Protectors

by Kris Nelscott

  These men hunted a person, taken something from that person, and left that person physically damaged. Badly damaged.

  And in the case of Lavassier, maybe even killed some people, although we didn’t know that for certain.

  And now, as I learned through this discussion, the similarities continued. Eagle’s frustration with the Berkeley Police detective mimicked my frustration with a private detective I had hired in February, to see if there was a way to stop him—Vitel, dammit, I would use his name now—from following me everywhere.

  The language Eagle used to describe her conversation with Detective Brunsan echoed the language in the letter I had received from the private detective, a letter I had memorized because I had read it so many times:

  * * *

  Although Mr. Vitel’s actions are invasive, they are not illegal. His unwanted advances simply make him a persistent suitor, something the law can do nothing about. Unless Mr. Vitel breaks the law in his contact with you, you cannot bring any authorities in to dissuade him from his behavior.

  Given Mr. Vitel’s profession, he probably knows this. We suggest that you continue to politely rebuff his attentions until he finds another target for his affections.

  * * *

  Affections, suitor—those words did not describe Lavassier. Of course, they hadn’t described Vitel either. But the rest of that letter matched what Lavassier was doing. His actions were invasive, but not illegal. At least, not in any way that someone could prove.

  So we needed to figure out how to prove that Vitel—I closed my eyes, and forced myself to start again, glad I hadn’t spoken aloud.

  We had to figure out how to prove that Lavassier was acting illegally, that he was causing extreme harm to these kids.

  And we had to do it in a way that protected them.

  Eagle was staring at me. She had a penetrating look, one that seemed to see all the way through to my soul.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked softly.

  I was thinking that I had to be careful. I had to make certain I wasn’t reacting out of fear of Vitel or some kind of flashback.

  But aside from that mental slip—Vitel’s name for Lavassier’s—I was clearheaded. I was calm, calmer than I had been in months.

  Then I realized that Eagle wasn’t asking what I was thinking about, the way a friend would. She was asking what kind of help I thought we could provide the police.

  I picked up the cup of tea that Eagle had poured at the beginning of the meal. The cup was warm, but the tea had a small film over the surface. It had grown tepid.

  “Does it seem to you that this Lavassier works alone?” I asked.

  I had to know that—we had to know that—before we made any decisions. Because if we were dealing with an organized group of bounty hunter detectives, then we were out of our league.

  We were probably out of our league with one as well, but I wasn’t going to consider that. Not at the moment, anyway.

  “If he has an answering service, then I’d say yes.” Pammy pushed away from the counter and came back to the table, sitting gingerly. This conversation was making her uncomfortable, but to her credit, she wasn’t backing out of it.

  “Eagle?” I asked, looking at her.

  “Brunsan seemed to think so,” she said.

  “I’m not asking Brunsan,” I said. “I’m asking you.”

  She used her fork to mound the remaining food on one side of her plate. “I don’t know much about bounty hunters. I have no idea if he’s working alone.”

  “In larger cities,” Pammy said, “there are bail bonds organizations that employ bounty hunters. But I don’t think this is one of those organizations.”

  I sipped my tea. It was barely warm at all and pretty weak. I agreed with Pammy, but I wanted to hear her analysis.

  “I mean, your detective friend—”

  “He’s not my friend,” Eagle said sharply, as if Pammy had offended her.

  “All right. The detective, Brunsan, he told you that this Lavassier is from Louisiana. That’s where he’s licensed. He went through some kind of elaborate scheme to get California plates and establish himself here.” Pammy was holding a cup as well, only hers was filled with coffee. It looked as cold as my tea.

  She looked at me, then at Eagle, before continuing.

  “You don’t do that if you have a big company behind you. And you don’t move all the way from Louisiana to here by yourself. He has clearly rebuilt his business here. I wonder if he got in trouble in Louisiana.” She said that more to herself than to us.

  “Huh,” Eagle said, as if all of that were new to her.

  “If he got into trouble there,” I said, “wouldn’t they have told Detective Brunsan?”

  “I don’t know if they attach information like that to a detective license in Louisiana,” Pammy said to me. “Besides, I doubt anyone cares if a bounty hunter roughs up someone who skipped bail.”

  Eagle looked at her sideways.

  “There are a lot of people who can be roughed up without authorities taking notice,” Eagle said. “Generally speaking, though, rich white college kids aren’t those people.”

  “Except that the parents sanctioned this,” Pammy said.

  “And that’s not entirely true,” I said. “Pammy mentioned the Democratic National Convention last year as a scene of tear gas and violence. There’s a lot of sentiment out in the rest of the country that these rich college kids are out of control.”

  “Nixon’s Silent Majority certainly think so,” Eagle said.

  “And Nixon’s Silent Majority,” Pammy said with a bit more charge on the phrase than I would have expected, “happen to be primarily rich and white.”

  “Maybe,” I said, “this Lavassier guy simply saw this as a money-making opportunity. You know, missing kids, distraught parents, the whole counterculture scene.”

  “He might’ve come out here to find someone’s kid, got paid well, and decided to stay,” Pammy said.

