“At who?”
“I don’t know, Ruby. Not you. I guess at the whole situation. Some assholes are going to try and get between us and the girl, and keep us from doing what we set out to do. Fuck ‘em.”
Ruby smiled. “Want another sandwich?” she said.
“Naw,” Crockett said. “When I start throwing up from fear, I don’t want it to last too long.”
At around one forty-five, Marcel parked under a tree beside the park, rolled down his window, opened the sunroof, shut off the engine, and turned to Crockett.
“Tennis courts are about a hundred yards over that way,” he said, pointing across the park. “Benches and stuff be behind ‘em on the lef’. You getting’ on up into some kinda shit, aintcha, Boss?”
“Everything’s fine, Marcel.”
“Whatever, man. I ain’t stupid, y’know?”
“Then see that you don’t get stupid, Marcel. None of this is your problem.”
“You got that right. I’m just a innocent bystander. Go on an’ do whatever it is you gotta do. I be right here when you get back.”
Ruby and Crockett left the car, walked to the benches behind the tennis courts, and sat. Ruby didn’t look around the sparsely populated park for Clete. Crockett did, but couldn’t find him. The two guys with black slacks, pointy shoes, shiny shirts, and slicked back hair, sitting on a large wooden table about sixty yards away, doing absolutely nothing, stuck out like feces in a fountain. Crockett turned his back to them and looked at Ruby.
“Over my left shoulder, “he said, “you will notice two young gentlemen who are at considerable odds with their surroundings. Those are the bad guys.”
Ruby glanced past him, then dropped her head and stifled a smile.
“Not very long on subtlety,” she said.
“Nope.”
“Are they that dumb?”
“They’re smart enough to wear shirts long enough to cover their guns,” he said.
“They have guns?”
“Oh yeah. From this range, though, we’re pretty safe. Relax, Ruby. Take it easy. They probably wear guns to bed. It’s a guy thing. You know. Football, fucking, and firearms.”
“Jesus, Crockett,” she said.
Over her shoulder Crockett noticed two more bad guys heading their way. Between and slightly in front of them, blond in a light blue sundress, was the Amazing Disappearing Woman.
The hair on his arms stood up.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Meeting Marilee
As the three of them neared Ruby and Crockett’s position, the taller of the two men stepped in front of Marilee and stopped. Mid-thirties, six-two, gray sharkskin suit, maroon shirt, maroon tie, hair pulled back tight into a slicked pony tail, pencil thin mustache. As his gaze took in Crockett’s age and cane, he allowed a small sneer to grace his upper lip. He adjusted his suit jacket and stepped forward.
“You would be Mister Beckett?” he said.
Crocket extended his ID. “Can’t be helped,” he said.
The Latino gave it a perfunctory glance and returned it.
“You have ten minutes,” he said.
Crockett looked past him to Marilee, one step behind. “I guess that rules out dinner and a movie,” he said. “Shame. I wanted to work in a long walk on the beach, too.”
She smiled. Laughing Boy bristled and Crockett looked back to him.
“Take it easy, Hotshot,” he said. “I’ll let you know when we’re done. Go sit somewhere else.”
The man laid what he thought were dead eyes on Crockett and backed off. The second bodyguard moved with him to another bench about twenty yards away.
Marilee stepped forward. “What’s all this about, Mister Beckett?” she asked.
Crockett stared at her. He couldn’t help it. Finally she began to grow self-conscious.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just that you look so much like your grandmother.”
“What?”
“Come meet my friend and sit. I’ll explain as best I can.”
After introductions were over and they’d sat for a moment, Marilee smiled.
“You didn’t exactly make friends with Emelio,” she said.
Crockett shook his head. “His loss,” he said. “I’m a really good dancer and a fun date. Emelio go everywhere with you?”
“Usually. He works for my fiancée.”
“Ricky Castaneda.”
“That’s correct.”
“The other guy go along to?”
“Most of the time.”
“What about the two on the table over there? They go everywhere with you, too?”
