“No, I don’t want to play my f...” He stopped and stood staring out at the water. The slow churn of the waves was calming, for some reason. It made him feel insignificant. He sat on the bench. “This isn’t my first car bomb.”
“I wouldn’t expect it to be.”
“No one was hurt this time.” He said it with a certainty that he shouldn’t have trusted. He had no reason to believe it. He hadn’t examined the scene—He hadn’t even gone near it.
Still, he knew.
Marley laid her hand on his. “You did well.”
It suddenly occurred to him that this had been a test. A test he might have failed. “Am I just a stone you throw over your shoulder? Some crazy, random thing you toss out into the world with no idea what it will break?”
She sighed, patted his hand, and turned to look out over the water. “I’d have thought you understood by now, dear. I thought you were paying attention.”
“What am I missing?”
“Me. You’re missing me. Let me ask you something: How did it feel when you pressed that speed dial button?”
Albert looked back at the burning car. Sirens grew louder. He didn’t want to answer because he thought the answer he was about to give would make him sound like a bad person. “It felt right. It felt like exactly the perfect thing to do at the time.”
“You had a moment of certitude.”
“Yes, exactly. It was like water flowing down a hill.”
Marley tightened her grip on his hand. “First, let me say that certitude is a very dangerous thing. It feels so powerful that it can drive people to do awful, awful things. Certitude is powerful magic, yes, but it can also be a curse, especially if you let unexamined bias substitute for mindfulness. Certitude has to be balanced with sensible self-doubt and an open mind or you risk all sorts of terrible things.”
“Okay,” Albert said warily. “I’ve had my moment of certitude and you’ve warned me about it. But Aunt Marley, you always seem utterly certain that what you’re doing is correct. You smash taillights and—“
“Of course I do, dear. And that’s magic. It’s almost the most powerful magic there is, because it’s barely magic at all. But there’s something about it you haven’t picked up on yet.”
“What’s that?”
She folded her hands in her lap, then sat up straight and proud. “I don’t have any idea what I’m doing.”
Sirens screaming, a police car skidded to a halt at the edge of the park, a respectful distance from the burning Lexus. More police cars approached. A woman in a minivan packed with kids parked across the street and leaned out the drivers window, video taping the fire with her phone.
Albert turned toward his aunt. He had heard what she’d said, but it didn’t register. “I’m sorry? What was that?”
“It’s true. I don’t know why I do these things. When I asked you to call the GPS with my phone, I didn’t know a bomb would go off any more than you did. Asking you to make that call seemed like the right thing to do at the time. The same is true with that stone in that parking lot.” Marley nodded toward the shuttered restaurant. “I just saw it there and had a feeling about it. And can I just say how much I love the phrase ‘like water flowing down hill’? This feeling has been with me for decades, and I’ve never been able to describe it so perfectly! You did it on your first try. Very good, Albert.”
“So you threw the stone onto that windshield—“
“I didn’t know the stone would crack that windshield, any more than I knew I would recognize that same crack on the SUV that tried to run us down a while ago. I’m sure you recognized it, too.”
“I did.”
“I just knew I should throw it, so I did.”
“And you gave me the phone because it seemed right?”
“Exactly! And it worked out all right. The bomb went off without hurting anyone, although I think a few windows might be broken.”
Albert stood on the wall and looked toward the street. The glass had been blown out of both windows on the street side. The windows across the street in the restaurant were broken, too. Whoever planted that bomb had been too smart to overdo it.
He turned back to her. “It would have been better to call the cops, Aunt Marley. They would have sent a bomb squad over, and they might have gotten... I don’t know, evidence off it without wrecking everything and scaring the hell out of everyone. You know a car bomb is going to make our lives very complicated, right?”
He still didn’t understand. That was too bad, because Marley couldn’t explain it any more plainly than she had. Perhaps he would understand better when the adrenaline rush from the explosion wore off. For now, Marley brushed him off with a flick of her wrist. “Could have been, might have been. Oh, look. A policeman is coming this way. I suppose we should talk to him.”
