The Last Whisper in the Dark: A Novel (21 page)

“All right. I wasn’t stealing from you, I was hunting information.”

“What kind of information?”

“We’re getting ahead of ourselves,” I said.

“You’re right, we are. First off, let me introduce you to my new lieutenant, Eddie Haggert. Eddie, this is an old friend of mine, Terrier Rand.”

Haggert stuck his hand out. I took it. I could feel the immense power within him even at seventy. At thirty he must’ve been a total butcher in the ring.

“I know the name,” Haggert said. “Family of boosters. Brother went a little berserko and paid for it">“Now youre couple of in the chair.”

He was looking at me like he expected a response, so I said, “Almost right. He got a hot shot, not the chair.”

Haggert opened his jacket. He withdrew a cigar from his shirt pocket and offered it to Danny, who wagged his chin. It was important to show proper courtesy, even in these circumstances. He then proffered it to me. I waved him off.

“You a nutjob like him? I’d say you had to be at least a little cracked to do what you just did. Trying to rip off your old friends.”

“I creep everyone. That’s what I do.”

“You’re overstepping.”

“That’s what all of us at this table do.”

It made him laugh. He pulled a cigar cutter out of his pocket. I wondered if we were going to do the chopping-off-fingers bit. I got ready to swing out of my seat. I eyed the stairs. I could be halfway up them before anyone could get a bead on me. The trouble was what happened after that.

The coffee came. I waited. Haggert clipped off the end of his cigar but didn’t light it. He held it in his left hand. He picked up his cappuccino in his right. Danny was working on a JD on the rocks.

You had to play Danny Thompson with a soft touch, but you couldn’t go too soft. I could vibe his self-doubt still chewing him up inside. He had a cap on it, but it was there. It seemed that the longer you hung in with somebody the worse you hated him in the end.

“What were you chasing, Terry?” Danny asked. “Or do I really have to guess?”

“You don’t.”

“You were looking for some kind of line on Chub.”

“Yeah.”

“And you want me to let this thing with that cop killing crew go.”

I shook my head. “Not at all. What you do with the crew is your business. But Chub isn’t part of the crew. I want you to leave him out of this.”

He drained the rest of his JD, held the empty glass up, and rattled the ice cubes around. A girl brought a fresh glass out to him immediately. He took a deep drink, let out a sigh. “You asked my old man the same thing, if I remember correctly.”

I nodded. “You do.”

I’d only gone up against Big Dan once. Chub had tuned the getaway car for a string that had taken down a massage parlor owned by the Thompson mob. The heisters blew town with fifty large and Big Dan thought Chub ought to pay him back. I asked Big Dan to let it slide. He didn’t like my asking. He ordered four of his men to kick the shit out of me. I didn’t fight back. Big Dan had let Chub slide anyway, as a favor. I didn’t take any of it personally.

Danny rubbed his thumb over his widow’s peak. I’d set him on edge. Tics never really disappeared or died. “And, remind me, what was his response again?”

“He had his boys work me over,” I admitted. “But he also let Chub go.”

“He was a nice guy, my old man.”

I wouldn’t go that far, but I smiled complacently anyway.

“How’d you hear about my plans for Chub anyhow?” he asked.

“I knowIt took me aplas the way the game works, Danny.”

“Okay, but tell me this: Why do you even care?”

I finished my coffee. “You know why.”

“I’m not sure. Old times’ sake? Or because you can’t bear to see her hurt? Your ex-girl.” Another possibility occurred to him. “Or because she asked you?”

I thought I kept my face as impassive as possible, but he immediately read the truth.

“So,” he said, “she asked you. And even though she’s his wife now, and you broke her heart once already, you’ve come around again to beg for a guy who took everything you left behind.”

There it was, laid out hard and cold. I wasn’t appealing to his better nature. Danny Thompson didn’t have a better nature in front of his men, in his father’s seat. But there was no reason to lie now.

“To be fair, that wasn’t plan A.”

“Plan A didn’t pan out for you, Terry.” Danny laughed. “You’re better off letting him get what he’s got coming. Maybe there’s still time for you to pick up the pieces. They got a kid now, right? A little girl? So tell me. You sit up late at night thinking about all the what-ifs? What if she was your lady? What if the kid called you Daddy? What if you could do it all again? You imagine pink dresses and bows in the hair? You check your rearview and see a baby seat back there behind you?”

