Hot Lava (20 page)

“Leverage,” I was told. “He’s still a pimp. Still gets into hot water from time to time. It also explains why his record came up clean. The police probably keep it that way on purpose.”

“So the hot water gets cooled off when he trades information?” It was Briana’s turn to ask.

Will nodded. “Seems as such. Only this time, it appears the information was too big for his own good. He either testifies or the water turns to scalding.”

“Fuck,” I fucked. “Not good.”

“Nope,” Will agreed. “Not good at all. This is a huge case, and it all turns on his testimony.”

“Which he can’t give if he’s missing,” I added.

“Or dead,” Brandon tacked on.

“And he’s at least one of the two right now,” I added some more, already building on shaky ground. “So does that mean what I fear it means?”

We all sat there in stunned silence, desperately trying to think of anything other than the inevitable. “Sorry,” Will eventually said. “I have to try and rescue him. I mean, before, when it was just him and Jed playing things out, with Koni’s safety on the line, I let it go. Had to let it go, even if it was killing me to leave Liko there like that. But now, now I have no choice. I have to try and save him. Then I still have to try and figure out who killed Lenny. And why my disappearance went unreported.” He stopped listing the impossible and then turned our way.

“What?” Brandon asked. “Do you want our help without asking for it?”

“I can’t ask for it; you know that,” he replied, a tortured look on his otherwise handsome face.

“But you can imply it, right?” asked my friend.

Will stared at us, adorably batting his eyelashes.

“Fine,” I relented, staring out to the ocean. “We’ll help. Just so long as we try our best to keep Koni safe. Meaning, Jed can’t find out about our involvement in Liko’s rescue.” I paused and looked his way. “Is that even possible now?”

He nodded and smiled. “Possible, probable, and doable,” he replied. “The way I see it, Jed really was holding me in the hope that someone would figure out that Liko was out to get him and then trade him for me. He also must’ve found out that I wasn’t a cop. Thankfully, word didn’t make its way to him that I was an agent. Strange, but I have a feeling we’ll find the
how
behind that soon enough.”

“But who did Jed think you were, then?” Briana asked.

“Just a friend of Lenny’s who was trying to prove his innocence. I couldn’t tell him that Lenny was dead, because that’s something I couldn’t have known, theoretically. That was also lucky for us, seeing as Jed didn’t know it, either. In any case, he believed me. Thinking back on it now, I guess he had little choice. Plus, he was planning on killing all of us in good time, I assume.” He stopped momentarily and grinned. “Until Chase spilled the beans. I don’t suppose there really are three letters floating around out there, are there?”

I blushed and replied, “Smart as that would’ve been, no.”

He reached over and patted my head. “Still, it worked. Thank goodness. You saved all our lives.”

I grinned, the thrill of it finally working its way to my usually addled brain. Then I turned to Brandon. “You so owe me one, dude.”

He shook his head. “You’d think so, right? But look at all those nights I saved you from boredom. The way I see it, we’re even now.”

“I’ll take that as a thanks.”

“Take it any way you like, sweetie.” He turned to face the dark ocean, finishing the remnants of his drink and then whispering, “Thanks.”

“Ditto,” said Briana, raising her now empty glass.

“Um,” ummed Will. “Yeah, thanks, but...”

I turned again to look at him, his head tilted in that adorable puppy-dog way. “Fuck,” I groaned yet again. “And I so usually like your
but
, but what was that one for? Or do I want to know?”

In the short time I’d know Will, I’d found that he wasn’t one to beat around the bush. In other words, this particular bush must’ve been more like a fucking dense forest. Needless to say, I wasn’t too far off the mark.

“We have to rescue Liko,” he reiterated.

“We know that,” I, too, reiterated.

“Only we can’t risk Jed finding out what we’re up to,” the reiteration continued.

“And we know that, too.”

“And that’s where that
but
comes in,” he told us.

“Ah,” ahed Briana.

“Ah,” echoed Brandon.

“What ah?” I asked, clearly lost (as usual).

“He means,” Briana piped in, “that we did our jobs all too well. Jed doesn’t know you and Brandon, but he knows me and Will.”

