Fade (2005) (33 page)

"Okay, Billy. Here's the deal. When I get off the road, I'm going t o e-mail you the identities Fade's been using and the passwords you nee d to watch the credit cards he had issued under those names "

"You're kidding me! You have that stuff?"

"Yeah, I have it and I need you to see what you can do with it. But i f you find anything, I want you to call me first. Then we'll talk abou t whether we want to bring Hillel in on it. Agreed?"

"Absolutely. Agreed."

"Okay. Give me Karen Manning's address."

"You think there's something there?"

"Probably not, but I don't have anything better to do."

"What about Crenshaw?"

"I'm going to think about that."

Chapter
Forty-Two.

"This is it?" Karen Manning said, coaxing the Cadillac into a smal l garage. When they were fully inside, Fade reached for the remote an d the metal door began to grind noisily down behind them.

"All the hollowed out volcanoes were taken," he said, getting out o f the car and limping through an open door near the front bumper. H
e turned on the sink, waited a few seconds for the water to run clear , and then filled a couple of glasses. When he turned around to offe r one to Karen, he found her frozen in the doorway staring at the duc t tape still clinging to the chair centered in the room.

"What would you have done?" she said. "What would you have done to m e if you hadn't turned on the TV and found out I was a cop?"

He spun the chair around and sat, flexing his right leg experimentally.

It was working better than it had an hour ago, but the improvement wa s minimal. It seemed likely that some of the damage done by Buckner'
s kick was permanent.

"I'd have scared the hell out of you and then I'd have let you go."

She apparently wasn't convinced enough to actually step across th e threshold.

"Come on, Karen, don't look at me like that. I'm a soldier, not a n animal."

"Did you really say it?"

"What?"

" "Oops." When you killed that family."

He looked down at his ankle and absently rolled his foot in circles.

"Is our relationship already that far along?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is it time for me to act out one of those bad movie scenes where th e guy says how he killed one too many people and he was suddenly fille d with remorse?"

"I don't know. Is that what happened?"

"Yeah," he said, pushing himself out of the chair. "That's exactl y what happened."

She surprised him by moving out of the doorway and not stopping unti l their faces were only a few inches apart. "No. That's not goo d enough. I want to know the truth."

"The truth, huh."

She nodded, though there was a hint of uncertainty in the movement.

"You know what pisses me off, Karen? That a navy pilot can push a button and shred a thousand women and children and no one has anythin g to say about it. But a guy like me kills a tiny fraction of tha t number damn near every one a sadistic wack job who had it coming an d everybody thinks I'm creepy. The answer you're looking for is no. I d on't feel bad about killing. You think we can just go negotiate wit h these people? You might as well try reasoning with a wounded cive t cat. I did what I did because I believed it was right. That I wa s making the world a better place."

"And now?"

It took him a few moments to answer. "And now I think maybe that wa s never even the point. Maybe I was out there just so a bunch of past y bureaucrats could feel tough and provide voters with the illusio n they're being protected. Or worse, maybe the politicians were jus t using me to stir up trouble so they could scare the American peopl e into giving them more power. At best, my life didn't mean anything a t all. At worst.. ." His voice trailed off and he took a sip from hi s glass. "Well, no point in dwelling on the worst, right?"

Karen didn't seem to have a response, instead she just stood ther e staring at him. On the bright side, she didn't look like she wa s afraid anymore. He was starting to get tired of people being afraid.

"We should get rid of the car," she said finally.

"What?"

"If I were Strand, I'd be calling the police with a description an d telling them you're a terrorism suspect and that if anyone sees you , they should tail you and get on the phone to Homeland Security. Th e Cadillac's not exactly subtle."

"Not a chance. That car's the one bright spot in my life right now.

I'll die in it before I get rid of it."

"Jesus Christ!" she shouted, surprising him enough to actually mak e him take a step back. "Maybe you could work with me a little, here!

You know, my life isn't all that hot right now either. A few week s ago, I was doing just fine. Sure, some of the guys on the force wer e chauvinistic assholes, but I was good at my job and all thei r complaining just looked pathetic. I was going to make captain one day , almost guaranteed. Hell, I might have even found a guy secure enoug h to marry me and have a few kids. But all that's gone now. These days , I need a PR firm working full time just to keep me from looking like a complete jerk-off! And on top of all that, now I'm running fro m killers hired by the government. It's been nice meeting you , asshole!"

For a moment, Fade thought she might take a swing at him, but sh e actually looked like she felt a little better after her outburst.

She was right, of course. He really had screwed her over. It was har d to dwell on that, though, in light of how fun his day had been. He'
d killed Roy Buckner with an ejector seat, shot blanks at Hillel Strand'
s men with a trunk-mounted machine gun, and secured a temporary ally wh o was beautiful, smart, and tough as nails. It was by far the best da y he'd had in years.

"Yeah, you're right, Karen. I'm sorry "

"Shut up! I'm not finished!" she said, jabbing a finger in the ai r toward him. "What gives you the right to go around trying to kil l people who piss you off? That's not the way people resolve disputes , Fade."

"Actually, it is. In fact, it's what I used to do for a living .. ."

A frustrated scream erupted from her throat and she turned away , walking toward his makeshift bedroom. "Just .. . just leave me alone.

I need to think. Okay?"

"Hey, I understand. It's been a tough day. We're both a littl e tense.

