where it could be plotted in any number of different forms, including map references. You could purchase this service from several different vendors. It was used by employers to make sure drivers weren’t off on some private frolic when using a company vehicle. It could locate a stolen car or track a load of freight across the country, making it easier to project delivery schedules. In Harry’s case it would allow Liquida to track them right to the farm in Ohio, where he could stalk them at his leisure.
Harry glanced around to make sure nobody was watching. He walked over to the back of the semitrailer, lifted the tarp, and slid the battery underneath. Quickly he ran a loop with the bailing wire around the battery connecting it to the load under the tarp so the battery wouldn’t slide around. Then he dropped the tiny tracker into one of the steel postholes along the rear of the truck bed. He heard the metallic click as the magnet attached. Harry used his fingers to push the thin power wire from the battery into the crack between two of the scarred wooden boards on the bed of the truck. Then he checked the antenna. Unless the driver was neurotic, there was now a tiny twig that no one should notice just sticking up out of the posthole.
Less than two minutes later, Harry was in the restaurant. Sarah was waiting for him, seated at a booth. He walked over. “Did you already order?”
“No. Thought I’d wait for you. Did you get the gas?”
“No. They want an arm and a leg,” said Harry. “Listen, why don’t we go on to the next town? We can fill up there and get something to eat. The gas will probably be less.”
“What, you think you’re going to save three cents a gallon? Besides, the waitress already brought me water,” said Sarah.
“Good.” Harry picked up the glass and downed the whole thing in a single gulp, then wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. “Now I don’t need to buy any. Let’s go.”
“God, Uncle Harry, gimme a minute. Let me get my purse.”
Harry was guiding her by the arm.
“Anybody ever tell you you’re a penny pincher?” she said.
“Yeah, matter of fact, most of the women I’ve dated. Probably why I never got married.”
“I can understand that,” said Sarah.
For the moment all Harry wanted to do was put distance between themselves and the tarp-covered trailer in the parking lot behind the restaurant. If they were lucky, the driver was headed to Mexico. Then Liquida could follow it home.
TWENTY-SIX
I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s friend. I don’t think I have to tell you that. I think you already know. You’re in a great deal of trouble with this Liquida.” Joselyn looks at me over the rim of her wineglass as she sips a little Chardonnay. “What exactly did you do to make him so angry?”
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on. You can tell me,” she says. “It’s just the three of us sitting here and I’m willing to bet that Mr. Diggs already knows.”
“If I knew I would tell you. But I don’t.”
“Why don’t you tell me the truth?” she says. “Or else…”
“Or else what? You’re going to get your crystal ball out, smack me in the head with it, and do another mind meld?” I say.
“If you like. We can do that.”
The three of us, Joselyn, Herman, and I, are seated in a dark corner of the lounge at the Brasserie in the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Century Boulevard, a stone’s throw from LAX.
“Have you given any more thought to what we talked about the last time we met?” she says.
“You mean before you turned white and slid under the table?” I ask.
“Yes, before that.”
“As I recall, you wanted to know whether I talked in my sleep?” I say.
“And you said you didn’t know. As I recall, because there were no witnesses.”
“Actually, it all depends.”
“On what?” she says.
“On the other thing we talked about.”
“Which was?”
“You may be clairvoyant but you have a bad memory,” I say. “The question was whether you wanted me for my mind or my body.”
Herman is fondling the beer bottle in front of him nervously, as if he’s wandered into the middle of a conversation on birth control.
“I’ve had some time to think about this,” I tell her.
“Have you?” She looks at me over the glass, feline oval eyes and a sultry grin. “And what did you conclude?”
“That if you wanted me for my mind, I’d probably put us both to sleep. But if it was my body you were after, I doubt if I’d talk.”
“And why is that?”
“I don’t think I’d get much sleep.”
“Yes, but you might talk,” she says. “It would depend on how I tied you to the bed.”
“Interesting hypothesis.”
“Perhaps we need to conduct an experiment,” she says.
“I take it you have a lab upstairs,” I say.
“I do.”
Herman clears his throat. “You guys wanna get a room, don’t let me get in the way,” he says. “I’ll just go out front, stand in the fountain for a while. Maybe light up a cigar so’s I can ask you how it was for both of you when the experiment’s over.”
“Perhaps you should join us,” she says.
“No, thanks,” says Herman. “I draw the line at that.”
“You could take notes,” I tell him.
She laughs. “I think we’ve embarrassed him,” she says. “We were joking.”
“We were?” I give her a crestfallen look.
“Of course. I think so. Anyway, we have business to discuss,” she says.
“You mean that wasn’t it? Glad to hear it.” Herman, for all of his earthiness, is a prude.
“I’m sorry about getting sick the last time,” she says. “You can imagine my shock when I saw Thorn’s face in that photograph.”
“Now we’re down to talking points,” I tell her. “What else do you know about Thorn?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you tell us anything more about him? Did he ever say anything that might have given away where he was from? Any associates of his you might have met?”
“You want information?” she says.
“If you can help us, yes,” I tell her.
“And do you mind if I ask, what are you offering in return?” she says.
“My body,” I tell her.
“We’re back to that. No. I mean of value,” she says. “Do you have anything of value to offer in return?”
“That’s pretty mercenary,” I tell her. “Besides, you probably don’t have much on Thorn. Not that’s current anyway. It’s been what, ten years since you saw the man. Still, you might have something, some small item that might help us run him down.”
“And why would you want to find Thorn?” she says.
“He’s the key to Liquida,” says Herman.
“I see. Thorn is in the picture with Jimmie Snyder. Jimmie is killed by Liquida. And you know that because his
