Smart Moves

by Adrian Magson

  ‘Well, the fact you delivered the package is one thing. Usually the kind of guys bring things to Gus, they conform to a type, you know? They don’t walk with their knuckles on the ground or anything, but they don’t exactly swim too high in the human gene pool, either.’ She smiled. ‘I’m not saying you’re like that, of course. That’s what surprised me.’

  ‘That still doesn’t tell me what Gus does.’

  She sighed and pulled a face. ‘He’s into what he calls “supply and demand”. I heard him boast once that if you want something that doesn’t come from Walmart, he can find it.’

  ‘Forgive my ignorance, but what sort of things? Illegal things? Stolen goods?’ I don’t know why I didn’t just tell her I knew, except that out of a perverse sense of need, I wanted to hear her say it; to confirm that Charles Clayton hadn’t been kidding me along. Which, in the end, she did.

  ‘Guns,’ she said quietly. ‘He deals in weapons.’

  So she knew. And why wouldn’t she, I told myself. Over there selling and buying guns was a recognised business. ‘I may regret this, but what kind of weapons are we talking about? Pistols? Hunting rifles? Shotguns?’

  She winced at the tone in my voice. ‘I guess. Bigger, too.’

  ‘How much bigger? Machine guns? Mortars? Mortars are big. No, it wouldn’t be mort–’

  ‘Mortars!’ Lilly-Mae said, pointing a finger in the air. ‘I heard him talk mortars one time, when he didn’t know I was listening. I don’t know all the terminology, but that’s one I recognise. I guessed, because of the way he was acting, that it was all a big secret. He didn’t even like having Frank around lately, not when he was talking business.’

  I wasn’t surprised. Frank had evidently disapproved. So Clayton had been telling the truth. But this wasn’t just supplying a few friends with the means to shoot squirrels for a bit of mindless amusement up in the hills. Mortars could only be used in theatres of war.

  ‘Oh – and arpeegees,’ she said, sending my spirits diving even further. ‘I heard him mention them. I don’t know what they are, though.’ She frowned. ‘Arpeegees, is that right?’

  Oh, great. RPGs or rocket-propelled grenades, were not on anyone’s list of personal protection handguns. They were used for lobbing serious amounts of ordnance at armoured vehicles. And I’d just performed a delivery on his behalf. The memory stick wouldn’t harm anyone, not unless they cut themselves opening the envelope, but what was on it might be explosive in a different kind of way. And that put me squarely in the same frame as Mekashnik and therefore legally questionable, no matter what Clayton had told me.

  That confirmed it: I had to call Clayton. This was getting out of hand. So much for an easy drop-off.

  ‘What about Selecca?’ I asked, to change the subject. No doubt she would tell me he was into aircraft carriers and intergalactic starships, with a few battle tanks to keep business ticking over on the side.

  ‘He’s in the same line of business, I think,’ confirmed Lilly-Mae. She shivered as if someone had walked over her grave. ‘I met him once. He gave me the creeps, like something that crawled out from under a rock. He calls himself Dwight, but Gus said his real name is Diego – he pretends he’s American but he comes from somewhere in Latin America. Colombia, I think.’

  Colombia. Other than its other main export of coffee, Colombia equated with something far worse than arms, which was drugs. So what did that make Mekashnik?

  ‘I was told Gus was a legitimate businessman.’

  ‘He is,’ she replied. Then hesitated before saying, ‘Or was, anyway.’

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘He’s been… I don’t know, different for a while. Like he’s got things going on in the business that he can’t control.’ She shook her head. ‘He doesn’t let me in on that kind of stuff and I don’t ask questions, but I hear stuff and I get some bad vibes, you know? He’s had some cash flow problems, I know that.’

  ‘Things he can’t control – like Selecca, you mean?’

  ‘I guess. There have been others, too. He’s had some phone calls late at night which he got mad about. And I know he’s been using WhatsApp because it’s encrypted. He’s kind of developed a thing about being hacked lately, but that’s all I know.’

