He hung up! Which house, which edge of town? Tara wondered standing there staring at the phone. She sat down and took a deep breath. Maybe that old house. that sounded like Mal, so she took the spare key to his room and let herself in. He wasn't there and the bed had not been slept in so she just gambled it was him, took a full set of clothes, boxer shorts included and called a cab.<br/><br/>She called back to Marie who was just about to leave,<br/>"Hey, Marie, I have to go help a sick friend. I will be back in a bit. If Mrs. O'Neil checks out, she has already paid cash for the room, so don't charge her."<br/><br/>Marie grumbled but shooed her out the door. The cab carried her out north of town where she paid the driver in cash.<br/><br/>"Do ya want me to wait, lady? This ain't a good section of town." he asked, kindly.<br/><br/>"No, thanks," Tara answered. "I'm meeting a friend. We will be a while."<br/><br/>He revved the engine and a burst of dirty exhaust choked the air.<br/>"It's your funeral." he said and drove away.<br/><br/>It was a bad section of town. The buildings were tagged with gang grafitti and she felt eyes watching her. Tara only knew one way of dealing with this kind of a threat, and that was with her chin jutted out and her shoulders squared. She ducked through the alley and came out in a rural setting. A couple more blocks would put her at the old Rutkins place. She hoped she was right about which old house it was.