The Carrier (7 page)

Duane dialed Tony’s cell phone and got
voicemail.

“
Hey, call me if you need
me.”

He decided to go to Denny’s, eat
something, try Tony one more time, and then call it a night. If
Tony didn’t get in touch, it was on him, wasn’t it?

Denny’s—he could take it or leave it.
But it was the first thing he’d thought to tell Inez as he was
getting ready to break a man’s patella, so that was where he was
eating. There was a decent crowd at this time of night; Denny’s was
probably one of the only late options.

A young man in a beard put his
sandwich on his lap and took a picture of it while his girlfriend
clapped. That was a good relationship, Duane thought—one of you
does something stupid and the other applauds. He drank a cup of
coffee, and when the waitress came back he ordered a big breakfast.
She smiled like he had done something clever and considerate for
her benefit.

“
That’s a real meal, my
dear,” she said.

Sometimes Duane had nothing but
contempt for a middle-aged waitress with heavy makeup, but he made
up his mind to leave this one a big tip. It was just after the
whole meal had been spread out on his table that Inez entered the
restaurant.

“
You broke a bone, I think.
By the sound of it,” she said.

“
Do you know who those guys
were?”

“
No, I don’t know boys like
that.”

“
Is Tony coming?”

“
You want Tony? That’s who
you want? Because I don’t know if there’s anywhere you can find a
little toy canoe at this time of night.”

“
Do you want a
pancake?”

“
Yeah, I do.”

Duane forked pancakes onto the plate
with his sausage, eggs, and bacon, leaving one pancake back on the
original plate. He slid it across the table to Inez.

“
He’s your boss?” she
asked.

“
He’s your
boyfriend?”

“
He’s not my
boyfriend.”

“
He’s not my
boss.”

“
Well, look at us—a couple
of free agents with some pancakes.”

“
You have a place to stay in
town?”

“
I live here.”

“
You really live in this
town?”

“
What happened to your
finger?” Inez fired back.

Duane had wrapped it tight just before
the meeting.

“
Someone bit me,” he
said.

“
Like a dog?”

“
Like a dog, but it was a
man.”

“
That’s worse than fucking
him, you know?”

“
No, it isn’t.”

“
Of course it is—he’s in
your bloodstream for sure. Why’d he bite you?”

“
Disagreement.”

“
No one bites me.
Never.”

They both chewed happily for a while
until Tony entered the Denny’s.

“
Okay, what’s going on?” he
asked. This was the worst Tony there was—the one who put aside
jokes and came on rough and stoned.

“
I don’t know,” Duane said.
“It’s your meeting. Why don’t you talk?”

Tony was carrying a gun—holstered
inside the jacket—but what was he going to do, open fire in a
Denny’s?

“
Where do you think you
stand, Duane?”

“
Go ahead and tell
me?”

“
You think you’ve got a lot
of supporters? Everyone is sick of you.”

“
Is this what you needed to
say?”

Inez ate her pancake. Tony sat down
and a smile appeared on his face—he was back on task. His pupils
were tiny and far away, but now he had a train of
thought.

“
Here’s what I’ve got to
tell you. For what happened in Florida, Top is keeping your share
of anything else that comes from the south until it covers what he
lost in Florida.”

Duane shook his head. Sure, just
broadcast their business to the whole restaurant.

“
Is that all?” Duane
said.

“
That’s the
deal.”

Duane wanted to take a bite of
pancake, thought it would be the right kind of punctuation, but he
had no appetite now.

“
I’ll talk to Top,” he
said.

“
Do not talk to Top. He’s so
mad at you, he doesn’t want to hear your voice.”

“
I’ll do it later. But this,
what you’re telling me right here, doesn’t mean
anything.”

“
Go ahead and call him now,
then. See how it goes.”

Duane didn’t move, just looked at
Tony—flimsier than ever, eyes almost yellow. Duane felt as if he
could reach across the table and rip Tony’s ragged neck apart. But
you can’t do that at a Denny’s any more than you can open
fire.

“
Yeah,” Tony said, “I didn’t
think you were up to that. Now, I’m going to take a piss. When I
get back, Inez, I hope you’re done with your pancake.”

Inez nodded and chewed as Tony stood
and left the table.

“
Can we go to your place?”
Duane asked.

“
Yes, we can.”

Duane stood and dropped a hundred
dollar bill on the table. Tony had to have known this was a
possibility. He was giving two people who hated him the chance to
tell him that loud and clear. They took it.

CHAPTER 12

Willow pointed under the
car.

“
Go look,” she
said.

There it was, back near the bumper. It
was small and dark, but it jutted out abnormally, an ugly, little
growth. Remote tracking device.

“
Who put it there?” she
asked.

“
We have to get that thing
off the car and then move. You want to hold a gun in my face while
I do all this, that’s fine.”

Cyril tried ripping the thing off with
his bare hands, but that very clearly was not going to
happen.

“
How is it stuck on?” Willow
asked.

“
Magnets, glue.”

“
How hard is that to get
off?”

“
Hard. I should be able to
get it off with a knife. There’s one in the glove
compartment.”

“
The Swiss Army knife? I’ve
got that.”

