by Thomas Perry
Rollins ducked behind his bar, swung the short-barreled shotgun up over the wooden surface, and dropped the shooter. The second man opened fire at Rollins and backed outside into the cold night.
Rollins ran after him, stepped over the body on the floor, and realized he knew the two shooters. He had met the two men a year earlier at a poker game that was run by his liquor distributor. The men were two brothers named Storrono. He made it to the door in time to see the Escalade arrive outside the bar and the surviving shooter step in. Rollins remembered the bloody footprint where he had stood. As the SUV drove off, Rollins ran inside, snatched up the telephone behind the bar, called the police, and told them what had just happened and who had made it happen. The anger carried him through the crime-scene examination and the long police interviews that night.
He hadn’t thought much about the danger he was in until he was ready to leave the police station the next morning. The police detective in charge of the case said that if he saw anything that worried him—any sign that somebody was unusually interested in him—he should request temporary protection.
Before the trial of the remaining Storrono brother, the case suddenly changed, or the police view of it did. The suspect talked. The murdered man was not an enemy of the Storronos. They had simply agreed to do a contract killing. The man they had killed was one of the targets of a federal investigation. The man who had wanted him killed was another, much bigger, and more important organized crime figure. From that moment, the main concern of the authorities was keeping Storrono alive. Pete Rollins was still in danger, but he was no longer essential.
Federal officials took over the case, and shortly after that they told Rollins he was going to be relocated to South Carolina. His name would be Joseph Carver. They supplied him with a driver’s license, birth certificate, Social Security card, high school diploma, and a job in a furniture factory outside Charleston.
It was hot work, operating machines with sharp steel blades spinning rapidly and sanders that filled the air with fine sawdust that stuck to his skin and found its way past his mask and goggles into his nose and eyes. After a few months, the government determined that he could never be Pete Rollins again and had intermediaries sell his bar and his house. They paid his mortgages and sent the remainder in two checks made out to Joe Carver. He decided to move to Los Angeles.
Carver arrived in Los Angeles with plenty of money and a notion that it was time to open a new business and start over. He spent some time at first just getting used to L.A. nightlife and meeting people. He spent a lot of money on drinks and dinners. He had overdone it, he knew now, and he regretted it. He had gotten to know a lot of women very quickly, but he had not made the right impression. Two of them thought he was probably an armed robber and had told Kapak’s men.
Last night he had overheard the names of the two women—Sandy Belknap and Sonia Rivers. To his surprise, he actually remembered both women clearly. He had met Sandy Belknap in the Adder Club. She was a young blond who seemed fresh and enthusiastic, with a cute face and blue eyes. He had not had any serious intention of forming any kind of relationship with her, because she was too much engaged in being pretty. But he had learned over the years that the best way to attract the attention of women was to be seen with the best-looking ones. The others seemed to find that intriguing. Maybe they thought it meant he had been cleared of their worst suspicions—he couldn’t be a dangerous creep. Since he wasn’t as good-looking as the woman he was with, maybe he was rich or clever or funny. The first night he started talking to her, other women began to drift in his direction, and then to put themselves behind her, in his line of sight.
He had actually met Sandy Belknap five times in three different clubs. After the first time, she had always been the one to approach him. She’d found it most comfortable to make her entrance by coming up to a friendly acquaintance who bought her first drink and gave her a few minutes to study the crowd without being overwhelmed. It was possible that she subscribed to the same theory he did, that people were most attracted to the person already taken. When he and Sandy had legitimized each other for a few minutes, they had parted with an affectionate hug and found other partners.
Sonia Rivers had seemed to Carver to be more promising. She didn’t have that protective wall of self-satisfaction that Sandy had. She was not at ease in bars trying to meet men. The first night he had met her, he had caught an expression now and then on her face that he interpreted as a kind of astonishment at finding herself in a club.
He had approached her in a quiet moment while a band was leaving and the DJ was getting set up, and asked if he could buy her a drink.
“Gee, I don’t think so, thanks.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want one.”
“It’s not really about wanting the actual drink. It can be a soft drink. No alcohol. It can be water, and you don’t have to swallow any of it. A drink is symbolic.”
“Of what?”
“That you’re willing to hang out with me for a bit and talk and stuff.”
“And stuff?”
“I’m not promising stuff. That’s only if we like each other. Otherwise, just a friendly chat, and no stuff. If the issue is me and not the drink, you say, ‘Get lost.’ Now, would you like a drink?”
“I feel funny about it, to tell you the truth.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to look like a woman who goes to bars to pick up men.”
“Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Not really.” She considered. “But I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
“What’s another way?”
“That I’m here to have fun.”
“Great,” he said. “Let’s have some fun. Do you have any board games? A piñata?”
“I’m sort of starting to see your point. The fun I was thinking of does involve meeting a guy. So, okay, let’s see about that fun. Do you dance?”
“Tonight I do.”
