by Robert Crais
Dobcek smiled, and it was ugly and predatory. His eyes sparkled in the bright sun and stayed with Joe Pike.
I patted them down, took their wallets, and then I told them to step away from the car. They did. I went through their car and found the rental papers. They had arrived at LAX that morning. I took the keys from the ignition and found two overnight bags in the trunk. I looked through them but found nothing but clothes and toiletries. I put their bags in the Corvette, too. Dmitri Sautin wiped at his nose, and said, 'But we will not have underwear.'
'A criminal's life is an ugly one.' I looked through their wallets, didn't learn anything new, and tossed the wallets in with the guns. I said, 'Markov's really going to be impressed when you tell him about this.'
Sautin said, 'You must be stupid to think we would tell him.'
Dobcek said, 'Shut up, fool.' Dobcek's eyes never left Pike.
I said, 'It's like I told you in Seattle, I don't know Clark Hewitt and I don't know where he is. You guys are wasting your time.'
Dobcek said, 'Da.'
'If you're smart, you'll go back to Seattle. If you try to tag me again, I'll kill you.' Mr. Threat.
Dobcek made the little smile again.
Pike said, 'He won't, but I will.'
Dobcek's smile faded.
I said, 'See the little building at the bottom of the hill?'
They could see it.
'Start walking.'
Sautin started toward the ticket building, but Dobcek didn't. Dobcek looked at Pike. 'This one goes to you, but I think we see each other again, yes?'
The corner of Pike's mouth twitched, saying here we are, saying we can take this anyplace you want, but wherever we go I will win and you will lose.
Dobcek made a small nod and followed Sautin.
We watched them for a time, and then Pike said, 'You lie well. Too bad they didn't believe you.'
'Yeah, but it'll buy us enough time to warn Clark. I told Clark they were going to come and now they have, and he'll have to do something. He won't like it, but there you go.'
Pike went to his Jeep and came back with an eight-inch stainless-steel hunting knife. He went around the Camaro and cut all four tires. Buy us even more time.
I said, 'By the way.'
He looked at me.
'The two C-notes were counterfeit.'
Pike nodded.
'Your friend Marsha Fields kept them.'
Another nod.
'Means we're down about five hundred now.'
Pike went back to his Jeep. 'A criminal's life is an ugly one.'
I got into my car and went to warn Clark Hewitt.
* * *
CHAPTER 16
Twenty minutes later I turned off Melrose and saw the green Saturn. I parked behind it, then went to the door and rang the bell three times. I was thinking that maybe everyone was pretending they weren't home when Teri opened the door. She wasn't smiling, and she opened the door only wide enough to look out. 'Oh, hello.'
'Great to see you, too.'
Blank.
'I need to see your father.'
'He isn't home.'
I glanced at the Saturn.
'He walked up to Melrose to go shopping.'
I edged closer to the door. 'That's okay. I'll wait.'
She didn't move or open the door. 'He might be a while.'
'No problem. When you make the big bucks like me, time is your servant.'
Something crashed through the house like a runaway buffalo and Charles appeared behind her, his face falling when he saw me. 'Oh, it's him.' Him.
I said, 'Are you going to open the door or make me wait out here?'
Charles jabbed at Teri's back and whispered loud enough for me to hear. 'Tell'm to eff himself.'
I said, 'Charles, for chrissake.'
Teri stepped back to let me in.
Charles screamed, 'Oh, frig!' He thundered back through the house and slammed his door.
I went into the living room, adjusted the blinds, and sat on the couch so that I could see the street. The Russians hadn't arrived, and I didn't expect them to, but you never know. If they found us, maybe I could just give them Charles. 'Where's Winona?'
'In her room.'
The TV wasn't going and Winona hadn't come out to see me. The house did not smell of baking cookies. I watched Teri and Teri watched me, and the close living room somehow felt expectant and tenuous. 'Quiet.'
Teri looked smaller than before, and tired. Her eyes were dark caves. I said, 'What did he go shopping for?'
