Minders (36 page)

Ford laughed. He grabbed her wrist and twisted it until the knife fell into his other hand. “Tell me what happened to my brother.” He held the knife by the side of his leg, not outright threatening, but there.

“I don’t know,” Plum said, her eyes going from the knife to his face. “The day after I got back from my trip I heard something ringing in the couch and found the phone. It was you calling, actually.”

Raw pain struck Ford, and hazy images formed of him alone on a street corner, in the shadows of the living room, in the morning at work, by the lake, dialing James’s phone just to hear his voice. “James. Message. Bye,” playing an endless loop in his mind.

“That’s how you got my number,” he said, shaking off the memory.
So it had been the right wrong question
, Sadie thought.

Plum nodded.

“Why did you keep the phone? And keep it charged? I stopped calling because I figured it would be disconnected.”

Plum’s eyes went behind him. “Sometimes I like to make calls I don’t want anyone to know about.”

Ford nodded sagely. “Must be hard having to sneak around. Your sugar daddy is a resourceful guy. His thugs found me in the middle of—”

“I told you, there is no
daddy
about it,” Plum interrupted him, but Ford wasn’t listening. He was thinking about his question when he regained consciousness, how the thugs who told him to stay away from Plum had found him at the tree house.

The chip
, Sadie breathed, her thoughts keeping time with his. Of course. Just like the gunmen at the theater. The Pharmacist’s men. Which meant—

“Your patron is the Pharmacist,” Ford said.

Plum twisted her hair to one side. “You’re boring me. I’d like you to leave now.”

Ford toyed with the handle of the knife in his hand. “Can I meet him?”

“I’m going to call security.”

We should go
, Sadie urged silently.

“He murdered James,” Ford said.

Plum picked up her phone and dialed. “Please send a security officer up to my apartment. I have an unwanted guest.”

“Don’t you care? Even a little?” Ford demanded.

“He has a knife,” Plum said into the phone. “Yes, right away.” She hung up and her mouth twisted into a bitter smile. “You think you’re the only one who cared about James? You didn’t even know him. He loved me more than he loved you.”

“Right,” Ford grunted.

Plum’s eyes flashed triumphantly. “He was going to run away with me to Paris. Did you know that?”

“Sure he was,” Ford said. Thinking,
Not likely since James didn’t even have a passport.

“That’s why I was in Paris when he died. James was supposed to meet me there two days later.” Plum bit her lip. “He was going to set me free. And we were going to have breakfast together every morning for the rest of our lives.”

Sadie heard Ford thinking that the setting-free part sounded like Lulu’s story about James slaying the monster. Only her version didn’t end with James leaving them and moving to France with the monster’s mistress.

Security is on the way up. You should go
, Sadie thought.

Plum held Ford’s eyes as if daring him to look away or disbelieve her. Ford stared back at her levelly, but his mind was churning. Could it be true? Had James been ready to abandon them?

Ford said, “If you loved James so much, why are you protecting his murderer?”

Plum’s eyes hardened, becoming two glittering dark stones. “You don’t know anything about love.”

There was a heavy knock on the door. “This is Security Officer Milan. We had a call from this apartment. Are you all right, ma’am?”

Go
,
Sadie urged.

Ford ignored the knocking. “I’m going to get him,” he told Plum. “I’ll make sure he pays for what he did.”

Plum gave a high, brittle laugh. “Not if he gets you first.” Beneath the hardness in her eyes, Sadie saw a glimmer of something else: fear.

Another knock. “Ma’am? I’m coming in.” They heard the sound of a keycard sliding into the front door lock, and Sadie yelled,
What are you waiting for
?

Ford growled at the sound of her voice, but he listened. He crossed to the back door, ran down four flights, and called the elevator from the fifty-ninth floor. He rode all the way to the garage and was already on the street when the two security guys with their walkie-talkies burst out of the stairwell.

He had no idea how he was going to get home, but he started walking, and Sadie heard him thinking he wanted to get as far as possible from that nutcase.

You mean the one you had sex with
, she thought, but did not say out loud. A white van passed him and he stiffened, like muscle memory, until it drove by.

“Ice!” a voice shouted from behind him.

Ford’s head swung around, suspicion and anger flaring to life. It dispersed when he saw that it was Willy calling him from the driver’s seat of an old yellow Camaro.

