I needed a car, one that fit in with the places I needed to go, and I didn’t have time to be picky. From deep in the parking lot I chose a beat-up, midnight-blue minivan, the model without the side windows. In the dark, the banged-up paint looked black. The door wasn’t locked and the ignition had already been punched. The car had been stolen in the past and the owner, believing the van worthless, had not made the repair. Two seats up front. The back, designed for cargo, was littered with fast food wrappers and empty 40-ounce Olde English 800 beer bottles. The motor coughed and sputtered and finally caught. I headed out of the Fontana Suites parking lot and hoped like hell I would be back.
I drove two long blocks, past an industrial section lit with sodium vapor lights, and turned into another motel parking lot. One built with two stories in an L-configuration. The place used to be part of a major chain and had since fallen into disrepair with a private owner who didn’t believe in maintenance or trash pickup. Every parking stall held a beater car like the one I boosted. The place did a booming business with the speed-freak crowd. I double parked, got out, and walked right to the door I wanted. I stood to the side and checked my watch. Marie and I had synchronized, and the time had started when I kissed her good-bye.
Right now, Marie, with the sheriff’s badge hanging around her neck, would be knocking on Mary Beth’s motel room door. Two minutes for Mary Beth to answer, another three minutes for Marie to explain that she was there to relieve Mary Beth, two more minutes for Mary Beth to grab her things and jam out of there.
Time.
I stepped back and kicked in the door. I ran in. The only light in the dark room spilled in from the parking lot. The beached whale of a man on the swayed bed grunted at the noise from the intrusion, took a half second to realize what had occurred, and reached for a weapon between the mattress. The Viking warrior tattoo stared up at me. I jumped on his back and thumped his melon with the butt of the Glock. No reaction. He came out with a long knife. I hit him two more times. The gun butt thunked hard against bone. Karl Drago went limp. I pulled out the lamp cords and tied his large chubby hands together.
I checked my watch. Thirty seconds. I had allowed three minutes total, just in case Marie had not been able to convince Mary Beth. If Mary Beth had seen me on the screen attacking Karl, she would be here within the three minutes it would take to run out to her car and drive the three blocks.
“Come on, get up. Get up now.”
“Who the hell are you? What the fuck you want?”
I reached over and turned on the lamp. My other adrenaline-shielded senses kicked in. Sour odor of pepperoni and kung pao chicken wafted up from the floor. The room lay to waste, littered with empty pizza and Chinese takeout cartons. Karl Drago lay on the bed more ugly in person than when I had first seen him on the screen in the FBI surveillance room. He squinted, then opened his eyes. “Oh, perfect, I’m being robbed by an Anus Africanus. You made a big mistake, pal, taking down this place. I got nothing. I’m out on parole two weeks now, and I got nothing.”
“Shut your pie hole and stand up.”
“Huh, you have about three minutes, asshole, and then twenty FBI agents are going to swarm in here and shoot your sorry black ass.”
I stopped. He knew about the surveillance. How did he know?
“No, they’re not. I took care of that. Now stand up, or I’ll shoot you in the foot.”
“Kiss my white ass.”
I put the Glock on his foot and looked him in the eyes. “Last chance.”
“Okay, okay, hold it, don’t shoot. Jesus, whatta testy lil’ prick. I’m moving.” He got up, his tattooed belly hanging over his dirty striped boxers. His fat rolled and shifted as he swung his leg in a roundhouse kick.
I blocked it, swung the Glock, and caught him across the temple. He staggered, but didn’t go down. I stuck the gun under his chin and shoved hard.
“Let me make myself clear. I will shoot your sorry ass and leave you for dead if you do not do exactly as I say. Do you understand? Tell me you understand.”
He nodded. Blood ran down into his eye from the laceration to his temple. My mind leapt to previous training about blood-borne pathogens. He’d been in the prison system for going on two decades. He could have hepatitis C or AIDS. Had I still been on the job, protocol would have dictated containment, paramedics, and the donning of rubber gloves and mask. He’d be treated like a hazardous waste dump. No time to ponder over spilt milk. I scooped up his clothes from the pile in the corner. I froze. Underneath sat a black nylon bag with bright white letters: “FBI.” I pointed at the bag and said, “You didn’t?”
“What’s that?” he asked. “Oh no, that’s not mine. You put that there. You’re setting me up.”
“This is the bag boosted from the FBI car.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about. I want my lawyer.”
The FBI thought Karl Drago was their prey, when in reality he’d been playing them all along. Mary Beth said that Drago had been waiting in his room, not leaving for three days. He’d snuck over while the FBI supposedly watched him, broke into one of their cars, and took their gear. Not only a bold, in-your-face kind of move, but one well thought out and executed. I had to change my opinion about this guy and proceed with more caution than before.
I checked my watch. Two minutes, forty seconds had elapsed. We wouldn’t make it to the van and out before the troops arrived if the ruse hadn’t worked. Marie had to have convinced Mary Beth or I was in deep shit. I picked up the heavy FBI bag. “Come on, move your ass.”
“Let me get dressed.”
“Later, move.”
He lumbered out, bumping his gums the whole way. “You’re working for Clay Warfield, aren’t you? Never thought he’d go to hiring a nig-I mean, a black gentleman-for something like this. Hey, whatever he’s paying you, I’ll double it. You know I’m good for it. That’s why you’re here, right? You know what time it is, don’t you? Okay, triple, I’ll triple whatever Clay’s paying you.”
I knew of Clay Warfield like every other cop in Southern California, every cop in all the US, for that matter. He was president of the Sons of Satan, the notorious outlaw motorcycle gang.
I shoved Drago in the ass with my foot to speed him up. I repelled off his bulk, and he didn’t move any faster. His fat jiggled and rolled as he walked across the parking lot to the minivan, his big arms tied behind his back. As we approached, the van grew smaller and smaller compared to his bulk, when the effect should have been the other way around. Maybe I should’ve boosted a one-ton truck. I opened the back doors. “Get in.”
“Okay, fuck you, take me to Clay. I’ll talk him out of what he thinks he wants to do, then guess what, pal? He and I will take you apart, piece by piece. Trust me on this. That’s the way it’s going to go down. Maybe I’ll use a blowtorch on you. You know who I am? You do, I know you do. You know I have priors with a blowtorch. You know what I’m sayin’?”
He never stopped talking, but he climbed in and flopped down on his belly. The wadded-up taco and hamburger wrappers and empty beer bottles splashed to the sides. The sight of him, with all his white skin, made me think that, tonight, I might be more like Captain Ahab.
I didn’t really have time to tie his feet and, under normal circumstances, I would have waited until after I’d gotten far enough away. Even tired, I realized the potential for violence in the glob of immorality compressing the van’s suspension. I risked the time, took out another cord, and secured his ankles.