  ‘Could the intruders at the house have been sent by Selecca?’

  She considered it for a moment. ‘Maybe. Or the others. I heard Gus cussing him out a few days ago, called him a cheating, lying fuck.’ She flushed. ‘Sorry. The thing is, why would Gus send a packet to Selecca if they’d had a bust-up? Did you see what was in it?’

  ‘A memory stick. I got the impression Selecca wasn’t too pleased about it – as if it was all a big surprise. He was just quizzing me about it when you rang. Then the sirens started and spooked the pair of them.’ I paused and looked at her as a broad smile spread across her face. ‘Did I say thank you for that?’

  She nodded and crinkled her nose. ‘Yes, you did.’

  ‘Was it you who called the police?’

  Lilly-Mae looked shocked at the thought. ‘No! Are you kidding? They were already on their way in when I got there. As soon as I saw the lights and uniforms I kind of guessed where they might be headed and realised if you were still there, you’d get swept up along with Selecca. I just called on the off-chance you were with him.’

  ‘Quick thinking.’

  ‘Thank you. After I spoke to you, I thought maybe I should start a diversion, like they do in the movies. Only I didn’t have time to start a fire or nothing. Then I saw this police cruiser standing out back with nobody in it, so I leaned through the window and let it whoop a little. Gosh, it was loud, right?’ She rolled her eyes and patted herself on the chest. ‘Man, that was a buzz.’

  ‘Thank you,’ I said again, and meant it. I decided I didn’t want to ask how she happened to know where to find the siren button in a police car. ‘But being arrested was the least of my problems. I think Paulie was about to shoot me when the siren went off. You saved my life.’

  She grinned and made a face, dropping into the cornball drawl again. ‘Aw shucks, really? Down where I come from, that means I now own you. Gee, I ain’t never owned nobody before.’

  I couldn’t not laugh, in spite of the seriousness of the situation. There was something about Lilly-Mae which verged erratically from the sophisticated and elegant to the plain screwball, all interwoven with a sense of fun I hadn’t seen in anyone since I was a teenager. Which was real and which was put on I couldn’t tell, but right now I didn’t see that it mattered.

  ‘So where do you come from?’ I asked her.

  She looked coy. ‘Me? Oh, nowhere and everywhere. My dad was an army sergeant and we sort of moved all over. Home is where they are, I guess – although I haven’t caught up with them in a while.’

  ‘Don’t you miss them?’

  ‘Sure. Some of the time. But they live their life and I live mine. I told my dad about Gus once. He didn’t approve. Said any man outside the government who traded in arms was a revolutionary commie scumbag. My dad’s a bit conservative, y’might say.’

  We fenced back and forth for a while, with me trying to draw her out and find out more about her, and Lilly-Mae resisting neatly. I got the impression it was less to do with her not trusting me enough, more simply not trusting anyone in general.

  But reality soon intruded again. There was something bothering me about the delivery; something Lilly-Mae had said which was tied in with the events at the house. It kept slipping away, then suddenly came back.

  ‘I’m confused,’ I said, looking Lilly-Mae straight in the eye. ‘If you both left in such a hurry after Frank got shot, who left the envelope on the mailbox? Surely Gus wasn’t intending to leave it there in the hope that I’d find it? What would have happened if I’d found Frank and headed straight for the hills without stopping? I mean, anyone could have picked it up after that.’

  ‘Anyone?’ Her big eyes looked back at me with what I was convinced was total and utter innocence. Or maybe sh
e was another resting actress. If so, she was better than most.

  At that point I looked out of the window just as two police vehicles with flashing lights went by. In the first were three men in plain clothes, with a uniform driving. In the second were two plain clothes sitting in the front… and in the back, looking aggrieved and angry, sat Paulie and Dwight/Diego Selecca.

  ‘Anyone,’ I said, and nodded towards the cavalcade going by outside. ‘Like the police.’

