"We think that someone slipped them some LSD. We're testing the water and the coffee now. We just wanted to talk to anyone who has been in the building in the last two days. You didn't see anyone strange hanging around while you were in the building?"
"I only saw Cable's secretary and Cable," Sam said.
Rivera flipped the notebook closed. "Well, thanks for your time. If you have any strange reactions or see anything strange, could you give me a call?" Rivera handed a card to Coyote. "And you too, if you would."
"Cabron," the raven said.
"He speaks Spanish, too," Rivera said. "Amazing." The detective left the office.
"'Santa Barbara News-Press advertising, " Coyote read as he pushed the button. The fax machine whirred.
Sam started to go for the machine, then stopped and sat down in his chair. He sat for a minute rubbing his temples. "If that cop runs a background check on me, I'm going to jail. You know that, don't you?"
"You wanted your old life back."
"But a fucking polar bear?"
"Well, you have your old life back, whether you want it or not."
"I was wrong." It felt good saying it, the honesty in it. He wanted a new life. "I just want you to go away."
"I'm gone," Coyote said. "The girl is gone too."
"What does that mean?"
The feathers on Coyote's shirt turned black and his fingers changed to flight feathers. In an instant Coyote was a raven. He flew out the office door followed by the raven from the hat rack.
CHAPTER 21
All Happy Families
Santa Barbara
Calliope stood in the driveway, holding Grubb, waiting for Lonnie to return. Nina had been right: she wasn't very good at worrying, but she was giving it a good effort. She was sure that Lonnie wouldn't hurt her or Grubb, but then again, Lonnie had never acted the way he had the night before. She wished that she could have asked Sam to stay with her and help her with a decision, but it would have been too much to ask so soon. She wished, too, that there were phones at the ashram and that she could call her mother for advice. And she couldn't just jump in the car and drive to see her mother as she always had before. She had her job, her house, and there was Sam now.
She was trying to push the dark specter of the unknown to the back of her mind when she heard the Harley approaching. She looked up to see Lonnie rounding the corner a block away, his new girlfriend clinging to him like a leech. Lonnie pulled into the driveway next to her and killed the engine.
"I'm late for work," Calliope said, wiping a trail of drool from Grubb's face with her finger.
The woman behind Lonnie glared at her and Calliope nodded to her and said, "Hi."
Lonnie reached for Grubb without getting off the bike. Calliope hugged Grubb close. She said, "I don't want him riding on the bike with you."
Lonnie laughed. "The way you drive? He's a hell of a lot safer on the bike."
"Please, Lonnie."
The woman reached out and took Grubb from Calliope. The baby began to cry. "He'll be fine," Cheryl hissed.
"Why can't you just stay at home with him?" Calliope asked.
"Places to go, people to meet," Lonnie said.
"I could get Yiffer to watch him." Calliope felt her breath coming hard. She didn't like the look of this hard woman holding her Grubb.
Lonnie said, "You tell Yiffer to watch his ass or I'll shoot it off."
"Lonnie, I have to go. Can't you just stay here? I'm only working the lunch shift today."
Lonnie grinned. "Aren't you going to stop by the hospital on your way home?"
"Hospital? No. Why?"
Lonnie fired up the Harley. "No reason." He laughed and coaxed the big bike around in the driveway.
As he gunned the engine and pulled into the street Cheryl shouted, "Don't worry, bitch, we'll put a dollar on black for you."
Over the roar of the Harley, Calliope could hear the woman grunt as Lonnie elbowed her in the ribs.
Calliope saw Grubb looking at her as they rounded the corner. Panic tore at her chest as what the woman had said sunk in. She turned and ran back up the steps.
By late afternoon the contractors had replaced Sam's sliding glass door and patched the bullet holes in the walls. Sam canceled the week's appointments, which gave him time alone with his thoughts. He soon found, however, that his thoughts, like monkeys in church, were bad company.
He tried reading to distract himself, but he found that he was simply looking at the pages. He tried napping, but as soon as he closed his eyes, images of Coyote and the police filled his head. When the worry became too much for him he thought of Calliope, which set off a whole new set of worries. What had Coyote meant, "The girl is gone"? Did it matter?
She was trouble. Too young, too goofy, probably too attractive. And the kid — he didn't need a kid in his life either. Trouble. If she had gone somewhere he probably was better off. He didn't need the hassles. That thought still bouncing through his mind, he grabbed the phone and dialed her number. No answer. He called information and got the number for the Tangerine Tree Cafe. She hadn't shown up for work today.
Where in the hell is she? Where in the hell is Coyote? The fucker knew where she went and he wouldn't tell. What had started as a niggling irritation turned to dread. Why in the hell does it matter? he thought.
Terrifying and black, a word rose in his mind that matched his feeling. He recoiled from it, but it struck him again and again like an angry viper. Love: the sickest of Irony's sick jokes. The place where logic and order go to die. Then again, maybe not. It was only bad if you were hiding, pretending to be something that you were not. Maybe the hiding could end.
Sam got up and headed out the door in what he knew was a ridiculous effort to find Calliope. He drove to the cafe and confirmed what they had told him on the phone. Then he drove to Calliope's house and found Yiffer and Nina getting out of the van as he pulled up.
Nina said, "I don't know where she is, Sam. She left a note saying that Lonnie had taken Grubb and she was going after him."
"Nothing about where she was going?"
"Any note at all is a big step for her. She used to disappear for days at a time with no note at all."
"Fuck." Sam started to get back in the car.
"Sam," Nina called. He paused. "The note said to tell you she was sorry."
"For what?"
"That's all it said."
"Thanks, Nina. Call me if she shows up." Sam gunned the Mercedes out of the driveway, having no idea where he was going.
He needed help. All his machines and access to information wouldn't help. He needed a place to start. Twenty-four hours ago he would have given anything to get rid of Coyote. Now he would welcome the trickster's cryptic, smart-assed answers — at least they were answers.
He drove around town, looking for Calliope's Z, feeling hope rise each time he spotted an orange car, and feeling it fall when it turned out not to be Calliope's. After an hour he returned home, where he sat on his sofa, smoking and thinking. Everything had changed and nothing had changed. His life was back to normal, and normal wasn't enough anymore. He wanted real.
At the Guild's clubhouse Tinker was digging at a flea bite on his leg, trying to pull his grimy jeans up over heavy boots to get at the tiny invader. "Fucking fleas," he said.
The Guild's president, Bonner Newton, let out a raucous snort. "You know what they say, bro," Newton said. "Lie down with dogs…" A din of harsh laughter rose in the room from the other Guild members.
"Fuck you guys," Tinker said, feigning anger while enjoying the attention. It wasn't that he liked ugly chicks, but who else would have him?