Luthecker (23 page)

“Just…think about it.” Was all Kittner could think of to say.

She didn’t answer, and instead grabbed his hand one last time before turning away, walking back towards the hospital entrance. She didn’t look back, and let out a sigh of relief as she entered the hospital. It seemed so odd to her now, the complete turn about in her feelings, the abrupt absence of closeness to Michael. Three years ago, she would have found his direct logic and persistent manner attractive, and would have said yes on the spot. It didn’t mean she had no doubts about turning him down. She wanted to sound strong, and was prepared to reject him no matter what he said, but in the back of her mind, she wondered if she was being objective, or she was simply being angry and emotional. Ten million dollars really was a lot of money. Maybe Michael was right- maybe it was too soon. She decided that she should be open to the possibility in the future, but wouldn’t think about it until her brother was back on his feet.

Kittner watched her as she walked through the doors and back into the hospital. He had to admit, he was taken aback by her response. How on Earth could she refuse such a lucrative position? The Nikki he knew would have jumped at the chance. He knew it was her emotions talking, and remained confident that she would come around before too long. Where else would she go? He asked himself. He pulled out his cell phone as he walked towards the line of yellow cabs just past the entrance of the hospital, and flagged one down. His new boss Richard Brown wanted regular updates. He would tell him that he needed a few more days.

• • •

Nikki arrived at Café Venice to find Miller waiting. He sat in a corner table, scanning the menu. He looked up as she approached, saw her, and smiled. He got to his feet.

“Miss Ellis. It’s good to see you.” He greeted, as he warmly shook her hand.

“Likewise. And it’s Nikki.”

“Well then please, call me Philip.”

They sat down across from one another. Nikki immediately picked up the menu and began looking over the options.

“I’ve never been here before. What’s good?” She asked, trying to keep the conversation light.

“Pretty much everything.” He answered.

Nikki nodded, smiled, and hid back behind the menu. She hated doing this, working her sex appeal to her advantage, in order to get something she wanted. She despised it when other women did it, and now she found herself in the same predicament. But this was the only angle she had. For some reason Luthecker was in her head, even more so after the last conversations with her brother and Michael. As her brother’s condition had improved, she had begun to think about that night more and more, and the bizarre encounter with this stranger. She was a bit surprised to find herself becoming obsessed with meeting him. And if Miller could put her in the room with him, safely, she thought, she would suck it up and play the age-old game.

“I hear your brother is doing much better.”

From behind the menu, Nikki took a deep breath, painted on a smile, and lowered the menu like a veil.

“He is. It looks like he’ll make a full recovery.”

“That’s fantastic, Nikki. I’m happy for you.”

She tried not to wince at the inflection of familiarity he put on her name.

“Thank you.”

“So what’s next for you?”

Let the games begin, she thought.

“I’m not sure yet. I’m still deciding.”

“Well, if you choose to stay in Los Angeles, I’d be honored to show you the latest and greatest of our fine City.”

Nikki closed her eyes for a full second before carefully putting down her menu. Never in her life could she play this game, and she wasn’t about to start today, she decided.

“Detective Miller, I have to be honest -- “

“Please; call me Philip.”

“Philip, I’m going through a lot right now. I just got out of a relationship, and between my brother’s accident and deciding what’s next for myself, I’m not looking for anything romantic. And I just wanted to be honest about that up front.”

“Um. Okay.” Miller replied, unsure what else to say.

“But I really could use a friend.”

Miller looked at Nikki, and saw the sincerity in her eyes. It was instinctive in Miller to help people, and in dealing with women, that usually meant becoming a friend. As much as he wished differently, Miller really wasn’t that much of a player, and he knew it.

“Well, Ms. Ellis, that I can be. You have my word as a gentlemen.”

“Thank you.” She replied, relief palpable in her voice. “I really appreciate that. And please; it’s Nikki.” She added. “So. You said you had some information? About my brother’s accident? About Alex Luthecker?”

“Yes. I do.”

He did an instinctive glance at the other tables before continuing.

“This is confidential.”

