Upside Down (9 page)

15

For two hours, Paulus Styer sat in his stolen Rover as motionless as a turtle on a log taking sun. He was parked so he could watch the Park View Guest House, a three-story yellow and white mansion located beside Audubon Park, diagonally across St. Charles Avenue from Tulane University. As he watched, he monitored the conversations around Hank. The rain that had begun at four had fallen without letting up.

According to conversations he had overheard, Styer knew that Hank and Millie had stayed at the guesthouse on a prior visit to the city. Millie loved its tall ceilings, its ornate moldings, and the rooms decorated with antiques.

Nicky Green had brought the two Trammels there directly from the airport, and for half an hour he and Hank had sat outside on the front porch talking about old times and mutual acquaintances, but for reasons of his own Styer found it all of interest. Styer used his pocket telescope to watch them. Nicky wore the brim of his cowboy hat down to where his eyebrows should have been. He kept chewing up the tips of toothpicks then spitting them into the yard and putting in fresh ones.

Styer was listening to the conversation when Nicky said,
“I couldn't help but notice that you're packing a handgun, Hank. You think that's smart?”

“I feel naked without it. You know. New Orleans can be a dangerous place.”

The mention of a gun had Styer paying closer attention. He hadn't imagined that Trammel would be armed, and he figured the old guy must have had the weapon in his stowed bags. Styer would have to take that into consideration. He knew that Hank was a highly decorated Green Beret veteran who spent two tours in Vietnam. Styer was prepared for whatever opportunity presented itself that evening. He wore a double-edged dagger in an ankle holster, a .40-caliber Glock under his left armpit, and he carried a shortened, quick-snap noise suppressor in his jacket pocket.

Nicky continued,
“Well, strictly speaking, toting a hog leg isn't legal. You're not badged up
anymore, and I doubt you have a Louisiana concealed-carry permit. How'd you get it past security?”

“I had it in pieces in two suitcases. Let me worry about that. You've got a P.I. license. Tell the cops I'm your gun caddy.”

“You don't need it. You know what I can do with this cane, and I don't have to dig under my clothes for it. Hell, I could knock a mugger out before he could stick out his tongue. This here cane's got a lead core and the knob's solid brass. I'd sooner explain konking some jerk upside the noggin than blowing a hole through him.”

“If I need to shoot my gun, I won't mind explaining that to a cop, prosecutor, judge, or jury.”

“Better judged by twelve peers than carried by six friends,”
Nicky pitched in. It took Styer a second to understand the reference to six friends.
Pallbearers.

Millie stepped out onto the porch. “Hank, you need to come rest a little while before dinner.”

“I'll meet you at the bar across from the restaurant at seven-thirty sharp for a pre-dinner cocktail.” Nicky stood and he leaned over and spit into the flower bed. “I have a client coming by my hotel for a short meeting and I'll call a cab and meet you at the bar. We'll have a drink and go over to the restaurant, where I have us reserved up for eight sharp.”

For most of the time before the Trammels left for their evening out, Hank's Stetson had been placed too near the room's television set for Styer to hear anything much but the programs and, when they were close to the cabinet, the sounds of them talking as they dressed. Styer had perfected his plan for the evening. He knew exactly how he would attain the prize beyond that—another checkmate.

He watched the Trammels get inside the black and white taxicab, which because it was headed the wrong way on St. Charles, would turn around to head uptown. Styer had the Rover started, the lights on, and was watching the cab in his side mirror. As the cab made the U and came back up the street, he pulled out into traffic to lead the way. Styer caught a flash of yellow in his headlights, and he had to brake hard to keep from hitting a young boy in a rain slicker who had come off the sidewalk and was riding his bike, hell-bent for leather, across St. Charles. The taxi bearing his targets shot past him. Lifting his cell phone, Styer called his helpers to tell them the time had come for them to earn their fee. One of them was in the Lexus, the other was playing taxicab driver.

16

Faith Ann had pedaled from the drugstore to an isolated gazebo in Audubon Park. Sitting on a concrete table, she went over the torn-out pages, calling the guesthouses she thought might be on a street near the vast city park.

After making thirteen calls without finding the Trammels registered, she read through the list again and one name struck her. The guesthouse was on St. Charles. She called it and asked the clerk if the Trammels were registered there. To her excitement, they were. She asked for the location and it was less than a mile away, so she pocketed the phone, jumped on her bike, and took off.

Within sight of the Park View, she barely missed getting hit by a dark SUV as she left the sidewalk to cross St. Charles. She swallowed the surge of fear the near-collision gave her. Dropping the bike in the grass, she ran inside.

Faith Ann's legs and feet were soaked from the rain, and inside the poncho she was perspiring. A skinny young clerk was on the phone and Faith Ann waited, feeling like she would scream. He finally completed the call and looked down at her. “Yes?”

“I just called to see if the Trammels were here.”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell me what room they're in?”

