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“Nine o’clock. At the Pike Street construction site.”
Inwardly, Da
“What are you supposed to do?”
“Drive in, park my car facing out, and leave it ru
Da
“We should call the police.”
Da
“You said he’s going to kill me, kill Tommy. What else am I supposed to do?”
“Believe me, Richard, you bring the police, Tommy and Karen die. Evan will be watching. You’d save your life, but it will cost your son’s.”
“What if it was a specialist, or a SWAT team, something like that?”
Da
Richard looked like he wanted to argue, then sighed. He leaned against the wall, let himself slide down to sit on his heels. “All of this only happens on TV.”
Da
But understanding this world didn’t change basic facts. Evan held the position of strength. If they were going to stop him, they needed an edge.
“You don’t,” Da
“With a kid? No way.”
Da
“Why is this happening?” Richard’s voice was faint.
Da
“Because you have something. Your life is blessed. Nothing is out of reach. People like Evan and me, we grew up differently.” He paused, shrugged. “It’s not complicated. It’s happening because you have something and others don’t. And that’s all the reason some people need.”
“People like you.” Richard’s voice was flat.
Da
There was a long pause, and then Richard turned to him. “What’s going to happen?”
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.
But what he said was, “We’re going to get your son back.”
“How?”
How indeed? Richard was a civilian, certainly willing to fight for his son, but of limited use in a scrap. Da
Wait.
Not quite.
“You know what?” Da
“What’s that?”
“He doesn’t know I’m coming.”
It took a moment, but Richard managed a smile back.
42
Richard was upstairs changing when Da
But Da
He hefted it, surprised at the weight. Thirty pounds, maybe more. The zipper pulled smoothly over thick teeth, a quality item like everything else in Richard’s world. Da
Now, as he stared down at the neatly bundled currency, all those Jacksons, Grants, and Franklins staring up at him, he felt only a vague nausea. Paper. Stacks and stacks of green paper. After all the discussion, after all the philosophy, that was what this came down to. These were the answer to Richard’s question. These were the lives of the people they loved, the futures of the people they worked with, the prime movers of darkness. Fate had borrowed the scales from Justice, set blood on one side and these dirty slips of paper on the other, and judged them even.
He thought of Karen’s brown sugar smell, the wet sparkle in her eyes when she laughed, the soft curve of her back. Acid soured his stomach. He zipped the bag and stepped away from its gloomy gravity.
Richard’s footsteps sounded down the stairs. He’d done as Da
“You have any black te
Richard shook his head. “Just these.”
“All right.”
The doorbell rang, kids yelling, “Trick-or-treat!” They ignored it, their gaze locked. The bell rang again, and then the kids moved on to the next house, a parade of normalcy.
“Should we bring a weapon?” The question sounded bizarre coming from Richard.
A knife block stood in the center of the kitchen island, and Da
He put the knife back in the block. “It will just get in the way.”
For a moment Richard looked like he was going to argue, but finally shrugged. “What time is it?”
Da
The garage looked the same, and Da
Easy, he told himself. Stretch it out. They had forty minutes yet – no point arriving adrenaline-sick and shaky.
The neighborhood streets were bright with the warm glow of porches and the sweeping arcs of flashlights. Children ran from house to house, their cotton capes and rubber monster masks providing a surreal background. Da
“You want to go over it again?”
“I’ll drop you off a couple of blocks away.” Richard spoke mechanically. “Then find somewhere to park and wait. I show up at nine, and do everything Evan says. You sneak in and find Tommy and Karen.”
Da
“Right. You free them, tell them to get out. I try to stall Evan until you can jump him from behind.”