“Thank you,” I said, holding out hands I’d put into fingerless gloves. “Feels nice on a night like this.”
“Been cold but at least it ain’t rainin’,” the elderly man drawled in a southern accent. He smiled again, showing me a mouthful of brown teeth. “Cleeves.”
“Pardon?” I asked.
He held out a grimy hand. “Jack Cleeves.”
“Oh…ah, my name is Wes,” I said, shaking his hand. Cleeves glanced at Patsy before holding out his hand. Patsy took it, remaining silent. “His name is Pat,” I said, shortening his name as we’d agreed. “He doesn’t talk much.” The man simply nodded as he looked Patsy up and down as though he was searching for a reason why.
“New to the camp?” Cleeves asked.
I nodded. “Ah, yes, first night here, in fact. We—ah…Pat and I—used to live at River Bottom in Ventura,” I replied, confident in the correct name of a homeless encampment Captain Sorensen had described on the ride over in the FBI S.W.A.T. vehicle.
“Ventura,huh?” the man on the far side of Cleeves asked. “Why’d you come east?”
“Personally, I was very tired of being run off by police,” I said. “I lost a nice tent that way.”
Both men nodded sagely. “Yeah, it’s getting harder and harder just to live,” the man said before spitting out a gob ofbrown liquid. I hadn’t even realized he had a bulge of chewing tobacco in his lower lip until just now.
We all turned back to the fire, remaining silent for a few minutes. Patsy shifted beside me, giving me my cue. I glanced around. “Haveyoubeen living here long?”
“Too long,” Cleeves said.
I waited for him to elaborate, and when he didn’t, I felt somewhat lost. I needed people to be more forthcoming about their lives, which I should know was probably foolish. It took time for people to open up and I couldn’t just say, “Hey, seen any serial killers lately?”
“Ask them if you’re the only strangers to come around lately,” a voice said in the earwigs. “Maybe that’ll make them open up about the camp residents.” That time I recognized the deep voice as belonging to Napoleon.
“So, are we the only newcomers?” I asked, staring into the fire as I tried to make the query sound casual.
“People come and go,” Cleeves said.
“True.” Boy, these guys were a fucking font of knowledge. I’d forgotten how hard this was. I looked around again. “Mostly men here,huh?”
Cleeves and his friend eyeballed me with frowns. “You come here lookin’ for women?” As I considered how to answer the question, Cleeves glanced around. “Bein’ truthful…there ain’t many I’d bed,” the old man said with a grin. “The youngin’s got kids and stick to themselves. Don’t want you a piece of that.”
I shook my head. “No, I didn’t mean that. I only meant to say, I’ve noticed a lot of men, but not a lot of women here. It was more mixed at Ventura.”
The old man frowned at me. “You talk like you come out of a boardroom like one o’ them CEOs. Cultured like. Why ain’t you workin’? Got yourself a job?”
I opted for the truth. “My mother died a while back and only too late, I realized she’d mortgaged the house to the gills after my dad died. I took care of her when she was sick and had to quit my job when I went from being a part-time caregiver to having to stay with her all the time. I rapidly went through my savings and by the time she’d passed, the bank owned her house and they’d repo’ed my car. I lived in my mom’s car for a while, but the cops impounded it, so I was…well…as you see, living out on the street.”
“Educated guy like you can’t get another job?” the other man asked.
I shook my head. “Unfortunately, I’m a mathematician, so finding a job isn’t easy. After I became homeless, I packed everything I owned into my car. As I’m sure you know, it’s hard enough to find a decent job in a shrinking economy, much less one in a university setting or research environment which is where people in my profession are usually employed.”
Patsy nudged me and I glanced over. He gave me an exaggerated eyeroll. I didn’t know how to interpret that, but I realized I’d long since strayed off topic. I gave him an imperceptible nod and then looked around a little bit. “I…ah…haven’t seen anyone around here that I know,” I said as I returned my attention to them.
“New here, right?”
I realized my error and immediately corrected myself. “Yes, it’s just…there was a guy at River Bottom…the kind who makes you feel unsettled. I was hoping I wouldn’t see him here. You know that type?”
Both men nodded. “Yeah, we know the type, but River Bottom’s a long way away, son,” Cleeves said, “so I doubt he’d be ‘round here.”
I felt my heart start to race. “I’d like to avoid them…those types, I mean…if there are any like that around here.”
“Yeah,” Cleeves drawled. “Good to avoid them types, but there’s too many to count like that ‘round here.”
“Most of them are on drugs,” the other guy said. “Stay away from those. They’re dangerous.”
