The Memory Collector Part 44

"What?"

She took a pen from her pocket, a fat black Sharpie, and pulled off the cap.

His pulse soared. "What are you talking about? If it's Sunday, and I didn't turn Slick over..."

She took his arm and pushed his sleeve up. Words were written on his forearm.

Christ. His heart thundered. Riva pressed the Sharpie to his skin and began to write.

The thunder filled his head like water roaring over falls. Those words... it wasn't... no...

He grabbed the pen from Riva and jerked his arm away. He looked again at the Tahoe parked at the curb up the road. It held his family. Hold on to that thought.

Wrong, Riva was wrong, this was wrong.

A pimped-out Honda rushed past, low-profile tires and mag wheels s.h.i.+ning, hip-hop ba.s.s booming from the speakers. The smell of the ink was sharp and intoxicating and cleared his head.

He was behind the wheel of a truck. He had a pen in his hand.

"Ian ,"someone said. He was behind the wheel of a truck. He had a pen in his hand. Words were written on his flesh.

He turned his head. Riva Calder was in the pa.s.senger seat of Nico Diaz's tricked-out pickup.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

He looked at his arm. His world crashed down around him.

Sat.u.r.day they died.

* 36 *

Jo watched out the winds.h.i.+eld. Her heart was hammering.

Down Coleman Avenue, the pickup truck idled at the curb, headlights glaring. Murdock hung up the phone.

"Riva's all set. Hang on. We do this and everybody goes home. Five minutes."

But the other car didn't move. Jo's stomach twisted tighter.

All set. That meant Kanan had to have Slick with him.

Jo tried to put it together. Kanan didn't know that Calder was behind everything. She had, until tonight, managed to stay in the background. If he was willing to sit in the pickup talking to her, he must think she was an innocent colleague, helping him out of a desperate situation.

Calder knew her plan was near ruin. Unless she was in denial or remarkably stupid, she would see only one option left: to flee. And she wasn't stupid. She was ruthless. She was going to run. And she wouldn't run without Slick.

And she would want as clean a getaway as possible. Her accomplices, Murdock and Vance, were not top-shelf conspirators. They struck Jo as opportunists and cowards. They didn't strike her as men who would stay silent and go down for Riva Calder. If the police caught them, they would flip for a deal.

Riva had to know that. So what was she going to do about it?

"Oh, my G.o.d," she said.

Calder planned to climb aboard Chira-Sayf's company plane and fly to freedom. She wanted to take two things with her. And those were not Sausage and Scrambled Eggs, mouth-breathing in the Tahoe with Jo. They were Slick and Ian Kanan.

In the pickup truck down the road, Calder had them both.

Her magic getaway carpet was loaded with Jet A and waiting on the far side of the airport perimeter fence. With sickening clarity, Jo heard Riva telling Murdock, I'll give you the field pa.s.s when I come back.

She didn't plan to come back. She planned to split and cheat her partners out of their share of the profits.

"Murdock, this is bad," Jo said. "There's no good reason for Riva to sit there in the pickup. Something's squirrelly."

"You made a mess of my evening, that's what's squirrelly."

"She's going to run, and she doesn't want to leave witnesses." Because she wanted to give herself a head start. Because she hated Misty. "Put the car in gear. I want to be able to get out of here."

"Don't be stupid."

Jo turned to him. "Murdock, she's going to double-cross you."

Kanan stared at Riva in the darkened pickup. "They're not dead."

Riva was breathing hard. Her eyes were wide. "Ian, no. I'm sorry to have to tell you this again."

"Again? What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"

"I hate this. It rips the wound open every time."

"What do you mean, every time?" How many times had she told him this?

No. It wasn't possible.

She put her hand on his. "Honey, they're gone."

Honey?

Her palm, resting on his, throbbed with heat. She squeezed his hand and licked her lips as though they were dry.

"Listen carefully," she said. "I know it's a blow. But you have to hold it together. We only have a few minutes."

