Robert Crais - Indigo Slam

'I know it's hard.' I said it as softly as I could.

She was hunched over, elbows on knees, arms crossed, lips pursed. A hard, tight knot. She said something, but I couldn't hear her.

'I didn't hear you, Teri.'

She said it again. 'He's such a loser.'

I didn't know what to say.

'He screws up everything. He's screwed up all of our lives.' The blinking grew harder, and her eyes filled. 'I try to make it better, but it just gets worse. I try so hard.' Tears leaked down across her cheeks and into the corners of her mouth, and I put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, and I started blinking, too.

'Teri.' Something creaked in the hall again and a door closed.

Teri said, 'Please don't let them hurt him.'

For all I knew they had him now. For all I knew he was dead. 'The only way I can help him is to find him before they do, you see?'

She wiped her eyes on her wrist, then took a breath. She hadn't broken all the way, and now she was pulling herself back together. I guess she'd had a lot of practice.

'But not with you here. I am either going to call the feds and have them take you in, or you're coming with me. Either way, you can't stay here.'

She wiped her eyes again, and now the tears were gone. As if they'd never been. 'Where will you take us?'

'We'll go to my house for now, but we'll have to move to a safe house. I'm easy to find, and the Russians might show up there.'

'What about my daddy?'

'I'll look for him when you guys are safe.'

'He's going to come back here.'

'Then I'll wait here for him, but first we have to get you guys to a safe place.'

She was small and folded, sitting on the edge of the couch, and then she adjusted her glasses and stood. 'Okay.' Just like that. 'I'd better get Charles and Winona.' The fifteen-year-old mother again. Taking care of her family.

We went along the hall to their rooms. Both doors were closed. I rapped at each door. 'Charles. Winona. You guys come here.'

Winona 's door quietly opened, and she stepped into the hall. Charles's voice came muffled from behind his. 'Eff you!' He'd been listening, all right.

Teri said, 'Charles, we're going away for a few days. We have to pack.'

'Eff!'

I smiled at Winona. 'Hi, honey.' Mr. Friendly. Mr. Don't-Be-Scared-of-the-Man-Who's-Going-to-Take-You-Away.

'Hi.' She smiled back, but it was uncertain. It was the first time I had seen Winona as anything but bubbling. I guess if my dad had blown in and out without warning I would've been uncertain, too. The little troll key chain was clipped to her belt loop. Guess if you couldn't have Daddy, you might as well have the troll. Maybe, sometimes, the two were one and the same.

I said, 'Teri, why don't you help Winona with her things. I'll talk to Charles.'

Charles yelled, 'I ain't goin'!'

Teri said, 'C'mon, Winona. You help me pack and I'll help you.'

They went into their room, and I tapped at Charles's door. 'C'mon, bud.'

'Eff!'

I tapped again, then opened the door, and when I did he ran over and pushed against it as hard as he could, shouting, 'Eff you! Stay out of here! Eff!' He was red-faced and crying, and I felt like a turd.

I forced the door, Charles on the other side, crying louder and pushing hard, sobbing from the mucus in his throat, thin chest heaving, shouting 'You get outta here!' until I had the door open, and then he ran at me, butting head first into me, punching and spitting and screaming for me to get out and I pulled him close and held him, and after a while all the yelling and crying subsided into a sobbing hack. It was a barren room, holding only a single frame bed and a chest, with none of the posters and toys and things you'd expect to see in the room of a twelve-year-old boy. Maybe Charles didn't think he'd live here long enough to bother. I said, 'It's okay, kid.'

'I hope he never comes back!'

I held him.

'I wish he was dead!'

I held him tighter.

Teri said, 'Charles?' She was standing in the door.

I said, 'We're okay, Teri.'

Charles and I stood for a very long time, and when the sobbing subsided I tried to let go, but by then Charles was holding on to me, arms locked tight around my ribs, face buried in my chest. I could feel the wet soaking through my shirt. 'It's okay, kid.' I said it five or six times. Maybe I said it more.

I let Charles hang on to me for another couple of minutes, and then I told him to pack enough for two nights. I told him that we were going to my place, and that when they were safe I would find his father. Charles turned away without looking at me, wiped his nose on the back of his hand, and packed. He said, 'Eff'm.'

Maybe I would kill Clark if the Russians didn't.

Iphoned Joe Pike while they packed. ' Clark 's gone.' I said. 'Again.'

Pike didn't say anything for a moment. 'You're going to move the kids.'

'That's right. I'm going to take them to my place, but I don't want to keep them there overnight. Sautin and Dobcek could show up anytime.'

'Okay.'

'Think you could come up with a safe house?' Pike knew people, and he'd come up with safe places to stay before. Once an abandoned mansion in Bel Air, once an Airstream trailer in the high desert near Edwards Air Force Base. You never knew. Maybe he owned these places and just didn't bother to tell me.

'Let me make some calls. I'll meet you at your place later.'

By the time I was off the phone, Teri and Winona and Charles were ready to go. Guess they didn't have much to pack, or maybe it was because they'd had so much practice.

We locked their house, put their bags behind the seats, and the four of us made the drive up Laurel Canyon, the three of them bunched together in the passenger seat. Teri had offered to drive their car, but I said no. I wasn't worried that she'd have an accident; I was more concerned that when we got wherever we were going she would simply drive away. Charles said, 'I'm all squished up.'

Teri said, 'Live with it.'

I took it slow because no one was wearing a seat belt. Elvis Cole, the not-quite-responsible parent, looking over his shoulder for a load of Russian hit men.

Teri and Charles were quiet, but after a while Winona began to chatter about how much she liked riding in the convertible. The top was down and the wind blew through our hair, and Winona said that it made her feel like she was in a parade. Charles neither glowered nor flipped off anyone, and Teri seemed lost in herself. I guess everyone had their own way of dealing with what was going on.

Pretty soon we left the city behind and wound through the trees, and a little bit after that we turned into the carport. Winona said, 'Is this your house?'

'Yes.'

'It looks like a tepee.'

'It's called an A-frame. It's tall and steep and shaped like the letter.'

Charles slunk out of the car and peered at the trees and natural hillsides. 'Are there bears?'

'No bears. Just a few coyotes and rattlesnakes.'

He glanced at the ground, then made a sour face. 'What's that smell?'

Winona giggled. 'Charles cut the cheese.'

Teri said, 'Don't be rude.'

'It's the eucalyptus trees.' I pointed them out to him. 'The sun splits their bark, and their sap smells like mouthwash.'

They followed me inside through the kitchen to the living room. I told them to put their bags on the stairs, and I opened the drapes and the big glass doors to let the breeze in from the deck, then checked my answering machine. Lucy had left a message, asking me to call. Teri said, 'Is that Ms. Chenier?'

'Yep.'

'Aren't you going to call her?'

'As soon as we get squared away. You guys can go out on the deck if you want, but nobody climb on the rail. You can play on the slope, just watch out for the snakes.' Summer camp at the Cole residence. They stood in the door and looked at the deck and the slope, but nobody went outside. The snakes.