Fade (2005) (28 page)

"I'd be happy to introduce you."

"Nah. Not a great time for me to be starting relationships .. . How'
s your sister?"

"She's okay. Married a lawyer and has three kids. Plays golf."

Fade smiled and turned so he could better see the show. "Good. That'
s good."

Egan wasn't sure what else they had to say to each other, so they ende d up just sitting there pretending to watch Elise but really watchin g each other.

Egan had a pistol in the small of his back he'd known the bouncer s wouldn't frisk him. Had Fade gotten a weapon in? Did it matter? Ther e were people everywhere -jammed in so tight that even sitting at the ba r they were being bumped when the crowd surged. The gun would have t o stay where it was.

"Do you think we did any good?" Fade said finally.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what was the point of us going out there and risking our asse s and then coming home to the funerals of our friends? The Africans ar e still butchering and starving each other. The Arabs are still runnin g around with bombs stuffed down their pants. The North Koreans an d Iranians are still trying to figure out a way to nuke us. What was th e point?"

"Fighting for truth, justice, and the American way?"

Fade laughed. "But what is truth? Or justice? Or, for that matter , the American way? It changes every day. Remember when cheese was a healthy snack, Saddam Hussein was defending the Middle East agains t extremism, and Milli Vanilli were brilliant musicians? What ideals ar e guys younger than us dying for that will be completely out of style i n five years? I mean, we clearly don't know what the fuck to do with th e world, so why don't we just leave it alone?"

Egan shrugged and took a pull from his beer bottle. "Sometimes it'
s hard to stand by and watch without trying to do something. An d sometimes it's not that noble. Sometimes it's just fear, or politics , or a hangover from the Cold War. Hell, I don't know."

Fade fell silent again and watched a man in a flannel shirt jump ont o the stage and then dive off into the crowd as Elise continued t o shorten the life expectancy of her guitar.

Sitting so close made it almost impossible not to let memories of thei r past partially blot out the realities of their present. Egan ha d always been the boss and, in his own right, had been extremel y successful. But somewhere in the back of every man's mind, there wa s that spark that made you want to be Salam al Fayed. Sure, it was grea t to be a respected businessman or actor or whatever, but there wa s something a million years old that made you yearn to be the strongest , the bravest, the fastest. To be the great warrior whose name wa s spoken in whispers.

"I admired the cake thing," Egan said as Elise's song degenerated int o random noise and then went silent. She put her guitar in a metal stan d and the band abandoned the stage.

Fade grinned. "I'm not sure if I'm pissed about you stopping me fro m killing Strand or not. Giving the guy explosive diarrhea was almost a s good."

"Then why not call it a win and skip the country?"

"Watch this." He kicked his heel into the brass rail at the bottom o f the bar with enough force to shake the bottles on top. "Didn't feel a thing."

"Fade, I "

He put a finger to his lips and then pointed over Egan's shoulder.

"I heard you were here," Elise said, wrapping her arms around his nec k and kissing him. Fade watched the scene intently for a moment and the n redirected his gaze to the floor when Elise jumped up on her husband'
s lap and waved at the bartender.

"What are you doing here?" she said, turning so that she was a s invisible to the crowd as possible. Despite that, she was attracting a fair amount of attention. For the moment, though, people seemed to b e keeping their distance.

"My meeting let out early, so I drove down for the show."

She accepted a tall glass of ice water from the bartender and downe d almost all of it in a single effort. Egan maneuvered her into a mor e comfortable position in his lap and pushed some of the sweaty hair fro m her face.

"So when do you have to go back?"

"Tonight. Right after the show."

She rolled her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me. How many meeting s can one person have?"

"You've got to at least come by and see Kali."

He glanced up and caught Fade studying them again. Having Elis e pressed up against him was exactly what he'd come there for, so why di d he suddenly want to push her away? The answer wasn't hard to come u p with. How would he feel if his life and Fade's were reversed? Wha t would it be like to watch this?

"I really don't think I can. I "

"Aren't you going to introduce us?"

Elise looked over at Fade and then back at him.

"Uh, yeah," Egan said quietly. "Sorry. Elise, this is ... John. He'
s an old friend of mine. We just bumped into each other."

"An old friend?" Elise said, shaking Fade's hand. "What would an ol d friend of Matt's be doing at one of my shows? Shouldn't you be at th e ABBA reunion?"

Nothing at all registered on Fade's face and for some reason tha t complete lack of emotion made Egan even more tense than he alread y was.

"I don't share your husband's atrocious taste in music."

She smiled. "Until now, all of Matt's old friends have either looke d like G
. I . Joe or extras from The Dukes of Hazzard. How do you kno w each other?"

"Long, boring story," Egan cut in.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Fade stood. "Actually, I've got to hit th e road."

"You're not going to watch the last set?" Elise said.

He shook his head and offered her his hand again. "It's been a rea l honor meeting you." Then he stepped around and leaned in close enoug h that his lips brushed Egan's ear. "You should go see your daughter , Matt. We'll continue this tomorrow night."

He nodded toward Elise and then began to back cautiously away.

Once he had a few people between them, he turned and disappeared.

"Interesting guy," Elise said, finishing her glass of water. "You'l l have to tell me that long, boring story some day."

Egan forced a smile. "Sure. Whatever."

She twisted around and pulled away a bit, examining his face. "Are yo u all right, Matt?" ; "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. You look weird. Like the Grim Reaper just walked by o r something."

As long as he lived he would never get used to Elise's occasiona l bursts of extremely disturbing clairvoyance.

