“Looks like you’re growing up.”
“Anything I want,” he said. “That was the bet.”
“That’s right.”
“Get in the back seat of that car.”
“Yes sir.”
124
Day Four
July 24, 1952
Thursday Afternoon
The clouds thickened and dropped lower. Ordinarily they had the same effect on Wilde as sunshine did, except in the opposite direction. Right now he could care less about them. Things were good between him and Emmanuelle. They were on solid ground again. They had a future.
London was waiting for him in Blondie.
“You look like you just got laid,” she said.
Wilde lit a cigarette.
“No one can tell that just by looking at another person’s face.”
“I wasn’t looking at your face.”
She cast her eyes down.
He followed them.
His fly was open.
He zipped up, cranked over the engine and squeezed into traffic. They went to the office to see if Alabama had taken a taxi over from her post at River’s.
She hadn’t.
The place was empty.
Nor had she been there, everything was the same.
Wilde scratched his head.
“Okay, here’s the deal. You stay here. Keep the door locked. There’s a gun in the top drawer of the desk. If anyone forces their way in, shoot first and ask questions later.”
He headed for the door.
“Where are you going?”
“To see Alabama first,” he said. “If the guy showed up at River’s, we’ll try to track him. If he hasn’t shown up, I’ll have to decide whether to go to River and give him the message that the map’s a fake.”
“We still don’t have the real one.”
“We’ll get it by tonight.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “One thing at a time.”
“Crockett has it.”
“I know.”
“I’ll get it from him while you’re gone,” London said.
“No, just stay here. I already have enough to worry about.”
“I just can’t sit here,” she said. “I won’t.”
Wilde recognized the look in her eyes. He got the gun from the drawer and handed it to her.
“Where do I carry it?”
Good question.
Her purse was gone.
Wilde grabbed a paper bag out of the cupboard.
The gun went inside.
Twenty minutes later he was on the roof of the abandoned warehouse with a white paper bag in his left hand. Inside that bag was a grilled cheese sandwich, a pack of peanut butter crackers and a chocolate bar. In his other hand was a bottle of RC.
Alabama wasn’t there.
“Alabama.”
No answer.
He checked behind the vent just to be sure she hadn’t fallen asleep back there.
She hadn’t.
She wasn’t there.
He headed back into the building to see if she was taking a leak somewhere.
“’Bama!”
No answer.
She must have headed over to the BNSF office.
Wilde headed back to the roof to have a quick peek at River’s place. As he got closer to the parapet, he spotted the binoculars sitting on the ledge.
That was strange.
Then he saw something even stranger.
Alabama’s purse was over by the heating unit.
He opened it up and rummaged through. It was hers all right. She must be around somewhere.
“Alabama!”
Silence.
He leaned over the parapet and checked the ground to see if she’d fallen off.
She wasn’t down there.
He checked everywhere.
She wasn’t there, not on the roof, not inside the building, not even in the area around it.
Wilde went back to the roof and pulled in River’s place with the binoculars.
It was empty.
The doors were shut.
His car was gone.
125
Day Four
July 24, 1952
Thursday Afternoon
Bristol’s little blond squeeze Jaden didn’t show up for the four o’clock meeting in the alley. Waverly paced and checked her watch every five seconds. Where was the woman? Was she just late or not coming at all? Ten after the hour came and went. At a quarter after, Waverly left.
On her way out, she encountered Jaden coming from the opposite direction.
They headed to the back of the building.
“Sorry I’m late,” Jaden said. “I zigzagged around. I wanted to be absolutely sure no one was following me.”
Her words were laced with stress.
“What’s wrong?”
“Bristol’s the killer,” she said. “There’s no question in my mind.”
“Did he confess it?”
“No,” Jaden said. “But when I started to bring up Cleveland, he said he’d never been there. It wasn’t so much what he said but the way he said it. The more I talked about it, the more agitated he got.”
“So he was hiding it.”
“More than hiding it, trying to deflect it,” Jaden said. “I might have pressed it too far. By the time I was done, I had the feeling that he knew that I knew something. He knew that I was probing him. When he looked at me it was like an alligator looking at a frog.”
“It’s time to run.”
“That’s what I’m doing,” Jaden said. “I’m doing it right now, as we speak. I’m never going back.”
Waverly exhaled.
“Good.”
“I’m going to take a cab to the airport and just fly somewhere.”
“Where?”
She shrugged.
“I don’t know. Not San Francisco, that’s for sure.”
“That’s a good plan.”
They walked out of the alley, hugged goodbye at 16th Street and headed in opposite directions.
This was good.
If nothing else positive came of everything that had taken place, at least Jaden wouldn’t be the next statistic.
Suddenly someone tapped Waverly on the shoulder.
It was Jaden.
“You’re still going after him, aren’t you?”
Waverly nodded.
“Yes.”
“I should help.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
“Yes, I should. Don’t get me wrong, I’m scared, but I owe you something for saving my life.”
Waverly retreated in thought.
“I need a way to trap him,” she said. “Do you have any bright ideas?”
126
Day Four
July 24, 1952
Thursday Afternoon
Wilde wouldn’t be easy to kill. River knew that and knew it well. What he needed was a plan where Wilde would never see it coming, never have a chance to react, and in fact wouldn’t even know it happened. He’d be alive one second and dead the next.
Something that fast meant a bullet to the brain.
It also meant River couldn’t miss.
He’d have to be close.
As he drove back to Denver with January at his side, the mountain topography was every bit as spectacular as he remembered. He really needed to get up here more.
January put her hand on his knee.
“You’re thinking about something,” she said.
He was.
He was indeed.
“I have to do something tonight,” he said.
“What?”
“Something that you’re not going to be involved in.”
“What if I want to be?”
He shook his head.
“Sorry, not this time.”
“That’s not fair.”
He tossed his hair and looked at her sideways, then gave her a peck on the lips. “Tomorrow, we’re leaving Denver.”
“To where?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I have some money stashed away. It’s more than enough to give us time to think.”
“Think about what?”