“Get in, man,” Willy said, throwing open the door. “You’re in trouble. Big trouble. They’ve been looking for you all night.”

“Who?” Sadie felt Ford’s mind scanning Willy for signs of deception. Out of the corner of his eye Sadie saw another white van turn onto the street. “Why?”

“Get in the car. If you’re with me they won’t be able to track you and you’ll be safe, at least for a little while. It’s the only chance you have.” Willy looked over his shoulder. Another white van went by. “They ordered a large with anchovies for you.”

“A what?”

“Large means the recipient is an adult male. Anchovies means he should swim with the fishes. Which means—”

“I know what that means,” Ford said, getting into the car.

CHAPTER 29

W
here are we going?” Ford asked as Willy careened through the streets.

“I have a little bolt-hole. Nothing fancy, but should be comfortable enough. That okay with you, Citizen?”

Sadie counted a fifth white van.

“Yes, absolutely,” Ford said, as Willy floored it through an intersection. “You sounded like Bucky just then.”

Willy laughed. “Guess I did. Funny how things come bubbling up.” He stepped on the gas, taking a corner on two wheels.

Ford gripped the armrest. “When you said
they
ordered a large with anchovies you meant—”

“From the top.” Willy pointed at the ceiling. “Rush too. But don’t worry, if we stick close together, you’ll be okay.” He reached out and patted Ford’s leg. “Granted, it’s only a short-term fix.”

“Why are you helping me?”

Willy swerved across four lanes of traffic. “You’re smarter than those other guys, but you never hold it over people.” Horns blared. “Always liked that about you.”

Sadie felt a lick of the warm, golden caramel feeling that was Ford’s friendship. It made him think of Mason.
Was he all right?

“I did that demo work with James for a while,” Willy went on. Traffic had thinned, and he was weaving in and out smoothly. “Couldn’t stomach it. Wanted to build something, not destroy it. Seems like you understand that.”

Sadie heard Ford wonder how he hadn’t really known Willy before, and think that James had been in front of him, in front of everyone, the whole time. He needed his own friends now.

Bright, new images popped up in his mind, tiny dots forming precise outlines of houses restored, parks built, a girl—

Willy made a sharp turn and slammed on his brakes.

“Here we are. Home sweet home.” He’d pulled up alongside a gray stone building, parking next to a blue Porsche. “Former home of Woodland Baptist. Now home to yours truly.” Willy tapped his chest proudly.

“The Porsche yours too?” Ford asked.

Willy grinned. “Just holding it for a friend.”

They went around the back to the door of the chancellery. It had been beautifully refinished and buffed to a high gloss. “Did you do this?” Ford asked, running his palm lovingly over the wood.

Willy nodded. “Did all the woodwork myself. Left the front shabby so no one gets ideas.” He punched a number into a keypad and the door clicked open.

They stepped into the cool, silent interior of the nave of the church. The pews had been removed, and the place was stacked with boxes of coffeemakers, salad spinners, curlers, Tupperware, and an inflatable pool. The boxes formed a corridor seven feet high that wound through the nave around other stacks of phone chargers, the complete Shakespeare collection, and a bulk of toilet paper.

Sadie felt nervous, and she was glad when the hair on the back of Ford’s neck began to prickle.
Willy may be a friend, but he’s clearly a troubled friend
.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Ford said, and it was true.

“I like to know I have everything under control,” Willy explained. “If anything happens, I got what I need to handle it.”

What is the inside of his mind like?
Sadie wondered.

Sadie heard Ford wanting to ask what situation called for six popcorn poppers, but he didn’t.

The trail ran past Chia Pets, YourLastMop, and a ship-in-a-bottle kit, toward a room at the back, separated from the nave by a partition.

“This must have taken a ton of work,” Ford said.

Willy looked genuinely pleased. “Yeah. Not many people see all this. Sort of a private hobby, I guess you could say.”

Sparkplugs, rubber bands, grow-your-own tomatoes—Ford looked up and realized Willy was halfway to the door in the back wall. He rushed forward to catch up to him. “Don’t we have to stay within three feet of each other?”

Willy turned around, frowning blankly, then his face cleared. “Oh, because of the chips. Nah, that doesn’t matter here.”

“Why not?” Ford asked.

“I have a surprise for you.”

