The First Rule

by Robert Crais

  “Old habits.”

  “No problem.”

  “Would you like a cup of tea? I have the black tea. From Georgia. Not your Georgia—ours.”

  Pike didn’t want his tea and didn’t want to chat.

  “I’m good. You still in with the ROC, George?”

  George pursed his lips. Annoyed. The deadliest man Pike knew was pissy.

  “It’s Odessa, and I’m not in with them. I’m not a member. I consult on a freelance basis. I’m my own boss.”

  This seemed important to George, so Pike nodded.

  “I understand.”

  “That being said, if you want to discuss Odessa business, I can’t.”

  “I don’t care about Odessa. I want to know about the Serbs.”

  “So Jon told me. A hard people. Very tough. I fought them in Chechnya.”

  “Not there. Here. Can you talk about the gang sets here in Los Angeles?”

  George nodded, but a vagueness came to his eyes as if he had suddenly noticed something a thousand yards away.

  “Shouldn’t be a problem. They do their thing, Odessa is something else. Like with the Armenians. The same, but different.”

  “You know of a Michael Darko?”

  George rocked back in his chair, the body language telling Pike that George was uncomfortable talking about Darko.

  “He killed your friend, Frank Meyer?”

  “Looks that way.”

  George grunted.

  “I know who he is. A hard man.”

  “What does hard mean?”

  “You understand the word, pakhan?”

  “No.”

  “A boss. Middle management for now, but he’s on the way up. These people aren’t given their promotions, they take them. Like cannibals eating each other.”

  Pike saw disdain in the pale eyes, and realized George felt superior to the gangsters who employed him. Maybe this was why he was adamant that Pike understand he was an independent contractor, and not part of Odessa. All of them might be killers, but George had come out of Spetsnaz—the rest were just animals.

  “What kind of crime does he do?”

  “A finger in many pies, like all these guys. Girls and sex, hijacking, extorting his own people. He’s aggressive, and trying to expand. Quick with the trigger.”

  George made a pistol with his hand and pulled the trigger.

  Pike said, “Know where I can find him?”

  “I don’t.”

  “A place of business? He must have some kind of front operation. He’d need that for taxes.”

  “I’m sure he must, but this man is just a name to me. Like I said, different circles. I’m a lamp salesman.”

  A lamp salesman who could put a bullet through your head from a thousand meters away. Then George continued.

  “They have a nickname for him, the Shark. Did you know this?”

  “No.”

  “Could they be more dramatic? The Shark. He probably made this up for himself.”

  George made quote marks in the air when he said “the Shark,” and rolled his eyes.

  “He is the Shark because he never stops moving, and he moves so no one can find him. This is not a loved man, even among the Serb sets.”

  Pike grunted, now understanding why Rina didn’t know where to find him. So far, her descriptions of Michael Darko matched with Gregor’s.

  Pike said, “He’s been using a home invasion crew to take out his competition. He used the same crew on Frank. I want to find them, and I want to find him.”

  George laughed, full-bodied and deep.

  “You got part of that wrong, buddy. He isn’t taking out his competition. He’s ripping off his partners. Why do you think this asshole has to keep moving?”

  “You know about this?”

  “Enough to keep tabs. If he wants to rip off his own business partners, good riddance. If he sends a crew to Odessa, they’ll have to deal with me.”

  Pike wondered if Darko was ripping off his partners because he was returning to Europe—get some quick cash, grab his kid, go.

  “The tabs you keep include his crew?”

  George shrugged, no big deal.

  “Bangers from Compton.”

  “Jamal Johnson?”

  “Never heard of him.”

  “A Compton offender who’s come into recent wealth.”

  “Is he a Crip?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “A D-Block Crip called Moon Williams runs Darko’s crew. Another dramatic name. Darko feeds him the targets. Williams splits the take.”

  Pike felt a burn of excitement, as if he had taken a step closer.

  “Moon Williams. You sure?”

  George cupped a hand behind his ear as if he was listening.