“They're staying here, but you just missed them. Do you want to leave a message?”

Faith Ann felt her heart drop into her shoes and her lip quiver as she fought back tears. “No I guess not. . . . Do you know where they went? How long they'll be?”

“I heard them say they were eating at Dot's Steakhouse. It's on—”

Faith Ann knew where it was, and she didn't wait for the address before running back down the hall and out the door.

17

The Trammels remained silent while the cabdriver complained about the bad condition of the streets, the rain, the Friday-night traffic, and the price of gasoline, which, since we “owned” Iraq, didn't make sense.

The cab's tires hit numerous potholes because in the rain they had become standing pools, indistinguishable from the pavement. Despite the weather, the restaurants and bars on the street were busy. Hank was pleased they had decided to use cabs so they wouldn't have to worry about parking or navigating.

“I tried to call Kimberly to see why Faith Ann called,” Millie told him. “Maybe she called to tell us that they wouldn't be at home this evening or something.”

“We'll see her first thing in the morning. I'm pretty sure she's just excited about us coming,” Hank said as the cab pulled to the curb outside the bar.

“If it was important, Kimberly would have called the guesthouse.”

Hank climbed from the cab and he waited on the sidewalk for Millie to pay and exit into the protection of his open umbrella.

Together, they entered into the bar. Hank hadn't been there in four years, when he and Nicky Green had last been in New Orleans together. It seemed to him the crowd had been vastly different then—certainly much older.

“Reckon any of these people are legal age?” He had to raise his voice for Millie to hear him over the music and general din of socializing youth. “Times like this I can see how old I am without a mirror.”

“We used to be this age,” Millie said.

“I'll make a fast swing through the place to see if there's a table,” he told her. “You stay here and feel free to stick your fingers in your ears if you need to.”

Millie's expression was as unreadable as weathered-down hieroglyphs on limestone when Hank returned.

“There's one in the back, but it's in the line of fire, right near the speakers.” He looked at his watch. “Nicky's running late.”

“Can we go outside?” Millie asked.

When they went out under the awning, they saw that the rain had intensified.

“We could go across to the restaurant and wait there.”

“You think? The reservation isn't for twenty minutes yet.”

“Don't you imagine Nicky's a good enough investigator to figure out where we went? Surely he's smart enough to cross the street . . . to get in out of the rain.” She laughed.

Hank frowned at her. “He's a good P.I.”

“I'm sure a man ingenious enough to have a skunk on hand, then go about tossing it into a window, ought to be able to cross a street. A chicken can do that.”

Hank had to laugh. “I suppose you're right.”

A rain-drenched couple ran up to the doors laughing. They embraced and kissed before they entered the bar.

“Once we were like those kids,” Millie said cheerfully. “In love in a bright fresh world.”

“I remember.” Hank put his arm around his wife, and she leaned against him. “That hasn't changed.”

In a grand gesture, Hank pulled Millie to him and kissed her passionately before he leaned back to study her face.

He saw, but didn't see, the lines, the way her face had changed into that of an older woman. The gray in her hair mattered so little. To his heart, Millie still looked eighteen years old, with a face as smooth as polished agate. After almost forty years, he could still picture her as he'd first seen her—standing behind the counter in a department store selling perfume.

Millie looked over Hank's shoulder and tugged at his sleeve. “Look there. That child looks like . . .”

Hank turned. He saw a figure pedaling a bicycle furiously toward them. The helmet with the hood pulled up didn't disguise the familiarity of the drenched features. “Faith Ann,” Hank finished.

The child leaned the bike against the wall and ran into the restaurant across the street. Through the restaurant's window they could see that the child, who looked exactly like their niece, was talking to the hostess.

“It's her,” Hank said. He opened the umbrella, and they stepped off the curb. Immediately, Millie cried out and Hank knew she'd wrenched her ankle. She insisted she could walk just fine. So, supporting his wife and holding up the umbrella against the downpour, Hank looked up and down the street to check traffic. Not seeing any headlights close enough to be a danger, he walked Millie toward the restaurant. “What in the world is that child doing out in this?”

Faith Ann turned from the hostess and ran outside.

Hank asked his wife, “Where's Kimberly?”

“Faith Ann!” Millie called out.

Faith Ann saw them coming and her face filled with emotion. She waved frantically. Hank couldn't tell whether she was laughing or crying.

Halfway across the street, Hank heard an accelerating engine and tires on wet pavement as a car roared up the street behind him. There was no time to clear the thoroughfare, so he drew Millie close. Keeping himself between his wife and the onrushing monster, he formed the smallest possible obstacle and prayed the driver would go around them, since there was a world of room to do that.

He saw the child's pale, wet face—her mouth opening to scream and her eyes locked on his. He shook his head, praying for her to look away.

As Millie tightened her grip on his arm, he was aware of a sudden pressure and . . . the sensation of taking flight.