Inside the Disney Store, I stood close to the DVD sales rack, pretending to decide whether I should choose between the re-issue of Aladdin or if perhaps Big Hero 6 was more my taste. I checked my watch and saw that I had only fifteen minutes to make Sydney’s deadline, and I was about to go when a conservative-looking man in chinos and a jean jacket came up to me. “Nice choice. I have a nephew who is nuts over the Avengers though.”
“Thanks. But I’m shopping for a young child.”
“Good to know,” he said. “So shall we go? I believe we only have twelve minutes to make your deadline.”
I nodded, and we turned to leave. I caught Rita out of the corner of my eye and she nodded slightly, her and Vince leaving soon after. As the man and I headed toward the exit, he spoke quietly. “I hope that Vince and the girl with him don’t follow us the whole way. I already have men at the motel, they’re waiting to move as soon as Sydney shows his face. They’re not even worried about getting a confession or evidence; our connection within the LAPD tells us they already have a slam-dunk case of blackmail and extortion on him.”
“And once he’s arrested?”
“No offense Miss Nova, but you don’t strike me as the type of person who wants the details about what will happen to him. At least, not if you want to sleep at night.”
“Fine,” I said. “And if things go bad?”
“My men are used to this stuff. Sydney’s an amateur. If we had the evidence we have now, we’d have done this a long time ago.”
We were at the corner, and I could see a Denny’s with four motorcycles parked outside, along with men who looked a lot like my escort. “Your boys?”
“Just the distraction, in case Hale’s got his own backup. My real boys are already in position.”
I saw the sign for the Bluebird of Happiness ahead, and my escort nodded. “There. I’m peeling off now. I’ll be there though. Relax, and best of luck.”
I looked around as I walked, seeing that Rita and Vince had disappeared from sight, although I thought I could see Kade in his hat and glasses about a hundred yards behind me on the other side of the street. Taking a deep breath, I finished walking toward the motel. Turning into the parking lot, I looked around for the main office.
I was halfway toward it when a horn beeped behind me, and Sydney waved from a car that was pulling into the driveway. I squinted, pretending not to see who it was, and he beeped again. Playing dumb, I looked around like I was blocking his path, and stepped back and out of the way, across the lot from him. I wanted him out of his car, and whoever might be in there from being able to intervene. It was a ploy, but one that I hoped would be effective.
Thankfully, it worked. “Get over here, you dumb bitch,” Syd said, opening his door and getting halfway out. “Jesus, you are as stupid as you are hot.”
Things went tremendously fast then. Three men, clear bikers from their clothing, stepped out of the bushes and the area surrounding Sydney’s car. Two of them were carrying pistols while another racked a pump-action shotgun. “Hello, Syd.”
Sydney looked around and recognized the weapons pointed at him, if not the men. He turned to me and growled. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really. Have fun in jail, Sydney.”
Two of the men, the one with the shotgun and the pistol toter closest to Sydney, pulled him out of his car and dragged him off. The other pistol toter climbed into the still-running Honda and closed the door, driving off. Less than fifteen seconds had passed, and I turned around, heading back toward the mall before someone from the motel office could step out.
As I did, I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders. With that weight lightening, I started to walk faster, then faster.
Eventually, when I saw Kade walking toward me, I began to run.
* * *
The skies were overcast, a rarity for California at that time of the year. Being a relatively famous man, Derek Prescott’s interning had drawn quite a crowd, from lawyers at his firm to community groups that he’d worked with to even some media, who were covering the last chapter of a very dramatic death.
Kade was finally starting to show some real emotion, and it was nice to see. He’d shown some here and there, but now he was really letting it all out as the reality sank in. I think he’d held most of his grief in until the whole Syd situation was taken care of. But I didn’t say a word, I just held his hand and stood by his side.
Derek’s will had requested that he be cremated, which had been done while Kade was still in the hospital. The cause of death had been a massive heart attack, but in a note that had eased my mind, the report said that the attack had begun even before Derek had taken the podium. That he had dropped at the particular moment he did was just pure chance.