'Clothes.'
I sat and listened, and her uneasiness was a physical thing that seemed to magnify sounds. I tapped the couch arm, and the tapping echoed like thunder. I sighed, and heard it as a rush of dry wind clawing across the desert. 'He's gone again, isn't he?'
She looked at the floor.
'How long?'
She didn't answer, and I imagined Dobcek and Sautin bombing around town, getting closer and closer, and finally showing up. Maybe it wouldn't be just Dobcek and Sautin. Maybe it would be other guys. Better guys. 'How long has he been gone, Teri?'
'Since yesterday morning.' A voice so small you could barely hear her.
'He didn't take the Saturn.'
'He walked up to Melrose. He said someone was picking him up.'
'He say who?'
She shook her head.
'Did he say when he'd be back, or where he was going?' I wanted to roll my head and hear the bones crack and feel the relief.
She shook her head again. Of course not.
'And he hasn't called?'
'Uh-uh.'
I took a deep breath and let it out. The Russians had landed and Clark had disappeared. Again. Maybe he would be home by supper, but maybe not. Maybe Dobcek and Sautin weren't the only Russians who'd come down, and maybe those guys had Clark right now, but that probably wasn't the case either. Clark might be sitting with the U.S. Marshals right now, asking to get back into the program, but I wasn't willing to bet on it. Either way I wasn't going to leave these kids alone anymore. I said, 'Do you have any Tylenol?'
When I had the Tylenol, I excused myself, went to the kitchen, drank one glass of tap water, then went back to the living room. Teri had not moved, and the house seemed even more still. I wondered how often it had been like this. Maybe more often than I thought. I said, 'You and I need to talk.'
'He'll be back soon.' She tried to sound hopeful. 'He always comes back.'
'I hope you're right.' I sat very close to her and spoke in a quiet voice. I wanted her to know before Charles and Winona. 'We have to talk about some hard things. I don't know how much you know, or what you've guessed, but I don't see any other way.'
'About Seattle.' A statement. Like she knew what was coming and dreaded it.
'That's right. Seattle.'
She remembered the night her family had left, and she remembered the men who had taken them in a dull beige van in the middle of a rainstorm, and the thunder that had not been thunder. She remembered gray federal buildings and airplanes, and she knew that they had moved to Salt Lake City and changed their names because bad men were after her father, though she did not know why. I told her. I didn't want to tell her, and I didn't like myself for it, but she needed to know. 'Your father counterfeited money for a man named Vasily Markov. Markov wanted to have your father killed, so your father turned state's evidence in order to buy his way into the witness protection program. Do you know what that is?'
Her lips had formed a hard little knot. 'I'm not an idiot.'
'Your father learned his trade from a man named Wilson Brownell, up in Seattle. Markov's people have been watching Brownell, and they figured that something was going on. They staked Brownell and your mother's grave, and that's where they saw me.'
The hard lips softened. 'You went to my mother's grave?'
'The men who are after your father have come to Los Angeles. They've already found me, because they suspect that I know your whereabouts, and that means they'll
stay here until they find your father, too. Do you understand that?'
'Yes.' Without expression.
'These men are dangerous, and I am not going to walk out of here and leave you alone. That is no longer an option.'
She looked from my left eye to my right, not really seeing me, breathing softly. You could tell she was thinking. I heard something creak in the hall. Charles, probably. Eavesdropping. 'What about my father?'
'I think he's going to print money again, but I don't know that. I'm pretty sure that's why he went to see Brownell.' I couldn't bring myself to tell her about the drugs.
Her eyes narrowed, and her lips moved, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. She blinked, and I thought she might be trying to keep back the tears.
'I know it's hard.' I said it as softly as I could.
She was hunched over, elbows on knees, arms crossed, lips pursed. A hard, tight knot. She said something, but I couldn't hear her.
'I didn't hear you, Teri.'
She said it again. 'He's such a loser.'
I didn't know what to say.
