Chapter Fourteen

We were in my hotel suite.

Monica was walking around my spartan room as if it were more interesting than it really was. I sensed some of her anxiety departing. In the least, she was giggling less, which I considered a good thing.

Finally she sat on the corner of the bed, near where I was sitting in the surprisingly comfortable desk chair. My laptop was next to me, closed. Somewhere, in there, was Fang. I wondered what he was doing tonight. I wondered what he did every night. I found myself wondering a lot about him.

And what about Kingsley? I wondered about him, too, but he was a little easier to wonder about, since I knew where he lived and I knew he had the hots for me.

On the round table near me was the pad of paper that contained my conversation with...something. At least, the beginning of a conversation.

"You really live here?" asked Monica.

"For now, yes."

"And your husband just kicked you out?"

"Something like that."

She shook her head and smiled some more, but it was a nervous smile. I sensed her about to giggle, but she somehow held it in check.

"I had the opposite problem," she said.

"As in, he never wanted you to leave."

"Yes, exactly." And now she did giggle. Sigh. As she sat there on the corner of the bed, her dangling feet didn't quite touch the carpeted floor. She was so small and cute. And innocent. And sweet. And clueless. In the wrong hands, in the wrong relationship, I could see a brute of a man thinking she was his. A trophy. A little trophy. Something to possess and own. In the right hands, she would have been protected and loved and cherished.

She had found herself in the wrong hands.

Monica asked, "So why did he kick you out, if you don't mind me asking."

"I mind," I said.

She giggled, turned red, and looked away. "I'm so sorry."

I reached out and touched her knee. I had to be gentle with this one. Her social savvy wasn't quite up to par, either.

"It's okay," I said. "It's just a very fresh wound that I don't want to talk about right now. You did nothing wrong."

She nodded vigorously. I patted her knee. She looked at me, nodded again, then looked down. She was so unsure of herself. So lost. So helpless. How could anyone hurt this girl? God, I already hated her ex-husband with a fucking passion.

"Sam, can I ask you a question?"

I smiled. "Sure, sweetie."

"Can I, you know, ask how you're going to protect me?" Nervous giggle. "Is that okay to ask?"

"It's okay," I said, patting her knee reassuring, much as I would my own daughter. And the thought of my daughter - and the possibility of not seeing her or Anthony this Saturday night - nearly brought me to tears. I took a deep breath, steadied myself, and said, "You are either going to be with me, or with someone I trust. You will always be protected."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. She pursed her lips. "Who are your friends?"

"Good men. Honorable men. I trust them with my life. They will protect you when I'm not around."

"Why would you not be around?"

"Sometimes I have...business to attend to."

She nodded. She understood business. "And one of your friends is coming over now?"

"Yes," I said.

"Because you are going out?"

"Right. I have work to do."

"And I can't come?" She sounded like a child asking her mother if she could go grocery shopping with her.

"Not this time," I said.

"Okay." Petulant. She didn't like the idea of me leaving her so soon. I didn't either, but what I had to do tonight she had no business seeing or being a part of.

"Chad is a good man," I said. "You will like him."

She nodded again. "Will you be back tonight?"

"Yes."

She smiled and kicked her feet out again. She was wearing white shorts. Her legs were thin and tan. They were also crisscrossed with scars. I didn't ask her about the scars, but I suspected she had been beaten badly with a belt.

"So how long will you protect me?"

"As long as it takes," I said. Mercifully, she had no children and, apparently, was on extended leave at her baking job, which I discovered was a donut shop. No wonder why Detective Sherbet liked her so much.

There was a knock on my hotel door. Three rapid knocks, a pause, and then a fourth. It was Chad, using the coded knock we had been trained to use.

"That's my ex-partner," I said. I sat forward and patted her knee again. "You're in good hands, I promise."

She smiled and popped her gum. "I believe you," she said.

Chapter Fifteen

I was sitting with Stuart Young three floors up on his balcony, overlooking a sliver of Balboa Beach. Stuart didn't quite have a water view from his balcony, but what I could see gleamed brightly under the waxing crescent moon.

Stuart offered me some wine, but my stomach was still upset from the wine I had earlier. I accepted some water instead, and now we sat together overlooking a mostly quiet street. The street ran between more condos. The condos all looked the same. Row after row, street after street, of identical condos. How I found Stuart's condo was still a mystery, especially with my dismal sense of direction.

