Chapter 67

CHAPTER 67

B y Wednesday, Rose was better, Poppy was smiling again whenever she saw Marley, and I had a couple of loose ends to clean up.

I walked to the picnic table overlooking the river and connected my cellphone to the secure wifi network for Rocky Start that the Ferrells maintained. We still hadn't found enough money to keep Rose safe for the future, so I checked my bank account, prepared to transfer over all the money Herc had promised me.

The numbers on my balance had not changed.

I switched devices and punched in Herc's number on the satphone.

"What?" he said when he answered, no buddy-buddy stuff. I must be annoying him.

Good.

"Rocky Start no longer has a serial killer. It was Geoffrey Nice. The funeral director. How come you didn't know about him?"

"How come Oz and Pike didn't know?" Herc shot back, apparently not bothered in the least by this huge oversight on everyone's part. "Looks like he wasn't killing in his backyard until you got to town. What did you do?"

That was just like Herc. Shift the blame. All these years, I'd never clearly seen how easily he did stuff like that. He rarely answered direct questions. And even though he was the grand poobah, he somehow managed to deflect responsibility when things got screwed up.

"He killed Oz before I got to town," I pointed out.

"Oz was getting old," Herc said. "Sloppy. Obviously."

I didn't expect empathy—I knew better—but that was cold. "Geoffrey Nice had some interesting trophies. It's all I can do to keep Rowan Masters from making Geoffrey the topic of his next bestseller."

"I thought I told you to deal with that reporter."

"We had enough shit dealing with a serial killer," I said. "Rowan helped us figure out it was Geoffrey."

There were a few seconds of silence, then Herc exploded. "What the fuck, Reddy! That's all we need. An exposé about Rocky Start."

"Don't worry. He's not going to write about Geoffrey or Rocky Start."

"How do you know that?" Herc demanded.

"He promised us he wouldn't." I thought about adding that he was hooked up with Lian Kwan, the mother of Herc's not-love-child, Mei, who was the reason Herc had directed me here in the first place. That wouldn't go over well. Herc might well have him killed for it.

"He promised you he wouldn't." Herc was incredulous.

"I trust him."

"What the fuck has happened to you?" Herc demanded. "You know you can't trust a reporter. Hell, you can't trust anyone, Reddy."

I changed the topic. "Yeah. Like you. You never paid me."

"What?"

I took some satisfaction in his confusion.

"When we talked after I first got to town, we made a deal. I'd take care of things here and you'd pay me a direct-action contract and per diem, Zurich rate, from the time I started walking the Appalachian Trail. You never paid me."

There were several seconds of silence. Either Herc was thinking or he was calling in an air strike on my position. "I'm not happy with the results," he finally said. "I told you to take care of the reporter and?—"

"No, you did not. He wasn't even here when we made that deal. And he will not report on Rocky Start or Geoffrey Nice."

Silence.

I pushed. "If word gets out that you reneged on a contract, nobody's ever going to work for you again."

There was another long silence, and then he said, "Wait a minute," and I waited, staring at my bank balance on my cellphone. Then the number made a nice bump up. I forwarded the amount Pike and I had agreed on to him.

"All right," Herc said. "The money is in your account. Now tell me how my kid is doing."

"She's fine," I said, then transferred the remaining balance into the new account I'd set up for Rose that morning in a place where only she or Poppy could touch it. "Mei's got a new boyfriend, her grades are stellar, and she's heading for Harvard with big plans."

"She's got a boyfriend?" Herc said sharply.

"She's nineteen and beautiful. Of course she has a boyfriend."

"She should be studying."

This from the guy who'd never met her. "The new boyfriend is heading to Harvard, too. They probably do study dates. Back off and let them be."

"He's going to Harvard, too, huh?"

"No," I said.

"What?"

"You will not be recruiting either of them. Her boyfriend is Tiny's son. Remember Tiny? He'll rip your arms off and beat you to death with them if you get anywhere near his son. And Mei is off-limits, too."

"Tiny's son. Darren?"

"Darius." I was sure Herc knew the right name, he was just poking back at me.

"You said new boyfriend. What happened with the old one? Because if he was an asshole?—"

"Not an asshole, he just wants to be a mechanic and not go to school, so your kid dumped him."

"Good. I'll look into him?—"

"No, you won't. He's Pike Bernard's adopted son, and while Pike is not interested in conflict, he will come out of the gate roaring if anything happens to his kid. And I'll be right behind him. His kid got dumped, your daughter did the dumping, she's dating somebody going to Harvard now, it all turned out the way it was supposed to. Stay out of Rocky Start, Herc. You don't understand the place, and it was never yours to begin with. We know what we're doing here; you don't."

"We? You're part of the place now? What's with all these kids? Thought you were going back to the Trail, Max. Finish your mission."

"I'm leaving soon to finish. But if anything happens to Pike's kid, I'm back in a nanosecond."

"Nothing's going to happen to the kid," Herc said. "Pike's got two adopted sons, right? Which one was it?"

"One last thing, Herc."

"Hey, you don't?—"

"You lied to me."

"Hey, the payment?—"

"About getting Rosalie Malone's arrest warrant lifted."

"You know how much shit I deal with every day, Max? It slipped through the cracks."

Herc didn't have cracks or slips. "Bullshit."

"A twenty-year-old arrest warrant for fleeing justice?" Herc scoffed. He was one of those that could do it over the phone quite well. "Low, low priority, Max. I don't think she'll ever come up on the Marshals' radar."

"She's on my radar. Get it lifted."

"I thought you were leaving."

"I am."

"So—"

"Get it lifted."

"Yeah, yeah. But you are leaving, right?"

I hung up on him.

I couldn't see Herc coming after Marley; it was too minor, even for his new fatherly instincts. But I'd give Pike a heads-up anyway. And Luke. And Rose. Not that Marley couldn't take care of himself. I thought about it as I walked back to Oddities, about how competent he was for a twenty-year-old kid.

I told Rose I was taking the Pathfinder, called Pike to find out where Marley was, and went to Bearton.

Marley was in a brick garage that had once been a horse stable. There were faded paintings on the wall for animal feed. He was talking seriously to a much older guy next to a large pickup truck, both of them wearing oil-stained coveralls, and when he saw me, he nodded, said something to the other guy, and then came out into the sun, and I really looked at him for the first time since I'd knocked him out cold in Pike's weed field.

He wasn't a kid. He was as tall as I was and broader, and he was alert, no dope haze in his eyes. I hadn't bought it when Pike said Marley had given up weed after Ozzie's funeral, but I did now.

"Problem?" he said when he reached me.

"A heads-up. Mei's dad wants to know about you since she left you. I did not give him your name, but he knows everything, so he'll have it by now. I don't think he'll come after you, but be aware just the same."

"Herc. Pike warned me about him," he said, his voice level. "I'm aware."

I nodded. "And I need a favor."

He waited, not committing himself.

"I'm leaving tomorrow to finish the Trail."

He nodded.

"I don't like leaving Rose and Poppy alone."

"I'll look after them," he said, steady and sure.

"I think you should move into Oz's old apartment," I said. "I'll pay the rent, but I want you on the premises; it's the only way I know they'll be as safe as they would be when I'm there."

He was silent for a long time, and then he said, "I'll have to ask them if it's okay."

"I'll check with Rose and Poppy."

"No," he said. "Let me talk to Poppy. I'll ask her. You ask Rose. If they're okay with it, I'll move in. It's closer to work anyway."

I nodded, and he nodded and walked back into the shop.

Kid doesn't say much, but he'll come through for them.