The Kill Clause

by Gregg Hurwitz

  “Well, I just had a little run-in that may provoke a phone call,” Tim said. “Will you mind keeping on it, just in case they slip up?”

  Tim thanked him and walked up the street to the store from which he’d rented his Nokia. The diminutive store owner didn’t so much as comment on the last phone he’d rented Tim, now scattered in pieces at the side of the 110. Tim selected the same model, and the owner word-lessly started the paperwork for the identical financial arrangement they’d agreed upon previously. Money doesn’t just talk; it silences.

  Tim would keep the Nextel, too, because that was the number Robert and Mitchell knew and the only means they had of getting in touch with him. His elaborate game of musical phones would have made a mutt like Gary Heidel proud.

  Tim charged his phones side by side near the outlet and sat Indian style on the floor staring at exactly nothing.

  He recalled Mitchell’s expression of confusion on the playground—he’d truly been surprised Tim had come after him. Depending on whether their surveillance on Dobbins had overlapped with the police’s picking him up last night, they might not even be aware that the authorities had been alerted.

  If Tannino went ahead with the press conference, they’d know soon enough.

  Within a few hours Robert Masterson, Mitchell Masterson, Eddie Davis, and Tim Rackley would be names known coast to coast. Tannino would likely keep Dumone’s, Ananberg’s, and Rayner’s deaths separate, at least for the time being. Tim turned on the television to see if any word had leaked, but aside from a nothing-new update about Rayner’s murder and Melissa Yueh’s announcement that KCOM would be airing a special report at seven o’clock, there was zilch.

  Yueh collected her papers, tapping them once neatly on her anchor desk to line the edges. “In other news, Mick Dobbins, the formerly accused child molester, was attacked today in a Culver City park by an unidentified man who cinched a hard plastic garbage-bag tie over his head. He nearly asphyxiated, but another man performed an emergency tracheotomy, then fled the scene. Eyewitnesses helped the police compile this sketch of the assailant.”

  A composite flashed up on the screen that looked more like Yosemite Sam than Mitchell Masterson.

  “Police would not reveal whether this attempted murder is linked to the Lane and Debuffier executions, but they did indicate they were considering the possibility.”

  A shot of the park showed Culver City PD pushing bystanders back from a circle of asphalt marked with crime-scene tape. To the side the back of Bear’s wide frame was readily apparent. He’d sweated through his sport coat at the armpits. The impromptu huddle around him included Maybeck, Denley, Thomas, and Freed.

  Colleagues turned adversaries.

  “Local authorities are looking for both men. Dobbins was taken to Brotman Medical Center, where he is reported in stable condition.”

  Tim turned off the TV and sat at his desk. He’d have to give Dray at least twenty-four hours on the car. The safety-deposit key could take hours, could take weeks.

  His thoughts, once turned to his wife, didn’t readily depart. Dray, who kept her nails short and unpainted. Dray, who always held other people’s babies awkwardly away from her body, like leaking trash bags. Dray, two-ring shooter on a Transtar target with a Beretta at fifty yards.

  He folded his hands in his lap and sat in the relative silence because that was what’d he’d heard that people seeking peace did. He closed his eyes, but spotlit in the dark was Kindell’s bent hacksaw, worn to the nubs, still sticky with Ginny’s blood. He wondered what other items waited in the surrounding blackness.

  He set the VCR to record the seven o’clock press conference, in case he wasn’t back in an hour. He left down the fire escape, for practice, and so he could keep the doorstop wedged in place while he was gone.

  •Erika Heinrich’s bedroom light was on. Tim parked four blocks away and duplicated his previous cautious approach to the house. Her sash window was open, the blurry whites and blues of a television screen poorly reflected in the upper pane. Tim squatted beneath the window just as the KCOM news jingle wound up.

  Marshal Tannino’s televised voice carried outside in bits and pieces. “…these three men…renegade law-enforcement officers…wanted for questioning in connection with the Jedediah Lane and Buzani Debuffier killings…repeat: No charges have been brought….”