“But he does know us... oh. He only knows Judy and Liza.” I paused and digested what was being implied. “So, that means it’s up to Brandon and me to rescue Liko, if we don’t want Jed to associate any of this back to Koni. Am I getting warmer?”

“Piping hot, Chase,” replied Will, touching his finger to his nose. “Right on the spot. Only I can’t ask you and Brandon to do this.”

“So,” said I, “we need to volunteer our services, without your theoretically knowing about it.”

“Theoretically, yes,” he replied.

“But we can’t sneak up to that house again. They’ll be looking for some sort of rescue attempt; plus, Jed and his posse are probably long gone by now, on to another hideout since the last one was found,” I offered.

Will nodded. “Oh, he’s gone, all right. He’d be stupid to stay. And he’s definitely not stupid.” He paused and grinned, his perfect teeth glowing in the light of the silvery moon, which had at last made its triumphant appearance. “But careless is another issue entirely.”

I chuckled. “You know something he doesn’t know you know.”

“Exactly. Because even though he’s not stupid, his cohorts can be, as you found out, easily duped.”

I heard Brandon’s tummy growling and my own joined in the chorus. “Um, since I sense another drink coming on, can we get some food to sop up some of the alcohol? I think we’re going to need to be on our toes tomorrow,” I opined.

“Yeah,” agreed Brandon. “Then we can hear the rest. My brain needs a break from all this shit, anyway.”

“Good idea,” Will said. “Besides, there’s nothing we can do tonight.”

We stood up and headed the few dozen yards to Duke’s. We’d had luck with our plans there before; I hoped tonight would be a repeat performance.

So, arm in arm, Briana and Brandon walked on ahead. Arm in arm, Will and I did, too. And we found a nice, quiet table off in the corner, away from prying eyes and ears. Of course, we ordered drinks first. Strong ones. Then dinner. Then down to business.

“So,” I began, drinks in hand. “What did you learn from Hawaiian Thing One and Hawaiian Thing Two?”

Will smiled and took a sip of his wine, then began. “They were frequently bored and came downstairs to visit with me when Jed was out, which was often enough. Mostly, they tried preaching to me. Naturally, to keep on their good gargantuan sides, I politely listened, asked the right questions, and nodded sagely during their sermons. My guess was that they figured I’d be dead soon enough, so they better save my soul while there was still time.” I shivered at the mere thought, while Will took another sip and continued. “But in between, I asked about the house we were in and the house at the North Shore.”

“Why that?” Briana asked.

He grinned. “I figured, should I escape or otherwise get out of there alive, I might need the information for later.”

“Later being now,” I interjected.

“Yep,” Will said. “Plus, I was curious how he kept his cover the two times that we know about.”

“And?” anded Brandon.

“And,” he continued, “he didn’t need to rent or borrow them. The houses were broken into. Sort of.”

It was my turn to interrupt. “And how does one ‘sort of’ break into a house?”

The meals came, hot dishes of local flavor. We ate and drank with gusto. In between chomps and slurps, Will replied, “Jed’s better customers let him know when they’re out of town, should he need to lay low for awhile or if he needs to entertain rich clients that are looking for a discreet getaway. They leave the keys hidden someplace that only Jed knows about. If Jed uses the house, the key is replaced and turned upside down. The owner knows Jed has been there and then calls the police to say he’s been broken into.”

“Genius,” Briana said. “Then, if there’s any trouble down the road, the owner can claim complete ignorance.”

“Even better,” Will added. “Jed brings his own security cameras, so he never gets caught unawares. And he wipes the place down for fingerprints afterward. A perfect setup. Free luxurious accommodations that are untraceable by the police. He never uses the same place twice, he always has the next one planned ahead for, and then the one after that.”

I snapped my fingers. “Holy crap,” I nearly shouted. “We were in the next one, and you found out where the one after that is located.”

He reached over and squeezed my hand, sending a warm flush across my cheeks. “Exactly, Chase,” he said. “And it was super easy to find out. So long as I was willing to hear their Mormon teachings, they were willing to answer my questions, which I asked in a merely curious way. I never asked who owned the house or what Jed’s connections to the owners were, so they didn’t get suspicious. And when I said how amazing the house we were in was, they casually mentioned how the next one was even more unusual, built into the very side of Diamond Head, overlooking the ocean far below.”