She stood and strolled toward the approaching officer, who was still at least thirty yards away. Albert followed. “What about the taillight on that truck?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t always discover the effects of the things I do. I wish I did. So who can say? Excuse me, officer! Excuse me! If I can just say, that was my car.”
As Albert predicted, things became complicated after that. Marley and Albert spent a great deal of time answering the same questions several times from several different authority figures. They produced their ID several times as well, to be scrutinized by several different pairs of eyes.
Ubeh arrived after a short while. The police interviewed her briefly, then she managed to approach Marley. “Oh, Ms. Jacobs, this is a nightmare! What has happened?”
“Someone tried to kill me, dear. How did you get here so quickly?”
“I live in a condo just over there.” Ubeh pointed uphill to a squarish brown building above the park. “I rushed right down when I got the call. No one was hurt then? Thank goodness.”
“Yes, it was only the car. And I’ll be needing a new one.”
“Oh!” Ubeh turned toward the fire. Fire engines had finally started to fight the blaze. “But that one is destroyed! I can’t get you a new car, Ms. Jacobs. It’s company policy. I’m so sorry.”
“Now don’t fret, dear. It sounds like a sensible policy to me, considering.”
“But I feel as though I have betrayed you! Here this awful thing happens, and I can’t help you at all.”
“Dear, you certainly can help us. About that Volvo…”
“Oh, yes! Our mechanic found a tracking device on it this morning. He suspects it was placed there by the police.”
“He’s probably correct, dear, but you should call him right away to let him know about this.”
Ubeh’s eyes widened and her phone was in her hand a moment later. Her thumbs moved over the keypad with surprising speed. “My boss, Carolina, will receive a text before a phone call, but just in case…” Text sent, Ubeh dialed a number and pressed the phone to her ear.
Before the other party picked up, a pair of detectives interrupted. “Excuse me,” one of them said to Ubeh. “May I see your ID?”
“Of course. Is there something… Carolina? Did you get my text? It’s not a joke. Clear the building right away.”
“Ma’am,” the detective said, more sternly. Ubeh dropped her phone in her purse, then took out her drivers license. The detectives looked it over, then ordered her to accompany them to a waiting car.
“Wait a minute,” Marley said, “She—“
Albert caught her elbow. “Call a lawyer for her. Right away.”
Ubeh was patted down by a female officer, then put into the back of a car. Marley took out her phone as the car pulled away. “And I was hoping to leave Frederika out of this.”
Not ten minutes later, Detective Lonagan pushed through the crowd. Detective Garcia followed in his wake. “Marley!” he called. “My God, what is going on with you? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, thank you. I’ve just had a fright is all.”
“First your house and now this... what have you been doing?”
“Not a thing!”
Garcia stepped forward, put one hand one Albert’s chest and pushed. He didn’t resist, allowing himself to be shoved back. “That’s a lie. You’ve been digging into the murder of Aloysius Pierce. I know you have.”
“Nonsense.” Marley said. “My nephew has been killed, and it turns out that I don’t know anything about his life. I don’t even know who to contact about the funeral. I didn’t know who his friends are, or who he worked with. My own nephew, a stranger to me! His mother will be arriving soon, and I have no idea what I’ll say to her.”
“Besides,” Albert interjected, “we know you don’t believe the attack on my aunt’s home or this car bombing have anything to do with Aloysius’s death.”
“You know that, huh?” Garcia said, squaring off with him belligerently. “How do you know that?”
“You’re still holding Jenny Wu, aren’t you? Or maybe you think she planted this car bomb while she was sitting in prison, using her psychic powers.”
“Or maybe she wasn’t acting alone,” Garcia responded. She turned to Marley. “Is Jenny Wu named in your will?”
“Sharon,” Lonagan interjected, “this isn’t the time or the place.”
