Child of Fire

by Harry Connolly

  I stepped through the doorway into the dim daylight. Four men were standing on the curb. They pointed snub-nosed.38s at me.

  “That’s him,” someone said. Another man was standing behind the first four. His hands were wrapped in casts. It was Floyd.

  I didn’t recognize the others. I realized that I should have been afraid, but my adrenaline glands had apparently not gotten the danger message yet.

  The door to the warehouse was still open behind me.

  “Don’t do it,” one of the men said. “Hear me out first.”

  He was medium height and built like a decathlete. He had a thick mustache and goatee, but his head was shaved. Finally, I’d met the fourth man who had spoken with Dubois, Charles Hammer, and the mayor when Harlan had been shot.

  His expression told me what I wanted to know most: he wasn’t jumpy, wasn’t nervous, wasn’t uncomfortable. He would kill me if he had to, and then he’d go on with his day. I shrugged. “Okay. What do you have to say?”

  “Our boss is interested in you. She would like to invite you to have lunch with her.”

  His expression was cold. All four guns were still pointed at me.

  “I accept.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  This time we rode in a Chevy Sport van. It had plenty of space for the goons to sit around me and keep me covered.

  Floyd sat in the front passenger seat. The guy who extended the invitation sat on the bench behind me. Another sat beside me, and the last two were on the seat in front of me. They twisted around to aim their revolvers at me.

  The one beside me held his gun too close to my arm. I could have wrestled him for it, if he didn’t have three armed friends backing him up.

  “Bobby?” the one next to me said.

  “Do it now,” the man behind me answered. “And don’t use my name, dipshit.”

  I looked at the guy beside me. I’d known dozens of guys just like him inside, and the one thing I couldn’t do was show them my fear. “Why can’t you use his name but he can use yours?”

  If the guy took offense, he hid it well. He pocketed his gun and started to search me. He did a pretty terrible job of it, even if he did manage to find everything useful I had on me. He took Cabot’s gun, my wallet, Annalise’s keys, and my ghost knife and handed each one back to Bobby.

  “What’s this?” Bobby asked me, holding the ghost knife over the back of the seat so I could see it.

  “My good-luck charm.”

  “Yeah? What’s this squiggle?”

  “My doctor’s signature. I copy it when I’m forging a prescription.”

  “Not funny. Give me the real answer.”

  “Okay. Really, it’s the last signature Kurt Cobain ever gave. He died the day after he signed it.”

  “Whoa,” one of the guys in front of me said. He was a scrawny black guy with bad teeth. “I want to see that.”

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed.

  “Shut up up there. It’s nobody’s signature. And it sure ain’t no good-luck charm, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

  “You just wait.” I winked at the scrawny guy in front of me and sat tight. As long as I didn’t make a break for it, I figured I’d live long enough to eat lunch.

  I sat quietly and watched the town pass by. I could feel the ghost knife behind me. I knew I could call it, but this wasn’t the time.

  We approached the supermarket. I told the driver I wanted to stop in and pick up a bottle of wine-I hated to show up at someone’s house empty-handed. He slowed at the entrance to the parking lot, unsure if he should stop. Bobby cursed at him and told him to pass it by.

  I didn’t laugh this time, but I did smile. The guys were liking me less and less all the time. Bobby, unseen in the backseat, griped and mumbled about the amateurs he had to deal with.

  “Don’t be an idiot, Bobby,” I said. The vehicle was suddenly silent. “Professional criminals are the stupidest people in the world. I know. I’ve been one of them.”

  We drove the rest of the way to the Curl Club in silence.

  The first thing I saw when we approached the club was a high wall. It looked freshly painted. Tall, flower-less stalks had been planted along the cinder block. I wondered what sort of plant it was.

  We pulled up to the wrought-iron gate. The driver lifted a remote control, pressed a button, and the doors slid apart.

  Inside, I saw a big lot with a line of cars along the far wall, parked out of sight of the road. The club itself was off to the right, nestled into the side of the hill. It was four stories high, and judging by the long windows, the bottom floor was some sort of auditorium.

