Free Fall

I slipped into the passenger side of the Jeep and Pike looked at me. The smell of coffee was strong. 'She call?'

'Yes. She wouldn't tell me where she is.'

'You think she's in danger?'

'I think they're all in danger. I'm just not sure who they're in danger from.'

Pike's mouth twitched. 'It's often like that, isn't it?'

'Yes. Often.' I stared at the lights of the San Fernando Valley and listened to the music from the van. It sounded Spanish. I said, 'If we can't find her, then we have to stop Akeem. That means we go back to the source.'

Pike nodded. 'The guy who set us up.'

'Cool T. Cool T might know.'

Pike shook his head. 'What a name.'

Pike started the Jeep and we drove back down into the city and to the motel, and the next day we went for Cool T.

CHAPTER 23

Joe Pike and I left the motel for Ray Depente's place at five minutes after eight the next morning. We drove to Ray's much as you would drive anywhere. SWAT wasn't waiting on the roof, and the police hadn't cordoned off the area, and a squadron of black-and-whites with screaming sirens didn't give chase. We were just two guys in a Jeep. Wanted for murder, maybe, but there you are.

We stopped at a Denny's for breakfast, and while we were eating, two uniformed cops came in and sat in the smoking section. Pike and I paid, and walked out past them, but they never looked our way. Detective material.

At seven minutes before nine, we pulled into the little parking lot next to Ray Depente's, and went inside.

Ray Depente was sitting at his desk in the little glass cubicle, talking on the phone and leaning back with his feet up. The older woman who managed the office was behind him, peering into a file cabinet. When we stepped out of the door, Ray saw us and put down his feet and stood up. He mumbled something into the phone, then hung up and came around the desk and out onto the floor. The cops would've been here. They would've talked to him.

I said, 'Hi, Ray. This is a buddy of mine. Joe Pike.'

Ray stopped just outside of striking range and looked over Joe Pike and then squinted back at me. You could see him braining out what he'd have to do and how he'd have to do it to neutralize us. Pike slid two steps to the side, giving himself room if Ray made the move. There weren't many people in the gym. A young Asian guy sporting a black belt worked three women and a man through an intermediate kata, and a young Hispanic guy practiced roundkicks on a heavy bag in the far corner. Some of his leg moves were so fast you couldn't follow them.

Ray said, 'You've got no business here. Leave now, before I call the police.'

'I didn't kill James Edward, Ray. Akeem D'Muere set me up for the bust and D'Muere pulled the trigger.'

'Ain't the way the police tell it.' Ray took a half step back and turned so that his shoulders were angled to the plane of attack. 'Why don't we give'm a call, let everybody sit down and talk about it.' He made a little head move toward his office.

Pike said, 'That won't happen.'

Ray shifted again, adjusted his angle more toward Joe. 'Maybe not, but you never know.' Behind him, the class grunted and worked through their kata, and the heavy bag snapped with deep coughing whumps. 'I won't tell you again to leave, then we'll see what happens.' The woman in the little office closed the file and looked out at us and then came around the desk to stand in the door as if she could somehow read the tension.

I said, 'You don't know me, but you know James Edward. You think he was digging for a deal?'

Ray Depente canted his head like he'd been trying not to think of that, and his eyes flicked from me to Pike, then back. There was a physical quality to time, as if it were suddenly still, and moving through it was like moving through something dense and unyielding. 'Maybe you used him for a fool. Maybe you thought you could come down here and rip off the brothers, but it didn't work out that way. The police said you escaped. An innocent man don't escape.'

'Bullshit. James Edward and I came here to find out what happened at the Premier Pawn Shop. James Edward is dead because the cops involved didn't want us to find out, and neither does Akeem. Your man Cool T set us up.'

'I know you're lying. Cool T's righteous.'

'He set us up. He told us when and where to be, and the Eight-Deuce were there waiting for us.'

Ray was fighting it. You could see him starting to think that maybe I was being square. He wet his lips. 'Why in the hell did you come back here?'

'Because Akeem wants to kill a woman named Jennifer Sheridan, and I can't let that happen.'

'I don't know anything about it.'

'You don't, but maybe Cool T does, or knows somebody who does.'

Behind us, the Hispanic kid launched a flurry of kicks at the heavy bag, then collapsed to the mat, sweat falling like rain from the dark cloud of his hair. Ray Depente abruptly straightened from his fighting stance. 'I've got a class due in forty-five minutes.'