk. After getting my “problem” resolved I just walked out.

  When I went around the corner to where Sellica was standing, she congratulated me: “Good job, Amber, that was an easy one. They had no security strips on half their merchandise. Tanya got a lot of loot. Tanya proudly held up her two bags full of stuff that had once belonged inside the store.

  “We’ll hit Banana Republic, and then we can go home,” Sellica said.

  Again I went into my distracting act, this time getting a little creative by tearing off the first five tags off a silk blouse hanging on a rack near the register. “I can’t seem to find how much this is,” I said to the nearby clerk. As the bewildered clerk was looking through the merchandise, out of the corner of my eye I could see Sellica’s girls going about their business. This store didn’t seem to have any security cameras, and I was taking care of the one clerk so a blocker wasn’t needed. Sellica told me that she had walked around this store a couple days earlier, and she knew its set-up. Thus, both of Sellica’s mules were loading up their already half-full bags of merchandise taken from other stores. When we had gotten up from the table in the food court, I saw that the group already had bags with other store labels on them. “We can’t just walk into a store with empty bags,” Sellica had said to me.

  Tanya and Sellica’s other girl whom I was never introduced to were beginning to edge toward the exit. Soon one of them would leave, while the other still browsed to again not give the impression they were together. The clerk I had been fussing with had a clip on her top that said, “Manager,” so I thought she would have the authority to do something about a robbery. She had just found a silk blouse with a proper tag on it, when I leaned over to her and said, “I’m an undercover cop. Don’t look right now, but in a few seconds, see those two girls near the exit. They’re stealing your merchandise—nothing in the bags they have will have a sales slip with it. You’d better move after them before they get away.”

  The manager instantly pressed a red button on a strip she had attached to her belt. Then she walked slowly toward the two girls. She seemed well versed in not alarming them. As she got within a few feet of Tanya and the other girl, a hefty security guard appeared at the entrance. It had been good coordination—both of Sellica’s girls were captured, and they did struggle but fortunately for the manager she was joined by a second security guard, and both men subdued the two thieves. Neither one of Sellica’s girls tried to pull a knife—probably they were smart enough not to add aggravated assault to their shoplifting charges. As a safeguard, I had told the manager that each of the girls could have a knife, and I heard her communicate this to the two security guards. I didn’t want to have anything to do with the actual apprehending so that nothing could eventually be traced back to Sophia through me.

  After the two girls were led away, the manager came back to thank me. “There’s been a lot of merchandise stolen from this mall the last month. These could be the thieves doing all of it. You’ve done these stores and us a good service.”

  “By the way, did you happen to see another girl waiting near the entrance—she was tall and pretty muscular?” I wanted the total gang captured, especially the ringleader.

  “All I saw were the two girls we got.”

  Sellica must have melted back into the mall crowd when she saw the security guards approaching. Oh, well she’s lost most of her work force—it’ll take her a while to gather up any more recruits, and also these stores will all now
be on high alert for a girl of her description. I made sure the store manager knew that maybe one member of the shoplifting cadre had gotten away, and I told her in detail what Sellica looked like. Sellica herself had a noticeable tattoo right under her chin of a long-handled knife, which I’m sure would not rub off like mine.

  However, the most important part of that afternoon’s work for me was that there no longer was a group for Sophia to come back to. Sophia had told Phil that Sellica didn’t know where she lived, or even her last name. It seemed that Phil’s sister was safe. With a spring in my step, I was walking out of the mall to my car where Phil was waiting. I had told Phil that unless I called his cell I would handle this totally alone, so that again Sellica couldn’t trace Sophia through her brother. Things had gone well. I was feeling pretty good.

  Suddenly I was slammed against the wall, and I felt cold steel against my neck.

  That same low guttural voice: “Turn around and just walk. Do it slowly, or this blade will find its home.” It was my friend, Sellica.

  She began walking by the side of me, every now and then jabbing me with the knife.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To my car. We’re going to have a little party ourselves, just you and me. Fourteen months I’ve been doing this and never been caught. Then you show up and two of my girls are gone. Who are you?”

  “Not for you to know, Sellica.”

  “How do you know my name? I never told it to you.”

  I stayed silent.

  “Oh, cat got your tongue? Maybe when we get to my car and take a ride, my little sharp stick here will make you talk; and if you don’t talk, maybe then I’ll have your tongue.”

  I remembered what Sophia had told Phil about Sellica stabbing that girl in the chest. I had to do something pretty quick. The advantage I had over Sellica was that I had been trained at the police academy, and she just had street smarts. I wasn’t trying to undervalue her at all—I knew that probably to be queen of that group she’d had to fight her way to the top of it; she had probably seen her share of battles. This was an experienced person.

  We were getting to the far end of the parking lot. No one else was around. I spun to my left knocking Sellica’s arm away, but she reacted in an instant slashing at me and tearing a bloody rip down my elbow toward my wrist. I couldn’t believe she had moved so quickly. I pushed her away and took a fighting stance. Without a moment’s hesitation Sellica rushed at me and again slashed at me with her knife. I was quick myself and moved away, but she did manage to nick me near my side. Great. Now I was bleeding from two spots. But I remembered my training: let your opponent make the aggressive moves. So I waited, and again Sellica charged at me, but this time I was ready for her. I grabbed her knife arm with two hands at the wrist and elbow and threw her through the air. She banged against the side of car that had been in back of us, and slid down the side of it. She was fairly heavy, and I didn’t think I had been able to throw her hard enough to knock her out.