But I knew the answer. I sensed his building, and I sensed his apartment. My psychic abilities were gathering strength.

Anyway, Stuart looked like he had recently been crying. No surprise there. He also didn't seem to care that he looked like he had been crying and made no apologies for it. His eyes were red and swollen. His nose was red and swollen. A light film of sweat coated his perfect bald head. The sweat could have been from the alcohol, since the weather is always perfect. Which is why, water view or no water view, this condo probably cost a small fortune.

Stuart was drinking light beer that he had poured into a frosted glass. Beer was the one thing I didn't miss. Blech. Give me wine any day.

"How you holding up?" I asked.

"Couldn't be worse," he said, and actually smiled.

I sipped my water and leaned slightly to the right to get a better view of the tiny sliver of ocean.

"If you look hard enough, you'll find it," said Stuart. "Believe it or not, I paid for that tiny speck of ocean you can see. Probably cost me another fifty grand."

"It's a nice speck," I said.

He chuckled and drank his beer. He seemed to be enjoying it. Go figure.

"I have it on good word," I said without looking at him, "that, unofficially, your wife's plane was sabotaged."

He stopped drinking.

I went on, "And if it was sabotaged, which appears likely, then that means your wife, along with everyone else on board, was murdered."

He sat back, stared down into his frosted mug. He didn't have much of a reaction. Then again, I wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know or suspect.

I continued, "We all know who stood to benefit from that plane going down. Jerry Blum has not only escaped prosecution, he is now a free man. With no witnesses and no case, all charges have been dropped against him."

Stuart nodded; his jawline rippled slightly.

"The plane crash investigation is still ongoing," I said after a few minutes. "The investigation could take years. Even if the authorities do find out who took it down, or sabotaged it, I suspect there will be very little evidence linking the attack to Jerry Blum."

He set his frosted glass down on the dusty, round glass table that sat between us, and turned and looked at me.

Stuart said, "And even if evidence is found indicating Jerry Blum was responsible for my wife's crash, who's to say that the next batch of witnesses won't be killed as well."

"It's a sick Catch-22," I said.

"This could go on forever."

I nodded.

"I may never see justice," he added. "Ever."

"There is still a chance they could find damning evidence linking Jerry Blum to the downed aircraft," I said.

"Or not," said Stuart.

I nodded. "Or not."

"More than likely he's going to get off, again, and meanwhile my wife...." Stuart's voice trailed off and he suddenly broke down, sobbing hard into his hands. I reached over and patted his shoulder and made sympathetic noises. He continued crying, and I continued patting.

When he finally got control of himself, he said, "I have something I want you to listen to."

Chapter Sixteen

Stuart got up and went through the sliding glass door. He came back a moment later holding a Blackberry phone. He sat next to me again and pushed a few buttons on the phone. A moment later, the phone was ringing loudly on speaker mode. An electronic voice answered and asked Stuart if he wanted to listen to his voice mail. Stuart pressed a button. I assumed his answer was yes. The voice then asked if Stuart wanted to listen to his archive. He pressed another button, and he held the phone out between us, face up, above the round table and above his beer.

"Stu!" came a woman's frantic voice. "Stu, listen to me. Something very, very bad is happening. Oh, God! Stu, the plane is having problems. Serious problems. I heard an explosion. It happened right outside my window. On the wing. It blew up. I can see it now. Flapping, burning, on fire. This isn't happening, this isn't happening. Oh, God, Stu!" The voice stopped. From somewhere nearby, I heard a woman screaming in the background. A horrible, gut-wrenching scream. "Stu, sweet Jesus, the plane is going to crash. Everyone knows it. The pilot can't get...can't get control of it." Another pause. A voice crackled loudly over a speaker. It was the pilot. He was telling everyone to sit in their seats, to buckle up, to remain calm. And then he told them to prepare for a crash landing. "Jesus, Stu. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Oh, good Christ. I wish I was talking to you, baby. I need you so bad. I need your voice. Baby, I'm so scared. So scared. This isn't happening." Someone screamed bloody murder in the background. "I heard your voice, Stu. I heard it when I got your voice mail. At least I heard it one last - one more time. I love your voice, baby. I love you, baby. I love you so much. I'm going to die now." Someone spoke to her rapidly, hysterically, but the woman on the phone didn't respond. "Everyone's losing it, Stu. Everyone's freaking. Stu, the explosion. Something blew this plane up. Something blew the wing up. It's Jerry Blum, Stu. I know it. He did this, baby. Somehow. Somehow he got to us all. The motherfucker. Oh, God...." and now she broke down in sobs, briefly regained her composure, and into the phone, "I love you, baby. Forever."

