Day One (32 page)

He knew it was a question, but he couldn’t find the meaning in the words. He looked at them, tall Todd and kindly Dawn. Something happened to his tongue with that thought. He opened his mouth. “Tall Todd. Kindly Dawn.” As the words spilled out, he grinned.

“Well, that’s nice of your to say. But I still gotta wonder. What are you doing out here on this road alone?”

The words made more sense this time. He swallowed the Shadow and let them roll around back of his eyes. The answer hid back there somewhere, he knew it did. But he couldn’t quite fix on it. All he could think was Tall Todd, Kindly Dawn, a kind of sing-song his mind.
Tall Todd, Kindly Dawn ... Tall Todd, Kindly Dawn.
Then something else spilled out, a song.

“Todd and Dawn, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G ...”

Dawn’s eyes got big and round. Then she sat back and laughed. Todd shook his head and reached out for the glass. “Okay, okay. I think that’s enough beer for you. Cripes.” Shadow didn’t resist, so taken with the sound of the song on his tongue. He sang it again, and again.

“Todd and Dawn, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G ... Todd and Dawn, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G ...”

He slid off the stool, smiled and spun, feeling silly and stupid and sunny. He left the simoleons, spun toward the door. Singing, singing.

“Hey, wait. Where you going?” It was Todd, or Dawn. It didn’t matter. He stopped at the door and looked back. Startled faces. The sight made him laugh. He pulled open the door, found the answer as he exited into the night, stomach full, mind swimming.

Singing. “Searching ... searching ...”

November 19 - 3:30 pm

B
ig Ed drives east and north, making his way to 60th and up to Belmont, and then around to the north entrance of Mount Tabor Park. The woman next to him stares ahead, her head trembling on her neck, a fiendish bobblehead. She breathes aloud through her mouth. A miasma of acrid sweat and stale tobacco fills the passenger compartment. Her head snaps my way sharply at intervals, as if she wants to turn around, but the power of Big Ed behind the wheel seems to hold her in check. I don’t know who she is, what she represents in this situation, but I’d rather face the back of her head than the back of her hand.

Danny sits quietly beside me and stares out the window. I try to hold his hand, but he pulls it free. He’s never been a touchyfeely kid. Big Ed stops in the upper lot on the north side of the park. There are a half dozen cars present, but no one in sight. The weather is iffy enough that only the most committed will be out today, the serious runners and bikers, and the Portland stalwarts who wear the chill air and threat of rain like another layer atop their Gore-Tex. That’s good, I suppose, but bad too. There’s no one who can call for help. There’s also no one to catch an errant bullet if Big Ed starts shooting.

Big Ed turns to face me. “Silence.”

I meet his stare, don’t blink. That seems to satisfy him. He pulls out his cell phone and speed dials, waits, eyes fixed on mine. “It is me ... yes, I have good news ... exactly. He led us right to him ... a long day, yes.” His eyes flick quickly to Danny, then back to me. “I understand ... What time then? ... Okay, we will be there.” He snaps the phone shut and turns to the woman. “It is all set, but it will be a while. We cannot wait here.”

“So? Is that my problem?”

He closes his eyes for a moment. “We will not sit here where people come and go all the time. There is a bolt cutter in the trunk. Go cut the lock on the gate over there. After I drive through, close the gate and try to make it look like it’s latched. We do not want it to be obvious someone has driven through.”

“Why do I have to do it?”

“Because I do not want you alone in the car with the boy.”

She faces him, her jaw tight and working. No honor among thieves. I’m almost reassured by the hostility between them. I have no idea what the plan is, but I can see he doesn’t trust her any more than I do. I don’t trust him either, but I’ll take Big Ed and his cold deliberation over the rabid instability of a tweaker any day.

Big Ed shifts his weight in his seat. “Myra, get out of the car. Take care of the gate.”

“You do it, asshole.”

A muscle twitches in his gnarled neck. I can feel the heat rise between them, and I slide toward Danny. Their eyes meet across the long bench seat. Her thin dry lips pull away from her teeth, then she suddenly drops her gaze.

