by Mark Pepper
Joey couldn’t tell whether Larry was employing any sarcasm, but offered a little of his own, just in case.
‘Move along,’ he told him, ‘you’re in a no-stopping zone.’
Another impotent shake of his head and Larry returned to the Beetle. Joey watched him climb in and drive away, and moved off himself, accelerating up to the Beetle’s bumper again.
When they pulled up outside Larry’s apartment block, Joey was pointed to the appropriate spot on the street, as promised, where he parked the Charger and cut the engine. Larry made an arms-out, palms-up gesture of bewilderment at Joey’s paranoid behavior, then entered the communal courtyard that led to the steps up to his home.
Joey waited two hours before making a move. The sun had gone down. He went up to Larry’s apartment and peered in through the walkway window. Larry was out cold on the sofa, his .45 and an empty bottle of JD beside him. Joey stared at the comatose form for several minutes, profoundly troubled by what he saw. He didn’t like the combination of excess alcohol and firearms, especially not given Larry’s state of mind. He didn’t know a lot about these things – psychoanalysing the enemy had not been a part of his military remit – but he had always worked on the assumption that if an enemy looked dangerous, they probably were, and required shooting dead to eradicate all doubt. The reason for their mind-set was irrelevant.
So, was Larry to be treated any differently? They might have worn the same uniform but Larry was certainly an enemy, and a demonstrably dangerous one. Could he really trust that Larry had suddenly gotten all sane? One thing Joey did know: if this had been a military environment, and the decision had been his, Larry’s file could have been marked in only one way: Terminate with Extreme Prejudice. The fact that he was still breathing was down to simple expedience; Joey could not have got away with murder in a hospital washroom.
In the next sixty seconds, however, he could be in and out, having put a round from Larry’s own gun into his head, silently through a pillow. It was an attractive proposition. Scrub out the threat for good.
But he was too exposed. The very thing that allowed him to blend into the darkness also made him vulnerable to identification: his uniform. For all he knew, he had been spotted already; some elderly neighbor, not alerted by any sound, simply peeking through the curtains out of a lack of anything else to do.
Joey returned to the street and drove back to Cedars-Sinai.
It was time to leave and the replacement Audi had not arrived. As Virginia’s connection to Hayley was the most tenuous, she stayed home to take delivery while John and Dodge went off together.
Inside the Jeep the mood was somber, talk absent. Despite yesterday’s healing tears, John suspected his silent companion was still hoarding too much, but every time he thought to speak, the words he had planned seemed suddenly redundant. Until they met Hayley it would all be so much conjecture.
As they pulled off Gayley Avenue and drove up to the entrance to the UCLA Medical Center, Marie was getting out of a yellow cab. Dodge had offered to pick her up but she had turned him down, Venice Beach being so far out of their way. Insisting had not worked, Marie stating that the next free ride she accepted would be in a hearse. While she was still breathing, she would get around on her own, thank you very much.
Dodge parked and they both went over. There was an awkward moment before Dodge decided a hug was probably in order. Marie reciprocated, then smiled at John and hugged him as well.
‘I think you should stay here,’ she told them inside the foyer. ‘I’ll go up and fetch her down.’
They both nodded and found a couple of seats. It was a minute before either of them spoke.
‘I feel sick,’ Dodge said quietly, staring at the floor.
The butterflies weren’t exactly calm inside John. He couldn’t believe he was about to meet the girl in the photograph. The girl in the Disney dress – now a woman. He wondered if he’d recognize her, then realized of course he would. She would be the one with the cut face, swollen lips, missing teeth and broken arm.
When sufficient time had elapsed, they both turned their attention to the elevators. Each set of opening doors pulled their eyes like a magnet. John felt madly eager, like a child playing Snap!
Eventually, Marie emerged arm in arm with the saddest sight John had ever seen. He hated to think what turmoil Dodge was in at that moment. They simultaneously rose to their feet. Marie indicated the two men to her daughter, whose responsive smile instantly brightened John’s mood.
