Indigo Slam

Dmitri Sautin held out the Sig. I took it and tossed it in with the Glock.

Dobcek smiled, and it was ugly and predatory. His eyes sparkled in the bright sun and stayed with Joe Pike.

I patted them down, took their wallets, and then I told them to step away from the car. They did. I went through their car and found the rental papers. They had arrived at LAX that morning. I took the keys from the ignition and found two overnight bags in the trunk. I looked through them but found nothing but clothes and toiletries. I put their bags in the Corvette, too. Dmitri Sautin wiped at his nose, and said, 'But we will not have underwear.'

'A criminal's life is an ugly one.' I looked through their wallets, didn't learn anything new, and tossed the wallets in with the guns. I said, 'Markov's really going to be impressed when you tell him about this.'

Sautin said, 'You must be stupid to think we would tell him.'

Dobcek said, 'Shut up, fool.' Dobcek's eyes never left Pike.

I said, 'It's like I told you in Seattle, I don't know Clark Hewitt and I don't know where he is. You guys are wasting your time.'

Dobcek said, 'Da.'

'If you're smart, you'll go back to Seattle. If you try to tag me again, I'll kill you.' Mr. Threat.

Dobcek made the little smile again.

Pike said, 'He won't, but I will.'

Dobcek's smile faded.

I said, 'See the little building at the bottom of the hill?'

They could see it.

'Start walking.'

Sautin started toward the ticket building, but Dobcek didn't. Dobcek looked at Pike. 'This one goes to you, but I think we see each other again, yes?'

The corner of Pike's mouth twitched, saying here we are, saying we can take this anyplace you want, but wherever we go I will win and you will lose.

Dobcek made a small nod and followed Sautin.

We watched them for a time, and then Pike said, 'You lie well. Too bad they didn't believe you.'

'Yeah, but it'll buy us enough time to warn Clark. I told Clark they were going to come and now they have, and he'll have to do something. He won't like it, but there you go.'

Pike went to his Jeep and came back with an eight-inch stainless-steel hunting knife. He went around the Camaro and cut all four tires. Buy us even more time.

I said, 'By the way.'

He looked at me.

'The two C-notes were counterfeit.'

Pike nodded.

'Your friend Marsha Fields kept them.'

Another nod.

'Means we're down about five hundred now.'

Pike went back to his Jeep. 'A criminal's life is an ugly one.'

I got into my car and went to warn Clark Hewitt.

CHAPTER 16

Twenty minutes later I turned off Melrose and saw the green Saturn. I parked behind it, then went to the door and rang the bell three times. I was thinking that maybe everyone was pretending they weren't home when Teri opened the door. She wasn't smiling, and she opened the door only wide enough to look out. 'Oh, hello.'

'Great to see you, too.'

Blank.

'I need to see your father.'

'He isn't home.'

I glanced at the Saturn.

'He walked up to Melrose to go shopping.'

I edged closer to the door. 'That's okay. I'll wait.'

She didn't move or open the door. 'He might be a while.'

'No problem. When you make the big bucks like me, time is your servant.'

Something crashed through the house like a runaway buffalo and Charles appeared behind her, his face falling when he saw me. 'Oh, it's him.' Him.

I said, 'Are you going to open the door or make me wait out here?'

Charles jabbed at Teri's back and whispered loud enough for me to hear. 'Tell'm to eff himself.'

I said, 'Charles, for chrissake.'

Teri stepped back to let me in.

Charles screamed, 'Oh, frig!' He thundered back through the house and slammed his door.

I went into the living room, adjusted the blinds, and sat on the couch so that I could see the street. The Russians hadn't arrived, and I didn't expect them to, but you never know. If they found us, maybe I could just give them Charles. 'Where's Winona?'

'In her room.'

The TV wasn't going and Winona hadn't come out to see me. The house did not smell of baking cookies. I watched Teri and Teri watched me, and the close living room somehow felt expectant and tenuous. 'Quiet.'

Teri looked smaller than before, and tired. Her eyes were dark caves. I said, 'What did he go shopping for?'

'Clothes.'

I sat and listened, and her uneasiness was a physical thing that seemed to magnify sounds. I tapped the couch arm, and the tapping echoed like thunder. I sighed, and heard it as a rush of dry wind clawing across the desert. 'He's gone again, isn't he?'

She looked at the floor.

'How long?'

She didn't answer, and I imagined Dobcek and Sautin bombing around town, getting closer and closer, and finally showing up. Maybe it wouldn't be just Dobcek and Sautin. Maybe it would be other guys. Better guys. 'How long has he been gone, Teri?'

'Since yesterday morning.' A voice so small you could barely hear her.

'He didn't take the Saturn.'

'He walked up to Melrose. He said someone was picking him up.'

'He say who?'

She shook her head.

'Did he say when he'd be back, or where he was going?' I wanted to roll my head and hear the bones crack and feel the relief.

She shook her head again. Of course not.

'And he hasn't called?'

'Uh-uh.'

I took a deep breath and let it out. The Russians had landed and Clark had disappeared. Again. Maybe he would be home by supper, but maybe not. Maybe Dobcek and Sautin weren't the only Russians who'd come down, and maybe those guys had Clark right now, but that probably wasn't the case either. Clark might be sitting with the U.S. Marshals right now, asking to get back into the program, but I wasn't willing to bet on it. Either way I wasn't going to leave these kids alone anymore. I said, 'Do you have any Tylenol?'

When I had the Tylenol, I excused myself, went to the kitchen, drank one glass of tap water, then went back to the living room. Teri had not moved, and the house seemed even more still. I wondered how often it had been like this. Maybe more often than I thought. I said, 'You and I need to talk.'

'He'll be back soon.' She tried to sound hopeful. 'He always comes back.'

'I hope you're right.' I sat very close to her and spoke in a quiet voice. I wanted her to know before Charles and Winona. 'We have to talk about some hard things. I don't know how much you know, or what you've guessed, but I don't see any other way.'

'About Seattle.' A statement. Like she knew what was coming and dreaded it.

'That's right. Seattle.'

She remembered the night her family had left, and she remembered the men who had taken them in a dull beige van in the middle of a rainstorm, and the thunder that had not been thunder. She remembered gray federal buildings and airplanes, and she knew that they had moved to Salt Lake City and changed their names because bad men were after her father, though she did not know why. I told her. I didn't want to tell her, and I didn't like myself for it, but she needed to know. 'Your father counterfeited money for a man named Vasily Markov. Markov wanted to have your father killed, so your father turned state's evidence in order to buy his way into the witness protection program. Do you know what that is?'

Her lips had formed a hard little knot. 'I'm not an idiot.'

'Your father learned his trade from a man named Wilson Brownell, up in Seattle. Markov's people have been watching Brownell, and they figured that something was going on. They staked Brownell and your mother's grave, and that's where they saw me.'

The hard lips softened. 'You went to my mother's grave?'