He dressed and put on his shoulder holster and his gun, grabbed his jacket, a flashlight, and some gloves, then called Jack.
“Come with me to the beach with the dogs, okay?” Frank said.
“Sure.”
He stepped outside with Deke and Dunk, and found Jack waiting outside his own house. Jack owned a fortune in real estate in Las Piernas and several lucrative businesses as well, but anyone who didn’t know him tended to see only the biker he had been-his jeans, T-shirt, and leather jacket might have just been seen as casual cool, but the shaved head, earring, and tattoos gave his look a different edge. He was one of Frank’s closest friends.
Frank told Jack about the text messages as they walked to the beach stairs at the end of the block. Had he been with Pete, his partner would have been spouting warnings and advice. Jack just nodded and said, “I’ll take lookout duty.”
The beach was all but empty on this chilly October evening. Jack took the dogs’ leashes and stood at the top of the stairs, watching for anyone approaching from the street or the beach.
Frank went down the wooden stairs until he was just past the third one, then turned to face the stairs and knelt. Flashlight on, he looked carefully beneath the third step from the top. A casual observer would have missed the slight bump, a patch of green duct tape-green, to match the color of the stairs. He put on the gloves, then eased the tape off, all the while knowing that the lab was going to be pissed as hell at him anyway.
They’d have to get in line to chew him out.
There was a keyless entry fob attached to the tape.
He stood, and climbed back up to street level.
“Want to walk over to Jacaranda with me?”
“Sure. Besides, these two thought they were going to the beach, so that might work as a poor substitute.”
“I need to stop by the house for a second, just to get something out of the car.”
Frank retrieved a box that would hold the tape without further disturbing its surfaces and grabbed a couple of small evidence bags in case more awaited him on Jacaranda Street.
Jacaranda was two streets over. Frank looked for people sitting in cars or watching out of windows and saw no one. Beyond the barricades that marked the end of the street and the edge of the cliff, he could hear the surf, but otherwise the street was quiet. Halfway down the block, a vehicle he had seen before only on video was parked on the right side of the street.
Even before he pressed the unlock function on the remote, he knew it would light up the Ford Escape.
The plates didn’t match the ones in the video, but that wasn’t a surprise, either.
He made sure no one was standing near the vehicle before he actually pressed the button. He had even warned Jack that for all he knew the thing would explode, which only made Jack grin and say, “Who doesn’t like to see stuff explode? Special effects companies live off this shit.”
He hit the key, and all that happened was a friendly blinking of lights and a chirping call. They were standing too far away even to hear the doors unlock.
He looked around again, trying to see if anyone had come to a window or looked out at the street at the sound of the remote operating. He didn’t see any movement.
“Why not let me go open it up?” Jack said. “My affairs are in order.”
“No, wait here, and if I meet my Maker, the dogs are yours on the condition that you’ll accept Cody as a part of the package.”
“No deal.”
Frank sighed. “Am I being an idiot? Yes, I am.”
“Since you’re taking questions, let me ask you-why don’t you call people who have a bomb squad handy to test things out?”
“Because the minute I call them, I’m cut out. I’ll have to wait until Pete can pry something out of somebody, and since he’s my partner, people see that coming.” He paused and looked at Jack. “Intellectually, I know I shouldn’t. In my gut-”
“I understand. It’s Irene.”
“Right. So, watch this idiot allow himself to be manipulated by Nick Parrish-it’s almost as fun as seeing shit explode.”
“I may get to see both,” Jack said, which surprised a laugh out of Frank.
He walked up to the Escape, used his flashlight to check over the exterior and as much as he could see of the interior, then decided to open the passenger side door first.
He couldn’t help but wonder if he had missed some sign of explosives, but nothing happened as the door opened. He looked more closely at the area under the dash-no sign of tampering. He moved to the driver’s side, trying not to smear any prints that might be on the steering wheel or column. He took a deep breath and started the engine. No problem. He looked at the mileage, then turned on the GPS. Called up previous destinations and began taking notes. One of the locations, he noticed, was near where Parrish had escaped. But the most recent one was in the San Bernardino Mountains, not far from Running Springs.
He turned off the GPS, turned off the motor, and locked the doors. He looked the exterior over once again, then walked back to Jack.
“I’m going to see if Lydia and Guy will take care of the dogs and the cat.”
“Hey, what I said before-you know I was just joking about Cody!”
“Of course I do. But I thought you might want to join me on a road trip.”
“Where are we headed?”
“Running Springs, for starters.”
“Sounds great.”
As they made the turn onto their own street, Jack said, “I was thinking we should ask Ben and Ethan to bring Bingle and Altair. Take the Jeep.”
Irene’s car. Frank set the thought aside. “Good idea.”
He made the calls, telling Ben, “If you don’t want to have another encounter with Parrish, I won’t blame you at all-”
“I’m coming with you,” Ben said firmly. “And let’s take my SUV. We’ve already got the dogs’ equipment packed in it, it will be roomier, and I’ll bet I’ve had more sleep than you. I’ll probably bring Bingle and Boolean. Altair only does human remains detection. Bingle does SAR and HRD, and Bool can track her if we just pre-scent him.”
As they walked back home, Frank made lists of everything they’d need to bring. Backpacking supplies, first aid supplies, radios for communicating, weapons, lock picks-he wondered if Rachel would let him borrow hers. Irene’s toothbrush, pillowcase, and her socks from the laundry basket-all items that would help to pre-scent the bloodhound Bool. The lists went on.
They were almost back to the house when Frank said, “What if this is all a wild-goose chase?”
Jack shrugged. “If this is the only lead you’ve got, chase that damned goose.”
FORTY
The miles seemed endless. We wove our way on and off the main highway at Parrish’s direction, taking smaller roads for long distances. Once out of the San Bernardino Mountains, we drove in the darkness over stretches of desolate country, surrounded on all sides by the Mojave Desert. The air was cold and the sky dark and star-filled. Under other circumstances, I would have found it a peaceful place, a place of renewal. Over those hours, it was a journey through hell.
Parrish eventually grew tired of taunting me with threats and simply barked out directions that sent us east and west and back again, as if the car were a sailboat that needed to tack to reach north. I had been able to determine that we were gradually headed north. We stopped for gas once, but only Donovan was allowed out of the car, and then only to fill the tank and clean the windshield. I tried the door anyway, which made Parrish laugh. “Childproof locks. Don’t try anything else childish, or I’ll shoot not only you but anyone who tries to come to your rescue.”
Kai seemed able to sleep through anything.
At one point, when we were back on 395 but well away from the lights of even the smallest town, the SUV drifted across the center line and rattled over its bumps, then came back sharply into our own lane. A moment later, Donovan pulled off the highway. I didn’t see a sign, but this was one of those rural exits that boasted no gas station or, for all I could see, any human habitation anywhere nearby.