The Carrier (12 page)

She waited until late Sunday night to
put the tracker on Cyril’s car. She stuck it on good—glue along the
edges—not trusting the magnets to stick on their own. She wanted to
get a look at this little Smrekar, but he didn’t seem to be home.
She had to settle for her imagination—kind of like Duane but
younger, a little more mild, maybe fat in the face? There were uses
for men like that.

CHAPTER 18

Cyril drove with Willow in the
passenger seat. She didn’t even have the gun in her hand anymore;
it was tucked into the tight pocket of her jacket. Out on the flat
land it was easy to see if there was a car behind you but hard to
tell much beyond the simple fact that it had headlights. It was
difficult to spot a specific car, especially if you didn’t know
what that car was supposed to look like.

They passed a large
billboard promoting abstinence. Underneath a picture of an
attractive young woman the caption read
I
want to be an engineer. Sex can wait
.

“
I don’t understand why you
can’t study to be an engineer and still have a lot of sex,” Willow
said. “I mean frequent intercourse, you know?”

“
I think it’s pretty
demanding—the course load.”

“
Are you seeing anyone right
now?”

Willow blushed just a
shade.

“
No, I’m single,” Cyril
said. “You’re with Tony?”

“
I am definitely not. Look,
he’s just a guy I met. He was just a guy in a bar.”

“
You saw Tony in a bar and
thought, I’ve got to get to know
him
better?”

It would have been much nicer if he’d
had a partner for all these trips, these thousands of miles that
he’d driven alone—someone to talk with and keep him awake,
especially if she had a voice as warm and thrilling as
Willow’s.

“
He started buying me
things. You think that makes me cheap? The first night I met him I
told him I wanted four hundred dollars to take care of my nose.
Just sort of put the request in and see what happens. He gave me
cash. But still I figured he was just an addict with a little extra
money that night. Then he opens his closet and it’s full—like kilo
upon kilo.”

“
You went back to his
place?”

“
You can’t exactly throw
plastic toys at a man’s wiener in the middle of a crowded
bar.”

Fair enough.

“
You’re pretty brave,” Cyril
said.

“
Yeah, I’m very brave. His
place is small. He’s got a big TV and a fancy juicer, but it’s not,
like, a mansion or anything. So the thought crossed my mind that it
was all fake—the money and the smack. Maybe he had one bag and the
rest was baking soda for show. You know how Tony likes to be the
big shot. So he says to pick a bag, any bag. I do, and he cuts it
open, and when I move in, he actually gets this responsible look in
his face. Honey, you ever done pure Lake before, he
asks.”

“
I forgot, he calls
it
Lake.
” Cyril
shook his head.

“
He can call it whatever he
wants. For the love of Jesus, it was the best thing I’ve ever put
inside my body. And he’s got—what—forty keys in his
closet?”

“
You’re a user?”

“
Oh come
on
. You’re really going to judge me
for that, too?”

“
No, I’m just surprised.
Your body—it’s like a real woman.”

“
Hey, you’re selling it to
middle school kids in the heartland of America—so don’t judge
me.”

“
Someone has to bring them
their drugs. If we don’t bring them heroin, they play games with
prescription drugs. And that’s bad, especially for the
elderly.”

“
So it’s like a public
service you’re doing? For the elderly?”

Willow fiddled with the radio. She
found an adult contemporary station near the top of the FM dial
playing an old Mariah Carey song about heroism.

“
I wasn’t judging you about
using,” he said. “I’m just saying you don’t feel like a skeleton.
You feel like a real woman.”

“
You’ve had your share of
skeletons?”

“
Once or twice, by accident.
It’s not like the real thing. Not like a real woman.”

They were both a little turned on
again.

“
So should I assume you’re
single?” he asked.

She laughed and rolled back her head.
It wasn’t the first chance Cyril had to take an easy shot at her,
but he just kept on driving.

“
Last guy I dated for real
was this blind man,” she said.

“
Yeah, I can believe
that.”

“
Excuse
me?”

“
You have a great voice. A
blind guy would probably appreciate that”

“
Yeah, okay.”

“
Because his sense of
hearing would be all—”

“
Yeah, I get it,” Willow
said, checking the rearview mirror again. “It’s not easy—dating a
blind guy. They say how they’re fully capable of doing anything,
but there’s still a lot you have to do for them.”

“
Like what?”

“
Like drive. They can’t
drive.”

One car drew close enough for them to
make out some detail, then it slowed. It was still back there, but
it was keeping its distance.

“
I think we’re being
followed,” she said.

“
Different car?”

“
Yeah, not the one you
slashed.”

“
What are the
plates?”

“
Iowa plates, but still.
Slow down.”

Cyril slowed and soon the car Willow
suspected, a Lexus, drove past them.

“
I’m not a hundred percent,
but I think the guy in the passenger seat was the guy driving the
other car.”

“
You got that from just now?
From looking in the window when they shot by?”

“
I said I’m not a hundred
percent.”

The Lexus seemed to have slowed a bit
ahead of them. They were driving less than thirty miles an hour
now.

“
Pull off, next exit,”
Willow said.

“
How soon is
that?”

“
There’s food in about six
miles.”

The car in front of them disappeared,
and Cyril increased his speed steadily. They drove in silence for a
few minutes. The exit was coming soon.

