Hot

by John Lutz

  He nudged her awake, scaring her until she recognized him, angering her in her grogginess. Her lean body had jerked spasmodically. Now it relaxed somewhat, but she still looked startled and angry.

  “What the hell’s the deal, Fred?”

  He told her that’s what he wanted to know.

  24

  CARVER SWITCHED ON the lamp by the bed, and Beth frowned and sat up. She leaned her back against the headboard and raised both hands to cover her eyes and face. The perfumed, perspiration scent of her body rose to him; he liked its familiarity, its intimacy, what it triggered in his memory.

  He gently pulled her hands away from her face. The bruise beneath her eye was an ugly purple stain, but the cut on her forehead, though deep, was only about an inch long. It would leave a light scar.

  “You need stitches,” he said.

  “I don’t want them. If I mark up, I know a plastic surgeon who can fix it.” The wife of Roberto Gomez speaking; money could fix anything.

  His gaze took in the rest of her that was visible above the wrinkled sheet. No apparent bruises or other injuries on her body.

  “You hurt anyplace else?”

  “Not so’s you’d notice.”

  Her guarded independence, keeping him fenced out, was beginning to annoy him. “That mean no?”

  “Means no, Fred.”

  “What happened to you?” he asked.

  “You barged your ass in here, woke me up, and turned on the light.”

  “What about your face?”

  She sighed and seemed to relax, maybe with the realization she wasn’t being entirely reasonable about his concern. Settling down in the bed with her head propped on her pillow, she patted the mattress beside her. Carver supported himself with the cane, leaned over, then lay down next to her on his back. He was on top of the sheet, her lower body was beneath it, but he could feel the radiating warmth of her hip and thigh. His sun.

  “Late yesterday afternoon I happened to look over and saw smoke floating above the Rainer place,” she said. “I got the binoculars and went to the blind, thinking maybe the house was on fire. It wasn’t, though. The only fire was in a big stone barbecue pit. The Spanish guy, Hector, was standing in front of it with a long fork or something, every once in a while prodding or turning whatever was on the grill. Then Rainer waddled outside, along with a blond woman in a swimming suit and sandals.”

  “Young, well-built woman? Attractive?”

  “In an aerobics class kinda way.”

  “His wife Lilly.”

  “I figured. She and Rainer stood around talking to Hector, then after a while Hector took whatever he was cooking off the grill and put it on a big platter. Then they went into the house or around by the pool out of sight. After about an hour Hector came back into view carrying something in a bag and walked down to the dock. He took the bag onto the boat, then came back and burned some more meat on the barbecue pit. When that was done grilling, he put it in a big plastic container and carried it on board, too.”

  A bird began a desperate, high-pitched chattering outside. It was joined by another, maybe its mate in a domestic tiff, then they were both silent. “So maybe they were laying in some food because the boat was due to put to sea last night,” Carver said.

  “That’s what I figured. But it didn’t leave the dock. I stayed there till sunset, and I noticed exhaust fumes around the boat.”

  “Generators running.”

  “Uh-huh. Keeping air-conditioning and appliances and what have you going.”

  “Keeping the barbecued meat refrigerated for a certain fat man.”

  “Could be.”

  The two feisty birds were at it again outside, starting to get on Carver’s nerves now. “Still doesn’t explain your face,” he said.

  “Patience was never your long suit, Fred.” She pressed her thigh tighter against his. “After a little while I went back to the blind with the night glasses and took up the regular surveillance.”

  “Wait a minute,” Carver said, being impatient again. “You never mentioned Davy. Was he around yesterday?”

  “I didn’t see him and I wondered about that, with you in Miami. You know, after what happened last time.”

  She didn’t have to remind Carver of last time.

  “I didn’t notice him in Miami,” he said, “but it’s a lot larger than Fishback.”

  “About midnight, though,” Beth went on, ignoring Carver’s sarcasm, “his black van drove up to the house and turned toward the garage. No lights coming from the area of the garage, and the van had its lights off. I almost didn’t see it even with the night glasses.”

