* * *
Alicia grabbed hold of the gate and with all the strength she had left threw it open hitting her pursuer on the top of his head, again knocking him to the ground. Jumping over him she inadvertently stood on the cell-phone he had just dropped smashing it into pieces, this caused Alicia to slip and fall back. As she got to her feet she felt a large hand grip her by the ankle, she looked down to see the bloody face of the man that had chased her through the park.
Alicia swung her free leg back and kicked him under his chin, the bony faced man released his grip and Alicia then sprinted across the park. As she reached the gate that she first entered she turned and saw that both the men were standing at the other gate watching her, she was relieved they had given up. She went to her books, her heart was pounding her breath was rapid. The men were still standing there when she boarded a bus going the opposite way to home.
She couldn’t go to her Mothers work because she had always told her never to go there as the owner of the club wouldn’t like it and she could get fired. If she had a problem, Alicia was to knock on her neighbours door Mrs Mancini. ‘Well that’s out of the question.’ she thought. Luckily the bus she was on passed close by the club, nearby she could wait in a café that gave her a view of the clubs side entrance, so when her Mother came out she would join her and explain what had happened.
Alicia got off the bus at almost 4pm, she used the first public telephone she could find to call the club and speak to her Mother, but she had only just missed her, Mary Lou said she had just started her first show. She hung up the phone and made her way to the café, all the time looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was following.
Once inside she felt a great deal safer, she sat by one of the windows where she could see the side entrance to the club, and with her books in front of her, she waited.
After a few minutes a chubby waitress in a green apron and purple varicose veins decorating her legs came over to where she was sat. ‘What can I get you dearie?’ she asked holding a small pad and a chewed pencil in nicotine stained fingers.
‘Oh, no thanks, I’m just waiting for my mom.’ Alicia said smiling at the woman.
‘Sorry honey, management rules says’ ya gotta buy somethin.’
‘Oh, okay I’ll have a Pepsi then.’
‘Pepsi is only seventy-five cents, minimum spend is a dollar-fifty.’ she said coldly.
Alicia rolled her eyes. ‘Fine, get me two then.’
The waitress scribbled on her pad. ‘Two Pepsis comin up.’
She waited for about three minutes before the waitress brought her drinks over. She had expected two cans of Pepsi, instead she was given two small glasses of brown liquid, neither one of them was produced by the Pepsi corporation. She handed over the dollar-fifty and waited. The time now was four-fifteen. Alicia had almost two hours to wait, she could do that, and the drinks would certainly still be here. She opened one of her schoolbooks and decided she would do the homework she had been given.
When she had finished it an hour and a half had passed. She looked out of the window and caught sight of that same blue car passing the café. She lifted up her book and peered over the top of it, the car had passed by and she was sure she wasn’t spotted. A few minutes later she saw the man that was driving the car walking towards the café. Not only was he walking in her direction he was also staring straight at her. She immediately stood leaving her books on the table, and pushing past the chubby waitress in the green apron she entered the kitchen.
‘Hey!’ shouted the waitress. ‘You’re not allowed through there!’
But Alicia was gone; she rushed past a man turning over burgers on a burnt-black hob with half a cigar hanging from his mouth and sweat dripping from his face onto the hob. He watched in shock as she passed. She reached a door marked ‘FIRE EXIT’ and pushed the bar that ran across the middle of it. It opened with ease and she ran into an alley. Looking left she saw the driver of the car running in her direction, she turned to go back into the café but the door had closed behind her. ‘If only I’d stayed where I was, I was safe in the café.’ she thought.
Alicia turned to her right; the end of the alley was only a few yards away she could be out of it and away before he was even half way down it. She turned and started to run, as she almost reached the end she looked back to see how she was faring, ‘Not bad,’ she thought. The guy had gone. Just then she hit a wall, well it felt like a wall, she landed on her back and looked up, the sun was behind someone standing over her.
She couldn’t make out who it was, but he was damn tall. He reached down as though to help her to her feet, that’s when she felt all the oxygen disappear. He was holding something over her mouth and nose, she had never smelt this before but she had no choice, she had to breathe, then she felt herself going dizzy, she thought she heard a voice with an Italian accent shouting to her. ‘Hey, you… what are you doing to that girl?’ a grey mist descended over her eyes… then total darkness.
Louigi Roccossa ran along the alley that was at the rear of his café, he saw a scrawny man picking up the young black girl that had just run through his kitchen. Then he saw a blue car pull up and another man got out and helped the first man put the girl into the trunk of the car. By the time he reached the end of the alley the car was pulling away. He pulled a stub of a pencil from behind his ear and wrote down the licence plate number on a betting slip he had taken out of his back pocket.
When Louigi returned to the café he asked Nancy his waitress if the young girl was a customer or had she simply ran through the shop. Nancy didn’t want to say she was a customer because she knew Louigi would be pissed if she had let a customer into his kitchen.
‘No.’ she lied. ‘She just came rushing in the door and ran into the kitchen while I was serving someone at the other end.’
Louigi had a feeling she wasn’t being truthful, he looked around and saw the school books on a table by one of the windows. Nancy saw the look on his face as he realised she was a customer. ‘I was looking the other way Louigi.’ she said still thinking he would be pissed at her.
Louigi narrowed his eyes. ‘Call the police, now!’ he demanded.
‘Why, what’s happened?’ she asked.
‘Just do it. Then get your coat, we are closed for the rest of the day.’
‘But what about these customers?’ she said with a wave of her arm.
‘I will sort them out. Go into the kitchen and call the police, tell them a girl has been abducted and leave through the back. Go... Now!’ he shouted.
Nancy did as she was told and Louigi addressed all of his customers.
