Thomas Perry - Dead Aim

“Because the people at Wells Fargo called to ask me why I wanted to liquidate the whole account there-why I wasn’t satisfied.”

“I don’t get it. Why are you doing it?”

“I’m not. They said they had received a transfer order with your signature on it.”

“Mine? Oh, my God,” she whispered. “Who are these people? How did they know about any account, let alone know that my name would do them any good?”

“That’s what I want to know,” said Mallon. It was not exactly the way he had wanted to put it. He had wanted to accuse her, to tell her she was lying. She seemed so guilty, but now he was beginning to wonder whether he was just being jumpy, suspicious of everybody. She seemed to read his thoughts.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I’m just so scared that I’m suspecting everybody, but I was the one who did most of the talking to the police in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Maybe I was too clear about our business relationship. It wouldn’t be hard to find out the names of the banks you deal with. A credit check would turn up that much.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you think one of the cops is involved?” he asked. He tried unsuccessfully to keep the skepticism out of his voice.

“I can’t trust my own thoughts right now,” she said. “I don’t know who anybody is. There were people watching my office. There was a woman who took my picture when I parked my car at La Cumbre Plaza, and then again near the courthouse. That night there were two men following me when I tried to drive home. I did everything I knew to lose them, but they stayed right behind me. A couple of times they came so close I thought they were going to try to push me off the road. Instead of going home, I stopped at a neighbor’s house and rang the bell. When he came to the door they drove off.”

Mallon squeezed his eyes shut. The woman with the camera was certainly real. “What do you think we should do?”

“I think we’ve already done it,” she answered. “We’ve both got to stay out of sight as long as we can, at least until we can find out what’s really going on, and who we can trust to help us.” She hesitated for a moment. “Have any of the police officers told you that you have to stay in the area?”

“No.”

“Then don’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I don’t know who is doing this. I thought it was something to do with Lydia Marks. But if somebody is trying to use my name to get at your money, then maybe Lydia was just killed to get her out of the way of that. Maybe it’s… I don’t know. Robert, you have to get out of there, away from southern California.”

“What about you?”

“Oh, I’m going, believe me. I’ve been hiding in a hotel for days. The only thing that’s been holding me here was that I couldn’t disappear until I’d talked to you.” She paused. “Robert, as your attorney, I can tell you that if nobody told you that you can’t leave, then you can. And as your friend, I would tell you not to pay attention if they had. It’s time to leave. And don’t take a plane. If somebody who’s getting information from the police is involved, they might be able to get your destination. Get in your car and drive somewhere. Just tell me where you’re going, so I can meet you. We’ll go to authorities we know can’t be involved, because they’re out of state.”

“All I’ve got is a rental car. Two men shot up my car last night, trying to kill me.”

She took a breath, and he could hear a tremor in her throat as she let it out. “You can’t use a rental car. It’s even easier to trace than a plane ticket. We’ll go together. I’ll drive you. I bought a new car.”

“New car?”

“After those men followed me, I asked myself whether it was worth the money to trade my old one in and buy a new one. Believe me, it feels as though it is. I went to a lot of trouble to get a car that nobody will recognize. I don’t want to go where you are. I’m afraid if somebody followed you there, they’ll see it. We’ll meet somewhere. I’ll drive past. If somebody is following me, you’ll see them, and know enough to get out fast. If I come past again and you’re gone, I’ll know I have a problem.”

“Where do we meet?”

“I don’t know… yes, I do. Do you remember about a year ago, I told you about a place where I was thinking about investing in some real estate?”

“Well, yes, I do,” said Mallon. “I think I can get there. When?”

“After dark. Say, ten o’clock. Is that all right?”

“Yes.”

“Well,” she said, “we haven’t said aloud where it was, and we haven’t said what my car looks like or where I’ll be coming from. We haven’t said where we’ll be going after that. I guess it’s the best we can do.”

“I guess so,” said Mallon. “Good luck to us.” He heard her hang up, so he did too. He sat for a time, going over the conversation in his mind. She had said something that would explain each of the suspicious facts: she had disappeared abruptly because she too had seen the woman with the camera, and then gotten stalked. She had claimed she had not known about the attempt to take the money from the private banking account at Wells Fargo. Of course, it could have been a lie, but suddenly he had realized that this was extremely unlikely. If she had wanted to get his money, or just deny him the use of it so he would be easier to kill, she should have been able to think of a better way than signing her own name to a withdrawal order. In a way, it seemed to him a sign of his emotional distress that he could have suspected her at all.

The most persuasive indication to him that she was innocent was her plan to drive him out of the area. She was the one who had been most cautious about setting up procedures that he could use to protect himself from ambush. He tried to think of a way to know for certain, but there was only one: he would have to show up to meet her.

Mallon sat in the bushes on the edge of somebody’s front lawn. He felt a faint movement of air, and it gave him hope. It was a hot night, but something was going on far out at sea, and the breath of it was just reaching shore. He had chosen this spot because the interior of the house behind him was dark, and it had the look of a place that was locked up except on weekends. The alarm company signs that said ARMED PATROL and ARMED RESPONSE seemed to be placed more aggressively than usual, and the sturdy doors and shuttered windows were permanently lit by small outdoor floods.

He stared through the shrubbery at the house three lots to the north. He remembered the day only about a year ago when he had allowed Diane to drive him here to look at it. He had been reluctant at first: the reason for the trip had been that she wanted Mallon, a former contractor, to appraise the building. He had protested that he had never built anything within two hundred miles of Malibu. He had no knowledge of the current codes and regulations in Los Angeles County, he had not worked in almost ten years, and he had not kept up with any of the technological changes that were common in high-end houses, and so could not tell her whether the fixtures he found wired into the place were godsends or crap. But she had sighed. “Robert. You made millions building houses. I know you’ve kept your license current because I just called the state and they told me.”

“For nostalgia.”

“So take a brief stroll down memory lane with me to look at my wiring and plumbing.” She had smiled. “I’ll buy you a spectacular dinner in L.A. for your trouble.”

“Why do you want me to do it? You’ll have to hire an L.A. contractor to check it just to satisfy the bank anyway.”

“I know. Come on, Robert. If you get a dog, I’ll housebreak it for you.”