“I’ll keep it that way. You have my word.”

“Good. Now, again I can’t tell you why, but this guy is really important to the higher-ups. I have a good friend who works for the Arizona Highway Patrol, and he said that they know where he is. He was right on the guy’s tail, but he was told rather strongly to back off. That means they have him in their sights, and they’re bringing in someone serious. And they want to keep it quiet. But they’re going to have to process him through Los Angeles, through my department, because the nightclub owner filed an incident report, and Luthecker was mentioned. It’s a pain in the ass formality, but these guys really want to get at Luthecker without any problems, so they’re smart enough to not get the paperwork wrong. But I assure you, they’re not going to keep him at the precinct for very long.”

“How will you know when he arrives?”

“I’m tracking him. I got my buddy in Arizona watching what they do there. And I got my people in the P.D. that will let me know when he arrives in Los Angeles.”

“And you can get me in to see him?”

“No. No direct contact. But I might be able to get you a look at him. I can say that you need to confirm his ID from that evening in the night club, so I can close out the DUI case.”

“But I need to actually see him.”

“That can’t happen. This guy is allegedly dangerous, and the Homeland Security guys, or whatever they’re calling themselves these days, want very limited access to him.”

“But you could do it, right? Get me in the room with him? All I need is a couple minutes.”

Miller studied Nikki for a moment.

“Why is this so important to you?”

“I don’t know. I just can’t get his face out of my head. I mean, why did he single me out that night, and tell me not to get into the car? How in the hell did he know it was going to crash?”

“I’ve been a police officer for fifteen years, and I’ve seen a lot of things that just can’t be explained.”

“This is different.”

“I don’t think so, Nikki.”

“Do you know what it is I do for a living?”

“You’re a Wall Street executive.”

“No. I’m not that at all. I create algorithms. Computer modeling programs that look for patterns of predictability, in nearly any system. I’ve been very successful at it, although it’s dawned on me as of late that I’ve been applying it to the wrong things.”

“So?”

“So there’s something about Alex Luthecker. He’s this random data point in my life that stepped in and saved it. Now he’s either in on the car crash, and a criminal and deserves to be in jail, or there’s something very special about him.”

“And you think you can find out by spending a couple minutes in a room with him?”

“I don’t know why, but yes. I do.”

“Then that’s exactly why you can’t be in the room with him. You’re just being seduced by the unexplainable. It happens. I’ve seen it before. Don’t worry, we have officers that are trained to deal with these questions.”

“But they won’t get the chance to ask him, will they? You said it yourself, that these “Homeland Security guys, or whatever the hell they are”, are just going to take him a way, and chances are he’ll never be heard from him again. Doesn’t it that bother you, that they can step all over your department, and scoop up this guy, no questions asked?”

Miller didn’t answer right away.

“It doesn’t matter.” He finally said. Miller hadn’t thought of it this way, but now that he did, he realized that he was bothered by it.

“Look; I don’t know this guy, but he sounds an awful lot like the Charles Manson type. Men like that do have something unique about them, this charm that somehow enables them to get people to change their behavior, and do things that they normally wouldn’t; and more often than not, it’s very bad things.”

“Maybe. But Manson didn’t predict car accidents just before they happened.”

“Like I said, I’ve seen stranger things.”

“Then why is “Homeland Security, or whatever the hell they are,” after him?”

“He’s a terrorist.”

“What did he do?”

“I don’t know exactly. Something about a bomb in Los Angeles, three years ago. They won’t give us any details.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

“I’m sorry Nikki. I can get you a look. And that’s only because I like you. But there’s no way I’m going to put you in a room with him.”

Nikki saw that she had pressed him as far as she could. For now.

“Okay. Fair enough. But you will get me that look?”

“Through a one way, yes.”

“Well then thank you. I appreciated it. I mean that.”

She gave him a smile, and looked at her menu.

“Shall we order?”

This wasn’t over, she thought. If she got close to Alex Luthecker, she would find a way to meet him, face to face.

