Dead Red (35 page)

“Looking forward to it.”

After I hung up, Edgar asked, “He pissed?”

“He’s … excited,” I said. “I think it’s finally sinking in that this wasn’t part of some plan to screw him out of the reward money.”

“He thought you—”

“Jack doesn’t always think before he speaks, Edgar. He was surprised by the new developments and immediately went into defensive mode. By the time he gets here, he’ll be fine.”

“I hope so. I don’t want him thinking I—”

“It doesn’t matter what he thinks. And with the way the events played out, you’re getting a third of the reward money.”

He took his glasses off, rubbed the lenses with the tail of his shirt, and slipped the glasses back on. “Is that a good idea?” he asked. “I mean, with Jack? He’s not gonna be—?”

“I wouldn’t have gotten up here without your tech smarts, and if you hadn’t been in the parking lot with your car, I wouldn’t have been able to get Angela away from the hospital so quickly.”

As if on cue, we heard Angela retching behind the bathroom door. This was followed by the toilet flushing and the shower being turned on. She was going to be busy for a while.

“As long as Jack doesn’t have a problem with it,” Edgar said.

“He won’t. If he does, I’ll remind him I have Golden’s number on my cell, and I could always reach out to him tonight. I’m not completely comfortable with this arrangement as it is. There’re about ten different ways this can go south, and one phone call to Golden makes them all go away.”

Edgar considered that. Without speaking, he went over to the remote control near the bed and turned on the TV. He found the Yankees game, sat down on the edge of the bed, folded his arms, and watched silently. This is what he did when he was stressed and didn’t want to talk for a while. That would work for me.

I went over to the other bed and lay down. My knees were hanging over the side of the bed, providing me with a fairly decent back stretch. With my eyes closed, I could hear sleep calling. But with Jack expected soon, I stood up and fought to wake up. I did some real stretches now, trying to get the blood flowing.

I walked to the window and sneaked a peek through the curtain. The parking lot was empty, except for Edgar’s car, and not very well lit. It felt like we were in the first days of the Witness Protection Program. I closed the curtain, sat in a chair, and grabbed a magazine off the table called
Your Guide to the Capital Region.
I flipped through the pages and looked at ads for restaurants, family fun centers, horse camps, and all the other family-fun activities you find upstate. I put the magazine down and wished for Jack to hurry up. The sooner he got here, the sooner I could end my involvement in this case and get back to my life. I realized I hadn’t spoken to Allison in a while.

She picked up after two rings. “Let me guess. You’re at The LineUp and want me to swing by?”

“Am I really that predictable?”

“Yes, Ray. But you’re cute, so I put up with it. I don’t think I can make it tonight.” She yawned for effect. “I’m bushed and got an early morning tomorrow.”

Not as early as mine.

“Listen,” I said. “A lot’s happened in the past couple of hours.”

“Define ‘a lot.’”

“I can’t right now.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

I heard the shower stop and a low moan coming from the bathroom.

“What was that noise?” Allison asked.

Shit. “I got the TV on. I have to go, Ally. I’ll call you in the morning.” I hung up, went to the bathroom door, and said, “You okay?”

I waited a few seconds before Angela stepped out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a towel. She pretended it slipped, then pulled it back up, just above her nipples.

“Golden,” she giggled. “I’m the goddamned Golden girl.”

She’d be fine for now. I thought about the way I had ended my call with Allison. I decided it was better to get in trouble for hanging up on my girlfriend than for giving her too much information.

I went over to Edgar and pulled him away from the spell of the television and toward the front door.

“What?” he said, as if I had awakened him from a dream.

“We need to get some air,” I said. Then to Angela, “Put some clothes on. Pull shit like that again, I’ll toss you in the trunk and haul you down to the Island.”

“Oooh,” she said. “I love when older men talk tough.”

I opened the door and pushed Edgar out before I said anything else. We took a few steps away from the door and moved into the parking lot.

“Didn’t Jack say not to leave the room?” he asked.

“Yes, he did. But that was before a sixteen-year-old girl came out of the bathroom half-naked in front of two grown men.”

Edgar had no idea what I was talking about but pretended he did. “Right.… So what do we do now, Ray?”

