The Night Crew

'Only once or twice and it didn't do any good,' Harper said. 'And the situations were really limited, we weren't out roaming around trying to find a psycho.'

'Did you have a relationship with either of those women? Were they women?'

'Yeah, they were women, and of course not, I didn't mess with people in investigations.'

'So you used them,' Anna said. 'Do you think your change in attitude might have something to do with the fact that we're working on a relationship?'

She was so silky with the question that Harper glanced all her and said: 'Shut up.' And a moment later, 'You're stupid.' Anna laughed, and said, 'I hope Creek's awake.'

Creek was awake, eating a bowl of raspberry Jell-O and arguing with Pam Glass, who looked more tired than Creek. When Anna and Harper walked in, Glass said, 'God, am I glad to see you. This nitwit is talking about going home in the morning.'

Creek was sitting up in bed, still plugged into the saline drip. He tried to look well. 'I'm feeling a hell of a lot better,' he said, in an unnaturally chipper voice.

'What do the doctors say?' Harper asked.

'If he keeps improving, maybe three days,' Glass said. 'That's the minimum. He's talking about how his insurance runs out. I offered to help him, but he won't take help.'

Creek looked embarrassed and Anna put a hand on her hip and said, 'I bought the insurance, Creek. It ain't runnin' out.'

'So, I thought it might run out.'

Glass's eyes narrowed: 'You were lying to me.'

'That's what I thought,' Creek mumbled.

Glass dropped in a chair. 'I don't even know why I hang around this place,' she said wearily.

'Jeez, Pam, take it easy.' Now Creek was worried.

Glass looked at Anna and said, 'Anything?'

'You pal Wyatt wants her to be a target in some stupid decoy operation,' Harper said.

'Decoy?' Now she was interested. 'How would it work?'

Anna explained, and Glass nodded: 'Could work.'

'That's bullshit,' said Creek. He looked at Harper. 'You can't go along with this.'

'Of course not. I already told her how stupid it is.' Anna was looking at Glass. 'You think it could work?' The other woman nodded. 'Those guys are good. I'd go for it.'

Now it was Creek's turn to be angry. 'Pam, goddammit, you don't know what you're doing. This guy's a psycho.'

'If we thought he was going to shoot her with a sniper rifle, then I'd be against it,' Glass said. 'But he seems to want to get his hands on her. These guys who'll be with herthey're tough guys. He won't take Anna away from them.'

Anna told Creek and Glass about the abortive trip to the Full Heart Ranch, and her talk with Steve Judge.

'I hadn't thought of that guy, but now that you bring him upthere's something about him. I think he needs a closer look,' Creek said.

'He's in Oregon,' Anna said.

'That could be some bullshit they pulled,' Creek said.

'I don't think so,' she said. Anna looked at Harper, remembering their conversation while they were shooting.

'You said you had a couple ideas. One of them is the other kid. but what's the one you didn't want to talk about? The coincidence?'

Harper shrugged. 'Not much, really,' he said. Then, 'Could I have a little talk with Creek? Alone?'

Anna looked from Harper to Creek and said, 'What's this about?'

Creek shrugged, looking curiously at Harper, and Harper said, 'If I wanted you to know, I'd just go ahead and askso if you don't mind, go talk to Pam. In the hall.'

Anna and Glass let Harper ease them through the door, and shut the door behind himself. 'They don't even know each other,' Anna said.

Two minutes later, the door opened. Harper looked out, and said, 'You better come back in.'

Anna and Glass filed back in, and Creek smiled at Anna, tentatively, the smile flickering like a bad fluorescent bulb.

'What?' Anna demanded.

'Jake, uh, brought something up. He didn't want to talk to you about it unless I thought there was something to talk about.'

'So?'

'Sothere might be.'

'So? What is it?'

Creek looked at Harper, shrugged, looked back at Anna and said, 'Clark.'

'Nope, nope, no way, no way,' Anna said. She waved her arms like a home plate umpire calling a runner safe. 'It wouldn't, it's not, Clark wouldn't.'

'Probably not,' Creek said. 'But Clark is strange. You know that yourself: I've never met anyone as driven as he was. Every time you two guys got into trouble, it was because he was freaking out with work. Who knows what happened to him since you last saw himhe might've cracked.'

'Not Clark,' Anna said stubbornly.

'Yeah? You've heard his voice,' Creek said. 'Are you sure it wasn't Clark's? You say it's familiar.'

She opened her mouth to say no, it wasn't Clark'sbut then she thought, maybeit is. The voice was a middle baritone, and Clark's was close to that; and she hadn't heard Clark's voice for years. She closed her eyes, listened to Clark talk. The same?

She opened; her eyes. 'No,' she said. 'It's not the same.'

'Bullshit,' said Creek, because Creek could read her mind. 'You don't know.'

Anna was furious with Creek for talking about Clark. He didn't understand what Clark had been going through when the trouble started: the stress, the politics of the music business, and where they could push an ambitious person, especially when that person was young, confused, exhausted. And then she thought to herself, Really? Is that really what you think about Clark? She'd never really gotten over their relationship, even admitted it to herself. Not because she couldn't, but because of the indefinite way it had ended, 'I love you but.'

Jake came out of the kitchen, carrying a plate of toast and jelly. They were at Anna's house, Anna changing into her work clothes. 'You don't go wandering off through the crowdCreek said you ran all the way up and down through that hotel when Jacob died, I don't want you getting away from the escorts.'

'Yeah, yeah,' she said, distracted. He put the plate down and caught her around the waist and said, 'Hey. Listen to me. We'll work out this Clark business laterbut for now, we gotta keep your ass alive.' He squeezed her butt, but she wiggled away.

'Are you still pissed?' Harper asked.

'Oh, I'm not pissed. Wait a minute: yeah, I am pissed, at Creek.'

'Creek is trying to take care of you,' Harper said. He pushed the plate toward her, and she took a piece of jelly toast.

'I was thinkingI was hopingthat I'd never have to deal with the Clark thing,' Anna said to him. 'Maybe it'd just fade away. It sorta was, but. I don't know. Maybe it wasn't.'

'Are you still in love with him?'

'No, I don't think so. But I wasin love with him. And there was never any end-point; I couldn't ever say, "Well, that's over with, now I can do something else." I needed an end-point.'

'We haven't known each other very long, but I never would have seen you this way,' Harper said, his face intently serious. 'I would've thought that when you broke off with somebody, that'd be it: and you'd never think about him again.'

'Oh, no,' she said, as serious as he. 'With a real relationship, I'd think about it forever. I'll think about you forever, no matter what happens.'

'Really?'

'Really,' she said. 'Forever.'

Louis showed up a half hour later, leading a ratty-looking, dark-haired man, unshaven with a heavy shock of black hair that fell down over his oval face. He wore a green army field jacket from the sixties, with a faded name tag that said Ward.

'Jimmy Coughlin,' he said, shaking Anna's hand and peering at Harper. 'You're Jake Harper.'

'Yeah,' Harper said. He reached out and touched the name tag on Coughlin's jacket. 'Who's Ward?'

'Fuck if I know,' Coughlin said cheerfully. He looked around the living room. 'We ready?'