  “The KGB is everywhere. Also, Mr. Moon has been making much money recently, too. He spends it in a club owned by Odessa. Cristal champagne, the finest rock, and beautiful Russian women. He loves the Russian women. He loves to tell them what a badazz life-takin’ nigga he is.”

  George burst out laughing again, an obvious glee in his eyes. For George, people like Moon Williams were here so he would always have targets.

  Pike said, “Uh-huh. Does the KGB know where I can find him?”

  George considered Joe for a moment, then lifted his desk phone, and punched in a number. George spoke Russian to whoever answered, and had a back-and-forth conversation that lasted several minutes. George was silent for a while in the middle of the conversation as if he had been put on hold. During that silence, he gazed at Pike with his pale blue eyes empty, never once blinking. Then he came back to life, whispered a single word in Russian, and hung up. When he looked at Pike again, he was somber.

  “Jon told me you and Frank were close.”

  “Yes.”

  “So you have business with Mr. Darko.”

  “If he’s good for Frank’s death, yes. Is that a problem?”

  “So long as you stay with the Serbian sets, go with God, my friend.”

  “More than one gun was fired that night.”

  “I understand. Odessa won’t like losing Mr. Williams. These girls go to work on him, he’s an outrageous source of information.”

  “I’m not asking permission, George.”

  George smiled at the phone.

  “That’s probably the best way.”

  George told him where to find Moon Williams, then stood to indicate their meeting was over.

  They shook again, and Pike looked around the store. The lamps were old, and ornate, and each had been lovingly and delicately restored.

  Pike said, “Why lamps?”

  George smiled softly, and now it was filled with warmth and sadness, and, Pike thought, more than a little loss.

  “Oh, Joseph. There is so much darkness in the world. Why not bring light?”

  Pike nodded.

  “Udachi, my friend. Good luck.”

  When Pike reached the door, he glanced back, but George was hidden by the lamps, wrapped in so many shadows the light could not reach him.

  18

  EVEN WITH HIS SUNGLASSES, Pike squinted against the glare, scanning the cars parked along both sides of La Brea. He stood with his back to George’s door, searching until he was satisfied, then walked up the street to his Jeep. No Sentra.

  Pike located Moon Williams’s address on his Thomas Guide map, then pulled into traffic.

  According to George, Earvin “Moon” Williams was a D-Block Crip banger with a harsh reputation, two felony strikes, and five 187s tattooed in a neat column on his right forearm. Moon bragged to the Russian strippers that each 187 represented a body he knew for sure he put in the morgue, not the people he cut, stabbed, hit with a brick, beat down, or wounded—just the muthafuckas he saw die with his own eyes. Leaving some muthafucka hopping around in a pool of blood or screaming like a bitch didn’t count, he told the strippers. Shooting into a crowd of people on a porch didn’t count either. Moon had to see the bitch die with his own eyes or he didn’t
claim the credit. Moon Williams, he told these girls, was a fearless, heartless, stone-cold killer.

  Operatives of the Odessa Mafia, who followed him home on at least three occasions, twice without his knowledge and once to sell him drugs, determined that the stone-cold killer lived with his grandmother, a woman named Mildred Gertie Williams, who the killer called Maw-Maw.

  Pike found the address in a weathered residential neighborhood in Willowbrook, just north of Compton, at the bottom of a freeway off-ramp. A small stucco house had probably sat on the property at one time, just like all the other houses lining the street, but at some point the original house had likely burned, and now a double-wide mobile home sat on blocks in its place, with four ancient Airstream trailers shoehorned behind it. Pike figured the no-doubt-illegal trailer park was how Mildred Williams paid her bills.

  The trailers might have been nice at one time, but now they were faded and scabbed with freeway dust. The double-wide had a small porch set up with a sun awning and potted plants, but shriveled brown threads were all that remained of the plants, and the yard had gone over to sand, dirt, and litter blown down from the freeway. The litter hugged the inevitable chain-link fence as if trying to escape.