"What the h.e.l.l are you saying, Riva?"

"It's okay."

"It's f.u.c.king not." To him she looked-frantic behind those doe eyes. Needy, and... cagy, and like she was taking a chance.

"Baby," she said, "you can't think about things right now. Just listen to me. We have to grab this opportunity. We'll never get it again."

He slid his hand out from under hers. "I'm not your baby. Are you-Christ, Riva. No. What are you trying to pull?"

"Ian." Her hand came up, as if she wanted to reach for him.

He recoiled. "Where's my wife? Where's my son?"

"I told you. They're dead."

"And I've hooked up with you instead? You're in fantasy land."

Her voice sharpened. "Stop this. We don't have time to mess around."

Abruptly, self-consciously, she softened and reached to touch his shoulder. The ring on her finger caught the light. He grabbed her hand.

"Why are you wearing Misty's wedding ring?" He looked at her neck. She had on the dolphin necklace. "I gave those to her. Take them off."

His fear, his panic and confusion, seemed to fill the air around him like a hiss.

"What's going on? And do not tell me I'm sleeping with you. My memory's shot to h.e.l.l but I know I am not getting between the sheets with you. No way. So stop playing this G.o.dd.a.m.ned game and tell me where my family is."

Slowly Riva withdrew her hand. When it reached her lap it was a fist. For a moment her lips quivered. Then she swallowed. She s.n.a.t.c.hed the necklace and yanked it off, breaking the chain. She wrenched the ring off her finger. She shoved the jewelry at him, clutched in her fist. She lifted her chin and spoke through her teeth.

"They're dead." She looked out the winds.h.i.+eld. "And their killers are in your Tahoe."

Murdock glowered at Jo. "Stop trying to mind-f.u.c.k us. Riva's getting the stuff from Kanan."

Jo tried to keep her breathing even, but her heart was drumming. The red dashboard clock read 10:24.

"Riva's been in the pickup with Kanan more than five minutes," she said.

"So?"

"In any five-minute span, Kanan's memory is wiped clean. I'm telling you, she's going to turn on you. This whole setup is wrong."

Murdock's cell phone rang. He answered it with annoyance in his voice.

"What?" He frowned and sucked his teeth, staring out the winds.h.i.+eld at the pickup. He shrugged. "Sure."

Hanging up, he turned to Vance. "Watch them."

Murdock set his phone on the dashboard and got out of the Tahoe. He stepped clear of the door, raised a hand, and waved.

Riva dropped Misty's necklace and wedding ring into Kanan's palm. The gold felt warm, tainted. He heard, as if through thick walls, Riva on the phone. He looked at her face.

She had been beaten. Her lip was split, her face puffy, and she had a blistered red welt on the side of her forehead that looked like the imprint of an iron. She put the phone away. She was shaking with rage and pain.

"What happened to you?" he said.

"I escaped from the kidnappers. Seth and Misty didn't. The police found their bodies," she said. "They were beaten to death. Misty was raped."

The truck, his vision, went white.

"The cops got to their hideout. Misty and Seth were already dead," she said. "But the kidnappers don't know that they've been discovered. They still think you're going to hand over the sample of Slick."

"It's not true," he said, but without any volition whatsoever, a great cry rolled through him and erupted. He grabbed his head and fell against the window.

He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see.

"Ian," she said.

He couldn't open his eyes. She grabbed him around the neck with her soft hot fingers.

"Ian, that's him."

She hit the high beams. He forced himself to look. Up the road, a man was standing next to the Tahoe. Door open, fully exposed. He raised his arm in acknowledgement.

"Two kidnappers," Riva said. "Man and a woman. You suspected a woman all along, and you were right."

He closed his fist around Misty's ring and necklace.

"Ian." Riva looked like she was about to crack-like she'd had more than she could take. "I'm with you. Whatever you do. However far you need to take it. But we have to do it now."

The rifle was behind the seats.

"Take the wheel," he said.

* 37 *