She followed his gaze. “No. They both work at the house, but I don’t have much contact with them.”
“You’re not being just guarded, Marilee. You’re surrounded. Does that make you uncomfortable?”
“Why should it? Ricky loves me. He wants to make sure everything is okay.”
“Of course. Being that concerned, I wonder why he didn’t come with you himself?”
“He’s a busy man.”
“Too busy to personally see to the safety of his fiancée?”
“What’s all this about?”
“How much do you know about your future husband?”
“Certainly as much as I need to! What business is it of yours?”
Crockett sighed. “Really none, Marilee,” he said, “except that I sort of made a promise to someone to find you.”
“Who?”
“Your mother’s mother.”
“What! My mother’s mother died years and years ago, when my mother was just a child!”
“That’s true. She was killed and her mutilated body buried where it would never be found.”
Marilee stood up. “This is ridiculous!” she said. “I’m leaving.”
“Marilee,” Ruby said.
“What?” the girl huffed, looking down at her.
Ruby’s voice resonated with authority.
“Sit down!”
Marilee wavered and looked away.
“I said sit down!” Ruby hissed.
Marilee vacillated for a moment, then settled back onto the bench.
“Thank you,” Ruby said. “For these past weeks, a number of people have extended a mass of resources and spent a significant amount of money and effort and time to find you, because a woman who has been dead for over half a century asked us to do exactly that. Your grandmother, LaVonne Goldstein, wants you to have some information that may help you better understand your personal situation and generational history. She is doing this out of love. We are doing this because we said we would and to help her troubled soul find its rest. There are some things you need to know. What you do with this information is your business. What you do with your life is your business. Our obligation is to give you this information and then help you if you ask us to. Nothing more.”
Ruby leaned toward Marilee, her personal power dominating the younger woman.
“Let me assure you that we have no intention of inflicting our will upon you. As a matter of fact, Mister Beckett and I, because of this very meeting, have put ourselves at significant personal risk. The wonderful man to whom you are betrothed would have both of us killed in a heartbeat if he thought we threatened him or one of his possessions. You may not believe this now, and you may still not believe it when you hear what we have to tell you, but you will listen.”
Marilee looked back and forth between them and folded her arms across her chest.
“Alright,” she said. “Say what you have to say.”
Thirty minutes later, after Crockett and Ruby had given her an encapsulated version of what they knew about the lives and loves of her mother and grandmother, and informed her about her future husband’s livelihood and source of income, Ruby shifted her position on the bench and knocked Marilee’s purse to the ground. She picked it up and handed it to the girl.
“In your bag,” Ruby said, “is my business card. On the back is written Mister Beckett’s cell phone number. Please k
eep the card and number to yourself. Should you decide to act on what you have been told, or if you’d like more information, call. I would recommend that you not use a telephone in Ricky’s house. That would not be safe for either you or us. To an extent, our safety is in your hands. When asked about our meeting, were I you, I would simply tell Ricardo that were are looking for your mother in relation to an old murder investigation out of Kansas City.”
Ruby smiled at her.
“You’re a smart girl. Use your head. Keep what you have been told in mind. Think about it. Look around you. Examine your relationship and how it has changed. Project those changes into the future. If you marry this man, in six months you’ll not only be his property, you will be his prisoner. You are nothing more than another piece of his fantasy. Be discrete. If he senses a change in your attitude, things could go very wrong.”
Crockett rose to his feet. “It’s up to you, now, Marilee,” he said. “We’ll do everything we can to help you, if you decide to help yourself. We’re done. Go back to your boyfriend.”
She rose and looked deeply at Crockett for a moment, then walked away. Pete and Repeat fell in with her. The two sitting on the table ambled off across the park. Crockett sat and turned to Ruby.
“Whadaya think?” he said.
“Crap shoot, Crockett. Maybe she’ll call, maybe she won’t. Time will tell.”
Emotionally exhausted, they sat for a few minutes, then began the journey back to the car. Crockett’s cell phone rang.