‘Hayley, sweetheart, this is Dodge.’
‘Hello, Dodge.’
‘Hello, Hayley. You don’t know what it means to me to finally meet Harry’s little girl.’
Hayley’s smile widened to reveal the gaps. Marie made the other introduction.
‘And this is John. He’s the reason we’re all together today.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Hayley said.
‘I knew your grandfather.’
‘Grandpa Chuck? How?’
‘I met him when I was a kid,’ John said. ‘I was on holiday.’
‘And do you know where he is now? We haven’t seen him for years.’
John glanced at Marie but reckoned he was the best person to tell her; he knew the details better than anyone.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Chuck died a long time ago. Shortly after I met him.’
Immediately after, more like, but he could keep that for later.
Hayley bowed her head in a brief moment of private mourning, before looking up.
‘So how is this little gathering down to you, John?’
‘That’s something we need to sit down for,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot you have to hear.’
Marie stroked her daughter’s hair. ‘He’s right, sweetheart, all in good time.’
‘Okay,’ Hayley said, then noticed something amiss. ‘Where’s Amanda? I thought I was staying at her place.’
‘We thought it best you stay with Dodge,’ Marie said. ‘I called Amanda to let her know. It’s safer this way. Larry’s a cop, remember? He knows how to find people. He could trace you to Amanda’s by a process of elimination. But you have no obvious connection to Dodge here. There’s no way Larry could find you.’
‘And don’t I have a say in this?’ Hayley asked.
‘Yes,’ Dodge answered, smiling. ‘But if you don’t come with me, I can’t tell you about your father, and John can’t tell you about your grandfather.’
Hayley nodded. ‘Then I guess I’d like to stay with you, Dodge. Mom, you’re coming with us?’
‘No, dear. We’ll see each other tomorrow, and I’ll call tonight – to hear your thoughts on what these gentlemen have told you.’
‘I don’t suppose you’d accept a lift,’ Dodge said to Marie.
‘Thank you, no. I think I’ll ask the cab driver to drop me at the beach. I fancy some ice cream. Maybe get my feet wet.’
Looking at her, John thought he could see the mythical last bloom of the terminally ill. Her skin had lost the sick hue it had yesterday. As she kissed them all goodbye, he got the strangest feeling that none of them would see her alive again.
Joey had been back at the target address since 8.30 a.m. after staying the night with his wife and new-born at Cedars-Sinai. None of them had slept much. Laura was suffering post-operative pain and the constant feeding demands of Junior DeCecco, both of which would have kept Joey awake even in the best of circumstances.
His mind was in turmoil, considering the pros and cons of murdering Larry Roth. An irritating voice in his head that sounded remarkably like Laura’s had kept telling him he wasn’t above the law any more than Roth, but didn’t the plain unpredictability of the man give him carte blanche to launch a lethal pre-emptive strike? His moral dilemma had been like a headache that wouldn’t go away.
What swung it, steeling him to act, was holding his son in his arms that morning while watching his wife snooze, and knowing he would be more able to square his conscience with Roth’s death in years to
come than cope with the possible loss of his family because he’d been too damn precious about his own morality.
The decision made, Joey had begun preparations. Using one of his shadier ex-military contacts, he had secured two items of kit: an innocuous-looking camper van with false plates and a muddy history of ownership, and an unregistered and silenced 7.62 caliber Remington 700 sniper rifle.
And when the moment was right, he fully intended sliding the door open a crack on the former, and pulling the trigger on the latter.
Hayley was up to speed on John’s involvement even before they reached Angelo Drive. Uncertain where to start, he had let the photograph speak for him. She could vaguely remember the picture being taken by her mom, but didn’t know it had been sent to her grandpa. Everything flowed from there. John’s possession of it begged too many questions and she would have been less than human not to indulge them. She heard practically his entire life story, the minutiae of which were skipped only in deference to his desire to give an overview that would make her quickly rapt. He feared if their connection was not sincerely established by the time Dodge cut the ignition, the impetus would be lost. Judging by Hayley’s joy at meeting the older man, John gathered she had been as keen to meet Dodge as John was to meet her. The prospect of his relegation to nothing more than a catalyst made him feel desperate. He craved her attention almost like a jealous lover.