  Tim rose to a crouch, bringing his eyes level with the sill. Terrill Bowrick sat beside Erika on her bed, both of them staring at the small TV on her dresser. Bowrick’s adolescent slump rounded his back, his hands dangling between his thighs. He looked even younger than Tim remembered, his face pale except where dotted with acne, his neck and arms thin like a girl’s. He looked incredibly weary, as if he hadn’t slept in days.

  In contrast the televised Tannino looked stiff in his best suit—a navy blue number—and his Regis Philbin tie. His hair, lit with dozens of camera flashes, seemed exceedingly blow-dried. He gestured to an easel, on which sat enlarged photographs of Robert, Mitchell, and the Stork. “Any sighting of these three men should be reported to…”

  No picture of Tim. No mention of Tim.

  They probably wanted to nab the Medal of Valor winner quietly, spare the L.A. law-enforcement community another public debacle.

  Bowrick’s mouth, fringed with a meager mustache, was thin and bent down in a slightly open frown that suggested tears would not be long in coming. His face had whitened to an extraordinary degree. Erika was rubbing him between the shoulders in a repetitive, soothing motion. Their faces both held an exhausted calm, as if fright and worry had worn away all vitality.

  The door to the adjoining bathroom was ajar. Pink tile. Lights off. Empty. A chair was backed to the bedroom door, wedged under the knob. Mommy didn’t know about the special houseguest.

  “…suspected of targeting alleged murderers and child molesters, suspects who were released by the criminal-court system.”

  A flurry of waving hands and pens. An explosion of questions, one winning out.

  “Was the Mick Dobbins assault today related?”

  “We believe so, yes.”

  “How are the Vigilante Three choosing their victims?”

  Tannino grimaced at the nickname. “We have no information about that at this time.”

  “We have it from a reliable source that UCLA Professor William Rayner’s death and that of his teaching assistant could be connected to these events. What is the nature of their involvement?”

  “I’m not going to comment on that.”

  “Can you substantiate rumors that Franklin Dumone, the prominent Boston police sergeant who shot himself today at Cedars, was involved?”

  “No. Next question.”

  “Why is the U.S. Marshals Service involved?”

  “This case dovetails with and is an extension of the Lane assassination, the investigation of which fell under federal jurisdiction.”

  “So why isn’t the FBI in charge of the investigation?”

  “We’re working closely with the FBI.” Tannino lied well. In private he referred to the FBI as the Fucking Bunch of Idiots.

  “Any guess as to who the next intended victim will be?”

  Bowrick’s mouth didn’t move at all, but he creaked, “Oh, God.”

  Tannino glanced away, just for a second, but it was a poker tell. “That’s all the information we can disclose at this point.”

  Erika’s hand stopped making its circles on Bowrick’s back.

  Tim leaped up, grabbed the protruding frame above the window, and slid down into the bedroom, landing on his feet. Bowrick and Erika reacted violently, lunging off the bed, dragging the comforter and sheets to the far side in the process. They stood side by side, cowering, their backs to the closet door.

  The house smelled of bratwurst, and Tim thought, How’s that for stereotypes?

  Erika fell to her knees, trembling, embracing Bowrick around his waist. He had one hand up, forearm angled as if shielding light from his eyes.

  “Don�
�t shoot him, oh, God, don’t…” She broke down.

  “Some men are coming to kill you,” Tim said. “Hide better.”

  A moment of stark disbelief. Bowrick lowered his hand.

  Tim leaned back through the window and swung the sturdy, German jalousies shut, blocking the view from the street. When he turned again to face the kids, tears were sparkling on both their cheeks.

  “Let ’em get me,” Bowrick said. “I don’t care anymore.”

  “Is that true?”

  He sniffled, wiped his nose with his sleeve. “No.”

  Erika found her voice. “Who are you?”

  Tim gestured to the window, now shuttered. “This is stupid. Your coming to this location is stupid. There are trails to lead them here.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” Saliva formed a bubble sheet in the corner of Bowrick’s mouth.

  “Not this.”

  “I got nowhere to go.”

  “Go to the cops.”

  “The cops fucking hate me.”

  “Keep your voice down.”

