Willie stared hard at Carter, then shook his head. “Wizard is a bad motherfucker.”
“He a South Bay Niner, too?” I asked.
Willie laughed at me like I was retarded. “Wizard fuckin’ runs South Bay Niners, Sixth Street Triples, and Hoover Down Killas.”
Carter looked at him. “He runs the whole area?”
“Fuckin’ A,” Willie said. “And I ain’t sayin’ no more about him.” He folded his arms back across his chest.
If Matellion was running the whole show, that meant he was responsible for dozens of murders. It was how they moved up. The more you killed, the more responsibility you got. Fucking fantastic-a case I’d originally thought would be easy had just gone from bad to much, much worse.
“You got an address for Moreno?” I asked.
Willie’s face screwed up into a tight ball of anger. “How about if I just drive you right up to his door? Introduce you and shit, let him know I was the one who brought your ass there?”
Carter stood up and looked at Dana and me. “Why don’t you guys give us a sec?”
Dana stood. “I’m gonna find the bathroom.” She walked toward the back of the restaurant.
“I’ll be outside,” I said.
As I stepped outside into the overcast afternoon, my cell phone vibrated. I didn’t recognize the number on the readout.
I flipped the phone open. “Hello?”
“Noah, it’s Liz.”
I gripped the phone a little tighter. “Hey.”
“Where are you?” she asked.
“Working. Why?”
“I need you to come down to the station.”
I took a deep breath and watched the traffic go by on Fifth. “Why?”
She paused for a moment, then said, “I just need you to come down, Noah.”
“Is Mike gonna be there?” I said before I could think better of it.
Her irritation was nearly tangible through the phone. “Don’t be an ass.”
“Who’s being an ass?” I said, taking a little enjoyment at her annoyance. “Just wondering if your new boyfriend’s gonna be there.”
“I’m trying to do you a favor, Noah.”
I laughed. “Oh, yeah? How’s that?”
She paused again and I half expected her to hang up on me. Part of me wanted her to do just that and part of me wanted to start the conversation all over again.
“Your mother’s here,” she said. “In lockup.”
My throat tightened and goose bumps formed on my forearms. I squeezed the phone so hard I thought it might shatter. I shut my eyes, wishing Liz had said anything other than what she had.
“I’ll be right there.”
Seventeen
I sat in the Jeep, staring at the police station.
I’d told Carter about the phone call and he waved me out of the diner. He and Dana would find their own way home.
He understood.
I didn’t want to go in angry, frustrated, and disappointed, but I knew I didn’t have that much self-control. I just wanted to corral all three of those emotions before facing my mother for the first time in nearly four years.
I struggled out of the Jeep, cursing the fact that my body was still hurting. All the driving I’d done hadn’t helped, either. The traffic on Pacific Coast Highway roared behind me. I walked up the steps to the SDPD building and wondered what excuse I was going to hear.
Liz’s office was on the third floor and I found her sitting at her desk, studying a file spread out in front of her.
She looked up. “Hey.”
“Hey.”
“You got here quick.”
I slid into the chair against the wall. “Didn’t want to change my mind.”
She nodded, then rested her chin in her hand. “One of our guys stopped her on Morena. Car was weaving all over the place. She blew a.21.”
I laughed, not meaning it. “That low, huh? She must’ve been taking it easy today.”
“I was down at booking when they brought her in,” she said. “I recognized her and had her moved to holding.”
“She charged yet?”
Liz shook her head. “No. I waived it. We’ll let her sober up and she can go. With you, if you want.”
I leaned back in the chair and stared up at the ceiling. “Probably better if she was booked. Maybe, for once, she might get it.”
“We can, if that’s what you want to do,” she said. “But I pulled her record. Three DUIs in last four years and a citation for public intoxication. They can’t defer her to a program this time. She’s out of freebies.” She paused. “We book her, she’s gonna stay and I can almost guarantee she’s gonna get time at Las Colinas.”
I looked back at Liz, a mix of emotions running through me. “Maybe it’s time for that.”
Liz folded her hands on the desk. “She’s still your mom.”
“Barely.”
“Still. But I’ll do whatever you want to do.”
I pushed back in my chair and stared at the ceiling again. I wanted her to make sure I never had to see my mother again in a jail cell. I wanted her to erase the years I spent growing up while my mother spent them in bars. And I wanted her to pay back my mother for all the embarrassment heaped on me because of her actions through the years.
But I knew Liz couldn’t do any of those things.
I rocked the chair forward again with a clunk. “I’ll take her,” I said. Duty and obligation had won once again.
Liz stood. “Let’s go downstairs, then.”
I followed her down the hall to the elevator bank.
“You look a little better,” she said. “Your bruises are fading.”
“I guess. You confirm on Pluto?” I asked, trying to think of anything but what was waiting for me in the basement of the building.
“Yeah,” she responded. “Like you said. We got a match on dentals.”
“Cause of death?”
“Blunt trauma to the head,” she said. “Probably a bat or something like it.”
I hadn’t felt lucky at the time, but maybe my pal Lonnie had done me a favor by having Mo use just his fists on me.
“We’re trying to track down an aunt in the area,” she said. “I’ll let you know what we find out.”
We stepped into the elevator. She pushed the button marked B, the doors shut, and the elevator glided downward.
“Thanks for doing this,” I said.
“I figured you’d want to know she was here.”
I looked at Liz. She wore a white oxford open at the neck and dark navy slacks. Her hair was down, behind her shoulders. She was looking back at me and her face looked like she needed some sleep.
“Yeah,” I said. “And I’m sorry about on the phone and all. I didn’t know why you were calling.”
She leaned against her side of the elevator. “Because if you’d known why I was calling, you wouldn’t have been an ass?”
I shook my head. “No. I might’ve been less of an ass, though.”
The elevator came to a stop.
“I doubt that,” she said as the doors slid open.
“Me, too. Just thought I should say it.”
I followed her to a counter where she signed a clipboard and motioned for me to follow. We walked down a narrow hallway and she stopped at the corner where it turned to the right.
“There are four cells,” Liz said. “She’s in the third one. The others are empty, so you’ll have a little privacy.”
I nodded, looking down the short hall where my mother waited behind bars.
“You want me to go with you?” Liz asked.
I shook my head. “No. It’s okay.”
“I’ll send someone down in a few minutes to release her and do the paperwork.”
“Good idea. If she’s in the cell I can’t kill her.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I figured.”
I looked at Liz. “Thanks. Seriously. For calling me and doing this.”
Liz glanced down the hallway. “I remember when we were in high school. My junior year, your sophomore, I think. I came over to interview you for the school paper. Something about basketball. But you weren’t home yet. I sat out on the patio with her for an hour or so. We just talked. Mostly about you.” Liz turned back to me. “I remember thinking she was so cool, that I liked her so much. I had no idea what was really going on.”
“No one did,” I said.