She watched him. He was calm by then, and his breathing was even, but his expression seemed pained. No, she thought, not pained. He was afraid. It had been a nightmare. Even men like him were afraid in their nightmares.

She wanted to touch him. She wanted to reach out the way you always want to reach through the bars at a zoo to touch the big animals.

Larkin stood with him for a moment longer, then crept back to her room.

Day Three. Gun Money

19

THE NEXT morning, Pike was cleaning his pistol at the dining table when the girl came out of her room. Pike had been up for three hours. It was ten minutes after eight.

The girl had the puffy, bleached-out look she had every morning, but today she wasn’t naked. She wore an oversize T-shirt draped to her thighs. She wrinkled her nose.

“Ugh. I can smell that all the way in my room. You get high breathing that stuff?”

Pike had broken down the pistol into its components. The barrel, bushing, recoil spring plug, recoil spring and its guide, slide stop, slide, frame, and magazine were laid out on a paper bag Cole brought from the Thai market. Pike was swabbing the barrel with powder solvent, which had the strong odor of overripe peaches. The girl didn’t like it. She complained about it the first night they were together when Pike cleaned his gun, and had complained every time since. Pike cleaned his guns every day.

He said, “There’s coffee.”

Pike’s phone was on the table. He was waiting for Cole so they could meet at the girl’s loft. Pike had also decided to call Bud. He was going to tell Bud about Pitman, and thought Bud might be able to find out what Pitman had done with the guns. Bud still had connections in the department. Even at Parker Center.

The girl said, “You were dreaming last night. You had a nightmare.”

“Don’t remember.”

“It was bad. I didn’t know if I should wake you.”

“That’s okay.”

Pike never remembered his dreams. When he woke from them, he could never go back to sleep.

He said, “I want to make sure I have something straight. Let’s go back to the beginning-”

She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“Not again. I hate the beginning. The middle and wherever we are now aren’t so great, either.”

“How many days after your accident was it when Pitman and Blanchette came to see you?”

“Three days.”

“Not the day after, not the second day?”

“Didn’t we go through this?”

“There’s a lot to keep straight.”

“You know what it takes to find a clear spot on my father’s calendar? And his attorney? People can’t just drop over to our house. You don’t just see us. You have to make an appointment. It was the third day.”

Pike finished swabbing the barrel and picked up the frame. The solvent in the barrel would loosen debris while Pike worked on the other parts.

“Uh-huh. So they came over and they wanted to know about King’s passenger?”

“Yeah. About the accident, and what happened, and all. They wanted to know who was in the car with the Kings. Because of their investigation.”

“They didn’t know it was Meesh?”

“They only knew what was in the accident report. They wanted to identify the other man. Jesus, I haven’t even had my coffee yet.”

“I’m going back to your neighborhood to see some people Elvis found. Then I’m going to see Bud.”

The girl didn’t say anything. She stood quietly for a moment as if she was thinking, then went into the kitchen.

Pike finished cleaning the frame. He saturated the swab with fresh solvent, then went to work on the slide, working the solvent into every groove and cut in the metal, and liberally over the breech face.

The girl returned with a cup of coffee. She sat at the table across from him without saying anything. When Pike glanced up, he saw she was watching him. She looked serious.

Pike said, “Want to help?”

“I hate guns.”

Pike wiped the excess solvent from the slide, then returned to the barrel. He ran a brass wire brush from the business end out through the chamber, then into the chamber and out through the business end. He followed it with a clean cotton swab dipped in more solvent.

The girl said, “We have to talk.”

“Okay.”

“I didn’t like the way you left me yesterday. If you had told me what you were doing, it would have been fine, but you didn’t tell me. You don’t even talk to me. Okay, I know you’re not a talker. I get that. Elvis says you barely talk to him. Okay. But I’m an adult. These people are trying to kill me. I don’t need a babysitter, and I don’t like being treated like a child. This is a trust issue. We have a trust issue, is what I’m saying, and we have to deal with this. Here we are in this crappy little house, and it is either safe here or it isn’t. If you don’t think it’s safe, let’s go somewhere else. I suggested Paris, but no, you want to stay in Echo Park. Fine. We’ve been here two days and they haven’t found me, so I guess it’s safe. Okay, good, thank you. But I don’t like it here, and I also don’t like spending all day in the car just because you think I’m stupid. I resent it. I don’t know how those people kept finding me, but it wasn’t me. I don’t want to go see Bud, and I don’t want to sit in the car while you and Elvis talk to people. It’s boring, and I’m tired of it. I would rather stay here, and I can stay here by myself.”

Pike put down the barrel. He looked at her.

“Yes.”

“Yes, I can stay here?”

“I said I was going to see Bud. I didn’t say we. I’m sorry about yesterday. I should have been more considerate.”

The girl’s mouth opened, but she didn’t say anything. She sipped the coffee, holding the cup with both hands.

Pike slipped the barrel into the slide, dropped the recoil spring guide into place beneath the barrel, then fed the recoil spring onto the guide. He reassembled the gun in seconds. Pike could take the gun apart or put it together blindfolded, in the dark, dead on his feet from lack of sleep, and with gunfire raging around him. Putting the gun together was easy. Talking to the girl was difficult.

The girl finally spoke.

“Okay. Thanks. That’s cool.”

Pike said, “Cool.”

His cell vibrated, making a loud buzz on the table. Pike read the screen, thinking it would be Cole, but it wasn’t.

Pike placed the phone to his ear.

Ronnie said, “You have company.”

The girl was watching him, but Pike showed nothing. They were hunting hard for him, just as he was hunting for them. And as he would return to the girl’s home for their trail, they had no choice but to return to his condo. You went where the animals lived.

Pike said, “How many?”

“One guy this time. I don’t know if he’s one you told me about, but he could be. Under six, I’d say; hair’s kinda long and dark.”

“Where is he?”

“Inside. He just let himself in, walked right in like he owned the place. You want me to introduce myself?”

Pike watched the girl watching him. If she knew what he intended to do, she would be worried or ask questions, and Pike had used up his talking allowance.

“No, I’ll come over and have a word. I’m on my way. If he leaves, you have my phone.”

“Yup.”

Pike put down the phone, pushed the magazine into the gun, then jacked the slide and set the safety. If Pike could ever know bliss, it filled him now, but he showed nothing. He had them. He had a line that might bring him to Meesh, and then he would clear the field. All these bastards trying to kill this girl, this one girl, all of them ganged against her, and he would clear the field, but not for justice. It would be punishment. Punishment was justice.

He said, “So. What are you going to do while I’m gone?”

“Who was that?”

“Ronnie. He found someone who might be able to help, so I’m going to meet them. You’re going to be okay?”