"Who are you?" Cruz said quietly to the girl.? She had come around a little bit, was no longer in shock, but was still sobbing a little.
"My name is Pamela Gray.? I work at the Portland Public Library."
"You're Lola's roommate?"
She nodded.
"Okay, Pamela.? Do you go by Pam or Pamela?"
"Pamela.? Most people call me Pamela."
Sure, Pamela, Cruz could see that.? This seemed like a formal kind of chick.? Probably had a mom and dad who she pecked on the cheek when she saw them at Christmas.? He glanced at her.? She wasn't bad looking, if a little plain.? A little make-up, a new hairdo, yeah, he could see it.? Get rid of that hair pulled back against her scalp thing.? She could be cute.? Her clothes were a little baggy.? Hard to say what it was all like underneath there - could be anything.
"Okay Pamela, here's the deal.? I'm going to tell you a lot of things I shouldn't tell you, and wouldn't normally tell you.? That's because I want you to help me.? And I what I need help with is keeping you and Lola alive.? Understand?"
She nodded, the tears flowing again.
"Okay, I can't always look at you for the answer.? First thing I need you to do is to speak.? So let's try that again.? Do you understand?"
"Y-yes."
"Good.? Now, as you probably guessed, we're not interested in you, right?? We're not even interested in Lola, to be honest.? What we are interested in is Lola's boyfriend."
"Smoke?"? The girl's eyes did something funny now.? Cruz noted it, but didn't even try to decipher it.
"That's right, Smoke.? You may not know this, but Smoke is bad news.? He killed a friend of ours a few years ago, and he stole some money.? A lot of money.? Earlier today, we tried to stop in and talk to him, and he killed another friend of ours."
"Smoke did this?? Today?"
"Yeah.? He did.? So we came over to your place and grabbed you and Lola as sort of bargaining chips in our, eh, our negotiations with Smoke.? You see?"
She shook her head now, her eyes wide again.? Cruz was afraid she was going to go away again, retreat from this place where nothing made sense to that other place, where nothing had to make sense.? "I think you have the wrong man.? Smoke's not a killer.? He makes toys.? He's like, I don't know, Santa Claus, or like an elf.? He's like an elf that makes toys.? Don't you see?"
Cruz checked the road.? He was in the center of a town, and he pulled up in front of a general store.
The sign in the window read CLOSED FOR THE SEASON.? SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!? There was no one around.? Everything closed up when the tourists went home.?
"He makes toys."
Cruz looked at her and gave her a gentle shake.? "Pamela, I don't have the wrong man.? You do.? Okay?? Now, I want to tell you something else.? The people I work for want to kill him.? They want their money back and then they want to kill him.? If they knew I was telling you all this, they would want to kill me, too.? And generally speaking, people like you and Lola, who get caught up in things like this, well you'd be killed, too.? But I don't want to play it that way, okay?? I want to see you live through this, okay?? And I want you to help me do that."
The girl looked at him with big blank eyes.? Deer in the headlight eyes.?
?
"Listen, I need to make a call.? I want you to wait right here, okay?"
She nodded, again with those big eyes.
Cruz got out of the car.? There was a chill in the air, and crackly multi-colored leaves moved along the ground pushed by the breeze.? There was not another car in the parking lot.? There was not another sound except the wind rustling the tops of the trees.
The phone worked.? Well, at least something worked for a change.???
He dialed a number.?
A woman answered on the first ring.? She sounded like a gentle and kindly older woman.? Cruz had spoken to her before.
"Maple Enterprises," she said.? Maple Enterprises, that was a new one.? It was always something with these people.? Not for the first time, Cruz wondered what the old woman thought she did for a living.? Did she have any inkling she was speaking to a man who had killed more than a hundred people in his life?? Could she keep that sun-shiny disposition if she did know?
Cruz thought not.?
"I'm calling for Mr. Franklin," Cruz said.? "Is he available?? This is Mr. Jones."
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said.? "Mr. Franklin is no longer at this number.? I can give you the new number for him, and you can reach him there.? Will that be okay?"
