January Justice Part 38

"Like what?"

"Friends.h.i.+p. Compa.s.sion. Forgiveness. Pretty much everything that has to do with relations.h.i.+ps. How are you going to measure things like that? You can't demand that they be proven or tested, because they start to disappear the minute you try to measure them or compare them to some standard."

She stared at me. "What does that mean?"

I shrugged. "Life is hard to understand. Bigger than we are. Sometimes I think it was made that way on purpose. Sometimes I think it's better to just a.s.sume the best. If you insist that everything has to make sense, that can make you crazy too."

"You're talking about faith."

It seemed I had returned to what Bud Tanner had said to me. It seemed ironic that I was standing there saying something similar to her. But it also seemed true.

"Yeah," I said, "I guess I am."

"Well, I don't have any faith."

"Everything you decide to believe based on incomplete evidence is a leap of faith, even if you've decided not to believe."

"That doesn't make sense."

"To me it does," I said, "because it has to."

After we had cleaned the dishes, she said she wanted me to sleep inside the apartment. I wanted to stop Medallion and the Other One before they could get inside, so I told her it was better if I kept watch from the street. I warned her not to answer the intercom at the front gate or a knock on her front door unless she knew for certain it was me outside.

She said, "I won't."

"This is very serious. No matter what they say, just don't respond. Not to the intercom or through the door. Not even if they claim they're the police. No matter who they say they are, just stay away from the door and call me. I'll come fast. Just stay in here and wait."

"You're scaring me."

"Good. Promise you'll pretend you aren't even here unless you hear my voice and n.o.body else's."

"I promise."

I went out, backed the Bentley out of her driveway, and parked at the curb about one hundred feet down the street. It was drizzling a little. From time to time, I let the winds.h.i.+eld wipers clear my line of sight to Olivia's apartment. On the radio, they were issuing mudslide warnings in the mountains. Apparently it was raining hard up where Haley died. I tried hard not to think about it. Mostly I succeeded.

At fifteen minutes after midnight, a small car rolled to a stop behind me and turned off its headlights. I saw two heads in silhouette, one behind the wheel and the other in the pa.s.senger seat. I pulled the M11 out of my holster, slipped the safety off, and held the gun in my lap. I waited for them to make a move.

The pa.s.senger got out. He was carrying a duffel bag. He walked up to my side window and knelt down beside my car.

I lowered the side window and said, "Simon."

He pa.s.sed me the duffel bag. "My apologies for being late. There was an accident on the interstate."

"Who's that with you? Teru?"

"He guessed where I was going somehow. He insisted on driving."

"Well. He's a good driver if you need one. Are you both armed?"

"To the teeth. Would you care to brief me?"

I told him I had already checked all the access points from inside the apartment. There were only two doors into the apartment-the one off the front courtyard, which led to the gate off the street, and another one that opened into the garage. There was only one way into the garage, which was through the overhead door that also faced the street. So he could watch both sets of doors from where he was parked. There was no alley. Her building was surrounded on three sides by other buildings, each of which had walls along the property lines. So to penetrate the perimeter, they would have to sneak past us or else gain access to a neighboring property, scale a wall, and break in through one of her rear or side windows, which I had secured earlier.

I said, "Let's trade phones."

Simon handed me his cell phone and I gave him mine. Olivia had my number on her landline's speed dial, so she only had to push one b.u.t.ton, and it would ring. I had my phone set up to do the same with Simon's number, so he could ring me just as quickly. I figured less than three seconds would pa.s.s between Olivia's pressing the b.u.t.ton on her phone and Simon heading for her door. I would be less than thirty seconds behind him. A lot can happen in half a minute-I had seen dozens of men die in a fraction of the time-but it was the best we could do.

I said, "If it's possible to wait for me, do it. Otherwise, take action, and I'll be right behind you."

"Very good."

"Don't let Teru get in the middle of it."

"No."

He walked back to his car. I got out of the Bentley and looked back. They had come in Teru's Porsche. I waved at him. He lifted a hand in response. I went into the building beside us, a bed-and-breakfast where I had reserved a room earlier that day.

The elderly couple who ran the bed-and-breakfast had hidden a key for me under a rock in a planting bed. It opened their front door and my room upstairs in the back. I put the bag on a chair beside the bed, opened it, and withdrew my shaving kit, which I carried into the small bathroom. I stared at my face in the mirror while I brushed my teeth, trying to think of anything I might have missed. The cut on my forehead from the attack in the mountains was healing. The swelling at my jaw from the beating in Pico-Union was completely gone. My pupils and my irises were still the same color, so my eyes still looked like a pair of empty holes. I would never understand what Haley could have seen in them. Maybe what she had seen in them had gone with her.

