Josie, on the other hand, wasn’t thinking about him that way at all. She was trying to connect this guy – the one who needed a shower and a haircut – with the man who had fallen through her door. He was probably the right guy but she was proving what all law enforcement knew: eyewitnesses weren’t all that reliable. She couldn’t have picked him out of a line-up.
“You’ve got two choices. Sit down and tell us about it.” Archer kicked the couch again.
“What’s the other choice?” Trey asked.
“We call the cops right now.” Josie found her voice. It sounded like she didn’t care one way or the other but she did. More than anything, Josie Bates wanted first crack at this guy.
“You’re going to call ‘em anyway,” Trey complained, still giving the couch the stink eye.
“But if you talk to us, we can help you fill in the blank spots. It will go smoother that way when you finally get to the cops.” Archer pulled a thumb toward Josie. “She’s an attorney. She’ll sort of give you pro bono counsel.”
Josie slid her eyes Archer’s way, surprised at his audacity. It wasn’t good to mess with a witness, but Archer was paying her no mind. Trey, on the other hand, liked this situation a little better now. He shuffled over to the couch and sat in the middle on the edge of the cushion.
“Okay. Okay. I’m ready. What do you want to know?”
“How about everything that happened the night of the storm starting with when you hooked up with Billy,” Archer suggested, but Josie amended.
“How about you start with before you hooked up with Billy the night all this went down?”
She sat in the dilapidated armchair while Archer stood. Though he doubted this guy would run, he didn’t want to take a chance. Archer almost lost him in the tangle of wood slats and packing blanket as it collapsed around them. He didn’t want to chase him down in the open.
“I don’t know, man, the day was kind of a fuzzy. Know what I mean?”
“Make it unfuzzy,” Archer prodded. “Where’d you eat?”
“Caught some breakfast over at the church. Dumpster dived some behind Scotty’s. Burt gave me some fries.”
Archer exchanged a look with Josie. That would be easy to corroborate.
“Did you know Billy from Burt’s?”
“Naw, I met him here,” Trey said.
“How long have you been crashing over there?” Josie nodded toward the house next door.
“A couple days. A week. I’d had my eye on the place because the back room was mostly walled, and the john was working. When the storm started rolling in I knew there wasn’t going to be anybody coming back to work. Then when it hit it was so humongous that there was no way it was going to dry out soon. I figured I had another good five days, maybe more. Someone came by once, and I just knocked down the tee-pee and went through the fence same way you did.”
“So what was the deal with you and Billy?” Josie asked.
“Oh yeah, about that.” Trey’s hands gestured with no particular meaning. “I ran into him when I was coming through the fence. Bam!” Trey smacked his hands together and grinned at them both. He needed to see a dentist. “Like a frickin’ cartoon, man. So he’s like, hey. I’m like, hey. So I ask if he’s got like some food or a jay or matches. Hell, I take anything. Never know when it will come in handy.”
“And did he?” Josie asked.
“No.” Trey looked crestfallen. “He said he couldn’t go in the house to get any food.”
“Did you ask why?”
“He said his mom didn’t like him in the house at night.”
“Did he say why?” Archer asked.
“Nope.”
“You weren’t curious?” Josie asked.
“Nope. My old lady didn’t let me in the house ever after I was like fourteen. I figured he had it pretty good if he just couldn’t go in sometimes.” Trey looked at Josie and Archer as if they were a little crazy, but he was into his narrative. “So we took off to see what we could find. You know, it ain’t like Hermosa Beach is friggin’ New York City. We walked all around. He showed me your house, but I already knew who you were. I’d seen you playing volleyball. I knew where you lived and that girl that lives with you.”
“Great.” Josie wasn’t happy with her house being on anyone’s tour.
“We came back here. I asked Billy if he could sneak me in, you know, like so I could sleep on the couch. Sometimes it’s nice to sleep on something soft. But he said no, and it sounded like he was really sorry he couldn’t let me.”
“But that wasn’t the night of the storm, right?” Archer asked.
