Read Cain for Free Online Page B

her, and he had no doubt that he
would, he decided that he was going to paddle her backside but
good, then he was going to make love to her until she was too
sated, too relaxed to leave him again.
    “ You know that if she
doesn’t want to be found, you won’t find her, don’t you? She has
more aliases than I have ever heard. Half the people we talk to
won’t answer us; the other half have no clue who she is,” the cop,
Neil James, mused. Cait had assigned him to help Cain look for
Julie and he was, frankly, driving Cain nuts.
    “ I’m going to find her,”
Cain growled for the third time in the last twenty minutes. “Have
you asked those people over there? I’m going to ask them; you go
over there and ask.”
    “ Who should I tell ‘em
we’re looking for? I got no idea what to call the stupid girl. Why
she’d be out in this sort of weather is beyond me. I’d want to be
in my…”
    Cain tuned him out. If he didn’t, he
might choke the life out of the cop. How a person got through life
as negative as Neil was beyond Cain. He walked up to the next
“house” and knocked on the top.
    Cain looked around the area. There were
perhaps twenty men and women staying in this area of Columbus.
Their homes varied as much as the people living here. Boxes from
large appliances, sheets pulled over strings. Two people he’d seen
so far were living in a car, the front wheels gone and the back
ones flat. Most of the people were dirty and had smelled so bad
that Cain was thankful they were out of doors. But others were
clean, if not a little worn down.
    Cait had told him not to wear nice
clothes when coming down here. He’d already figured that out, but
he was sure her reasons were vastly different than his had been. He
needed to blend in and his suit pants wouldn’t have done that.
She’d also told him not to take out his cell phone or his wallet,
and under no circumstances was he to give anyone money. He‘d be
killed in a quick breath of air if he did.
    Cain could smell the man before he
poked his head out of his box. He leaned down to speak to him when
he looked as if he wasn’t going to come out. That’s when he saw the
two oranges and the apple. The fruit basket.
    Cain wasn’t sure how he knew Julie had
given this man the fruit, but he did. When the man noticed that
Cain was looking at them, he covered the fresh fruit with his
blanket and glared up at Cain.
    “ I don’t need no
preaching. I get enough of that on Wednesday when I get my free
meal at the shelter on Tuesday. It’s Friday now, and I want you to
peddle your wares somewhere else.”
    Cain was slightly confused about the
timeline, but hurried on before the man went back into his shelter.
“I’ll give you two more oranges and a pear if you tell me who gave
you those oranges.”
    The man eyed Cain for what seemed an
eternity and just when Cain was about to double the offer, the man
spoke. He had a great deal of suspicion in his voice, but he did
answer. “Pears are mighty expensive, boy. You must want her real
bad. I think maybe you’d go for...three pears and four oranges. I
think that’s worth some information, don’t you?” He smiled up at
Cain.
    Cain would have bought him a crate of
whatever he wanted if he led him to Julie. But now it was a matter
of pride and bargaining. He knew the man wouldn’t just take the
fruit. He’d seen what thinking someone was trying to give charity
had made Julie feel.
    “ All right, but two pears.
As you said, they are expensive. And if this is the girl I’m
looking for, I’ll give you some bananas too,” Cain said after
careful consideration.
    The man looked at his stash then back
at Cain. “She in trouble? I like Miss Rocky. She ain’t done nothing
but be a good girl to me and my Toby. But a man has to
eat.”
    Cain’s disappointment was profound.
Miss Rocky wasn’t who he was looking for. He’d pay the man anyway—a
deal was a deal, but he was disappointed all the same.
    “ No, she’s not in