“Thirty percent?” said Merker. “You fucking joking? What’s fucking thirty percent of a hundred thousand?”

Trixie hadn’t been kidding when she said Merker wasn’t very good at numbers. I said, “I think that would work out to about thirty thousand dollars.”

Merker shook his head disapprovingly. “That’s just ridiculous. I’ll give you five. Five thousand bucks.”

Mrs. Gorkin pointed her weapon at me again. “You must not need him very much.”

“Okay, okay, ten. Ten thousand. That’s as high as I’m willing to go.” Mrs. Gorkin’s gun was still trained at my head. “Fuck, all right, what about twenty-five thousand? That would work out to, that would be…”

“Twenty-five percent,” I said.

“Okay, how about that?”

Mrs. Gorkin lowered the gun. “Dat okay.”

Gavrilla was smiling proudly. This had been her strategy, after all. “That’s good. That’s great. So, you should call Leo in.”

Merker went to the open door, made a waving motion. I heard a pickup door slam, and then Leo Edgar was walking up the porch steps.

He was leading, by the hand, a child. A little girl, probably no more than five years old. Curly haired. Quiet, walking as if in a daze. Dried tears visible on her cheeks.

Katie Bennet. Trixie’s daughter.

CHAPTER 34

34

I WAS BACK UP on my feet now, the residual effects of a punch to the gut and fifty thousand volts to my entire body momentarily forgotten as Katie Bennet stepped into the house. She looked at me with a glimmer of recognition, but no joy.

“Katie,” I said, moving toward her and going down on one knee. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

She half-nodded. I put my hands on her shoulders, and she tensed. I pulled them away. “It’s going to be okay,” I told her, but they were only words. If she was here, with Gary Merker and Leo Edgars, there was no way that things were okay.

I looked up at Merker. “What the hell’s going on?”

“You didn’t think her mother would just give us the money, did you?” he asked. “We need a bit of leverage.”

“Are we almost done here, Gary?” Leo asked. “I could really use a bite.”

“Leo, fuck’s sake, I got a situation to deal with here,” Gary said.

Leo, somewhat dimly, took in everyone else present. His eyes bounced off Mrs. Gorkin and then her two daughters. Ludmilla stepped forward, extended a hand. “Hi,” she said, smiling. “I’m Ludmilla. Aren’t you a handsome one?”

Maybe, to someone like Ludmilla, Leo was a prize specimen. Gavrilla insinuated herself between Leo and her sister, extending her hand as well. “I’m Gavrilla, Ludmilla’s younger sister,” she said. By what? Fifteen seconds? Five minutes?

“Hi,” Leo said. “What’s going on, Gary?”