The Boy Who Never Grew Up (43 page)

Usher cleared his throat. “Forgive us, Miss Brim. We’re making an effort to understand you. I’m afraid it isn’t easy.”

“And it’s not so hard either, Senator,” I countered. “Penny said it best herself: A woman has to go to extraordinary lengths to be a power in this business. And she has.”

“That’s right,” she affirmed eagerly. “Hoagy understands. All I’ve ever wanted was my share.”

“Your
share
?” roared Schlom. “What share are you talking about, you crazy, twisted broad?!”

“The share you’d never let me have, Norbert,” she answered. “You and all the other shitheads who run this business. I’m one of the pretty little girls. A disposable commodity. I get hot, I get cold, I get fucked. You’d never, ever let me have any of your precious clout. Well, I wanted some. And I worked for it, damned hard. You think you’re tough? Let’s see
you
go down on all those fat, smelly old slobs night after night. Let’s see
you
swallow their come and pretend to like it. Let’s see
you
marry a socially retarded goon who won’t cut his toenails. Let’s see
you
bear him a child and pretend to be happy about it every minute of every damned day, three hundred and sixty-five damned days a year. I’m tougher than you, Norbert. I had to be tougher. And I had to be more ruthless, too. If it meant killing, I killed. Whatever I had to do to get my share, I did it. This was my chance. My only chance. That doesn’t make what I did right. Or wrong. Just necessary. That’s what matters. That’s all that matters. Don’t pretend otherwise. And don’t go moral on me either, because if I had to do it all over again, I would.
And so would you
.”

There wasn’t much to add after that. I certainly couldn’t think of anything. Except to turn to Lamp and say, “I believe it’s time for your speech, Lieutenant.”

He nodded grimly. “You may as well come along with me, Miss Brim. You’ll save all of us a lot of trouble. And the taxpayers a lot of their hard-earned—”

“Wait, you’re not actually planning to arrest me, are you?” She seemed genuinely surprised.

“I most certainly am,” Lamp assured her.

“But you have no case against me,” she argued. “No evidence. Nothing.”

“We’ve all heard you confess, Penny,” Mr. Shelley pointed out.

“So what?” she said mockingly. “I’ll deny I said any of it. It’s just my word against yours. And wait until you see me go to work on a jury. I’ll cry real tears. They’ll never believe you. You’re wasting your time, Lieutenant. The law can’t touch me. Isn’t that right, Kinsley?”

Usher hesitated, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “I’m not certain that the district attorney would feel he has enough hard evidence at this stage, Lieutenant,” he conceded.

“Even with this?” I reached under my chair and produced my tape recorder. It was still recording. I laid it on the conference table and gazed across it at Pennyroyal. “I happen to have this entire meeting on tape. A full confession.”

She reached down into the folds of little Georgie’s blanket and pulled out a Glock semiautomatic pistol and pointed it directly at me. “And I happen to have this,” she said calmly. Shadow started to reach for his own gun. “Don’t even think about it, Shadow,” she ordered, her beautiful eyes never leaving mine. “Or you, Lieutenant.”

“My gun is in my car, miss,” he said quietly. “That the weapon you used on Johnny?”

“It is,” she affirmed. “And it has plenty of slugs left in it, if that’s what you’re wondering.” She continued to point it right at me, her eyes cool and determined. Until, slowly, she turned it on Georgie. Pointed it right at his small, blond head.

“Not Georgie!” protested Matthew. “Leave him out of this.”

The baby was asleep there in her lap, blissfully unaware of any danger.

“I want that tape, Hoagy,” she said. “Give it to me.”

“Now let’s all stay calm,” said Mr. Shelley, who sounded more than a little rattled.

“I’m perfectly calm,” she said. And she was. “But I want that tape.”

“Let her have it, Hoagy,” said Lamp.

I popped the cassette out of the recorder and pushed it across the conference table to her. She pocketed it in her overalls, the Glock never leaving Georgie’s temple.

“Thanks,” she said tartly.

“You’re most welcome.”

“I’m going to leave now,” she announced. “Don’t anyone try to stop me.”

“We won’t,” Lamp said.

“Leave Georgie here,” Matthew begged. “Please, Penny. Leave him.”

“No way—he’s my only chance.” She got to her feet, cradling him in the crook of her left arm, her right hand still holding the Glock against his temple. Slowly, she backed away from the table toward the door. No one else moved. She didn’t bother with Georgie’s stroller. When she got to the door she stopped. And said “One question, Hoagy.”