  Pike turned around on the next block, then pulled to the curb. Three girls on bikes pedaled past, swung around hard in the middle of the street, and rode past again. Eyeing the white man. They probably thought he was a cop.

  Pike watched the mobile homes for a few minutes, but saw no signs of activity. An ancient Buick Riviera was illegally parked alongside the fence, so wide it covered the sidewalk. Pike didn’t necessarily expect to find anyone home, but he wanted to confirm that Moon still lived here. If so, he would wait until Moon returned, then use him to reach Darko.

  Pike took out his phone and called Jamal again. He got the computer once more. Jamal’s mailbox was still full.

  The girls rode past again, slower, and this time Pike rolled down the window. The first girl wore a blue short-sleeved shirt, the second a baggy white T-shirt, and the third was wearing a red sweatshirt. Red, white, and blue. Pike wondered if they had planned it that way.

  “Need some help, ladies. You live on this street, or you just passing through?”

  The girl in blue turned in a slow, curious circle. The girl in white slowed, but the red kept going. She didn’t stop until she reached the corner.

  The blue girl said, “Are you a policeman?”

  “No. I’m a salesman.”

  The girl laughed.

  “You’re a plainclothes policeman. My Uncle Davis is a plainclothes officer, so I know. Also, you’re white. We don’t get many white people except for the police.”

  Pike said, “Do you know Ms. Mildred Gertie Williams, up there in the trailers?”

  The girl said, “You here for Moon?”

  Just like that.

  Pike said, “Yes.”

  “I live right over there, that yellow house? Uncle Davis warned us about that Moon Williams. He said don’t never go over there and stay away from those boys. He said if that Moon ever makes a problem, we should call him right away.”

  Pike tipped his head toward the other girls.

  “Those your sisters?”

  “No, sir. That’s Lureen and Jonelle. They’re my friends.”

  “Which one of those trailers does Ms. Williams live in?”

  “The one up front. That’s the big one.”

  “Does Moon live with her?”

  “He’s in the back trailer, the one with the dogs.”

  Pike hadn’t seen dogs when he passed the yard.

  “He has dogs?”

  “Those pit bull dogs. Those dogs are mean. Uncle Davis told my mama if she ever saw those dogs running loose, she had to call him right away.”

  “You know who lives in the other trailers?”

  She screwed up her face, then shook her head.

  “Was a lady in one and Jonelle’s cousin lived there for a while, but they moved out after Moon came home.”

  Moon had brought a blight to the neighborhood.

  “What’s your name, blue girl?”

  “I’m not supposed to tell my name to strange adults.”

  Uncle Davis again.

  “You probably shouldn’t be talking to strangers, either.”

  “I’m not stupid. You get out of that car, I’ll ride away as fast as I can. Lureen and Jonelle over there, they’ll call my Uncle Davis, then you’ll see.”

  “One more thing. Have you seen Ms. Williams or Moon today?”

  She circled a couple of times, thinking, then shook her head.

  “No, I sure haven’t. I haven’t been down that way today. I was at school, and then I was at Jonelle’s, and Lureen just came over so we’re going to her house.”

  Pike said, “Okay, then. You have a nice time at Lureen’s.”

  “You watch out for those dogs.”

  Pike decided he didn’t have much time as the three girls rode away. They would probably tell Lureen’s mother, and Lureen’s mother would probably call the blue girl’s mother, who would call Uncle Davis. Uncle Davis would probably send a patrol car by to take a look.

  Pike waited until the girls disappeared, then idled forward and parked alongside the Riviera. The edge of Mildred’s yard butted against city property where the off-ramp looped down from the freeway, and the rear of the property backed against what appeared to be a large storage facility. Pike saw no dogs, though the last trailer was surrounded by its own taller fence. Pike slipped his .45 Kimber under his belt at the small of his back, clipped the Python to his belt under his sweatshirt, then hopped the first fence into Mildred Williams’s yard.

