High-Caliber Concealer (2 page)

“Whatever,” said Nikki, secretly pleased.
Three years into their relationship and his compliments still made
her smile, his rich, bass voice still gave her shivers, and the
smile in his brown eyes made a bad day seem pretty good. Date night
was just what the doctor ordered. A body-glitter covered nymph
snaked by them wearing a loin-cloth that sort of passed for a
skirt, spiked platform heels, and mile-long blonde hair extensions.
Her partner was wearing a skintight black Lycra shirt and pleather
pants.

“See? If we keep practicing, some day we
could be just like them,” said Z’ev, leaning over to whisper in her
ear.

“Oh, yeah, I can really picture you in those
pants,” said Nikki, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

“Well, I can’t say I’d be entirely unhappy
with those shoes,” he said, taking on a speculative tone as he
watched the glitter girl walk away.

“Oh, honey, I’ve got some of those—you can
try them on when we get home.”

Z’ev laughed and separated from her to go
key-fishing in his pocket. They stopped at the Impala, Z’ev moving
to unlock her door first. She stared at the car feeling a swell of
sadness. Val Robinson, Nikki’s first partner in Carrie Mae, and
previous owner of the Impala, had abandoned Carrie Mae principles
for money and a hot guy. Only her boyfriend, Jirair Sarkassian
wasn’t just an arms dealer, he’d been selling Thai girls into a
world-wide sex slave ring. Nikki had stopped Sarkassian and
Val—permanently—on her first mission with Carrie Mae. And this
morning’s little jaunt to Tijuana meant that they had finally
rooted out the last of Sarkassian’s little stashes. She hadn’t
wanted to tell Jane that half the reason she’d skipped the
elaborate hacking scheme to simply threaten poor Raul is that she
had wanted the matter done. She wanted to close the case files on
Val Robinson once and for all. Which meant that she probably should
consider selling the car.

She brushed her finger along the chrome
detail of the door panel. Around her, Nikki listened to the babble
of voices, mostly in Spanish. There was a rise in the volume of
voices behind them and Nikki looked over her shoulder. A group of
tough looking hombres were working their way through the crowd, all
wife-beaters, gold and tattoos. They didn’t appear to be doing
anything more than laughing and joking with some of the other
exiting club-goers, but mentally Nikki put them into the ‘threat’
category.

“I’m hungry,” Z’ev said. “Want to get
something to eat?” Nikki knew then that he’d also spotted the
threat as he paused to take off his jacket. Biceps that size were
usually a deterrent.

“We’ve got stuff at home. Besides the only
thing that’s open right now are more bars or Taco Bell.” Nikki kept
her tone light and watched the crowd part. The three men had almost
passed them when one of them looked directly at Nikki and Nikki
felt a jolt of recognition.

“Nikki?” he said, sounding almost as stunned
as she felt.

“Donny?” asked Nikki.

That brought the attention of his friends
and all three stopped—the two friends fanning out behind Donny in a
spear shape pointed at Nikki. One of them had a gun tucked in the
front of his pants. The other was casually rattling something in a
film canister. Z’ev moved to her side of the car, making his
presence noticeable.

“Nikki, how long has it been?” exclaimed
Donny, reaching to embrace her and Nikki reciprocated.

“Forever! How are you? How’s the
family?”

“Good! You should call Mom. I know she’d
love to hear from you. Do you have a piece of paper? I’ll give you
her number.”

“Yeah, all right.” Nikki fished in her purse
and found a receipt and a pen, puzzled, but feeling that she was
doing what he wanted. Z’ev hadn’t moved, but the two amigos had
relaxed and one was flirting with a girl.

“Have you seen Jackson lately?” asked Donny,
as he scribbled the number on the back of the receipt. Nikki looked
away from the number he was writing and into his face, annoyed.
Z’ev was standing right there. Why did he have to bring up
Jackson?

“Oh, you know, not since freshman year of
college,” she said, carefully casual.

“Not since then, huh? Never understood why
you guys couldn’t make it work.” He handed the receipt and pen
back. “Anyway, give Mom a call. Tell her I’m doing fine and I’ll
call her in a couple of days.”

“Yo, dawg, let’s go,” said one of the
friends. “We gotta hook up with Billy.”