  “I don’t suppose you could tell if Davy was driving?”

  “Nope. Damned thing mighta been driven by remote control, for all I know. Looks like some kinda cartoon vehicle anyway.”

  “Not a funny cartoon, though.”

  “Except maybe for the Davy part, which is his problem and doesn’t make him less dangerous.”

  Carver knew he shouldn’t be surprised that she understood men like Davy. He nodded, but he doubted if she saw him. She was still staring at a point where the ceiling met the wall. He wondered if the Miss Behavin’ had been waiting for Davy’s arrival before embarking. “Those goddamn birds!” he said.

  “They’re only being what they are,” Beth told him, and just then the birds ceased their nattering.

  “So what happened after the van arrived?” Carter asked.

  “Nothing,” Beth said. “Then about one in the morning something happened where I was. Some guy dressed in black and wearing a stocking over his head jumped outa the bushes at me.”

  Carver propped himself up on one elbow and stared over at her. She still didn’t look in his direction.

  “He had some kinda weighted leather sap,” she said, “and he took me by surprise, so when he swung at me the first time, I didn’t quite get outa the way and he barely caught me on the cheek. Then he shoved me up against a tree, grabbed me and tried to get me on the ground, took another poke at me, but this time with his fist. Wearing a ring, I guess.” The cut on her forehead.

  “He say anything while this was going on?”

  “No, only grunted like a hog each time he swung or expended effort on me.”

  She was quiet for a while, her dark features fixed and impassive. Carver knew she was proficient in martial arts, but he wasn’t sure how good she was. He felt himself getting angry, mostly at Rainer and whomever he’d sent after Beth, but partly at himself for exposing her to being assaulted.

  “Then what?” he asked.

  “Then his ass was mine. The surprise wore off. He swung again and I chopped his arm. I’m pretty sure I busted his wrist. I can tell. I heard bone crack.”

  “You’ve heard that before?”

  “Yes.”

  “The man who went at you, how was he built?”

  “It was too dark and it all happened too fast to tell for sure. I remember the smooth material of his shirt, muscle underneath, and the feel of his stocking mask against the side of my neck when he tried wrestling me to the ground. It mighta been Davy. Coulda been Hector, for that matter. Not Rainer, though.”

  “No, it wouldn’t have been Rainer. That’s the kinda work he hires done.”

  Carver felt his rage spread hotly, almost as if he were being immersed in scalding water. Unbearable. He swiveled around on the bed, found his cane where it was lying on the floor, and stood up. The bedsprings squealed. The birds started in again outside, loud even over the hum of the air conditioner. What the hell kind of bird made a nerve-grating sound like that?

  Beth still wasn’t looking at him. “Where you going, Fred? Out to shoot those birds?”

  “No. To talk to Walter Rainer.”

  “I was afraid of that. Is it a smart thing to do?”

  He didn’t answer. Didn’t know the answer. It didn’t matter anyway.

  It was time to forge ahead without worrying about smart or dumb.

  25

 
CARVER NOSED THE OLDS up to the chain-link gates blocking access to the Rainer driveway. The gates were eight feet high, as was the fence that disappeared into the foliage on either side of the drive. Heavy vines bearing lush red and purple blossoms covered most of the fence that was visible beyond the gates. A sweetly sickening fragrance drifted to Carver through the open car windows, like the scent of corruption.

  Trying not to breathe too deeply, he climbed from the Olds and limped to a call box mounted on a red wooden post near the gates. He opened the box, picked up a gray receiver, and after about half a minute a man’s voice said, “Yes?”

  “Fred Carver to see Walter Rainer,” Carver said.

  “You got an appointment?” There might have been amusement in the tone.

  “No. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he was expecting me. Tell him I’m here.”

  There was a long stretch of silence. Carver stood in the hot sun, looking at the drive curving out of sight beyond a grouping of date palms, listening to the drone of bees working at the blossoms. The driveway was paved with chatahoochie, small, smooth black and brown stones set in concrete and glazed over. It was used often in wealthy areas of Florida.

