Crush (13 page)

“Don't you mean Steiny the Magnificent?” Steinkellner replied wearily.

“We need to go somewhere and talk, Mr. Steinkellner.”

“I don't think we do. At least I don't.”

“How long have you been out of prison, Mr. Steinkellner?”

Steiny the Magnificent looked around—it didn't do well to let people know that their children's party entertainment was a convicted felon. No one had heard. No one was sticking around to ask for his autograph.

“You want to keep it down?” Steinkellner asked the man.

“I will. If you'll answer a few questions.”

“Are you a cop? You have to tell me if you are.”

“It's about Walter Trask.”

“So you're not a cop. And I don't have to talk to you.”

“You do if you want to avoid a scene.”

Steinkellner sighed. Yeah, he wanted to avoid a scene. “Okay. I read about Walter Trask. I thought it was too bad.”

“What was too bad, Mr. Steinkellner?”

“Too bad the wrong brother killed himself.”

“Did he?”

Steinkellner hefted his heavy carrying cases and headed for the back door. “Look, I gotta be at the Chungs' house for little Brandon's fifth birthday in a half hour. You want to tag along, that's fine with me. Misery loves company.”

“Mr. Steinkellner,” the man was doing a fine impression of Jack Webb, “did you murder Walter Trask? And did you attempt to murder Amelia Trask by blowing up her house?”

Steinkellner sighed and thought about the trip to
Alhambra. Garfield Avenue would be all blocked up this time of day.

“Sure,” he said. “I did it. And I was saving Stanley Trask for last. The Big Finish. Abracadabra.”

Rush took the coffee cup from Gail without a glance, lost in thought.

“Why would Trask lie about a thing like that?” she asked him when he told her about Guzman and water.

“Trask would lie just to keep in practice,” Rush said.

Amelia walked in from the bedroom, and Rush and Gail fell silent.

“Ooh, they go all quiet when she walks into the room,” Amelia said, as she poured herself a cup of coffee. “Are Mommy and Daddy fighting again?”

Gail took the plunge. “Amelia, did you and Tony Guzman have a relationship?”

“Are you my new best friend?” Amelia turned to Rush. “She's my new best friend.”

“When did it start?” Rush asked.

“Three years ago. Are you doing the math? Yes, I was fifteen. Yes, he liked that. Do you think I'm getting too old for him now?” She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and checked it for messages. “He hasn't called me. What does that mean?”

“Who hasn't called you?” Gail asked.

“Tony. I did what he said. Why hasn't he called?”

“What did you do for him?” Rush asked.

“I didn't tell anybody that he killed Uncle Walter.”

THIRTEEN

R
ush and Gail didn't speak.

“You see, most nights I'd sneak out of my room after everybody was asleep.” Amelia gave them a little smile. “You know I'm good at that.”

“Good enough to fool Stegner,” Rush said.

“But not good enough to fool Tony.” Amelia sipped her coffee, knowing she had them on the hook, making the moment linger. “I'd go down to where Tony was on duty. At first, we'd just talk. You know, I'd go on about school and guys and my mom killing herself. Tony would talk about working and guys he'd beat up. I don't know if we knew we were flirting with each other, but we were. Every time I'd tell him about some guy I liked in school, I'd be checking him out, seeing how he reacted. And every time he told me about his wife, I could see it in his eyes that he was doing the same to me. And then he stopped talking about his wife. I knew it was only a matter of time.

“O'course there was my age to worry about, but
that was good in a way. It added to the excitement. For him anyway. Made it a real moral dilemma. Finally, he told me that I had to stop coming down. That we both knew where this was leading, and though it might not seem like a big deal to me, for him it was very big deal. I said it was a big deal for me too. Then we fucked.”

She took a sip of coffee and went on.

“After that, we didn't talk so much. I'd sneak down, we'd fuck, I'd go back up. It was like we'd said everything we had to say to each other and now it was just down to doing.” She smiled at the recollection and went on. “Because of that, I don't really know what was going on in his head in the days leading up to…the thing. He did seem kind of moody, now that I look back on it. When he fucked me it didn't have the same gentleness as it did at first. Not that he was violent. Just that he was throwing himself into it, as if he was trying to block something out, as if he was using sex to take his mind off something…something that was, I don't know, ‘weighing on him,' I guess they'd say in books. I didn't think of that till later, of course. At the time I just thought he was getting into it. You know how guys are.”

Gail nodded, because an agreement seemed to be called for.

“Anyway, this night, ‘the night in question,' I snuck down like any other night. But he wasn't in the study, which was the room we usually started in. I heard splashing out in the pool and I thought, hey, he wants
to do a little skinny-dipping, fine with me. I went on out. That's when I saw them in the pool. I saw Tony first, but I expected to see him. Uncle Walter I didn't expect. Not floating like that. Not all dead like that.

