Down in the Zero

'So she…didn't believe me, I think. She gave me a look, like I was lying. It was…I dunno…kind of scary.'

'Did she go upstairs, Randy?'

The kid hung his head. 'Yeah.'

'You told her it was okay?'

'No. I told her she couldn't. She said I wasn't going to stop her…and I'd better not tell you she was there either.'

'All right, take it easy. How long was she up there?'

'Just a few minutes. Then she went over to the house.'

'You go over there with her?'

'No,' he said again, his face still down.

'Stay here,' I told him, heading for the stairs.

If she'd tossed the place, she was good. I could see the search–signs, but they were faint. Subtle.

It only took me a minute to find the listening device inside the handpiece to the telephone.

Downstairs again, I ignored the kid's look, walked past him over to the big house. The back door was open. I let myself in, moving quiet. Cherry's bedroom looked the same. I worked the buttons on the intercom and the sliding door opened in the marble wall to the bath. When I looked inside, the compartment was empty.

I stepped out of the bedroom, heard a noise downstairs. I moved back down the corridor, into one of the bathrooms, flushed the toilet, counted to ten, and came down the stairs.

The kid was sitting at the kitchen table pouring himself a glass of milk, a box of chocolate donuts standing open in front of him.

'Hey, Burke. You want a donut?'

'Didn't I tell you to stay by the car?'

'I thought…you meant until you were done in the apartment. I didn't…'

'Don't think so fucking much,' I told him. Then I walked out the back door.

Back in the apartment, I took out my notebook, started to go over the list of parents of the kids who'd died. Blankenship scanned legit to me— maybe I'd get lucky with one of the others.

I picked up my tapped phone, dialed Fancy's number. She answered on the second ring.

'Hello.'

'Ten o'clock tonight,' I told her, my voice flat and hard. 'Get your fat ass over here. And don't be late, understand?'

'Yes,' she breathed soft into the mouthpiece.

I hung up on her.

Just past four, I heard a tentative knock on the door. I looked through the glass. Randy. I walked over from the couch, let him in.

'What?'

'Burke, I'm sorry. About Charm. And about…not staying where you told me. I was gonna…be different. The car…I can't explain it.'

'Sit down,' I told him gently, stepping back from the door.

He crossed over to the couch, leaving me the easy chair. He sat there for a minute, collecting himself.

'My mother told me about you,' he said.

'Told you what?'

'She said she knew you a long time ago. When she did you that…favor, remember?'

'Yeah.'

'My mother doesn't talk to me much. She never did, really. She said she wanted me…real special. That's why she went through all that, with the artificial insemination and all. She's not around here very much. She always says, someday she'll tell me things. She never says what things. Just…things. Things I need to know. I guess…'

His voice trailed off. I lit a smoke, not saying anything, letting my body language tell him it was okay, I was listening, patient, all the time in the world. He took a little gulping breath, got going again.

'Anyway, my mother told me you were a…tough guy. I mean, real tough, not like a weightlifter or anything. Dangerous, that's what she said. Burke is a dangerous man.'

You tell a lot of people stories about me, don't you, bitch?

I kept my face quiet, mildly interested, waiting for him to continue.

'She knew you when you were, like, my age, right?' the kid went on. 'She said that's the way you were then, too. She said you were a man of honor— that you'd honor a debt. She really told me about you a long time ago. When she went away. I was just a little kid, like ten or something. She said, if anyone tried to do something to me, I should call you. Just call you and tell you, and you'd fix it. For the debt.'

'Do something like what, Randy?'

'Like…I don't know. She didn't say. She would…leave me with people. Caretakers, she called them. She