"That will be fine."
The woman gave Cruz the new number.? The numbers were always new.? Everything always changed, that was the rule.?
"I'm sure Mr. Franklin is eager to hear from you," the woman finished.
Cruz hung up.? What was he supposed to say?? "Thanks so much.? Have a nice evening," was probably something a person would say.? Cruz wasn't in that business.
Mr. Franklin was probably very eager to hear from him.? The spies were everywhere, and word of the fire and the corpse inside of it had probably gotten back to New York.? After all, it was a cop who had originally called this thing in, wasn't it?
Cruz swallowed hard.? This was going to be tough to explain.? That Canadian border was looking better and better.?
He dialed the number and listened to the phone ring in New York.?
?
* * *
?
Lola lay on her back, finding that inner calm.?
Nine years of study had taught her to look for the stillness during stressful times.? Much to her amazement, she sometimes found it.? She had never tried to explain it to anyone, because she didn't much understand it herself.? But there seemed to be something going on beneath the surface of the world, or rather, something not going on.? It was as if the world she knew, and in which people ran around and worried themselves sick about things, was a Hollywood stage set, and behind it was something else.? At times, it was almost as if she could pull the world she knew down like so much wallpaper to reveal the real world hiding behind it.?
What would this real world look like?? A stillness, she thought.? A quiet, calm knowing, beyond care and worry, and beyond reasons to care or worry.? Beyond death, even.? When she accessed it, even death didn't seem like that big a concern.? Perhaps it was what people were talking about when they talked about God.? Maybe it was deeper and quieter and more knowing even than God.
She was looking for that stillness now.
And again to her amazement, it was there waiting for her.?
So she thought about the stillness, her arms tied to either bedpost, her legs tied together and immobilized.? She thought about the stillness even as the big man, the one with long blonde hair who they called Moss, removed his pants and his flannel shirt.? She watched him quietly, thinking about stillness.?
Now here was a sight to remember: a huge man in nothing but a New York Rangers T-shirt and a pair of red bikini briefs.? He picked his gun up off the table, then came over to the bed.? Inside those briefs, he was already erect.? He surged against them.? He climbed onto the bed and crawled across her arms until he was straddling her.
"Tomorrow," he said.? "We're going to trade you for your boyfriend.? You see?? We're going to take you back to South Portland, to a place called Governor's.? You know it?? Yeah, you know it.? You're going to help us find it.? And when we go inside there, Smoke Dugan is going to come in and sit with us at our table.? Then you're going to leave, and you and I will never see each other again.? That only leaves us tonight, so tonight we're going to be real good friends."?
She thought about the stillness, and on the heels of that thought came the idea of how absurd this situation must look.? She looked into his eyes.?
In the stillness, she realized once again that it was okay to make people pay for the stupid or just plan evil things they did.? It was more than okay.? It was necessary and right.? It was part of the natural order of things, and so therefore became a person's responsibility.? She must do whatever was necessary, without dou
bt, without remorse, without fear.? Without judgment.? Like the lion in the hunt for her prey.?
"What I'm going to do," Moss said, "is remove that bandanna from your mouth.? You'd probably like that, right?? Your jaw is probably awful strained by now.? That's a bitch, I know.? Unfortunately, I've been there once or twice myself.? Anyway, when I take that gag off, if you scream, I'm going to kill you.? So I need you to be nice and quiet.? Do you understand?"
Lola nodded.? It was a lie he was telling her, but she nodded anyway.? She wasn't going to scream, but not because she thought he'd kill her.? She knew they were after Smoke, and she also knew they thought she was some kind of bargaining chip to get at him.? So they had to keep her alive at all costs.? The reason why she wasn't going to scream was because it would do her no good.? The glimpse she had gotten of this place said they were in the middle of nowhere out here.? No one would hear her scream, and then this idiot would probably beat her senseless to get her to shut up.? She couldn't afford to beaten senseless right now.? She was going to need her senses.? At some point, somewhere along the line, these two were going to make a mistake, and when they did Lola would be ready.?
