and E1 Salvador. Lucy frowned as she listened to the answer, then asked Sondra to hang on and covered the phone. She looked at me.
289
'If we can't tell her when he made the calls, she might have to check through thousands of calls. They make hundreds of international calls every day.' 'See if she can check for the specific numbers.' Lucy asked her, then covered the phone again. 'Yeah, she can do that, but she'll have to do it by billing period. I guess that's the way the database is set up.' I checked the phone bills for the dates of the four-day period when Schilling had called E1 Salvador. Myers would have been involved in the planning. 'Have her check whatever billing period includes these four days. If we don't get anything, she can check the prior period.' Lucy gave her Schilling's phone number,. Fallon's number in San Miguel, and the dates. After that, Lucy settled back with the phone to her ear and waited. 'She's looking.' 'Okay.' We stared at each other. Lucy made a very small smile, and I smiled back. It felt as if the awkwardness between us had somehow vanished in the mutual effort of searching for Ben, as if we were one again and not two, and in that moment my heart seemed to quiet. But then her brow knotted and Lucy tightened in a way that brought her forward. She said, 'I'm sorry, Son&a, say that again.' I said, 'What?' She held up her hand to silence me. Her brow furrowed as she concentrated. Lucy shook her head as if she didn't understand what she was hearing, but then I realized that she was resisting what she was hearing. I said, 'What is it?' 'She found eleven calls to the San Miguel number, :9o
none to L.A., but eleven to San Miguel. Myers only made four of the calls. Richard made the other seven.'
'That can't be right. It had to be Myers. Myers must have used his phone.'
Lucy shook her head as if she were numb.
'They weren't made from Richard's office. The company pays for the phones at his house, too. Richard called San Miguel from home.'
'Can she print out the call list?'
Lucy asked in a monotone robotic voice.
'Yes.'
'Have her make a hard copy.' Lucy asked for a hard copy. 'Have her fax it to us.'
Lucy gave her fax number, then asked Sondra to send it. Lucy's voice was distant, like a little girl lost in the woods.
The list of calls printed out of Lucy's fax a few minutes later. We stood over the fax as if it were a crystal ball and we were waiting to see the future.
Lucy read the list, holding my hand so tightly that her nails cut into my skin. She saw for herself. She repeated Richard's home number aloud.
'What did he do? Oh, my God, what did he do?'
I had been wrong about everything. Richard had been so frightened that something bad would happen to Ben and Lucy because of me that he had decided to make it happen himself. He arranged for the fake kidnapping of his own son so that he could blame it on me. He wanted Lucy to come to her senses. He wanted to drive us apart to save her, so he had hired people who were willing to do anything--Fallon and Schilling and Ibo. He probably hadn't known who they were or what they had done until Starkey and I pulled the Interpol file. I guess Myers had
helped him put it together. But once Fallon had Ben, Fallon had double-crossed him and now Richard was caught. 'Oh my God, what did he do? ' Richard had lost Ben. I took the fax and the other things, and then I took Lucy's hand. 'Now it's time to see Richard. I'll bring him home to you, Luce. I'm going to get Ben.' We went down the stairs together, then drove to Richard's hotel.
time missing: 2 hours, 2z minutes
The Beverly Hills Hotel was a great pink beast that sprawled along Sunset Boulevard where Benedict Canyon emptied into Beverly Hills. That part of Beverly Hills was home to some of the wealthiest people in the world, and the Pink Palace fit well, resting on a little rise like a Mission Revival crown jewel. Movie stars and Middle-Eastern oil sheiks felt comfortable staying behind the manicured walls; I guess Richard felt comfortable there, too. He was in a bungalow that cost two thousand dollars a night. Lucy knew which room was his, and was the only one of the three of us who looked like she belonged at the hotel. I looked like a maniac, and Pike just looked like Pike. We crossed the lobby, then followed a winding path through verdant grounds that smelled of night-blooming jasmine. Ben could be anywhere, but Richard was home; Myers had answered his phone. That meant Fallon still had Ben, and Richard was still trying to buy him back. 292
Pike said, 'How do you want to play this?' 'You know how I'm going to play it.' 'In front of Lucy?' She said, 'You don't have a choice.' The bungalows that dotted the path were expensive because they were private; each little bungalow separate from the others, and hidden by landscaping. It was like walking through a tailored jungle. Ahead of us, we saw Fontenot standing outside a door at a fork in the path. He was smoking, and bouncing from foot to foot. Nervous. Myers came out of a room, spoke to him, then went up the path. Fontenot went into the room that Myers had left. 'Is that Richard's?' 'No, Myers is staying in that one. It's not a full bungalow; it's just a room. Richard has the bungalow across.' 'Wait here.' 'You're out of your mind if you think I'm waiting.' 'Wait. I want to get Fontenot first, then we'll see Richard. Fontenot might know something that will help us, and it'll be faster if you wait.' Pike said, 'Fontenot will help. I promise.' Lucy looked at Joe, and nodded. She knew he meafit it, and that speed was everything. Lucy stayed on the path in the shadows while Joe and I went to the door. We didn't bother with knocking or pretending to be room service or any.thing cute like that; we hit the door so hard that the doorknob caught in the wall. That made three busted doors in one day, but who's counting? Fontenot was watching television with his feet up on the bed. A pistol sat on the floor beside him, but Pike and I were inside and on him before he could reach it. He hesitated, seeing our guns, then wet his lips. 293
I said, 'Did you see DeNice? Did you see what they did to him?'
Fontenot was shaky getting to his feet. He had the twitchy eyes of someone who had been nervous for most of the day and was even more nervous now. The room smelled of bourbon.
'What the fuck? What are you doing?' I kicked his gun under the bed. 'Is Richard in his room?'
'I don't know where Richard is. Get out of here. You got no business being here.'
Pike snapped his pistol across Fontenot's face like before. Fontenot fell sideways onto the bed. Pike cocked his pistol and pressed the muzzle into Fontenot's ear.
I said, 'We know. We know that Richard hired them. We know this was all about fucking me over, but it turned