  I was correct. She wasn’t knocked out. What had happened was that as I turned her arm, her wrist bent inward and apparently she had stabbed herself in the stomach. As she slumped to the pavement next to the car’s tire, I saw that her bleeding was outdoing mine. I quickly grabbed my cell phone and called Phil to send an ambulance. He had been waiting in the parking lot on the other side of the mall. I had told him to stay back unless I called because I thought the savvy Sellica might notice him following us.

  As I finished the call, Sellica looked up at me with hatred in her eyes. “You bitch,” she said—and then she died. Not the best last words that have ever been said. Phil was there within a minute, but apparently Sellica’s knife had punctured too many crucial areas.

  I was shook up. When I had originally been training to be a cop, the instructor did say that probably there would come a time when we would kill someone. At that time, in class, like the cocky recruit I was, I thought, “Yeah, I can do that.” But now seeing the dead Sellica Tomkins lying there next to a radial tire, I couldn’t escape the fact that I had done that. Sure, I hadn’t intended to kill her, and yes I was fighting for my life—Sellica was very angry at me, and if I had gotten into that car with her, she might have killed me right there. But the fact was also that if I hadn’t been at this mall today and weaseled myself into her group, Sellica would probably still be alive.

  When the mall authorities and the local cops were done with their questions and I was riding back to my place with Phil, I was not in the mood for conversation.

  “Are you all right, Raven?”

  “No.”

  More silence, for maybe five minutes.

  “Stolle?”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t do that on purpose. It isn’t murder.”

  “What do you call it?”

  “I’d call it self-defense.”

  “You’re right, Phil, that’s the legal term, but right now I don’t feel very legal.”

  Another three minutes of silence.

  “Phil, have you ever killed anyone since you’ve been a cop?”

  “No, actually you’re one ahead of me now.”

  “That’s what I need, Phil—sarcasm.”

  “Sorry, that was bad of me. If it’s any consolation to you, Raven, maybe you saved my sister’s life.”

  In feeling sorry for myself, I had almost forgotten the whole point of my getting into that group. “There is that, Phil. Do you think the other girls will finger her to the police?”

  “Remember, I told you that they didn’t go by last names in that group. They only knew her as Sophia, and that’s it.”

  “I did forget that. That fight did rattle me—I’m losing my memory.”

  “Raven, law enforcement will be glad to know that that group of thieves is disbanded. Now that Sellica is dead, they’ll probably check where she lives. I’m sure they’ll find a lot more merchandise there, and maybe they can trace all that back to her boyfriend who was getting rid of the stuff. As far as I know, that boyfriend had never met Sophia, so hopefully this bad judgment of my sister is over. I’m going to have a talk with her when I get home to see that she stays on the straight and narrow. And I’m going to keep monitoring that situation.”

  “Maybe running into Sellica scared her enough that she wouldn’t venture into those kinds of things again. Sellica was a scary person.”

  “I hope so, Raven. I hope so.”

  So again, the universe had reached out and pulled me in. And I wasn’t even thirty years old yet. What more was in store for me?”

  CHAPTER FIFTY THREE

  Phil and I were now dating regularly. There was still no sex, but a warm feeling was developing between us. Maybe I’d call it trust—I think both of us felt we could count on each other.

  The night before, driving home from a movie, Phil abruptly said, “I think I’m going to quit the force.” He was staring straight ahead, with both hands on the wheel.

  “Oh, good move, Phil. You’ve been a cop for how long—fifteen years?”

  “Sixteen.”

  “O.K., sixteen years, and then suddenly you’re just going to walk away from it all. What about the twenty year pension thing? You only have a little time left.”

  “I don’t know if I can make it four more years.”

  “What’s been happening?”

  “My nerves are going. I used to be calmer, more in control. This relationship with you, Raven, has been great, but on the job I feel all strained and frayed. I start out each day O.K., but after five or six hours I’m just not too balanced. Yesterday my partner and I were doing a routine stop of a vehicle to check for drugs. The kid smart-mouthed me, and I grabbed him and almost hit him. My partner had to pull me off him.

  “The kid could have pressed charges, but I scared him so much he was glad to drive away. I’m scaring myself, Raven. A week ago, chasing a hit-and-run driver I lost control of my vehicle and spun out on a turn. Lucky there were no other cars starting into the intersection. I could
have hurt someone and myself.

  “I know I’m not that old, but I think I’m just wearing out. Maybe the shelf-life of a cop is only ten years before things start getting to him.”

  “If you did quit, Phil, what would you do then? What kind of job would you want?”

  “I don’t know. At first I thought I’d ask to maybe join you at your agency, but then when I thought about it, that just wouldn’t work.”

  “I agree. It would feel too much like David again. What else did you think of?”

  “Now, don’t laugh, but I thought about being a teacher.”

  I couldn’t picture Phil as a teacher, but at least I didn’t laugh. Phil never seemed very academic to me.

  “I thought about being a special ed. teacher, to help kids who have problems and disabilities. Maybe I could help someone like Sellica never become that way. So many people I’ve arrested are so far gone, I don’t know if there’s hope for them. If I could have contacted some of those people at an earlier age, maybe I could have influenced them toward a more satisfying path than the one they took.”

  “You know, Phil, dealing with those kids isn’t that easy. Look at how you reacted to that one kid when he smarted off at you during that car check.”

  “But with those kids in class I’d be trying to teach them something, not arrest them. When I go to work each day now, I’m trying to find something bad about a person, not steer him or her toward something good. It’s like being a dentist, having to always deal with cavities—all I see each day is decay.”

  “The other thing, Phil, is that you can’t just automatically become a teacher in a couple of days. You have to take courses. It takes time.”

  “I know that, and I’ve already checked with Temple University, and they told me I could get a certificate in maybe two years if I took pretty intensive course work—you know, like night school. I’d keep my cop job for the time being and take those courses after work. It would give me something to strive for.”