“We wait out here until Jack comes.” I pulled out my cell and checked the time. “Shouldn’t be too long.”

We both glanced up as a half dozen moths danced around the light in front of the room. “What if someone sees us out here?”

“Good point.” I looked over at Edgar’s car parked in the dark. “You got your keys on you?”

He took them out of his pocket and jingled them. “Yep.”

“Let’s go wait in the car. Anybody comes who’s not Jack, we’ll see him first. Angela tries to leave, we’ve got the front door covered.”

“What if she goes out the bathroom window?”

I smirked. “That’s in the movies, Edgar. A shih tzu would have trouble getting through a motel’s bathroom window.”

Edgar nodded and then giggled. “Shih tzu,” he repeated.

“Gimme the keys.”

*   *   *

We were in the car for less than ten minutes when Jack pulled into the lot. I got out and Edgar followed. Jack startled when he saw us and made a move toward his belt. Edgar and I raised our hands.

“What the fuck, Ray?” Jack said. “I told you to stay with the girl.
Inside
.”

“I know what you told me.” I did my best to keep my tone even. I took some bills out of my pocket and handed them to Edgar. “Hit the vending machine, okay? Sports drink if they got it and something with carbs. Angela’s gotta be thirsty and hungry.” Edgar took off, and I turned my attention back to Jack. “I’m not too keen on being inside a motel room with an underage female who thinks life is clothing-optional.”

Jack took in the parking lot. “You see anything out of the ordinary? Anybody call the room?”

“Not while we were in there. We’ve been out here for ten minutes.”

“Okay. That was a good idea about the vending machine. The better Angela looks when Golden gets here, the better for us.” He took a deep breath. “Lemme see the girl.”

Edgar came back with something blue in a bottle and two bags of pretzels. The three of us walked over to the door of the room. When we got there, I realized I didn’t have the key.

“Edgar,” I said, holding out my hand.

He looked at my hand. “Yeah?”

We stood like that for a five count before Jack spoke.

“Neither one of you thought to take the key? Fuckin’ A, boys.” He turned back to the door, separated his middle knuckle from its brothers and rapped lightly. “Angela,” he stage whispered. “Open up.”

“Who is it?” she teased from the other side.

“Angela,” Jack said, louder this time. “I need you to open the door.”

He barely finished his sentence when the door swung open and there was very-pregnant Angela, wearing nothing but a shit-eating grin and her underwear. I gave Jack a see-what-I-mean? look, and he shut the door most of the way, careful to keep his foot between the door and the jamb.

“You gotta get some clothes on, darling,” he said. “Soon as you do that, we can talk about getting you home.”

“My daddy send you?”

“Yes. Now, get dressed so we can come in.”

I think I heard her say, “That’s no fun,” but a minute later, she opened the door again and was wearing her T-shirt and jeans again. “Come on in.”

We did.

Angela took a seat on the bed closest to the door. Edgar put the drink and pretzels on the side table and plopped himself down in front of the TV, as Jack and I pulled two chairs over to Angela.

Jack leaned forward. “Are you in any physical pain?” he asked the girl.

“Besides blowing chunks every half hour? No, I’m great.” She looked over at the snacks and practically inhaled them, but passed on the drink. “And unless you want me puking blue, I ain’t touching that shit.”

Jack nodded. “Tell me what happened at Robby’s.”

She gave him basically the same story I was able to piece together from what she, Marissa, and Trooper Gamble had told me. She stopped at the part where she reached the emergency room in Robby’s car. Jack took the whole thing in and gave a small impressed nod. He turned to me.

“And you’re sure no one followed you here?”

“I think we’d know already if they had, Jack. We’ve been here for a little less than an hour, and you’re our first visitor.”

Again, Jack nodded and glanced at Edgar. “How much does he know?”

“Everything you and I do,” I said. “And before you say shit, he splits the reward with us. He’s the reason we’re all in this room.” I’d pay Tio out of my share.

It was clear Jack didn’t want to hear that, but it looked as if he’d decided to fight that battle later. I was clear there’d be no battle. Jack reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone.

“I’m going to call your dad now, Angela. I’m going to let him know everything’s okay”—he looked at her stomach—“mostly. I’m also going to tell him where we are, and he’ll let me know what he wants to do.”

