moment he felt certain it was true, the next moment that there had been some fuckup on the part of the police. Let it be a mistake. I won’t be mad at anyone. I’ll forgive anyone anything. That’s okay. Just let my dad be alive…
He wanted the car to stop so that he could get out. He didn’t want to go anywhere. Stop right here, he wanted to say.
“You okay?” Harriman asked.
He shook his head.
“Feeling sick? You want me to pull over for a minute?”
Now that it had been offered to him, he suddenly didn’t want it. He needed to know. He shook his head again.
Harriman asked him questions about school, and Caleb answered knowing the detective was just trying to distract him, but appreciating it even so. The man was just…calm. A kind of calm that made Caleb feel a little steadier, too.
“I wish you were in charge of the case,” Caleb said.
Harriman smiled a little. “Thanks. But the detectives who have it are good at what they do, and they’ll have lots of help. You’ll like them.”
“But if I need to talk to you?”
Harriman pulled out a business card and handed it to him. “Any time, day or night.”
They turned down his street and the whole neighborhood looked incredibly normal, which didn’t seem right. Harriman pulled to the curb in front of Caleb’s house. Two sedans that looked a lot like the one Detective Harriman drove were parked in front. Uncle Nelson’s car was in the driveway, next to his mom’s. I have to be strong for Mom, he thought. She’ll need me to take care of her.
“No press yet, so at least you don’t have to cope with that,” Harriman said.
Caleb went into the house. He saw his mom rise to her feet from where she had been sitting with two other detectives, saw her trying so hard to be brave for him, and suddenly, of all the rotten times, he began to weep as if he were two instead of seventeen.
CHAPTER 4
Wednesday, May 10
12:03 A.M.
LAS PIERNAS
THE call came later than expected. The interior of the car parked on the hill and the silhouette of its lone occupant were dimly illuminated as the cell phone rang.
Dexter Fletcher let the disposable cell phone ring three times.
It never did any good to rush these things. He thought of the three brothers he was closest to in the Fletcher family, pictured them in this same situation. Giles would have waited, perhaps even forced a second call. Nelson would have answered in the middle of the first ring-although he doubted she had ever called Nelson. Roy? One never knew what Roy would do.
“Yes?” Dexter answered. “Remember-”
“The line is not secure. I know.” Cleo was always so sure of herself.
“The situation?”
“Just as you wished.”
He sighed. “Not exactly…wished.”
“No, of course not. But…taken care of.”
“Thank you. Any trouble?”
“I could hardly describe it on a cell phone, now, could I?”
He waited.
“Sorry. Long day,” she said.
“Yes, it has been. For all of us. Someday I’ll have to tell you where-”
“No names or places,” she said sharply.
“Yes. Thanks. Anyway, after I was sure you were on your way, I made my call, and you’ll never believe where he was. Apparently, he was summoned this morning. Rather unnerving.”
She laughed. He had known it would amuse her.
“So,” he said, “your report is all we lack.”
“In my opinion, as you know, we took an unnecessary risk here, and I object to not…completely settling the issue. But I followed your instructions. It’s damned cold, though, so I may get my own way after all. It would be easier on everyone.”
“You may be right. But thank you for indulging us.”
“No problem. Where would I be without you?”
“Likewise. See you soon.”
Dexter sat staring out at the city lights for a good ten minutes after the call ended. He felt a mixture of weariness and exhilaration.
Cleo was so good at her work. Really, he had nothing to worry about.
He started the car and drove home carefully. He couldn’t afford an accident. There was much yet to be done.
CHAPTER 5
Wednesday, May 10
1:10 A.M.
SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS
THREE months and seventeen days.
San Bernardino County Deputy Sheriff Tadeo Garcia had been saying this to himself throughout his shift. Three months and seventeen days from now, no more putting up with the bullshit. He’d retire and get out of this cruiser. Out of these mountains. He could feel the cold and damp in his bones. At home, down in Redlands, his wife was probably running the A/C. She would have the windows open, at the very least. Up here, it was damp and foggy and he was freezing his huevos off.
At this stage of his career, Tadeo had hoped to be sitting behind a desk and not a steering wheel. Which only went to show that you could piss off a supervisor at any point in time. The union rep said they were working on it.
Right. What the hell. If he was careful, he should be okay. And for the most part, his assignment, cruising around these roads in this mountain resort area, wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle.
He tried to think of warm places he would be spending his time in after he retired. He smiled. Probably at home, fixing up the place-his wife already had a list. Hell, she always had a list. That was okay. She’d put up with a lot over the years.
A strange light in the trees caught his attention. Headlamps, at the wrong angle.
If its headlights hadn’t been left on, he might not have noticed the car, down in a ditch just off a private road. At first Tadeo figured this was just another moron who had partied a little too much and gotten himself lost up here. Happened all the time. People came to these mountain resorts, thought they were out on the frontier or something, went crazy. Idiot was lucky his wrong turn had just taken him into a ditch off a private road and not over a cliff. Foggy night like this-had to be nuts. Now, to see if the fool had injured or killed himself.
He lit up the patrol car’s spotlight and got a better look. The hair stood up on the back of his neck. He checked
