P Deutermann - The Moonpool

“I appreciate the heads-up,” I said. “Unless he’s the kind to take a rifle shot through a lighted window, I think we can handle Billy.”

“He was once accused of taking liberties with an underage child. Never proved, but he’s very, very sensitive about that. If it ever comes to fisticuffs, mention of that will perhaps cloud his judgment.”

It was my turn to grin. This was very useful information if I ever had to duke it out with Billy. If you could get your opponent to lose his temper, the fight became yours to lose. “I’ll remember that,” I said. “Say something like ‘short-eyes.’ ”

“That would probably do it,” he said. “And, Lieutenant: If you’re going to indulge in any more adventures, a word in advance to me would be greatly appreciated.”

“Will do, Sergeant,” I said. “Hopefully we’re done with adventures. At least in Southport. Where in Boston did you come from?”

“Chelsea,” he said. “Got tired of all those taxes.”

We met with the insurance agent and the marina owner. The agent was wriggling hard to get out of paying the bill, but that full-value-replacement-cost clause was fairly self-explanatory. They wanted to see the results of the police investigation before writing a check, and there was nothing we could do about that. I asked if we could get another boat. The marina owner said sure; the insurance agent said absolutely not. For the moment, we were in a boat-free zone.

But not idle. I had the beginnings of an idea about where Trask might be hiding out, assuming he was still in the area. The problem was, Trask’s whereabouts did not relate, as best I knew, to what had happened to Allie. The man had tried to kill us, so we had a score to settle, but surely the Bureau was searching hard for Carl Trask, and didn’t need us interfering with that, either. Tony suggested I call Creeps and tell him my idea, but I decided to just lie low for the moment. We went back into town to get new cell phones, and then to the beach house to check messages and look at those Helios visitor logs again.

In the event, Tony had to go back to Triboro to close up two cases that were overdue. Pardee was helping Ari over at the plant, which meant I’d have at least one guy in the area as backup. I told Tony to call me once he got his stuff squared away; I wanted him to run down a couple of things in Triboro relating to Allie’s background. Then I took the mutts out on the beach for a leisurely run. When I got back, I checked the portable computer for messages, but there were none. We hadn’t activated the house phone, so I was a bit surprised when it rang as I was getting out of the shower. No one I knew had this number; for that matter, I didn’t even know what the house number was.

I picked up, trying not to drip too much on the carpet. A familiar voice was on the line.

“Sorry we missed you the other night, Lieutenant,” Trask said. “In a manner of speaking, of course.”

“Actually, you didn’t miss at all,” I said. “You just failed to follow through.”

“Yeah, well, I was never all that good at completed staff work,” he said.

“I thought we were going to talk.”

“Well.”

“Who’s that in the moonpool, wearing your boots? Inquiring minds want desperately to know.”

“Nobody important,” he said. “I suppose you want to know why you went swimming in the ocean.”

“I figured we were starting to get in the way of something imminent,” I said. “Feel free to elaborate, of course.”

“You’re close. Tell you what: If you promise to back out, I’ll promise to leave you alone. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds like: Dream on, Trask. I think I know where you’re holed up, and I’m never going to leave you alone.”

He laughed. “You knock yourself out, then, Lieutenant, but you better bring some competent help.”

“Count on it,” I said, and then I had an idea. “Did you say ‘sorry we missed you’?”

There was just the slightest hesitation in his reply. “I might have,” he said.

“So who’s we? Not perchance that moonpool engineer, Petrowska’s number two? Dr. Thomason?”

“Hoo-aah,” he said.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” I said. “Now: Why shouldn’t I call Creeps Caswell and fill him in on this conversation? You’re out there somewhere in the weeds like the snake you are, but Thomason, he’s right there at Helios. And I’ll bet he’ll stand up under competent questioning for, what, a good fifteen seconds?”

“You would be wrong about that, because, one, he’s a lot tougher than he looks, and two, you still want to know what happened to your ace employee, Ms. Allison Gardner, don’t you? I can answer that for you, but not if you go running to tell teacher. Let’s talk. How’s tonight work for you?”

“Tonight’s just dandy,” I said. “But I’m not coming to talk.”

“Oh, hell, Lieutenant, we can talk and then we can rumble. I might even tell you what the fuck we’re up to, and why. You seem like the kind of guy who might appreciate it, even. Either way, whoever comes out on top can talk all he wants to, or not, as the case might be, right?”

“I believe I know what you’re up to, although I think that’s no longer possible, what with all the attention you’ve brought to Helios. So: How’s about the container junkyard, sometime after sundown?”

“Hah!” he said. “That was a pretty good guess.”

“The word among the ICE people is that you have a spider-hole over there,” I said. I wanted him to know we’d been there and that we were known to the operatives at the container port. He ignored me.

“And you’ll bring the shepherds?” he asked.

“You betchum, Red Rider.”

“Won’t that be interesting,” he said.

We exchanged cell numbers, and then I hung up. I went to find Creeps’s number. I knew Trask had been talking about one of those High Noon moments, just the two of us mano a mano, alone in the middle of the street, itchy fingers dangling over holstered Colts. Conceptually, I was fine with that notion. Practically speaking, I wanted three Bucars’ worth of heavily armed special agents lurking in the shadows on my side, plus a wire, plus a silenced helicopter with an operable death ray overhead. I sincerely doubted that Trask knew the first thing about Allie Gardner’s death. What he really wanted was me in the open long enough for a clean. 30-06 head shot, followed by a quiet splash in the Cape Fear River at max tidal current. The quip about the dogs was just more BS.

Special Agent Caswell was not available, and would I like to leave a message? I asked them to have him call me before 6:00 P.M. Subject? Apprehension of Carl Trask. Spell Trask. I did. We’ll be sure to pass that on.

Then I called Pardee, who said he was up to his eyeballs in the inner workings and hidden mechanisms of the station’s security access system.

“Getting anywhere?” I asked.

“Anywhere I want to,” he said. “That’s the problem.”

“How so?”

“Somebody’s rigged the system to grant universal and unreported access to the right card. We’re assuming it was Trask’s card, which, of course, is missing.”

“Didn’t Ari suspend his access?”

“He thinks he has,” Pardee said. “I’m not so sure. I think Trask has some pretty competent help.”

I briefed him on my phone call from said Colonel Trask.

“Wow,” he said. “You tell the Bureau?”

“I did leave a message with Creeps’s office. As for Ari, you can tell him we think Trask is not only alive and well, but that he’s aiming some kind of shit at Helios. I’ll need you for this little op this evening.”

“Got it; the head NRC data-dink is a little miffed that I found some things they couldn’t.”