“No, Charlie, I think this question deserves an answer, and I want to hear it from her own mouth.” She turned to Marley. “Was Jenny Wu named as a beneficiary in your will?”
Marley laid her hand on her throat as though she was surprised. “Will? Me? I’m going to live forever.”
Garcia narrowed her eyes. “Ms. Jacobs, I’m going to have to ask you to come to the station with me to answer some questions.”
Marley shrugged. “If you’re going to arrest me, I’m prepared to sit silently in an interview room while I wait for my attorney. Otherwise, I’ll be happy to ask that same attorney to make an appointment to answer any questions openly and frankly. Of course I want to get to the bottom of these ugly attempts on my life, but wouldn’t it be better for you to collect all of your forensic evidence or whatever first? I’ve seen the television shows.”
“That’s your right, Marley,” Lonagan cut in. He was clearly worried for her; unfortunately, that worry expressed itself as an urge to take charge, in the most condescending way possible. “We don’t want to make things harder on you than they have to be. I’d like to arrange for an officer to take you home.”
“Thank you,” Marley said, “but I don’t want that. Albert will see me home safely enough.”
“Mar—Ms. Jacobs, if someone is trying to kill you—“
She interrupted him, speaking in a foolish tone that was not like her at all. “Your officer isn’t going to be able to do a better job than my Albert. He served in Afghanistan, you know.”
Lonagan and Garcia turned skeptical looks toward Albert. Embarrassed, he glanced down at his shoes. Did she have to put on this embarrassing performance now?
“So I don’t think I have anything to worry about! Come along, Albert. Oh, and Detective Lonagan, thank you for your concern. I appreciate it very much.”
Lonagan led Marley and Albert through the crowd, all the while trying to convince them to accept a ride. Marley, however, was adamant that it wasn’t necessary, and the frivolous way she insisted made Albert feel increasingly awkward, as though she was putting on a show to convince Lonagan she was silly and clueless. The detective had never known her to act this way, and no matter how confused her behavior made him, eventually he had to reluctantly let her walk away.
The police had blocked traffic turning from Western onto Alaskan Way, and a crowd of pedestrians—who seem to have appeared out of thin air—streamed toward the scene. Albert and Marley pushed their way through the crowd in the other direction.
“That Detective Lonagan sure was worried about you,” Albert said.
“Yes, I noticed that, too.”
“Really worried,” he said, with extra meaning.
Apparently, Albert needed to lighten the mood. “I’m not against the idea of a happy romp in the sack with a willing admirer, Albert,” Marley said. “But he’s not my type.”
“Oh. I thought women were into cops.” Marley gave him a look. “Or not. Is that why you were doing that whole ‘My nephew is a soldier’ thing? To back him off? Because that was embarrassing.”
“It wasn’t only to discourage him. I also wanted to get out of there before Homeland Security showed up. Being an older, wealthy, well-connected white woman is a helpful thing with the local authorities, but I don’t want to test it with federal police. Besides, police officers carry guns, pepper spray, batons—and they tend to ignore people who tell them to Put that away. We have enough trouble without adding weapons.”
Albert shrugged. “At least we know what Fremont Bridge was talking about when he said this was a dangerous area.”
A taxi was parked against the curb, the driver leaning on the hood eating a fast food sub. He looked like an amateur bodybuilder. “Excuse me,” he said to them. “What happened down there?”
Albert got a bad vibe from the guy, but Marley was pleasant when she answered. “Some sort of fire. Tell me, are you engaged?”
The driver wrapped up his sandwich and moved toward the driver’s door. “Tell me where you want to go.” He got behind the wheel quickly.
Marley smiled at Albert. “Aren’t we fortunate?” He opened the back door for her and she slid into the seat. He shut her door and, as he passed behind the back bumper to open the door on the other side, the taxi driver stepped on the gas and swerved into traffic.
Albert stood in the gutter and watched his aunt being kidnapped.