“Yeah, yeah,” agreed Donny, waving him away.
“I gotta go,” he said turning back to Nikki. “Hey, you gonna be OK
with this foo’?” he asked, stepping back and taking his first real
look at Z’ev. Nikki glanced over her shoulder at Z’ev, her eyes
twinkling.

“With him? Yeah, I think so.” She grinned at
Donny’s suddenly raised eyebrow.

“Well, you better take care of her then,
esé
,” said Donny, suddenly going all tough
and sort of flexing his shoulders in the way that only men seemed
to be able to do.

“Siempre
,” said
Z’ev calmly and not moving a muscle.

“Always is a long time,” Donny said, backing
off a bit.

Z’ev shrugged. Donny’s friends had walked a
little further down the sidewalk and Donny looked after them and
suddenly sighed, looking a little tired.

“Buenas noches
,
Nicole,” he said again and Nikki smiled. He started to jog after
his friends. “And call that number,” he called back over his
shoulder and Nikki waved. Nikki held the receipt up to the neon
glow of the bar signs. It had MEYERS and a 253 area code written on
it.

Z’ev opened her car door and she got in,
reaching across to unlock the driver’s side before he got to
it.

“You have a lot of friends who are drug
dealers?” he asked, sliding into the seat and slamming the
door.

“Drug dealers?” asked Nikki, startled.

“The film canister,” said Z’ev, miming the
shaking motion she had seen Donny’s friend using. “It’s got crack
in it. They give it a rattle and the sound let’s you know they’re
dealing.”

“Oh,” said Nikki, punching in the number on
her phone. “I guess that explains it.”

“Explains what?” he asked, starting the
car.

“Why he was wearing a wire - felt it when I
hugged him,” said Nikki. A Tacoma Police Department operator
answered the phone.

“Yes, I need to speak to someone named
Meyers regarding Donny Fernandez,” she said to the operator. The
operator immediately put her on hold.

“And this number goes to a police station,”
Nikki said turning back to Z’ev. She held up the receipt and he
scrutinized it as they pulled up to a stoplight.

“This is Meyers,” said a woman, abruptly
answering the phone. She sounded as if she’d been hurrying.

“Hi, I just spoke with Donny,” said
Nikki.

“Where?” asked the woman, interrupting.

“Excuse me?”

“You saw him? You saw Don Fernandez?”

“Yes.” Nikki noticed the shortening of
Donny’s name and realized that, as a fully-grown man, Donny might
not appreciate being called by something that ended in a
Y
.

“Where?” demanded the woman. “When?”

“LA, about five minutes ago,” answered
Nikki, copying the woman’s staccato pacing.

“LA? Damn it! What’s he doing down
there?”

“I don’t know,” said Nikki. “But he told me
to say that he was fine and he’d call you in a couple of days.”

“A couple of days? He’s not supposed to
disappear like this!” Nikki heard the wail of confusion and worry
hiding behind the woman’s gruff tone.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine,” said Nikki
soothingly.

“Who are you?” asked the woman, her tone
suddenly becoming suspicious.

“Just a friend he bumped into,” said Nikki.
“Nice chatting with you. I’m sure he’ll call. Bye now.”

“But,” began the woman, as Nikki cut her
off, flipping the phone shut.

“Why didn’t you give him your name?” asked
Z’ev.

“Her,” corrected Nikki. “And I have enough
women yelling at me during the day. I refuse to give my name to one
at night just so she can yell at me on my phone.”

“You don’t think she had caller id?”

“It went through a switch board. I don’t
think it’ll be that easy.”

“Aren’t you worried about him?”

“Who, Donny?” Nikki scoffed. “He can take
care of himself. Besides, he seemed fine.” She wanted to say that
she’d get Jane to run a check on Monday when she went into work,
but didn’t.

“So where do you know Donny from?” asked
Z’ev, changing the subject.

“We went to school together in Kaniksu Falls
and his mom used to babysit me.”

“Kaniksu Falls? I thought you went to school
in Seattle? Where’s Kaniksu Falls?”

“It’s a postage stamp of a logging town in
Washington, About as far north as you can get without being in
Canada, and as far East as you can get without being in Idaho. My
grandparents live—lived there. Now it’s just my grandma. Mom and
Dad moved in with them before I was born. So I went to elementary
school there, spent most of my summers with Dad’s mom in Canada.
Donny’s mom used to baby-sit us; we were the Three Musketeers.
Then, in sixth grade, when my dad split, Mom and I moved to
Seattle.”

