Robert Crais - Indigo Slam

Clark said, 'Oh, dear.'

Winona said, 'He made me give him my key.' The little troll key ring.

Walter Tran Senior looked at his son and nodded. 'Children are a source of great misery.'

I glanced at Pike, and neither of us were liking it. The Russians knew about their house. 'Home is pretty far away. Would Charles know how to get there?'

'Charles is good with directions.'

If Charles headed home, he'd probably use Laurel Canyon to get over the mountains to the basin side. If he was walking it would take a long time and he might still be on the road, but Charles didn't seem like the type who'd hesitate to put out his thumb. If he caught a ride, he might be there now. Of course, the Russians might be there also.

I dialed their number and let it ring fifteen times. No one answered.

Teri said, 'Maybe he's scared to answer.'

'Sure.' I didn't believe it, and that gave me hope. If Charles was there he'd have to answer just to say something smart. 'Okay. I'll drive over and see if he's there.'

Clark and Teri both said, 'I'm going, too.'

'No. Stay here and pack your things. If Charles is there, we'll leave as soon as we get back.'

Dak put his hands together like he was praying. Mon smirked, and rolled his eyes.

I left Pike with them, and drove along the route that I thought Charles would take, cruising slow enough to check out storefronts and lawns and the knots of people standing at pay phones and bus stops. I cruised the parking lot of every minimall I passed, looking in the 7-Eleven and the Subway and the game arcades, and Charles wasn't in any of them, and little by little, I worked my way over the mountain and down into the basin and along Melrose to the house that the Hewitt family called home.

It took me almost an hour and fifty minutes to reach their house, and when I got there I checked the street for Dobcek's tan Camaro. The Camaro wasn't around, and that made me feel better about things.

I parked behind the Saturn, went to the front door, and was just fitting the key into the lock when someone opened the door from the inside. I thought it was Charles, but it wasn't.

Alexei Dobcek stared at me with his bottomless Spetnaz eyes, then pointed a pistol at me. 'We knew one of you assholes would show up sooner or later.'

I guess they had parked the Camaro a couple of streets over.

Dobcek stepped away from the door, and waved me inside. The house was warm and dark and close, and quiet the way empty houses are quiet. I called, 'Charles?'

Dobcek smiled. 'What? You think we'd tie him in the bathroom?' He dangled Winona 's key ring, the one Clark had brought her from Seattle, and the one she had given to Charles. The little troll was matted and ugly, and looked pleased with events.

'The boy better be all right, Dobcek.'

Dobcek smiled, telling me that I could be as tough as I liked, but he still had the boy. Sautin was in the living room, sitting in Clark 's chair, watching the Food Channel without sound. The Too Hot Tamales were goofing with each other, smiling and kidding around in total silence, and Sautin was smiling with them. His eye and the side of his face was swollen and purple where Joe had kicked him. Dobcek said, 'Don't you hate being found out a liar, you telling us you know nothing about these people?'

'Sure. I wake up sweating about it every night.'

The house had been turned inside out. Drawers had been emptied onto the floor and plates smashed and living room furniture upended and slit open. Even the dining room table was upside down, its legs pointing to heaven like some dead beast. I guess they'd been searching when Charles showed up. I wondered if he had tried to fight them. I wondered if they had hurt him, and, if they had, I thought that I might kill them. I said, 'Where's the boy?'

'Somewhere safe.'

'Where?'

Dobcek put his hand under my jacket to get the Dan Wesson, and when he did I caught his gun with my left hand and twisted it up and out at the same time that I drew the Wesson and pointed it at his nose. 'The boy.'

Dobcek made the shark smile. 'Dmitri, you should have seen what he did. That was pretty good.'

'Da.' Dmitri Sautin was still watching Susan and Mary Sue.

I thumbed back the hammer.

Dobcek made the shark smile harder. 'And then what happens to the boy?'

I stared at him past the gun. Sautin said, 'Da, the boy,' but still didn't move.

Dobcek said, 'What we have here is what you call a Mexican standoff.'

'I've got Clark, and you've got Clark 's boy.'

'Da. Put away the gun and let's deal with this.'

I breathed deeply, and then I stepped back and lowered the gun. He held out his hand, and I gave back his gun. A nice new Sig P226 . Nine millimeter. Easy to shoot. Since Pike and I had taken his other gun, I wondered where he'd gotten this one. 'I reach into my pocket, okay?'

'Sure.'

He took out a hotel card from the Sheraton-Universal. 'We're staying here. The boy isn't, but we are.' The boy was probably with Markov. 'You ask Clark if he wants to see his boy again, then you give me a call and we talk about it.'

'The boy for Clark.'

'That's right.' He said something in Russian to Sautin, and Sautin came around the chair. The swelling was nasty, and I hoped it hurt.

Dobcek winked at me, and then they left.

I stood in the house without moving for maybe five minutes, watching the Too Hot Tamales, and thinking. The Hot Tamales were making something with ancho chiles and tequila, and laughing a lot. They looked like they were having fun, and I wished I was with them and laughing, too, but I wasn't. I was in a devastated house that had just been vacated by a couple of Russian hit men who were holding a little boy, and I was trying not to let panic overwhelm me. Panic kills. I felt like a juggler with too many balls in the air and more being added. Okay, Cole, take a breath. I said, 'Good-bye, ladies,' and turned off the Tamales.

The house had been turned upside down because Dobcek and Sautin were looking for a clue to find Clark. Then Charles had walked in, and Charles was better than a clue. He was a don't-pass-go E-ticket straight to the big money payoff.

I went into the hall and looked at the attic door and saw that it was undisturbed. I pulled down the door, and went up for the duffel. It was where I had left it, and I thought that maybe I could use it. I wasn't sure how yet, but maybe. I dropped it out of the attic, closed the hatch, then locked the house and drove back to Studio City. I drove slowly, and thought about Markov, and what he wanted, and Clark, and what he wanted, and little by little the bits and pieces of a plan emerged.

When I let myself into the safe house, Joe and Clark and Teri were at the dining room table, and the Viets were still clumped together in the living room. Winona and Walter Junior were watching Animaniacs on television. Everyone in the room looked at me, and Teri and Clark spoke at the same time. 'Did you find him?'

'Dobcek and Sautin were at the house. They have Charles.'

Clark drifted one step to the side, then caught himself on the back of a chair. Teri squinted. 'Who are Dobcek and Sautin?'

Pike said, 'They work for the man who wants your father.'

'What's that?' She was staring at the duffel.

I didn't answer. I looked at Clark instead. 'Charles is okay, but we need to talk about this.' Clark was staring at the duffel, too.

Teri said, 'That's what this is all about, isn't it? That's his counterfeit money.' Her voice getting strained.

Clark said, 'Teri, please take Winona upstairs.'

Teri didn't move.

'Teri, please.'

'Don't treat me like a child!' It was a sudden, abrupt shriek that caught Clark by surprise. 'I'm the one who takes care of him. I'm more his mother than you're his father! Why don't you take Winona upstairs?' She was shouting, and Winona was crying, and Clark was looking like he must've looked the day he found out he had cancer, as if a truth that he'd believed in with all his heart had now been proved a lie.