They had fun that night. They danced for a while. Then he took her to the Pacific Dining Car for a late-night dinner, and then back out to the clubs. He had always favored champagne for late-night excursions because it was less debilitating than distilled liquor, and since he was buying champagne for a woman, it had to be good champagne. He had not wanted to leave a credit history in the name Joe Carver because of the Storronos, so he had to spend cash. So he supposed he had been guilty of flashing a lot of cash in front of her like a bank robber. That was certainly where those accusations had come from. She hadn’t imagined it. But there was an incredible distance between spending a lot of cash and being a robber, and he wondered what he had done to make her take that leap.
That night while they were alone in the relative quiet of the all-night restaurant, she had asked him lots of questions and he had answered them more or less truthfully. He had mentioned that he had come to Los Angeles only a month earlier. So that had supplied the other half of the story. He was a man from elsewhere who had arrived a month ago and was around town spending lots of cash. But that was all.
He got into his car and drove. He was going to find Sonia Rivers and see what he could do to correct her first impression of him. Telling Kapak he hadn’t robbed him hadn’t worked. Maybe getting the two women who had implicated him to change their minds might add some credibility to his denials. If that didn’t work, somebody was going to end up dying.
21
MANCO KAPAK AWOKE in Sherri Wynn’s bedroom and then remembered the hospital. He’d had a heart attack—or maybe he hadn’t, but he’d had something. He walked carefully into the bathroom to urinate. His prostate gland was enlarged—not unusually so for his age, his doctor said—and he was used to getting up from sleep like this. He moved slowly and silently to keep from waking Sherri. This time the darkness was already being replaced by half-light, so he could see some of the obstacles he had missed in the dark.
He stepped into the bathroom, and when he turned to close the door, he saw his
naked reflection in the mirror on the medicine cabinet. It was a terrible reminder.
While he was with Sherri early in the evening, he had somehow fallen into imagining himself as he had been when he was young. How could he have forgotten what time had done to him? He had been, in his own mind, a fit and distinguished-looking man in middle age. He wasn’t that anymore at all. He was an old animal that was limping toward death. In the dark, with the help of the Armagnac, he had simply forgotten. But his heart had remembered how old he was.
Kapak felt an overwhelming urge to get dressed, to cover himself. When they had made love it had been in the dark, so she had probably not really seen him. Maybe he didn’t have to leave her with the memory of his body. He sneaked into the bedroom and began to gather his clothes from the floor.
Sherri stirred. “What are you doing?”
He faced away from her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just getting my clothes off the floor.”
“Come back to bed. It’s too early.”
“I don’t want my clothes to be wrinkled.”
“You’ve just been through a big ordeal. You shouldn’t be doing things like this.” She got up out of bed, still naked. She picked up his shirt and his pants, walked to the closet, took down two hangers, and hung them. “There.” She came up behind him, put her arms around him, and kissed the back of his neck. “Come lie down with me. There’s nothing you have to do at this hour. We’ll get some more sleep and I’ll make you a nice breakfast.”
She slipped around him and tugged the sport coat he was holding in front of him, but he didn’t let go.
“I get it. You’re shy.”
“Don’t be silly.”
She pressed her body against the coat and spoke with her lips against his cheek. “I’ve seen everything there is to see, really close up, if you remember. And I think you look just fine. You’re not twenty anymore. Neither am I. I’ve had my own problems with that over the years, but not last night. I feel comfortable with you, and I don’t want to put clothes on now, and I don’t want you to, either. Come on.”
He let the coat drop and sat on the bed. In a moment they were lying on the bed together in a gentle embrace. “It would have hurt me if you sneaked away at dawn. Don’t worry. I can keep a secret. Nobody ever has to know this happened.”
He remembered what he had done at Rogoso’s house, and that she was his alibi. “No,” he said. “That’s exactly what I don’t want. If somebody asks who you were with last night, tell them.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Only don’t tell them I had a problem and had to go to the hospital. If you do, say I had an erection that lasted four hours.”
“That doesn’t sound like a very nice time to me.”
“No? Then make up what does sound nice and say that.”
“He made me feel happy and special. Afterward I was so sleepy that I slept better than I have in months.”
“That’s good? Sleepy?”
“If I tell other women that, they won’t leave you alone.”
“Then you don’t have to tell them.”
“I won’t. Now close your eyes, relax, and lie still.”
He took a few deep breaths and lay there with Sherri’s smooth body touching his. He gave a tentative snore that woke him, and then she turned away from him and they lay together like spoons in a drawer. Then he was asleep.
Some time later the telephone rang. Sherri jumped up, grabbed the phone, and slipped into the bathroom with it. “Hello?” she said quietly.
Kapak was awake. The sun was bright in the places where it shone through the blinds. He could hear Sherri talking in a hushed voice beyond the closed door.
After a minute the door opened and she came out, looking concerned. “You’re awake?”
“Yeah. The phone woke me.”
“It’s Skelley. He’s calling from Temptress.”
“What’s he doing there already?”
“He wants to talk to you” She held out the phone.