Haggert rolled his unlit cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. He was very interested in what might happen next.

“Let Chub go, Danny.” There was nothing shameful in asking please, so I did. “Please.” Danny was already a dead man. I saw him with a sewing needle in the eye, a syringe in his carotid.

“It can’t be done,” Haggert said. “And maybe now that we got you, we don’t let you go either.”

I looked at the old man. His scalp was very red and clean where it showed through his part. “Should I be talking to you?” I asked. “Or him? Far as I know this is still the Thompson syndicate. I’ve done business with them all my life. You I don’t even know.”

“I’m his lieutenant,” Haggert said, “his right hand, so you can talk to me, if you’ve got to talk at all. Apparently Daniel respects you because of the common history he shares with your family. But that doesn’t count much when it comes to bank jobs that leave three cops
dead. When cop killers go down they take everybody with them. We can’t let that happen. You’re not stupid, kid, you know it’s the truth.”

Haggert relaxed in his seat, handsome for an old dude, his cuff links burning.

“Chub wasn’t part of the crew,” I said. “He wasn’t on the job. He didn’t shoot any ex-cops. He just sells souped cars. And he sells them clean and legal.”

“He sells them to the wrong people. That makes him accountable.”

I cleared my throat like I was going to make a final impassioned plea, a grand soliloquy, a speech in French. There was a lot between Danny and me. Secrets we could barely remember. Blood and bullshit. I’d called him out. You didn’t forget such things, ever. You never forgave them either. I sh the back doortpowed him my teeth. I had a couple more buttons to push. I felt sorry it had to be this way. My expression said, You’ll always be a disappointment to your old man, even in hell.

He couldn’t take it. No one could. He choked back an ugly bleat, swung on me, and caught me flush in the jaw. Even though I knew it was coming it still hurt. I acted startled and leaned into him, got him in a clench, and he put his hands on my chest and shoved me off.

He had the good sense to appear sorry for his strong-arm tactics. He straightened his tie, took a sip, and wiped his mouth carefully with a linen napkin. He cleared his throat. He let an eight count go by.

He said, “You remind me of times I’d rather forget, Terry. I’ll see you around. Just not here. Never again. You’re not welcome anymore. My men have new orders. You come around again you’ll get clipped on sight. You walk in the door or climb in the window and no one will ever see you again. Your mother won’t have a grave to visit. Remember that. I’m washing my hands of us once and for all.”

“Okay, Danny,” I said. “Good luck to you.”

He beckoned his thugs. “Boys, show Mr. Rand out.”

Four of the Thompson legbreakers surrounded me, putting on a nice show, like we were all friends. Chico t the same tim

Kimmy had said she was going to her mother’s,
but after her father died, her mom must’ve sold the place. In the morning I found that a young couple with a lot of dogs lived there now. The dogs rushed in and out of the pet door at the side entrance, ran each other ragged in the wet grass, and took up on the patio furniture.

I remembered where her aunt lived and drove over. Like I thought, Kimmy’s mom was staying there now. I watched the three of them chasing Scooter across the living room floor. The gutters were clogged. Sheets of water ran down the bay windows, warping the warm light of hanging lamps and the shifting gray illumination of changing scenes on the television. I didn’t see anybody else around. No feds, no hitters, no trouble that I could make out. I circled the block. I kept the Sig Sauer prepped under the center console. I practiced reaching up under the dash and snatching it free. I got the move down cold.

I phoned her.

“Did you find him yet?” she asked.

“I’m still looking.”

“It does have something to do with that bank, doesn’t it? I’ve been watching the news. There’s a manhunt on. The FBI are involved. Did he have something to do with—”

“He d the back doortpidn’t have anything to do with it, Kimmy, but he’s had to go to ground. He’s smart. Wherever he is, he’s safe. I’ll find him and help him clear this all up.”

“Please, Terry—”

“Try not to worry. I’ll call again soon.”

I spent the afternoon at All Hallows’ Eve, keeping an eye on Blake
and Nox and sitting in on the making of
No Boundaries
. I tried to get a line on my uncle Will and my grandfather. I wanted to learn what I could about them. I wanted to see their business alive and in motion without them.

