road forked again and another sign said BLUE JAY. An arrow pointed toward the left fork. That's where the limo went. That's where we went.
The road was narrow and winding and little clapboard cabins and weekender houses began to pop up amidst the pines. Most had small boats out front or muddy motorcycles leaning against native-stone garage walls. More and more houses sprouted, and pretty soon there was a Pioneer Chicken and a couple of banks and a shopping center and two coffee shops and a Jensen's Market and a U.S. Post Office and crowds of people and we were in Blue Jay. Up so high, Lake Arrowhead was a good twenty degrees cooler than San Bernardino below, and every summer the hordes ascended, desperate to escape the sweltering weather down in the flatland.
The limo didn't stop. It rolled slowly through the three-block stretch that was urban Blue Jay, and then the road forked once more. The town ended and houses reappeared but now the houses were larger and more expensive, big two- and three-story structures with lots of decking and stairs and high slanted roofs to shed the snow. We climbed, then leveled off, and we could see the lake, big and wide and gleaming in the summer sun. There were dozens of boats and skiers on the water, the powerboats and jet skis buzzing like angry mutant wasps.
On the north shore, the limo turned off the main road and eased down a gravel and tarmac lane for a mile and a half past large older homes. Big money was on the north shore. These were old vacation mansions built back in the thirties and forties for Hollywood celebrities and movie moguls who hoped to get away for a little hunting and fishing. Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart and those guys. Wonder what Bogie would think if he knew a scumbag like Yuki Torobuni was living in his house?
Pike pulled off the road and parked. 'We follow down there,' he said, 'they'll spot us.'
We got out and trotted after them on foot.
A quarter of a mile ahead, the limo stopped at a private gate. The rear window on the driver's side went down and Eddie Tang said something to an Asian man who was leaning against a cranberry-colored Chevrolet Caprice. The guard opened the gate and the limo went in. Pike and I moved off the lane into the woods and made our way past another couple of houses until we got to Torobuni's place. There was a native-stone wall running from the road back into the woods. We followed it until we were hidden from the road, then I went up for a look and Pike continued on toward the lake.
The grounds were ten acres easy, with a looping gravel drive and a huge stone mansion with a mansard roof and a smaller carriage house to the side. Ponderosas and Douglas firs grew naturally about the grounds, and in back there were gardens and flower beds and stone pathways and swings for lazy summer afternoons. The property ran a good four hundred feet in a gentle slope down to the lake. At the lake there was a stone entertaining pier and boat house and four boat slips. The three men Eddie Tang had brought were smiling and shaking hands with Yuki Torobuni at the limo while a lot of guys who were probably just hired muscle watched. Torobuni made a big deal out of pumping each man's hand and bowing and there was a lot of back slapping. Home office, all right.
After they'd had their fill, Torobuni and the Big Shots went inside, and Eddie went over to a thin guy with nothing for a mustache and said something to him. The thin guy went into the main house and Eddie strolled around to the carriage house. After a while the thin guy came out of the big house with Mimi Warren and walked her over to the carriage house. He knocked once, the door opened, Mimi went in, and then the door closed. The thin guy took a walk down to the water.
I stayed at the top of the wall between the branches of a Douglas fir and I did not move until something touched my leg. Joe Pike was on the ground below me.
'Not now,' he said. 'It's too light, and they're too many. Later. Later, we can get her.'
Chapter 34
Riding back toward Blue Jay, Joe Pike said, 'We can wait for dusk, then come in from the water. If we come in behind the boat house, the guards won't be able to see us, then we can move up along the wall to the carriage house.'
I nodded.
'Or we could call the cops.'
I looked at him.
Pike's mouth twitched. 'Just kidding.'
At Blue Jay, we turned east along the southern edge of the lake and drove to Arrowhead Village. The village is a two-tiered shopping and hotel complex on the southeast rim of the lake. On the upper tier there's a Hilton hotel and a Stater Brothers market and a video rental place and a narrow road that brings you down to the lake. On the lakeside level there's a McDonald's and an ice cream shop and an arcade and a couple of million gift shops and clothing stores and real estate offices. There is also a place that will rent you a boat.
Joe parked in a spot by the ice cream shop, and took a canvas Marine Corps duffel bag from the Jeep's cargo space and slung it over his shoulder. Probably packed a big lunch. We walked down past the McDonald's to the lake, stopped by a wharf they have there, and looked out. This close, the lake was huge, all dark flat planes and black deep water. There was a little girl with very curly hair on the wharf, throwing white bread to the ducks. She was maybe eight and pretty and gave me a happy smile when she saw me. I smiled back.
Then I looked across the lake again and the smile faded. There was about an hour of light left. Plenty of time to call the cops. I said, 'If we call the cops, they might blow it. The guys across the lake are pros. They're there to protect Torobuni and those other guys, and they won't hesitate to pull the trigger. I want the girl and I want her safe and if it's me over there I won't be worrying about something else when I should be worrying about her.'
He looked at me through the mirrored lenses with no expression. 'You mean us over there.'
'Yeah.'
The little girl tossed her last piece of bread, then ran back up the wharf into the arms of a tall man with glasses. The tall man scooped her up and heaved her toward the sky. Both of them laughed.
Pike said, 'You're riding the edge on this one.'
I nodded.
'Be careful.'
I nodded again. 'No one has ever been there for her, Joe.'
The little girl and the tall man walked back toward the parking lot. Holding hands.
Pike and I went along the shore past boat slips and a tour boat dock and several small shops to a wooden wharf with a flotilla of little aluminum boats around it. There were kids on the wharf, and moms and dads wondering whether or not it would be safe to rent one of the boats so late in the day. At the end of the wharf there was a wooden shed with a rail-thin old man in it. He needed a shave. We went out on the wharf past the moms and dads and kids and up to the shed. I said, 'We'd like to rent a boat, please.'
'I got'm with six- or nine-pony 'Rudes. Which you want?'
'Nine.'
He turned a clipboard with a rental form toward me. 'Fill that out and gimme a deposit and you're all set.'
He came around with a red plastic gas can and got into one of the boats and filled its tank. 'Watch out for those rat bastard ski boats,' he said. 'Damn rich kids come out here and run wild all over the goddamn lake. Swamp you sure as I shit peanuts.' He was a charming old guy.
'Thanks for the tip,' I said.
He looked at Pike's duffel bag. 'You plannin' on doin' some fishin'?'
Pike nodded.
The old guy shook his head and hawked up something phlegmy and spit it in the water. 'Rich little bastards in their ski boats ruined that. You ain't gonna catch shit.'
'You'd be surprised at what I catch,' Pike said.
The old man squinted at Pike. 'Yeah. I guess I would.'
It took twenty minutes to cross the lake. There was mild chop and wakes from the ski boats but the little