  Pike went to the big double-wide, listened at the door, then went to the nearest window. The freeway was loud, which made listening difficult. He stretched on his toes to peek inside, and saw a basic living room with an old-fashioned console television. The room was neat, clean, and the television was off. Pike angled his head, trying to see through an interior door when a gray-and-white cat jumped against the window. The cat cried at him through the glass as if it was lonely and wanted to escape.

  Pike returned to the door. He tapped three times, then decided Ms. Williams had probably gone out.

  Pike drew the Python as he moved to the second trailer, and let it dangle down along his leg. The second and third trailers were both empty, the tenants long since gone to escape Moon and his crew.

  The fourth trailer sat by itself against a wall of ragged oleanders, caged by a six-foot chain-link fence. A gate in the center of the fence was latched but not locked. There wasn’t much of a yard. Just a few feet of dirt on either side of the Airstream and a few feet behind. Two large metal bowls were under the trailer, one filled with water. A chain stretched from the tow hitch to disappear behind the trailer. It was the kind of chain used for a strong, aggressive dog, but Pike could not see what was attached to the other end.

  Pike stood at the fence, listening. The trailer was still. Windows closed. No voices or music.

  Pike made a tsk, tsk, tsk sound.

  A dog inside the trailer barked. Not behind; inside.

  Pike lowered himself into a push-up position, trying to see what was behind the trailer by looking under it, but accumulated junk and dead weeds blocked his view. He made the tsking sound again, and the dog inside barked. One dog inside.

  The blue girl said Moon had dogs—more than one.

  Pike let himself through the gate, ready to step back if an animal charged, but nothing moved. The dog inside was barking so loudly, Pike doubted Moon or anyone else was home. He latched the gate, then took a roundabout route to see behind the trailer, and that’s when he saw the dog. A ragged male pit bull lay on its side, two legs stiff in the air. The dog’s head was matted with dried blood and swarming with black bottle flies, but the dog wasn’t the only dead thing behind the trailer. An African-American man was sprawled a few feet beyond the dog, his face covered with so many ants they looked like a second skin. Th
e smell followed an instant later, strong enough to make Pike’s eyes water.

  Pike checked the body, but found no identification. He had been shot twice in the back. A black nine-millimeter Ruger pistol lay in the dirt by his hand.

  Pike left the man and the gun, and went to the window. The barking inside grew louder as he approached, then abruptly stopped.

  The old Airstream was much smaller than the double-wide. It contained only three small rooms—a kitchenette, a living room, and a single bedroom with a bath. Pike looked into the kitchen first, saw nothing, then looked into the living room.

  The inside pit bull had stopped barking because it was eating. The dog tore a strip of flesh from a man’s neck, gulped the meat down, then lapped at the wound. The dog’s face and chest were matted with blood, and its feet were red boots. A second male body was half on a couch and half on the floor. The flesh on the second man’s left forearm had been partially eaten, but his right forearm was intact. The numbers tattooed there were easy to read.

  187

  187

  187

  187

  187

  One for each of the people he put in the ground.

  Pike said, “Good night, Moon.”

  19

  PIKE STOOD AT THE WINDOW, deciding what he needed to do. He wouldn’t leave the dog trapped in the trailer, and he wouldn’t leave the bodies where the red, white, and blue girls could find them. Pike would call the police, but he wanted to search the premises first. While Pike was thinking, the dog stopped lapping the blood and looked at him. It cocked its head, squinting as if it couldn’t see so well, and wagged its tail. Then a fire grew in its eyes, and it lunged against the window.

  Pike said, “Let’s hope I don’t have to kill you.”

  Pike wasn’t afraid of the dog, but the trick would be controlling the animal without harming it.

  Pike found a length of two-by-four by the double-wide. He unclipped the chain from the tow hitch, fashioned a noose, then looped it around the two-by-four. The dog tracked Pike’s location by sound, and followed him around the inside of the trailer, barking and snarling.