Gumshoe Gorilla (22 page)

"Do what you can," Drew said. "I'll drive around and see if I can pick him up when he comes out the far side."

"Good luck."

I reached the sidewalk, jumped the low chain that marks the edge of the park, and landed in the grass. I made it all of ten feet before the trees screened out the streetlights and I was in pitch blackness. Biting my tongue, I counted the seconds as I waited for my eyes to adjust.

1, 2, 3. Charles was getting further away with every second. And I was still blind.

6,7,8. The first thing I could see were momentary flickers of silver, moonlight filtering through the trees.

15,16,17. I could make out the sparkling gray of the leaf canopy and the black outlines of branches.

21,22,23. My eyes found the critical difference between the pitch black silhouettes of the trees around me, and the deep blue of the world beyond them. I set off, moving as quietly as I could and as quickly as I dared.

I had no idea which way Charles had gone. So I just plowed straight ahead, towards the center of the park. I climbed a small hill, and then skirted the edge of a playground bathed in moonlight. But there was no sign of my quarry. He could be anywhere by now.

OK. Time for a different approach. I knelt and pressed my palms to the earth. I reached out, feeling the endless power of the Mother, and drew some of it up into myself. I exhaled, feeling my connection to the air around me, the wind which breathes life into the world. In answer, a breeze came up, stirring my hair. I turned off my throat mike.

"The night is my ally," I whispered. "The darkness is my friend. I call it to me, that it may whisper its secrets."

I emptied my mind, waiting for an answer. Waiting.... Waiting...

And then it finally came. Off to my right, the sound of hard-soled shoes hitting concrete. I took off in pursuit of it. No longer hesitant and stumbling in the dark, but swimming through the night like a shark.

It only took me a moment to find the paved footpath. It ran like a tunnel through the trees. Moonlight found its way in here and there, landing in pools like rain. Ahead, I saw a man walking quickly away. I followed him, silent as a shadow.

It was just like capture the flag when I was a kid. Sneaking around the woods after dark, my footsteps light as mist on the ground. Sometimes I could see him outlined in moonlight, sometimes I could only follow him by the click of his shoes on the pavement.

He took the path down to the lake, and then circled it slowly, stopping frequently. He was looking for something. I moved in closer, wanting to know what it was. So close that I could have reached out and touched him. And still he didn't know I was there.

Suddenly, he seemed to find what he was looking for. He stepped off the path, and pushed his way through some bushes. I slipped over to the spot where he had disappeared, and listened. He'd stopped. There was no more crashing of bushes. But I could hear his breathing. Heavy breathing. Then the soft sound of a kiss. Lips on flesh. A gasp. The rustling of clothes being hastily removed.

So Charlie Boy was gonna have his rendezvous right here in the park? Jeez, you'd think that someone with all his money could at least spring for a motel room. Well, time to find out who his mystery date was. Poor Skye. I was not looking forward to breaking this to her.

I had a small video-recorder in my pocket, but I hadn't brought the night vision attachment. Luckily, I also had one of my little spy cameras with a high speed flash. What the heck. I wasn't feeling particularly subtle, anyway.

I shoved my way through the bushes.

"Nice night, eh Charles?" I said.

The first flash went off and I saw a pair of male bodies.

Holy shit.

Then the second flash went off, and I saw a pair of surprised men's faces looking in my direction. A pair of men's faces that I had never seen before in my life.

"Uh... oops. Sorry boys. As you were."

I backed out through the bushes. My night vision was thoroughly screwed again, but I stumbled along the path for a few feet, trying to put some distance between me and... whoever those two naked guys were.

I found a bench, sat down on it, and turned my throat mic back on.

"So tell me Drew-- is this park by any chance a gay pickup zone?"

"Oh yeah," Drew said. "I thought you knew."

"They must have left it out of the tourist brochures. Anyway, I lost Charlie. Confusion in the dark. Way too many hunky men wandering around this park at night."

"That's OK, I think I've found what he's heading for. There's a limo parked down on Dutch Valley, where it dead ends into the east end of the park."

"That's got to be him!" I said. "Why else would a limo be there?"

"My thinking. How fast can you get here?"

"Fast enough," I said.

"Good, I'm a block up the street from them, in the parking lot for an animal clinic."

"On my way!" I took a second to get my bearings, then ran off through the darkness in the direction of Dutch Valley. Around the lake. Up the road. Across the soccer field.

"Wait a second," Drew said. "I see him coming."

"Not yet! I'm almost there!"

I went into a full sprint, not wanting to be left behind. I reached out, trusting the night to guide me. I raced through the darkness like a deer. My feet flying over the ground. My body one with the night. My breath one with the...

THUD

...ground. A root caught my foot and I went face down into the turf. Mother Nature's way of keeping me humble, I guess. I stood up, spit the grass out of my mouth, and resumed my previous course. A little slower, this time.

