The boy’s body violently snapped to attention like a soldier obeying a sergeant’s order.
“Ezra, there won’t be any questions now.”
The boy’s throat swelled with a squeaky grunt. Geiger took out his cell phone and pressed a key. Harry answered before the first ring finished.
“That was fast,” Harry said.
“Come on up-and bring the money.”
The silence on the line had a question mark at the end of it. “The money? Okay.”
Geiger walked back into the viewing room. Hall hadn’t moved; he lay on his right side in a near-fetal position. On the wall was the wet, arcing swath his wound had painted as his head had slid down from the point of impact to the floor.
Geiger heard faint music rousing itself deep within him. He saw flashes of violet and chartreuse sound begin to wave in time behind his eyes, and then the creak of an opening door and a sliver of dusty light invaded the pitch-black core of him. He felt a dull ache in his ankles. Rising up like a ballet dancer on the balls of his feet, he stretched his Achilles tendons and calf muscles. The pain and the music stopped, and then the sliver of light disappeared.
The elevator gate rattled.
“Geiger?” Harry said.
The word came to Geiger as if called to him across a canyon. He turned to find Harry standing in the doorway, bafflement breaking across his face.
“Jesus Christ. What the hell happened?”
Geiger glanced back at Hall. “We’re leaving,” he said, as if he were informing the body instead of Harry.
Harry put the attache case down at his feet. “Oh fuck. What’d you do to him? Is-is he dead?”
“No. We have to go now.”
Geiger moved for the door, and Harry put his hands up like a traffic cop. Geiger stopped, staring at Harry’s raised palms.
“Wait a second,” Harry said. “Just wait, okay? Jesus Christ.” He put his palms to his cheeks. “What the hell is going on with you?”
“We have to go.”
“Can we talk about this for a minute?”
“Right now, Harry, it’s more important that we leave.”
“I disagree, man. This is crazy. This is truly nuts, okay?”
“Harry,” Geiger said, “it’s probable if not certain that one of Hall’s men followed him here and is waiting nearby. Wouldn’t you say?”
“I have no fucking idea.”
“And that’s why we need to leave-now. The longer we wait, the more complicated things will get.”
“ Complicated? You just coldcocked a client!”
Harry looked over at the bar, at the multicolored skyline of bottles. He hadn’t had a drink since the day he took Geiger up on his offer. It had been Geiger’s one requirement-that he stop drinking-and consciously or not, his sobriety had become another reason to see Geiger as his lifesaver. But even after eleven years he could still summon the taste of cheap bourbon at the back of his mouth. He was beginning to understand what the body on the floor meant, how it would likely redefine his life from this moment on, and he wanted a drink, now, to flatten the thumping pulse in his ears.
“We’re going now, Harry. Out the back.”
“Going where?”
Geiger sighed. Harry was stunned; he realized that he had never seen Geiger sigh before. He couldn’t have been more surprised if Geiger had screamed.
“And we leave the money,” Geiger said.
The statement sent a dull pang through Harry’s chest, but somehow he had seen it coming. He nodded sadly. “If we leave the money, you think this can all be smoothed out?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t think the money’s important to Hall-and because I’m taking the boy with me.”
“ With you?”
Harry looked back through the doorway. He’d forgotten about the boy. The sight of him, silent and inert, kicked an angry squall to life in Harry’s stomach.
Harry turned back to Geiger. “This is absolutely fucking crazy. You tell Hall you don’t do kids, then you change your mind and say yes. And then you punch him out. Why, man?”
“We need a car, Harry. Go out through the alley-”
“What the fuck is this about, Geiger?”
“Take a cab to the Thrifty rental. They stay open late-”
“Geiger-”
“Get a car, bring it to the alley, back it in, and knock on the door. We’ll-”
A wet cough popped out of Hall, and Geiger and Harry turned to see one of Hall’s legs move, shifting from a ninety-degree angle to about forty-five. Geiger crouched beside him.
“Geiger,” Harry said, “have you even begun to think this through?”
Geiger undid Hall’s tie and began lashing his ankles with it.
“For starters,” Harry said, “you broke your own first commandment: Never let the outside change the inside. I’m not saying I think you were wrong-he’s just a kid-but I don’t know where the hell that leaves us.”
Geiger finished tying up Hall’s ankles and pulled the knot tight.
“Second, maybe there’s still a chance we could finesse this thing- maybe — but if you snatch that kid, then you’ve just retired yourself. Do you get that? Word gets out and we’re done, man. Finished. Not even Carmine would touch us. Jesus-did you think about any of that?”
Geiger rose and faced Harry. “No. I didn’t think about any of that.”
“Well maybe you’d better-”
“Harry, listen to me.”
“I cannot fucking believe you just-”
Geiger grabbed his partner and slammed him up against the doorjamb. “You’re not listening to me, Harry. Stop talking, take a deep breath, and listen to me.”
Harry felt completely incapable of taking a deep breath, but he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Okay.”
Geiger’s pupils flared. They were like two shotgun barrels in a gray mist aimed at Harry.
“This,” Geiger said, “is not about a painting.”
He let go of Harry, walked to the bar, and poured another glass of water and began to drink. Harry’s shoulder blades ached from the impact with the wall. It was the first and only time Geiger had ever touched him. Clearly, this was going to be a night full of firsts-and probably lasts. He watched Geiger’s Adam’s apple bob up and down until he lowered his empty glass.
“Mr. Hall,” Geiger said, “is not a private detective working for a rich man with an art collection.”
“How do you know?”
“He said he came to me because he knew I was more ‘understated’ than Dalton, but if I turned the job down he’d take Ezra to Dalton anyway, knowing he could end up a bloody mess, a norell. Would you do that if you were looking for a stolen painting?”
“Then who is he?”
“I don’t know.” He turned back to Harry. “But whoever he is, I don’t think he’s going to stop-and his job description may include murder as an acceptable option.”
“Can I ask you one more thing?”
Geiger waited, his fingers coming alive at his sides.
“What happened, Geiger?”
“What happened?”
“To you. Something’s happened.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Geiger said.
