'She still had a disbelieving look on her face. 'Archie, do you even know what day it is?'
'Sunday.'
'Do you remember how to tell time?'
'Look at my watch.'
'And whether you're hungry or not?'
Archie felt his anger stir. 'I'm not hungry.'
'Or what to do if that bandage of yours starts to show blood?'
'Call the doctor.'
'What's your doctor's name, and where can you get him?'
'Stebbins, at, ah… the medical center.'
'UC Irvine Medical Center.'
'Correct.'
'How do you get that number?'
'From the prescription bottles. Or nine-one-one if the blood is gushing out.'
She sighed, but her eyes still held his tight. Archie clearly felt her power and the strength of her will. Slowly, her pupils relaxed and he felt her hands on his shoulders.
'You are going to talk to Paul and me, here, at eight tomorrow morning. We'll walk through it, together. Be rested and fresh. You're going to tell us everything you remember about that night. About your life up to that night. About Gwen and the two million and Felix Mendez and a girl named Julia. You're going to tell me everything you know. And you're not going to tell anyone else squat.
Correct?'
'Yes, okay.'
'Call me if you need something. Don't call Priscilla. Don't call your friends. Call me.'
'Okay. I will.'
'If anyone else calls you, don't talk to them. Not to reporters, salespeople, Jehovah's Witnesses, anybody.
Understand?'
It rankled him to be talked to like a killer, then a child, so he cracked a joke. 'How about Mom and Dad?'
She sighed, blinking slowly. 'Yes. Of course.'
He watched her take a card from her purse and write something on the back. 'Office and pager on the front, cell on the back. Archie, I WANT you to call me if you remember something new about what happen to you and Gwen before we meet tomorrow morning. Even if it's small. Even if it doesn't seem important. Call me.'
'Okay.'
Zamorra had already turned away and was heading back up the walk.
He sat out by the pool and watched the sun go down. He brought the telephone with him and talked to Priscilla when she called. His father and mother called too, frantic with concern, but Archie told them he was fine for now, well protected, please come over for lunch tomorrow.
A few minutes later he got Trent Gentry's number from his personal phone book and punched it in.
'Shit, man,' said Trent, 'I've been thinking about you every second. I'm so goddamned sorry about what happened. I just… I ju
… Can I call you back?'
Archie said okay, gave him the number.
A few minutes later Trent was on the line again. Archie heard traffic in the background.
'So, man,' said Trent, 'what can I do, Archie? I really feel bad about all this.'
'Does it have to do with OrganiVen?'
'How could it?'
'I was just wondering. OrganiVen keeps coming into my mind. As something that was good for us, and bad for us at the same time.'
'What do you mean?'
'I don't know what I mean. I'm hazy on things.'
'Stay hazy, man. Just stay hazy, be careful and take care of yourself.'
Archie thought about this. 'Okay,' he said.
'I'm going to Hawaii tomorrow. Be back in a couple of weeks. I'll call you then.'
'What about one of the OrganiVen guys, on the business side? I think I should talk to one of them. It's just a feeling.'
'Well, fuck, Arch, they're back in Switzerland by now for all I know. I mean, I don't know those people. Or they're out on some yacht off of Greece. They weren't OrganiVen guys anyway-they were just investors.'
'The car.'
'What car?'
'The car they came to that meeting in. It looked normal but it wasn't. God, I wish I could remember.'
'Man, you're talking nonsense to me now.'
'Sorry.'
'Aren't you supposed to be in the hospital?'
Archie had vague memories of Gwen meeting two men one night in a bar in Newport Beach. Long ago. A year? Maybe more? She had asked Archie to be there without the men knowing it. Because she was uneasy, uncertain how they would react. React to what? He searched his memory for an answer but it was like trying to get water from an empty bucket. Still, he remembered sitting across the room dressed like a beach bum and looking at the three of them occasionally from behind a pair of sunglasses. One man was blond and clean-shaven. The other was dark-haired, with a beard and mustache, one of the biggest people Archie had ever seen in his life. His head was enormous. Archie could remember being afraid for Gwen, just her being that close to him.
Gentry hung up.
Archie called Merci Rayborn's cell number and told her that he had just remembered Gwen being upset by a man with a monstrous head.
'Explain,' she snapped.
He did-maybe something to do with OrganiVen, a meeting in a Newport bar, Gwen asking him to be there without them knowing.
'Monstrous?' she asked.
'Very. Dark hair, and a beard.'
'Big enough to recline a Cadillac seat just to get in or out?'
'I don't know. Along those lines, I would say.'
'What else?'
'The car they came in. Something about it was different. But I can't remember what.'
'Make and model?'
'I can't remember.'
'American or foreign?'
'Large, that's all I see.'
'The way it looked? Sounded? A custom paint job or body work. A sign, a bumper sticker?'
'I'm sorry. Just that it was different than other cars.' A silence.
'Archie, I'm going to come by and take you back to the hospital. Right now.'
'I won't go.'
'I'll call paramedics for you, if you'd be more comfortable that way.'
'I won't go.'
A long silence over a clear connection.
'Archie, are you all right?'
'I'm fine. The deputies are still out front.'
'They'll be there all night.'
'I'm not afraid.'
'I wish you were.'
Archie sat and stared at the lights twinkling in the hills before him. He had no appetite. When the night