The limo was still there when I got to the edge of the park. One of those oversized stretch jobs that you could fit an entire high school marching band into, if that was your thing. I circled around it and made my way up the street to the animal clinic. I found my midnight blue Vesta parked under a tree in a corner of the lot. Drew was sitting behind the wheel, with a pair of binoculars around his neck and a rifle mic pointing out the window. I climbed in the passenger side.

"You made good time," he said, glancing in my direction. "Can't say that I like the new herbal makeup, though."

I rubbed a grass stain off my face and grabbed the binoculars away from him. I looked over the limo, but the windows were dark and I couldn't see anything. I tried boosting the optical gain. That brought out some details in the shadows around the vehicle, but still wouldn't let me see what was going on inside it.

"So where's Charles?" I asked. "Did he get in the limo?"

"Yeah. A couple of times."

"A couple...? Oh. One of the other clones is here?"

"Yep. Remind me not to take cases involving five identical brothers again."

"But why would he be going through all this just to meet with one of his brothers? They can talk anytime."

"You tell me. You're the expert on these boys."

I racked my brain, but I couldn't think of any reason that made sense.

"Well what are they talking about?" I asked.

Drew shrugged.

"No idea. The limo's soundproofed. I caught a snatch of conversation when the second clone arrived and the door opened, but nothing too interesting. Just "Hello, how was the walk over" kind of stuff.

I caught a glimpse of something moving in the darkness beyond the limo. I bumped up the gain on the binoculars another couple of notches. And saw another one of the Rocklands.

"And here comes another one," I said. "What are they all up to?"

"I don't know," Drew answered. "Some sort of top secret family reunion?"

The third clone reached the limo, and the door opened to let him in. Drew's rifle mic picked up another fragment of conversation.

"...he is. Hey Doug! Any trouble getting here?"

"Nah. I slipped out the..."

The door closed, and we lost the rest. A second later the limo fired up its engine, flipped on its headlights, and started moving.

Drew and I ducked down as it passed us. We let it get down the street and around the corner before Drew turned on the Vesta and took off after them. He caught the limo again heading south on Monroe, and settled into a nice tailing position, keeping a couple of cars between us and it. Great thing about a limo is that it's a big target, easy to keep in sight.

We paced it for three miles, as it drove into downtown Atlanta, and finally stopped in front of the Omni Hotel. A chauffeur, Asian and in his fifties, got out and walked into the lobby. Drew picked up the rifle mic, and I grabbed the good camera with the telephoto lens off the back seat.

The chauffeur returned a moment later, and held the door for a woman: attractive, blond, late thirties, and wearing an expensive dress. I mean a
really
expensive dress. It was one of those numbers with the "smart beads" that you can program to change colors. Right now it was running a waterfall pattern. Ripples of blue and white running down her body, accentuating her curves. I already hated her. I managed to snap three photos as she sprinted from the lobby and dove into the back seat. Drew's rifle mic picked up giggling as the door slammed.

The limo started moving again, heading north this time, and we resumed our tailing position. I called up the photos of the woman on my palmtop and had a look at them.

"Did you get a decent face shot?" Drew asked. "

Yeah. Just one. She turned her head for a second while she was running down the stairs."

"Who is she? Someone from the show?"

I shook my head.

"Not that I recognize."

"Well, we can try running her picture by the desk clerk at the Omni. See if he'll give us her name in exchange for a few bucks. A woman in a dress like that should be easy to remember."

The limo continued north, through Midtown, then up "Sin Street"-- Cheshirebridge, where all the low rent strip clubs and "lingerie modeling" shops are located. Finally, it turned down a side street and parked in front of an old strip mall that had been converted into one of the "IN" nightclubs,
The Masque
. It was one of those mixed clubs, where trendiness supersedes any particular sexual orientation.

It was also where Brian Davis had taken me on our third date.

The limo driver got out and held the door open. The woman in the pricey dress stepped out wearing a feathered mask. She was followed by the three brothers: One in a wolf mask, one in a horse mask, and one wearing a hawk mask.

"Of course," I said. "It makes sense. This is the only place in town that they can go out dancing and not be recognized."

The foursome confidently skipped the long line of patrons waiting to get in and went straight to the doorman. He gave them a quick glance and then waved them through. Even without knowing exactly who they were, a limo, a ten thousand dollar dress, and designer silk shirts all added up to "big spenders."

Drew and I looked at each other.

"How do you want to play it?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. You ever been in this place?"

"Uh... yeah," I admitted. "Once."

"Think we can get in?"

I looked at Drew. Jeans and a white T-shirt. That was not gonna cut it. And my outfit wasn't much better. After all, the whole idea when you're tailing someone is to wear an ensemble that
won't
get you noticed.

Then an idea occurred to me.

"Hm. I think we can. But it will take a little work."