Kapak took it. “Skelley. How did you find me?”
Skelley said, “Your phone was off, and Spence didn’t know where you were. I was worried so I looked at the surveillance footage from last night to be sure nobody hit you over the head after I left. I saw you and Sherri in my office, so I took a guess.”
“Very smart.” He was beginning to feel optimistic. His alibi was getting stronger and involving more people. “Well, you’ve got me now. What’s up?”
“We’ve got lots of trouble. Siren got robbed last night.”
“Robbed? Where were Voinovich and Gaffney?”
“They were there. The day manager at Siren found them tied up with duct tape.”
“Are they all right?”
“Yeah. They said it was a man and a woman, both young, just like at the bank the other night. They stole Voinovich’s SUV and drove off with the safe. They pulled down the wall to the office to get the safe out.”
“I just don’t see how this happened. How did they even get in the building?”
“What can I say? They got suckered. Gaffney was kind of vague on what happened, but I got Voinovich alone and talking about his SUV, and he got pissed enough so he wasn’t thinking about how he and Gaffney looked. The chick that Joe Carver brought with him pretended to be drunk, banging on the door and wanting to audition as a dancer.”
“So Jimmy let her in.”
“Yep. Apparently she’s really hot.”
“So why the hell is she doing armed robberies?”
“I can’t imagine.”
“I’m really starting to wonder why Joe Carver won’t just give up and go away. He’s already got me for what? A couple hundred thousand, probably. I met him once. Does he want me dead? He must be crazy” He sighed. “What time is it?”
“About six-thirty. Want me to call the police?”
“Is there anything around the building that we don’t want anybody to see?”
“No. Gaffney and Voinovich had guns, but they don’t now.”
“Let me think for a second. No. Call them. Maybe the cops can find Carver. Let them try.”
“Got it. I’d better call them right away, if I’m calling, or they’ll wonder why I waited.”
“Do it. And then call Spence and tell him what happened.” Kapak pressed the End button and tossed the phone on the bed where Sherri could reach it. “I’ll have to skip that breakfast,” he said. “But thanks.”
“Are you going?”
“Yeah. I’ll go home and change my clothes and then see what they did to Siren. There was something about knocking down a wall to get to the safe.”
She went to the closet and brought Kapak his clothes on hangers. “I’m sorry about the club.”
“Things happen. You just have to do what you can to fix them.”
“I’m going to forget about what happened to you last night—the hospital and all. I understand why you want to keep it quiet. But you should remember. You need to take it easy.”
“I’ll do that after I’ve done what I can to protect my clubs.”
“I’m working again tonight.”
“Yeah?”
“In case you feel like coming over again. You know when I get off.”
He looked up as he buckled his belt. She shrugged, apparently unconscious of the fact that she was still naked. But her eyes were averted, looking at the wall, and he could see she was nervous about what he was going to say.
“You mean I’m invited?”
She turned and met his eyes. “Yes. Any time you want to come.”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen today. The last couple of days have been kind of complicated.” He watched her face turn down to look at the floor in disappointment. “But it’s nice to know that at the end of it I’ll be with you again”
She hugged him, then pulled away and went into the bathroom and came back with a thick white bathrobe, which she cinched tightly at the waist. “I’ll walk you out.”
2
2
KAPAK SHOWERED IN HIS master bathroom and dressed in fresh clothes. He wished he had time to shower in the guesthouse, but he was in a hurry this morning. Just as Kapak finished brushing his teeth, he heard the doorbell. When he came out of his suite, Spence was already moving toward the door, but he waved him off. “I’ll take care of this. Just stay out of sight.”
When he opened the door, Lieutenant Slosser was standing in front of him, a bit too close, and looking down at him intently. Kapak was too old and had seen too much to allow himself a startle reflex. He kept his face empty. “Hello, Captain.”
“I’m a lieutenant.”
“Did you hear we got robbed again?”
“I heard that. It’s getting to be an expensive habit.”
“Expensive, yeah. It better not be a habit. Come on in.”
Lieutenant Slosser stepped inside, and Kapak closed the door. Kapak followed Slosser’s eyes and saw the tray with two cups and a pot of coffee. “I see you’re just having coffee.”
“You want some?”
“No, thanks. I already had enough today. I wasn’t sure you’d be up. But since you are, would you like to go up to Siren with me? I’m going now to take a look around.”
Kapak hesitated. This couldn’t be anything but an attempt to entrap him. But he needed to know what Slosser knew and what he thought. “Maybe I’ll take you up on that. Let me just get my wallet and keys.”
Slosser stepped into the living room. His eyes never stopped moving, collecting details, making their way from one end of the room to the other, then through the French doors that led out to the garden of tropical plants among big stones that looked as though they’d come from far away, and on to the other windows. There seemed to be nobody here but Kapak, which Slosser judged was highly unlikely for a man who was under a barrage of attacks. He would have at least a bodyguard or two. And if Slosser had come with a warrant, he knew he would have been able to find plenty of weapons without much of a search.