“Tony was struggling in water like he couldn't swim. I reached a hand out and pulled him up onto the, whaddya call it, the deck? He stood there with water streaming from his clothes and at first I thought that he'd jumped in to save Uncle Walter. Then I saw the look in his eyes.”

For the first time she paused, as if at a loss for words.

“I can't tell you how I knew. I just knew. He'd killed Uncle Walter. It was right there on his face. And he knew I knew. There wasn't any point in his denying it. We just stood there, dripping water, for what seemed like ten minutes. Both of us knowing. I never felt so close to him.

“I didn't know why he'd done it and I didn't care. I told him I'd cover for him. I'd let him change, I'd let him get back to his station. Then I'd start screaming. He kissed me then. It wasn't a sexy kiss, it was a real kiss. A kiss with gratitude and love in it. A kiss that said, ‘you're saving my life and I won't forget it.' He never kissed me like that before. It made doing the lying and stuff easy.”

She sipped her coffee, but it had gone cold, and she made a face.

“I never got the chance to be with him after that. There were cops and shit around and everything was
all messed up because, after all, Uncle Walter was dead. And then Tony disappeared. But that was okay because I know he had to, whaddya call it, ‘lie low' for a while, and I respect that. But why the hell doesn't he
call
?”

Usually Rush put on the gloves before he started pummeling the punching bag in Gail's dojo. Hell, usually he carefully wrapped his hands with Everlast Super Gauze,
then
put on the gloves. Better safe than sorry. But that night was different. That night he just started wailing away at it, bloody knuckles be damned.

“Somebody in there you don't like?” Gail asked after watching him deliver a jab, straight right, right uppercut, and left hook to the bag. It was a killer combination, and the bag had nothing to offer in defense.

He stopped, out of breath, sweating through his street clothes. “How old were you when you lost it, Gail?”

“You don't think I'm still a virgin, Caleb? That hurts.”

“But when you were underage, did you ever have anyone hit on you? An adult, I mean.”

“That's what I love about you, Crush. You're big, you're mean, and you're totally naïve.”

Rush's cell phone beeped before he had the chance to respond. He went to the bench to pick it up.

“It's a text message for Amelia.”

“On your phone?”

“I forwarded her calls to me.”

“That's dirty.”

“It's not hard if you know how to do it. I'll show you sometime.”

“It's still dirty.”

Rush shrugged and thumbed the phone to read the message. It was short and to the point, and it was from Tony.

I miss you

 He flipped the phone shut, opened it again, and called Zerbe's number.

Zerbe was having a little time to himself with the computer and didn't relish being interrupted.

“Zerbe,” Rush said, instead of hello.

“Great timing, man,” Zerbe said, exasperated. “You totally cock-blocked me.”

“Who's there?”

“Nobody. That's how I knew I was going to get lucky.”

“Buy yourself some flowers later. I need a favor. I need you to zero in on a mobile number. Now.”

“Cool.” This was interesting. Zerbe wiped the lotion off his hand and got down to business.

“I'm forwarding you the number.”

“Do you know his carrier?”

“No.”

“More of a challenge. I'll have it for you in a sec.”

He switched off his phone and turned to Gail. “I
gotta go. You'll be okay?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“There are people looking for her. They might be dangerous.”

Gail gave him a look. “I can whip
your
ass, can't I?”

FOURTEEN

S
tegner couldn't believe his luck. He'd followed up on a hunch and it had paid off. While everyone else was chasing shadows, he'd pursued a simply obvious line of inquiry to its logical conclusion—the guy who had tried to kill Trask before was trying to kill him again.

Steinkellner was dictating his confession into the voice memo gizmo on Stegner's iPhone while Stegner drove him back to Trask's mansion. He was to be presented to Donleavy with a big fucking bow around his neck. Now who was the sharpest tool in the shed, you fat bastard?

A thought struck Stegner—he really should call Donleavy and tell her where he was. The only thing was, Steinkellner was using his cell phone to tell him how he'd gotten the explosives into the house in Venice and wired them to explode on cue.

“Could I use the phone for a minute?” Stegner asked.

“I'm just getting to the good part. You want me to lose my flow?”

“I'll just be a second.”

Steinkellner shrugged and handed him the phone, making sure his voice memo was saved. He was pretty much done anyway.

Stegner hit Donleavy on his speed dial.

“Where the fuck are you?” This was Donleavy's special greeting.

“You'll be happy when you see me.”

“I'll be happy to fucking fire your ass. You were supposed to be watching Trask.”

“No need to watch him. He's safe now.”