  To the left, there was a smaller building, only two stories, with a loading dock in the front. Finally, at the far end of the lot sat a little cottage. It had a little weather vane on the top and a mailbox in front. A homey little sign above the door said simply OFFICE.

  We didn’t drive to the office, as I expected. We pulled right up to the double doors in front of the big building. A small sign above the door said CURL CLUB. It, too, was freshly painted. The rest of the guys began to pile out, momentarily forgetting that they were supposed to be threatening me. I felt the barrel of Bobby’s gun tap the back of my head, so I climbed out of the van like a good boy.

  “Watch him,” Bobby snapped. Two of the gunmen turned their weapons on me again. Floyd smirked like a kid who was going to see his big brother get a spanking. The Kurt Cobain fan opened the doors. Bobby stayed behind me.

  The sport van pulled away. I turned to watch it go, thinking about that remote control. I felt a hand shove into my back. “Move.” I did.

  We walked into the building. The first thing I noticed was that the main floor was even bigger than I’d thought. Not only was the ceiling twenty feet above me, but the floor was sunken.

  “Come on,” Floyd said. He was still smirking.

  We descended the stairs. The room was done up like a bumpkin’s idea of a casino, but done on a budget. The wallpaper and carpets were whore house red, which was appropriate, I suppose. I saw a pair of roulette wheels, a handful of craps tables, and a lot of blackjack tables. In the corners were a couple of lonely, neglected-looking slot machines. Judging by the number of customers, business was slow. Maybe these were just the all-day die-hard gamblers.

  Against the far wall was a mezzanine with green felt tables. Poker, I guessed. At the end of the mezzanine I saw a fire door marked EXIT.

  We turned left and walked across the floor toward a flight of stairs. The boys accompanying me were relaxed, and I didn’t do anything to spoil their mood.

  We climbed the stairs. One of the men was gasping for breath by the time we reached the hallway at the top. The corridor seemed to run the length of the building, with several doors on the left side but only one on the right. At the far end, a second flight continued up. The Cobain fan rapped on the first door on the left, and someone inside threw the latch. The door opened.

  We all walked into a little restaurant. At first I thought it was a bar, but this place had no booths and no dark corners anywhere. At the back I could see a little stage with a brass pole.

  Only a single table was occupied. Bobby and I walked toward it, but the others hung back by the door. Seated at the table was a young woman of about twenty, slightly plump, with dull yellow hair, black eyebrows, and pale skin. She smiled at me with painted lips, and her gaze was intense and slightly intimidating. She was plain-looking at best, but she had an aura of furious vitality.

  Beside her, a woman of about seventy, with dyed-red hair piled on top of her head and a shapeless dress over her shapeless body, sat slightly hunched. She stared up at me with narrow, suspicious eyes, picked up a long, white cigarette, and took a deep puff.

  I assumed I was looking at Phyllis Henstrick.

  “This is him,” Bobby said.

  “Thank you, Bobby,” the old woman said. Her voice was raw from years of smoking. “Have a seat.” I wasn’t sure which of us she was talking to. Bobby pulled out a
chair for himself and pointed at the one he wanted me to take. We both sat at the table. She didn’t object.

  She watched me for a couple of seconds. The silence dragged out. “Thank you for coming,” she said finally.

  “Thank you for inviting me so politely.”

  “You’re welcome.” She was so deadpan I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or if she really was unaware that I’d been brought here at gunpoint. She stuck the cigarette between her lips and sucked on it. Bleh. I’d only spent a couple of seconds with her and I wanted to get away. “We have a lot to talk about,” she said, “but it’s a little early for lunch. Maybe you’d like to go upstairs. Tiffany can show you the way, and keep you company for a while, if you’re feeling a little tense.”

  I looked at Tiffany. She still had that dangerous glint in her eyes. It had been a long time for me, so of course I was tempted, but the ugly old woman took an ugly puff on her ugly cigarette, and I found the common sense to resist. “I’ll pass. Sorry, Tiffany. I’m sure you’re very good at your work.”

  “Not your type, eh?” the old woman said. “I don’t have any boys on the premises.”

  “I’d turn down anything you offered me, except a ride into town. Or breakfast.”