“All right.”

“When did you know?”

“Last night, like I said.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “You knew when I phoned you from my bedroom? You knew then?”

“Of course. That’s how come I was so positive you wouldn’t be the next victim.”

She thought this over. “God, you’re coldblooded.”

“If I’m coldblooded, what does that make you?”

“A player.” She said this proudly, defiantly. Then she vanished out the door with Georgie.

She ran. Not for her car, but for the charred ruins of Homewood. She couldn’t move too fast, clutching Georgie. I couldn’t move too fast myself, on my gimpy knee. But Sarge, the world-class middle-distance runner, was plenty fast. Fast enough to sprint to her Land Cruiser, grab her Glock from the glove compartment, and tear across the lot after Pennyroyal, stride fluid, knees high. The lady could run. She overtook Pennyroyal before she’d even reached the soundstages. Would have tackled her to the ground, too, if Pennyroyal hadn’t shot her. Put one right in Sarge’s left thigh. Sarge went straight down with a yelp and stayed down, clutching at her leg. Bunny stayed behind with her. The rest of us followed Pretty Penny from a good, safe distance as she made her way into Homewood. Down Elm Street, where the Hayes and Dale houses had stood. There was only charred remains now. Nothing more, except for the pylons. To the town square, where Matthew’s camera crew was busy filming the wreckage. A great image for what’s happening in Badger’s head, he’d called it. I couldn’t imagine why he was bothering to film it. Possibly he was planning to recast the lead. Or bring Johnny back from the dead. As a cyborg. She ran directly for the one set that was still standing there amid the rubble, Homewood’s steepled white congregational church. She didn’t go inside. There was no inside. But there was a bell tower, the tower where Dale and Badger exchanged their very first kiss. A portable metal staircase like they use on airport runways led up to it. The fire inspectors had been using it. Not that it was a real bell tower. Merely a facade with a catwalk running behind it. Johnny and Penny had stood on this to film their love scene. She climbed the metal steps, clutching Georgie.

“Where’s that crazy broad going?” Norbert Schlom wondered, panting.

I considered sharing my tree-climbing theory with him, but decided not to bother.

Matthew didn’t have to tell his crew to turn their cameras on her. They already had. They knew a climax when they saw one.

She reached the bell tower, still holding the Glock to Georgie’s temple. Only he wasn’t asleep anymore. He was wailing, his arms and legs flailing about. He was not a happy baby. I couldn’t blame him.

We all gathered down below on the town green, looking up at her. Except for Lamp, who was calling for help. Shadow had his Glock out, but there was no way to shoot her without hitting the baby. Possibly a sharpshooter could pull it off, but even he wouldn’t try it with Penny holding a loaded gun at Georgie’s head.

“Stay where you are!” she commanded, as the cameras rolled. “All of you!”

We stayed where we were, all of us. I looked around for Lulu, but I seemed to have lost her. Under a bench somewhere, no doubt. There had, after all, been gunfire.

“Come on down from there, Penny!” cried Cassandra. “You’re just making things woise for yourself!”

“I’ll shoot him if you don’t stay back!” Pennyroyal vowed. “I mean it!”

“Leave him out of it, honey—he’s got nuttin’ to do with it!”

“Talk to her, Toy,” growled Schlom. “She’s your friend.”

“Cassie’s right, Penny!” Toy called. “You don’t want Little Georgie to come to any harm, do you?”

“Why the hell not?” Pennyroyal cried savagely. “I never wanted him! I
hate
him! Do you have any idea how horrible it was, having him grow inside me?!
His
baby? What do I care what happens to him?”

“She doesn’t mean any of that, Matthew,” Mrs. Shelley said, clutching her brother’s arm. “She’s totally out of her head.”

Matthew shook his head. “She means all of it,” he said hoarsely.

“She loves that baby,” Mrs. Shelley insisted. “She’d never hurt him.”

“I wouldn’t test her,” I said. “I really wouldn’t.”

Trace eased on over to Matthew. “Boss?” he breathed, squinting up at the tower.

Matthew looked at him uneasily. This was the first they’d spoken. “Yes, Trace?”

“I could maybe hook a rope to that thar pylon where the courthouse was,” he offered. “Swing on in from the side and kick the gun clean out of her hand. She’d never see me until the last second.”

It was a movie stunt. Worthy of Captain Blood or Indiana Jones or Duke Jardine, fearless hero of
Yeti
.

