Chapter 3

Matilda stretched as she awoke, her skinny arms reaching for the ceiling. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before opening them slowly. Something felt odd. Her eyes darted right and then left without lifting her head. It was too quiet. And then she remembered she was not in her own bed in her own apartment. She listened for sounds. There were none.

Rolling out of the strange bed, Matilda winced at the dull pain between her legs. She plopped down on the side of the bed with her legs spread. She leaned forward to look between them. Other than her pussy being a little pinker, it looked the same. She put on her day-old clothes and roamed from room to room, sometimes on tiptoes. She would peek into a room before entering it. Each room was neater than the next. Everything was in its place.

She was alone.

Matilda returned to the bedroom and sat on the side of the bed. She patted her thighs to a tune in her head and swung her feet as she looked around. And then she saw the suitcase next to the dresser. Bored, she walked up to it. Placing a hand on her raised hip, Matilda stared down at the brown, battered suitcase. It seemed out of place. Why would Leon leave a suitcase there? Why wasn't it inside a closet? Was he planning a trip?

She tried lifting it. The weight strained her shoulder. Grabbing the handle with both hands, she slid it on the carpet and flipped it onto its side. She opened the clasps and raised the lid. Her gasp was so loud she looked over her shoulder to make sure no one had heard her. Inside were several guns in cutout foam padding. Two were missing. She slammed the suitcase closed and shoved it back to where she had found it.

Matilda wandered around the apartment. There was nothing to do. Leon didn't even have a TV. Then she made a decision. She turned the lever on the doorknob to keep it from self locking and went to her apartment. She again felt uneasy near the dried blood and body outlines, but she needed her things. She piled her bathroom items and clothing into bags and brought them back to Leon's apartment. It took several trips, but eventually all her worldly possessions were lined up in bags against the living room wall.

She returned to her old apartment one last time, to the bedroom she had shared with her baby brother. She reverently took the stuffed bear off the shelf over Bobby's bed and held it to her chest. She could visualize the bear cradled in Bobby's arm as he slept. A lone tear fell down her cheek.

Back in Leon's apartment, she sat on the couch staring at the bags, hugging the bear.

The front door opened and Leon staggered into the apartment. Matilda thought he was drunk. But when his long coat slipped from his shoulders onto the floor she saw the bloody shirt.

"What happened?!" she cried out. "Were you mugged?"

Leon looked at her as if he had forgotten she had moved in. Pressing his hand to his side, he hobbled to the bathroom without uttering a word. He took a few steps, paused, took a few steps, paused, took a few steps. Matilda followed from a distance, stopping and starting with him. She stood in the doorway to the bathroom as he pulled two pistols from his waistband and placed them on the counter. He grimaced as he peeled his shirt from his bloody skin.

Leon took several items from the medicine cabinet and cleaned and sterilized the wound. He twisted to look at the reflection of his back in the mirror. There was a hole there as well. After cleaning the exit wound, he covered both the front and back wounds with bandages and shoved past Matilda. She followed silently. He sat on the couch and she plopped down on the opposite end. She stared at him without saying anything for a while. But she was fourteen years old.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I was careless."

"What do you mean? Were you mugged?"

"No, I was not mugged."

"Were you shot?"

He looked at her, studying her face. "Yes, I was shot."

"You need to go to the hospital."

"No! No hospital."

"Who shot you?"

"It is not important."

Matilda opened her mouth to say something but he waved his hand at the bags. "What is this?" he asked.

"I brought my stuff over."

"You will have to put it away. It cannot stay there."

"Okay."

After a brief pause, Matilda said, "Who shot you?"

"Enough! No more questions."

Leon stared straight ahead while Matilda watched him. The silence lasted less than five minutes. "How come you have so many guns?" she asked.

He turned and stared at her. It was a cold stare. "It's my job."

"You're a cop?"

"No."

"Then what do you do?"

"People hire me to solve their problems."

Leon smiled at Matilda's confused expression. She looked up at him and then down, then back up at his face.

"I solve their problems with my guns."

Matilda's face lit up. "You're a hitman?"

"That's one name for what I do."

"Ohmigod! Will you teach me?"

It was now Leon's face that showed confusion. "Teach you what?"

"How to be a hitman."

Leon chuckled but immediately grimaced and held his side. "You're a little girl."

"But I have to get even for Bobby. Please teach me."

Leon's face hardened. "So who would you kill?"

"The cop who killed Bobby. Detective Grafton."

A small smile, like a smirk, curled up one side of Leon's mouth. "So you want to kill a cop, do you? And then what?"

"I'll be your partner. Teach me how."

Leon rubbed his chin with his forefinger and thumb while staring at the young girl. His eyes were piercing. The determined look on her face was real. "I'll think about it," he said. "But I have to heal now and that means rest. Go put away your belongings. It annoys me to see them there."

The next few days were spent tutoring the 14-year-old girl. But it wasn't on English or Math or Social Studies. Leon taught her how to take apart different weapons and put them back together. Matilda did it blindfolded. He described in great detail how to follow and stake out the victim, which he called the "mark." There was a lot on planning and preparation which Matilda did not have much patience for. When her mind wandered it was brought back with a hard slap to the back of her head. They even went to an indoor shooting range where Matilda fired several weapons.