  She turned to Bobby. “Would you ask Arlo to fix us some turkey sandwiches? And cole slaw.” She turned to me. “Do you like cole slaw?”

  “Not really.”

  “Bag of chips for him.” She turned to me again. “Do you have any food allergies? You aren’t going to fall over dead if you bite a tomato, are you?”

  “Well, I do prefer my arsenic on the side, thanks.”

  She chuckled and waved Bobby off. He stuck his hand in his pocket, presumably where he had stuck his gun, and gave me a nasty look. He was leaving me alone with this woman, and he didn’t want me to try anything stupid.

  The old woman stared at me again. “Poison is a little too hifalutin for us, I’m afraid. We don’t go into that fancy stuff. Too easy to screw up.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “You did a real number on Floyd and some of my other boys.”

  “Floyd can’t take a hint.”

  “Well, that’s the God’s honest truth. But Floyd is a workingman, too. He has a nut to make, just like everyone else. How is he supposed to pay his bills while he can’t work?”

  “Since he was hurt doing a favor for Wyatt, Wyatt ought to give him a cut from his meth money. If Wyatt doesn’t take care of his people, he’s not going to have them for long.”

  She blinked. It was a small thing, but I’d surprised her. She covered it up well, though.

  “I know all about taking care of people. The folks in Hammer Bay look out for each other. We need each other. If one of us gets into trouble, all of us suffer.”

  “Is that why the Dubois brothers are shaking down the local businesses for protection money? Is that why you’re running a casino? To help the good folks of Hammer Bay?”

  “Emmett and I don’t get in each other’s way. That’s how it has to be. And this place does help the community.”

  “By taking their money?”

  Bobby returned to the table. He sat beside us without comment, his hand still in his pocket.

  “And the money from people in Sequim, Port Angeles, and Port Townsend, too. Most of the boys who work here are on my construction crews. When there’s a boom time, the boys practice their trades: wiring offices, patching roofs, hanging Sheetrock. Frankly, during a boom this place is a pain in the ass. We’re understaffed and too busy. But during a bust this place keeps bread on the table for a lot of local men.”

  “You convinced me. You’re a town hero.”

  “I’m not a hero, smart-ass. I’m an employer. Communities need employers, no matter what you think of the business they do. When my husband passed, God rest his soul, this place was falling apart. No one was building. No one was playing the cards. The whores were walking petri dishes. You know what it’s like to sit in a room with a bunch of whores no one wants to touch? It’s depressing. They’re not typically great at the art of conversation. No offense, Tiff.”

  Tiffany shrugged. She was still watching me. She looked like she wanted something from me.

  “I turned this place around. Me. I rehired the men my husband, God rest his soul, turned out onto the street, along with a few Cabot let go, too. Do you know how I was able to do all that?”

  “Do I have to guess until the food arrives?”

  She ignored that, bulling on with her little speech. “Because of Charlie Hammer. Little Charles Hammer the Third opened up a plant and a big office and started putting people to work. Those paychecks went into home repairs and new builds. In other words, to me. And I put a bunch of that money into the pockets of my boys. So you’ll understand if I get a little squirrelly when some prick blows into town and threatens to ruin things.”

  “Am I the prick?” I asked. “I hope so, because I was waiting for you to get to my part in this.”

  “You had a meeting with Charles. Now your little girlfriend is stalking him, trying to follow him around. I know. You can’t keep secrets in a town like this.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I laughed right in her face.

  “What’s so funny?” she asked. “I know all the secrets around here. I know the mayor’s, the reverend’s, the chief’s-“

  “You know Emmett Dubois’s secret?” I asked. I wondered if she meant that he was a shape-shifter, or that he liked to have Tiffany dress him in a diaper and spank him.

  “I told you he leaves me alone, didn’t I?”

  “If you know his secret,” I said, “you know he should be stopped.”

  “If by ‘stopped’ you mean ‘killed,’ I’m not sure I can. I have a basketful of questions about him still, and I’m not sure I could take him out clean.”