  Finally a voice in the receiver said, “Mr. Rainer’ll see you. The gate’ll open automatically. Drive up to the house, then walk around back to the pool.”

  Even before Carver had gotten back to the car, there was a soft humming and the double gates swung smoothly open. After driving through, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw them easing shut. They reminded him of the jaws of a trap, viewed from the unfortunate side.

  There was a tall portico in front of the house. The entrance was also tall, a massive carved oak door behind fancy black ironwork. The desired effect apparently was to make visitors feel small and insignificant even before they rang the doorbell. Carver drove beyond the portico and parked near the end of the semicircular driveway’s loop.

  There seemed to be no one around, no one waiting to escort him to the great man. That was okay; he didn’t need hospitality or the hypocrisy that he was welcome. The breeze was blowing steadily in from the sea here, and beyond the corner of the large house he could see emerald-green water shimmering in the sun. A flagstone walk led around the corner. He set his cane on one of the slanted stones and started walking. He heard a splash, probably someone diving, and knew he was moving in the right direction.

  The pool was even larger than Olympic-size; it was to other pools what Walter Rainer was to other people. Rainer sat in an oversized padded lounge chair alongside a pale blue metal table with a dark blue fringed umbrella sprouting from it. He was wearing gigantic blue swimming trunks with a red flower design, white rubber thongs on his bloated feet. Though his mammoth flabby body was coated with sweat and suntan lotion, his hair was dry; he hadn’t been in the water. And he was pale as the slugs in the research center tanks; probably he got very little sun. In front of him on the table was a heavy crystal glass with a hobnail bottom. When Carver got closer he noticed grains of salt on the glass’s rim.

  In the stark shade of the umbrella, Rainer smiled at him. “Sit down, Mr. Carver.” He motioned with a flabby arm. “Can I have Hector bring you a margarita? He mixes the best in the Keys.”

  “No, thanks.” Carver ducked beneath umbrella fringe and lowered himself into a padded chair like Rainer’s, only normal size. “I didn’t see Hector around. Or Davy.”

  “One or the other is always nearby,” Rainer said confidently.

  “I’ll bet.”

  There was more splashing from the pool. The blond woman, Lilly Rainer, climbed out of the water by way of a shiny chrome ladder. She was deeply tanned and her muscles rippled beneath smooth flesh. Her suit was red but there was so little of it that color hardly mattered. She had practically nonexistent breasts. Broad, muscular shoulders. Trim hips and buttocks. Probably in her forties, but younger at a glance and still an athlete. Without looking at Carver or her husband, she walked with perfect balance toward the diving board, dripping a fresh trail of water on the pale concrete apron. Her wet footprints described a perfectly straight line.

  Rainer’s gaze touched on her lightly, as if he’d just noticed her and wasn’t much interested. “My wife, Lilly,” he said. “But then you know that, even though you two have never met.”

  “It’s my business to find out things,” Carver said. On the far side of bushes, trellised vines, and trees growing on the slope to the sea, he could make out part of the white hull of the Miss Behavin’. The sprinkler system was spraying on the gentle slope, creating half a dozen distinct miniature rainbows. There was a curved concrete walkway leading toward the dock.

  Still paying no attention to Carver or her husband, Lilly Rainer stood poised on the end of the diving board. Carver doubted if she’d had the rumored cosmetic surgery. Even with her hair wet and plastered to her head, she was attractive. It was in her bones. Her features knitted in concentration, she bounced on the board to gain spring, rose high in the air, and jackknifed into a smooth dive with her legs together and her toes pointed. There was very little splashing as she cut the water. She broke the surface and swam with unhurried, powerful strokes toward the side of the pool.

  “Lilly swims a lot,” Rainer said. “Some years ago she was a top-rated amateur diver. I used to enjoy watching her dive, over and over, each time correcting the slightest imperfection in her previous efforts. Possibly she married me because she knew I so admired, even demanded, perfection.”

  Carver said, “I suppose you know Henry Tiller died this morning.”