“Who was the third?”

“What?”

“You said three musketeers. That usually
implies three.”

Nikki kicked herself for her slip up. All
she had to do was stick to Donny, but no, she had to go mention the
three of them.

“Oh. Uh, our friend Jackson. We kind of ran
around like wild monkey-children.” Nikki chuckled a little,
remembering their eight-year-old selves.

“Jackson? Is that the guy Donny asked about?
Guy you used to go out with?”

“Uh, yeah, we dated for about a second and a
half. I think that’s the restaurant Jenny recommended,” said Nikki
pointing out the window.

“In Junior High?” Z’ev sounded
skeptical.

“No, his family moved to Seattle when we
were in high school. We went out for a bit during senior year.
Jenny said that restaurant was really good. We should try it
sometime.”

“But you broke up?”

“Yeah, we did.” Nikki looked out the window.
She didn’t want to talk about Jackson. She didn’t want to think
about Jackson. For years now, she had been avoiding the topic in
her head the way a person with a cavity will avoid chewing on that
side. Why did he have to bring this up?

“It was just one of those things, you know?
Stupid high school boyfriends.” That hurt a little to say, but she
could see that Z’ev believed it and that was what mattered. “I
haven’t seen him since college.” That at least was true.

“That’s too bad,” said Z’ev and Nikki
glanced over at him nervously, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“You hate to lose touch with someone you grew up with over
something like that.”

“Yeah,” agreed Nikki. “I guess I should have
asked Donny how he was or something.” She waited a beat. “Oh well,
too late,” she said cheerfully and Z’ev laughed again.

“Nice to know you’re not bitter.”

“No, really, I’m not,” denied Nikki. “It’s
just been so long, you know? Why go there? What would we have to
say to each other?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he agreed with a shrug.

“Anyway, why do you care about some old
boyfriend? You’re not suspicious I’ve been secretly corresponding
with Jackson for nine years, are you?”

“No, I’m just impressed that once again your
entire history is one big grey area.”

“What do you mean?” asked Nikki,
startled.

“Well, you’re Canadian, but not.”

“I was born in Canada and my father’s
Canadian.”

“You’re from Seattle, but not.”

“I lived in Seattle from high school on, and
everyone knows where Seattle is. It’s easier to say Seattle.”

“You work for a make-up company, but you
don’t sell make-up.”

“The Carrie Mae Foundation does a lot of
good work.”

“I’m not saying there aren’t good reasons.
I’m saying, is anything ever an absolute with you?” He spoke with a
smile, but Nikki sensed he was serious. He didn’t like
surprises.

“My life is… complex.” It was the best
explanation she could come with.

“Baby, I work for the CIA and my life is
less complex,” he said dryly. “And with your tendency to get into
gun battles and what-not, forgive me if I’m suspicious.”

“There’s nothing to be suspicious of,” said
Nikki, firmly.

He parked the car in her slot and turned off
the engine. “Yeah,” he said pausing, hand still on the ignition.
“Maybe.” He turned his head and smiled at her, his sleepy brown
eyes twinkling and his mouth curving into the smile that made her
heart do back-flips. “Now about those shoes…”

Nikki’s eyelids popped open as if they were
on springs. California sunshine filtered through the shades,
dragging her from dreams about Kaniksu Falls. The image of her
grandparent’s farm still floated before her eyes. She rolled over
to check the time and realized Z’ev was in the way. Sitting up with
a smile, she leaned over to kiss him awake, but hesitated when she
saw the clock. The red LED display claimed it was 6:45. Nikki
yawned and stretched. It was too early to be awake on a Sunday.

Thinking of home reminded her of Donny, and
she frowned as she went into the bathroom. Last night, she’d been
certain that Donny could handle whatever came up, but this morning
it seemed worrisome that he was so far away from any back up or
support. Spitting out toothpaste, she came to a decision. If Donny
was in trouble, it wasn’t going to wait until Monday.

Nikki got dressed quietly and slipped out of
the apartment, pausing to leave Z’ev a note that included a whole
string of x’s and o’s. She never knew when he was going to be
called into work, so she figured it was important to make sure all
written communications included a quantity of hugs and kisses.