When Dodge pulled off the road and parked up beside a gleaming red Audi, John knew he no longer had to worry. He could now happily let her sit for the next few hours listening to war stories of her father. She was hooked. He felt he could have flown back to England and she would have followed. The final party had been drawn into a thirty-five-year-old mystery.
Virginia was waiting at the kitchen window. John saw her and smiled, and realized that for the last half hour or so he hadn’t thought of his new girlfriend once. He jumped out, went around and helped Hayley onto the driveway. Virginia opened the front door of the house.
‘I know you may feel scared and alone,’ Dodge said gently to his guest. ‘But you got us now, and we won’t be strangers for long. Now let’s get inside. Hayley, this is my daughter Virginia.’
Virginia spoke to her father first. ‘Dad, thanks for the car, it’s beautiful.’
‘No problem.’
Then the women politely shook hands on the doorstep.
‘I feel I know you already,’ Hayley said.
‘How’s that?’ Virginia asked.
‘Your trip to Oregon. John told me about it.’
Hayley entered the house and Dodge closed the door behind them.
‘Really?’ Virginia smiled at John. ‘You don’t waste time, do you?’
‘Sorry,’ he said, feeling he had stolen thunder that should have been shared. ‘It sort of spewed out; it’s been a long time building.’
‘Hayley, can I fix you something to eat?’ Dodge said. ‘That’s okay.’
‘Don’t be polite, girl. Can I fix you something to eat?’
She conceded with a gappy smile. ‘I am a little hungry, but ... soup’s about all I can manage.’
‘Soup it is. Ginny, show Hayley through to the living room, see what she wants to drink.’
‘Dodge ...’
He halted at the kitchen threshold and turned.
‘Thank you,’ Hayley said. ‘All of you.’
‘Hey, you’re Harry’s girl, you’re as good as family. And don’t worry, you’re safe now. No one’s gonna hurt you again. I promised your mother, and I’m promising you. You got a Legionnaire and a Ranger to take care of you. Ain’t no one getting past us.’
The hangover was barely troubling, which meant Larry had probably slept late. He checked the time. Nearly one p.m. He would be glad when he could make up with Hayley and no longer need the booze at night. Good sex always made him sleep well.
He swigged some orange juice from the refrigerator and sat down at the kitchen table. He truly felt like shit. There wasn’t a single aspect of his life he could be proud of. Not only was he a wife-beater, he was a disgraced cop who’d been on the take for years, and he was under investigation by Internal Affairs because they clearly suspected what he knew: that he was also a vigilante cop and a failed coke thief. The vagrant implicating an unidentified person had swung the spotlight to DeCecco, and his stonewalling had knocked it glaring double-strength back at Larry. There were a lot of unanswered questions. If the mystery man was DeCecco, why had he let Mallory ride along in his place only to show up later in civvies? And what had Larry done that required the cop code of brotherhood to protect him? All these questions had been fired at him, and would be again, because something stank and it didn’t take a seasoned suit from IA to know it.
Larry rasped a hand round his stubbled chin and cursed as he remembered his keyless Corvette parked on the street. Damn, if Hayley was going to tell him to get lost, he wouldn’t even be able to drive away in style.
He padded into the bedroom and got dressed, grabbed the Tactical One-Hander off the bedside cabinet and tucked it down his sock, then went into the living room for the Tanfoglio .45, which he vaguely remembered cuddling the night before along with his bottle of Jack Daniels. He slipped the weapon under the concealing hang of his shirt at the back and into his jeans. Nothing more than habit – no malice intended towards anyone.
The cold touch of the steel against his skin felt good, except it made him think of all the times Hayley had nagged him to take the damn thing off around the apartment. Women didn’t understand. Folk weren’t safe even in their own locked home, and unless a weapon was immediately to hand there was no point owning one. Better to have and not need than need and not have.
