it, then swung onto the freeway entrance. He accelerated hard all the way to the split where the 210 and the 134 diverged. He chose the 210 west through La Canada toward San Fernando because its curve put him out of sight the soonest.
The seconds passed, and Jeff traded each one for another stretch of pavement, another small increment of speed. He kept glancing in his mirrors, searching for blinking emergency lights, but he saw none. He kept going as fast as he dared. Every time he passed a slower vehicle, he thought of it as a barrier he had placed between them and the police.
She was still kneeling on the floor with her elbows on the passenger seat. “If I get any more excited I’m going to faint or something.”
“We haven’t made it yet.”
“Can I get up now?”
“Just give it another minute or two. How did you get from the car to the restaurant without getting chased down?”
“I wanted to get into the alley with as much time to spare as I could get. I knew right where I wanted to go, because I had passed it just a few minutes earlier. So as I was coming to it, I sped up, and so the cops behind me did too. At the last second I hung a right turn because I figured if I tried a left I’d probably roll over in that big-ass SUV. The first two cop cars went past because they were afraid if they stopped quick, the ones behind would run into them. Then I guess they backed up to get to the alley, but I didn’t have a chance to see how that worked out, because I was down the alley looking at the backs of buildings. I saw the restaurant, with its door open to the kitchen, so I pulled in front of it, reversed, swung the SUV in a half-circle until the rear end hit the building across the alley, and left it crossways. That left the SUV blocking the alley, with my door facing away from the cops. I took the keys, jumped out, ran into the kitchen, through the dining room, and out, and there you were.”
“I’m getting off the freeway.” He coasted down the off-ramp onto a surface street and kept going. “You can get up now.”
Carrie turned and sat in the passenger seat and buckled her seat belt. “Wow. That was the absolute best. Losing the cops in a car chase. I don’t think there’s much in the line of bad behavior that tops this.”
He looked at her uneasily. “You know it was a fluke, right? We were lucky. If we tried it a hundred times, ninety-nine of them they’d either catch us or kill us.”
She smiled. “I’m not going to do it even one more time. They don’t get a do-over on the car chase. But I sure as hell did it this time. I beat them.”
“You kicked their big blue asses for them.”
“Yeah” She laughed. “I said I wanted an adventure, but I was just thinking of a little adventure, like dropping off that SUV and then having sex in a place where there was some small chance of getting caught.”
“Oh?” he said.
“That’s why I changed into this dress. See?” She lifted the skirt. “There’s nothing under it but me.”
“Oh my God.”
“You know, like in a restaurant we both go to the restrooms at the same time, only it’s the same one? Or we go into the changing room in a department store?”
“I get the picture. I just don’t know what to say.”
“Wow. A big, beautiful, dumb boyfriend who knows how to crack a safe and outrun the police. What’s next?”
24
JOE CARVER PARKED a block away from Sonia Rivers’s apartment building in North Hollywood. He had learned after he had caught the attention of Manco Kapak what a good idea it was to leave his car somewhere about the distance he could run at a dead sprint, but not close enough to be visible from his destination.
He walked to the apartment building, studying the area for places that might become dangerous later on— apartments that had no curtains or blinds, buildings with flat roofs that had ladders built into the wall, an empty lot with thick brush at the back. He arrived at the building and rang the bell for Apartment 6.
After a few seconds there was a female voice on the intercom speaker that he recognized as Sonia’s. She sounded a bit startled and irritated. “Yes? Who is it?”
“Hi, Sonia. I hope you remember me. I’m Joe Carver. We met at a club about three weeks ago.”
“I remember you. It’s eight in the morning. I’m getting ready for work.”
He tried to sound grave and yet respectful. “I’m sorry. I was afraid it might be an inconvenient time for you, but I really have to talk to you.”
“It hasn’t been three weeks. It’s actually been almost four weeks. Is this the first time you ever thought of getting in touch? Eight A.M. on a workday? Don’t you own a telephone?”
He had noticed that she hadn’t refused to see him. She just wanted to make him listen to her indictment in its entirety before she let him in. He didn’t let that knowledge make him complacent. “I’m sorry I couldn’t call.”
“Couldn’t call, or didn’t?”
“Couldn’t. The reason I couldn’t was that something you said to a third party has put me in danger, and I’ve been hiding for three weeks.”
“Look, Joe. I remember you clearly. At the time, I thought you were funny, and you had a certain charm. And I know there are girls who find weird approaches and wacky pickup lines cute and irresistible. They’ll swoon and hang your picture in their lockers at their high school. But I’m not one.”
“I know this sounds like that, but it isn’t. I’m not out here feeling clever and funny. I’m feeling scared, which is why I was wondering if you’d let me in while we talk.”
There was a loud buzz and the door lock clicked, so he turned, opened the door, and stepped inside. He went to Apartment 6 and the door opened inward. Sonia had one hand on the doorknob and the other furiously brushing her long, dark hair. She stepped back to let him enter, but didn’t stop brushing. “Now, please tell me that you really have something to say.”
“Here’s what happened, as I understand it. Soon after you and I met at Wash, one night you were in line for a concert somewhere in Hollywood. Two men came up to you and started a conversation. One of them had bright red hair, and the other had dark red hair. Do you remember them?”
She was frozen with the hairbrush in her hand, her eyes wider. “Go on.”
“You talked with them for a while. There were other women in line, and they talked to a couple of them too. At some point one of them asked you if you happened to meet a guy who was new in town and who had been spending a lot of cash. You gave them my name.”
She reddened. He watched the pink begin just below her collarbone, then move up her neck to her cheeks and forehead. “There were two red-haired guys. And I did mention your name. I … have no excuse at all. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. What I was doing was flirting.”
“With two guys?”
“I wasn’t interested in two guys. I wasn’t necessarily interested in either one. There were other guys in the line for the concert too, all kinds of people. I was out in public, and I wanted to seem nice, and I wanted to seem to be one of those people who goes to the right places and knows lots of people. They asked if I knew anybody like you, and I said yes. I really hope this hasn’t harmed you. Can you please say it didn’t, so I don’t have to stand here waiting for some horrible thing to come up?”
Carver sighed. “Those two were Jerry and Jimmy Gaffney. They’re a pair of thugs. They work for a man named Manco Kapak, who owns Wash, the club where we met, and a couple of strip clubs in the Valley, and a few other businesses. He’s basically a gangster. About a month ago he got held up while he was making a night deposit at a bank. He and his people figured it was somebody too new in town to know who he was robbing and too dumb not to spend the cash. In other words, me.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry. It didn’t seem as though their reason for asking could be anything like that. They were so normal, like anybody.”
“I know. That’s probably why he sent them. He also has two guys with tattoos all over their necks and the backs of their shaved heads, and a Russian who looks about seven feet tall.”
“And they’re after you? Oh, Joe. I feel just terrible.”
