She fumbled the pill vial, and as it rolled to the edge of the table Lucas caught it. Her hands toyed with themselves in her lap. “I’m a tad woozy. All my friends use dope regularly, like jam on toast. I don’t even touch the weed anymore. So any time I take a painkiller it knocks me on my ear. No fair, says I.”
She was aware of Lucas’s voice saying, “How old are you?” But she had not looked at him for a long time, and the voice seemed to come from a great distance. The effect was that of a gentle interrogation, on the fringes of sleep.
“Twenty-three. Twenty-three and a half.”
“You look younger.”
“People tell me I talk older. They always say that, like it compensates for something.”
“Well, you’re unusually articulate.” Lucas leaned back, and the front legs of his chair disengaged from the floor, to hover. “You don’t seem handicapped by the seven-word vocabulary most kids use these days.”
“Oh, you mean fuck this, fuck that, fucking-A, in-fucking-incredible?”
He laughed lightly. “You remind me of my daughter.”
You’re my favorite asshole, dad.
“You have a daughter?” Now she looked at him with her good eye. The other one moved around inside the swollen eyelid, trying hard to see him. “You don’t look that old. Old enough to have a daughter my age, I mean.”
“Her name was Kristen. She would have been twenty this year. She’s gone, too.”
“Oh, god, I didn’t—”
“Don’t apologize. It’s okay.”
After a beat, she said, “I’d ask if you knew anybody among the living, but I’m afraid you’d have to include me out.”
“Sam Goldwyn used to say that.” He saw the nonrecognition in her expression. “Never mind.”
“Think I’ll live, doctor?”
“I don’t think we need to check you into an ICU. Reese didn’t spend too much time bashing you, but he made the most of the hits he got.”
“He’s built,” she said ruefully.
“If you’re seeing and breathing okay today, I’d take a chance on your pulling through.”
“I don’t want to go back to the city,” she said. “For what? Reese has trashed my stuff; I’m positive. And he’s laying for me. No thanks. Cops can’t protect you from someone like that. If he’s blown town, there’s still no rush—he’s still trashed my stuff.”
“The charges would be pretty serious,” said Lucas.
“I have no burning desire to spend my life looking over my shoulder.” Then, with an abrupt detachment that was chilling, she added, “If I ever see Reese again, I want to be whole, and functional. And ready.”
“I could go with you,” Lucas offered, strictly spur of the moment. “If he was around, and thought you weren’t alone, then maybe—”
“That’s sweet of you, but no good. It puts us in the position of fear, see? Besides, I’m in no hurry to leave here. Though that depends on how long you’ll allow me to impose on your hospitality.”
She was leading him. He could feel it. Like the feeling he’d gotten with Kristen sometimes. She was steering. He dismissed her gratitude. “No imposition, Cass. You were, and still are, in need of serious—”
She overrode him. “Come on, Luke, lighten up! That’s my ploy. I’ll be more flagrant: I want to hang out at your mountain retreat for a while. I know I’m not very formidable right now, but in a few days I’ll be on the road to recovery, and—bingo!”
“Bingo?”
“You’ll have a faithful Indian companion. Girl Friday. Whatever you want. I’ll even launder my own irreclaimable socks. You’ve already told me I’m a terrific conversationalist, and I’m a person you know who’s not dead. Think carefully before you turn down an offer like this.”
It cut to the marrow; it seemed very correct. Lucas felt an undeniable sense of rightness while speaking to her. It was not just the vague echoes of Kristen. It was as though Cass was supposed to be part of what was happening. As logic, it was specious. As a healing thing, it seemed to hint at a vast good. She was very much like Kristen in the best ways: sharp and attentive and able to catch him off guard with wit. His mind raced ahead.
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you want, Cass,” he began, formulating a back story as he went. “But if you do…there’s something I may need your help with.”
“Anything.” She said this with absolutely no hesitation. “I’m entitled to say ‘anything’ because I owe you my life.”
He let it pass without protest. He did not feel like objecting. “Let me put it simply. There’s a very remote possibility that my ex-wife will be looking to harass me. She may eventually sleuth up the location of this cabin. And when she does, she may come up here to cause a scene, possibly with her attorney in tow.”
Her good eye widened. “Your dead ex-wife is going to show up here?”
“Oh—no.” He backpedaled. Boy, had that lie sounded idiotic! “I’ve been divorced twice, once very recently, and it was a rough one. Nasty. It’s one of the reasons I’m playing hermit up here. In the city, it’s twelve phone calls a day, shrieking arguments, confrontations, endless angst. I don’t need it.”
“Who does? Looks like you’re up here for healing, too. What you need is a diversion. No sweat.”
“Nobody’ll recognize my Bronco. It’s new. Otherwise it’d be hidden in the brush.”
“What’s her name?”
“Sara. If she knew I was here, we’d be under siege right now.”
“Sounds like a real harridan,” Cass said, already on guard against the mention of any other women in Lucas’s life. “Also sounds like you and I are kind of in the same boat.”