  “Who cares why?” Eagle said. “Whatever prompted this behavior from him, the point is that he’s doing it, and he’s making a fortune at it.”

  “And he’s destroying the kids,” Pammy said softly.

  “Those who survive his treatment,” I said.

  Both Pammy and Eagle looked at me. I shrugged. They hadn’t talked to the police departments. I had. I thought there were too many coincidences.

  “If only we had some proof,” Pammy said.

  “Why don’t we get some?” I said.

  “How would you propose we do that?” Eagle asked.

  “Maybe we should hire him,” I said.

  “To do what?” Pammy asked.

  “To find a kid,” I said.

  “But we don’t have any kids,” Eagle said, as if I didn’t know that.

  “I know,” I said gently.

  “And we’re not putting the college students who come to the gym in jeopardy,” Pammy said.

  I almost smiled. I hadn’t thought of that, but I wouldn’t have allowed it, even if I had.

  “I know,” I said. “You two are being literal.”

  Pammy frowned at me. “You have a plan.”

  I shrugged. “It’s not big enough to be a plan. It’s more of an idea.”

  “What is it?” Eagle asked.

  “We have to track him down, of course,” I said. “And then we lie. We say one of the parents recommended him. Probably Kelly MacGivers’ parents. He won’t check, because we’ll have the phone number.”

  “If it’s unlisted,” Eagle said.

  “I’ll wager it is,” I said. “I’ll wager it’s word of mouth only.”

  “That’s easy to check,” Pammy said. She almost sounded eager to hear the rest, but I wasn’t going to put that interpretation on her. I still hadn’t quite figured her out entirely.

  “We call him, and then what?” Eagle asked.

  “We schedule a meeting with him at some public place with a parking lot,” I said. “He goes inside, has the meeting
with one of us—probably you, Pammy. Eagle waits at a different table. I’ll search his truck.”

  “You would?” Eagle asked.

  I shrug. “He’s a white boy from Louisiana. He’s used to dealing with rich white clients. I don’t think he would talk to me very long.”

  “But I could search the truck,” Eagle said.

  “Yes, you could,” I said, “but if someone sees me do it here, they won’t be able to identify me.”

  Eagle thinned her lips and shook her head just a little. She understood.

  But Pammy asked, “Why not?”

  “Because, Pamela,” Eagle said, “to white people, all black people look alike.”

  “That’s not fair and you know it,” Pammy said.

  “And you know it’s true,” Eagle said.

  Pammy scrunched her mouth as if she had eaten something that tasted bad. “It puts Val at risk.”

  “It puts us all at risk,” I said. “I don’t mind. We might find something in that truck, something your detective Brunsan could use.”

  “He’s not mine,” Eagle said, sounding annoyed.

  Pammy was nodding. “You’re right. We might get some names or something, something that could help with a real investigation.”

  “Or,” I said, “it might be a bust. But it would be something.”

  “It won’t stop him, though,” Eagle said. “Even if the police do get something, it won’t stop him. They’re going to be very reluctant to act on this, because those rich white parents aren’t complaining about him.”

  “We can’t just let him continue to harm these kids,” I said.

  Eagle frowned. “Maybe we don’t have to.”

  “What does that mean?” Pammy asked.

  Eagle’s frown deepened. For a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to answer Pammy.

  Then Eagle looked up.

  “We take it one step farther,” Eagle said.

  “What does that mean?” Pammy asked, sounding hesitant.

  Eagle sighed. “We have to find something in the truck that the police can use, right?”

  I nodded. Pammy just stared at her.

  “And,” Eagle said, “something they can actually get their hands on.”

  Pammy was clutching her cup so hard that her knuckles had turned white. “There are all kinds of procedures that prevent them from just breaking into the truck.”

  “And what I discover in that truck won’t get the police in there,” I said. “We’d have to get him pulled over or something.”

  “And the vehicle searched,” Pammy said.

  Eagle was shaking her head as we talked.

  “We set him up,” she said.

  “That’s what we’re talking about,” Pammy said.

  Eagle leaned forward. “We make sure the police find something. We use the stuff from the truck if we can, but if we can’t, then we plant stuff.”

  My stomach twisted. “How would we do that? This guy sounds dangerous.”

  Eagle smiled, just a little. “I used to work in psychiatric clinics. There are drugs that can subdue very large violent people quickly.”

  Pammy was staring at her. “What are you saying?”

  “She’s saying we knock him out.” I was frowning. “And then what? Put him in his truck?”

  “No,” Eagle said. “If the truck has something with the address for his motel room, the one that he kept Kelly in, then we use that motel room. We plant him there and we give him something else, maybe some LSD, something that’ll make the cops think he had his guard down. Then we tie him to the bed, scatter incriminating stuff around the room, and one of us screams real loud. We flee the room, drive off, and call the cops from the nearest pay phone, saying he tried to hurt one of us, but not saying who we are. Then we make sure the cops show up.”

  “How do we do that?” Pammy asked before I could.

  “We watch,” Eagle said. “And if no patrol shows up, we call again. And again, until someone comes.”