"I'm just kind of tired. Maybe you're right. Maybe I should spend th e night and go back in the morning."

She jumped off the stool and leaned against his knees. "Are yo u serious?"

"Yeah."

"Meet me backstage after the show and maybe, if you play your card s right, I'll let you give me a lift home."

Chapter
Thirty-Seven.

"Talk to me, Bill."

Hillel Strand managed to walk across the office with a reasonabl e amount of dignity, but the facial contortions he made when he bent t o sit behind his desk made Fraiser wonder if this meeting wouldn't b e better conducted in the bathroom. Lauren probably felt about the sam e but managed to keep the wrinkle-free mask she showed the world intac t as she propped herself against the wall.

Other than the three of them, OSPA's office suite was completely empty.

Lauren and Strand had ignored their doctor's advice and left th e hospital early but everyone else would probably be there for a few mor e days of observation.

"From a media standpoint, everything is surprisingly under control,"

Fraiser started. "We've changed all your names in the hospital recor d to be thorough, but they wouldn't be released anyway because o f confidentiality. We have the only copy of the security tape and th e hospital administration is saying that the camera was defective. Th e press is running the story, but they don't have anything but eyewitnes s accounts to go by. There's a vague description that no one seems t o completely agree on beyond the fact that he was blond, tan, an d male."

"The police?"

"We're watching their progress, but they seem to just think that it wa s some wacko. They're more confused about who Matt was, but they'r e thinking he was just some bystander with a gun."

"How did Matt end up being there?" Lauren said.

An obvious question, but a complicated one to answer. Fraiser had bee n angry and confused when he realized that Egan had used his own innocen t coworkers as bait, but then after watching the security tape, he'
d understood.

"I finally managed to get in touch with Matt when you were already o n your way to the hospital. He figured that al Fayed would be waitin g for you there and wanted me to divert the ambulances, but it was to o late. Luckily he was in the car and he wasn't far from the hospita l they were taking you to .. ."

Both Strand and Lauren seemed to buy the completely plausible lie. No t too surprising since they both looked like it was taking all thei r concentration just not to fall over.

"Is there any movement on finding al Fayed?"

Fraiser shook his head. "We're still pursuing the leads we've got bu t they aren't getting us anywhere."

"Goddamnit!" The outburst seemed to temporarily rob Strand of hi s balance and he was forced to grip his desk. "Get Matt on the phone. I w ant to talk to him. Now."

"I'll do what I can, but "

"I don't want to hear that you'll do what you can! Our entire team wa s nearly killed yesterday and I goddamn well want to find out how thi s half-educated son of a bitch is keeping one step ahead of us."

"Yes, sir."

Strand waved his hand at them. "Get out."

Fraiser followed Lauren down the hall in silence but when she began t o turn into her office, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her alon g behind him.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to talk to you."

"Shouldn't you be trying to get in touch with Matt?" she said , struggling to escape his grip but not having the strength to make a real effort.

"Fuck Hillel."

"Bill, are you "

He dragged her through his door and closed it behind them. "I want t o know what you have that you're not telling us."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit. Look, Lauren, while Hillel's in here hiding in his office , Matt's out there putting himself on the line. He deserves to kno w everything."

"I don't know what to tell you, Bill. I "

"He could have killed you. All of you. Why didn't al Fayed just pu t cyanide in that cake?"

"Because he's a sadistic nut and likes to do his killing face t o face?"

Obviously, Strand had been working to prop up the illusion he'
d created.

"Come on, Lauren. Would you "

"I've got work to do," she said, turning to leave. He caught her b y the arm again and, again, she tried to pull away.

"Watch the security tape," he said. "Then, if you want to, you ca n just go back to your office and do whatever."

"Jesus, Bill .. . Okay. Fine. Put on the tape."

He released her and took a remote off his desk, aiming it at a smal l television stuffed into his bookcase. The video was black and whit e and the angle wasn't perfect, but overall it was pretty clear.

"That's al Fayed," he said pointing to a man coming on screen from th e left. "And here you all come."

The doors at the end of the hospital corridor were open and th e sunlight flooding through them caused a bit of over exposure givin g gurneys and the convulsing patients they contained a ghostly quality.

Lauren wrapped her arms around herself as she watched the nurses an d paramedics running back and forth, shouting silently.

"Okay, now watch him," Fraiser said as Fade stepped forward an d examined Lauren's face. It wasn't possible to read his expression, bu t his disinterest was obvious.

It wasn't until he locked onto Strand that he began to pull a gun fro m his waistband. A nurse motioned him back but then saw the gun.

Everyone scattered and a moment later, Matt Egan ran through th e door.

"Well?" Fraiser said, pausing the tape.

"I don't know what you want from me, Bill. I don't work for Matt. I w ork for Hillel."

"It doesn't matter who you work for. This isn't politics. This i s real."

"Don't you think I know that? Do you have any idea what I just wen t through? What it's like to be lying there thinking you're dying whil e some guy gets off on it?"

"But you didn't die. Al Fayed had two opportunities to kill you and h e didn't take either one. Matt was telling us the truth when he said a l Fayed isn't after us. Hillel just said that because he wanted u s motivated."

"Maybe he just wants Hillel most and wanted to get him first in cas e security showed up before he could kill all of us."

Fraiser shrugged. "Maybe you're right. But if you are there's a question you need to ask yourself." He tapped the frozen image of Ega n on the small screen. "If al Fayed's really after you, who do you wan t watching your back? Hillel or Matt?"