  TWENTY-NINE

  Lilly-Mae looked as puzzled as I felt, but if she was genuinely innocent in all this, it still didn’t explain what she was doing there. If she had come to Palm Springs hoping I would get all manly and protect her from the baddies, she was in for a surprise. I might have my moments when faced with unhelpful officials or indolent shop assistants, but fists of fury in the face of guns was not part of my make-up.

  ‘That’s it,’ she said suddenly.

  ‘It is?’ She had a faint smile on her face, like someone who’d suddenly grasped the solution to a knotty problem.

  ‘You said the package you delivered was a memory stick?’

  ‘That’s right. Why?’

  ‘Well, that’s kinda weird. After you left, Gus was prowling around with a bunch of papers in his hand. He was mad because he’d run out of big envelopes. I said I’d go out first thing in the morning to get some, but he said not to bother as he’d get one of the boys to bring some up before you got there.’ She looked at me. ‘That sounds like whatever he’d intended you to bring to Palm Springs was papers, not a memory stick, right?’

  ‘Maybe. These papers – did you see what he did with them?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. I just guessed he was going to hold on to them until morning. After that I never gave it another thought. Gus trusted me fine up to a point, but he didn’t like me asking questions.’

  I thought about it. ‘He might have decided to transfer whatever was on the papers to a memory stick instead. Easier to find an envelope for something that small… easier to carry, too.’ I explained about the other items I’d hauled around the world with me. In fact I was surprised at how much people still relied on paper.

  Lilly-Mae shook her head. ‘Uh-uh. Gus was strictly a papers man. He had a laptop, but he hated using it. He said computers could be accessed by the Feds without him even knowing and they’d know all his business.’

  I remembered the laptop on Mekashnik’s desk, the power light blinking. ‘Yet it was on when I got to the house this morning.’ Perhaps my arrival had interrupted someone.

  The same thought evidently occurred to Lilly-Mae. ‘You think Gus was there when you arrived?’

  ‘Maybe,’ I agreed. ‘And if Selecca knew Gus didn’t trust computers, it explains why he looked so surprised to see a memory stick.’ The only problem left to consider was how the envelope containing the stick got on top of the mailbox. I told her how I’d examined the box when I first arrived, and if it had been there then I would have seen it.

  ‘So someone put it there while you were inside the house?’ Lilly-Mae chewed her lip over that one. ‘But that could have been–’

  ‘Gus.’ I nodded. ‘He might have counted on me not seeing Frank’s body in the pool, and was hoping I’d spot the envelope and bring it to Palm Springs.’ It wouldn’t have taken him long to scoot out of the house and make his way down to the main gate. If I was right it immediately set me wondering if it had been Gus who’d set the police on Selecca, all part of some plan to deal with his opponent. It made the contents of the memory stick suddenly more than interesting.

  ‘Would it help if we got to see the computer?’ said Lilly-Mae. ‘I mean, if that’s where the information came from, it had to be Gus who put it there, right? Maybe we could see a list of the last documents opened or copied.’

  I gave her an old-fashioned look. Suddenly she was one of Charlie’s Angels and wanted to go round taking a peek into Gus Mekashnik’s dealings. Didn’t she know of his reputation for dismantling people’s body parts? ‘Are you suggesting we go back to Lake Lure and take a look?’

  ‘Sure. Why not? At least we might find out what this is all about, right?’ She checked her phone. ‘There’s a flight out tonight through New York which gets to Charlotte tomorrow morning. We should take that.’

  ‘Not me,’ I said truthfully. If I went anywhere near New York it would be to catch a flight to London. ‘I couldn’t give a toss what was on it. This is where I step out and go back to my humble delivery job.’ I’d already had the narrow escape at Scheveningen when Rik Heysens had been arrested. Now this. Why push my luck further? Anyway, I wasn’t cut out for James Bond stuff. It had been exciting at first, but the gloss was wearing off as quickly as the coating on a cheap Singaporean watch.

  ‘But I have a key,’ Lilly-Mae insisted. ‘And I know computers. And,’ she grinned mischievously, ‘I know a secret way in through the woods. Even if they’re still around, the cops will never see us.’