“What does that mean?” she asked. “What
he
wants to do?”

Jack stood up and went to the window. He pulled aside the curtain and looked outside before speaking again.

“Your father,” he began, “has paid me good money to look for you and is going to pay even better money for your safe return. Now that I’ve—that you’ve been found, it’s up to him what we do next.”

“I don’t get a say in this?”

Jack laughed. “I think you’ve had your say, little lady. You disappear for almost a month and show up pregnant? It’s time for the grown-ups to take charge.”

Angela scooted back so she was sitting up against the headboard of the bed. She looked at the three grown-ups in the room and smiled.

“It was a
grown-up
who got me pregnant, mister.” She rubbed her belly. “What’s your name anyway?”

“Jack. Jack Knight.”

“Oooh. Like a knight in shining armor coming to my rescue?”

“Something like that, yeah.” Jack turned around again and worked his phone. Less than a half minute later, he said, “Mr. Golden. Jack Knight.” There was a brief pause as Jack listened. “Yes, sir. I would not be calling you at this hour if I didn’t have a good reason.” Another pause. “I’m with Angela, sir.” I could hear Golden’s voice from here. “Outside Albany, and she appears to be in good shape.” Jack’s brow wrinkled at the next thing Golden said. “I can do that, yes.” He turned back and held the phone out to Angela. “Your dad wants talk to you.”

She folded her arms. “I’ll talk to him when I see him,” she said.

Jack’s face turned red, and he put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. Through gritted teeth, he said, “Your father wants to talk to you. Now.”

Angela gave Jack a fuck-you look and closed her eyes. Jack’s face lost its color as he tried to figure out how to explain this. He took a deep breath and said, “She’s refusing to take the phone, sir.”
Good for Jack
, I thought.
The truth.

“Yes,” Jack said and pressed the touch screen. “You’re on speaker, Mr. Golden.”

“Angela,” Golden said. “I want you to take the phone from Mr. Knight and talk to me.” His voice had that eerie calmness I’ve heard from many parents right before they explode. “Now, sweetheart.”

Angela opened her eyes, stared at Jack, and stuck out her tongue. She followed that up with a one-finger salute. Nice kid, this Angela Golden. Maybe the dad would pay us another fifty thousand
not
to bring her home.

“Sir?” Jack said after another few seconds.

“You have Skype on your phone, Jack?” Mr. Golden wanted to know. “Face Time or any video conference app?”

Jack looked at Edgar, who quickly grabbed Jack’s phone, then nodded yes when he found what he was looking for.

“Yes, sir,” answered Jack.

“Put it on, and let me see my daughter. Please.”

Edgar silently took back Jack’s phone, worked the screen for a minute, and then handed it back to Jack. When Jack still looked confused, Edgar slowly pointed to the screen with his index finger, like a mime performing for the balcony seats. Finally Jack understood, aimed the phone’s camera at Angela, and pressed the button Edgar had instructed him to.

Angela immediately covered her face with her hands, prompting Jack to counter a few steps around the bed for a good shot of her stomach. Angela drew up her knees under the covers, hiding her belly, and Jack seemed on the verge of blowing steam out of his ears.

“Thank you, Jack,” Golden said with a sigh.

Jack stopped the transmission with the touch of a button.

“Who else is there with you?” Golden continued. “Besides my daughter, of course.”

“Raymond Donne, sir. And his … colleague, Edgar.”

“Edgar?” Golden said, clearly agitated with this information. “Who the hell’s Edgar?”

I said, “He’s how I got up to Albany and was very instrumental in helping me get your daughter away from the hospital, where I personally think she should still be.”

“You invite anyone else along, Raymond?” He was growing increasingly annoyed and taking it out on us. He didn’t even ask why his daughter was at the hospital. “Your girlfriend perhaps?”

I stepped closer to the phone. Jack pulled it back and gave me a look to remind me who was paying the bills here. “Be nice,” he mouthed.

“No, sir,” I said calmly. “But I can call her if you want. This story has all the earmarks of a real career-maker, don’t you think?”

“There is
no
story, you son of a bitch. Not until I say so.”

“Then,” I said, “I suggest you make up your mind quickly about what to do, Mr. Golden. And, with all due respect, sir, a little courtesy would be nice.”