It felt wrong not to be downstairs watching over Olivia, but I knew it made more sense to take a break. I couldn't watch her around the clock. If I tried, I'd lose my edge. Besides, based on Simon's marksmans.h.i.+p the day Castro had tried to run us down outside El Nido, I had a feeling he was up to the challenge.

I set the alarm timer on Simon's phone and put it on the bedside table. I took my keys and wallet out of my pockets and put them next to the phone. I pulled the holster off my belt and set it on the table too. It's hard to sleep with a holster jabbing into your side.

It had been a long day. I checked the safety on M11 and I lay on top of the bedcovers, fully clothed, with my shoes on and my weapon in my hand.

46.

The alarm went off four hours later. I rose, put the M11 in the holster, clipped the holster to my belt, splashed some water on my face at the bathroom sink, put my keys and wallet and Simon's cell phone back in my pockets, picked up the duffel bag, and went downstairs.

Outside the sun was still an hour away from rising, and the drizzle that often pa.s.ses for rain in Los Angeles hadn't abated. I spoke Simon's name softly and paused near a streetlight where he could clearly see me. When I heard him say, "Approach," I walked to the pa.s.senger-side window of the Porsche.

"Anything to report?" I asked, kneeling down to Simon's level by the window.

He pa.s.sed my phone out to me, and I gave him his. He said, "I believe Miss Soto is present and correct."

Beyond him sat Teru, still watching Olivia's gate.

"You'll get some sleep later this morning, as we discussed?"

"After Mr. Gold has gone to work. And I will return tonight at the same time, unless you contact me with different instructions."

"I'll be here too," said Teru.

"Thanks for this, guys."

Teru said, "They hit Olivia. We can't have that."

After he drove away, I went to the Bentley. At six thirty my phone rang. "You out there?" she asked.

"You bet."

"All night?"

"Sort of. Simon and Teru stood in for a while."

"I love your friends."

"They seem to think you're okay, too."

"I'm making blueberry pancakes. Want some?"

"Just you try to stop me."

That day went pretty much the same way as the day before. I followed her to the Montes's place and parked under the same tree. The oak kept a lot of the drizzle off the car, but enough of it came dripping down through the leaves and branches to make me leave the windows up. Maids and gardeners came and went up and down the road. The exact same model and color of Bentley drove by again. I thought it might have been Jack Nicholson behind the wheel, but the beads of water on the side window made it hard to tell.

I had come prepared this time with a sack lunch from Olivia's apartment. A banana, potato chips, and a ham and Gouda sandwich on sourdough, with sprouts. Also, a cold Coca-Cola. She had packed everything in a small plastic cooler. I answered the call of nature behind some bushes. It was good to be out of the car. I decided to stand beside the tree trunk and count birds. There seemed to be more crows that day. Maybe the drizzle brought them out. I watched them carefully, saw no trails of ashes, and decided my doctors would have been pleased. Every day, in every way, I was getting better and better.

At 5:05, Olivia came through the gate again, waved, and turned right, toward the canyon road. I kept her in sight all the way to Venice. We met at her gate again, and as before, I went inside first, with the M11 ready in my hand. All was clear. She came in and changed clothes. She emerged from her bedroom wearing full-length jeans this time. The rain had dropped the temperature. It was too cool for shorts.

In spite of the drizzle, we went for another walk, following the same route. I hung back again, although I didn't like it. Across the neighborhood to Venice Boulevard, to the beach, to the pavilion, back up into the neighborhood, across the ca.n.a.ls on Dell, then back to her apartment. If she wanted them to get to her, following exactly the same routine every day was certainly the way to do it.

After dinner I checked all of her windows again. I made sure her portable phone was charged and all set to speed-dial me. I reminded her to keep it within reach no matter where she was in the apartment. I also reminded her not to answer the intercom or a knock at the door unless she was certain it was me.

"They could pretend to be anyone," I said. "Even the police."

"I remember what you said last night. Don't worry."

There had been a break in the drizzle while we had dinner. The street was still s.h.i.+ny underneath the streetlight, but I could make out the moon overhead, so it looked like the clouds had blown on inland. I had managed to park in almost the same location, facing her apartment. Hopefully, if they had noticed the Bentley the night before, they would a.s.sume it belonged to a resident. The houses and apartment buildings in that area looked kind of seedy to me, but because of the location, they were selling in the low two millions, so a Bentley at the curb wasn't completely out of the question.

Fifteen minutes after I got in the car, a black Lincoln Navigator rolled slowly by. I sank down in the seat. Although the moon was out again, the Navigator's windows were darkly tinted. There was no way to see the pa.s.sengers.

When it pa.s.sed under the streetlight, I saw a lot of reddish mud along the sides. That was unusual in LA. The mud obscured the rear license plate, so I couldn't get a number, but it reminded me of a mad fantasy, a river of blood seeping into the soil. I was pretty sure I knew where the Navigator had been. I removed the M11, checked the safety on the gun, put a round in the chamber, and sat there with it in my hand.