“Fine. Fine.
Fine
.” Her voice rises to almost a shriek. She bangs the car door open and throws herself out, slams the door shut behind her. The tension fades like a passing shadow as she lurches to the rear of the car. Big Ed pops the trunk latch. I hear her rooting
around behind us, then a second later she stalks over to the white steel gate that blocks access to the upper Reservoir Loop Drive. The drive runs along the west face of Mount Tabor above the soap box derby track and then dips through trees past the south reservoir, only to loop back north between the two big reservoirs on the 60th Avenue side of the park. Normally it’s reserved for park maintenance and official vehicles, but Big Ed obviously isn’t a rules kinda guy.

I lean forward in my seat. “Listen, we need to talk about this.”

“There is nothing to say.”

“You can’t put a child at risk like this. You used to be a cop, for chrissakes.”

He fixes me with his cold gaze. “How do you know that?”

“I used to be a cop too, homicide. Right here.” It’s a dangerous admission, but near as I can tell, I’m already dead. My only hope is to reset whatever he has planned by convincing him it can’t work, even if I have to lie. “Listen, there’s already a BOLO out for this kid, Amber Alert by now too. Cops in three states are looking for him. Think about it.”

He turns his head, watches as Myra tries to make sense of the gate latch. For a moment he taps the electrolarynx against his cheek, as if he’s considering my words. When he speaks, I realize he was considering only his own. “I carried a badge, maybe. I drove a car, pulled over speeders, responded to calls. But I was never a cop.” He emits a harsh, strangled laugh. “I just played one on TV.”

I sit back. Outside, the gate latch pops. Myra swings the long arm of the gate wide. Big Ed backs out of the parking space, drives through. Behind me, I can hear Myra swearing. I don’t need to know her history to see she’s been on the crystal for a long time. Her motor skills are a distant memory. Finally she gets the gate closed and comes back to the car, slams the door as she sits down. “Mother fucking bullshit.”

“There is no need to swear in front of the boy.”

“Fuck you, Ed.”

He clenches his teeth and drives. Just past the soap box derby track he turns right onto a narrow dirt track that climbs a spur looking west toward downtown and the river. The path is steep, no wider than the old Fleetwood as it grinds upward between massive fir trees. At the top of the spur, he stops in a shallow depression filled with fir needles and moss. The car is far enough off the loop drive that we won’t be seen unless someone climbs the spur. There’s no guarantee someone won’t. I’ve walked up here more than once myself to take in the view. Big Ed doesn’t seem concerned. Far below, a jogger runs along the lower loop drive. In the distance, a pair of determined tennis players trade volleys on the courts at the far end of the reservoir. A spit of rain dots the windshield as if to punctuate our isolation.

“Now we wait.” Big Ed turns and for a moment catches my eye, a quick warning, then hands something across the back of the seat to Danny. A small portable DVD viewer. Danny takes it without comment, instantly curious. Ed presses a button and it starts to play. He hands me a pair of headphones. “Help him.”

Childhood’s most formidable mesmer. I don’t know how well Big Ed knows kids, but he’s at least foreseen that a four-year-old is likely to get restless sitting in the back seat of an unmoving car. I don’t want to make it easy for him, and hesitate. He can see the defiance in my face and gestures at the player without speaking. His eyes are hard, but it’s the tangle of scar tissue on his neck that breaks my nerve. I take the headphones.

“Here, buddy, put these on. You want to hear the show, don’t you?” The screen displays a
Spongebob
cartoon collection. It takes me a moment to figure out the player’s controls, but finally I manage to highlight Play All and hit Enter.

“Guess you couldn’t be bothered getting a TV for all of us.” Myra
manages more childish petulance in one phrase than I’ve heard in all the time I’ve known Danny.

Big Ed gives her a long stare in response. At first she returns it, but she quickly gets fidgety under his gaze. “Jesus, Ed, it was just a joke.”