"So then after I take off that gag, I'm going to give you a minute to get that feeling back in your jaw.? That's the favor I'm going to do for you.? Then there's going to be a favor I want you to do for me.? It's tit for tat around here, honey.? So let's begin, okay?"
He placed the gun on the bed next to her head.? Then he reached with his hand and gradually worked the gag loose.? He got it untied, then pulled it free.?
Lola worked her jaw around.? It was stiff, even from just the past fifteen minutes.? It was sore.? It was great to be able to open her mouth again.? She imagined the feeling would be ten times stronger once she got her arms free.?
"Yeah, get that feeling back in there," Moss said.? He reached down and touched his erection.? "Then I'm gonna put this bad boy in there for a little while.? What do you say to that?? We're friends, right?? Don't you want to be my friend?"
Moss smiled.? He rubbed it inside his briefs.? It looked like he was rubbing a big wooden soup spoon in there.? Then Lola began to shake.? She had no control over it.?
"Don't worry," he said.? "This'll probably only take a couple of minutes.? I've been working non-stop, and haven't had time for fun in a while."
He climbed closer to her, straddling her shoulders now.? Lola began to shake so hard she thought she would never be able to stop.? It took a force of will to keep herself from crying.? The stillness had held for few moments, but it was almost gone now.? She hoped and prayed she could keep it just a little while longer.??
"Man, I guess I been stressed out.? This is gonna be good."
?
* * *
?
"Yeah, it sounds like a real big fuck up," Big Vito said into Cruz's ear.? "We're not happy, Cruz, you know what I mean?"
"I know."?
"I mean, whatta we got to be happy about?? You're not making us happy."
"I know," Cruz said.? "It's a fuck up.? But I'm gonna handle it."?
"I don't even like to talk on the phone.? My wife calls, I don't even take the fucking call.? Now here I am in the middle of the night, what am I doing?? I'm talking on the phone about all this bullshit, all these problems.? You know who could be listening?? Anybody, that's who."
Cruz scanned the deserted parking lot, leaves blowing around in small tornadoes.? A car went by on the road.? It was the first one he had seen in a while.? In the deep darkness, its headlights cast strange shadows on the surrounding trees.? The shadows looked like tall, thin people, grasping and writhing in agony.
"Look, I'm sending somebody up there."?
Wait a minute, another person.? That was the last thing he needed, to deal with yet another person.? Things were already too crowded.? "Who are you sending up?"
"You don't know them."
"Them?"
Jesus.
"You got a pen?" Vito said.
"Look," Cruz said.? "Give us another day.? This thing is just about wrapped up."
Cruz heard a car door slam.
He felt in his jacket pocket for a pen.? No, he didn't have a pen.
He looked up.? Shit, the girl!
She ran across the parking lot toward the road.? At first, all Cruz noticed was her big white running sneakers, incongruous at the bottom of those brown office casual dress pants.? Her hands were still cuffed together in front of her, so her two arms moved together in jerking motions, swinging side to side like a pendulum.? He and Moss had cuffed the girls in front because it would be easier for them to walk out of the apartment like that - less chance they would fall down or need help balancing as they walked down the street to the car.? Cruz had seen people cuffed in back fall down for no reason at all.? It did something to your equilibrium.?
Well, good.? This girl had enough balance that she could run with the cuffs in front.
"Look, I gotta call you back," Cruz said.?
"Cruz!" the voice in the phone yelled.? "Cruz!"
She was already at the exit to the parking lot.? All he needed was a car to come along now, and there'd be real problems.
He jumped in the car, got it started, and drove after her.? He reached the exit, and turned left.? There she was up ahead, running right down the double yellow line.? There were no headlights anywhere in sight.
He pulled even with her and powered down the window.? She was three feet from his left elbow.? Her mouth hung wide open.? Her breath came in harsh, shallow rasps.? It sounded like the bray of a mule, over and over again.? Maybe she was about to start hyperventilating.???
"Pamela."
