Circle of Enemies

out of there like I’d been hypnotized to forget it all. But Arne left me and Jazzy a bunch of offshore accounts, properties, and stocks.”

I had no idea how to respond to that. I’d been living above my aunt’s garage carrying rocks down a hill, and Arne had been squirreling it all away.

I wondered how much he’d gotten from Francois before he killed him.

“Vi, how long has the Bigfoot Room been at the Roasted Seal? When was the last time he moved it?”

She shrugged. “Years. A few weeks after your sentencing, actually. When you were busted, he pulled up stakes and didn’t set them down again until he was sure you were going to do the time without naming him.”

“He didn’t pull up stakes when Mouse disappeared, though, right?”

“Right. Now, what about him? Where is Mouse?”

“In the properties Arne just gave you, is one of them out near the Mohave? A little patch of desert and rock, maybe, with a prefab building on it? A place called Quakewater.”

“Maybe,” she said. “I think … maybe.”

“Don’t go out there, understand? Not if you want to keep what Arne left for you and your daughter.”

She set the bottle down and picked it up again. In one long pull, she drained it. She understood what I meant, and she wasn’t surprised. “Oh, God, Ray,” she said, her shoulders slumped and her head bowed. “What did I do?”

I went around the counter and put my arms around her. She cried against my chest, soaking Arne’s shirt with her tears. When she was done, she grabbed a fistful of his shirt and pulled me into the bedroom.

Arne’s bedroom, and it hadn’t even been five hours since I’d put a bullet through his brain. I kissed her, then she pulled his clothes off me. Arne was dead and gone, and there was nothing left of him but memories and a lot of expensive crap. Violet and I were still alive, and together again.

Whatever she and I had was in the past; this was something new. Everything between us was different except the sounds she made. It felt like new life, and a new chance at happiness.

But when we both had finished and she lay against my shoulder, I knew I was not about to get a new life. I had a life already, and it was inescapable. A few moments later, when Vi rolled away from me, I didn’t try to draw her back.

“I think I’m going to move away,” she said. “I think I’m going to meet with that guy in the suit again, get him to explain everything again, and then get the fuck out of here.”

“You want to leave L.A.?” I was surprised to hear it. People leave the city all the time, of course, but I didn’t think Vi would be one of them.

“I mean leave America. I’ve never met any of my mother’s family in Oaxaca. I could …” Her voice trailed off. I waited for her, and eventually she said, “Better yet, we could go to Canada. They let you in if you have enough money, right? Live up in Canada with all that cold, clean snow.”

Something about the way she said that made me think that we didn’t include me. I rolled out of bed and began to dress again. They were Arne’s clothes, and she was the mother of his child, but I’d never had any qualms about stealing things before.

“Ray …,” she said, as though she was about to make a confession.

“I already know,” I said as I pulled on the shirt.

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.” I sat in a little cloth chair in the corner and put on my socks. “You’re the one who connected Wally with Arne, and with Caramella and Luther and Fidel and the rest. Wally wouldn’t have known about the Bigfoot Room or about Arne, but he would have been able to find you, the girl I was living with when I was busted. You’re the one who told him how to find the Bigfoot Room.”

Violet pulled the blankets off the bed and wrapped them around herself. She didn’t turn toward me.

“Wally as much as told me so himself,” I continued. “He was disappointed by our waitress at the Sugar Shaker. He wanted to sit in your section. I’ll bet he was, actually, and you asked the other girl to take his order, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Wally wanted me to know he was connected to you. And Arne … well, Arne moved the Bigfoot Room when I went to prison because he was afraid I’d turn him in. He didn’t move when Mouse disappeared, though, did he? You knew your brother was dead. You didn’t exactly gasp in surprise in the other room when I told you. I think I must be the only idiot who didn’t realized that Arne had a place to dump the bodies of people who were dangerous to him. That’s why Fidel tried to have him killed before striking out on his own; Arne didn’t like the idea of his crew getting busted for stupid jobs and easing their sentences by naming him.

“So, Wally must have looked you up. You didn’t know him, but anyone who took one look would know the guy was trouble. You thought about your missing brother, and your suspicions about what happened to him, and you pointed Wally King straight at—”

“Do you think Arne knew what I did?” she asked, breaking in as if she couldn’t stand to listen anymore.

I remembered the expression on his face as we stood out behind the berm. Hell yeah, he knew. “No.”

“Okay,” she said. Vi had always told me I was a terrible liar, but she seemed to believe me now. Maybe she wanted to. She still didn’t turn around. “But what does that make me?”

I almost answered Nothing, but I held it back. She would have misunderstood. “Someone with a secret. A secret you should never ever admit to anyone.”

And that was all we had to say to each other. She was silent and wouldn’t even turn her head to look at me. I finished tying my shoelaces and stood. She slowly tipped sideways until she nestled on the pillow. Maybe she was going to sleep.