“I think you are overdue for a smoke.”

She lifts her chin and for a moment I think she’s going to start screaming at him. Veins pulse at her temple and her eyes look ready to pop out of their sockets. But then she slumps, riding a crest-andcrash cycle measured in minutes.

“Fuck. Fuck fuck
fuck
.” She gets out of the car and stomps farther up the spur. I see her fish a pack of Parliaments out of her coat and fire one up. She draws hard and snaps the cigarette out of her mouth, spews smoke like spit-up. Her movements have a herky-jerky quality and I wonder when she last used. I don’t think she’s tweaking right now, which can only mean she’s anxious for a hit.

“What’s with that woman?”

“It is not your concern.”

“Listen, I get it that you’re a big bad fellow, but you don’t seem crazy. Whatever is going on, you gotta get that woman away from Danny.”

“You might have noticed she is out there and he is in here.”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“I know, and I have nothing to say to you.”

“What are we waiting for?”

He is silent for a moment. “You are a man who likes to live dangerously.”

“Jesus, Ed, look at me. I’m past my sell-by date. But this boy, he doesn’t deserve to be part of whatever you’ve got go—”

He turns on me suddenly, his mouth working furiously. All I hear is a strange hiss. Then he remembers the electrolarynx, presses it to his neck. “You know nothing of deserves.”

I sit back. Danny’s focus is on the screen in front of him, and I’m glad he doesn’t notice the anger in Ed’s face, his voice.

“We are meeting people. But not yet. So we will wait until they are ready for us. Then I will take the boy up to the summit and finish what I have started, and you will be quiet. I do not want to kill you, but I will not let you interfere.”

I believe him, at least about not letting me interfere. I’m less convinced about the killing. I could try making a run for it, but between Ed and his tweaker bitch, I won’t get far. And I won’t leave without Danny anyway. All I can do is wait, and hope. Danny sits beside me, quiet, fixated.
Spongebob
is an endless mystery to me, but he seems to like it. Outside, Myra smokes one cigarette, then another. She can’t stop moving, and I can’t take my eyes off of her. I don’t want her to get back into the car.

“I’ve got a question for you.”

“Do not ask it.”

“It’s not about any of this.”

He closes his eyes, shakes his head, but doesn’t tell me to shut up again.

“You were married to Charm?”

He tenses. “How do you know Charm?”

“I interviewed her the day after you showed up at her place looking for action three years back.”

“Why did you interview her?”

“You know why.” The Tabor Doe hadn’t been too far from here. We were on familiar ground for Big Ed Gillespie.

I hear him breathe through his nose. “And the boy? What did you do with him?”

“Not a thing. I always figured you for the shooter.”

He’s quiet for a long time. I see no reason to get into the details of the investigation. I also don’t want to discuss what happened in front of my house this morning, or my worries about where Eager
is now. I want to put him at ease while Myra is out of position to poison the air around us.

“Why do you ask about Charm?”

“Just curious is all.”

“About what?”

“Was she always that way?”

He stares out the windshield for a long moment. Then he shrugs. “Mmm-hmm.”

The cartoon flickers in the corner of my eye, and I can hear the high-pitched trill of Spongebob’s voice from the headphones. It occurs to me I should turn the volume down. Don’t want Danny to hurt his ears. But Big Ed takes that moment to return the larynx to his throat. “She used to be better looking.”

I chuckle.

“It is true. She had legs from here to the ground and tits that could put a man’s eye out. But she stole money from me. I figured the cash was long gone, but my employer found her and got her to agree to repay it on her back. Did not plan on her getting knocked up. Knowing what I know now, I can tell you it was not worth it.”

He understands my thinking better than I expected. He settles back in his seat and leans his head against the door post, closes his eyes. Outside, Myra continues pacing, continues smoking. She moves like the ground is on fire beneath her feet. Beside me, Spongebob’s voice grows louder. I turn to Danny. He’s still staring at the little video player, but he’s taken off the headphones. The light from the video screen shines on his round cheeks.