by Sean Black
‘So why not just stay doing that?’ he asked her. ‘Why get into movies?’
Raven smiled again, but this time there was a tinge of sadness in her eyes. ‘That’s a really good question. I started out doing photo shoots, and the more of those I did, the better the clubs I got invited to dance at and the more money I could make. It all made sense at the time. It’s little bitty steps, Ryan. You strip, then you get offered a centerfold and you think, Well, I’m already naked in front of guys anyway. Then someone comes along and asks if you want to be in movies. So you do that. Then someone says, “If you do a little bit more next time they’ll pay you more.” So you do that little bit more. And it’s not like it feels weird because you’re surrounded by people who it’s totally normal for. That’s their life. They have sex on camera, they get paid, then they go home. It’s a job. That’s what people don’t understand about the business. There’s nothing erotic about it. We don’t sell sex, we sell the idea of sex.’
She turned to face him, holding his attention with a steady gaze. ‘Does that make any kind of sense?’
‘It does. I’ve worked for people I shouldn’t have, taken on jobs I’d have been better off avoiding.’
Her smile was back. ‘And it’s not like I plan on doing this for ever. I have the house almost paid off. Two, three years, and I’m good. I’ll have enough money to look after me and Kevin, and go back to college. It’s what keeps me going. Making sure that we’ll have a secure and worthwhile life.’ She stopped. ‘If I live that long, right?’
‘That’s one thing you don’t have to worry about. Not while me and Ty are around anyway.’
Sixteen
Inside Raven’s home, a faint smell of wood shavings hung in the air: the airborne residue of the newly changed locks, which glittered next to the handles of every door. Eight new cameras with infrared lamps beside them sat high on each wall of the house, feeding back a flickering loop of green-tinged images to two monitors, which sat inside the newly functioning panic room.
Kneeling on the wrong side of the closed door, Ty tapped against it with his knuckles. ‘Kevin? Can you hear me?’
There was a muffled response, which Ty could just about make out as ‘Go away.’
‘Brother, you need to come out of there before Ryan and your sister get home.’
Kevin didn’t respond.
‘Come out and we can talk.’
Ty sank down, his back to the door. Lock was going to have a shit fit when he got back. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I’m just going to wait here until you want to talk to me.’
Then he got up and paced to the window. The glass threw his reflection back at him. He killed the lights and stared down to the deck below. At the bottom of the slope, on the other side of the fence, a dog prowled – a guard dog of some kind. A Shepherd. Ty sighed and rolled his shoulders. Kevin had been in a funk ever since he’d called his girlfriend, Wendy. It had been a short exchange.
Ty had overheard some of it. It had sounded like Kevin had been talking to someone, maybe the mom, who wouldn’t put Wendy on the phone. Kevin had started out polite. Then he’d pleaded a little. And then, when he’d grasped that the person he was speaking to wasn’t about to change their mind, he’d become petulant.
Finally, he had put the phone down and disappeared upstairs. Ty had assumed he’d headed to his room. He must have done at first because Ty saw him a few seconds later on the landing, clutching a backpack with Superman on the front. Ty was expecting him to come down the stairs and maybe head for the front door, but instead he’d disappeared into Raven’s room. A few seconds later, Ty had heard the heavy door of the panic room slam shut. By the time he’d got there, Kevin had locked himself inside and was refusing to talk.
Ty walked back to the door, running a finger down the edges. As hiding places went, it was damn near perfect. Ty tried the handle but the door was shut tight. The only way to get in was probably through the roof or by taking down some walls with a sledgehammer. Given all the recent disruption in the house, Ty doubted that Raven would appreciate this. They would have to sit it out.
The only drawback to this plan was that it left the feeds from the security cameras inside the panic room unmonitored. The plan had been to move Raven into the spare bedroom at the end of the hall overnight. That way, Lock and Ty could take shifts watching the screens. It also kept them close to their principal. Raven hadn’t been wild about the idea at first but Lock had won her round.