  Rainer took a sip of margarita then licked the glass rim with a fat pink tongue. Carver wanted badly to reach across the table and slap the glass from his hand, maybe take a few teeth with it. Pearls from swine. “Yes, I do know. You’re not the only one who finds out things, Mr. Carver. Who knows things.”

  “Do you know why I came here?”

  “Is it to take me up on my offer of fifty thousand dollars in exchange for your noninvolvement in my affairs?”

  “No.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  “A friend of mine was hurt last night,” Carver said.

  “Really? The black woman? Miss Jackson?”

  “You know about that, too, don’t you?”

  “No, I only surmise. You can’t have any other friends on Key Montaigne.” Rainer watched his wife climb the ladder out of the pool again, shake water from her tan body and stride toward the diving board. This time she picked up a towel and sat on the fixed end of the board, facing away from them and staring up at the sky while she dried herself. There was something about the delicate way she worked the towel, like a cat grooming itself. “Mr. Carver,” Rainer said, “why exactly are you here?”

  “To make sure you understand that if Beth Jackson gets hurt again, you get hurt worse.”

  “Crudely put,” Rainer said.

  “There’s probably something in Shakespeare that covers it, but what I said will have to do.”

  “Oh, it does. Chivalry is alive and thriving in your person.”

  “I’m also here to let you know I think you had something to do with Henry Tiller getting run over and dying. To let you know I’m staying on Key Montaigne and still working for Henry even though he’s dead.”

  “Why on earth would you work for a client who can no longer pay you?” Rainer asked. He sounded genuinely curious, as if dumbfounded that Carver would voluntarily forsake reason and join the world of the mad.

  “I was hired by him, and I feel obligated to finish the job.”

  “Even now that he’s dead?”

  “Especially now.”

  Rainer absently ran a hand down his flabby, glistening chest. His breasts were hairless and pendulous, almost like a woman’s. Beyond him, his wife continued staring out at the sea. “Morality. Obligation. The work ethic. My God, is it really that depressingly simple?”

  “It is.”

  “I won’t act as if I understand.”

  “Just as well. I’d
know you were pretending.”

  The fat man shifted his weight a millimeter, causing his chair to creak, and looked directly at Carver with his rapacious little eyes. A bead of sweat ran down the center of his nose to its tip, paused, then dropped onto his protruding stomach. He smiled. “I admire how well you control your anger, Mr. Carver.”

  “If I could control it completely, I wouldn’t be here.”

  “I also admire your loyalty, even though it’s foolish. In the way I admire bravery in the soldier who dies for his country in a losing cause. It’s a pointless and futile effort, even a mechanical one, yet it requires undeniable courage. The tragedy is that his death is wasted.”

  “There’s no way to know whose cause is lost till the war’s over,” Carver said.

  “Then let’s at least get this minor skirmish over with,” Rainer suggested. “You’re on Key Montaigne because Henry Tiller convinced you I was engaged in some sort of nefarious activity. Now here you sit making no specific accusations, only smearing my character. Perhaps you’ll manage to start some rumors about me, cause myself and my wife a measure of discontent here in what we see as our personal paradise. I don’t care for that prospect, which is why I offered you money to desist. Well, why don’t you bring specific charges? Ask Chief Wicke to procure a warrant and search the house and grounds?”

  “Because you would not be making the suggestion unless you’d removed any evidence of criminal behavior. And because . . .”

  “What, Mr. Carver?” Rainer laughed. “Ah, you suspect the good chief of police is in my employ? Or on the take, as the people who move in your world call it?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But you do see it as a possibility.”

  “Almost everything’s a possibility.”

  “Not that you’ll prove any criminal wrongdoing on my part, Mr. Carver. Not if you stay on Key Montaigne a hundred years.”

  Lilly Rainer strode to the table and poured herself a margarita from the pitcher sitting near the umbrella’s aluminum stalk. She still gave no indication she knew Carver was there, and she barely glanced at her husband. She seemed to accept the fact she was ornamental and his business was none of hers. She returned to sit on the diving board with her drink, the towel now slung like a cape over her broad shoulders.