She paused just a moment and then
handed it to him. But the tracker was still stubborn, and in the
dark, holding the knife at a tricky angle, Cyril was having trouble
getting at it. Out of frustration, he gave the thing a few violent
stabs.

“
Careful. You’ll hurt
yourself.”

“
Do you want to give it a
try?”

“
No, I don’t.”

After about two more minutes work, he
seemed to have a corner free, but then he hit a solid glob that
wasn’t budging.

“
It’s not coming off,” he
said. “Can you go back to the room and get some soapy
water?”

“
Soapy water? Are you
kidding me? I’m not getting you any soapy water. We use my car.
Everything is exactly the same, but we’re in my car.”

Cyril looked up at Willow.

“
I just leave my car
here?”

“
Why wouldn’t you want to
leave it?” she asked.

“
Because it’s my
car.”

“
And not because you’ve got
the money hidden in it?”

“
Fine, let’s take your car,
then.”

Things had gotten very bad, very
quickly. Cyril’s instinct was to bolt, take off down the street.
She probably wouldn’t shoot him, but she did have his cell phone,
wallet, and keys. He would have no car, and whoever else was
tracking him might be ready to pounce, too. He’d be on his own,
barefoot in the cold. No, he was best off staying with her. He
might still save the whole ballgame. Get the money, shake Willow
and whoever was tracking them, then get lost with the
loot.

“
They say you can sense when
you’re being watched,” Willow said. “They’ve done science on
this.”

“
Well, I can’t tell. Can
you?”

Willow looked out to the road and then
back to the motel.

“
No,” she said.

“
Where are you
parked?”

“
Back near the bar.” Willow
looked straight up at the moon. “They can’t be far away,
right?”

“
They’re probably not up
there.”

“
Your car has been parked
here since—what—eight o’clock? They’ve got to be in town by
now.”

“
You think they’re in the
motel? Lying up on the roof? Where are they?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
Let me get my stuff and
then we go to your car.”

***

She followed him back to the room. As
soon as they were inside, she wanted him again. And she was pretty
sure he wanted it too. Too bad there was no time and too many
obstacles. Still, there was a better than even chance that she’d go
to bed with this guy again. She had a good sense for that sort of
thing. He got his things together quickly.

“
We got to move fast,” he
said.

Wait—his panic seemed fake, overdone.
The tracker was a normal part of his job; he was just trying to
shake her. Cyril finished packing, but Willow stood between him and
the door.

“
You really are just a
drone,” she said. “Not any kind of real hard guy,
right?”

“
I don’t like trouble,
haven’t been in a fight since eighth grade. Can we go
now?”

“
Not yet.”

“
Why not?”

“
Who else could be tracking
you, other than your own people?”

“
Anyone. All those girls
buzzing around Tony? Some dealer who’s pissed at Top.”

He was a liar, and he wanted to get
rid of her, but it was possible he was telling the truth about the
tracker.

“
Who’d you fight in the
eighth grade?” she asked.

“
This lacrosse kid got me in
a headlock, just started wailing on me because I told his
girlfriend some jokes.”

“
Racy ones?”

“
I suppose.”

“
Did he get in
trouble?”

“
No. But my brother put him
in the hospital.”

“
So your brother’s the tough
guy?”

“
My brother once broke a
guy’s hand for being too excited about Batman.”

“
I think it would be
interesting to meet your family.”

“
Maybe. Can we go to your
car?”

Willow thought about it.

“
Okay, here’s what I’m going
to do. I’m going to ask you two questions carefully, and you are
going to answer honestly. Would you ditch me if you
could?”

“
Of course.”

“
Do you really think someone
is following you?”

“
Yes.”

She stared him right in the eyes: he
was telling the truth.

CHAPTER 13

Danny Chin pointed out the
window.

“
Look, it’s Huck and Jim on
a raft,” he said.

“
What?”

“
That’s the Mississippi
River.”

It was dark and the bridge they
crossed was nondescript; it looked like all the other smaller spans
they used earlier, but it kept going out over the thick vein of
America. A barge slid underneath, heading downriver, and Marcus and
Danny were in Iowa. The car they tracked was only about ten miles
behind them now.

“
How much farther, do you
think?” Marcus asked.

“
Could be any time now, so
we’re going to let him take the lead.”

They slowed, and when the gray Toyota
slid past them about an hour later, Marcus had the instinct to
wave.

“
I almost honked,” Danny
said. “You get a good look at him?”

“
Not great. He’s a white
guy, not old. That’s about all I could tell.”

“
But it’s just him—one guy.
You saw that, right? Not too scary, right?”

“
No.”

When the Toyota pulled off the highway
and stopped, Danny had them take their time winding back to the
location. Unsurprisingly, it was a motel. The sign at the Firstway
Inn was missing a T, but that didn’t make it spell anything
entertaining. Marcus and Danny parked close to the entrance. There
were three other cars in the lot. One was the Toyota with New York
plates—their man. It was sitting exactly where the receiver said it
would be.

The young woman at reception was
staring at a little handheld screen.

“
What are you reading
there?” Danny asked.

“
Nothing.”

“
Does it have vampires,
zombies?”

“
No,” she said, putting down
the device. “How can I help you?”

“
Ghosts? Anything
supernatural?”

The girl relented, slightly
embarrassed.