“Watch your back, Crockett,” Clete said. “In addition to the two you made sitting on the table and the two that came with the girl, there were two more on the other side of the park. They’re drifting your way. I’m gonna follow Marilee’s vehicle and see if I can find out where Castaneda’s house is. See ya back at the hotel after while.”
“Thanks, Cletus.”
“No sweat. Later.” He hung up.
“What’s going on? Ruby said.
Crockett lifted his cane and popped off the tip. “We’re being followed,” he said. “Two more gorillas we didn’t see. Probably nothing to worry about. Don’t look around.”
As they reached the car, the voice from Crockett’s first phone call to locate Marilee spoke up from behind them.
“Mister Beckett, how are you?”
Crockett turned to see nearly a twin to the man who’d escorted Marilee. A step or two behind him loomed his assistant. Six-six, two-fifty.
Crockett sidestepped away from Ruby. “I’m just peachy,” he said. “You doin’ okay?”
The man ignored Crockett’s question and smiled. “I have been asked to deliver to you a message,” he said.
“So deliver it and go away.”
“You are to have no further contact with Miss Walker.”
“That it?”
“Yes.”
“Great,” Crockett said. “You’ve taken care of your little errand. Now run along.”
The Latino smirked. “It would seem that you do not take my message seriously.”
“No more seriously than I take your wardrobe.”
“Let me repeat it for you. You are not to see Miss Walker again.”
“It’s not up to me whether I see Miss Walker again. It’s not up to you either. It’s up to her. Should she ask to see me again, of course I’ll see her. If she doesn’t, I won’t. Pretty simple, huh? I’m sure even you can understand it.”
The man smiled and shook his head. “Quite a mouth you got on you, Mister Beckett. I come to deliver a message and you insult me.”
Crockett grinned at him. “I find the fact that you’re trying to intimidate me an insult. I don’t do well with bullshit from anybody, much less houseboys. Hit the fuckin’ bricks while you and Kong over there can still walk.”
The man jerked as if he’d been slapped.
“Perhaps you are not aware of who you are dealing with.”
“Sure I am. My nose works just fine.”
“This can be a very dangerous city, my friend,” he hissed. “It would be a shame if something were to happen to this lovely lady who accompanies you.”
“I’m not your friend,” Crockett said, “and if you’re the best around, Poco, she doesn’t have a thing to worry about.”
Crockett turned to open the car door for Ruby and “Poco” grabbed his left arm. Crockett let his momentum build as he was pulled around and jabbed the head of his cane upward into the man’s face where his nose met his upper lip. The crack of the breaking bone and teeth was audible to the other side of the street. As Poco fell out of the way, Crockett turned the tip of his cane toward Kong, who was reaching under his jacket. A shout ripped the air.
“I don’t think so!”
Marcel was standing up through the sunroof, pointing a 1911 model Colt .45 at the big man. Kong saw it and froze.
“Stand easy, Motherfucker,” Marcel yelled, “’fore I pop a cap on your taco-eatin’ ass! Put yo’ hands on top that butt-ugly head you got an’ doan fuckin’ move. One fuckin’ mistake, an’ you look like a piñata after the fuckin’ party! Take ‘em two weeks to get all the fuckin’ grease off this fuckin’ sidewalk!”
“Marcel!” Crockett grinned. “My favorite racist!”
“It’s cool, Boss,” he said, never taking his eyes off the target. “I gotcha.”
Crockett crossed behind the big guy, removed a Glock nine from his waistband, slipped it into a rear pocket, hit him in the right kidney with the heavy cane, and left him writhing on the sidewalk, trying to breathe. Then he turned his attention to number one.
The man was laying in the gutter on his back, his shirt and coat splattered with blood, just beginning to come around. Crockett opened his coat, took the man’s Ruger, and stood over him. He peered up at Crockett, clutching his face with his left hand.