'He screws up everything. He's screwed up all of our lives.' The blinking grew harder, and her eyes filled. 'I try to make it better, but it just gets worse. I try so hard.' Tears leaked down across her cheeks and into the corners of her mouth, and I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, and I started blinking, too.
'Teri.' Something creaked in the hall again and a door closed.
Teri said, 'Please don't let them hurt him.'
For all I knew they had him now. For all I knew he was dead. 'The only way I can help him is to find him before they do, you see?'
She wiped her eyes on her wrist, then took a breath. She hadn't broken all the way, and now she was pulling herself back together. I guess she'd had a lot of practice.
'But not with you here. I am either going to call the feds and have them take you in, or you're coming with me. Either way, you can't stay here.'
She wiped her eyes again, and now the tears were gone. As if they'd never been. 'Where will you take us?'
'We'll go to my house for now, but we'll have to move to a safe house. I'm easy to find, and the Russians might show up there.'
'What about my daddy?'
'I'll look for him when you guys are safe.'
'He's going to come back here.'
'Then I'll wait here for him, but first we have to get you guys to a safe place.'
She was small and folded, sitting on the edge of the couch, and then she adjusted her glasses and stood. 'Okay.' Just like that. 'I'd better get Charles and Winona.' The fifteen-year-old mother again. Taking care of her family.
We went along the hall to their rooms. Both doors were closed. I rapped at each door. 'Charles. Winona. You guys come here.'
Winona's door quietly opened, and she stepped into the hall. Charles's voice came muffled from behind his. 'Eff you!' He'd been listening, all right.
Teri said, 'Charles, we're going away for a few days. We have to pack.'
'Eff!'
I smiled at Winona. 'Hi, honey.' Mr. Friendly. Mr. Don't-Be-Scared-of-the-Man-Who's-Going-to-Take-You-Away.
'Hi.' She smiled back, but it was uncertain. It was the first time I had seen Winona as anything but bubbling. I guess if my dad had blown in and out without warning I would've been uncertain, too. The little troll key chain was clipped to her belt loop. Guess if you couldn't have Daddy, you might as well have the troll. Maybe, sometimes, the two were one and the same.
I said, 'Teri, why don't you help Winona with her things. I'll talk to Charles.'
Charles yelled, 'I ain't goin'!'
Teri said, 'C'mon, Winona. You help me pack and I'll help you.'
They went into their room, and I tapped at Charles's door. 'C'mon, bud.'
'Eff!'
I tapped again, then opened the door, and when I did he ran over and pushed against it as hard as he could, shouting, 'Eff you! Stay out of here! Eff!' He was red-faced and crying, and I felt like a turd.
I forced the door, Charles on the other side, crying louder and pushing hard, sobbing from the mucus in his throat, thin chest heaving, shouting 'You get outta here!' until I had the door open, and then he ran at me, butting head first into me, punching and spitting and screaming for me to get out and I pulled him close and held him, and after a while all the yelling and crying subsided into a sobbing hack. It was a barren room, holding only a single frame bed and a chest, with none of the posters and toys and things you'd expect to see in the room of a twelve-year-old boy. Maybe Charles didn't think he'd live here long enough to bother. I said, 'It's okay, kid.'
'I hope he never comes back!'
I held him.
'I wish he was dead!'
I held him tighter.
Teri said, 'Charles?' She was standing in the door.
I said, 'We're okay, Teri.'
Charles and I stood for a very long time, and when the sobbing subsided I tried to let go, but by then Charles was holding on to me, arms locked tight around my ribs, face buried in my chest. I could feel the wet soaking through my shirt. 'It's okay, kid.' I said it five or six times. Maybe I said it more.
I let Charles hang on to me for another couple of minutes, and then I told him to pack enough for two nights. I told him that we were going to my place, and that when they were safe I would find his father. Charles turned away without looking at me, wiped his nose on the back of his hand, and packed. He said, 'Eff'm.'
Maybe I would kill Clark if the Russians didn't.
* * *
CHAPTER 17
I phoned Joe Pike while they packed. 'Clark's gone.' I said. 'Again.'
