Catherine at the instant of impact, surprise and pain. Lew had not been there when it happened, but it was the most vivid of his images.
He sat up, got a towel from the closet, dried himself, deposited the towel in his small hamper and put on a short-sleeved gray garage sale pullover with a collar and the words TOP SAIL embossed on the pocket.
He took the blanket from the window, letting in the sun. He looked at his watch. It was a few minutes after seven in the morning. Lew went into his office, picked up the phone and punched in the number of the Texas Bar amp; Grille.
Half an hour later, Ames came up the cracked concrete steps. He didn’t use the rust-tinged railing for balance. He was straight-backed and moving slowly. When he got to the top step, he looked at the window and his eyes met Lew’s. Both men knew that the other had made no progress in finding Lilla and the Manteen brothers.
Ames opened the door and stepped into the office closing the door behind him. Lew turned away from the window.
“Borg wants you to make the payoff and get the girl back,” Lew said.
“Suits me,” said Ames.
“There won’t be any money in the payoff bag.”
“Didn’t think there would be.”
“I don’t want them killed,” Lew said, moving to his desk and sitting. “I think Borg does.”
“How about some serious wounding?” asked Ames.
“If you have to,” said Lew.
The phone rang a few minutes later.
Ames picked it up, said “McKinney,” listened and hung up. “Ten this morning,” said Ames. “I drop the bag in the trash can near the playground in Wilkerson Park. Then I’m supposed to walk over to the fence around the softball fields and watch for them to let the girl go. I’m guessing it’ll be a long walk for her and a quick run to the trash for the money. When they see the bag’s empty, they’ll have the girl in easy gunshot distance.”
Lew rubbed his right hand across his balding head.
“Anyplace to hide in the park?” Lew asked.
“They picked a good spot.”
“Okay,” said Lew. “We do it, but why are they doing the exchange in the daylight instead of tonight? Why stay here longer than they have to? They know Borg. They know he must be trying to find them.”
“Don’t know,” said Ames.
Lilla still had no idea that she had been kidnapped and certainly no idea that her half brothers were seriously considering killing her, that is to the extent that they could be serious about anything.
Lilla had no illusions about her own intelligence. She was no genius, except maybe compared to Matt and Chet, but she was smart enough.
She wanted to go out.
The brothers were staring at the television screen on which a big-bellied man in a red flannel shirt was shooting at clay pigeons being released a few hundred feet away.
“Pow,” said Chet as a piece of clay in the television sky exploded.
“Sitting in a hotel room,” she had said, “is not my idea of fun.”
“This is good stuff,” said Matt, eyes still on the fat man with the shotgun.
Lilla was thin, short for her age, long, straight brown hair down her back, eyes blue and wide. She looked younger than her thirteen years.
“We can watch TV in Kane,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“We’ve got business in a little while,” said Chet.
“Business,” she said. “What kind of business?”
“Good business,” said Chet. “Right?”
“Right,” Matt agreed.
“We got you a pizza last night,” said Chet. “Later today we take you to Disney.”
“Disney World? You’ve got to be kidding,” she said.
“No shit, true,” said Matt.
“On the way we get another pizza,” she insisted. “And after Disney we go to another movie. Pizza, Disney and a movie in that order or just take me back home. I don’t have a good time there but I don’t have a bad one either, and when my mom tells me something’s gonna happen, it happens.”
“We are going to Disney World,” said Chet. “Like the guys on Super Bowl say. We are going to Disney World.”
“Pizza with olives, black olives, and those little anchovy fish,” she said.
Both Matt and Chet hated both black olives and anchovies, but this was most likely the girl’s last day on earth and since she was not going to live long enough to have it, they could promise her not only the damned pizza, Disney World and the movie, but a guaranteed spot on American Idol.
16
Someone was knocking at the door. Knock. Loud. And a voice.
“You in there Phone-es-ca?”
Lew and Ames both recognized the voice.
Lew opened the door and there, hands now in the pockets of his oversized blue sweatshirt, stood Darrell Caton.
“You look like shit,” said Darrell, stepping in.
“Thanks,” said Lew. “Is this better?”
He picked his Cubs cap up from the desk and put it on his head. Darrell made a face indicating that Lew was beyond grooming. He looked over at Ames and smiled.
“You packin’ today, old man?”
“Respect,” said Ames.
“I ain’t disrespectin’ you,” said Darrell. “You are the man.”
“And stop talking like that,” Ames ordered.
“Hard not to,” said Darrell. “I’m right on time. It’s Saturday, remember, Fonesca? What we got goin’ today?”
Darrell was thirteen, thin, black, curious and often angry. He had been given a choice. Shape up or go into the system, juvenile detention, maybe a series of foster homes. His mother was twenty-nine and had been ready to give up on him. Sally Porovsky had conned Lew into being Darrell’s Big Brother. It was difficult to tell if the idea had appealed less to Darrell than to Lew. Their lack of enthusiasm for the experiment had been the one bond they had between them.
Over their first three Saturdays together things had changed, primarily because Lew had been involved with cases and had to take Darrell along. Now it was clear that Darrell Caton looked forward to Saturdays with Lew.
“So,” said Darrell, bouncing to the desk and sitting behind it, “what’ve we got going? Missing mom? Murder?”
Darrell was looking over the things on Lew’s desk.
“Something like that,” said Lew.
“Shit,” said Darrell with a smile. “Then let’s get to it, man.”
Darrell picked up the photograph of Chet, Matt and Lilla.
“Saw these two last night,” Darrell said. “Twins, right? Saw the girl too. Skinny kid.”
He put the photograph back on the desk and looked up.
“What?” asked Darrell.
“You saw them?”
