F Wilson - Deep as the Marrow

“Damn straight,” Canney said. “This one’s got to be the most bizarre goddamn kidnapping I’ve ever seen or heard of. One moment it appears to be a highly sophisticated operation; the next—strictly amateur hour.”

You’ve got that right, Dan thought. But Carlos Salinas is a pro. Some of the people he hired may have fucked up, but even as we sit here, he’s tying up all those loose ends.

Dan forced himself to relax.

Everything will be all right. Salinas will have everything under control soon, if not already. He won’t leave a trace.

4

“Where is he?” Carlos pounded the desk with both fists.

“He could be anywhere,” Gold said. “We have his house staked out, so we know he’s not there. We just have to wait until he calls in.” The MBA looked fidgety, and Carlos was glad of it. Let him be frightened of me. Let him fear not only for his future income, but for his physical well being. His life.

Because Carlos was afraid for all those things himself.

MacLaglen might be alive, but he might be hurt and hiding somewhere, or even dying. Carlos was not concerned about the cabron’s health so much as the fact that his very disappearance might trigger the release of that damned tape.

“I want him found!” He turned to Llosa. “Get some men together. We have a picture of MacLaglen; have copies made. We know he likes to call from hotels. Make the rounds. Go from hotel to hotel and look for him.” It was a long shot, but he couldn’t simply sit here and wait for something to happen.

Llosa nodded and pulled out a pistol. “And when I find him, should I… ”

“Madre, no!” He didn’t want Gold or Llosa or anyone to know about the tape. “Bring him here, to me. He has much explaining to do, and a dead man cannot explain.”

5

Poppy checked out her hair in the bathroom mirror.

“It’ll grow back,” she told herself for the hundredth time since she’d started hacking it off.

Her China doll bob was gone. So was the Deadly Nightshade rinse. Instead she now sported jet-black hair, close on the sides, spiked on top. Kind of retro and like eighties-ish, and normally she wouldn’t be caught dead looking like this, but the whole idea of the makeover was staying alive.

She checked out the rest of her get-up: baggy jeans, oversized denim shirt, sneakers. She’d removed her ear rings, eyebrow ring, and nostril stud. No makeup, no nail polish, and still no way she’d pass for a guy.

But Mac would have to be looking pretty damn close to recognize the Poppy Mulliner he’d known.

Katie, however, was like a totally different story. Poppy stepped back into the sleeping area and admired her handiwork.

Katie sat on the bed, remote in hand, channel surfing. She’d been a little difficult during her makeover, but seemed to have forgotten it now. But it had been worth all the trouble. Katie really looked like a little boy.

A red-haired little boy. Poppy had tried to make her a blonde, but the bleaching solution had turned her dark hair red instead. Which was okay, she guessed. Blond would have been cooler, but with the short bowl cut Poppy had given her, her Jets T-shirt, and jeans and sneakers to match Poppy’s, she looked ready for peewee football practice.

I hope this works, she thought. Just long enough for you to get to safety and me to disappear.

She put on a smile and clapped her hands. “Hey, bro. Let’s go. How’s a call to your daddy sound?” Katie dropped the remote and ran to the phone.

“Can I dial?”

“You sure can. But let’s find another phone, okay?”

Before leaving, Poppy scoured the room of every trace that they’d been here. Even if someone tracked them to this room, they’d have no notion that hair had been cut or dyed.

She stopped their newly red truck at a gas station, got a fistful of change ready, let Katie punch in her dad’s cell phone number, then held the handset between them as her father answered.

“Hi, Daddy. It’s me.”

“Katie!” said a masculine voice. “Oh, Katie, thank God it’s you! What happened? I thought I was going to see you last night. I waited and waited.”

Poppy heard the voice crack and almost break with emotion. Damn me, she thought. I should’ve let him know I wasn’t coming.

“I fell asleep,” Katie said.

“Are you all right?”

“Sure. We’re playing let’s pretend and you know what we did?” Poppy pulled the handset away. “Let me talk now, okay?”

No telling who might be listening. Maybe even Mac. Paulie said he was a genius. He might have tapped Katie’s home line, but how could you tap a cellular phone? No wires.

“Sorry about last night,” she said. “I had to like change plans.”

“As long as Katie’s all right. But she needs her medicine. She—”

“All taken care of,” Poppy said.

A pause on the other end, then, “But the pills were left—”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m taking good care of her. I ain’t about to let her start having fits.”

“Can I ask how you got them? I mean, is it the right dose?”

“Exactly the same as the ones in the bottle. I had to like knock over a drugstore to get them.”

After another pause, longer this time. “You did that for Katie? You…you really do care about her, don’t you.”

“Sure. You got a great kid here.” A totally great kid. “But how come she’s got like this dent in her head?”

“An… accident. A fractured skull. It left her with the seizure disorder.” He cleared his throat. “Listen… can I ask you… is she all there? I mean, her toes… ?”

“Yeah. She’s still got all ten. How’d you figure out the one you got wasn’t hers?”

“A laboratory. Were you the one responsible for—I mean, for not…”

“Not allowing her to get hurt? Yeah. Me and Paulie. And it got Paulie killed.”

“The dead man in the house?”

Now it was Poppy’s turn to get tight in the throat. She swallowed. “Yeah. He was a good guy. He died protecting her.”

“I… I don’t know how to thank you… I’ll never be able to thank you enough… but I don’t understand…”

“It’s like a long story and I don’t have time to tell it. But what you gotta know is that the guy who killed Paulie is still alive. That’s why I didn’t bring Katie last night. I thought he was totally dead. I mean, like I put a bullet in his head. I—”

“You?”

“Well, yeah. He was trying to hurt Katie. She knows what he looks like, so he’ll still be after her. If I give her back, you gotta get her protection.”

“Oh, trust me, she’ll have the best protection in the world. I guarantee as soon as she’s back the FBI, the Secret Service, and DEA, even the CIA will be guarding her.”

Poppy’s stomach did a flip-flop. All those federal initials. What if they were looking for Katie now? That meant they were looking for her too. Suddenly she wanted this all over with.

“They’ll protect you as well,” Katie’s father was saying.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. My hands ain’t so clean in this.”

“Believe me, you bring Katie back and help them, all sorts of deals can be made.”

“I think I’d just like to fade into the scenery, if you don’t mind.” She kept thinking: FBI, Secret Service, DEA, CIA. She glanced at her watch.

She’d been on the line for too long.

Her mind raced. How could she get Katie safe back home? Couldn’t do it back in the D.C. area, and she couldn’t stay around here any longer.

Where?

And then she knew.

“All right, look. Here’s how it’ll go down: I’ll meet you in A.C. tomorrow and give Katie back.”

“Aycee?”

“Atlantic City.” Paulie liked blackjack; they used to hit the casinos regularly. “Register tonight in Bally’s Park Place under your own name and I’ll get in touch. You’ll have Katie back like tomorrow for sure.”