Trey shook his head.
“I was kind of surprised to see him that night. I figured his mom would keep him inside ‘cause it was pretty blastin’ out. But he comes out all weird and spooked. He was just charging through the rain. He saw me and yells at me to come with like we’re off on some adventure. So I grabbed my stuff, and we ended up at the beach. It was damn cool. I’m telling you, those waves were like – like I don’t know what - and it was kind of dry under the pier. Cold, but dry. Windy, but kind of dry.”
“You had a jacket though,” Josie prompted before he could debate how cold or dry it had been that night under the pier.
“Wasn’t much of one,” Trey sniffed. “I took it off the hook at Burt’s. I shoulda gone for the one with all the pockets.”
Josie wished she could blink Trey away and put a normal person in his place. If this were the best she could give Judge Healy, Billy would be sent away for sure.
“Why did you stuff it down the drain?” Archer asked.
“I saw the cops and I thought, you know, like they might be over there ‘cause they knew I took the jacket.” He looked sheepishly from Josie to Archer. “Stupid, huh?”
Both Archer and Josie knew it wasn’t a stupid move for someone as high as Trey had been that night. Drugs can make even the most ridiculous things seem sane, the ugly sublime, and violence seem amusing.
“Did Billy say why he was anxious?” Archer asked.
Trey shook his head, “I don’t think so, or I don’t remember. I was high. I scored good a couple weeks ago, so I had a nice stash. You have to be careful ‘cause you never know when times are gonna be lean.” He looked from Josie to Archer. “What else do you want before we get to the big show?”
“Anything you can think of that went on at the pier that was odd?” Josie asked.
Trey shook his head hard, “Nothing. I swear. We were hanging and having a good time with the two other people who were there. Billy kept asking what time it was. He wanted to go home but he couldn’t go ‘till a certain time.”
“And you went with him when it was time to go home?” Josie asked while Archer paced behind her.
“Yeah.” Trey’s eyes darted around the room, resting in one corner before snapping toward another as if he were trying to reconstruct that night. He swallowed hard, craned his neck exposing a prominent Adam’s apple and a homemade tattoo just behind his ear.
“Holy shit. I was wasted. I admit it, but even if you’re doing some fine shit, there’s some stuff that just shoots you right out of a high.”
“Billy says you were doing bath salts. White Lightning. That’s heavy. It can make you go crazy. Do stuff you won’t normally do.”
Trey shot Archer a disdainful glance. “I handle it.”
He turned back to Josie, but then he looked slyly back at Archer. The minute their eyes met, Trey knew exactly what the big man was thinking. Trey shot off the couch and went for the kitchen and the back door. Archer’s reactions were good and his trajectory gave him the advantage. He caught Trey on the angle and body slammed him from the side. Trey skidded into the wall, bounced off it, and crumpled to the ground. His arms went over his head as his knees came up to his chin. Archer was on him in a second, putting the guy in a headlock.
“I didn’t do it. You’re gonna pin that crap on me! Let me go!” Trey screamed and wiggled and shuffled his butt and pushed at the floor with
his heels.
“Stop. Calm down!” Archer pulled up on him. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Ow! Ow! You’re killin’ me! Help!”
Archer rolled his eyes at Josie. He picked Trey up by the shoulders, stood him up, dusted him off, and took him by the scruff of the neck back to the couch.
“We don’t want to pin anything on anyone, but if you jerk us around it’s going to be a long time before you are partying at the beach again. Got it?”
“I won’t lie,” he whimpered. “I swear, I won’t. I hardly took one step in here and that’s the truth. Okay, maybe two. I just wanted to see what I could score.”
“Jo. Let’s get to it.” Archer took a chair close enough to get Trey if he had to give chase.
Josie: What time did you come back to the house?
Trey: Late. I don’t know. I was messed up.
Josie: Did you walk with Billy?
Trey: I followed him. A little behind.
Josie: How was he?