  Great. This is what comes of raising girls on Nancy Drew mysteries all those years ago. They become uncontrollable and want to conquer the world. Then it occurred to me that we were planning on sneaking into a house where Lilly-Mae had every right to be. ‘Why can’t you just walk in the front door? You could say you’d been away on a trip – which is true.’

  She shook her head with an expression of alarm. ‘Are you kidding? Those local cops would have me locked up in some freaky women’s jail in two seconds. Jake, I know those guys. They think with their butts, not their brains. I mean, why pass up on someone who lives there just to waste time looking for the real killer?’

  ‘There’s still Gus,’ I pointed out. ‘He’s out there somewhere.’

  ‘Right. But do you know where? ’Cos I don’t.’

  I sighed and tried one last tack. ‘Okay. But I still think going back is a bad idea. Do you really want to hang around to see how many other enemies Gus has? Better to let sleeping dogs lie, don’t you think?’

  ‘And do what?’ she countered, eyes flashing. ‘Forget all about it? Jake, I have stuff back at the house – personal stuff I don’t want to lose. Besides, I can’t simply walk away without knowing what’s happened to him. I know he’s not whiter than white, but if he’s in trouble I’d like to help. And if he’s behind all this, well – I’d like to find out what he’s done.’

  I argued for another five minutes. It was like talking to a beautiful but obstinate statue with an answer to everything. In the end Lilly-Mae fought dirty by throwing up her hands and suggesting I get back on a plane to London and she would sort it out herself. It was the kind of thing I couldn’t agree to, which I suspect she was counting on.

  ‘All right,’ I said finally, knowing when to give in. ‘I’ll come with you. But at the first sign of nasty men with guns or badges, we hit the road. Agreed?’

  She smiled again and squeezed my hand. ‘I knew you’d help, Jake. Thank you. Anyway, are you saying you could really go all the way back to England and forget about everything you’ve seen here?’

  I was, actually. Well, I thought I was. But put like that there was no chance. Added to the coy expression on her face, which set my pulse racing, she was still holding my hand and I found myself breathing like an asthmatic sixteen-year-old on his first date. It was no contest; given the choice between being there with this attractive and alluring woman, and London with… well, not a lot. I decided going back was a poor option.

  ‘First thing,’ I croaked, when my voice began working again, ‘is we find out if the police are around. If they are we stay well away.’

  We finished our drinks and went in search of a phone, and I dialled the number at Gus’s house again. It rang fifteen times, during which Lilly-Mae crowded in on me and pressed her ear against the outside of the receiver. She smelled fresh and soapy, and for a moment I forgot where I was, recalling what she had looked like on the patio in that backless sundress.

  Then someone ruined the perfect moment by picking up the phone.

  I wa
ited for them to speak, but all I could hear was some wheezy breathing and what sounded like stubble rasping against the mouthpiece. Definitely not a cleaning lady, unless she had some serious facial hair problems. Lilly-Mae pressed ever more comfortably against me, her eyes like dark liquid pools and her arm round my waist. Oh, Lord forgive me my trespasses but right then all I wanted to do was say to hell with Gus, throw down the phone and grab hold of her with both hands.

  Instead I said, ‘Gus?’

  ‘Who is this?’ It was an older man’s voice and sounded polite but gruff with authority. In the background a burst of radio static was followed by voices, and I felt the hairs move on the back of my neck. Cops.

  I put the phone down. I could see by the expression on her face that Lilly-Mae had come to the same conclusion. ‘They must have found Frank.’

  ‘And now they’ve got Selecca – and the memory stick.’ Lilly-Mae looked at me and chewed her lip. She was still up close and smelled wonderful. Her hair was clean and glossy and her skin like a peach, and I had to work really hard to stop myself leaning in and licking the side of her face. ‘We go back to the house and take a look.’

  I could think of so many other things I’d rather be doing, mostly involving Lilly-Mae, but now was probably not the time to say it.