Jimenez is likewise stoked. Got him his share of the list, his share of the collars, because for once the Feds are playing team ball. So he has his guys posted all over So-Cal. Got a freakin' battalion ready to hit in L.A., another squad down here in Orange County, some more troops in San Diego. Just waiting for the sun to go down.
Sandra Hansen, she's sitting in the room at the Ritz, guzzling Diet Cokes like they could settle her nerves. She won't get the satisfaction of going on the busts. She can't ever even admit that Cal Fire funded half this investigation. All she can do is sit by the phone and hope that it goes down right, that something doesn't come along to fuck it up.
Because it's a tricky deal.
The bust's tonight.
Fifty million dollars' payment in the morning.
Then her guy starts filling them in, in exchange for complete and total immunity for anything except a capital offense. The whole deal signed off on by Claims, Mahogany Row and an alphabet soup of law enforcement agencies.
So tonight's a big night.
She looks out the window at the. beautiful stretch of beach and one of those incredible red California sunsets and all she wishes is that it would be morning.
Nicky's gazing at the sunset, too.
Lev and Dani behind him on the lawn like lengthening shadows.
'It is as if we're in the cell again,' Nicky says. 'The three of us in a corner against the world. We are fighting for our lives. New lives. Years ago in that hell I promised you new lives. I promised you Paradise. Tomorrow — if we do what we have to do tonight — we will have those new lives.
'We are just a few steps from safety. Tonight will tell the story.'
Just a few steps from safety, but all the plans are made.
It will be a bloody night.
It already has been. Jimmy Dansky and Jack Wade dead in a fiery pas de deux.
And the sister.
There can be no mistakes this time, which is why he's ordered Lev to do it. Lev will make no mistakes.
All other problems will disappear.
And I am a shifting cloud in a twilight sky.
113
Letty's in no mood for sunsets. She feels like hammered shit.
Which is about right, she thinks, considering.
A deputy drives her home. Another drives her car for her.
'Want me to stay?' he asks.
'I'm fine.'
'The boss said-'
'I know what the boss said.' Letty laughs. 'I'm fine.'
She has an ice pack and a bottle of Vicodin and some hopes that Jack will show up tonight to pamper her a little.
Fetch me a drink, fluff my pillow, make sure I get a good night's sleep.
Because first thing in the morning, I'm taking my broken wing to Mother Russia's house and questioning Nicky about what two missing kids were doing at his crib the night before they disappeared.
Boss told me to lay off Pam's case and work the missing kids.
Follow it where it leads.
Well, guess what?
It leads to Nicky.
And where the hell is Jack?
You'd think he'd befalling all over himself to do the concerned male number.
She calls him at the office.
Gone.
Calls him at home, gets his tape, leaves a message.
She knows where he is.
He's out working the arson case.
Lifer claims dog on the scent.
Job or no job, Jack will never give up.
It's just one of the things she loves about him.
She loves him and she's worried about him and she says a little prayer that he's okay.
Then she takes two Vikes, gets into bed, and turns out the light.
114
Natalie tarns on the bedside lamp.
'Go to sleep,' she says to Michael.
'I can't.'
He's crying again.
'Why not?' Natalie asks.
'Ghosts.'
'They're not ghosts, they're shadows.'
But they are scary, Natalie admits. The branches of the big eucalyptus tree outside the window are blowing in the wind, making ghostlike arms and heads on the bedroom wall.
'I'm scared,' Michael says.
'Of what?'
'Fire,' Michael says. 'Like burned up Mommy.'
'This house won't catch on fire.'
'How do you know?'
I don't know, Natalie thinks. She's scared, too.
She has bad dreams.
Where there's fire everywhere.
And Mommy's asleep and won't wake up.
'There won't be a fire,' she says, 'because I am the princess and that's my command.'
'Who can I be?' Michael asks.
'The princess's little brother.'
Michael whines, 'Can't I be something else, too?'
'Like a wizard?'
'What's that?'
'Like a magician,' Natalie says. 'Only better.'
'Can I make things disappear?'
'Yes.'
'Like ghosts?'
'Yes,' Natalie says. 'Now go to sleep.'
'Leave the light on.'
She leaves the light on.
And lies awake and watches the shadows move.
