G'Day USA (17 page)

The one skater still standing took a swing at him. He shrugged off the feeble attack, elbowing the young skater in the head. He looked around. The crowd was thick. There were dozens of witnesses, iPhones and smart phones capturing video of the event. ‘Fuck off the lot of you. He asked for it.’ He flipped them the bird and ran down one of the side alleys.

‘
Well, that was fun.’ Adrenaline coursed through his veins. He looked back at the scene he left. The crowd was still focused on the mess in the skate park bowl. Sirens were approaching, ambulance and police. ‘Time to be elsewhere.’ He rolled his shoulders and flexed his hands. ‘That felt great.’ He stretched out his neck. ‘Now where’s that bitch?’ He turned another corner and used the app on his phone to log into her account and selected ‘find my mobile’. After a minute of searching the application reported that the phone was offline.

‘
Shit. The fucking thing is still off.’

E
mily held a napkin to the young man’s head. ‘Henry, get me some ice.’ She patted the young man on the back and pulled her hand back as she winced. ‘Sorry. You’ll be fine. The ambulance is not far away. Did you know that man? Why did he do this?’ She took the ice from her husband, wrapped the cloth around it and held it to the young man’s head.

He winced. ‘Some bat-shit crazy dude I’ve never seen before. What the hell was his problem?’

‘
He seemed crazed.’

‘
Yeah, that’s what I mean by bat-shit crazy. He took out four of us. Dude’s doped up. And he’s not even that big.’ He looked up at Emily. ‘Did you see it?’

She shook her head. ‘I was in the kitchen. I heard the ruckus, but by the time I came out he was just leaving, hightailing it down the lane.’

‘
So you saw him? You could identify him?’

‘
There were enough videos of the fight. I’m sure the police will be able to identify him. Do you have anyone you should call?’

‘
Nah. I’m good. My folks are going to kill me as it is.’

A pair of medics took over from Emily. She walked back to the entrance of the cafe shaken and concerned. ’Henry, it didn’t used to be like this.’

He shook his head. ‘This wasn’t normal. I’ve seen the odd push and shove in the park, and an occasional mugging, but that, that was psycho. Is the boy all right?’

‘
He seemed lucid. No blurred vision. He wanted to leave. I think he should be in school and is in for a bit of trouble at home.’

‘
Parents who don’t know where their kids are, are probably too thick to notice the young man has a gash on his head. He was the worse, right?’

‘
Bumps and bruises for the rest. Surprised four of them couldn’t defend themselves against a single attacker. They were big kids.’

Henry smiled. ‘I didn’t see it, but I can guess. These kids in the park are more likely to smoke weed than anything else. Fighting is the last thing they would want to do.’ He hugged his wife. ‘Relax. You’re tense. The guy is gone. I don’t think we’ll see him again.’

She looked up at him. ‘You didn’t get a look at him, did you?’

‘
No. Why?’

‘
I didn’t see him from the front, just the back, but I got the feeling I knew him from somewhere.’

Chapter Fifteen

I was getting too hot. A couple of people had glanced at me over the past couple of hours like they thought they knew me. I disguised my hair, had picked up a horribly-priced pair of sunglasses from one of the carts along the boardwalk and had my hat pulled down low. But I couldn’t disguise my height.

I had turned my phone off to conserve battery about half an hour after talking to Kent. Marty would be wondering about me. What in the hell was I going to do? Someone else killed -
killed
- Bart and I needed to figure out who. I needed to exploit Kent’s friend on the inside. If I knew what the police knew, I could better understand why they found the case so compelling. Kent said he was going to call at noon. My source of time was the thing I had turned off. I went up to a hot dog vendor and ordered a dog and a drink.

‘
Buddy, have you got the time?’

He glanced at the sun. ‘About noon.’

‘
You don’t have a watch?’

‘
Sure do. It says about noon too. You want sauerkraut on this?’