CHAPTER THIRTY
A Pretend Conversation
The cab driver glanced into his rear view mirror. He’d expected his passenger to panic when he’d pulled into traffic. He liked to see a little fear; it made the next part so much easier. Instead, she looked utterly composed. He wondered if she wasn’t a little senile.
“Lady, you and I are going to have a conversation. If it’s friendly and polite, and I hear the things I want to hear, maybe you’ll come out of it without any broken bones. Get me?”
Marley glanced at the cabbie license. The name read RICHARD KINGLOVSKI. “I ‘get you’, Dominic, but you don’t have to be so rude about it.”
Startled to hear his own name, Dominic swerved suddenly in his lane, almost colliding with another car. “Throw your purse into the front seat!” he said harshly. “Now.”
Marley sighed and did as he asked. Dominic opened it and dumped it out. He tossed her phone out the window, then ran his hand over the other items, glancing at them when traffic allowed. Whatever he was looking for, he didn’t find it. “How did you know my name?”
“Don’t ask, dear, you won’t like the answer.”
* * *
Back on the sidewalk, Albert sprinted after them, lunging off the curb when the crowd of lookiloos got too thick. His only hope was that the cab would catch the red light.
It didn’t. It breezed south through the intersection, heading up Western Avenue toward the highway—if they even got on the highway; it was possible they would head toward the waterfront ferries, or into a warehouse in Georgetown, or they might turn north toward Lake Union and from there they might head east or north.
Albert pushed his way back onto the sidewalk. It would be humiliating to return to Lonagan and Garcia after his aunt had said He served in Afghanistan, you know in that proud, silly, little old lady voice, but he didn’t have a choice. “Dammit!”
“Hush, Albert.”
Albert cried out and spun around, nearly colliding with a chubby couple in full bicycle gear. His Aunt Marley was standing against a streetlight, her eyes shut tight and her fingers in her ears.
“Aunt Marley! You’re safe!”
“Albert, hush! I’m trying to concentrate.”
* * *
Dominic sneered into the rear view mirror. “Concentrate? What you should concentrate on is making me happy. If I don’t get what I want, it’s gonna g
et ugly for you.”
“Yes, yes, I hear you. Dominic, I must know: How is that fellow who injured himself in my home? The one who tripped and shot himself in the leg? I didn’t get close enough to discover his name, so I have to ask this way. Is he all right? I’m honestly concerned, you know. I had no idea my little fishing line would lead to a gunshot wound; if I had, I wouldn’t have set it up. That’s just an awful thing.”
Dominic didn’t respond. He stared into the thinning traffic on 99 South, his face grim. “I get it,” he said, finally. “You know who I am. I get it.”
“I’m not being coy, dear. I’m never coy. I’m truly concerned about your friend.”
“He’s not my friend.”
“Then your teammate? Squadmate? What should I call him?”
“You shouldn’t be talking about him at all! You should be talking about yourself.”
“But I talk about myself all the time! I’m quite good at it and I’m sure I’ll be doing it again soon. To get back to your friend, I know you didn’t take him to a hospital, because the police—Oh my goodness! He didn’t die, did he?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“Oh! Thank goodness! I’m so glad. I haven’t harmed anyone physically in many years, and even though I didn’t directly—“
“Shut up, lady. I mean it. Jesus, maybe I should shoot you just to get your damn attention.”
“Well, you were nice enough to answer my question, so we should focus on you,” Marley said. “You wanted something from me. What was it again?”
“Don’t play games with me! You know what I’m looking for.”
“Is this how we’re going to do this? Because I’m already bored. Listen, young man, I’m happy to take a little ride with you and talk about whatever plan your employer is putting into action—“
“Who says I have an employer?”
“Don’t play games with me, Dominic. There’s a plan in motion, I can feel it the way someone with a nervous stomach gets sick on a roller coaster. I don’t know what that plan is, yet, but it’s already cost the life of my nephew.”
“Things don’t have to get bloodier,” Dominic interjected. “If you’re smart, you’ll give me what I want and this can all be over.”
A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark Page 21