Pike didn't say anything for a moment. 'You're going to move the kids.'
'That's right. I'm going to take them to my place, but I don't want to keep them there overnight. Sautin and Dobcek could show up anytime.'
'Okay.'
'Think you could come up with a safe house?' Pike knew people, and he'd come up with safe places to stay before. Once an abandoned mansion in Bel Air, once an Airstream trailer in the high desert near Edwards Air Force Base. You never knew. Maybe he owned these places and just didn't bother to tell me.
'Let me make some calls. I'll meet you at your place later.'
By the time I was off the phone, Teri and Winona and Charles were ready to go. Guess they didn't have much to pack, or maybe it was because they'd had so much practice.
We locked their house, put their bags behind the seats, and the four of us made the drive up Laurel Canyon, the three of them bunched together in the passenger seat. Teri had offered to drive their car, but I said no. I wasn't worried that she'd have an accident; I was more concerned that when we got wherever we were going she would simply drive away. Charles said, 'I'm all squished up.'
Teri said, 'Live with it.'
I took it slow because no one was wearing a seat belt. Elvis Cole, the not-quite-responsible parent, looking over his shoulder for a load of Russian hit men.
Teri and Charles were quiet, but after a while Winona began to chatter about how much she liked riding in the convertible. The top was down and the wind blew through our hair, and Winona said that it made her feel like she was in a parade. Charles neither glowered nor flipped off anyone, and Teri seemed lost in herself. I guess everyone had their own way of dealing with what was going on.
Pretty soon we left the city behind and wound through the trees, and a little bit after that we turned into the carport. Winona said, 'Is this your house?'
'Yes.'
'It looks like a tepee.'
'It's called an A-frame. It's tall and steep and shaped like the letter.'
Charles slunk out of the car and peered at the trees and natural hillsides. 'Are there bears?'
'No bears. Just a few coyotes and rattlesnakes.'
He glanced at the ground, then made a sour face. 'What's that smell?'
Winona giggled. 'Charles cut the cheese.'
Teri said, 'Don't be rude.'
'I
t's the eucalyptus trees.' I pointed them out to him. 'The sun splits their bark, and their sap smells like mouthwash.'
They followed me inside through the kitchen to the living room. I told them to put their bags on the stairs, and I opened the drapes and the big glass doors to let the breeze in from the deck, then checked my answering machine. Lucy had left a message, asking me to call. Teri said, 'Is that Ms. Chenier?'
'Yep.'
'Aren't you going to call her?'
'As soon as we get squared away. You guys can go out on the deck if you want, but nobody climb on the rail. You can play on the slope, just watch out for the snakes.' Summer camp at the Cole residence. They stood in the door and looked at the deck and the slope, but nobody went outside. The snakes.
'There's soft drinks and milk and water in the fridge. You can help yourself. After we get settled, I'll make dinner.'
Teri said, 'You don't have to cook for us.' She hadn't come to the deck. She was standing in the living room by the stairs with her arms crossed.
'Of course I do. But you can help if you like. Is meatloaf okay?'
The three of them shrugged at each other, and Teri said, 'That would be nice. Thank you.'
Charles eyed the loft. 'What's up there?'
'That's my loft. Come on. I'll show you.'
I showed them the downstairs bathroom, then took them up. Charles and Winona wandered through the loft, but Teri went to the rail and looked down into the house. From the rail you can see the living room and the dining area and through the glass out to the canyon. She looked at the big glass triangle of my back wall, then up at the high pointed ceiling. She looked at my bed, and the built-in dresser, and then down at the living room again. 'Do you live here alone?'
'Yes. Except for my cat.'
She let her touch drift along the rail, and then she looked around the room again. 'It's nice.'
'Thank you.' I thought of my house as ordinary, but I realized then that it was probably a different world to her. Life for them had been a series of temporary furnished rentals, other people's homes and other people's furniture, just a place to stay until their father decided it was time to leave, no more permanent than a daily newspaper.
