CHAPTER 32

Thornton and Minelli left first. I thanked Marsha Fields, and told Jasper that I would call him as soon as I had talked with Clark and the other principals.

Jasper said, 'I'll wait here until I hear from you.'

'It might be late.'

He shrugged. 'I don't have anything else to do.'

I drove back to Studio City, and reached the safe house at six minutes before three o'clock. Joe Pike was standing beneath a pine tree on the front sidewalk. He said, 'We on?'

'We're on. They went for it, but a fed has to come along. Jasper.'

'Dak won't like it.'

'We didn't have a choice, and neither does he. They agreed not to investigate.'

Pike's jaw moved imperceptibly. 'But they'll still know.'

'Yes. They'll know. You ready to go?'

'Always.'

We went inside and explained the setup to Clark and the others. When I got to the part about Jasper coming along, Dak made a hissing sound, and both Mon and Walter Senior said, 'No, no, no, no. They will know everything about us.' Like they'd rehearsed it. Waiter Junior was asleep on the floor.

'Stop saying no and listen. The feds have given you guys a pass. Jasper is just going to be there to make sure we're not scamming them. They've agreed not to investigate you, or interfere with Clark in any way.'

Mon said, 'I can't believe this is happening.' He was running his fingers through his hair, and fistfuls of gray hair was coming out. 'We'll be ruined.' So much for revolutionary fervor.

I said, 'Look, their only interest here is Clark and Markov. If you're worried about it, go down to the warehouse and remove anything that could connect you or your people to that location. Just leave whatever Clark will need to print the money.'

Mon was still pulling his hair, but Dak nodded. 'What about the dong?'

'When the business with Markov is finished, we'll come back with Clark and print the dong.'

Dak said, 'We could all end up in jail.'

'You knew that when you conspired to break the law, but you're safer now than you were before. Before, they might've gotten wind and investigated and thrown your asses in jail. Now, they're going to look the other way and not even ask your name.'

Walter Senior said, 'Can we trust these people?'

'Yes.'

Mon started to say something else, but Dak shook his head and spoke in Vietnamese. Twenty seconds later they were gone. I looked at Clark. 'Can you set up to print U.S. currency?'

'Oh, sure.' Like it was nothing.

'How long will it take you to run off a million dollars?'

He frowned. 'Markov said five million.'

'That's what he wants, but it's not what he's going to get. All we need to do is make sure he's busted with a million in his possession. One million is the magic number.'

Clark nodded. 'Three or four days.'

'You're printing for Charles, damnit. You have to do it faster than that.'

Clark frowned again. 'Well, I don't have the right kind of paper. I don't have the right inks.'

'It doesn't have to be good, Clark. All it has to be is phony and add up to a million.'

'But Markov will take one look at it and know right away that it isn't like the money you showed him.'

'He won't have a chance to look at it. He'll be listening to Marsha Fields reading his rights.'

Clark thought some more, then looked at his watch. 'Well, I know where we can get some paper that might be good enough. And we'll need something to carry the money after it's printed.'

Pike said, 'How big is a million bucks?'

'About five suitcases worth. We'll need five regular Samsonite suitcases. That should do it.' The voice of experience.

'Okay. I can get the suitcases.'

'How long, Clark?'

More thinking. 'Tomorrow by noon.'

I looked at him. 'You can print a million dollars by tomorrow at noon.'

He frowned. 'Well, it won't be my best work.'

I used the kitchen phone to call Dobcek at the Sheraton. 'Da?'

'We can have the money for you by mid-afternoon tomorrow.'

'Five million dollars.'

'Sure. Five million. How about we meet at Griffith Park?'

Dobcek laughed. 'Call us again when you have the money. I will tell you when and where.'

'Whatever you want.'

I hung up. 'We're on. Everything will happen tomorrow afternoon. We should leave as soon as possible.'

Clark took his vial of pills into the bathroom, but this time he brought his bag, too. The pain was getting worse. I went upstairs to the second-floor office to Teri and Winona. Winona was coloring and Teri was helping her, but she looked up when I stepped in. I said, 'How're you guys doing?'

Teri's face was flat. 'Fine.'

'We need to leave you and Winona here again. Will you be okay?'

'Of course.' Angry about being excluded. And maybe about something else.

'There's plenty of food in the fridge, and there's a market on the corner.' I took forty dollars from my wallet and put it on the desk. 'Here's some money.'

Teri didn't look at the money. 'How'd it go for your friend?' Lucy.

I sat on the floor beside her. Winona was drawing a picture of the troll. It looked sad. 'It went okay. She got things worked out.'

'How nice for you both.' She said it so cold that we might as well have been sitting in a Subzero, but then she realized that and turned red. She adjusted her glasses and looked away. 'I'm sorry. That was so bush.'

I put my arm around her and squeezed. Fifteen going on thirty, and feeling all the pain at once. 'Been tough on you.'

'You like her a lot.'

'Yes, I do.'

'You'd rather be with her, right now, wouldn't you?'

'That's right. But my obligation is to see this through for you and your father and Charles.'

Pike rapped softly at the doorjamb. ' Clark 's ready.'

Teri's eyes were wet and she reached under the glasses to wipe them. She said, 'I really like you, too.'

Winona said, 'Oh, yuck.'

I smiled at Teresa Hewitt. 'I like you, too. But Lucy's my girlfriend.'

'Can I hug you, please?'

She hugged me hard, and then she said, 'Please take care of my daddy. Please save my little brother.'

'That's what this is all about, Teresa.'

I went downstairs to Clark and Joe. We decided that Clark and I would get the paper, and Pike would pick up Jasper and the suitcases. I called Reed Jasper in Marsha Fields's office. Marsha Fields answered. 'We're on. Is Jasper there?'

She gave him the phone without a word, and he said, 'We ready to rock?'

'Joe will pick you up in forty minutes.'

'I've got a car. Just tell me where to meet you.'

'Joe will pick you up. If you're happier driving, follow him.'

I hung up before he could say anything else, and we went to print the money.

CHAPTER 33

Clark phoned paper suppliers until he found one that had the kind of paper he wanted. 'It's a nice cotton blend, but it should look okay.' Like he was talking about sheets.

'Remember, Clark, it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even have to be pretty good.'

'Well, you want it to look like a legitimate attempt to counterfeit money, don't you?'

'Yes.'

He looked sulky. 'Believe me, no one will confuse this stuff with Crane paper, but at least it won't look like Monopoly money.' I guess he had an artist's temperament about these things.

The paper supply house was in a little red-brick building on Yucca Street in Hollywood, a block north of Hollywood Boulevard. The clerk had two boxes of the paper waiting for us, each box about the size of a standard moving box. It didn't seem like much, but the boxes were heavy. I went inside with Clark because I had to pay for the paper. On my Visa.

When we had stowed the boxes in the little bay behind my car's seats, I said, 'Doesn't seem like very much paper.' Clark had said that the million dollars would fill five Samsonite suitcases, but this paper only filled two boxes.