“Did you find anything?”

“No. I think there might have been something there, though.”

“Oh? Why?”

“There was a trapdoor hidden under a big wood box. But somebody had moved the crate and cut off the padlock on the trapdoor. The space underneath was empty and it looked like something heavy had been dragged across the floor. You didn’t tell anybody about me asking you about the place, did you?”

“No. Of course not.” She sighed. “I suppose that’s it, then.”

“Yes, ma’am. I guess it is,” I said. “Sorry about Craig.”

Lola gasped and hung up.

I was pretty sure that she’d been in contact with Donata Delphine, that together, along with Larker, they made the plot to sideline Craig while they planned to get at the stolen monies. The one thing they were unable to understand was the bond between Larker and Craig. Kirkland had broken into the hazardous materials garage, taken the money, and handed it over to his friend. They were comrades and certain not to betray each other.

The only problem was putting me on the case.

Lola bet everything and lost it all.

Neither Kirkland Larker nor Donata Delphine was ever heard from again. Every now and then I think that the closest I ever came to death was at the hands of that woman. She was a nearly perfect predator in a world that scared the shit out of me.

48

48

It was 6:50 a.m. the next morning when I knocked on my backyard neighbors’ front door. I waited maybe thirty seconds before Stache answered. He was shirtless, shoeless, and more than a little perturbed that a black man in a powder-blue sports coat was standing on his porch.

“Yeah?” the hippie grumbled.

“Excuse me,” I said. “You don’t know me but I have an office in the building on the other side of your backyard. Third floor.”

“So?”

“I get there early in the morning and open my window to get some fresh air. Usually I see you coming out the back door with a watering can.”

“Okay,” he said, wondering.

A woman in a red robe appeared a few feet behind him.

“What is it, Rick?” she asked.

“Hold up, Linda,” Rick said, looking at me.

“Well,” I continued, “I can see not only your place but the whole block, and I have been noticing lately, maybe the last two weeks or so, a dark sedan parked a few houses down. The men sitting in that car wear shorts and bright shirts but they also have on black leather shoes.”

Linda had come up beside Rick by then. She had red hair and a face beautiful enough to adorn a Renaissance painting.

Rick’s brown eyes were working out the warning.

“Well,” I said again. “I just thought I’d say that. Recently I found out that I’ve got a hippie in my family.”

“Um, uh, thanks,” Rick said.

I nodded and smiled, then turned away.