You know what always makes me feel better in situations like this? A q uickie."

She stopped suddenly enough to make it look like she'd run into a n invisible wall. "What did you say?"

"You know, a little roll in the hay. Admit it. It always helps put a new perspective on things."

"Are you .. . are you crazy? I just killed a man and you're .. .
y ou're .. ."

It appeared that she was now so angry that she couldn't even finish he r own sentences. On the other hand, she hadn't actually said no. Fad e felt his mood improve even more. "No point reliving ancient history , Karen."

"It was a couple of hours ago!" Her habit of talking through a clenched jaw when she was angry had kind of a seductive quality t o it.

"An hour. A year. A decade. No one ever got anywhere constantl y dredging up the past. Well, except historians .. ."

Another frustrated squeal and then she stalked through the door , slamming it hard enough to knock a piece off the jamb.

"And paleontologists," he called. "I guess paleontologists probably d o okay."

"Shut up!" came her muffled answer through the door.

He grinned and found a more or less comfortable place on the floo r where he lay down and closed his eyes. For the first time he coul d remember, he actually felt like he could sleep. Not just lie there , drifting in and out of half-realized dreams, but actually sleep.

Things were looking up.

Fade jerked awake, not sure where he was. It took a few seconds fo r him to shake off his uncharacteristic grogginess and when he did, h e half expected to be surrounded by cops with shotguns or pian o wire-wielding government agents. The room was empty, though, and th e only sound was from the television filtering through the closed door t o his bedroom.

He pushed himself to his feet and stretched, yawning wildly. Th e improvement in his right leg had ground to a depressing halt and h e couldn't bring himself to look down at it. There was nothing he coul d do, so there was no point thinking about it. He'd always known thi s was coming and now it was real not just some ghost waiting to jump ou t at him when he let his guard down.

He concentrated on steadying his gait as he made his way over to th e closed door and poked his head inside. Karen was sitting on a futo n that took up most of the floor, transfixed by the littl e black-and-white television in front of her.

"Are we on TV?"

She held a hand out for silence. "They found her."

"Who?"

"Stephany Narwal."

"Who's that?" he said, moving around so he could better see th e screen.

"The missing woman. They found her body."

"Oh, right. I forgot. You were working on that case."

"It's always the same," she said, more to herself than to him. "Th e naked body always shows up lying in a wooded area of Virginia exactl y sixteen days after the woman disappeared .. ."

"So?"

"So this is fourteen days. And she was found hanging from a tree , burned." Karen looked up at him. "These guys just don't change th e way they do things. They have a program ..."

"You want a beer? They're war "

"Do you have a phone?"

He tossed her his, then watched her jab at the keypad.

"John! What the hell's going on?"

Fade wandered back into the other room and dug a beer from under th e sink, half listening to her side of the conversation.

"You've got to be kidding me. A note? Are you going to be able to ge t anything from it? Uh huh. But you're sure it's him .. . Come on , that's not funny. You're serious. Christ. Me? No, everything'
s great. Why wouldn't it be? Uh huh. All right. Get him, okay?"

Fade leaned against the doorjamb and watched her drop her phone on th e bed next to her.

"You're not going to believe this," she said.

"What?"

"You know why he changed his MO?"

Fade shook his head.

"He's jealous."

"Of?"

"You."

"I don't get it."

She repositioned herself so she could look up at him more easily.

"You've got to understand that this guy lives for media attention. I n his mind, he's famous, powerful.. . the most feared man in America.

And then you come along and all of a sudden, you're all over the TV
b eing portrayed as this incredibly dangerous psychopath a man who ca n kill an entire SWAT team without even breaking a sweat. Suddenly, h e looks kind of pathetic ..."

"You've got to be kidding."

"I'm not. So now he's upping the ante trying to upstage you. Do yo u know what that means?"

"Not really."

"Everything he's done so far has been planned down to the last detail.

But now he's deviating from that plan. He could make a mistake."

Fade popped the top off his beer, holding it away from him in case i t sprayed. "Well, good luck to him. I don't live for media attention.

The crazier he gets the less scrutiny I have to deal with."

She suddenly looked like he'd shot her cat. "What?"

"They think he's already got his new girl, right the one wh o disappeared a few days ago? With the media all fired up and the ne w leads, the cops are going to throw everything they have at finding hi m before he kills her. It'll take some pressure off. Hell, if the cop s saw me on the street, they'd probably just let me go. How would i t look if they caught me now? They'd get crucified for using manpower t o get revenge on someone who killed their friends while some girl i s dying a horrible death." He took a pull from his beer. "Now I ca n keep my car for sure."

"Your car? Your car? What about that girl? What about what she'
s going through? And what about the girl who's next?"

Fade shrugged "Women die every day all over the world, Karen, and the y do it in ways so terrifying this guy can't even imagine it. Why aren'
t we crying for them?"

Chapter
Forty-Three.

"I just wanted to remind you that I'm still out here, Hillel. And I'
m coming for you."

Strand slammed the phone down, the sound of cracking plastic amplifyin g the throbbing in his head, and then deleted the message. He had al l his calls coming through Lauren and when she'd told him al Fayed was o n the phone, he'd refused to take it. Why the fuck would she put hi m into voice mail?
f He reached for the phone again, preparing to dial Matt Egan for wha t must have been the hundredth time, but instead stood and turned towar d the window and tried to slow his breathing.