On the remote chance that Sara could track him to this place, he could now utilize Cass to detour her, perhaps buy time if it was needed. Just in case Sara’s smarts jeopardized his plans by figuring things out too much in advance. He had given Cass a motive for secrecy with which she could easily sympathize, considering the nature of the man who had assaulted her.
He worked on that angle, reinforcing it. “At one time, I loved Sara just as much as I’m sure you loved Reese.” Don’t slice the baloney too thick, he thought.
“Yeah, isn’t true love just a casket full of laughs? I think I can deal with your Sara if she shows up. Just promise me you’ll take care of Reese if he ever shows up. Run him over with your Bronco or something.” Lucas was certain she had a few good combat tricks in readiness and was probably a great actress when it came to the kind of fakeout he might need for Sara. “So. Anything else special? It’s easy so far.”
He brought her more coffee. “Something important. I have to go away from time to time. I’m usually gone about twenty-four hours; a day or two at most. But the trips are essential.”
“Business?”
“You got it. I can’t maintain my existence up here without the proper machinations. And I’d feel a lot more secure if someone was here to maintain the cabin while I’m gone. It’s a pain to shut everything down and pack everything up, just for a few two-day absences.”
“That one’s easy, too. What’s the room with the lock?”
“I have—what?”
“The room with the lock. Do I need to know what’s in there, in order to run this place while you’re gone?”
Lucas glanced toward the secured Whip Hand room. How far should he embellish this? “It’s storage, mostly files. I have a stereo in there I can drag out. A gun, too. Thus the lock, for when I’m away. But if you’re going to be here…well, I’ve got tapes of just about everything. From Motown to Mahler to Whip Hand. There’s a radio.”
She mulled this over. “What Mahler?”
“Fifth and Sixth symphonies.”
“Sold.” She sipped the hot coffee. Her eye considered the pill bottle again.
“Better not overdo it. Lie down for a while. You sure you’re up to staying here?” He asked this more in worry about his immediate schedule than from honest apprehension about her injuries. There migh
t be hidden complications, ones that could not be permitted to hamper his one-time-only timetable. But she solved that tiny twinge of conscience with her answer.
“Howzabout we don’t worry so much, huh, Luke? I feel better already. All things considered, I mean. Let’s look at this as another of my gambles, another in my long line of experiments. Just from staying here, I think I’ll pull through. And if I don’t…do me a favor and bury me in the forest. That’s romantic. Funerals are a maximum pain in the ass.”
He nodded. After suffering through Cory’s funeral, then Kristen’s, he never wanted to countenance that ghoulish custom again in his lifetime. “Your wish is granted. And I have one more request, before you drop off to sleep in that chair.”
Cass was fighting to hold her head up. “Sure. Like I said anything.”
“It’s serious. The most crucial thing of all.”
“Shoot. Before I pass out.” She obviously longed to get horizontal.
“Don’t call me ‘Luke.’ Makes me feel like Walter Brennan is hobbling after me. It’s Lucas.”
“Righto, Lucas. It’s a deal. But let’s not shake hands on it; I’d probably scream.” She held up her wounded hand limply, like a dead sparrow. “I think I’m gonna need some help, to get from here to there.”
He assisted her to the pallet. He had another sleeping bag in the Whip Hand room. He would haul it out later, set up another bunk on the opposite side of the hearth. “Okay?” he said when she was down.
She said, “Yep. Thanks, Luke.” Then she was fast asleep.
11
The index card in Lucas’ shirt pocket bore a list of names.
KIRK MOORE, PHILIP T. LONGLEY, DAVID KLEIN, MARK FAWCETT, CALVIN WESTBROOK, MURRAY BANNER, BOB CALLAHAN.
They were safe names, anonymous names, the sorts of names you saw on the badges of conventioneers and never remembered. Bland, forgettable, Americanized names, so unexotic that they slid easily off the ear and into oblivion.
All that was needed to pinpoint Brion Hardin, the keyboardist of Electroshock, was a concert schedule and an FM radio. Lucas admired all the convolutions of his little piece of espionage.
He had driven back to San Francisco and checked into the Holiday Inn for two days, fronting cash and checking the Bronco into a pay lot across town. He stayed in the room just long enough to order lunch from room service and mess up the ordered neatness of the room itself. He tore the paper band from the toilet and the plastic from the drinking cups. Then, leaving his TV set on low and dialed to the pay-per-play movies, he hung the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the doorknob and caught a shuttle bus for the airport from another hotel.
That was Kirk Moore.
At San Francisco International, he loitered around the ticketing lines until he zeroed in on an elderly gentleman, one Nathan Downey. He explained that in
order to fly at the standby rate, he could take no check-in luggage, and since Mr. Downey was only checking a single bag, could he render one small favor? Mr. Downey looked at the man who had introduced himself as Philip T. Longley and, while they were standing in line, delivered a brief speech on how the airlines were still gouging people despite the drop-off in business caused by terrorism. He would be happy to help Mr. Longley out. To Nathan Downey, this trifling subterfuge held all the thrill of cheating the phone company, and he relished the opportunity. Lucas promised to spring for at least one cocktail on the flight to Denver.
