Michael Connelly - Void Moon

"Okay, pull the car over. I don't know what you think you're – "

Lankford slammed his foot down on the brake pedal and yanked the wheel hard to the left. The Porsche skidded and spun into a 180 -degree turn as it stopped. He looked over at her and smiled, then dropped in the gear and popped the clutch out. The car lurched forward and he started speeding through the curves, back in the direction they had come.

"What the hell are you doing?" Cassie yelled. "Stop the car! Stop the car right now!"

Cassie reached her right hand up and gripped the top of the windshield brace. Her mind was moving as fast as the car as she tried to come up with a plan, an escape.

"Actually, Lankford's not my name," the man next to her was saying. "I got it off a book I found on a shelf at Leo Renfro's last night. It's called Shooters and I started taking a look at it. I thought it was about a guy in my line of work but it wasn't. But, hell, when your boss came up to me in the showroom and asked my name, it's all I could come up with on short notice, you know. My name is Karch. Jack Karch. And I've come for the money, Cassie Black."

Through the terror building inside Cassie a thought pressed forward. Jack Karch, she thought. I know that name.

THE Porsche was moving wildly through the Mulholland slalom. Jack Karch was going too fast for his skill now and the car was intermittently crossing the yellow line in the middle of the two-lane road and then rebounding by going off the road onto the shoulder. Karch was red-lining the tach but didn't want to take his hand off the wheel to pop the car into a higher gear. The engine roared and whined as the car went through the turns. Cassie gripped the windshield brace with both hands but was being thrown violently back and forth in her seat. Karch screamed over the din of the engine.

"I WANT THE FUCKING MONEY!"

She didn't answer him. She was too busy watching the road uncoiling in front of them and thinking for sure they would go off the shoulder and down the embankment.

"MARTIN IS DEAD! PALTZ IS DEAD! LEO IS DEAD!"

She turned to him at the mention of Leo's name. She felt her heart being pierced. Karch throttled back. He kept the car moving but the engine noise and wind abated.

"They're all dead," he said. "But I don't really want or need to hurt you, Cassie Black."

He smiled and shook his head.

"In fact, I admire you. You do good work and I admire that. But I came for the money and you're going to give it to me. You give me the money and we'll call it square."

Cassie spoke slowly and sternly.

"I don't know what you are talking about, okay? Please pull the car over."

A look of sincere disappointment crossed Karch's face and he shook his head.

"I spent all night at Leo's. I tore that place apart. I found a lot of champagne and I found the briefcase I was looking for. But I didn't find what was supposed to be in the briefcase. And I didn't find you until along about dawn when I found you sitting there right in front of me. Leo's cell phone. I hit redial and I got the dealership. I went through the direct extension directory and, lo and behold, I hear the name Cassie Black. I switched over just to hear your voice. 'This is Cassie at Hollywood Porsche. I'm not at work for a few days but if you call back and ask for Ray Morales he can handle – ' Blah, blah, blah, don't fucking lie to me. I don't like it. I WANT THE MONEY!"

"I SAID PULL THE CAR OVER!"

"Sure."

Karch suddenly steered the car hard right and they turned violently onto a gravel road that cut through a stand of pine trees. Cassie thought it was a fire road or some kind of public utilities access road. Whatever it was, it was clear Karch was taking them away from other traffic, from potential witnesses.

When they were about two hundred yards down the road, Karch slammed on the brakes and the Porsche skidded to a halt on the gravel. Cassie was thrown forward, her body pressing against her shoulder harness, and then back. She had no sooner recovered from the jarring stop then Karch was leaning across the center console onto her and pressing the long dark barrel of a gun against her face. He brought his free hand up and locked it onto the underside of her jaw.

"Listen to me. Are you listening?"

He was squeezing her jaw and she was unable to speak. She nodded.

"Good. What you need to know is that the people I work for care about one thing at this time. The money. Nothing else. So don't be like your pals Leo or Jersey. It will only get you killed."

Cassie just stared at him down the length of the gun. She could see it had a silencer attached to it.

"Don't think," Karch said. "Just talk."

He relaxed the pressure slightly so she could speak.

"Okay," she said. "Don't hurt me and I'll tell you where it is."

"You'll do more than that, sweetheart. You'll take me to it."

"Okay. Whatever you – "

He cut her off by squeezing her neck.

"You get one chance. You understand?"

Cassie nodded. Karch slowly released his grip and took his hand away. He was leaning back toward his seat when he suddenly snapped his fingers and leaned toward her again. He reached up to her face and she flinched, but then his hand went past her face to her ear.

"I looked in your office in the showroom before you showed up. Playing cards all over the place. Like you were looking for something. This what you were looking for?"

He pulled his hand back and seemingly pulled something from her ear. He held it up in front of her face. It was the ace of hearts. He smiled.

"Magic," he said.

And then it struck her. Magic. The name Karch. She remembered the newspaper stories. Reading them in Metro detention before her arraignment. Jack Karch. He was the one.

He read something in her face.

"You didn't like that, huh? Well, I've got more. After we take care of business I'll show you a real disappearing act."

He settled behind the wheel, his right arm still stretched across the console and poking the black gun into her ribs.

"Now, we're going to have to work together here, that okay with you? Put it in gear."

He depressed the clutch pedal and she reached over and moved the shift into the first gear slot. He started the car moving. He turned it around and headed back up the gravel road to Mulholland. After he wound it out he called for second gear and she complied. He started talking again as though they were out for a Sunday drive.

"You know something, I gotta tell you, the way you did this thing, I… my hat's off to you. I think, you know, different circumstances… you and me, we could've… I don't know, done something."

He took his hand off the wheel and pointed to the gear shift.

"See, we work good together."

She didn't answer. She knew he was a psychopath, able to talk sincerely about doing things together with a woman he was holding at gunpoint. Cassie knew she had to make a move, to shift things. She knew this man was going to kill her. She would be part of the disappearing act he had promised. She couldn't help but smile sadly at the irony of her situation. She knew she could make the argument that this man had already killed her, six-and-a-half years before.

"What's so funny?"

She looked at him. He had caught her glib smile.

"Nothing. The vagaries of life, I guess. And the coincidences."

"You mean like fate, bad luck, that sort of thing?"

She casually moved her right arm so that her hand rested between her legs. Karch noticed and pushed the muzzle deeper into her side.

"Like the void moon?"

She turned sharply to look at him.

"Yeah, Leo mentioned something about it last night. Later on when I was looking around I read up on it in one of those books he's got. He was a big believer. Didn't do him any good in the end, did it? Where to?"