fucked up everything. Once that ran, the deal went queer. People start asking questions, cops start taking heat about buying my merchandise.”
“Because it’s hot,” I said.
Merker grinned at me. “Where you hear that?”
“One of your old friends back in Canborough. Michael Cherry. That was his guess.”
“Fucking Mikey. You were talking to him?”
“Yeah. I talked to a lot of people, trying to track down Trixie.”
“What’d Mikey tell you?”
“About what?”
“About me.”
“You ran the Kickstart. Some bad things went down. You lost some people, got out of town.”
“He tell you about that?”
“A little.”
“He tell you who did it? Who killed my boys?”
“No. He doesn’t know. I think he thinks it might have been you. That you cut a deal with the other gang in town, they paid you off, you wasted your own guys.”
“He thinks that?”
“It’s a theory.”
“It’s pretty fucking wrong,” Merker said. “It was that bitch, that friend of yours, did it.”
I said nothing.
“You don’t even look surprised,” he said. “She tell you? She tell you what she did?”
“She told me what
Merker shrugged. “She was a stripper.”
“I thought she did your books for you.”
“Okay, she used to be a stripper, but what’s your point? She’s just a bit sensitive, you know? I’d a been a lot smarter, let her keep stripping, instead of looking after the money. Talk about getting fucked in the ass over that one. She robbed me blind.”
The phone rang. I grabbed it before the first ring had finished. “Hello?”
“It’s Wagland. It’s set up. Eleven o’clock.”
“Where?”
“Clayton Correctional Facility.”
“That’s an all-women’s prison, right? North Oakwood?”
“Yes,” Wagland said. “Mr. Walker, I had to pull in a couple of favors there to set this up, and that wasn’t easy, when I don’t have the foggiest notion why you have to see her.”
“I know. I appreciate that. You’re doing the right thing.”
“I better be, Mr. Walker. For your sake, I better be.” He hung up.
“Perfect,” said Merker. “We better saddle up, pardner.”
Mrs. Gorkin returned to the kitchen, followed by Leo and Ludmilla, who was dragging Katie by the arm. “Well?” she said.
“It’s set up,” Merker said. “Walker and I are going to pay a visit to the bitch who owes me. We find out where the cash is, we get it, we come back, I give you your share, we’re done.”
“And then you give him”-she pointed at me-“to us.”
“Yeah. And I get Leo back.”
Ludmilla, still holding the gun in one hand, squeezed Leo’s arm. “I might decide to keep him.”
Leo chuckled, and then his eyes landed on the fridge. “You got anything to eat here?” he asked of no one in particular.
He opened the door, leaned down, examining each rack. “Fuck, there’s nothing in here to eat. Haven’t you got-hang on, what’s this?”
He brought out a white Styrofoam container. Written on top, in black marker, were the words “EAT THIS AND DIE-PAUL.”
Leo flipped open the lid, saw the old burger and fries, and smiled ear to ear. “Fuck you, Paul,” he said. “You’ll have to find some other leftovers. This is mine. Where’s your microwave?”
35
I TOLD MERKER I needed a moment with Katie before we left.
She’d moved from the couch and was standing at the living room window, peering through a gap in the curtains, as though waiting for someone who’d never arrive. I knelt down beside her, but it was like I wasn’t there.
“Katie,” I said. “Katie, look at me. I need to know that you’re listening to me.” She turned her head slightly. “I know things may look bad right now, but I’m going to see if I can make things okay. Maybe not as okay as they were before, but better than they are now.”
Katie sniffed.
“I promise you I’ll do the best I can,” I said.
Katie sniffed again, and she opened her mouth. “Are you going to get me my other mommy?” she asked.
“I’m supposed to be going to see her now,” I said. “I hope I can get in to see her.”
“Can you tell her something?” Katie asked.
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
“Tell her my other mommy can’t be my mommy anymore, so I need her to be my mommy all the time instead of just once in a while.”
I nodded. “I’ll tell her that,” I said. I reached my hand tentatively toward her, not sure whether she’d pull away. She did not, and I pulled her head toward me and kissed her forehead. “For sure, I’ll tell her. I’m sure she’ll be very worried about you and will do everything she can.”
“Also,” Katie said, “I need a daddy. I didn’t have an extra one of those.”
Was she simply in shock? Was she traumatized? Or was she the bravest little five-year-old I’d ever encountered? Or was it a bit of both?
“I’ll tell her,” I said.
“Let’s hit the road,” Merker said behind me. I touched Katie softly on the head, looked one last time into her sad eyes, and turned to face him. He had a real gun in his hand this time, not the one he’d used to stun me. Fifty thousand volts were bad, but they were preferable to one real bullet.
He led me out to his blue pickup, a rust-eaten twenty-year-old Ford that sat up high on oversized tires. Four- wheel drive, by the look of it. I hauled myself up into the passenger side as Merker settled in behind the wheel. He slid the keys into the ignition, turned it, and I wondered if I’d misread the nameplate on the side, and that we’d actually climbed aboard a John Deere. He tapped the accelerator a couple of times and the engine roared like an oversized tractor. He put the column shift into reverse, but held his foot on the brake and gave me a look.
“Let’s just be clear,” he said. “You try anything stupid, you try to run, you try to get the cops, I call Leo, and that kid dies. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said.
“We’re going to do this thing, we’re going to find out where my money is, and when I get it, stop by a playground, let the girl go.”
“But not me. You hand me over to Mrs. Gorkin and the Westinghouse twins.”
Merker shrugged. “I made a deal with her. What can I say?”
“You’re going to give her twenty-five thousand? Like you said?”
Merker’s cheek poked out as he moved his tongue around, maybe trying to keep himself from grinning. “Sure.” He wiggled his nose some more. “That one, Luddite or whatever her name was, seemed to take a fancy to Leo. He’s never been that great in the ladies department. This’ll be a nice treat for him.”