“But how do we find it?” I asked. “There’s gotta be dozens of houses ringing the mountain. Hundreds, even.”

He took a few more bites of his meal, nodding as he did so. “What set the other two houses apart, Chase?” he asked.

I tried to recall something that stood out about them. “Well, they were both remote, off the beaten path, houses the average person wouldn’t be driving by.”

“Yep. But the houses around Diamond Head, at least around its base, are all off the same one or two roads. Perhaps fenced in, walled off by trees, maybe, but your neighbors could still see your comings and goings. Unless...”

“Unless you had no neighbors?” I asked, finishing his train of thought.

He smiled again, lighting up the entire room. “An old ranger station. As a public park, no one is allowed to live up there, but the property is still used for state ceremonies. It’s closed for the next few months while the road leading up to it is being upgraded, the land manicured.”

“So no traffic at all right now?” Brandon asked.

“Not even reachable by car, for the time being,” Will replied. “A perfect temporary hideout, if you have the right connections.”

“Which, of course, Jed has plenty of,” I said.

“Apparently,” Will agreed. “In any case, that’s where Jed is headed. Perhaps already is. And hopefully with Liko, still alive.”

It was then that our little gathering went silent. Briana was pointing to the bar, which was sitting off at a diagonal to us, though we still had it in our line of vision. That is to say, Briana did. We looked at what she was pointing at and our jaws simultaneously dropped.

The bar had two large television screens above it. Generally, I figured, they aired sporting events. Only, whatever had been playing at that very moment had been suddenly replaced by the local news.

“Well,” I managed, my neck craned around to watch in disbelief, “that explains why Sergeant Beles didn’t report Will’s abduction and why Jed didn’t know that Will is an agent.”

“Yep,” agreed Briana. “Dead men tell no tales. But how? He must’ve been murdered right after you left, giving him no time to report anything to Will’s superiors or to Jed. Meaning...”

“Meaning,” I interrupted, “he wasn’t the bad guy, either. Or at least not the one we were looking for. How many square ones can we be back to?”

We turned our heads away from the bar. “Not square one,” Will corrected. “We do know more than we did before. Maybe after we rescue Liko, we’ll have the needed missing information. That guy seems to have more connections than Ma Bell.”

“True,” I said, “but how do we get to him? If the hideouts were well-guarded before, this one will be doubly so. We can’t possibly sneak in this time.”

“Then we don’t sneak,” Briana chimed in, with a mischievous grin spreading from ear to ear.

I noticed her staring off into the distance and I followed her gaze. “Ma Bell,” I echoed.

The rest of the table looked over as well. “What a lucky coincidence,” added Will.

“What?” Brandon asked. “I see two guys in jumpsuits. What’s lucky about that? We get to offer them some fashion advice?” He squinted, and then added, “Oh.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Oh. Way to go Einstein.”

He grimaced and replied with, “Costumes, ugh. Last time I wore a onesie, I was in diapers. Anyway, how do we get them off their backs and onto ours?”

We paused until Briana’s smile grew even brighter. “Feminine persuasion,” she purred, standing up and pushing her chair away from the table. “If I’m not back in ten minutes, come rescue me.”

“It’s them I’m worried about,” I hollered after her.

To which she hollered back, over her shoulder, “Good point.”

We watched as the two telephone repairmen disappeared into a back room, with Briana following close behind. My heart thumped nervously inside my chest, but when it came to Briana, I generally had faith -- well-deserved faith.

Needless to say, I wasn’t disappointed this time, either.

She emerged not eight minutes later, well within her allotted time, with a smile on her face and two pairs of workmen jumpsuits in hand. She dumped them on the table and downed the drink we had waiting for her. With a satisfied wipe across her full lips, she proclaimed, “Mission accomplished.”

“But how?” Will asked, clearly unfamiliar with her prowess.

She grinned and cupped her tits. “Lethal weapons,” she replied.

“You showed them to the telephone repairmen in exchange for their work clothes?” he asked.

“Gets ‘em every time,” said she.

Will shook his head. “Wait,” said he. “Just for the promise of seeing your, um,
breasts
, they gave you their clothes?”

She nodded. “Sort of.”

And then I, too, nodded knowingly. “They’re unconscious back there, aren’t they?”