  Tiffany turned her gaze on Phyllis as if she was about to volunteer for the job. Phyllis spoke to her as if she could read her mind. “Now, Tiff, I don’t want you or Bobby or anyone else going near Emmett Dubois. You’re good people, but you’re not tall enough to ride that ride.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Tiffany said. Bobby sat quietly, serenely confident that he could do what ever Phyllis asked of him.

  I shifted in my seat. My stomach grumbled. “So you know how he manages to take out his enemies with a pack of dogs when he doesn’t actually have a pack of dogs.”

  She eyed me keenly. “I do. It’s pretty obvious to anyone willing to believe. It’s that willingness that most people can’t manage.”

  I smiled at her. “I’m willing. For good reason.”

  “Then I suppose you noticed the plants surrounding the wall out front?”

  “I saw them, but I’m no botanist. Wait a minute. Are they wolfsbane?” The old woman nodded. I almost laughed again but I held it back. “Maybe we could help each other. We seem to have a common enemy.”

  “That doesn’t make us friends. I want to know why you’re interested in Charles Hammer. Until we get that straight, you’re nothing.”

  A man in kitchen whites entered with a tray. He set a plate with a turkey sandwich and an ice cream scoop of soggy cole slaw next to Phyllis. He set a second plate next to me. The sandwich was identical, but I had a tiny pile of supermarket potato chips. We each received a tall glass of iced tea.

  Phyllis gestured at the food. “Tuck in, Nothing.”

  We picked up our sandwiches. Mine was as dry as plasterboard and just as flavorful. It didn’t matter. I hadn’t eaten all day. The tea tasted like sour water, so I didn’t have more than a sip.

  While I chewed, I thought about Phyllis. She was loyal to Hammer, and she had a lot of muscle and cash. One of her men probably had a brother-in-law who worked night security at Hammer Bay Toys, or a wife who worked in his office. She probably also had blackmail material on half the town. She was connected, and I had to figure a way to turn her to our side.

  I finished half the sandwich and felt full, but I ate a chip just to keep busy. Phyllis
was still working at her sandwich. She reminded me of a bear I’d seen on a nature show-it was tearing into a picnic, hunched over, holding a balled-up pizza in its claws and ducking its head to tear off bites.

  I looked over at Tiffany just to have something more pleasant to look at. She stared at me with a creepy insect expression. I got the impression that she was imagining herself having great fun with me, but not in a way I’d especially enjoy.

  “So,” Phyllis said, then swallowed a lump of dough and meat. “Why did you meet with Able Katz at the toy offices?”

  “I thought the whole town knew that by now.”

  “I want to hear it from you.”

  “My boss owns a factory in Africa that could handle some of the manufacturing work.”

  “Outsourcing.”

  “Sure. I hope you’re not surprised, Phyllis.” I tried to sound worldly, which I wasn’t. “That’s how the game is played.”

  She slapped her hand down on the table. “This isn’t a game!”

  “And it’s his company, not yours. Maybe he started it as a charity, but I don’t think he’s going to keep doing that forever. His margins are too thin-“

  “His company is a success. It’s turning a profit, because of our work.”

  I didn’t disagree, and I noticed that she had thrown herself in with the old ladies who were sewing Eagle Rider outfits. “And his ideas. Hard work he can get anywhere.”

  “He turned you down, didn’t he?”

  “Able Katz turned us down, on standing orders from Charles. He also agreed to meet with us again. The door’s not shut. They’re turning a profit now, but everything is boom and bust, just like you said. What happens when they hit a bust period? According to Able, they’re overdue. And if they don’t sign with us, it’ll be someone in Malaysia or the Philippines. In fact, there’s a prison in China-“

  “Prisoners!” She slammed her hand down on the table, making the plates jump.

  I ate another chip while she fumed. I had no idea if anything I’d said made sense. It was a jumble of news stories I’d heard mortared together with bullshit. It seemed to be having the desired effect, though.

  I leaned closer to her. “That’s not the end of it.” I waited a moment for her mind to clear. When I had her full attention again, I continued. “You know what Emmett Dubois is.” I paused again, making sure that she kept up with me. “Well, near as I can figure, Charles Hammer is something worse.”