  “They won’t do shit for me, and if they do, it’ll be worse being in custody than being out here. Trust me—I know.”

  Frustration tightened Tim’s chest. “You figured it out before.”

  “They found me before.”

  “No, I found you before.”

  Bowrick’s hand came up, four fingers angled at Tim, like a wooden puppet pointing. Erika was still on her knees, her cheek mashed against Bowrick’s side, watching.

  “You saved my life.”

  “I didn’t save your life. I decided not to take it.”

  A voice carried down the call. “Erika! Dinner’s on the table.”

  Erika stared at Tim, a lot of white showing in her eyes. Tim looked at her and said softly, “I’m in the bathroom. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “I’m in the bathroom!” she called out. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

  “Well, move it! I didn’t spend all this time cooking to eat a cold meal.”

  Erika’s eyes jerked down at the floor—a hint of embarrassment, even here, in all this.

  Tim tilted his head at Bowrick. “You know how to hide. Just do it better.”

  “I can’t.” Bowrick’s lips started quivering, severely, and the tears came now, full force, fording his lips. “I don’t got nowhere to go.”

  “You don’t have another safe house?”

  “No, man. A buddy of mine helped me set that up. He’s in Donovan right now, went down for grand auto. I got…I got no one.”

  “Save it for the talk shows. For now get lost. And well.”

  Bowrick’s teeth clicked as he studied the floor. His voice came in a small whine. “They’re really gonna do it, aren’t they? Hunt me down and kill me?”

  “Yes.”

  His lower lip sucked in, wavering behind the line of his front teeth. Erika’s arms tightened around his thigh.

  Tim said, “Go to the police.”

  “I’m never going to the police. Never again.”

  “Call your probation officer.”

  “He’ll make me come in.”

  “Go to Mexico.”

  “I can’t…I can’t be apart from Erika like that.”

  “This is not my problem, kid. Do you understand me?”

  “Help him. Would you help him?” Erika sobbed out the words.

  Tim stared at her, stared at him.

  Footsteps coming down the hall, rapidly, sped with anger. “Erika Brunnhilde Heinrich, you get your rear to the dinner table right now.”

  Tim clenched his teeth until he felt his jaw swell at the corners. “Come with me,” he said. He pushed open the shutters and stepped out into the night.

  He was across the front lawn when Bowrick caught up to him, jerking slightly with his limp, breathing hard. “Where we going?”

  “Don’t talk.”

  A pair of headlights illuminated the street, and Tim grabbed Bowrick by the shirt and yanked him against the side of the neighboring house. The car passed. Green Saturn. Family.

  Tim kept close to the house fronts in case the need arose to take cover, Bowrick doing his best to keep up. They reached Tim’s car and climbed in.

  “What kind of car is this?” Tim asked as he pulled out.

  “Acura.”

  “Wrong. The first answer is, ‘What car?’ The second, if you’re pressed hard and need specifics, is, ‘A green ’98 Saturn.’ Like the one that just passed us. Think you can remember that?”

  “I won’t tell nothing about this. I swear to God.”

  “You’re a snitch, Bowrick. Answer my question.”

  He looked out into the night, and Tim saw his sullen expression reflected back off the window. “Yes, I can remember that.”

  They made it a few blocks without anyone talking. Bowrick played with his hair in front, grabbing it in a fist and tugging gently. “They raped her,” he said.

  The wheels hammered over a divot in the road.

  “Four of ’em. On the bus after an away game. The others cheered.”

  Tim watched the road, the unending flashes of road reflectors.

  “She wanted to testify at the trial, but I didn’t want to put her through it. My mousefuck of a public defender wouldn’t have given a shit anyway, and, hey, fuck, I never needed it since I made out pretty good with my immunity grant. It don’t change what I did, but I…I just wanted to say it.”

  Tim turned on the radio. A beat-pumping dance number rattled the speakers. He turned it off. He stared straight ahead at the road. “I didn’t know,” he said.

  Bowrick dug at something between his teeth with a nail. “Of course you didn’t.”

  They’d driven about four blocks in silence when Bowrick laughed. Tim shot him an inquisitive glance, and he smiled—the first time Tim had seen him smile.

