Killer Swell

He set his drink down. “Kate covered for me.”

“I know that. Why?”

“Because I made her.”

We stood there, staring at one another, his words hanging in the air between us.

“How?” I asked, resisting the urge to hit Randall as hard as I could.

Randall took a deep breath, looking nervous and pale. “I’d already had a run-in with…the police. I couldn’t afford another. I’m sure Ken told you that.”

I didn’t say anything.

“She was using again,” he said, shifting his weight from his right foot to his left. “Not enough for others to catch on, but just enough to stay in the groove. I told her if she didn’t cover for me, I’d tell Ken and Marilyn that she was off the wagon.”

I just looked at him, wondering what Kate had ever seen in him.

“She didn’t want them to know,” he said. “Disappointing them was always her biggest fear.” He smirked over the glass at me. “I think you learned that firsthand, though, didn’t you?”

I took another step forward and Randall nearly dropped his glass. It wasn’t as good as punching him, but it would have to do for the moment.

“She knew they’d insist on rehab again and there was no way she was go

“So you blackmailed her,” I said.

He shrugged. “I prefer to think of it as taking advantage of the situation, but you’re probably right.” Randall emptied his drink and poured another. “She always helped me out of my problems.”

I tried to stay under control. “She didn’t at the hospital.”

He smiled at the glass. “No, that was one she couldn’t fix. That was all mine.”

I stayed quiet, not letting him off the hook.

“I went to the hospital, coming off a weekend binge,” he said, settling back against the counter. “It was a mistake. We’d been high all weekend. Almost operated on a patient before somebody stepped in.”

“Shouldn’t you have been arrested?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “No doubt. At the very least, fired. But I have a great attorney. Hospitals and insurance groups are very frightened of good attorneys.”

He said it so matter-of-factly that it couldn’t have been a lie.

“I was admonished,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Written up. Warned that if it happened again, I was done.” He paused, looking like he was trying to remember the scene. “When she got stopped, she didn’t know it was in the car. So I gave her the choice. Take the blame and tell your parents the truth, that it was mine. Or tell the cops the truth and deal with everything I would tell Ken and Marilyn.”

I tried to picture Kate and what she might’ve been thinking. Maybe it was a last-ditch attempt to save her marriage, no matter how perverse in its thinking. As I stood in the room with her husband, I became certain that he was nowhere near worth the effort she had made.

Or perhaps she simply couldn’t stomach the thought of disappointing her parents again.

“Ken set the deal up,” he continued. “I wasn’t implicated. It seemed like it would work out fine.”

“Sending your wife into a foreign country with the guy who controls the drug corridors between the U.S. and Mexico seemed fine?” I asked, my voice rising. “You seriously thought that?”

He finished off the second drink and set the empty glass on the counter. “They assured us she would be completely protected. The DA, the police, the DEA agents all told us that she wouldn’t be in any danger.”

“Famous last words.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “They made it sound like she’d never be alone, never without protection.” He paused. “Kate wasn’t afraid.”

That I believed. The Kate I had known was fearless. Try anything once. Live for the moment.

“After the first time, we relaxed,” he said, his voice straining a bit. “She said it was fairly easy. Everyone was friendly. There were guns, but she said it was like being in a bank. A little security, but very professional.”

“What did she say about Costilla?” I asked.

“Not much. Polite, friendly, somewhat intimidating, but nothing like what she expected. She said he looked like a rich businessman.”

I remembered Costilla in the empty storefront in San Ysidro. Until the shooting started, I probably could have agreed with that description.

“When did you realize she was missing?” I asked.

“When the DEA called me,” Randall said, his face sagging slightly. “They thought she might be with me.” He stopped and rubbed his chin. “Obviously, she wasn’t.”

“Obviously?” I asked.

He refocused on me. “What?”

“You didn’t see her after she disappeared?”

A fire started to burn in his eyes. “No, I didn’t see her. And I don’t think I like the implication.”

I laughed. I had to. The way rich people talk can be amusing. I’m not sure that I had ever used the word “implication” in a sentence before.

“You don’t, huh?” I said. “Well, let me tell you what I don’t like. I don’t like the fact that you are a junkie. I don’t like the fact that you pulled Kate into that life with you.”

“Now wait a second…” he said, trying to defend himself.

“I don’t like the fact that you cheated on Kate,” I continued, ignoring him. “I don’t like the fact that you hung her out to dry because you were too much of a pussy to face it yourself. I don’t like the fact that I found Kate in a car trunk. And what I really don’t like, Randall, is that all of this, all of this shit, keeps curling back to you.”

He stood there, his jaw set, unsure of what to say. He walked around to the bar and over to the balcony. I didn’t move and he had to turn to the side to slide by me.

I turned around and watched him stand there for a moment, looking out the window. Part of me wished he would jump.

“I didn’t kill Kate,” he said quietly.

My head hurt. I didn’t know who to believe. Randall was a manipulator and no matter how much of what he’d told me was true, I would never trust him. He’d given me no reason to.

“When Marilyn said she was hiring you,” he said, turning around to face me, “she said you’d find her. She had no doubt.”

“Why’s that?”

A thin smile creased his lips. “She said you’d probably never gotten over her and that you’d jump at a chance to get back in touch with her.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. Jump was a strong word. I had tried to resist taking the job, knowing that working for the Criers was something that would complicate my life. But, in the end, the chance to possibly see Kate again had been enough to coerce me. I hated the fact that Marilyn had been right.

“I guess this isn’t what you expected,” Randall said, shaking his head.

“No, it isn’t,” I said, clenching my teeth.

I snapped my fist into his jaw, watched him sag to the floor, and left.

31

I knew Carter would still be in surgery, and since I couldn’t think of any valid reason to avoid talking to Liz, I headed downtown.