And the line went dead.

* * *

Stuart didn't bother wiping the tears that ran down his cheeks. He stared silently down at his cell phone, which still rested in his open hand. His hand was shaking. Finally, reluctantly, he used his thumb and pressed another button, and pocketed the Blackberry carefully in his light jacket.

He said, "I forwarded my wife's message to another voice mail account I have, and then forwarded the call to the FBI. They asked me to delete the original, which I did. I never told them that I still have a copy of it. Hell, I have a few copies of it, saved in various formats. How dare they ask me to delete my wife's last message to me. The motherfuckers."

We sat quietly for a long time, and I heard his wife's panicked voice over and over again. My heart broke for her. My heart broke for him. My heart, quite frankly, broke to pieces.

"I'm so sorry," I finally said.

He nodded absently and stared off toward the beach and the muted sounds of crashing waves. I doubted Stuart's mortal ears could hear the waves. Probably a good thing, since hearing the sounds of crashing waves would have doubled the value of the condo. Just over the tiled rooftop of the condo across the street, two seagulls swooped down, their alabaster bodies clear as day to my eyes. As they flashed through the night sky, an ectoplasmic trail of crackling energy followed them like the burning tails of comets. The night was alive to my eyes. The night was alive to my ears, too.

Stuart said, "And even if the FBI eventually found the evidence to convict Jerry Blum, he still may never face punishment."

I nodded.

He shook his head. "It's...the worst feeling in the world, knowing that this motherfucker killed her, knowing that he let her burn to death." Stuart took deep breaths. "He's a fucking animal and I hate him. You know, fuck the trial. Fuck the evidence. Fuck everything. All I want is ten minutes alone with the motherfucker. Just me and him. Ten minutes."

His wishful thinking got me to thinking.

Stuart went on, "But we can't touch him. No one can touch him. Not the police, not the FBI, not the courts. No one."

"I can touch him," I said, surprised as hell that the words came out of my mouth. I really hadn't thought this through. Not in the slightest.

Stuart snapped his head around. "What did you say?"

I plowed forward, what the hell. "I said I can touch him."

Stuart squinted at me.

"What exactly does that mean, Sam?"

"It means I can hand-deliver you Jerry Blum."

"I'm not following."

It was a crazy idea. Too crazy. But Stuart was hurting and furious and frustrated, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do. Unless....

I said, "Do you really want to face Jerry Blum alone, the man who killed your wife?"

"More than life itself."

"Then what would you say if I told you that I could bring you Jerry Blum?"

"I would say you're crazy."

"Yes, maybe a little."

"But you don't sound crazy."

"Good to know."

But my crazy idea had sparked something in him. In the very least, it had given him something to take his mind off his pain. He turned in his seat and faced me.

"How could you do this?" he asked.

"I have contacts," I said vaguely.

"And your contacts can get you Jerry Blum?"

"Yes," I said. "Sooner or later."

"And I would face him?"

I nodded. "Alone."

"Man against man?"

"Mano y mano," I said, which, I think, meant man and man, but what the hell did I know?

Stuart said, "What about all his bodyguards, his shooters, his hired killers?"

I shook my head. "It would just be the two of you. Alone."

"And would anyone else know about this?"

"Just me, you, and Jerry Blum."

Something very close to a smile touched the corners of Stuart's mouth, but then he shook his head and the smile was gone. "As much as I would like to believe you, Sam, I have to face the fact that this is nothing more than a fantasy - "

"I can get him," I said, cutting him off. "Give me two weeks."

Stuart stared at me long and hard, then finally he nodded and grinned. He looked good when he grinned; it made his perfect bald head look even more perfect.

"Okay, I believe you," he said. "Why I believe you, I don't know, but I do."

We both sat back in our patio chairs and I listened to the wind and the waves and the sounds of someone in the condo below us making a late night dinner. Shortly, the smell of bacon wafted up. God, I used to love breakfast for dinner.

Stuart rolled his head in my direction. "And what if I kill him?"

"Everybody's got to die sooner or later," I said.

"You're a tough woman."

"Getting tougher by the minute," I said.