There was one thing left for it. Ty dug out his cell and called Lock.
‘Everything okay?’ his partner asked.
Ty glanced back towards the two hundred pounds of reinforced-steel-framed door. Right now it looked about as impenetrable as the kid on the other side of it.
‘Kevin got a little upset. He’s shut himself inside the panic room.’
Lock went quiet. Ty knew that this meant he was really pissed off. When he was irritated he might curse. When he was really upset he went quiet and folded in on himself. The mood lasted as long as it took him to work out a solution. Then he was back to normal and carried on like nothing had happened. But that period when he was in quiet mode, he wasn’t any fun to be around. There was always something murderous that lay under the surface with Lock. As long as Ty had known him that had been his way.
‘Why did he get upset?’ Lock asked.
Ty moved further away from the door and lowered his voice so that Kevin wouldn’t catch what he was saying. ‘He called his girlfriend but her mom wouldn’t let her talk to him.’
Lock sighed. Ty heard him relay the information to Raven. Then she came on the line. ‘Ty?’ she said.
‘I’m here.’
‘He gets like this sometimes. Just leave him. We’ll be home soon. He’s okay, right?’
Ty hollered over to the door. ‘Hey, K-Lo, your sister wants to know that you’re okay.’
There was a grunt, which Ty took as a yes.
Ty got back on his cell. ‘He’s chillin’ in there with Superman.’
‘We’ll be with you as soon as we can.’
In the background Ty heard the Range Rover accelerate. He ended the call, then strolled back to the panic-room door.
He and Kevin had been getting on so well too. At first Ty had been unnerved by Raven’s brother having Down’s syndrome. It had made him uncomfortable. Like a lot of kids growing up, Ty had thrown around words like ‘retard’ without considering their full weight. Kevin must have sensed as much because he’d seemed to make an extra effort with Ty – at least, he had at first. It was like he had tried to make sure that Ty was comfortable rather than the other way round.
He was a funny kid. He seemed to be missing the filter that adults had and which was usually well in place by the time someone hit their late teens. While they were watching cartoons, he had turned to Ty and said, apropos of nothing, ‘Is it weird being black?’
Ty had had to fight back a laugh. He wasn’t sure whether he should be offended or not.
‘How’d you mean?’ he said, parrying the question.
‘Well, people treat me differently, you know, because of how I look and things. I was just wondering if it was the same if you’re black.’
This time Ty did smile. ‘You’re pretty deep, man.’
‘That’s not an answer,’ Kevin said.
‘Well, I look at it like this. If someone wants to treat me differently because of the color of my skin, then they got a problem, not me.’
Kevin seemed to reflect on Ty’s answer. ‘You get that off of Oprah?’ he asked.
Ty burst out laughing. ‘Man, you’re a trip.’
‘I know,’ said Kevin, with a self-deprecating little shrug.
Of course, then had come the phone call and the storming upstairs. Now he was shouting through the door. Ty wondered if he’d decided to come out but couldn’t figure out how to open it.
‘Kevin? You okay in there? What you say?’ he yelled.
‘There’s someone creeping around outside.’
Inside the panic room, Kevin watched, transfixed, as the shadowy figure exited frame left on the first monitor. A second later they entered frame right on the second screen. They were making their way from the front to the rear of the house where a set of french windows opened directly into the living room.
His arms wrapped around his knees, he rocked back and forth a little. On the other side of the door Ty was shouting at him, making Kevin’s heart pound even more than the person outside was doing.
He opened his backpack and pulled out his wrist bands, which he wore when he got stressed. They had Superman on them and the letters WWSD, which stood for ‘What Would Superman Do?’ Raven used them to help him decide what was appropriate or inappropriate behavior. That meant something you could do or something that would make people mad and get you in trouble. He hated it when people were mad.