‘
No, that’s good.’ I paid him and took my
not
A-list food to the beach wall and sat looking at the ocean. Still hiding in plain sight. Like a tree. I turned on my phone and waited for the flood of text messages imploring me to turn myself in.

The first one through was from a number I didn’t recognize.

“
Your running, but your not hiding very well. We’ll find U”

Hard to take a threat seriously when they can’t distinguish “your” from “you’re”.

There were two more from Marty, each more desperate than the previous. One from Cathy telling me to call her and that she’d help and one from her asshole boyfriend Bernie. I didn’t bother reading that one.

Cathy would help. Of that I had no doubt. We hadn’t talked much, but she had my back 100% when Sweeney was trying to kill me a year and a half ago. I was stupid. If I’d pressed
those
charges, instead of just going for the case of Joel’s murder, he’d still be in jail, I wouldn’t be on the run, and I’d be having lunch right now with Favreau and Tom Hanks. A lunch a hell of a lot better than this.

Someone sat beside me. I avoided looking over in case they recognized me.

Wasn’t necessary. It was Danny.

‘
Hey, Elle. What’s shaking?’

‘
Jesus, mate. Lower your voice, okay? I’m on the lam, remember?’

‘
Sure do. That’s why I’m sitting beside you. Nothing sticks out more than a beautiful girl eating alone. That stuff you’re eating will kill you, you know that, right?’

‘
We all die, Danny.’

‘
Only crazy people want to accelerate the process.’

‘
Maybe I’m crazy.’

He laughed and shook his head. ‘No one in this entire fucking city is saner. Hey, did you see the new thing I put in my gig?’

I shook my head. ‘Been kinda distracted. What is it?’

‘
I’ve got this new puppy. A gorgeous black lab. I call him Damien which is funny because he’s the sweetest, cuddliest animal you’ve ever met. So I hold him up and show the audience, walking around and letting the kiddies pet him. And some of the hot girls because, hey, guys and puppies, right? And then when I reach in my bag of tricks to pull out the bowling ball, I swap him for a very real looking stuffed dog. Nobody ever notices the switch because, you know, I’m fucking amazing. Then I juggle the puppy, bowling ball and running chainsaw and the crowd absolutely looses it. I finish by picking out a middle-aged woman and throwing the puppy at her. More than one think it’s dead. I have had to pull the real deal out of the bag a couple of times now to stop a riot.’ He laughed. ‘Brilliant, no?’

I groaned and shook my head. ‘You’re going to get arrested one of these days. The bag big enough for the puppy?’

‘
It is for now. This will only work for the next couple of months and then he’s going to be too big. He loves it in there, though.’ He shifted on the wall, moving a smidgen closer. ‘So, I’ve got to get going back and earn some coin. What are you doing for the rest of the day, besides keeping your gorgeous head down?’

‘
I’m waiting for a call from that friend who has a friend in the police department in the Valley. He’s trying to find out as much about the case as he can. If I know as much as the cops do, then maybe I can figure out why they’re so damned intent on only looking at me for this.’

‘
You trust him?’

‘
We worked together before and both of us suffered under Sweeney. He’s a fellow Australian I’ve known for years.’

‘
You didn’t answer the question.’

I thought about Kent. All he’d been through, still acting where he could and doing the best he could, and nodded. ‘Yeah, I do.’

‘
Okay then. Have your phone call and come and see my puppy act.’ He reached over and gave me a side-to-side, brother type hug, hopped off the wall and wandered back to his setup.

And on cue, my phone rang. But it wasn’t Kent.

‘
Hey, Charlie. I can’t talk. I’m expecting a call.’

‘
What? Where are you?’

‘
Seriously Charlie. I’m in the wild with no charger and limited talk time. I’ve got to go.’ I terminated the call and impatiently kicked at the wall with my heels, waiting for Kent.

The time on my phone was 12:17 when it rang.

‘
Ellie?’

‘
Kent, did you find out what I asked?’

‘
Wow. You charging that thing somewhere? I’ve got a ton of news.’