Crockett smiled. “Oh, man,” he said. “Looks like that really hurts. You’re gonna need a dentist. Be a bitch getting that blood out of your snappy clothes too. Bad day, huh? Why doncha just lay here in the gutter and bleed for a while until you feel better. I see you again, I’ll kill you. Then I’ll go have a sandwich. Next time you decide to issue threats, Asshole, make sure you can back ‘em up. You’re not very good at this. Maybe you should consider a job in the janitorial industry.”
Crockett kicked him in the side of the head and opened the car door for Ruby. Marcel withdrew from the sunroof as Crockett climbed in the front seat and put the guns on the passenger side floorboard. Marcel started the engine and moved out into traffic.
“Dog!” he said. “Boss, you is one bad sumbitch! ‘Bout a cold motherfucker!”
Crockett felt the shakes coming. “Thanks, Marcel,” he said. “You saved my ass.”
“Just lookin’ for a big tip. Maybe I did, and maybe I didn’t. You doan make no move against one of ‘em unless you got a way of dealin’ with the other one. You ain’t dumb. You strapped?”
“Just my cane,” Crockett said.
He removed the cane’s tip from his pocket and snapped it back on the end of the shaft.
“What’s that?” Marcel said, watching Crockett’s every move out of the corner of his eye.
“It’s a cover so I don’t get dirt in the barrel.”
“Ha! You is one shifty whiteboy! You’d a shot that big one, huh?”
“Thanks to you, it didn’t come to that.”
“You ain’t gonna roust my ass for carryin’ concealed in a car, are ya?” he asked.
“Marcel,” Crockett said, “it never crossed my mind. Couple more for ya on the floor, I don’t want ‘em. Guns scare me.”
In the back seat, Ruby stared out the window.
They took a fragmented route back to the hotel to make sure they weren’t being followed. Ruby didn’t say two words the entire trip. When they got upstairs, she went directly to her bedroom. Queasy from adrenalin-induced nausea, Crockett stretched out for a while. About an hour later, Clete arrived. Ruby, dressed in sweats, finally schlepped out of the bedroom and flopped on a chair in the cor
ner, her knees drawn up and her arms crossed.
“I found the house, Son,” Clete said, glancing at Ruby.
Crockett lifted an eyebrow and gave his head a tiny shake. Clete shifted his attention.
“Got a place out in Ramirez Canyon,” he said. “Thirty acres or so and a house about the size of Yankee Stadium. Probably heavily defended, too. Well-fenced, well lit, well patrolled. He hasn’t missed much. Red Humvee and a black go-fast of some kind parked in the front drive. We’d play hell snatchin’ anybody out of there without a herd of Rangers and some air cover.”
“If it ever comes to that,” Crockett said, “our job won’t be to go in and get her anyhow. It’ll be up to us to help her get away.”
“Speakin’ of that, how’d it go with the girl?”
“Ruby said she thinks it’s a crap shoot. She’s a lot better equipped to make that kind of judgment than I am,” Crockett said, hoping LaCost would join in the conversation. She ignored them.
“Marilee listened to everything we had to say. I don’t know if she believed us or not.”
“I was clear at the other end of the area ya’ll were in,” Clete said. “Couldn’t see you very well. How’s she look?”
“With the exception of her hair color and skin tone, exactly like the Amazing Disappearing Woman.”
“No shit?”
“I mean, exactly. I had to force myself to keep from staring at her with my mouth open. Prettiest woman I have ever seen in my life, and looked so much like her grandmother it gave me chills. I mean I felt like I knew her. Like I’d seen her standing outside my house, smelled her perfume, watched her walk. A living, breathing, ghost. It was goddammed weird, Texican.”
Clete gave a little shiver and rubbed the tops of his thighs.
“Now, there ya go,” he said. “This shit just scares the hell outa me, Crockett. It ain’t natural. Everthing else go okay?”
“We had a little trouble with those two that followed us back to the car, but nothing serious.”
Ruby snorted. “My ass!” she said.
“You have a differing opinion, Miss LaCost?” Clete said.
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