“I can’t blame you for thinking that,” she said. “I’m not sure I deserved better.”
“You deserve a lot better.”
“I’m glad somebody thinks so.”
“Dinner tonight?” he asked.
“Let’s make it tomorrow night. I’d like to feel a whole woman again when I see you.”
“Plan on staying the night; we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Eagle hung up the phone feeling relieved. He had put his suspicions aside now, and he could find out where this relationship would lead. He felt he knew Barbara Kennerly now. Hannah Schlemmer was gone.
T
he phone rang as Wolf was sitting down to lunch. He had come to dread the telephone lately; there was too much bad news. He answered it anyway.
“Wolf, it’s Hal Berger.” He sounded excited.
“What’s up, Hal?”
“It’s back. The money’s back.”
“Which money?”
“Julia’s money—what she stole.”
“What do you mean, it’s back?”
“It was wire-transferred back to her account; I hadn’t closed it yet. The bank called this morning.”
“How much?”
“Everything. Three million six hundred thousand and change.”
Wolf went limp with relief. “I don’t believe it.”
“Aren’t you pleased about this?”
“Pleased? I’m thrilled! I just don’t believe it.”
“Well, you can believe it. The only thing is, you can’t get your hands on it yet.”
“Why not?”
“As far as the bank is concerned, the money belongs in Julia’s account, and they have a point. She deposited the money and gave instructions for its transfer. You don’t come into it, the way they see it.”
“So what do we do?”
“Julia’s will is up for probate, and apart from a couple of small bequests to her sisters, you’re the principal heir.”
“Wait a minute, Hal; you’re saying that I’m supposed to inherit the money to get it back? And pay inheritance tax, plus the tax and penalties for closing the retirement accounts early?” The adrenaline was pumping now. There was something he wanted to ask Hal, something about what he had said, but it would have to wait a minute.
“We can sort it out, I think. After all, we’ve filed a complaint with the police. Ordinarily, I think, they would hold the funds as evidence until Julia came to trial, but since Julia’s deceased, there shouldn’t be a problem with getting them released to you.”
Wolf’s telephone rang on the second line; he let the answering machine pick it up.
“What about the tax problems?”
“I’ve talked with your accountant, and he’s going to ask for a meeting with the I.R.S.; he’ll explain the circumstances and ask that the tax-free benefits of the retirement accounts be reinstated. If they buy it, it’ll be as if nothing had happened, tax-wise.”
“That sounds good. What if they don’t buy it?”
“Then we’d have to sue, I guess; either that or eat the penalties.”
“To tell you the truth, the penalties are starting to look good to me.”
“Don’t give up yet. Let’s wait until your accountants talk with the I.R.S., and then we’ll figure out how to proceed.”
“All right.”
“And don’t worry; it’s going to be all right.”
“Well, I’m glad
something
is going to be all right.”
He thanked Hal again and hung up, then let out a howl of triumph. “Not this time, Julia!” he yelled. “You didn’t screw me this time!” He called Ed Eagle and told him the news.
“That’s teriffic, Wolf. Norris said he’d worked out something with the Cayman banker, but not to say anything to you until everything was complete. You shouldn’t have any problem with getting the police to release the funds. I’m not so sure about your I.R.S problem.”
“In any case, I’m a hell of a lot better off than I was yesterday, Ed! Now I can afford you!”
Eagle laughed. “By the way, I had a call a few minutes ago from somebody named Spider who says he’s a friend of yours.”
“Spider was my cellmate in the pokey,” Wolf said.
“My secretary took the message; he wouldn’t leave a number—said he’d call back.”
“I wonder what he wants.”
“I’ll let you know when I hear from him.”
Wolf hung up and was trying to remember something Hal had said, something he’d wanted to ask him about, when he remembered the call that had come in during his earlier conversation. He went into the study and pressed the button on the answering machine.
“Hey, Wolf,” a familiar voice said, “it’s Spider, your old buddy from the Santa Fe slammer. I need to talk to you,
and it’s important. I’m on the road right now, but I’ll be back late this afternoon. Meet me at the Gun Club out on Airport Road at six, will you? This is real important, buddy, and we don’t want to talk about this on the phone.” He hung up.