The hair prickled on the back of Ford’s neck more. “Why doesn’t it matter?” He followed Willy through the door into a big office, only partially filled with boxes. A large maple desk sat in the middle with a television behind it and a Crock-Pot beside it. The Crock-Pot was on, and the dried-out smell of three-day-old chili filled the air.

“You hungry?” Willy asked.

Ford shook his head, looking for a place to sit between the Accu-Lawn garden sprinklers, childproof knife set, beige cowboy hat, Miracle Ear hearing aid, drill—

The hat.
Ford grabbed it and looked inside.

It was lined with tinfoil and had magnets taped around the edge.
Unquestionably Bucky’s
, Ford thought.

“Where did you get this?” he asked Willy.

“Right off Bucky’s head, would you believe. Was wearing it when they brought him in to chat.” He winked at Ford. “I have you to thank for that. Never would have found him if he hadn’t been so gung ho about talking to you.”

Willy is the Pharmacist
,
Sadie said aloud, before she caught herself.

Ford flinched, then said, “You’re the Pharmacist.” His mind entered a state of suspended animation, as though disbelief had wrapped all his thoughts in cotton.

Willy smiled and took a little bow. “That I am.”

It makes perfect sense,
Sadie thought to herself. Willy was always the butt of everyone’s jokes, but really the joke had been on them.

Ford, still struggling to grasp everything, stuck with monosyllables. “How?”

“I’m the brains behind the operation. Or, I suppose I should say, the brains behind the brains,” Willy chuckled. “They all answer to me. Have a seat.”

“I’m fine standing,” Ford said.

“Sit the hell down,” Willy thundered, towering over him. The whites of his eyes showed, and his teeth were bared.

Ford sat. Instantly, Willy was back to his old self, retreating behind his desk. “That’s better. You wanted to see the Pharmacist. The Pharmacist is in.” He spread his hands. “What can I do for you?”

Ford’s thoughts were jumbled, and he had no idea where to begin. He stared at Willy’s familiar face, trying to make any of it make sense. “Why call yourself the Pharmacist?”

“MRP,” Willy said. He had a blue aluminum baseball bat propped on his thigh, resting his chin on the end. “Mr. Pharmacist. Keeping the civil body healthy and in good working order.”

“Through violence.”

“Most natural thing in the world,” Willy told him. “Violence is the way of animals from birth on. Can’t have order without violence. Everything worth having has violence in it.”

“But people only do what you say because you’re using mind control,” Ford said.

“Not at all,” Willy objected, sounding almost hurt. “It’s an incentive-based system. People do what we want, and we give them what they secretly desire. Or they don’t, and we give them what they most fear. It’s up to them.”

Ask how they know what desires and fears to use
, Sadie said.

Shut up
, Ford ordered. But he said, “How do you know what incentives will work?”

“From the chips,” Willy answered vaguely. “It’s a complicated process.”

He’s hedging
, Sadie said.
Push him for specifics.

Ford ignored her. “What about why you killed James? Is that complicated?”

Willy frowned, his eyes drifting around the room. “Who says I killed him? Lots of people wanted him dead. You, for one. He slept with your girlfriend. Don’t look surprised, you knew that.” The eyes now honed in on Ford. “Hell, he practically let you
drown
. He thought he was so great, but he wasn’t anything.”

Ford’s mind tightened, like an old-fashioned toy being wound by a key. “So why bother with him?”

Willy sat back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk, slapping the bat against his palm. “He stole something of great value. Can’t let stealers go unpunished.”

“You mean Plum.”

“You think that’s why James was killed? Out of jealousy for that little tart?” Willy whooped with laughter. “Wrong.”

Sadie heard Ford wondering what kind of patron Willy was. It was hard to picture them together. “What did he take?”

“Money,” Willy said, like it was obvious. “James comes to me with this plan. Says he’s going to free City Center, free
me
, from the tyranny of the Pharmacist. Great guy, your brother. Way it works, that ungrateful girl told him where all the cash is kept—right here, in fact”—he gestured around the room—“and how to get into the safe. She’s only interested in the dough, but James aims higher.” Willie tapped his head. “He’s going to hide out here and ambush the Pharmacist when he comes in to count the money in his safe. The key being since James doesn’t have a chip, he won’t show up on the scanners in here. Just like he’s the invisible man, he says.” Willie grinned. “Only, he was plenty visible to me.”