  “Seems risky,” Pammy said. “Subduing a man like that—”

  “Isn’t hard if he’s not expecting it,” Eagle said. “We get him from behind.”

  I pushed my plate aside. I was both fascinated with this plan and nervous about it. “The drugs concern me. You don’t practice anymore, Eagle. How would you get them?”

  She smiled. “I have friends.”

  “For the LSD, too?” Pammy asked, with a bit of an edge to her voice.

  “It’s still used clinically,” Eagle said.

  Pammy shook her head. “The authorities would catch us.”

  “Not if we wore gloves,” I said. “All they would have to go on are fingerprints. We just make sure we don’t leave any.”

  “But he’d see us. He’d be able to describe us,” Pammy said.

  “And who believes a man who has been hallucinating?” Eagle asked.

  Her question stopped Pammy cold. The question made me smile. No one would believe a drug addict. No one. I had seen that a lot with Truman. Hell, I had used it to talk to the police just the night before.

  “What if we don’t find the motel?” Pammy asked.

  “We get one here,” I said, surprising myself. I looked at Eagle. “We rent a room ourselves and drag him into it.”

  “Not under our names,” Pammy said.

  “Under his name,” I said. “It shouldn’t be hard. And then we make sure your Detective Brunsan gets the case.”

  Eagle shook her head. “He would know it was me, then,” she said.

  “But he couldn’t prove it,” I said.

  Eagle frowned at me.

  Then I shrugged. “I could go to the precinct and ask for Brunsan, saying I was attacked.”

  “He’d figure out that we know each other,” Eagle said.

  “Not if I run off before he talks to me,” I said. Then I smiled at her. “My description and yours don’t match.”

  “We’re assuming we can take him on,” Pammy said. “We’re assuming he won’t hurt us.”

  I stiffened. I let her words roll around in my head.

  “No,” I said after a moment. “I don’t know about the both of you, but I’m not making that assumption. I think he might hurt us. And I think that we can risk getting hurt fighting him, if it gets him off the street. At least, as far as I’m concerned.”

  Eagle’s gaze met mine. “Do you mean that?”

  I nodded. “I fought back in February. I lost. But I hold onto that. It’s why I’m here. I fought back. I just didn’t do it well.”

  “I tell people not to engage,” Pammy said.

  “You also tell them to avoid these situations,” I said. “But sometimes you can’t.”

  “And I’ve been trained that you step in when you see something go awry,” Eagle said.

  Pammy looked at both of us. “You’re talking about a big risk.”

  “Yes,” I said. “I’m willing to take it on. Are you?”

  She bowed her head, then sighed. “It’s been a shit day,” she repeated.

  Eagle was about to speak, but I put my hand up slightly, stopping her.

  “You should’ve seen her,” Pammy said. “Kelly. She’s never going to be the same.”

  I knew that, without having seen her. I wasn’t the same. Poor Kelly. She had found herself on the other side of that crevasse as suddenly and horribly as I had. Only she hadn’t had family to help her through it.

  Then Pammy nodded. She raised her head, her gaze meeting mine.

  “Yes,” she said. “I’m willing to take it on.”

  Eagle looked at both of us. “Me, too,” she said.

  I took a deep breath. Truman would not have approved. But I did. People had to step up sometimes.

  “Then we have some planning to do,” I said.

  “We have to make sure we’ve got all the bases covered,” Pammy said. “Preparation is the key. We need clearly defined roles, back-up plans, and bailout options. We need code words so that we know if we have to run away.”

 
; “Run away?” Eagle asked.

  Pammy sat up straight. “If this goes seriously south, we need to get out fast. I want a plan for that. Or I won’t do this.”

  Eagle looked at me as if I could talk sense into her. But Pammy’s requirement sounded right to me.

  “I agree,” I said. “We need to plan for everything we can think of.”

  Eagle took a deep breath. “All right then,” she said. “But I’d like to do this fast.”

  I understood why. “Because of the woman you saw?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she said, sounding a little uncertain. “But more than that. If Brunsan’s right, and she’s home with her parents, Lavassier’s looking for a new payday. We have an opportunity right now. If we can find him.”

  “We’ll find him,” Pammy said with more determination than I expected from her. “No matter what it takes.”

  46

  Eagle

  They figured it would take two full days to prepare. Eagle convinced them to add a half day as well. She wanted this plan to be implemented on a Friday night. It added credibility.

  That meant Pammy had to close the gym on Friday night. She usually kept it open, even though she didn’t hold a class. Eagle wanted no distractions. She also wanted no one near the gym. She was particularly worried about Jill.

  Eagle didn’t believe she, Pammy, or Val would end up anywhere close to the gym, but just in case, she wanted the gym clear.

  She wanted all of them clear. She went over and over the plan with them, but she also had to trust them, something she really wasn’t good at.

  Because she was the one who had tweaked Val’s plan, she became the person in charge. She was okay with that. It meant she didn’t have to tell everyone everything.

  She had two contingency plans of her own, plans she would never tell Val or Pammy about. If they couldn’t gather enough evidence to convict Lavassier or, if Eagle believed that this man was so slippery, he would get out of everything, she would take extra measures.