I sat on a stump and watched for a while. Nothing. Dark on dark. Occasionally light and shadow thrown off Neptune from the distant street on the other side of the house would twist into view as a car turned and its lights grazed the house for a moment. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw what I suspected was a path off to my left that started in the backyard and most likely led down through the rocky slope to the beach at my back.
If you spend enough time waiting and watching your internal clock gets pretty accurate, especially when you’ve been sober for days. My best guess was that it was nine o’clock now. No signs of any activity, any life. I had deliberately avoided buying cigarettes at the 7-Eleven so I couldn’t be overcome by the urge I was having right now for a smoke.
Maybe I was wrong, maybe Joey wasn’t pushing his luck twice. He may have bundled Garland up and took off in a car headed for anywhere but here. That’s what I’d do, run like hell and keep running. That’s a hell of a way to raise a kid, though, and Garland would be reeling from the death of his mother. Shit, I didn’t know. I couldn’t take care of myself, let alone a kid, I wasn’t sure what he’d do. This was just my best hunch and my last scrap of a clue in this long trail that started in Greece.
A slit of soft yellow light appeared at the edge of one of the back windows. Just for a second. There were thick blankets hung over all the windows and someone had opened one just a peek. I stood up, my knees creaking a bit as I did. Okay, maybe risk an invisibility spell to …
I saw white light behind my eyes as the blow caught me in the back of the skull. I went down, face-first into the dirt and leaves. I rolled over to see a twelve-gauge combat shotgun pointed at me. The man behind the gun had a grim, tired face and long dreadlocks. He was dressed in a black T-shirt, black hoodie, and jeans. I recognized him from the picture Caern had shown me. It was Joey.
“How many with you?” he muttered quietly.
“Just me,” I said. “I’m not with Ankou, I’m not with anyone. I’m here to help you and your son.”
“Bullshit,” he said. “How did you find us?”
“I spoke with Caern before she died. I was hired by Ankou to find her, but after I talked to her, and saw Garland, I couldn’t. He must have had me followed or something. I tried to stop what happened, but I was too late. I want to help you, I swear it.”
“You’re lying,” Joey said. “Get your ass up. We’re walking inside. I don’t want to make a lot of noise out here, but you try anything and I’ll cut you in half.” I nodded and got to my feet with a groan. As I stood I threw a handful of sand and dirt into Joey’s eyes. I pushed his arms and the gun down toward the ground as I drove a forearm into his face. I felt his nose break and followed the arm bar with a southpaw uppercut. He fell down on his ass, dropping the shotgun. I picked it up and aimed it at him. Joey looked more scared than anything and I knew it was for his son in the house, not for himself.
“Sorry about the nose,” I said. “Yeah, I am lying. The truth is Ankou threatened to do worse than kill me and I told him where to find Caern. I was chickenshit, trying to save my own ass. I’d say I’m sorry, but I figure that would be like spitting on her and the baby’s grave.” The sadness and the anger warred in his eyes. “I’m here to help you, Joey, you and Garland. I took care of Ankou, but that fucked-up cult that you got Caern away from in L.A., they want Garland and I’ll be damned if I let them get him.
“I’ve got money, a lot of money, and some fake IDs for both of you. A friend of mine cooked them up before I nearly got him killed. They’re good enough to get you two into Mexico, through TSA to anywhere. I’m here to help. I swear it.” I dropped the shotgun at Joey’s feet. “You want to kill me, I wouldn’t blame you. If you do punch my ticket, the car keys in my pocket are to a Trevita parked about four blocks down. There’s a case in the car with the bearer bonds and the IDs. Hell, keep the car too. Ankou won’t be needing it.”
Joey got to his feet. He wiped the blood from his broken nose. He left the shotgun in the dirt. “We weren’t there,” he said, more to the night than to me. “I wasn’t there. We had a stupid argument about fucking dishwasher detergent. Can you imagine that shit? Goddamned soap. I was tired and I didn’t want to go get it and she said she would and I got pissed and we yelled at each other and I headed out the door and Garland, hell, Garland, he wanted to ride along with his daddy. So the last thing I said to her was ‘Be right back,’ and I slammed the fucking door.
“She was the best thing that ever came into my fucked-up life and I wasn’t there to help her, to save her, I let her slip away not knowing how much I loved her, thinking I was pissed at her. Goddamned soap.”
“She knew, she told me,” I said. “I know that doesn’t mean shit right now, but maybe one day you’ll feel it. She loved you. You were her hero, you saved her life a long time ago. Don’t forget that.”
Joey picked up the shotgun.
