Pearce Hansen - Stagger Bay

“Sam won’t hear it from me.”

“Look,” she said again. “I know I’m older than Sam. I see how all the girls his age smile at him wherever we go. Is that part of what’s bothering you? Do you disapprove?”

“I’m not the one to say. Okay Sam,” I called toward the back of the house. “You can come out now.”

“I need you to do something, right away,” I told Elaine when Sam rejoined us. “I’ve been planting seeds that look like they might be finally taking root, and I need you to do your part, double up on my preparations. I need you to go down to the news station, find that red-headed anchor lady out of the East Bay.

“You got to go on camera and talk about how the people of the Gardens are ready to quit; how one more tragedy will crush their morale and chase them out of town. More than that, you got to speak directly to the Driver and plead with him to stop. Beg for his mercy – you’ve got to grovel, that’ll give him a real hard on.”

I thought a bit. “You’ve got to put some quaver in your voice too, sound like you’re ready to break down, give him a show. Can you fake emotion like that?”

She gave me a pitying look. “I’m a lawyer. I fake emotions for a living.”

“I’m in,” Sam said firmly – and he was whether he knew it or not. “You’re not going to stop me being part of the fun anymore.”

“You’re right,” I said. “I need you body-guarding Elaine. You two got to go see that newscaster lady together.” If Elaine was up to any shenanigans that might impact my game, Sam following her around like a puppy would continue to put a crimp in it; and if Sam was up to something with her, them being together couldn’t do me any more harm.

“After Elaine makes her TV speech, find somewhere to hole up,” I continued. “I don’t know, a motel room outside of town or something. Make sure you park your car out of sight, in back-”

“I know how to lie low,” Sam interrupted in a sullen voice.

I ignored the attitude. “Don’t let yourself be followed, and keep your eyes and ears open for that Cougar. There’s no mistaking that ride.”

We were getting close to the finish here, and I had no choice but to be semi-open. “I think he’s going to hit the Gardens again and soon, maybe tonight. I won’t lie – I think that’s the main chance, and that’s where I need to be.”

“But it looks like he figures Elaine’s a target now too.” And maybe you too, son. “He may come after her again instead. In that case, trust me, you’ll have all the action you can handle and I’ll be the one running your way.”

Was I trying to distract the Driver away from Sam by luring him to the Gardens? When you hunted big cats, you needed live bait unfortunately. The Gardens was the main chance and always had been, I told myself as if cross-examining myself on the witness stand – I’d had this plan in mind even before Lola’s demise, and the Gardens were at risk regardless of what I did or didn’t do.

Elaine took Sam’s hand as he stared at the floor thinking; he didn’t like what I was saying but had no argument to counter it. She couldn’t take her eyes off him – maybe the sweet spot she had for him might just hold a bit longer. Elaine noticed me watching her watching Sam, and glared at me as though ashamed for showing this vulnerability.

I continued speaking to my son: “Hey kid, don’t take it so hard. I promise if it goes down at the Gardens, I’ll call you ASAP. If I do, you’d best get there like your butthole’s on fire.” Or vice a versa, I thought.

“Count on it,” Sam said.

///I saw a stack of official paperwork on Elaine’s kitchen table and something clicked in my head, made me go look at them. There were zoning maps and tax documents, real estate assessments with lot numbers that meant nothing to me – a bunch of seemingly random stuff – but a pattern snapped up in my brain as I studied the pile.

“Elaine,” I said. “All those empty lots next to the Gardens, what’s the story on them?”

Elaine squinted myopically down at her working papers – she apparently hadn’t had time to put her soft lenses in. “Well, Tubbs’ people plan on putting in a high-end retirement village there – no Medicare, just wealthy seniors. There are a lot of construction contracts riding on the senior center, and the potential for major tax revenue, so they’ve declared the Gardens a blighted property under that new Supreme Court eminent domain ruling. They’re getting ready to evict everyone and bulldoze it to the ground, but I filed an injunction for a cease-and-desist so the project is on hold.”

I looked at her, incredulous. “You actually still expect me to think people are following you just because you sprung me? Don’t even pretend you don’t know what it’s really about.”

“It’s a legitimate injunction,” Elaine said defensively. “There’ll be a healthy payout at the end, I promise. But you’re right, it all started after I filed it.”

“I saw a lot of high-end homes on the outskirts of town when I came to town,” I said. “What happened to the people that used to live there?”

Elaine considered. “Well, some took the hint and moved away – others just up and disappeared, the police only took missing persons reports but they went nowhere – the lot sales, the permits for demolition and construction were issued a little hastily I think, given the circumstances.

“There’ve been questionable deaths in the development areas too, but the coroner’s reports always say they’re accidents. The police have had to shoot more than a few suspects serving warrants. Some of the people killed were allegedly meth lab chemists or indoor growers – but there were fires at several of the supposed meth labs, so it’s hard to be sure.”

I nodded. “You know, I understand outside money coming in here – it’s a nice, scenic, isolated place. But what about the pulp mill? I can’t see rich folks moving to Stagger Bay if their view’s going to be blocked by those two huge smoke stacks, even if they’re not spewing toxic waste anymore.”

“Oh, they’re going to dynamite the stacks next week. You can watch it live on TV or in person if you like. Some cruise ship line bought the property; they’re going to put in a big dock and a resort there after the rubble’s cleared away.”

Given Stagger Bay’s current startling cash influx, it was worth the risk to Elaine if she was gaming. She was being a smart girl; there were so many angles here to generate a nice payday for Ms. Hubbard. Then what? An account in the Caymans, a villa in Sao Paolo? And when she got her passport, would Sam be getting one too?

“We don’t know how far this goes,” I said, continuing the pretense we were all putting our cards on the table. “We should step carefully. But I don’t think we’re going to be able to – our only chance is to make things loud and messy, hope they make more mistakes than us.”

When we got to Natalie’s, something was burning in the trash can where the Crips usually stowed their empty 40-ouncers. Smoke and flames came from the top of the can; I stepped in closer and saw it was a man’s clothes on fire in there.

“I'll never regret Wayne,” Natalie said as I joined her on the porch to watch the pyre. “He gave me Randy after all. But you can’t sleep with the dead and it’s time to put Wayne to rest all the way. I have to clean house and move on.”

“I’m tired of being in love with pain,” she said, harsh and anxious. “Hate won’t warm my bed. It just takes. And takes.”

“You’re right about that,” I said.

Natalie started to say something else but I’d already commenced walking to the Garden’s entrance. Once there, I studied the stillborn development across the way.