Lying on his belly on the massage table, Kenji began to relax. The young woman's hands were working on his buttocks and along with a slight erection came a general feeling of well-being. Because it was sexual it was the only part of the massage that compellingly did the job of distraction so that relaxation was possible.
When she got to his lower thighs, his mind departed to the cares of Amada, and his muscles took on a resilience that made deep relaxation impossible.
He picked up the phone, heard his masseuse sigh her discontent, but knew that she would say nothing about his placing a call. She normally tried not to irritate him when he was in these moods. What no one knew was that these moods of late had Dan Young's name written on them.
"How is it going?"
"I was going to call you in an hour," Groiter said. "I'm afraid it's not going so well. Turns out they did have another set of photos. Young sent them to Fischer in Sacramento and she's had them developed. Apparently she's given them to Patty McCafferty who has forwarded them to some university."
The erection was long gone. "Can't you get control of this? They're crawling up our ass."
"We are carefully going through and figuring out what papers were taken. There is a very good chance they didn't get the right stuff."
"I'm supposed to wait around and see if they can eat my heart out? What else are they doing?"
"Young is talking to relatives of the photographer. They say it's impossible that he would have raped the woman and run off."
"Shit. Is there anything we can do?"
"Not really. But this is the same stuff the police were told."
"Is there any way Young could have seen the money drop?"
"No. He saw the copter coming back to the compound after we got the money. He may have made a connection."
"How?"
There was a brief pause in Groiter's quick responses.
"We found a transmitter in the briefcase-"
"Did you say transmitter?"
"We destroyed it on the way back to the compound."
"You didn't tell me this. You didn't tell me."
"Didn't think it was important. He thinks he got a signal before we destroyed it. That's all. It's a hunch."
"A hunch? He's investigating because of it."
"So far, he has nothing. I think it's dangerous to jump to conclusions."
"I want you on this. I want you all over this."
"What did she do to Kim Lee? He's dead, right?"
"She was supposed to bomb the car. But it's in the parking lot and he's vanished into thin air."
"What do you mean supposed to?"
"You know. We've got surveillance. We were pretty sure that's how she was going to do it. But I didn't come right out and discuss the method. It doesn't work that way. She's gotta believe she's working for Mother Earth. We're just sort of fatherly advisers in the cause."
"I don't care about the shrink stuff. I just want to know."
"I'll get the details, but it may take a little time."
"Well, get them. And get control. Push back."
13
The iridescent green of the alarm showed 3:00 A.M., and the sound of the bathroom fan reminded Dan that he had gone to sleep listening to its comforting hum. He got out of bed, went to the bathroom, then to the kitchen, where he got a beer on his way to the den. There was by now an even greater clutter of maps, news clippings, and lists. The bulletin boards were full of scribbles. But nobody, not he, Maria, nor the sheriff, was making any real progress.
Although it was another long shot he had learned that Corey Schneider was indeed a single woman, thirty-six years of age. Interestingly, she was an environmental activist, although in these parts that wasn't unusual. Maria knew who she was and commented that she was a loner, an extremist, and weird. Two years ago she and Maria had gotten into a screaming match over invading a congressman's field office and chaining themselves to furniture, but Maria was certain it wasn't this woman who had robbed them. Robbery and political statements were two different matters.
Dan had been lobbying for Maria to have someone call this woman, perhaps the fund-raiser person at Wildflower who knew Schneider as someone who was wealthy, occasionally gave money, and often wanted information. He was determined to discover whether Schneider had an explanation for her whereabouts on the day of the robbery.
The other clue that he had done nothing about was the helicopter. In northern California timber companies, public utilities, or the government usually owned the jet helicopters. Amada had one, but he had never seen it. Perhaps a look would give him a clue as to whether the copter that emitted the radio signal belonged to Amada. One easy way to see the chopper was to fly over the compound. But there was a much more compelling reason to do that, and that was in preparation for another trip inside. Something was going on behind that fence. Somehow it all related to the missing money, the break-in at his house, and the guys who almost killed them on the road.
Dan wanted to do the flyover next Sunday morning at daybreak. He had a growing certainty that the all-white unmarked helicopter had emitted a radio signal precisely because it contained the missing money. It also followed that if it had been landing it would have come down on the pad near the compound.
If it was the same aircraft, it would further link the compound and Amada with the missing $500,000. That information plus what he might discover on a second trip inside would perhaps help convince Jeb Otran and Hutchin that Amada and their compound were not as benign as they claimed. And it would get him one step closer to the men who had invaded his home. His fingers tapped nervously on his knee. There was no way that he could not tell Maria, especially since she was back in town. Obviously, she would want to come along for the flight. That was a complicating factor because a contract logger by the name of Anderson was harvesting Otran's land immediately adjoining the Highlands. So far, it seemed that his preparations were undiscovered by the enviros. By commencing on a weekend, Anderson hoped to get a jump on any court order the enviros might obtain. If the enviros had known about this cutting in the old growth immediately adjoining the Highlands, they would have sought a court order before the weekend-they still might. So by flying Maria around the area, he was potentially inviting a Monday-morning court appearance for an emergency temporary injunction. It would look really odd if the Wildflower Coalition discovered Anderson's harvesting on Otran's land while flying around with him.
Dan knew he could wait until another day, after she found out about Anderson's harvesting another way. Or he could just go without her-without saying anything-but she would be furious. Tortured by indecision, he picked up the phone and called the Palmer Inn.
"Hello," the sleepy voice answered.
"This is the Republican Central Committee and we would like to know if for a mere three hundred dollars you would like to join the Voice of Congress Club."
"It's almost four in the morning," she said. Then in a more good-natured tone: "It must be awfully important. Either that or you're drunk."
"It's important. I want to take a plane over the Amada compound on Sunday and look at that helicopter to see if it might be the one that emitted the signal."
"You sure that's the reason you want to fly over the compound?"
"Uh-huh."
"Dan, you're not back on your idea of going in there?"
"It's just a consideration."
"Your boss and your client said no. It's stupid. You heard that guy on the phone. You could get killed."
"Maria?"
"Yes?"
"It means a lot to me that you're open-minded about this."