‘
No, I turned off all the non-phone stuff. No Wi-Fi, location services, even turned off the mobile data. Voice only. And then I turned it off after I talked to you last. So give it up. What did you find out?’

‘
Stevie works in the homicide department as a records clerk. She’s a good friend. I know what she tells me is true. And it doesn’t look good.’

I slid off the wall and sat in the sand, leaning back against it. ‘Tell me.’

‘
Apparently Perkins is very conscious about the mistake he made with Joel’s death, thinking it was a suicide when it wasn’t. They discounted the suicide angle very quickly. They have your gun. You had a gun?’

‘
I’ve never had to really use it. It’s more of a security blanket.’

‘
Well they have it now, and ballistics match it to the bullet in Sweeney’s head.’

‘
So someone stole my gun.’

‘
There’s also the earring, a couple strands of long blonde hair and a witness who saw you leaving Bart’s place the night he was killed.’

‘
No.’ I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the wall. ‘Not possible. I was here. I was home.’

‘
You’re home now? Are you crazy?’

‘
No, I’m not home now.’ I chewed my lip. ‘Tell me about the witness.’

‘
An Indian lady visiting a friend walked past the house on the way to the bus stop and saw you. She picked you out of a photo line-up.’

‘
She’s mistaken. My face is on half the billboards in town. Of course she picked me out. Casino Indian or Dell tech support Indian?’

‘
Dell.’

‘
Okay. We all look alike, right?’

Kent laughed. ‘I’m just repeating what I heard. But it doesn’t sound good, does it?’

‘
Shit, Kent.’ I looked at my phone. There was a new text message. ‘I’ve got to go. This battery isn’t going to last forever. Thanks for all your help. I need to hunker down somewhere and think.’

‘
No problem. Hey, you’re not the only one fucked over by this. Charlie and I had a deal in this new movie he was making.’

‘
They’re still going to make it, right?’

‘
I don’t know. Charlie’s talking to them today about taking the director’s role. I guess if he gets it I’m still in. If they go for someone else though, I’m pretty sure we’re out.’

‘
In the grand scheme of things in my life, that doesn’t rate. Sorry. I’ve got to go.’ I hung up and looked at the text. It was from Cathy again. I sighed and called her

‘
Oh my God, Ellie?’

‘
Hey, Cathy. What’s new?’

‘
Jesus, girl. What the hell have you gotten yourself in to? The news on TV is getting worse.’

‘
Deep shit, it would appear.’

‘
Anything I can do to help?’

‘
I don’t want to get you involved in this. I’m sure they’re looking at my phone records and they’ll be by to talk to you shortly. I don’t want you to have to lie for me, so I’m not going to tell you where I am.’

‘
You can’t survive out there on your own. They’re going to find you eventually.’

‘
You’re probably right. I’ve got a friend who is helping me out. For now, anyway. I’m sure the cops will be sitting on him soon.’

‘
Who is he?’

‘
An old Australian mate. He’s got a friend inside the police. A Stevie someone who works as records clerk. She’s feeding him what the cops have and he’s relaying it on to me. At least we’ll be on a level playing field.’

‘
Until they catch on. You trust him?’

‘
Second time in fifteen minutes I’ve been asked. Yes I do.’

‘
But you don’t trust me.’

‘
I trust you more, but I’m not going to get you involved in this.’

‘
You already have. Hang up Ellie. And tell me you’re in Oxnard.’

‘
I’ll tell you first, then I’ll hang up. I’m in Oxnard.’

‘
Cool. I won’t be lying when I tell them that you told me you were in Oxnard.’

I laughed. ‘Cath, I love you. Too bad you’re stuck with Bernie. I’d be by more often.’

‘
Discussion for another day. Stay safe.’

She hung up. I looked at the beach and considered my next steps. I needed to get the witness’s name and contact her somehow. Clearly she really didn’t see me at Bernie’s place. I hadn’t been there. I texted Kent, asking for the lady’s name. I needed to meet her face to face.