His heart beat fast and he breathed as calmly and quietly as he could, trying not to make a sound. He kept his feet behind the tires so if the man looked, maybe he wouldn’t see him. A minute passed, and then another, with no one coming. The man didn’t appear around the end of the car or anything. It was just him and the rain that had started again. Slowly Bazel snuck back between the cars, getting farther from the road toward the alley at the back of the parking lot. He peeked out from between the last cars. The alley was empty, so he hurried down it toward Atlas’s house and made the turn at the end, where he nearly ran into a man. Jumping back, he was about to take off in the other direction when he noticed it wasn’t the same person. “Sorry,” he said before stepping aside and then racing down the sidewalk to Atlas’s house.
There was no one else out on the sidewalk, and when he reached the front door, he still hadn’t seen anyone. There was only the sound of the rain on the pavement, and the splish-splash of the drops as they hit puddles filled the air. Bazel went inside and locked the door. The he went in back to check the yard to make sure no one had tried to come through the gate. Finally, he checked the house just to be sure before he grabbed his phone and settled on the sofa.
He held it in his hands, about to call Atlas, but he didn’t. Bazel stared at it, but then he felt so dumb. What would he tell him—that he thought someone might have been following him home, so he hid, but then there wasn’t anyone after that? Whatif it was all his imagination? The man in the library could have been someone who was taking shelter from the rain and left when Bazel did because it had let up for a while, and maybe he lived in the same area of town and was hurrying because the rain was coming down harder. He took a deep breath and went to the front to pull the curtains closed so no one could see in. Then he sat back on the sofa, curling into the cushions and wishing that Atlas and Evie were there and he wasn’t all alone.
All the doors were locked, and Atlas had all kinds of cameras and things in the yard and around the house, and he could see pictures of them on his phone, even when he was at work, which made Bazel feel a little better. It stayed quiet, with just the light patter of rain on the roof, so he set the slightly damp book on the coffee table to dry and picked up the one he had been reading in the library. He needed something to pass the time until Atlas got home.
THE BACKdoor opened, and Bazel heard the jingle of Evie’s leash. Then she bounded in without her harness, and Bazel greeted her like a long-lost friend. He had spent the rest of the afternoon with jangled nerves, and Evie soothed them as nothing else could.
Atlas came in stony-faced and sat down across from him. “TheWicked Ladymade port in Miami, but customs enforcement found nothing on board. They brought dogs and sniffed all the containers as they were brought off. The ship made an unscheduled stop in the Middle East, and I know they had contraband on board, but they must have already unloaded it at a previous stop before they reached port here.” He paced the room.
“Did they find anything at all?” Bazel asked.
He nodded slowly. “The dogs indicated one container in particular, and when they opened it, the container was completely empty and might have been washed. According to the manifest, it was supposed to contain paper products.”
“That was where the people were,” Bazel said. “But they were gone.” He shook his head. “I sorry for them. Where do they think they are?”
Atlas swallowed hard and didn’t say anything. He simply stared at the wall. It took Bazel a few seconds before he put his hand over his mouth. His back tingled, and then he hung his head, eyes filling with tears for people he never knew. Then he realized that could have been him. If they had gotten close to being discovered, Breaker and the other men would have pulled them out of their hiding place and tossed them into the sea. Atlas leaned forward and took his hand.
“No one would have looked for us. We would have just been gone, and no one would care.” His family would never know, and they would never think of him. If that had happened, he would have been completely forgotten. Bazel wanted to do something about it. He wanted to take some sort of action, but there was nothing he could do. Without thinking, he turned his face upward and cried out. A lament for the dead, a long-suppressed memory, came forward, and he sang it for people he didn’t know… but in a way… he did.
ATLAS SATquietly and let him finish. Bazel wondered what he must have thought about him singing and praying at the top of his voice for the souls of people he had never met. But Bazel felt that they should be remembered in some way, and he was possibly the only one to do it. Once he was done, he sat back and closed his eyes, emotionally wrung out. When he raised his gazeto Atlas, he saw something more in his eyes. “What else you have to tell me?”
“They found Breaker, or Wendell Horn.”
“Did you catch him?” Bazel asked.
Atlas shook his head. “No. He was in very bad shape, and they found him in Virginia, south of here. Apparently after Evie went at him, he left the area and tried to go home, but he never made it. The infection was probably too much. We don’t know. But his body was found yesterday, along with his car, on the side of a road in rural Fairfax County. So he isn’t going to be able to help any of us.”
“Okay.”
“That also means that he isn’t going to be back here after you. But I wish we had been able to catch him so we could talk to him. I’m sure he would have been able to answer a lot of questions for us as well as for you.” Bazel wished that too, but there was nothing they could do about it. At least he was safer now. He thought of telling Atlas about the man from the library, but he wasn’t sure. He kept wondering, what if Chris found him a new place to live? He didn’t want to leave Atlas. He liked it here. No, it was best he was sure he knew what was going on before he said anything. Bazel knew what the man looked like, so if he saw him again, he would be ready.
“You think he tell others?” Bazel asked.
“Do you mean did Wendell tell other people where they can find you? I don’t know. But the fact that he is gone makes you safer.” Atlas’s phone rang, and he left the room, leaving Bazel alone with Evie, who sat next to his legs, soaking up the attention. When Atlas returned, he sat down again. “That was the agent from the FBI, the one who wasn’t very nice to you. He asked if you were still here or if you had left the area. I told him you hadn’t. I think they wanted to make sure you hadn’t harmed Wendell.” Atlas rolled his eyes, which Bazel thought waskind of cute, coming from such a big man. “He also said that customs found some small amounts of illegal substances on the ship. Enough that they are able to impound it, so it’s out of commission.”
“That good. No one else get hurt.” At least that was a good thing. “I think these good people because they brought me here. But they not. They bad, and they….” His words failed him.
“Yes. I understand. You thought they were bringing you here and were going to help you.”
Bazel nodded. He felt so stupid now. These people didn’t care about anything other than how much they could make, and when the going got tough, they dumped people overboard rather than get caught. People like him and the women he had been put with. He hoped they never found out just how close they had all come to being fish food.
“What we do now?”
“There isn’t a lot I can do. I’m a police officer, but my jurisdiction… my field of influence is only this town. I don’t have any authority outside it.”
“So I lucky you and Evie find me.” He was becoming aware of just how much luck was involved with him getting to this country and then being found like he was and encountering people who would help him. “I very lucky.”
Atlas drew closer. “I think I’m the lucky one.” Atlas kissed him, and Bazel couldn’t help sniffling just a little. “Now we have to keep you safe and figure out a way to let you stay. The fact that you paid to come here and tried to sneak in is not in your favor. But because you were in danger, and we might even be able to prove that you were being held against your will and could be in danger in your home country, adds to your argument.”
“They would kill me. I know that.” Bazel shivered. “I cannot go back. It very bad for me there.”
“Yeah, I know.” Atlas didn’t seem to know what else to say, and all Bazel could do was hope that they let him stay. Otherwise, if he was going to be sent back…. He really didn’t want to think about that. Maybe once he got there, he could escape again and try to go somewhere else. But staying in his home country was not an option, not for someone like him.
Atlas took both his hands. “Chris and I will do everything we can for you. She is really good at filling out these kinds of applications. First, we need to get you a temporary visa, and she is working on that. Then we have to go for something more permanent.” He lightly squeezed Bazel’s hand, and they sat silently together, thinking the same things, putting all the good thoughts they could out into the universe. Bazel hoped that good things would come back to him.
Chapter 15