What the hell could Spider want? he wondered. Something told him he probably didn’t want to know. Wolf shrugged it off; he wasn’t about to show up at a biker bar. Spider probably wanted to be introduced to Madonna, something like that.
W
olf began to be worried about the Gun Club as soon as he drove into the parking lot. At least thirty motorcycles were bunched up under a floodlight near the front door, and all of them were Harleys; he was conscious that a black Porsche Cabriolet was out of place here. He nearly turned around and drove away.
Then he caught sight of the paint job on one motorcycle, and that changed his mind. Covering the gas tank was a carefully rendered illustration of a huge spider, which seemed to be hugging the tank. Wolf forced himself through the front door of the place.
He was immediately assaulted by rock music so loud that it knocked him back a step. The bar was dimly lit, and it occurred to him that he hadn’t seen so many cowboy hats in one place since he had been on the set of a western at Universal. It was hard to get a clear look at anybody, and he couldn’t spot any bikers. Then there was the flash of a
strobe to his right and he could see into another room. A sign over the door said, simply,
HELL
.
Trying to seem confident, Wolf strode over and stood in the doorway, peering into the room, which was lit only by periodic flashes of light.
“What the fuck do you want?” a hoarse voice growled somewhere to his left.
Wolf peered in that direction and waited for the strobe to flash again.
“You lookin’ to get your legs broke?” the voice asked again.
The strobe flashed, and Wolf could briefly see a squat, heavily built man dressed entirely in leather, leaning against a bar.
“I’m looking for Spider,” Wolf said.
“What the fuck you want with Spider?”
Wolf decided a little aggression might get him further than open cowardice. “None of your fucking business. Just get Spider.” On the other hand, he reflected, it could get his legs broken. He leveled his gaze at the man and waited to find out which it would be.
The biker glowered at him for about half a minute, then turned and disappeared into the gloom.
Wolf began to be aware that he was being stared at by half a dozen other people, none of whom he would want to sit next to at a dinner party. Then, as if he were the star of an elaborate magic act, Spider appeared before him in a blinding flash of light.
“Wolf!” the giant screamed. He enfolded Wolf in a bear hug that lifted him off the floor. “Ol’ buddy! Hey, guys, this here is Wolf!”
Suddenly everybody was smiling and nodding in Wolf’s direction. It was as if he had entered a cage at the zoo and found the lions all to be kittens. There was an approving rum
ble from the group, and Wolf found himself participating in a number of odd handshakes, including a couple of high fives.
“This guy knows Madonna!” Spider crowed.
There was a stunned silence from the group, followed by a sound that seemed to Wolf like an expression of religious awe.
“Come on over here and sit down,” Spider commanded, draping an arm around Wolf’s shoulders and sweeping him across the room. They ended up in a booth with a striking girl who was wearing as much leather as anybody in the room. “This here’s Crystal, my old lady,” Spider said. “I told you about her in the slammer.”
“Right,” Wolf said. “How are you, Crystal?”
“Well-fucked,” Crystal replied matter-of-factly. “Spider’s been a bear ever since he got out.”
“When did they let you go?” Wolf asked the biker.
“Couple days after you. When the guy came to, he decided he didn’t want to press charges.”
“Smart move on his part,” Crystal said. “I’d have cut his balls off.”
Spider roared with laughter. “She woulda, too.”
Wolf didn’t doubt it for a moment.
“Listen, Babe,” Spider said to Crystal, “me and Wolf’s got to confer here for a little bit. You go bite somebody’s ear off, okay?”
Spider got up, and Crystal hipped her way out of the booth. “See ya, Wolf,” she said, flashing a broad smile that revealed a couple of gold teeth.
Spider got back into the booth. “You want a beer, Wolf?”
“Sure,” Wolf said. His mouth was still dry after his entrance.
“Sally!” Spider roared toward the bar, “gimme a couple Dos Equis!”
Sally waddled over with the beers, finding her way by the light of the strobes. As she came, the music on the
jukebox mercifully changed, and Kris Kristofferson started to sing “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”
“Shit, I love that song,” Spider said, swigging from the longneck bottle. “That one got me through a few nights.”
