an outline of the Birkshire Millennium Skyline site for Jenn with my finger. I had her mark the entrance and the trailer that would house any security at night. I showed her the side of the building where the hoist went up, what the unfinished floor at the top was like. I provided notes about the lighting, the wind, the footing.
Ryan came back about two hours later. The shins of his pants were dusty. He went straight into the bathroom and spent five minutes washing up.
When he got out he said, 'Anyone going to ask me where I dumped her? No? Good. Saves me the trouble of telling you it's none of your business.'
He opened his metal case and showed us the guns he had brought, including his personal favourite, a Glock 20, and the Beretta we'd confiscated from the thug in our office.
'If we have to shoot anyone, I suggest we use the Beretta. If the ownership can be traced to anyone, it'll be to the scumbag who lost it. Anyone lets an unarmed guy take away his gun deserves whatever he gets.'
We went over the plan a few times, then ordered in food. No one drank any alcohol. I abstained from any further medication.
After that, it was just a matter of waiting for darkness to fall.
CHAPTER 45
Avi Stern arrived in a tan trench coat and a grey loden hat. 'Who's he supposed to be?' Ryan muttered. 'Sherlock fucking Clouseau?'
I made the introductions. Avi's hand was clammy with sweat when I shook it. His brow and upper lip looked shiny too.
'You okay?' I asked him.
'I'm trying not to think about it,' he said. 'I mean, I never went into the army like you did. My idea of excitement is going somewhere new for lunch.'
'You'll be fine,' I said. 'Got your recorder?'
He pulled a small chrome item from his coat pocket.
'Fresh batteries?'
'Oh,' he said.
'Never mind. We'll stop on the way. How much time on the cassette?'
'What cassette? This one's digital. Sixty-six hours of memory.'
'If we can keep Birk talking that long,' I said, 'we'll definitely have what we need.'
'Why am I even here? Why don't one of you just take the recorder?'
'You're an officer of the court. You're going to observe and record everything that is said and you can swear that it's authentic.'
'Nothing he says will be admissible if it's made under duress.'
'Duress? Who said anything about duress?'
'You've got guns,' Avi said. 'You've got him,' indicating Ryan.
'How do you know I'm the duress inducer?' Ryan said. 'You haven't seen Jenn here in action.'
'All I'm saying is, I can record Birk like you asked, and as an officer of the court, I can swear it's him on the tape. But he could confess till the memory card's full. It won't matter if there's a gun on him.'
'Let's see what we get out of him,' I said. 'Then we'll worry about getting it into court.' We took Ryan's car. Avi didn't want his anywhere near the place and I didn't blame him. On the way to the Millennium Skyline, we stopped at a convenience store and got fresh batteries for Avi's recorder. We also got him a bottle of water. 'I don't think my throat has been this dry since we climbed Masada,' he said.
We parked on Randolph, a short walk or fast run from the site. We divvied up the guns: a Glock for Ryan, the Beretta for me, a Baby Eagle with a polymer frame for Jenn.
'It's lightweight,' Ryan said when he gave it to her. 'Not that I mean anything sexist by that.'
'You better not,' she said. 'You're already in my bad books for the thigh grab.'
'Has more to do with your shooting experience, or lack of it. It's twenty-seven ounces but shoots like a much bigger gun.'
'No matter what you talk about, Ryan, it still sounds like dick talk to me.'
I swear I thought I saw him blush. 'How come you can talk to me like that,' he asked, 'but anything I say to you I get shit for?'
'It's a woman's world, Ryan,' she said. 'We're just letting you live in it.'
'One fucking generation,' he complained. 'That's all it took. Like the Cold War-boom, suddenly it's over and everyone's asking what the fuck happened. Wasn't thirty, forty years ago, a man knew his place and a woman knew hers. The old-timers didn't hear about it every time they put their hand on a woman's leg, unless it was someone else's woman.'
'Kids,' I said. 'We have a criminal trespass to plan here.'
'I'm a dead man,' Avi said miserably.
We got out of the car and formed a tight huddle alongside the hoarding, moving along to the entrance where the trailer was. 'Whatever we do from here,' Ryan said, 'we do it fast and quiet. Decisive. You're not sure what to do, look to me. Don't pull your gun unless you have to. It'll cut down the chances of shooting one of us. There's already a round in the chamber, so you won't have to rack the slide. Just keep the safeties on till I say otherwise. We good?'
I looked at Jenn. She looked back. We nodded at Ryan.
'Just remember what we're here for. We want to nail this fucker and anyone who's with him and we want to sleep in our own beds tonight.'
'Please God,' Avi said.
'Jenn,' Ryan said. 'You're up.'
She leaned over, grabbed his sleeve and kissed him on the cheek, then walked toward the site entrance.
'What the hell she do that for?' he said. 'She trying to throw me off my game?'
'She likes you,' I said.
'Yeah? Suppose I'd done that to her?'
'You'd be counting your molars.'
'Man, what a fucked-up world this is. Am I right?'
'No argument here,' Avi said. — Jenn knows she's gay. I know she's gay. Even Ryan had grudgingly accepted this 'tragic fucking waste,' as he put it.
The poor schlub in the trailer did not know this. It proved to be his undoing. Jenn ran up to the gate and waved frantically at him. Her breasts-or the Magnificent Ambersons, as she sometimes calls them-were pressed up against the fencing in a way that made them all the more fetching. The guard leaned out of a window and looked at her-them-his brain shutting down as his blood flow reversed itself to nourish his other head.
Jenn was doing her best horror-movie heroine shtick-looking frantically behind her, rattling the fence and calling for help.
The guard came out of the trailer. He was a portly sixty-year-old with a day's growth of beard and a belly that hid most of his belt. The perfect guy to have around to make sure no one stole a brick or some tools. But in his mind's eye, I'd have bet, he was a strapping young swain who was going to rescue this maiden from whatever trouble she was in, then nuzzle the Ambersons as the curtain fell. He came to the gate and said, 'Trouble, Miss?'
'I think someone's following me,' Jenn said, her eyes wide, her lips wet and parted. I almost jumped in to help her myself.
'He's old,' she said-not wanting to scare off the guard, who was hardly a paragon of studliness-'but he's still giving me the creeps.'
He breathed in deeply, trying to move his bulk from his gut to his chest, trying to look like a hero and coming off more like a pigeon. 'Want me to call the cops?'
She looked him straight in the eye. 'Do you think we need to? Maybe if he just saw you… or maybe if I could wait inside with you until he goes away.'