She wouldn't look at him.? She just kept running along, doggedly persistent.
He almost laughed.? He did, in fact, smile.? But laughing was beyond him.? It had been a long, stupid day, and he was tired.? Nothing seemed to come easy anymore, least of all this job.? And tomorrow promised more of the same.
"Pamela, where are you going?? There's nobody out here."
She was crying again.
He pulled out ahead of her and parked diagonally across the road.? He opened the door and got out right in front of her.? She ran right into his arms.? For a moment, they were in an embrace, and he was the only thing holding her up.? He looked down at her, and she gazed up at him with something that could have passed for terror.?
He took her by the handcuffs and led her around to the passenger side.
"Pamela, I thought you wanted to help me.? How is this helping me?"
???
* * *
?
"Ready?" Moss said.?
The girl was shaking so hard that he wanted to get this in before she shook herself into a million pieces.? He also wanted to finish up before Cruz got back.? It wouldn't look right, Cruz walking in on something like this.
"I won't do it," Lola said.
"Oh, you'll do it, all right."?
She shook her head.? "I tell you this.? You put that thing in my mouth and I'm going to bite it off.? Then I'm going to spit it back out at you.? Then you'll spend the night out running around, looking for a doctor to sew it back on.? In this neck of the woods, I'm not sure you'll find one."
He looked into her eyes.? "You do that and I'll kill you."
She did not look away.?
"So kill me.? I don't care.? I'll be dead and you'll be missing a limb, probably your favorite one."
He picked up the gun and placed the muzzle against her temple.? She kept her eye contact with him.? Tears welled up in her eyes.? She swallowed and waited.? Moss counted silently to ten.? Then he counted to ten again.?
Fuck.??
"I guess you can see I'm not lying," she said.? She even managed a smile.
He could do it.? He could blow her brains out right here.? It wouldn't even make a sound.? Then what?? What would he tell Cruz?? Fuck Cruz.? What would he tell Vito?? I killed her before we got Dugan because?
Because?
No fucking r
eason.? There was no reason that would wash.
He climbed off her, put his pants back on, and then threw his gun across the room.? It bounced off the wall and landed on the floor.? He noticed her flinch when he did that.? It gave him a mean little satisfaction.? If she were a man, he would have already killed her.? Back at the apartment, when she knocked him down, he would have gotten up and killed her.? If she were a man, it would never even have gotten that far.???
He looked at her and she watched him.
"Tantrums aren't going to solve anything," she said.
Moss stormed out of the cottage.?
In another minute, he would kill her anyway.?
The screen door slammed behind him.? He stalked across the dirt compound toward the beckoning light of the Coke machine.? It sat like a fat, squat space alien outside the door of the motel office.? The cold air felt good.? The trees swayed at the edge of the parking lot.? The scene brought him back to himself for a moment.
The girl had called his bluff.? He shouldn't have lied about killing her.? What he should have done was smack her around a little.?
"Okay, I can do that," he said to no one.?
That's what he would do when he got back.? She wanted to be uncooperative?? That was fine.? He would just get himself a soda here, maybe drink it standing right there by the soda machine, take a few deep breaths, then go on back and get to work on that girl.? She'd see things his way before long.? He felt certain of that.
Cruz didn't like it?? He could go fuck himself.?
The soda machine took dollars.? He fed a crisp one dollar bill into the slot.? The can of Coke ka-thunked into the little tray at the bottom.
Moss reached down to pull his cold soda out.
?
* * *
?
Hal timed it perfectly.
He stepped around the machine and brought the barrel of the shotgun down hard on the back of the big man's head.? The man collapsed to the ground, landing on all-fours.? Hal hit him again, raising the gun way in the air, and bringing it down with all his might.???
Darren came around the other side of the machine and kicked the man in the side.? That knocked him over.? Hal brought the gun down on the guy's back.? Darren kicked the guy in the head.? They worked him over pretty good for about half a minute.
The guy was lying still.
Hal held up his arm to Darren.? Darren stopped kicking.