SNAKETOWN

A
lex, Camila, Yaw, and Chris all huddled around the fire pit, the roaring blaze keeping them warm against the chill of midnight in the open desert. There was nothing but sand, rock and various small cactus shrubs for miles in every direction, save for a single mud hut about a hundred yards north of where they all sat.

A full moon and clear sky made for a blue-black canopy over the nighttime shadow-filled

topography. A wind kicked up, and at this time of year it was not uncommon to have a temperature drop of thirty or forty degrees from the mid-day peak.

“How much longer we gonna wait?” Yaw asked, frustrated and tired, as he tossed another stick onto the crackling fire.

The fire pit itself was a perfect stone circle, about three feet in diameter. It was centered concentrically in yet another stone pit, this one consisting of carefully laid flat stones that formed another circle, again a perfect one, this time forty feet in diameter and dug two feet deep into the desert surface. The moat-like area between the two circles was stamped hard and flat, the result of pounding from countless feet over the years, natives shuffling and moving to the chants and rhythms of ritual dance done around the fire. The younger Hayes had told them it was a spiritual place, several hundred years old, where meetings among tribal elders were often held, until a few decades ago. He had informed the group that his grandfather had requested that they come here specifically, sit inside the circle and wait for him. That was nearly five hours ago.

“Why can’t we just stay in the van?” Camila asked.

“Because he wants to talk to us.” Alex answered. “And no black hats will bother us while we are on Indian land. We’re guests here. It’s the least we can do.”

“We’ve been here about five hours already. We gotta hit the road early in the morning. I’m with Camila. If he’s not here soon, I’m going back to the car and getting some sleep.” Chris said, as he foraged through his backpack for a Power Bar.

Camila glanced at Yaw, wanting to ask a question, and looking for his approval. Yaw knew what she was about to ask, and nodded. She then turned to Alex.

“Alex; Mijo. Esa Chica. Who is she?”

“What girl?”

“The one in the club. The one who started this whole mess. Who is she?”

Alex looked to the ground. “I don’t know.” He replied.

“I didn’t think that was possible.” Yaw chimed in.

“I’m not infallible.” Alex replied. “I don’t know everything…”

“I saw the look in her eyes before we had to run.” Camila continued. “Eyes that were staring right at you. And I saw the look in your eyes as well. Now I may not be able to see what you see in people, but I know what I saw with you two. And I know what it means. This is about her. Now who is the girl?”

“Who she was at the time didn’t matter, because beyond that night was only blackness.” Alex answered.

He looked over his friends.

“There was going to be no her.”

“What are you trying to say?” Chris asked.

“I think he’s trying to say that she was gonna die that night. Am I right?” Yaw asked.

They all looked at Alex.

“Yes.”

He looked back at them, instinctively ringing his hands, and commenced a slow rocking back and forth of his body. The thought of that evening, and talking about it, made him anxious, in a way he hadn’t felt since he was a child. He tried to put the patterns together of what he saw that evening in order.

“She was intoxicated. Same with her two companions. Both male. One was her brother, looking out for her, with the water bottle, the concerned look, the other, wanting her, with the drink. The wanting one wore a Ulysses Nardin Black Surf Maxi Marine Diver eighteen K solid rose gold men’s watch, listed at over twenty-two thousand dollars, but less if you purchased it over the internet. Young men who wear watches like that are not used to hearing the word “no”. They were leaving. He had a plan. He was going to drive. He wanted to. He must have had a new car he wanted to show off. He was a showoff. I’d say black sedan, with lots of horsepower. That was him. His persona in a nutshell. His every move screamed it. It was too much car for him, in that condition, and on that day. The humidity in the air was high, which made the co-efficient of friction on the pavement less. He was going to crash. He didn’t plan that, but he did everything in proper sequence to make it happen. And they all were going to die.”

“Jesus…” Yaw reacted.

“She knew it was a mistake. Getting in the car. She wanted to say no but she couldn’t. She couldn’t because of her brother. And I couldn’t…” He hesitated. “I couldn’t just “know” all this, and not do something. It would have been awful. I would have had nightmares forever. So I approached her. And I just said, “Don’t get in the car.”“