Robert Crais - The Watchman

Pike said, “Same reason they lied about everything else.”

Cole looked at Pike.

“Better talk to your friend Bud. See what else they’ve been lying about.”

Larkin suddenly stiffened under Pike’s hand.

“Ohmigod, we have to tell my father.”

Pike hesitated. Whatever Pitman was doing, they had an advantage so long as Pitman didn’t know they were onto him. Pike didn’t trust Conner Barkley and his lawyers not to give them away.

“We can’t tell your father. Not yet.”

Larkin went rigid and flushed.

“I can’t not tell him! These people have lied about everything, and now Meesh isn’t even Meesh! Who is he? Why are they lying?”

“Larkin-”

She grabbed his shirt.

“They’re lying to him, too, and he still believes them! He’s my father. If you won’t tell him, I’ll tell him myself!”

Pike studied her, seeing both fear and hope in her eyes. Conner Barkley was her father. She wanted to protect him. And maybe by protecting him, he might finally see her.

Pike took out his phone and punched in Bud’s number. This time Bud answered. Pike told Bud they needed to see him and the girl’s father as soon as possible. It was serious, Pike told him. Pike set the location, then ended the call before Bud could ask questions. When he lowered the phone, the girl squeezed his arm. She was calmer by then, though not particularly happy. Pike couldn’t blame her.

Cole said, “When we were at the warehouse-”

Pike waited.

“I’m glad you didn’t tell her things couldn’t get worse.”

Pike looked at the girl.

“Get your stuff. Let’s go.”

The war in California between Mexico and the United States had ended in Universal City. Far from the skirmishes still being waged near Mexico City and the Texas border, the treaty to end local hostilities was signed in a small adobe mission known as Campo de Cahuenga at the top of the Cahuenga Pass. The mission was preserved, but it now stood invisible and unnoticed across the street from Universal Studios, hidden in plain sight by freeway ramps, parking lots, and two strange towers marking the entrance to an underground subway station. It was a good place to meet.

Pike and the girl were waiting with the engine running when the black Hummer turned in from Lankershim.

The Hummer made its way past the mission, then through the parking lot. The doors opened the moment it stopped, and Bud, Conner Barkley, and Barkley’s lawyer, Gordon Kline, stepped out. Pike wasn’t pleased to see Kline.

Pike said, “Let’s do it.”

They got out as Bud and the others came to meet them.

Her father said, “Larkin, it’s about time-we’ve been worried sick. Let’s get you out of here.”

Larkin didn’t move.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Her father seemed flustered, as if he feared she was about to explode.

“But you have to come home. We were so worried.”

He looked at Kline.

“Tell her, Gordon. Tell her to stop this.”

Pike was already tired of them. He faced Bud and spoke only for him.

“Pitman hasn’t been straight. The man he named as Alexander Meesh is not Meesh. Meesh died five years ago.”

Gordon Kline threw up his hands. Pike had seen plenty of that when he was a cop. Courtroom Theatrics 101.

“We’re not going to listen to this. I will have you prosecuted for kidnapping. I knew you were a lunatic the moment I laid eyes on you.”

Larkin raised her voice, and now it had a hard, angry edge.

“Shut the fuck up!”

Barkley was still looking at Kline. Larkin grabbed her father’s arm.

“Will you listen to me? Will you please just look at me and listen ? We came here to warn you.”

Conner Barkley looked pained.

“Don’t be like that, Larkin. Everyone’s worried.”

Kline said, “We’re bringing you home-”

He reached for her, but Pike caught his hand and rolled it. Kline jumped back.

“You sonofabitch! Flynn! Do something-”

“He could have ripped it out by the root, Gordon. Let’s see what they have.”

Pike took the faxed booking photo from his pocket and gave it to Flynn.

“This is Meesh. This is not the man in the pictures Pitman showed Larkin.”

Kline and Barkley both peered over Flynn’s shoulder to see. Barkley seemed uncertain, but Kline was impatient and stepped away.

“No, it isn’t, but so what? For all we know, you made this yourself.”

Bud slowly looked at him.

“But why would he do that?”

“To milk us for more money.”

Larkin was focused on her father.

“This isn’t the man in their pictures. They told us that man was Alexander Meesh, but he isn’t. They lied to us, Daddy.”

Daddy. It didn’t seem like a word she would use. Pike liked her for it, but her using it left him sad.

Kline took a breath, then softened his voice.

“We all saw those pictures, and I agree with you-the man in those pictures was not this man. But you’re making it sound as if they misled us. Two people can have the same name.”

Bud glanced through the attached pages.

“Same name, maybe, but not identical arrest records. This record matches what Pitman gave me when I came onboard.”

Gordon raised his eyebrows.

“Really? Then here’s what we need to do-we need to cut Pike loose here and now. Pike has to go. We need to get Larkin home and then we can ask Mr. Pitman. Believe me-I have plenty of questions. Believe me-if I don’t like the answers, he’ll regret the day he was born.”

Conner’s head bounced up and down as if all of this was the best idea he ever heard.

“Why don’t we go home, sweetie? We’ll see what this man Pitman says after we get you home.”

“I’m not going home.”

Kline stared at the ground as if he couldn’t believe the trouble she was causing.

“Flynn. Would you please put her in the car?”

“No, sir. Not unless it’s voluntary.”

Pike said, “She isn’t safe at home, Kline. Don’t you get that?”

Gordon Kline gazed up at Pike from beneath bushy eyebrows, and his voice was still carefully soft.

“Are you sleeping with her?”

Pike’s mouth twitched, but he watched Conner Barkley. Barkley did not react, and Pike felt even more sad for the girl.

Larkin said, “Fuck you, Gordon.”

“This is obstructing justice. You’re a witness in a federal investigation. This man, Pike, he’s putting you in dangerous situations-”

“This is a dangerous situation.”

“-and he’s alienating the people trying to help you. All I’m suggesting is maybe Pitman has a good reason for doing what he’s doing. We’ll ask him, and he’d damn well better explain.”

Pike said, “Ask him why he pretended he didn’t know who was with the Kings the night Larkin hit them.”

“Are you saying he knew?”

“He was flashing pictures of the man the day after the accident-two days before he approached Larkin. Ask him why the man he claims to be Meesh is still trying to kill Larkin even though the Kings are dead.”

Kline glanced at Conner Barkley, then shook his head.

“I spoke with Agent Pitman this morning. He said they were still looking for the Kings.”

“They’ve been dead more than a week. We just found them.”

“I don’t understand.”

Larkin said, “We found them-as in, we looked, and we found them. Someone put their bodies exactly where I had my accident, Gordon. Would you like the address? 18185. I think it was a message. That I’m going to join them.”

Kline wet his lips. He glanced at Barkley, then shook his head.

“You’re sure it was the Kings? You are telling us now that George King is dead?”