Trey: Tired. Wet. Cold. I guess we both were soaked, but I thought the rain was more like warm slime on my head. I remember thinking that. Billy wanted to get home.
Josie: Did he do the salts?
Trey: (shaking his head)
Josie: Did Billy go into his house?
Trey: (nodding)
Josie: Did you go with him?
Trey: I waited for him then figured he wasn’t coming back. I thought he went to bed, and the door was open.
Josie: Then what?
Trey: I figured to grab some food, like I told you. I opened the door and came in and man – it was awful.
Josie: The body on the floor?
Trey: (Shakes his head and shakes it and shakes it). No, man. I hear a scream. I mean even with the salts and shit, that scream scared me sober.
Josie: Where did it come from?
Trey: Upstairs. I was paralyzed sort of like, you know, a zombie. Then I think to myself, ‘run to the tent. Run’. But I don’t move ‘cause I’m wasted and everything went quiet, so I figure maybe I was imagining it.
Josie: Who screamed? A woman? A man?
Trey: I don’t know.
Josie: Then?
Trey: Then everything happens at once. I see the chick on the floor. Big girl. I hear someone pounding down the stairs. Then Billy comes racing past me and out the door.
Josie: And what? What? We’re tired. Come on.
“Billy comes running through the kitchen, man. He had a knife. A big, friggin’ knife. He goes out the door, and he’s screaming, and I start to run, too. And we go all those blocks to the beach, and he turns around, and you know those lights at the pier? Well, all I see is that knife, and it’s bloody, and I think, “Shit, he’s nuts. He’s going to kill me.” But he doesn’t come at me. He yells at me to go get you, and it’s raining, and lightning, and the thunder, man, makes it all kind of surreal. I’m looking at the knife and he’s screaming to get you and lightning’s going on and I’m hysterical and so is he. It was like some damn horror movie.
“Then Billy comes at me, and I think he’ll stab me, but he shoves me and says it again and I take off running. Then I think – I don’t know what I think – but I look over my shoulder and Billy’s heading down to the water.”
Trey’s eyes got so big they looked like they were going to pop out of his head.
“I stop for a minute because I’m thinking, “Why is he going down to the water?” Then I see this guy ‘cause the lightning is going nuts. He’s standing looking down at us and I take off. Then I look back and Billy’s running into the water.”
His head flips from Josie to Archer.
“I yell at the guy, but he just turns around and next I see he’s gone. Poof.”
Trey’s fingertips came together and then went apart like he was releasing something.
“I’m freaked out. I’m thinking, shit, man, this dude is no good. Or maybe he just couldn’t hear me. Or maybe he’s scared as me. Or maybe I’m imagining him. I mean, I don’t even know what was going on except I couldn’t see Billy, I couldn’t see the guy, and the world was ending, man. You got that? It was like the world was freakin’ ending. The end of the freakin’ world.”
A trembling breath sucked in through Trey’s teeth but didn’t come out again. His shoulders shuddered. He hung his head in shame.
“I’m a turd. A turd! I should have stayed with him. I should have, like, gone and done a man-to-man kind of thing with that guy up on the avenue, but I didn’t. At least I told you. Man, that’s gotta be worth something. I told you, right?”
“Do you think you could have told someone a little earlier? Like the next day?” Archer asked.
Trey raised his head. His self-recrimination hadn’t lasted long. He put a finger to his chin.
“I thought about it, man. I mean, I’m living right next door and all. Yeah, I should a said something.”
“Where were you when the cops came?” Josie tapped his knee to get his attention.
“I wasn’t over there. When I left your place I just kept running. I woke up over on 22nd about ten in the morning. I started thinking it was a bad dream but then I see the yellow tape and I just kinda kept my distance. I mean, what was I going to tell them? That Billy had a knife with blood on it? That wouldn’t be cool.”
“Could you identify the man you saw?” Archer asked.
“It was dark. He was like a shadow.”
“And you’re sure there was only one guy?”
