my hand.
His eyes bulged more and he started to gag. He started kicking beneath me, slapping again. I guess he realized he wasn’t going back to jail, that even his powerful friends couldn’t help him out now, and that his chances at me and Linc were over.
Lonnie’s kicking stopped. The pulsating in his throat stopped. And finally, the hate in his eyes stopped.
Fifty-one
Carter and I were standing in the driveway when Wellton walked out of Mike Berkley’s house.
Wellton looked at me. “You alright?”
I shrugged. “I’m fine.”
“Tell it to me again,” Wellton said.
“I came up here because Berkley called me and said he had some things to tell me about Peter and Linc Pluto,” I said. “It was a setup. Carter got here at the very end.”
Wellton stared at me, his eyes frozen with intensity.
“I took Mike first,” I continued. “Mo was next. Lonnie and I were struggling with the knife he brought at me. He wouldn’t drop it. I had no choice.”
Wellton looked me up and down. “He cut you?”
“I’m cut everywhere. Probably.”
Two EMTs rolled a gurney out of the house, a sheet covering whoever’s body was underneath.
Wellton caught my eyes again. “So you held off the knife with one hand and choked him with the other?”
I held his gaze. “He wouldn’t drop the knife. I had no choice.” I motioned in Carter’s direction. “Carter will tell you the same thing.”
“I’ll bet he will,” he said.
“Famazio might be able to link Berkley and National Nation,” I said. “I don’t know.”
Wellton remained silent. He didn’t move. Just stared right through me.
I didn’t care.
“I could give a shit that they’re dead,” he finally said. “Just taking up my air while they were alive, as far as I’m concerned. So fuck ’em.” He paused, chewing on his lip for a moment. “And I’ll write it up just like you said. You had no choice. Because I got nothing else.”
“I had no choice,” I said.
Wellton shoved his hands in his pockets. “But maybe someday you can explain to me exactly what that means to you.”
He turned and walked back into the house.
Fifty-two
Carter followed me back to my place. I got out of my car and walked over to his monstrosity of an automobile. He cut the engine, but didn’t get out.
“We good?” he asked.
“Think so,” I said. “There’ll probably be some follow-up. But we’re good.”
Carter nodded. “You okay?”
“Fine.”
He stared at me. “Sure about that?”
“Positive.”
“I thought about taking you off him,” he said.
“I figured.”
“Wasn’t sure I could, though. You looked different.”
“I could’ve taken myself off if I’d wanted,” I said.
“I know. You want my opinion?”
“Always.”
“You made the right choice,” he said.
I shrugged.
He turned the key in the ignition and the engine rumbled to life.
“I mean it, Noah,” he said, leaning across the passenger seat so I could hear him. “It was the right thing and it always will be. He doesn’t die today, he would’ve come after you and the kid again someday.”
I didn’t say or do anything. I didn’t know how to respond.
He held up a hand, dropped the gearshift, and sped away down the alley.
I walked into my place and didn’t bother to turn on a light. I went to the fridge and pulled out a beer. Popped the top on the bottle. Set the bottle on the counter. Turned to the sink and vomited.
After a few minutes, I picked up the beer and walked out to the patio. The white foam of the collapsing waves was bright against the black sky and dark water. The wind blew softly off the water and up the sand, whispering against my face.
I didn’t regret killing Lonnie, but that didn’t mean it would ever feel right. No matter what Carter said or how I justified it, I had taken a life. I would always feel his skin on my hands and see his eyes as they ran out of life. Lonnie hadn’t added anything to the world, but I had taken something from it and I wasn’t sure how to get back on the right side of the line I’d crossed.
I stood there, watching the ocean and thinking about those things, for a long time.
Fifty-three
“You mind if we make a quick stop?” I asked.
It was Friday morning and Liz and I had just started north on I-5 for Santa Barbara. I’d tried to reach Linc after Wellton released him from custody, but he hadn’t returned my calls and if he’d gone back to his apartment, he hadn’t answered the door when I’d knocked.
I called Marie Pluto and told her that her nephew was okay but I wasn’t sure where he was. She told me that he’d already called her and was going to stay with her for a while. She thanked me for my time, told me the remainder of my fee would be in the mail the following day, and promised to keep in touch.
I hoped that she wouldn’t, but didn’t tell her that.
“Sure,” Liz answered. “What for?”
I slowed at the off-ramp. “Just want to check on Carolina. I told her I’d call her after we had dinner the other night and haven’t had a chance.”
“Sure,” she repeated, a soft smile on her face.
The thick early morning fog was melting away, leaving a wet haze behind. I figured by the time we got to Santa Barbara, there’d be nothing but sunshine.
I needed it.
We pulled up at the curb and I cut the engine. “You mind waiting?”
“Take as long as you need,” Liz said.
I walked up the path to the house, free of the anxiety and questions that had wracked me the last couple of times I’d been to the house. Our dinner had been good and helped cleanse a few things.
Maybe the fractures in our relationship could heal.
I rang the doorbell.
No answer.
