“You trust them?” I finally asked when my fingers started to thaw inside my gloves.
Stevie nodded, his hands pressed to the vent. “Yeah.”
I glanced in the rearview mirror at Boyd. “You?”
He seemed surprised that I was asking him, but he nodded. “Yeah. They’re cool.”
“So, what are we looking at if we go to this Laser’s place?” I asked.
Stevie grimaced. “Nothing good.”
“How so?”
“They’ll be gunned up,” he said. “Him and Nate. Not sure Laser would know how to shoot a gun but Nate does. For sure. And there are probably other guys running interference at the front of the building. Just hired help, but still. We can’t just walk in.”
That presented a problem. I didn’t carry a gun and I wasn’t looking for a firefight.
“Can I say something?” Boyd asked from the backseat.
I glanced in the rearview mirror again. “Yep.”
“She can get us in.”
“She?”
Boyd nodded. “Isabel. They won’t mess with her and they’ll let us in.”
I looked at Stevie.
“He’s right,” he said. “People know her. Even Laser. At the very least, she can probably get us in to see him without the bullshit.”
The snow gathered on the windshield, wet snow that slapped against the glass. The sky was heavy with more and there was no sign of it letting up.
“Okay,” I said, pulling the phone out of my pocket. “I’ll call her.”
THIRTY-ONE
“Why the hell are we here?” Isabel asked, gloved hands on her hips, oblivious to the dropping temperature.
We were on the corner across the street from Laser’s place. I’d called her and told her to meet us there. Now the four of us were standing there, looking at the building, trying not to freeze.
Or, more accurately, I was trying not to freeze. Isabel seemed to be completely comfortable standing there in the wind and snow.
“We think Marc’s girlfriend is in there,” I said and then told her what we’d learned from Amanda and Mary.
The building was a low-slung, brick rectangle. The windows were dimly lit and a single bulb illuminated two glass doors at the front. I could see a guy huddled right inside the front door.
“She’s hooked up with Laser?” Isabel asked when I finished.
“That’s what they told us.”
“Crap,” she said. “Okay. So what are we doing here?”
“Going in,” I said.
“And I’m here because?”
“Because we figured you’d get us in a little easier than if we just barged in.”
I expected some resistance, some sort of false modesty. But to her credit, there was nothing like that.
“I’ve dealt with him before,” she said. “He’s a piece of work. But yeah, I’m sure I can get us in. But then what?”
“Let’s get in first and worry about that later,” I said.
We crossed the street, our feet making fresh tracks in the wet snow. The body I’d seen behind the glass doors stood from his huddled position and stared at us as we approached.
Isabel tapped on the door and waved at the guy, a skinny kid in his teens wearing a yellow knit cap, a black ski jacket and jeans that looked two sizes too big for him.
He came over and cracked the door. “Yeah?”
“Marty, we need to see Laser,” Isabel said.
He scanned all of our faces. “He know you’re coming?”
“No,” she said. “But we’re here and we’re freezing so we’re coming in.”
She eased the door open and Marty stood back, unsure what to do. We followed her into the small lobby, which wasn’t much warmer than outside. I stomped my feet against the ground, shaking the snow off of them.
“You need to call him or something?” she asked. “Or should we just go back?”
Indecision ran through his expression. I didn’t think he’d ever encountered anyone just walking into the building and saying they wanted to see Laser.
“We’re going back, Marty,” Isabel said, starting to walk.
We followed her and Marty stayed behind, not leaving his post. I wondered if there would be any consequences for him.
Isabel led us down a shadowed hallway and around a corner. There were people in sleeping bags in several open-doored rooms, passed out and huddled together for warmth. The building wasn’t as cold as the outdoors, but the fact that I could see my breath as we walked told me the heat wasn’t on, either.
We came to another set of locked off doors. There was an intercom and buzzer next to the door. Isabel stuck her finger on the buzzer.
“Yeah?” A voice asked through it.
“It’s Isabel,” she said. “I need to see Laser.”
“He ain’t seein’ anyone.”
“I need to see Laser. Tell him I’m here,” she said.
Thirty seconds later the door lock clicked and it opened. A tall, lanky guy in a gray hooded sweatshirt and black nylon sweatpants stood in the doorway.
“What do you want?” he asked Isabel, then looked quickly at Boyd and Stevie before letting his eyes settle on me.
“I need to talk to him,” Isabel said. “Won’t take long.”
“He’s asleep,” the guy said, still staring at me.
“Wake him up then,” she said. “And you can tell him I told you to. But I’m talking to him.”
The guy frowned, stuck his hands in the front pocket of the hoodie. “Wait here,” he finally said and closed the doors.
I looked at Stevie and Boyd. “Either of you carrying?”
Stevie shook his head and Boyd’s face colored.
“Okay,” I told Boyd. “You’re our only cover. When we get to him, whatever kind of room we’re in, make sure you move away from the three of us. If things go wrong, we don’t want to be a cluster target. But do not bring it out unless it’s absolutely necessary. Clear?”
Boyd nodded, relieved I wasn’t angry. “Got it.”
“And the guy that answered the door?” I said to him, then looking at the other two. “He had something on his left hip. Assume everyone from here on in is armed. Doesn’t mean we’ll see anything, but be cautious and be prepared.”
Stevie did his usual shrug, while Boyd nodded.
Isabel looked tense.
“You’re doing fine,” I told her. “You’re being pushy. That’s good.”
“Good until someone gets shot,” she muttered.
The door lock unlatched from the other side and the guy in the sweatshirt was back. “Okay, he says come in.”
The four of us stepped through the door. The hallway here was better lit and as we walked, I counted twelve doors, six on either side of the hall, all of them closed. We turned a corner at the end of the hall and the doors at the end of this last hall were open. It would’ve been the boss’s office if it was still an office building.
Instead, it was Laser’s home.
Indirect lighting in the corners gave the entire room a shadowy feel. A bed was pushed over into one corner, a large desk on the other. A flat screen was attached to the back wall in front of a couple of leather recliners. Two space heaters sat on opposite walls, heat emanating from them.
A small guy in his twenties with thick glasses and short brown hair was in one of the recliners, his feet propped up, a Diet Coke in one of his hands.
Another guy sat on the edge of the desk. About the same age, but heavier, a baseball cap on backwards above large eyes and a flat nose. He had on a long sleeve Vikings T-shirt and shiny white sweatpants.
“A little late for you, Isabel,” the guy in the chair said. “I’m kinda irritated.”
“Looks like you were awake, Laser,” she said. “So, I don’t feel too bad.”
Laser chuckled, then did a slow take on the rest of us. “Stevie. Boyd. I know you two. But I’m not familiar with your friend.”
I didn’t say anything.
“He’s my friend,” Isabel said.
“Check him, Nate,” Laser said.
The guy on the desk slid off the edge and walked over to me. Which was good because it gave Boyd the opportunity to drift over to the wall, away from us.
“Arms up,” Nate said.
I held my arms out and he did an incredibly lazy pat down. He missed at least three places I could’ve hidden a weapon and I knew that one day his arrogance would probably get him killed.