There was a loud thump on the door. Kevin reached down and twisted the wrist band, watching the WWSD spin round. He wished Wendy was here with him. She always made things better. But her mom was mad at him and he didn’t know why. He didn’t know what he’d done.
On the screen the man was approaching the doors.
‘Where is he now?’ Ty was shouting.
But Kevin was getting confused. He wished Ty would stop shouting at him. It wasn’t his fault that someone was creeping around outside. If only Superman was really here. Or his sister. They’d know what to do. Because, right now, Kevin was too scared to do anything.
With no response from Kevin, Ty made for the bedroom door. There was a panic button in the hallway. He slammed his palm down on it, then called Lock again.
‘We got a prowler outside.’
‘Where?’
‘I don’t know. Kevin’s still locked in the panic room so I can’t see the screens. I’m gonna go take a peek now.’
‘Okay, keep me posted.’
‘Roger that. Lock?’
‘I’m here.’
‘If I get the drop on him and I think this is our guy?’
‘Do what you have to do. We have precedent with this one.’
Ty knew exactly the precedent Lock was talking about. Back in 1995, a private-security contractor working for Madonna had shot and wounded an intruder at her compound in Malibu. No charges had been filed by the district attorney. The intruder posed a threat. He was on private property. The bodyguard had done what he was paid to do. There had been a few civil-rights lawyers who’d made some noise in the LA Times. But there was no debate to be had.
Lock had made a point of not carrying a gun while they were in LA. Still technically a resident in California, even though he worked out of state a lot of the time, Ty didn’t have that problem. He had the permit courtesy of a local sheriff in a county near where he’d grown up in Long Beach. He and the sheriff had served together in the Marine Corps.
Ty drew his weapon, turned to his immediate left, hit the light switch, plunging the hallway into a gloom that matched the deepening twilight outside, and started down the stairs.
Lock spun the wheel, one-eightying the car, taking them north again and away from the house. Raven’s head snapped round. ‘What the hell are you doing?’
‘If the person who’s stalking you is at the house, I don’t plan on delivering you to him.’
‘But my brother’s there.’
‘He’s locked in the panic room, Ty’s there and the LAPD are on their way. Me slinging you into the mix, what do you think that’s likely to do? Make things better for your brother or worse?’
Raven’s eyes flashed with anger. ‘I don’t care! I want you to turn this car around.’
‘Too bad,’ said Lock, his hands tightening on the wheel.
Ty skirted around the side of the house, his gun held low. At the corner, he stopped and listened. Down the slope at the back the neighbor’s guard dog was barking, a constant stream of canine invective. But it might have been spooked by his movements.
He rounded the corner. He couldn’t see anyone. The deck and the area around it were empty. He hunkered down and crept slowly forward. In his left hand he had a Maglite, but he kept it off. A light gave away your position: a bad idea when the enemy was unseen.
A noise.
Someone or something was moving about. A coyote come down from the hills to scavenge? The sound was coming from near by.
He stared towards the vortex of the crawlspace, which lay under the deck. It was too dark for Ty to see anything.
Then he heard another noise.
There was definitely something down there.
He angled the Maglite so it was facing towards him, then pressed it into his body and switched it on. A vague circle of light leaked on to the middle of his chest.
As quickly as he could, he laid the torch on the ground with the beam punching out towards the area under the deck. Then he moved fast in the opposite direction. Falling into a low crouch, left leg forward, right knee bent, he aimed towards the crawl space lit by the Maglite.
The figure was curled almost into a ball, chin tucked on to the chest, the black hood of a sweatshirt covering the face, hands dug into pockets.
‘Armed security!’ Ty bellowed. ‘Put your hands where I can see them.’
No hands moved but a head was raised. Burrowed into the cowl of the hood, a pair of almond-shaped eyes stared back at Ty, the pupils wide with fear.
Ty’s stomach turned over as he realized how close he’d come to shooting Kevin’s girlfriend, Wendy.
He hunkered down, his hands shaking.