A guilty stab in his heart made him realize he was wrong. Hayley was one woman who certainly did understand that the home was not the safest environment. He had proved that to her himself.
Larry drank a cup of strong coffee, then decided he’d go to the store and buy some flowers for the apartment – women seemed to appreciate crap like that. If Hayley wasn’t home by the time he got back, he would call the local emergency rooms. Failing that, Marie would know where her daughter was, and this time he wouldn’t accept the old broad’s Alzheimer’s act.
Hayley now knew how her father had died. Dodge had added extra details to this second telling as though they could hurt him less and less. She had then requested a more detailed version of John’s story from start to finish, including Virginia’s viewpoint from the moment of her initial involvement. In the coming days, John reckoned Hayley would become au fait with a great deal more. Having lifted the restricted access off his memory files on Vietnam, Dodge would no doubt recollect anecdotes about Harry he thought he’d long forgotten. John hoped he would be there to hear them all, but realized his overt interest in Hayley was already causing considerable pique in his girlfriend.
When Virginia excused herself to go to the bathroom, John followed and grabbed her waist outside the door.
‘Give me a kiss,’ he whispered.
She obliged with a platonic peck.
‘That’s it?’ he said.
She offered the smile of one who had accepted defeat. ‘She’s a sweet girl.’
‘I don’t fancy her.’
‘I can’t compete. I’ve had a few days with you; she’s been in your heart for years.’
‘Virginia, there’s no competition. Of course I have feelings for her, but they could be nothing more than pity for the physical state she’s in and everything she’s been through.’
‘I think it’s more than that.’
‘Maybe, but I do know my feelings for her aren’t romantic.’
‘Not yet. But feelings like that can creep up on you.’
‘Well, they didn’t creep up on me with you, they hit me like an express train and I’m still recovering. I’m the one who’s more likely to get hurt in this relationship. I’ve been more upfront than you. I’ve told you exactly how I feel. I’ve fallen madly in love with you. I’m so worried I’m
going to scare you off with talk like that but I can’t stop myself; I need you to know.’
She took his hands but still looked like she was ready to bow out gracefully.
‘John, you have a connection with her. A blind man could see that. And it’ll only get stronger.’
‘Virginia, this is ridiculous. If we’re not careful, we’re going to lose each other because we’re scared of the same thing: losing each other. How stupid would that be?’
Her façade crumbled and she gave in to her emotions. She hugged him, and he could feel her tears spring against his cheek.
‘I love you, too’ she said softly. ‘Head over heels. It’s crazy.’
‘Hallelujah,’ he said, and kissed her.
‘You would let me know, wouldn’t you?’
‘I won’t need to,’ John assured her. ‘What I feel for Hayley is ... I don’t know … what a brother might feel for a long-lost sister.’
Their embrace was interrupted by Dodge calling for John as he came out of the living room. Virginia disappeared into the bathroom to hide her tear-tracked face, and John turned to see Dodge wearing an intense grin, which for some reason gave him a trepidation he hadn’t known since active service with the Legion.
‘Lock and load, sergeant; we got a warning order for a mission this afternoon.’
The cross-hairs awaited the arrival of Larry’s head. The side door was open two inches, and Joey was sitting back inside the van where he couldn’t be seen, the supressed barrel of the Remington resting steady on a seat. Carrying out the hit at the apartment had not been ideal. There weren’t enough comings-and-goings on the street to conceal his getaway. False plates wouldn’t help if he found his fellow cops in hot pursuit before he could dump the vehicle and dispose of the weapon.
After half a mile, Larry had stopped at a supermarket, parking on the fringe of the lot, and Joey had quickly spotted his perch, heading to the roof parking of a store on the adjacent street. By the time he had pulled into a spot overlooking the supermarket, his target had disappeared inside, and he had taken the opportunity to set himself up. He would let Larry get back in the Beetle, then clip him through the open window as he sat behind the wheel. Someone would eventually glance over and notice the Beetle’s gaudily redecorated interior, but by that time Joey would be long gone.