Tod Goldberg - The Bad Beat

“I could,” I said. “But I’m not going to.”

King Thomas sighed, as if the conversation we were having was such an existential weight on him that it hurt his soul, and then stood up and disappeared into another room. He reappeared moments later with a ring holding at least twenty-five keys. “Everyone always asks me to keep their extra keys,” he said.

“You seem very responsible,” I said.

“I’m not,” he said. He fumbled through the keys silently and then landed the one he wanted. “I slept through three classes this week. That’s not very responsible, is it?”

“Were you in prison?”

“No, I just couldn’t get up. You ever have days like that?”

“Yes,” I said.

“What do you do?”

“I get up.”

“I guess there’s no lecture notes in real life,” he said.

“Not that I’ve found,” I said.

King Thomas removed the key from the key ring and then seemed to ponder what his next move was going to be. “I haven’t seen Brent leave, so he might just be asleep.”

“I tried knocking on the door.”

“He takes that Ambien stuff,” King Thomas said. “Every Saturday. And I’m the vampire?” King Thomas stepped into the hall and looked down at Sugar. “Hey, Sugar.”

“What up, T-Dawg?” Sugar said. “How you been?”

“Chilling,” King Thomas said.

“You know each other?” I said to King Thomas.

“Yeah,” King Thomas said. “Are you with him?”

“Kind of,” I said.

“So you’re not really Brent’s uncle?”

“No, not really,” I said. “But I’m not here to hurt him. I’m here to help him. And, just to be clear, I don’t work with Sugar. He happens to be someone I know.”

“Don’t worry,” King Thomas said. “No one would make you for a drug dealer.”

“What do I look like?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe a hit man?”

“Close enough,” I said.

King Thomas put his key in the lock and the door opened with a whoosh. I put a hand on King Thomas’ chest and held him back while I looked in. The living space was empty-just the same sofa, chair and nondescript coffee table as all the other rooms had-save for a few books and papers left on the floor and kitchen table. There was no blood anywhere, which is always a good thing.

I stepped into the room and listened. Nothing but the electrical undertones you’d expect. “Wait here,” I said to King Thomas.

“Whatever,” he said.

The door to the bedroom was open. On the floor were stacks of clothes and newspapers and Big Gulp cups and socks and dirty dishes and, finally, at least two dozen baseball caps. But the surprising thing was the number of computers in the room-five laptops and one desktop-all of which were on and linked together. It was enough computer power to run SETI, or maybe a portable NORAD installation, but certainly more than your average college student might need, even one who was a computer science major.

In the bed was a body.

Or, well, the body of a sleeping college student, which can (and often does) resemble the dead. It wasn’t until a stifled snore came out of the body that I realized with certainty that it was a sleeping human and not a dead one. The smell in the room didn’t help.

I stepped over the heaps of clothes, made my way around the dirty dishes and sidestepped the innumerable computer cables until I was standing above Brent Grayson’s sleeping form. I tapped him on the shoulder.

Nothing.

I tapped him on the side of the face.

Nothing.

“Brent,” I said. “Wake up.”

Nothing again.

I looked at his bedside table and saw that he had a prescription bottle for Ambien, just as King Thomas had suggested, but the label said it was for someone named Irene Rosenblatt.

I walked back out into the hallway and saw that Sugar was deep in conversation with the vampire king and another boy, this one with dreadlocks that looked like they were matted with pet fur. “Sugar,” I said, “what did I tell you?”

“Sorry, boss. I know these cats,” he said.

I held up the bottle. “You know Irene Rosenblatt, too?”

“Oh, man, you know,” he said.

I just shook my head and went back inside the dorm room. I sat down on the sofa and called Sam. “We’ve got a body here,” I told him.

“Is it messy?” he asked.

“No,” I said, “it’s asleep. On Ambien.”

“You can have crazy sex on that stuff,” he said.

“So I hear,” I said. “Listen, I’m going to bring this kid home with me and I’m going to leave Sugar somewhere where he can’t hurt himself or anyone else. Like Guantanamo Bay, maybe.”

“Yeah, about that,” Sam said. “His car is gone.”

“Towed away?”

“No, I mean gone. Like blown up. Along with the entire notary office. Looks like a pro job, Mikey. These guys are legit that came out there today. This isn’t someone looking to collect on a gambling debt, just like you thought.”

“Well, this kid has about $20K worth of computer equipment in his dorm room, the kind of computers no college freshman would ever need. Something is going on here beyond Sugar’s comprehension, that’s for sure. So meet me at my place in about an hour. See if Fiona is available. I have a feeling Brent Grayson might respond to a pretty face more than to guys like us.”

“Will do,” Sam said and hung up.

I walked back out into the hall and Sugar was leaning against the wall chatting up a young woman. Great. I went back into the vampire’s lair and saw that the exalted King Thomas was back on his computer, as if nothing had gone on outside the norm whatsoever.

“King Thomas,” I said, “mind if we have a word?”

“You can just call me Tom,” he said. “That’s mostly a joke.”

“Do you know what Brent’s major is?”

“He does some stuff with video game design,” he said.

“How many computers do you need for that sort of thing?”

King Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m in graphic arts, so it’s all crayons for me.”

“Six computers seem excessive to you?”

“He downloads a lot of music, I guess,” he said.

“Listen, Tom,” I said. “I’m going to take Brent out of here now. If anyone comes looking for him, I want you to call me, do you understand?”

I wrote my number down on a piece of scrap paper and handed it to King Thomas. He eyed it suspiciously. “How do I know you’re not a bad guy?”

“You don’t,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll call you. Should I be expecting something bad to happen?”

“Maybe,” I said. “At the very least, if Sugar should show up? Call me then, too.”

“Got it,” he said.

I left the king to his lair and went back into Brent’s room. He was still fast asleep. I shook him as hard as I could without breaking his ribs, or neck, and his eyes fluttered open.

“Who are you?” he said.

“The person who is going to save your life,” I said.

“Are you friends with Sugar?”

“No,” I said. “I’m the person who saved Sugar’s life, too.”

“Are you Sam?”

“No,” I said. “I’m Michael Westen.”

“The spy?”

Nice that Sugar had been discreet in all of his dealings. I wondered if Brent had my burned dossier, too.

“Yes,” I said, “the spy.”

“So he brought the wolf. Cool.”

“The wolf?”

“From Pulp Fiction. The fixer. Badass.” Brent sat up and rubbed his eyes. “What time is it?”

“After three.”

“Did Sugar take care of, uh…” Brent trailed off. “Is he dead?”

“No,” I said. “And no. He’s out in the hall. Now grab your stuff and however many computers you think you need and come with me.”