“It’s a good one,” Wolf agreed, sipping gratefully from the beer bottle.
“Well, now,” Spider said, leaning back and spreading his huge arms along the back of the booth, “how you been doin’ since you got sprung?”
“Okay, I guess. I go to trial in a few days.”
Spider nodded. “Yeah, and you got nothing to worry about with that Indian dude on your side. He’s a heavy hitter.”
“That’s what they say.” What the hell was he doing here? What did Spider want?
“You got something else to worry about, though,” Spider said gravely. “Something your lawyer can’t fix for you.”
“What’s that?” Wolf asked uneasily.
Spider leaned forward and spoke softly. “There’s a contract out on you, Wolf.”
Wolf wasn’t quite sure he’d heard this correctly. “Say again, Spider?”
“Somebody wants you offed,” Spider explained. “I heard about it.”
Wolf leaned forward. “Tell me all about this, Spider; start at the beginning.”
Spider leaned back again. “Well, y’know, after I got sprung, I needed some fresh air, y’know?”
Wolf nodded encouragingly.
“So me and Crystal and the dudes, we saddled up and headed north. Just blowin’ along, y’know?”
Wolf nodded again.
“So, anyway, we’re on the way back, and we stop off at Taos for a beer, and I run into this cat from another gang—
a biker, y’know? And he starts telling me how somebody offered him this contract on this guy who’s in the movies.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Wolf said, trying to hurry him along.
“Well,” Spider said, refusing to be hurried, “I know somebody in the movies, since I met up with you, so I’m interested, and I say, ‘Who is this guy they want you to hit?’”
“Go on.”
“This dude says it’s a guy in Santa Fe, and that interests me; and he says this address, in a place called Wilderness Gate. That ring a bell?”
“It sure does.”
“I thought it would. Well, anyway, this is a job for ten grand, half up front, and the dude is tempted. There’s some bikers’ll take a contract, y’know, but not this guy; he’s never done nothing like that. I mean, he might off somebody in a fight, but he’s not into cold-blooded killing.”
“Who, ah…offered him this job?” Wolf asked.
“A lady, and a hot one, according to this dude,” Spider said. “Dressed nice, long legs, nice tits.”
“What color was her hair?”
“Blond; out of a bottle, he said, but a good bottle.”
Wolf felt dizzy; he gripped the sides of the table to steady him. “Was there anything else about her? Anything else at all you can tell me?”
“Yeah, the top button of her shirt was undone, and she had a flower tattooed on one of her tits.”
“I see,” Wolf said, wishing the hell he did see. “Anything else?”
“Nah, that’s about it,” Spider replied. “She was loaded, though; had a lot of the green. Gave him a thousand.”
“I thought you said he didn’t take the job.”
“He didn’t. But she gave him a thousand to tell her somebody who would do it.”
“Shit,” Wolf said.
“Some spic in Santa Fe this dude knew, who did that kind of stuff. He called up this guy, and he said he’d do it, no problem, so he gave her his name, and she took off.”
“When did this happen?” Wolf asked.
“This morning, ’bout ten o’clock.”
“Where?”
“Up at Espanola, y’know, north of here about twenty miles. There’s a bar up there where bikers hang out.”
“Who was the guy she was going to see next?”
“He didn’t say.” Spider leaned forward. “But I’ll tell you, Wolf, if I was you, I’d watch my ass.”
Wolf nodded. He didn’t seem able to speak.
“You got a piece, Wolf?”
“What?”
“A piece—a gun. I can get you something, if you want.”
“Yeah, I’ve got one.”
“If I was you, I wouldn’t make a move without it,” Spider said. “I mean, you could carry a knife, but if this guy’s got a piece, that’s not gonna do you no good, y’know?”
Wolf nodded. “You’ve got a point, Spider.”
“You want me and some of the guys to, maybe, hang around your house, Wolf?”
Wolf had a bizarre mental picture of a biker behind every tree at Wilderness Gate. “Thanks, Spider, I appreciate the thought, but I don’t think so.”
“What’re you gonna do, Wolf?”
“Well, for a start, Spider,” Wolf said with feeling, “I’m going to watch my ass.”