front.’
‘A few minutes ago he was paying you afterward at Pete’s Corner. So which is it?’
‘I’m not fucking giving you this and then getting screwed later. The Coe dude said we’d make a deal.’
Raveneau nudged Coe. ‘Go tell him something to get him talking.’
‘What would you do with him, right now?’
‘Either sell him a car or threaten him. If you sell him a car you’ll have to lie to him, but it won’t hit him right away and you can take him on that drive early tomorrow before it all blows up. If you take that route you’re on his side, so knock down the interrogators, especially her. She’s most effective. She’s gotten under his skin. Let him name what he wants and agree with him that’s fair as long as he comes across with everything you need. Then leave like a car salesman goes back to the dealership manager, which in this case is Bureau headquarters.
‘Leave the room to go call Bureau headquarters. Guys like Drury are used to getting screwed by people like auto dealership managers. He expects to get screwed here, too. But he needs to get something in return. He needs a framework he can see his new life in. So it should be prison but not too much and a promise of special privileges while he’s there.’
‘I’m not doing that.’
‘OK, then threaten him. You guys operate outside the boundaries of law anyway. Everyone in the country knows it, so hit him hard. Tell him there’s a bunk waiting for him in Guantanamo.’
In the interview room an interrogator, the woman asked him slowly, ‘Are you expecting everything that happened today to go away?’
‘Coe said he could make things happen.’ Drury looked from her to the glass. He spoke to the glass. ‘I know the Oakland cop got hurt and you’re not talking about him. What about him? Are you going to wait until you’re done milking me before you mention him?’
Drury lifted his hands and pretended to make quotation marks in the air as he asked, ‘If that’s the plan, I should have just shot fucking Raveneau and myself. I’m not sitting in a prison the rest of my life. If you’re so worried and you want to know where I took this stuff, you better keep your word. I want to talk to someone who can make decisions. It’s not going to happen otherwise.’
In the room the interrogator, the woman said, ‘It’s just us until you give us something. Then we’ll call Special Agent Coe. But no one offered you a deal. You were offered a trade and so far you’re not coming across.’
‘I’m not talking any more. I’m done.’
‘Then so are we.’
They left and Drury sat there for forty-five minutes before Coe went in. Coe sat down across from him and said, ‘I’ve got some bad news. The police officer, the woman you took hostage, those aren’t your biggest problems any more. We’re close to charging you with aiding terrorists and we may up the charges from there. If we do that, you may never feel sunlight on your face again. You’ll never hold a woman again. I can promise you that. You’ll never drive again. You’ll never go anywhere ever. You won’t have a life. You’ll have a number and after awhile your name won’t really matter to anyone any more, not even you.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘The deliveries, the people you’re working with. You can’t believe the shit we’re prepared to charge you with.’
Raveneau saw Drury’s face change.
‘You got him,’ Raveneau said, but there was no one to hear him.
THIRTY
The bar was empty, the lights dimmed for the night when Raveneau and Celeste sat down at a table. In the early evening the wind blew in hard gusts as a storm came in off the ocean. It was raining and outside the street was dark and wet and the sodium street lights threw orange light through sheets of rain on to the oiled wood of the restaurant floor. Raveneau hung his dripping coat on the back of a nearby chair. A bottle of a Rioja sat between them, along with salt cod crostini and a salad of farro, shrimp, and cucumber. She smiled at him and said, ‘This is something we can do now. Are you really OK?’
‘Yeah, I’m fine, and Drury is with the FBI.’
‘He killed an Oakland police officer. He could have killed you.’
‘Yeah, he could have.’
‘Weren’t you scared?’
‘Sure.’ Raveneau glanced at her. Of course he was scared. ‘I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I didn’t think he wanted to kill himself or me.’
‘But you seem so normal now.’
‘I’m really not.’
‘I hope not.’
He didn’t answer that. He poured her wine. He poured himself more wine and lifted his glass, touched hers, took a sip, and then drank more. It was hard not to just talk with her, tell her about the bomb casings and all the rest.
‘We had the radio on as we were cleaning up here and they said he was held in connection with the murders at that cabinet shop. How did the FBI get involved?’
‘That’s about a delivery he was part of. He helped the wrong people and doesn’t know where it’s going to lead. He screwed up badly. He’s like a big truck, an eighteen wheeler that’s come over the crest of mountains, started down, and the brakes are fading. He thought he was smart and clever and had control of his life and now it’s so out of control he doesn’t even realize yet his next fifteen years are in prison, and that’s if he gives up what he knows.’
‘Which you can’t tell me about.’
‘That’s right, Celeste, I can’t tell you what I’d like to.’
‘Even though you might have gotten killed today.’
Raveneau picked up one of the little pieces of toast with salt cod on it. He was surprised he had any appetite but he was hungry. He poured more wine and waited.
‘We were busy tonight,’ she said. ‘People are ordering the mixed drinks and that’s good. I can tell already we’re going to be a place where people come for drinks and crostini. Maybe a few salads will catch on like this one.’
‘It’ll catch.’
He scooped some of the farro salad and saw she was staring at him.
‘You were a hostage at gunpoint and now you’re sitting here eating.’
‘I’m sitting with you.’ He took another bite and another swallow of wine and said, ‘We’re trying to get from Drury to people who hired him. We may have pushed him too hard.’
‘I wish you had called me before you went into that house. Did you think of calling me?’
‘Sure.’
‘Why didn’t you?’
OK, so now they were to it. But even knowing it was coming he didn’t have an answer she was going to like.
‘There wasn’t much time and I needed to get in a frame of mind where I was focused on getting the hostage out and then myself. I think you might have worried and wanted to know why I was taking the risk.’
‘I already know why and calling me doesn’t mean you have to explain. It means you want to hear my voice before you take a risk like that. It means something could happen. It means what I don’t want to ever do again is hear on the radio you’re risking your life in a hostage negotiation and not talk to you. I’d rather you called me and said you’ve got to do it. Then I would know.’
‘Next time I’ll call you.’
He tried to say that in a light way, but it fell flat.
‘You didn’t call me for hours after.’
Raveneau nodded. He understood yet it was hard to believe they were having this conversation. Still, it