‘Come on out of there,’ he said, beckoning her towards him.
She didn’t move. If anything, she seemed more afraid now than when he’d had the gun pointed at her.
It took Ty a second to register that she was looking behind him. Grabbing for his gun, he spun round in time to see a man’s darkened outline running past and down the side of the house.
‘Wait there,’ he said, leaping to his feet and taking off after the fleeing figure.
He took the corner wide at the side of the house, the gun punched out ahead of him. All he caught was the man’s heels as he fled towards the driveway.
He heard the clatter of metal on stone, then a muffled curse, more footsteps and the sound of a car door slamming. An engine fired and tires squealed as the vehicle took off at speed.
Ty stood in the driveway, breathing hard. There was a solitary flash of brake lights at the end of the street and then the car was gone.
He walked back to Wendy. She was rooted to where he had left her. He ran the beam of the torch across the area where the intruder had been. On the fifth or sixth pass, he caught a glint of metal on the deck near the rear doors.
He walked over and bent down to retrieve a brass house key. He turned it over in his hand, then tried it in the new lock. It didn’t fit. But he’d bet any money in the world that it fitted the old one.
Eighteen
Kevin and Wendy sat sheepishly on the couch. He had put one arm around her protectively, but removed it as soon as he saw Raven heading towards them. Lock hung back as she threw her arms around her brother, almost squeezing the life out of him. Then she hugged Wendy. ‘You know you’re both going to be grounded for this, right?’
Both Kevin and Wendy nodded, their eyes wide and troubled.
An LAPD patrol officer motioned Lock and Ty towards him. He was a Hispanic guy in his mid-forties with an easy smile that was more social worker than cop. ‘She can’t stay here. You realize that, right?’ he said.
‘I know,’ Ty said, ‘but let’s just give ’em a minute or two. I’ll make sure they behave themselves.’
The cop shrugged and went to talk to his partner.
Lock pulled Ty towards the window. ‘You get a look at the guy outside?’ he asked.
Ty shook his head. ‘White, I think, but could have been light-skinned Hispanic. Big. Like over six feet. Beyond that I got nothing, really. I’m just happy no one’s hurt.’ He scratched his chin. ‘She was hiding un
der the deck. I almost lit her up.’
‘Cops take the key that was dropped?’
‘First thing they did was bag it.’
‘Maybe they’ll get something from it.’
‘I hope so, brother,’ Ty sighed, ‘because this shit feels real messed up to me.’
‘Everyone’s safe. You did your job. That’s all that matters.’ Lock clamped a hand on his partner’s shoulder. ‘I’m going to go take a look outside.’
Out front a red sedan pulled up and Stanner got out, his frizzy mop of hair making him instantly recognizable. He waved and headed towards Lock. His shoulders were slumped and Lock had a feeling that he wasn’t there to tell them they had Cindy Canyon’s killer in custody.
‘How’s the brother’s girlfriend?’ Stanner said, glancing behind Lock to the house.
‘Shook up but fine.’
Stanner chewed his bottom lip. ‘Young love. Think I just about remember what that feels like. Been married twenty-plus years.’
‘You got any news?’ Lock prompted.
Stanner studied his shoes. ‘Nothing on the prowler but we think we’re getting closer to the guy in Arizona – the one who threatened Raven in the parking lot last night.’
‘Assuming he’s still in Arizona.’
‘Even if he’s gone, he might have left enough behind to give us something more to work on. We have someone from the FBI on board out there to check it out and feed back any extra intel.’
‘How come?’ Lock asked. He wasn’t an expert in the finer points of law-enforcement procedure and who took the lead, but with only one body and a case of ongoing aggravated stalking on the table it seemed a little early for the Feebs to be beating the bushes on behalf of the LAPD or the cops in Arizona. If it was, say, a serial killer they were looking for, the body count usually had to hit four before a federal investigation was triggered.
‘There’s an unsolved case going back a few years that we think might be linked to this.’