“Cool. Okay, hand it over. I’ll pop the lock and let’s go in. You got the gun so you cover my back, okay?”
“Okay.” He passed her the key and took out his pistol.
“Just don’t shoot me by accident, Dwight.”
He grinned. “Hell, Donna, that ain’t gonna happen, hon.”
“Just checking.”
She unlocked the door, and they quietly made their way inside and up a short flight of steps. The interior was tiny with only two doors. Cain knew one led to her bedroom, the other to the bathroom.
“You check that door,” she said, pointing to the bathroom door. “I’ll do the other.”
“You sure you want to split up?” said Dwight. “You don’t have a gun.”
She slid out her baton. “I got this and I do MMA.”
“For shit, really?”
“Yeah, just won a match the other night.”
“Well, you look like you can take care of yourself, that’s for sure. Just holler if you need me, hon.”
He went left and Cain entered her room on the right. She eyed the floorboard and thought quickly. She opened the window and then stepped back. “Hey, Dwight, come quick,” she called out.
Talbot bolted into the room. “There was nobody in the bathroom,” he said. “What’s up?”
Cain pointed at the window.
“Just saw the asshole running into the woods behind here. He must’ve gotten in and then out through this window when he heard us coming. You look faster than me. Go after him and I’ll call this in.”
“Right! I’ll get the son of a bitch.”
Talbot bolted outside. As soon as Cain heard the door bang open she lifted up the floorboard, took out her cash, gun, and pot, put the board back, and ran down the stairs and out the door. She put all her stuff in her car and was back at the building when Talbot came huffing back.
“H-he must’a got away,” said Talbot, bending over and sucking in air. “Y-you call it in?”
“Been trying. Damn cell phone’s got no bars. You’re going to have to do it.”
“O-okay.” He straightened and made the call.
When he was done, Cain looked down at her phone. “Hell, now I get a call coming in? I hate AT&T.” She put it to her ear. “Yeah? What, yeah, this is Donna White. You’re shitting me, right? No, really, you’re shitting me? Okay, well screw you, too.”
She put the phone away in her pocket with a disgusted look on her face.
“What was that all about?” Dwight asked anxiously.
“Steele just canned my ass. And you want to know why? Because they saw on the film from last night that I dozed off for like ten seconds. Like no rental cop’s ever done that.”
“Sorry asses,” exclaimed Talbot.
“So, they just told me to get my butt back and turn in all my stuff. Yeah, I’ll turn it in. I’ll throw it in a fucking dumpster.”
“What I would do, no lie, hon,” said Talbot.
“Well, hang in there, Dwight, don’t let them screw with you.”
“Okay, Donna, hey sorry, gal.”
“Yeah, everybody’s got problems. But I’m still breathing, right? And look, don’t even mention I was here to anybody, okay? They’ll probably try to pull some bullshit about something that happened so they can screw me out of my last paycheck.”