  “God, I love that chick.” Bowrick shook his head, still smirking. “Her middle name is Brunnhilde.”

  •Tim pulled into the parking lot of a Ralph’s grocery store, parked, and got out. Bowrick stayed in the car. Tim circled and tapped on the window. “Come.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t trust you in the car.”

  Bowrick unbuckled his seat belt and let it snap back on the recoil. Tim led the way into the store, moving aisle to aisle ahead of Bowrick, collecting Visine, Comet, Sudafed, three prepackaged wedges of poppy-seed cake, a six-pack of Mountain Dew, Vicks Formula 44M, and a jar of vitamin-C tablets.

  Bowrick followed him, making noises to demonstrate his bafflement. “Just got a sudden urge to do a little grocery shopping?”

  Back outside, Tim pulled around behind the store, near the dark loading dock. Digging through the trunk, he found the first-aid kit he’d transferred from the Beemer. He freed the empty syringe from beneath its leather strap, grabbed a needle in a sanitized paper sheath, and returned to the driver’s seat.

  He removed the plunger and squeezed a stream of Visine into the empty shot barrel, then sprinkled in some Comet. Placing a vitamin-C pill on the dash, he smashed it with the butt of his gun and swept the resultant powder into the barrel as well. The liquid fizzed, giving off a slight crackling noise. Replacing the plunger, Tim cleared the air from the syringe.

  He turned to Bowrick, who was watching him with growing unease, facing sideways in the passenger seat so his back was pressed up against the door.

  “Give me your arm.”

  “Are you fucking crazy?”

  “Give me your arm.”

  “No way, man. You’re fucking high.”

  “Believe it or not, kid, you’re not my only concern right now. So give me your arm or get out of the car, because I have more important things to take care of.”

  Bowrick studied him for a while, sweat glistening in the strands of hair on his upper lip. “This gonna kill me?”

  “Yes. I’ve orchestrated the entire chain of events over the past three days because this is the easiest way I could think to kill you.”
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  Bowrick held out an arm, clenched his fist. Tim slid the needle into the pale blue throb at the base of his biceps, careful to penetrate only the epidermis. Ignoring the stink of Bowrick’s fear sweat, he eased the plunger down, and the skin at the needle’s tip immediately wilted and colored.

  “Ouch,” Bowrick said.

  When Tim removed the needle, tiny black-tinged bubbles welled up from the flesh puncture. He said, “It’ll scab up in a few hours, scab up good.”

  He started the engine and drove away.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  Tim shoved one of the poppy-seed cakes at him, with a can of Mountain Dew. “Eat this.”

  “What the fuck…?”

  “Shut up. Eat it. Hurry.”

  Bowrick started shoving the cake into his mouth, swallowing large mouthfuls with gulps of Mountain Dew.

  “Now this piece. Go. Eat it.”

  Crumbs clung to Bowrick’s face.

  “Drink this. Get it down.” Tim pressed another can of soda into Bowrick’s side until he took it. Bowrick popped the top and forced down a few gulps. Tim opened the Sudafed box in his lap and fumbled out four thirty-milligram tablets. “And these. Take them.” He thrust the cough-syrup container at Bowrick. “Wash it down with this.”

  Bowrick complied, grimacing. “Why are you doing all this shit to me?”

  When he realized he wasn’t going to get an answer, he threw his hands up and smacked them against his thighs. His knee was starting to shake up and down, a nervous tic brought on by the caffeine and the pseudoephedrine. After a while he started poking at the bruise, watching it spread and darken. Tim drove fast, enjoying the silence.

  They headed back toward downtown. To their left, way up in the hills, Tim saw the darkened silhouette of the memorial tree, barely visible through the scaffolding.

  He pulled into the parking lot of a large, two-story complex. Harsh hospital lighting bled through the closed blinds. His knee hammering up and down now, Bowrick strained to make out the cracked wooden sign out front. L.A.COUNTY RECOVERY CENTER.

  “What the hell?” Bowrick said as they got out. “What the fuck is going on?”