“
Just pull off.”

Cyril eased onto the off
ramp. Ronnie’s Highway Diner had a picture of a smiling woman
holding a pie on the side of the restaurant. Underneath it
said
Ronnie Welcomes You.
The parking lot was nearly empty, and Cyril tried
to find a spot that would be visible from inside the diner. After
he parked he got out and walked toward the restaurant.

“
Slow down, there,” Willow
called.

He stopped, then began to take very
slow, loping steps.

“
Happy?”

“
I’ve got a great voice and
a real woman’s body. Why wouldn’t I be happy?”

CHAPTER 19

Danny Chin frowned and slowed the car
again.

“
Where are they?” Marcus
asked.

“
I think they took the
exit.”

“
So they spotted
us?”

“
I think so.”

Marcus looked back. The exit was
nearly a mile behind them now. Danny pulled over onto the shoulder
and waited. They sat in silence for almost three minutes. Two
trucks and a car shot by at high speed. The little Toyota wasn’t
behind them anymore.

“
All right. Hang
on.”

Danny shifted into reverse and drove
backwards along the shoulder. Marcus just shook his
head.

“
You got a better idea?”
Danny asked.

Marcus didn’t.

“
You’re going to go in on
foot.”

They had reached the exit. It was
about a quarter mile from there to the restaurant.

“
Just walk down there,”
Danny said.

“
Why can’t
you
do it?”

“
Because I told you to do
it.”

Marcus gave him a look, hurt, with the
first hint of violence Danny had noticed.

“
Is that how it is?” Marcus
asked.

“
Man. You’re getting half
the take. Do some work.”

Maybe he should get up in Marcus’s
face. Danny had dealt with tougher men than Marcus in his life, but
the results were decidedly mixed.

“
Anyway,” Danny said, easing
up, “we’re in Iowa. They’ll think I’m some kind of secret death
ninja sneaking around their food court. You look like the people
here, like you ate the corn and pork and got real big. All right?
That’s why I’m asking you to do it.”

“
What do I do when I get
there?”

“
If you get a chance, slap
the tracker on the car. They won’t be expecting you on
foot.”

“
Will it still
stick?”

“
Feel it.”

Marcus reached to the backseat to pick
up the tracker; it was still pretty sticky on the
bottom.

“
I’ll get off at the next
exit, and we’ll figure it out from there,” Danny said.

The whole car shook when Marcus
slammed the door.

CHAPTER 20

Cyril and Willow sat across from each
other at a table in the diner. Willow looked at the pictures on the
menu.

“
Get some better looking
sandwiches,” she said. “Doesn’t even have to be
your
sandwich. Get someone else to
make a pretty sandwich and take a picture of it.”

“
Are you hungry?”

“
Not really.”

Cyril turned the menu to the back and
looked at dessert. He doubted he would be able to handle a full
meal right now.

“
Are trackers easy to get?”
Willow asked.

“
Yeah, regular people use
them for their kids or a cheating spouse. You know, if you think
your husband is messing around, you put one on his car and you’ll
get your answer.”

“
Kind of sad if it comes to
that. I feel like you need a certain amount of trust in a
relationship. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

A red pickup truck, New Jersey plates
pulled into the lot. Out stepped a tall slim man in jeans and a
leather jacket.

“
That’s got to be him,”
Willow said.

“
It’s not the same
car.”

“
There’s two guys—two
cars.”

“
There were two guys in the
Lexus, right?”

“
Okay, so there’s three
guys.”

“
And three cars? The one I
slashed, the Lexus, and this one?”

The man nodded to the waitress and
then walked to the bathroom. Cyril shook his head.

“
You really don’t think so?”
Willow asked.

“
No.”

The man was in the bathroom a long
time. While he was in there a woman came into the diner wearing
buckskin and carrying a baby in her arms. She sat down at the
counter and started talking to the waitress. Then the tall man came
out of the bathroom and walked right up to their table. Willow
slipped the gun out of her pocket.

“
How long have you two been
together?” the man asked.

“
Almost a year,” Willow
said.

“
Hey, that’s great. Here’s
to many more down the road, right? Look, I hate to do this, but I
kind of got overextended, you know?”

They let him continue.

“
We need to get out to
California—my wife and me. We can either fill up with gas, or get a
motel room. Or get a meal. I’m just saying can you help us
out?”

“
We’re not rich people,
either,” Willow said.

“
I know that. Rich people
won’t give you the time of day. You just look like a couple of
decent folks who might understand what we’re dealing
with.”

“
There you are,” the
buckskin woman joined the tall man, and the three of them—mom, dad,
and baby—stood over the table. “What’s going on here?”

“
Well, I was just asking
them for a little help.”

Willow watched the woman carefully,
still pretty keen on the idea that these people were out to get
them.

“
You guys thinking of having
any?” the man asked.

“
Any what?”

“
Kids? They’re just
beautiful, but they’re so much damn work.”

“
Yeah? You got a boy or
girl?” Cyril asked.

“
A girl—Maisey,” the woman
said, rocking her bundle back and forth.

“
Can I hold her?” Willow
asked.

What the hell? Willow wanted to hold a
baby? She didn’t exactly have a maternal look in her
eyes.