Indigo Slam

Teri said no and Winona shook her head again.

Pike and I split up. I cruised the park, getting out of the car and walking around the community center they have there. Half a dozen moms with babies were in the sand pit, but none of them had seen a boy matching Charles's description. Eight guys were playing basketball, but they hadn't seen Charles either. I cruised the surrounding streets, then stopped at the little market and the two convenience stores, again describing Charles and again being told that no one matching that description had been around.

Thirty-eight minutes after I left the safe house, I was back, and so were the Viets and Joe Pike, and none of us had found Charles or anyone who had seen him. When I came in empty-handed, Nguyen Dak put his face in his hands. More delay. Teri said, 'Didn't you find him?'

'Not yet. But we will.' I was thinking that if Charles had met another kid here in the complex, he had probably gone home with that kid to hang out. Probably playing Sega right now. I told Clark what I was thinking. 'You and the girls could go down to Long Beach with Dak, and I can wait here. When Charles shows up, I'll join you.'

Dak stood. 'That's an excellent idea.' I think he smiled for the first time in hours.

Clark considered it, but didn't seem convinced. 'Well, maybe.'

Teri said, 'What's in Long Beach?' You could hear an edge in her voice. Tired of always moving. Tired of all the new places.

Clark said, 'That's where I work, honey.'

Winona looked uneasy. 'I want to go home.'

I shook my head. 'If you need anything there, Joe and I will pick it up for you. Best if you guys go straight to Long Beach.'

Winona looked even more uneasy, and picked at her shoe. 'I think we should go home first.'

I stared at her. Teri looked at her, too. ' Winona, you know something?'

'No.' Stubborn.

The muscles in my shoulders and neck tightened, and now I didn't like what I was thinking. Now what I was thinking scared me. ' Winona, did Charles say anything to you?'

She shook her head.

'Did Charles tell you that he was going home?'

She picked harder at the shoe and a little piece of rubber came away. 'Charles said he'd beat me up if I said.' Charles.

Joe said, 'Little girl.'

Winona snuck a glance at him. Joe was standing against the wall with his arms crossed, eyes dark and hidden behind the glasses. If you were Winona 's size he probably looked twelve feet tall. He said, 'I'll protect you.'

Winona still wasn't happy about telling. 'He said he thought waiting around here was dumb because we all knew that Daddy would come home. He said he was going to go wait for him.'

Clark said, 'Oh, dear.'

Winona said, 'He made me give him my key.' The little troll key ring.

Walter Tran Senior looked at his son and nodded. 'Children are a source of great misery.'

I glanced at Pike, and neither of us were liking it. The Russians knew about their house. 'Home is pretty far away. Would Charles know how to get there?'

'Charles is good with directions.'

If Charles headed home, he'd probably use Laurel Canyon to get over the mountains to the basin side. If he was walking it would take a long time and he might still be on the road, but Charles didn't seem like the type who'd hesitate to put out his thumb. If he caught a ride, he might be there now. Of course, the Russians might be there also.

I dialed their number and let it ring fifteen times. No one answered.

Teri said, 'Maybe he's scared to answer.'

'Sure.' I didn't believe it, and that gave me hope. If Charles was there he'd have to answer just to say something smart. 'Okay. I'll drive over and see if he's there.'

Clark and Teri both said, 'I'm going, too.'

'No. Stay here and pack your things. If Charles is there, we'll leave as soon as we get back.'

Dak put his hands together like he was praying. Mon smirked, and rolled his eyes.

I left Pike with them, and drove along the route that I thought Charles would take, cruising slow enough to check out storefronts and lawns and the knots of people standing at pay phones and bus stops. I cruised the parking lot of every minimall I passed, looking in the 7-Eleven and the Subway and the game arcades, and Charles wasn't in any of them, and little by little, I worked my way over the mountain and down into the basin and along Melrose to the house that the Hewitt family called home.

It took me almost an hour and fifty minutes to reach their house, and when I got there I checked the street for Dobcek's tan Camaro. The Camaro wasn't around, and that made me feel better about things.

I parked behind the Saturn, went to the front door, and was just fitting the key into the lock when someone opened the door from the inside. I thought it was Charles, but it wasn't.

Alexei Dobcek stared at me with his bottomless Spetnaz eyes, then pointed a pistol at me. 'We knew one of you assholes would show up sooner or later.'

I guess they had parked the Camaro a couple of streets over.

CHAPTER 28

Dobcek stepped away from the door, and waved me inside. The house was warm and dark and close, and quiet the way empty houses are quiet. I called, 'Charles?'

Dobcek smiled. 'What? You think we'd tie him in the bathroom?' He dangled Winona 's key ring, the one Clark had brought her from Seattle, and the one she had given to Charles. The little troll was matted and ugly, and looked pleased with events.

'The boy better be all right, Dobcek.'

Dobcek smiled, telling me that I could be as tough as I liked, but he still had the boy. Sautin was in the living room, sitting in Clark 's chair, watching the Food Channel without sound. The Too Hot Tamales were goofing with each other, smiling and kidding around in total silence, and Sautin was smiling with them. His eye and the side of his face was swollen and purple where Joe had kicked him. Dobcek said, 'Don't you hate being found out a liar, you telling us you know nothing about these people?'

'Sure. I wake up sweating about it every night.'

The house had been turned inside out. Drawers had been emptied onto the floor and plates smashed and living room furniture upended and slit open. Even the dining room table was upside down, its legs pointing to heaven like some dead beast. I guess they'd been searching when Charles showed up. I wondered if he had tried to fight them. I wondered if they had hurt him, and, if they had, I thought that I might kill them. I said, 'Where's the boy?'

'Somewhere safe.'

'Where?'

Dobcek put his hand under my jacket to get the Dan Wesson, and when he did I caught his gun with my left hand and twisted it up and out at the same time that I drew the Wesson and pointed it at his nose. 'The boy.'

Dobcek made the shark smile. 'Dmitri, you should have seen what he did. That was pretty good.'

'Da.' Dmitri Sautin was still watching Susan and Mary Sue.

I thumbed back the hammer.

Dobcek made the shark smile harder. 'And then what happens to the boy?'

I stared at him past the gun. Sautin said, 'Da, the boy,' but still didn't move.

Dobcek said, 'What we have here is what you call a Mexican standoff.'

'I've got Clark, and you've got Clark 's boy.'

'Da. Put away the gun and let's deal with this.'

I breathed deeply, and then I stepped back and lowered the gun. He held out his hand, and I gave back his gun. A nice new Sig P226. Nine millimeter. Easy to shoot. Since Pike and I had taken his other gun, I wondered where he'd gotten this one. 'I reach into my pocket, okay?'