I took off my G-2 jacket, ripped my name out of the inside collar, and put it over Dani’s head. Then I followed after them.

Chapter Thirty-three

Thirty-three

I stopped at the Texaco station in Chelam and used the pay phone to call Karen Lloyd at the bank. I had to pull off the shoulder rig and the Dan Wesson and leave them in the car. No jacket. The old guy in the hunting cap was still sitting in the hard chair and the old retriever was still lying on his piece of cardboard. The retriever wagged his tail when he saw me.

I told Karen that something had gone wrong and that she should pick up Toby from school and go home. She wanted to know what. I told her that I was at the Texaco station and would tell her when she got home. I said, “Are the printouts of the DeLuca transactions at your house or at the bank?”

“The bank.”

“Bring them.”

At ten minutes of four we parked in Karen Lloyd’s drive and went into the house. Karen was in the living room, looking nervous, and Toby was with her. Peter was sort of slack-jawed and distant and walked as if his knees were stiff. They stared at him. Karen said, “What’s wrong?”

“Plans have changed.”

Peter said, “They killed Dani.”

“What?”

Peter went to the couch and Joe Pike went past them down the hall to Karen’s study.

I said, “You guys are going to have to go away for tonight. Maybe a couple of nights. Throw whatever you need into a bag.”

Karen started to ask another question, then looked at Toby. “Tobe. Do what he says. Go pack an overnighter.”

Toby took a couple of steps back along the hall, then stopped.

Joe Pike came back with his duffel bag and took out a 12-gauge Winchester autoloader and a box of Remington Long Range Express shotgun shells. Number 4 buck. The autoloader had an illegal 14-inch barrel and a pistol grip in place of a stock. When Karen saw the shotgun, she said, “Oh my God. What is happening here?”

Pike took a Browning .32 automatic in an ankle holster out of the bag and showed it to me. “You want the backup?”

“Yes.”

He handed it to me and I put it on. I made sure the safety was off.

“Tell me what happened!”

I told her. I told her that at about the time Pike and I had been in her office, explaining what we had found out and what we were going to do with it, Peter and Dani had gone to see DeLuca and that now Dani was lying beneath an on-ramp to the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn. When I said the part about Dani, Karen’s face went gray and she said, “You stupid sonofabitch.”

Peter looked at the floor.