Matthew considered it as the cameras rolled. “I don’t think so, Trace,” he responded gravely. “It’d be a major gag, but it’s too dangerous.”

“Fuck it—I don’t care about myself,” Trace insisted. “It’s the little guy I’m thinking about.”

“So am I, Trace. She might shoot him if you miss her. We can’t take that chance.” He swallowed. His eyes filled with tears. “But thanks. It m-means a lot to me—that you’d do that for me.”

Trace put a big arm around Matthew’s bony shoulders. “Hell, Boss, you and me been through too much to let that little girl come between us. She used me same as she used you. We’re in the same deep shit together, just like always. Don’t you worry—we’ll get him back.”

Lamp drove up now in his unmarked sedan and hopped out. “Okay, everyone just relax,” he said briskly. “The experts are on their way.” He looked up at Pennyroyal. “Is there something I can get you, Miss Brim?” he called out, his tone solicitous and respectful. “Anything at all?”

“You mean like a cold drink?” she asked, sneering down at him.

“I mean like transportation,” he offered pleasantly.

She mulled this over, biting on her lower lip as Georgie squirmed in the crook of her arm. “I want my car.”

“What the hell for?” Schlom muttered. “She ain’t going nowhere.”

“Hush,” whispered Shadow. “He’s trying to calm her.”

“That’s fine,” Lamp said, nodding to her. “I think we can manage that. Where do you want it?”

“Right here,” she replied. “With a full tank of gas.”

“Where are the keys?” Lamp asked her.

“The keys? I have them here in my—” She started to reach for them, froze. “You’re trying to trick me, aren’t you?!” she said nastily.

“No, I’m not,” Lamp assured her. “I’m honestly not that crafty, Miss Brim. But it’s okay—we’ll come back to that. What else do you want?”

She stood there thinking it over. I heard sirens now off in the distance. And I then heard something else. I heard …

I heard Lulu. Barking ferociously. She was up there. She was actually up there on the catwalk with Pennyroyal and Georgie. No more than ten feet from them. Barking ferociously. And then charging. Charging Pennyroyal Brim like a wild beast, teeth bared, a basset hound possessed. Pennyroyal whirled to fire at her. When she did her own body became a human shield between Georgie and us. For an instant. In that instant Mrs. Shelley Selden, the Annie Oakley of the Canyon Pistol Range, snatched Shadow’s Glock from his hand and swiftly and surely drilled a nine-millimeter slug through her sister-in-law’s right ear. Dead center. Pennyroyal never got off a shot. Slowly, she crumpled to her knees, still holding on to her baby.

Lamp was the first one up the stairway. I was right behind him, bad knee or not. The others stayed where they were.

Pennyroyal Brim lay there on the narrow catwalk, stone dead, hugging Georgie to her chest protectively with both arms. I guess she had some maternal instinct for him after all, deep down inside. Lulu stood over them, tail thumping as she licked Georgie’s face. Georgie was giggling with delight. Evidently he hadn’t developed a keen sense of smell yet.

Lamp pulled him from out of his mother’s death clutch and held him. “Cheese and crackers, Lulu,” he exclaimed, looking down at her with awe. “You’re a genuine hero.”

She was indeed. It was the most fearless display of animal behavior I’d ever seen from her. In fact, it was the only fearless display of animal behavior I’d ever seen from her.

She came over to me a bit shyly. I knelt and patted her and said a few things I won’t bother to repeat here, though the words caviar for life did come up. “And to think she actually fooled me into believing she was over it.”

“Over what, Hoagy?” asked Lamp, as Georgie wriggled around in his arms.

“The bug,” I replied.

“Bug? What bug?”

“The acting bug. This was vintage Rin Tin Tin, Lieutenant. Pure hamming. She was strictly angling for a part in the picture, the little vamp.”

“What picture?”

“The one she thinks is being made right now. Don’t you see, Lieutenant? This is a movie set. The cameras are rolling. The director and a bunch of studio bigwigs are standing down there. Pennyroyal is, or I should say, was an actress. Lulu thinks this has all been fake. She doesn’t realize those were real bullets. And that Pennyroyal is really dead. And that she herself just about was, too. Believe me, I know her well. It’ll all sink in in a moment. And when it does, well, I can tell you exactly what will happen. …”

She was starting to notice that Pennyroyal wasn’t getting up. She ambled over and peered at her. Then peered up at me. Then back down at Pennyroyal. Then back up at me. Then her eyes rolled back in her head and she let out a low moan and slowly tumbled over onto the catwalk. She landed with a thud.