“It’s all good,” Crow said aloud.
Most of the people on the beach were women and children. The women generally the mothers of the children, or the nannies. Most of them were a little softer-looking than Crow liked, a little too thick in the thighs, a little too wide in the butt.
Probably not a lot of time to work out when you got kids.
Not that Crow would have turned them away. Crow liked to be with women. And the women didn’t need to be perfect. He liked to look at women. He thought about them sexually. Just as he liked to be with them sexually. But he thought about them in many other ways as well. He liked the way they moved, the way they were always aware of their hair. He liked the way they were with the children. He liked the thought they gave to their clothes, even at the beach. He liked how most of them found a way to keep a towel or something around their waists when they were in bathing suits. In health clubs, he noticed they did the same thing in workout tights. It always amused him. They wore revealing clothes for a reason, and covered the clothes with towels for a reason. Crow had never been able to figure out the reasons.
Ambivalence?
He’d asked sometimes but had never gotten an answer that made sense to him. He didn’t mind. Part of what he liked in women was the uncertainty that they created. There was always a sense of puzzlement, of tension. Tension was much better than boredom.
Crow’s phone rang. He smiled and nodded his head.
“Bingo,” he said.
66.
“I need to run this by you,” Jesse said.
Dix nodded.
“I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing,” Jesse said.
“And you think I’ll know?” Dix said.
“I think you’ll have an informed opinion,” Jesse said. “I will value it.”
Dix tilted his head very slightly, as if he was almost acknowledging a compliment.
“I am conspiring with a contract killer, a known felon, named Wilson Cromartie, to keep a fourteen-year-old female runaway from the custody of her father, her mother is dead, and establish a life for her here in Paradise.”
“Fourteen,” Dix said.
“Yes, and a mess. Her father is a major criminal figure in Florida. I believe he had her mother killed. My guess is that when she lived with him she was molested, though probably not by him.”
“Others around him?” Dix said.
“I think so,” Jesse said. “I have her a job and a place to stay at Daisy Dyke’s restaurant once we have worked something out with the father.”
“Can you do that?”
“Not in any conventional sense, but Crow and I have a plan.”
“Crow?”
“Wilson Cromartie,” Jesse said. “If it works she will be on her own.”
“At fourteen,” Dix said.
“With Daisy Dyke, and I’ll be responsible for her—school, doctor, stuff like that.”
“Money?”
“We’re working on that,” Jesse said.
“You and Crow.”
“Yes.”
“Have you thought of Youth Services,” Dix said. “Other agencies?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“I turn her over to an agency,” Jesse said, “and she’ll be gone in an hour.”
“She might be gone in an hour anyway.”
“Be her choice,” Jesse said. “I won’t have delivered her into the hands of what she would see as the enemy.”
Dix nodded.
“Ever have a dog?” Dix said.
“Yes.”
“Was it spoiled?” Dix said.
“Yes.”
Dix smiled.
“For as tough a cop as you are,” he said, “you are a very big old softie.”
“That’s why I’m talking to you,” Jesse said.
“There may be other reasons,” Dix said. “But for now, fill me in on this.”
“You want details?” Jesse said.
“That’s where the devil is,” Dix said.
67.
“Francisco will do the wire transfer today,” Crow said.
“One million?”
“One million,” Crow said. “Wired to your account. When it arrives, I’ll call him. He gets his daughter.”
The two men stood with their backs to the seawall at midpoint on the causeway.
“That’s what you told him,” Jesse said.
“That’s what I told him.”
“You are a lying bastard,” Jesse said.
“Doesn’t make me a bad person,” Crow said.
“Something did,” Jesse said. “What I don’t get is, Francisco gives no sign that he loves her, but he’s willing to pay a million to get her back.”
“A,” Crow said, “a million dollars doesn’t mean much to him. And B, he’s Louis Francisco. No one is allowed to tell him no.”
“Ego,” Jesse said.
“Partly,” Crow said.
“And business.”
“Yep.”
“Power is real,” Jesse said. “But it’s a lot less real if it’s not perceived as power.”
Crow nodded. He was looking down the causeway toward the mainland end.
“Something like that,” he said. “Timing is going to be pretty much everything here.”
“I can help you with the timing,” Jesse said.
“I’ve timed it out half a dozen times,” Crow said. “We gotta start Francisco’s car about ten seconds after Esteban hits the causeway.”
“We’ll set up some construction, and have one of my guys directing traffic,” Jesse said.
“How you gonna know it’s Francisco?” Crow said.
“You told him he had to come himself.”
“Yeah. And he will. He won’t come alone. But he’s annoyed. He’ll want to kill me himself.”
“After he gets the girl,” Jesse said.
“Yep. He can’t let me get away with holding him up like this,” Crow said.
“I’ve seen him,” Jesse said. “I’ll recognize him.”
“Even in the backseat?” Crow said.
Jesse smiled.
“When he came to visit me, I made his car. Lincoln Town Car. A rental. He rented two of them. Got his license plate number while he was driving away. Got the other number from the rental company.”
“Wow,” Crow said. “What a cop!”
“Ever alert,” Jesse said.
“We need somebody at the other end to let us know when Esteban starts,” Crow said. “He’ll be around the bend.”
“If he comes from there,” Jesse said.
“He’ll come from that end,” Crow said.
“And Francisco from the other,” Jesse said.
Crow nodded.
“Scorpions in a bottle,” he said. “You got enough people to keep them penned on the causeway?”
“I can get some Staties for backup,” Jesse said.
“They’ll go along with this?” Crow said.
“I may not tell them exactly what’s going down,” Jesse said.
Crow grinned.
“You lying bastard,” he said.
“Doesn’t make me a bad person,” Jesse said. “When you want to do it?”
“Day after the money shows up in your account,” Crow said.
“Time of day?”
“Morning is good, late enough for everybody to get here, early enough for me to have the sun at my back and shining in their eyes.”
“Say about ten-thirty?” Jesse said.
“You been doing a few practice runs yourself,” Crow said.
“Plan ahead,” Jesse said.
They were quiet then, looking at the length of the causeway.
“I need a day to walk my people through it,” Jesse said.
“You got tomorrow,” Crow said, “even if the money shows up tomorrow.”
“Wednesday morning, ten-thirty,” Jesse said. “Rain or shine.”
“Rain might not be a bad thing,” Crow said. “If it blurred things a little.”
“Sixty percent chance of rain,” Jesse said, “for Wednesday.”
“Like they know,” Crow said.
“They sound like they know,” Jesse said.
Crow snorted.
“Either way,” Crow said. “What are the odds of pulling this off?”
“Terrible odds,” Jesse said.
Crow grinned.
“Worst case,” Crow said, “we got his money, and we’re no worse off than we were before.”