It was an hour before they came again, from the opposite direction. I thought they might stop this time, but they were more careful than that. They rolled slowly past without a pause. I got a good look at the vehicle as it approached and made a note of the first part of the number on the front license plate. The second part was covered by the red mud.

Chances were the third pa.s.s would be the one. I reached into the duffel bag Simon had brought to me the night before and removed two plastic twist ties. I got out of the car and hurried to her gate. I wrapped the twist ties around the leading edge of the gate and the adjacent steel post at the top and the bottom, effectively locking it down. I wanted to make sure they couldn't get into the courtyard before I got to them, and I wanted to create a moment of distraction while I came.

I went back to the Bentley, got in, and took out the M11 again. In case they had noticed me before, I slid low in the seat so they couldn't put a round in the back of my head. I adjusted the rearview mirrors to let me keep watch from that position.

Fifteen minutes pa.s.sed. Twenty. Half an hour. The black reflection of a car appeared in my rear view mirror. It came very slowly. I wondered if they had been smart enough to change vehicles. Probably. With the M11 in my right hand, I put my left hand on the door handle and waited.

The car pulled to the curb behind me. I saw lights across the top and realized it was a patrol car. A cop got out of the driver's side. A cop got out of the pa.s.senger side. I could only see their silhouettes in the mirror, but both of them obviously held sidearms. They advanced to my four o'clock and eight o'clock, stopped, and leveled their weapons.

One of them s.h.i.+ned a flashlight on my side of the car and said, "Police. Put both of your hands out through the side window where I can see them. And they'd better be empty."

I dropped the M11 into the s.p.a.ce between the seat and the center console, twisted to the left, and showed him my hands. He approached carefully. "With your left hand only, open the door. Then get out. Leave the right hand where I can see it, and move very slowly, or I will fire."

I did exactly as he said. Once I was standing by the car, his partner came around to cover me while he told me to a.s.sume the position and frisked me. Three minutes later I was cuffed and sitting on the curb between their car and mine while they searched the Bentley. One of them walked past me carrying the M9 and the duffel bag. He got in their car and made a call on the radio. The other one came to stand beside me.

"Officer," I said. "I have a concealed-carry license. I'm in the personal-protection business. A woman named Olivia Soto lives in that building, and she hired me to keep watch out here tonight. She was attacked a few days ago and believes the same men might come back."

"I know who you are," he said. "And I know who she is. Stand up and walk to the patrol car."

"You've got to listen to me. The men who attacked her have pa.s.sed by twice in the last hour and a half. They're driving a muddy late model black Lincoln Navigator. I didn't get the full plate number, but it starts with 5DB. They'll be back any minute now. This time they'll probably break into her apartment and attack her. They're armed, and they have military training. You guys need to get ready."

"Just get in the car," he said, opening the rear driver's-side door.

"You've got to call for backup."

"Oh, we do, huh?" Gripping the chain between my wrists, he lifted it, putting strain on my shoulders. "Get in the car."

I got in. He left the door open. He said, "Malcolm Cutter, you're under arrest for violating the conditions of your bail by carrying a concealed weapon and leaving the country, and for violation of a restraining order by approaching within one hundred yards of Hector and Dona Elena Montes. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense. Do you understand these rights as I've explained them to you?"

"Listen, why don't you just go over there with me and talk to Olivia Soto? She'll back up everything I've said."

"Do you understand your rights as I explained them to you or not?"

"Sure I do. Now, will you please let me go ask her to explain what I'm doing here?"

He closed the door and returned to the Bentley, where he and his partner stood around until another patrol car arrived. Two more uniformed policemen emerged from the second car. They spoke for a few minutes. One of them gestured toward Olivia's apartment. I began to hope. Two of them walked across the street to Olivia's front gate. I saw them press the b.u.t.ton on the intercom. After a few minutes, I saw them try the gate. They came back across the street, spoke to the other two, and then came over and got in the car.

I said, "She's in there, but I told her not to answer unless she hears my voice."

One of them picked up the radio handset and told the dispatcher they were coming in with a prisoner in custody.

I said, "You've got to believe me. She's in there. And the gate isn't really locked. I secured it with some twist ties to slow them down."

The patrolman in the pa.s.senger seat chuckled a little as the driver started the engine and pulled away from the curb.

"Please," I said. "You're making a terrible mistake."

"Of course we are," said the driver. "We always do."

I looked back through the rear window. The second patrol car's headlights came on. It pulled away from the curb, following us.

"Listen to me," I said. "You're going to regret this when an innocent woman is killed. Please call Sergeant Tom Harper with the Orange County Sheriff's Department. He'll vouch for me. You can get his cell number off my phone. Please."

"Plenty of time for you to make a call after we get to the station, buddy. Just relax."

"They're going to kill her."

"Sure they are, buddy," said the driver. "Sure they are."