“Yeah, me too,” he said. His gun appeared in his lap, gripped tightly in his right hand. “Park the car and get out.”

We opened the doors at the same time, and I was half out of the front seat as Trimble was coming around the back of the car.

“Shit,” I said. “I dropped my wallet.”

And I leaned back into the car, reached up by the accelerator, and slipped my hand around the cold metal of the gun grip. Quickly, before Trimble was around my side of the car, I slipped the gun into the pocket of my jacket. I’d already been patted down once. The odds were that I wouldn’t be again.

Together, we walked into the house.

Chapter 35

35

Angie was still on the couch, but, I was relieved to see, more alert this time. As I entered the Hall of Barbies she jumped up and ran to me and I took her into my arms and hugged her, burying my face in her hair.

“Hey,” I said softly, patting her back. “You okay?”

She looked up at me, her eyes red, and nodded. “They haven’t hurt you?” I asked. She shook her head.

“What about you?” she asked, reaching up to touch the left side of my face, which I’d forgotten had a good-size lump on it from much earlier that evening. “Did they hit you?”

“No,” I said, not able to keep myself from smiling. “That was from someone else.”

Angie blinked, like maybe she had an inkling for an instant, then dismissed the idea.

“She’s been a perfect guest,” Bullock said, standing behind his desk as Blondie and Pockmark took up positions just inside the door. “Your Angie was telling me that one Christmas when she was a little girl you assembled her a Barbie house. With a little swing attached to one side, and a spiral staircase on the other?”

“I remember,” I said. “It took me hours.”

“I have that one,” Bullock said. “But not here. It’s a little too big for the shelves.”

I squeezed Angie into me. “We’re going to be okay,” I whispered to her. “I promise you.”

Bullock snorted, smiled. Trimble stepped around me and Angie so he could face Bullock head-on.

“Where’s Eddie?” Bullock asked. “You said on the phone that you didn’t have him with you. I specifically told you to bring him back here. I’m running this show now, so when I say jump, you’re supposed to jump. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right, boss,” said Pockmark. “You’re the man.”

Bullock looked at his underling with the bad complexion and said, “Why don’t you go outside, do a walk of the place, make sure there’s no one around.”

Pockmark, almost cheerful, said, “Yeah, sure, I could do that.”