“That’s what I saw.” Trey shook his head again and then looked sadly at the two of them. “This sucks. I mean about the knife. Billy seemed so normal, you know?”
***
Josie went home alone and satisfied. Trey’s timetable from the beach to the house and back again didn’t leave Billy time for an assault or to kill two men. That information would be enough to keep Carl Newton at bay during the hearing in Healy’s court.
Archer went home too, but he wasn’t alone. Trey was going to be his houseguest, sleeping on the deck lounge until Archer could get him to Montoya. If Archer locked the connecting door he could get some sleep and the only way Trey could get away would be to scale down three stories to The Strand. Trey was down with the arrangement since they convinced him nobody would care about the bath salts, and no one would think he had a hand in the killings. The promise of a full breakfast at Burt’s sealed the deal.
Letting herself into the dark house, Josie didn’t think anymore about the two men while she made the rounds of her home. The kitchen was clean, and the coffee ready to be brewed when the sun came up. Max slept on his bed but he opened his eyes when Josie touched him. She got on her knees and put her cheek close to his snout. He kissed her with one lazy lick and was asleep again.
She picked up the mail Hannah had put on the entry table: bills, fliers, a catalogue from a cruise line. To the side of the table, a large box rested against the wall. Josie carried it to the dining room table. The packing tape came away. She opened the box, broke the gold seal, and pushed back the white tissue paper. She had no idea how long she looked at the neatly folded dress inside. In the end she refolded the tissue paper, closed the box, and set it back against the wall. The first time she touched her wedding dress, Josie didn’t want to have anything on her mind except Archer and her vows.
Finally, she looked in on Hannah. No matter how long they were together, this ritual felt surreal. There was a moment between putting her hand on the doorknob and the door opening when Josie wondered if she had dreamed Hannah. But when the sliver of light from the kitchen was wide enough to illuminate the room and the bed, Josie was as reassured. Her charge, this child, was there.
The girl slept deeply. Her arm was thrown over the pillow she hugged to her body, and her hair spread across the pillow under her head. Josie smiled at the fairytale tableau. Princess Hannah rested, but there was a pea under her mattress that kept her dreams from being sweet. There had been one since the moment she was born and this time that pea was Billy Zuni.
Josie took one last look around the room. The little red lacquer stool Hannah had brought with her from the Malibu house and the box where she kept the reminders of those fateful days were in their place. Thankfully, the days of cutting away her pain seemed to be behind her.
Josie went in and picked up the cell phone that had dropped beside the table. She put it back where Hannah could reach it and resisted the urge to touch the sleeping girl. On her way out, Josie glanced at the easel. For a second she was tempted to raise the sheet that covered the canvas Hannah guarded so zealously. Instead, she passed it by. Hannah would show it to Josie when she was ready. In her own room, Josie fell on the bed fully dressed and slept.
Everyone was safe: Billy and Rosa in the hospital, Hannah and her in the house and Archer in his.
For now, the world was right.
CHAPTER 24
2006
Greg Oi glanced at the sleeping girl beside him and the little boy beside her. They looked like the children they were with their hands clasped together. They had never been in an airplane, never seen an airport, never had new clothes such as he bought them, and they were exhausted. He reached over and checked their seat belts. He pushed the button so the back of the airplane seats no longer reclined. The stewardess passed and smiled at him as if to say he was a good father. Just as well. No one in America would understand that the girl was his wife and the boy was now his son. But no one would ask. This was a strange country. People saw only what they wanted to see and were outraged only when it was the fashion to be.
He looked forward as the landing gear went down and the big plane started its descent into Los Angeles. What, he wondered, would these two make of their new home? He turned his head to look out the window and wondered what either of them would make of him when they saw him for what he really was. Then he smiled. They would make nothing of the way he lived his life because they had no choice. It was the bargain Teuta made.
It was done.
2013
Morning found Mike Montoya and Wendy Sterling behind the gates in Rolling Hills and parked in Kat Oi’s driveway. Wendy eyed the house while Mike fielded a call from Archer. When he was done, he said:
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