There was nothing suspenseful about the flick. It all seemed poorly acted and extremely fake. I wondered what that said about the Crowes. I wondered what that said about the movie-going public. Blake shouted out things like, “More blood! Stick her again! Stab her again!” I kept flashing on Collie’s spree. The camera guy kept bustling around. Lights were reset and props moved. Nobody seemed to be enjoying themselves much. A couple of the cannon fodder women ran around topless. It wasn’t erotic. I was glad Dale wasn’t around to see any of this bullshit. I tried to believe that Los Angeles would be higher class than a warehouse horror movie set in Islip.

Blake tried to keep the energy level high with encouraging comments. He framed one shot with the shadows of the raindrops on the window falling over bodies. The whole thing bored the hell out of me within twenty minutes.

It took me that long to realize that Blake was wearing makeup. He had a shiner and a split lip and the on-set makeup girl must’ve worked a little magic on him this morning. He gave me wary looks on occasion. He had something to say but didn’t want to say it.

Nox kept a close watch. The massive tower of muscle stood at my right side and never wandered very far. I’d inherited him as my bodyguard.

I said, “Blake mixed it up with somebody. What went down?”

“I don’t know.”

“I thought you two were a team.”

“I do what he says. That’s not exactly a team. He doesn’t always invite me in when it counts.”

“Did it have to do with the meth?”

“Maybe. Like I said—”

I phoned Darla and told her if she wanted to check out a horror movie set to come down and meet me. She said she’d close up the store and be right over.

There was a large table of catered goods. I had to keep reminding myself to eat. I threw down a Perc and made myself a roast beef sandwich and sat there quietly munching as folks stepped on and off the set.

In between takes Nox introduced me around to the crew and the actors. He called me boss. I worried about getting suckered for a while but then I realized he was just playing the cards he’d been dealt. He and Blake had their drug business to consider, and they had already made a lot of money, and they were still in the moviemaking game. I hadn’t kicked them loose or killed them like Perry wanted. I hadn’t told Danny Thompson about the money they owed him. Any way you looked at it, I was being generous. Blake continued to shout orders. All in all, nobody had much to complain about.

The next time the cameraman and lighting folks were resetting for a shot, I called Blake into the office. have to think about it. at the Q

“What happened?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Someone gave you trouble.”

“It was nothing.”

“Who was it?”

He peered at me, considered me in total. His eyes flashed with scenarios, and he didn’t seem to like any that he came up with. “You don’t want to know.”

“I do. That’s why I’m asking.”

“No, you really don’t.”

“Did it have to do with the crank?” I asked.

He looked cornered. He wanted to run. He was being pressured from all sides, and I was one of them.

“Tell me and maybe I can help,” I said.

His voice hardened. “You’re going to help?”

“Maybe I can help.”

“Look, you wanted to steal this show, and now it’s yours. You got the money. You’re sitting in the big chair. The rest, you gave to me to run for Perry just like old times. So let me handle things in my own way.”

“Sure. Was Perry in on the crank deal?”

“Jesus, you’re a pesky bastard.”

I kept checking my watch. At eight o’clock I was going to show up at Chez Hilliker’s and try not to catch a stiletto in the brainpan.

Nox walked in. “You find out what was the matter with him, boss?”

“No,” I told him.

“This movie’s going to make a lot of money for you.”

“Is it?”

“Well, you and your family. Sure. The lady there, that’s June August. She retired twenty, twenty-five years ago, one of the original scream queens. But the Blade got her to come back to do this one scene. Paid her a hundred g’s for it.” He saw the look on my face. “Don’t worry, boss, it’ll be worth it.”

“It’s a fucking stupid B-grade horror flick.”

“Barely any overhead on these things, so all the downloads, all the rentals, all the Blu-rays and DVDs, it’s all profit, you know?”

I noticed six guys coming in and raiding the food. Like thugs, actors seemed to look a lot like each other. They had similar builds, projected the same confidence, appeared equally blasé. They were cannon fodder on the screen. I wondered what that did to their sense of self-worth out in the world.

Darla walked in. The six guys perked up. She exuded real eroticism, and the fact that she wasn’t naked made her a mystery. They all showed interest. She spotted me and started to walk over. The guys descended on her like she was the one chick at a bad cocktail party.