He had made sure to hit the counter up for standby rates in the middle of the week, so as not to get choked off by weekend commuters. Traffic was light, and his standby seat was ultimately secured. He and Nathan Downey toasted each other with overpriced airline liquor.
Standby flying was a worthwhile gamble. It probably would have been just as safe to check in as a normal passenger under an assumed name. Airlines never requested ID if you slapped cash on the counter. But that way he could not divorce himself from the bag that had to be checked—the bag containing the huge Randall knife in its combat sheath.
The temptation to employ ironic noms de guerre was amateurish. If any single thread of his trail attracted notice, then investigators would rapidly fix on joke names or names drawn, as Lucas had first considered, from the various record albums or performers themselves, such as “Bryan Harding” from Brion Hardin.
Despite the eastward loss of an hour, the Delta Airlines 727 arrived early enough to give him most of the day in Denver. Lucas slept through most of the flight.
He knew Denver was his next destination thanks to the latest issue of Creem magazine. Creem and others of its ilk were chock full of advertisements for current groups. If a group had a new album in the past two months or the coming two, inevitably there was a tour schedule included with the ad. Record companies were trying to make tours more “album supportive” these days. It had all become one grand, unending commercial—like the epic special-effects film that is nothing but a two-hour commercial for its own sequel. In turn, the videos made to boost album sales frequently included concert footage shot while on tour. Lucas thought of the snake swallowing its own tail. And in Creem he had unearthed an ad for Electroshock that included a tour roster. In the middle of the microscopic column of dates and venues, he had found the show slated for the Currigan Exhibition Hall complex in downtown Denver.
The half-page ad showed two members of Electroshock engaged in a guitar duel onstage. Electroshock had begun existence as a hillbilly-rock band full of mountain men under the name Moonshine Express in 1977, just when punk was working up a full head of angry steam. Moonshine Express reorganized as the Badd Boyz and did an album’s worth of what later came to be called “alternative country,” more popularly known as “country punk” when the Vandals and the Beat Farmers came along later. Then bass player Roarin’ John Masterson drove his Harley hog off a freeway overpass and met a Toys ‘R’ Us semi head on. Electroshock was born from the ashes a year later, with a decidedly heavier bent. Their promotional guys had crowed loudly about how an ex-member of the infamous Whip Hand had decided to link up. They were still an opening act, without their “breakthrough” song or album as yet, but they were respectable, reliable. Their following was strongest in the western deserts and the South.
Brion Hardin was just barely visible in the Creem ad, fortressed behind his keyboards next to a big Peavey box. Grizzly-bear size, with a full beard. Much clearer views were available on both previous Electroshock albums, Force Me and The Crash of ’86. He was the biggest guy in the band.
Currigan Hall was a massive showroom suited to automobile exhibitions and Shriners’ conventions; its concert arena was an adjunct that was more properly a part of the Denver Convention Complex. But the locals referred to the whole facility as “Currigan.” So be it.
After thanking Nathan Downey for his help, Lucas grabbed a taxi from Stapleton Airport to the “Denver downtown” branch of the Holiday Inn on Glenarm and Fifteenth Street. He checked in as David Klein and gave a home address in Fort Worth, Texas. He paid cash for two days. His seventh-floor room overlooked Glenarm. A few floors higher and he could have seen the arena building from the hotel; it was only three and a half blocks away. His room in Denver was nearly identical with his room in San Francisco.
Electroshock was opening for Straight Razor, a speed metal riot that drew as many fans with spiked hair and Marine Corps buzzcuts as it did sullen teenagers in leather vests and studs. Both bands would most likely be holed up at the Denver Hilton, two blocks away from Lucas in the opposite direction. Or maybe the Executive Tower Inn. He was right in the middle of the hotel web.
He broke open the small suitcase containing the Randall and pulled out a Panasonic radio/tape rig, tuning it to KOA-FM, a power pop station targeted at high schoolers and commuters. KBLO seemed too new wave for what Lucas needed. KPPL was a bit dirtier and more musically interesting than KOA’s rigid commercial playlist format. Whenever songs were being broadcast, he tuned from KOA to KPPL and back. He was searching for commercials, not music, and he found plenty.
Three members of Electroshock, not including Brion Hardin, were scheduled to do a half-hour live radio interview on KPPL that evening at 8:30 P.M. They would reprise the same gig on KOA-FM the next day, a few hours prior to concert time.
It was nearly four o’clock. Finding KPPL was easy. Lucas unpacked a silver-gray business suit and let it smooth out, knocked off his shoes, and ordered a strip steak from room service. Its price was breathtaking.
Downstairs, Fifteenth Street was littered with some of Denver’s most colorful winos, panhandlers, and sundry dregs of humanity. Lucas finally found a liquor store that would sell him a case of Beck’s dark, which he carted back to the Holiday Inn. Eight-thirty approached slowly.
As soon as the KPPL deejay cut to his in-the-booth interview, with the Electroshock contingent snorting and sniggering in the background, ready for anything, Lucas knotted his maroon silk tie and slipped into his suit. With the case of Beck’s perched on one shoulder, he hailed a cab for KPPL.
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