Gregg Hurwitz: We Know

Steve's voice was muffled. "They just put out a citywide BOLO on you. Your face is all over. I guess the public is willing to believe anyone's a terrorist now."

"What are you going to do?" Callie asked.

I said, "I'm not sure yet."

"Will I see you again?"

"I hope so."

"You're not going to run?"

I could hear her breathing over the line, the click of the gas meter running up cents and dollars, the wax and wane of passing traffic. I said, "Not this time."

The pump clicked off. I said good-bye and hung up.

A few minutes later, I eased along that quiet residential slope in Santa Monica Canyon where I'd met Caruthers on his jog. The houses abutted the street-small setbacks, frosted windows, and abbreviated front steps. I parked right beside the spot where Caruthers and I had talked, then grabbed a Ziploc bag and a pen from the glove box. When I climbed out, the thud of my closing door echoed off the aloof facades.

I walked over to the gutter and crouched. There it was, preserved as I'd hoped. A beige dot, stuck to the mailbox post. Caruthers's nicotine gum, frozen where he'd thrown it. Using the pen, I pried the piece of gum off into the bag and sealed it.

Driving back to Induma's, I tried to listen to the radio, but all talk was on politics. A mediocre senator claimed the moral high ground after his opponent addressed a female reporter as "honey." A House rep pleaded for us to Vote for Change. Someone wanted to tax cigarettes to pay for gasoline, or gasoline to pay for levees. Finally I opted for silence. Pulling over a few blocks from Induma's house, I wanded down the Jag but found no transmitters. It was the hind end of dusk as I scaled the neighbor's fence and hurried through Induma's backyard. I liked coming here, as I liked Callie's kitchen and Homer's tunnel and the other little nooks of warmth I'd carved out of the insanity of the past week. Eight nights ago I'd been dragged off the floor of my condo and hustled onto that Black Hawk. Eight nights, but to me it felt like a third lifetime.

When she opened the back door, I held up the little plastic bag, letting the chewed ball of gum swing.

She said, "You know, some guys bring flowers."

"It's Caruthers's."

I watched the wheels turn behind her dark, intelligent eyes, and then she blinked once, long, and said, "DNA sample."

"You can get one from gum, right?"

"I've heard you can."

She stepped back and I came in, and the house smelled of caramelized onions. We stood just inside, facing each other like nervous prom dates.

"I got the bone-chip analysis," she said. "The sample in your cheek matched Charlie Jackman. I have the report upstairs."

"Can you run one more analysis?"

"Against the person on the paternity report? Unidentified Male?"

"Unidentified Male," I said.

"You've been busy."

"Me and him both."

"Yes, I can get the analysis run. To determine if the same person who chewed that gum fathered that child."

She walked to the couch, and I followed her. Pillow back in her lap, she took in the update.

When I finished, she ran her hands through her dark hair. She took a deep breath and tilted her head to the ceiling as she exhaled. "Caruthers is the better candidate for president. You know it and I know it. And you have something sure to stop him."

We sat with the weight of that for a moment. It seemed like a stupendous choice, but it wasn't much of a choice at all.

Induma's pragmatism finally got the better of her. "How are you planning to put this out in a way so the public gets onto it?"

"Can you have the DNA results back by Thursday morning?"

"Why Thursday mor-" Comprehension flickered across her face. "Oh, no, Nick. The debate? You can't be…?"

"Town-hall format, remember?"

"The debate's a farce, Nick, like everything else. The questions are all vetted, and the people asking them'H be screened six times over. They're only gonna let VIPs and preselected demographic types even get inside the building. All that on top of the fact that the Secret Service, which'll be de facto running the event, will be on the lookout for you." She shook her head, her hair swaying. "There's no way for you to get the ultrasound inside Royce Hall without being seen."

"Well," I said, "there is one way."

She studied me, an eyebrow arched with curiosity. But she didn't ask. Instead she said, "I thought you were going to disappear, mail this in, let someone else handle it."

I looked over at that sandalwood Buddha, still laughing in the alcove. My throat was dry.

I said, "There's no one left to handle it."

The enormity of the challenge sat between us, fearsome and overwhelming. But we started to talk through my plan, one step at a time. Induma brought back the gear I needed from her garage-workshop and rigged it to her satisfaction. Nightfall came shortly, but neither she nor I moved to turn on a lamp. Maybe we were too distracted by what we were contemplating, but more likely a part of us welcomed the dark. These were unsafe ideas, better murmured in unlit rooms where they were no more than words without owners, where we were faceless shadows on a couch.

Suddenly Induma's silhouette stiffened. With alarm I looked over my shoulder, following her gaze, and through the front windows I saw the band of light that had sprung into existence, illuminating the street end of her walk. Something had tripped the motion sensor down there by the curb. Gnats pinged around in the emptiness between the waist-high bamboo lining the concrete path. We watched, breathless.

A pair of men in suits emerged from the dark of the street, piercing the cold, white glow.

Agents. I recognized them from when I'd had that kid run my credit card at Starbucks.

The high-tech lights blinked on in succession, broadcasting their approach.

Induma half stood, one knee on the couch. We were frozen. Their voices became audible as they stepped onto the porch.

The doorbell rang, breaking whatever spell had paralyzed us.

Induma hissed, "Go."

"I don't want to leave y-"

"They came up the front walk-they're just here to poke around and harass me. Believe me, I can handle this. But you need to go now, or we both run out of options."

I started for the rear door, hesitated.

Induma said, fiercely, "If they catch you here, it's over."

The doorbell rang again.

I scrambled out the back. Someone-another agent-was fussing with the latch, trying to open the side gate. I sprinted across the lawn, vaulted the boxwood hedge, and skidded down the canal slope, water seeping through my shoes.

As quietly as possible, I sloshed the length of four houses, stooping under footbridges, dodging sleeping ducks with their heads turned to rest on their backs. A flashlight beam played briefly in Induma's yard, but no one crossed the barrier to check the canal. I misjudged my proximity to a cluster of mallards, and they exploded up in a spray of water and pinfeathers, scaring me senseless. I bolted up onto someone's deck and cut through an easement overgrown with foxtails.

Induma's house was no longer visible, but still I crept through front yards to avoid stepping out into the open. The Jag was where I'd left it, in the shadows between streetlights. I drove away, forcing myself not to speed. My hands shook as I called my mom. Steve answered.

I said, "They're closing the net. I had to warn you they might come-"

He cut me off. "Yeah, Janice, she can't talk right now. We've got some people here asking about her son."

He hung up.

I pulled over and sat in the car, breathing hard. Caruthers's men were beating the bushes, cutting down my options, forcing me to keep on the run where I'd be likely to make a mistake. I had to find somewhere to bed down until everything blew open. But I had nowhere left to go.