full growth.
'Somebody does not get along with you,' he said to Maria.
'The timber industry?'
'You think this was somebody from the industry?'
'Actually, I'm not sure, but maybe it was some really wacko fringe element of the environmental movement. I mean really wacko. Or maybe it was industry, I don't know.'
'It wasn't any industry I know,' Dan said.
'Well, we've got forensics people all over up there. They've got a lot of hair samples, fingerprints, all that stuff. But none of it has been run yet. Oddly, we did find a business card of one Hans Groiter. Have to be as dumb as a post to leave that around.'
'Isn't he with Amada?'
'Yup. Sure is. And he doesn't seem to be around. Plumb disappeared.'
'So are we making progress?' Maria asked.
'Maybe. But you know something as obvious as a business card looks like a plant. You've got to at least consider a frame-up.'
'Uh-huh. But those are the same guys who shot at me in the mine.'
'Oh, I know, I know. We're all over it. Now where will you be?' he asked, nodding at Maria.
'For the time being at the Palmer Inn with my parents. After that, back to Sacramento.'
'Well, as long as you're here, I'm putting two plain-clothes deputies on your tail. And I might recommend that unless the police in Sacramento are going to do that, you might want to stay here until we get this figured out or at least until we get some time under our belt.'
'I will take that under advisement.'
'And no playing cop, OK?'
David Dun
At The Edge
'Absolutely,' Dan said.
By midnight Corey was home and in her basement with Janet. The entire basement area was open except for a load-bearing wall down the middle with a passage at either end, and a single room. Everywhere it was gray concrete. They went to the room and removed a large padlock. It was a furnace room converted by the prior owner to a small workshop and had a number of heavy pipes in the overhead. Here the concrete walls were covered with tool racks and a built-in worktable and a freestanding bench.
Groiter was sitting on a bench, looking like a caged beast. Chain had been looped through his handcuffs and then looped around two of the heaviest pipes with a bicycle lock. His feet were spread-eagled, each fitted with a handcuff that was chained to the built-in worktable. As a final touch, Janet had stuffed his mouth full of handkerchiefs and fastened a gag.
Corey walked up to Groiter, took out his gag, and put a bottle of water beside him. Then she put her lips to his ear. 'It would be pointless to beat the shit out of you, but I'm going to anyway.'
Corey placed a rubber strap around the bare torso of Hans Groiter, taping other wires to his chest, and putting finger clips on his fingers. Janet's eyes followed Corey's every move.
'You will of course recognize the leads for a simple lie detector,' she said to Groiter. 'While I have a fairly cheap model, it seems to work quite well. I perfected the technique, as you know, on Kim Lee.'
It was 7:30 a.m. and they were waiting for the coffee to brew in Corey's spacious kitchen.
''We're going to have a cup of coffee, then we'll be down to begin the morning's work.'
Corey and Janet adjourned to the kitchen.
'Do you think you'll actually have to do anything?'
'Groiter's a professional. He knows what I can do. Some people need some pain before they talk while others are more pragmatic. But last night I got even with the bastard.'
'Why did you bother?'
'It's personal.'
Corey picked up her cup and returned to the basement. With Janet's assistance she took a carpet that rolled into a twelve-foot length and carried the giant sausage of fabric over in front of Groiter.
'You see that roll of carpet,' she said. 'Imagine being rolled in it. Tied tight and then lashed to a pole. We put you over an open-pit barbecue and heat the carpet to one hundred fifty degrees and constantly pour water over it, onto the coals. Slow-cook you in the steam. When we do this, your head is a good three feet down inside the end of the roll, but we pump air to you to make sure you stay alive. We do that until you answer all our questions.'
She watched the needles, then tore off a strip of paper from the machine and wrote 'Carpet Trick' on the bottom.
'OK, Hans, that was very good. Now for the next option. We take these fire ants…'
When she was through, she came and sat a foot away from Hans. 'I'm pleased to say there's one thing that sends you off the chart, Hans. So tell me, when did you become terrified of tight places, like a rolled-up carpet?'
'Little kid.'
'Tell me about it.'
'We gonna make a deal?'
'You need that reassurance, don't you?'
Hans was silent.
'You tell me everything I want to know and I won't roll you up in the carpet and cook you.'
'How do I know?'
'Because you didn't let that Spaniard tie me down and fuck me like he wanted to. Now, who called me on the phone?''
'I did.'
'That's a good start. I know you'll keep in mind that I'm going to pentathol you when we're through. You know what will happen if you don't pass with flying colors?' She paused. 'I don't hear you.'
'I know what will happen.'
'All right. So what's with the bats? And what are your boys doing around the mine?''
Kenji was in a panic. According to his men who had listened to the police bands and scouted Morgan's farm, Groiter had disappeared off the face of the earth. Cops were still crawling all over Morgan's, and Corey Schneider wasn't answering her phone. He would need to flee to Japan or get personally involved. There were too many loose ends and too much potential evidence against him to leave the country. Extradition back from Japan would be a distinct possibility. Instead, he would go to Palmer and work with the two San Francisco men. The men would meet him at the Palmer airport and together they would find Groiter and Corey Schneider.
Ninety minutes later, Kenji was in the company Hawker Sidley 700 business jet, staring down at the Golden Gate Bridge. As he sat with his feet up on the opposite seat and contemplated his predicament, his finger traced the swirls in the maple fold-out table, and he kept seeing Groiter's face in the pattern.
Maria had a date with Nate, who was traumatized by what he had seen when she was taken. She'd convinced Dan it would be better if she and Nate went alone. Although Dan was initially reluctant, he realized that with the police following her around Palmer, nothing was likely to happen.
When she pulled up to the curb for Nate, he bounded up to the car, looking eager. Inside, he sat with his hands squeezed tightly together in his lap and glanced sideways at her, not making eye contact.
'I'm so proud of you. You saved my life. How about a hug.' He squeezed tight enough that her bruised ribs hurt. She said nothing, enjoying the intensity of the moment. 'One of these days we'll have to go get some more fish. But maybe we'll wait until they catch the bad guys first.'
Glancing in the rearview mirror, she saw the two plain-clothes officers in their white Crown Victoria.
'Those are the cops, huh?'
'That's right. We're going to have a little company, but they won't bother us.'
The light fog coursed over the kelp-strewn water's edge, pushing past the beach and inland some quarter of
