“I met Jakovich. I just left Darko. Do you want the guns or not?”

“You met with them? Face to face?”

“Do you want the guns?”

Pike was in Hollywood, she was in Glendale. They split the difference and met in a Silver Lake parking lot on Sunset Boulevard. Pike arrived first, and stayed in his Jeep until he saw her pull into the lot. She was driving a silver Accord. Her personal car. He went over and climbed into the passenger seat. The agitation in her voice on the phone was gone. She seemed cool, and removed.

“You’re in deep doo-doo, buddy. The police want to arrest you, and they’re blaming me for getting them involved. You want to explain how six people came to be dead?”

“They were holding Milos Jakovich’s grandson hostage. Now I have him.”

“Excuse me?”

Pike told her about Petar Jakovich, and Rina and Yanni, and the rest of it. She had been completely out of the loop.

“Frank didn’t have anything to do with the gun deal. Jakovich told me that himself. Frank and his family were collateral damage. Darko went in because of the nanny.”

“Ana Markovic? You’re telling me those people were murdered because of a twenty-year-old nanny?”

“Her sister stashed the old man’s grandson with Ana to hide him from Darko, but Darko found him anyway. Darko thought he could use the kid to force Jakovich into a deal, but he was wrong.”

“How old is this child?”

“Ten months. A baby.”

“And where is he now?”

“With me. Darko was holding him at the scrap yard, but now he’s with me.”

Walsh wet her lips again, and her jaw flexed. As if there was too much information to process, and the swell was lifting her too high and too fast to catch her breath. She finally nodded.

“Okay. I’m listening.”

“Jakovich wants Darko. Darko wants the guns. I have something they both want, and I’m using it to play them against each other. I believe I can put them together with the weapons.”

“How?”

“Jakovich thinks I’m going to buy the guns, and Darko thinks we’re going to steal the guns. They each think I’m going to double-cross the other.”

“Jesus, Pike, are you an adrenaline junkie or what? What’s our timeline here?”

“Later today. Darko’s on board. I’m waiting to hear from Jakovich. I need three things to make it happen.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“I haven’t been working alone. The people who are helping me, they get a pass. In writing. I get a pass, too. In writing. Absolution from any and all charges arising out of our activities in this matter, now and in the future.”

“This isn’t a double-oh license to kill.”