36
If Herod was surprised to find us waiting for him, he hid it well. He pulled Karen Emory in closer to him, using her body as a shield, his gun pressed hard against the side of her neck, pointing upward into her brain. Only the right side of his head was visible to us, and even Louis wasn’t going to take that shot. Blood was coursing from the terrible wound on Herod’s upper lip, staining his lips and his chin.
‘Are you okay, Karen?’ I asked.
She tried to nod, but she was so afraid of the gun that the movement was little more than a tremor. Herod’s eyes gleamed. He paid no attention to Angel and Louis. His gaze was fixed on me.
‘I know you,’ said Herod. ‘I saw you at the bar.’
‘You should have introduced yourself. We could have saved a lot of time and energy.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so. The Captain wouldn’t have liked it.’
‘Who’s the Captain?’ But I recalled the second figure that I thought I had glimpsed in the car, a wraith with a clown’s face.
‘The Captain is very curious about you, and it takes a lot to pique the Captain’s interest. After all, he’s seen so much that there’s little left to rouse him from his torpor.’
‘He’s screwing with you,’ said Louis.
‘Am I?’ said Herod. He cocked his head, as though listening to a voice that only he could hear. ‘Dominus meus bonus et benignitas est. Ring any bells, Mr. Parker?’
I shifted my grip on the weapon in my hand. I had heard that phrase before. It functioned on a number of levels: as a coded greeting; as a dark joke, a declaration of faith in an entity that was far from benign; and as a naming of sorts. ‘My master is good and kind.’ Good and kind. Goodkind, or Mr. Goodkind. That was what his followers called him, or some of them, but now here was Herod implying that Goodkind and the thing that he called the Captain were one and the same.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said. ‘I’ve no interest in your ghost stories. What’s in the bag?’
‘Another ghost story,’ said Herod. ‘The prison box. I intend to leave with it, and you’re going to let me.’
‘I don’t think so.’ It was Angel who spoke. He was resting almost languidly against the frame of the door. ‘You may not have noticed, but there are three guns pointing at you.’
‘And I have one pointing at Ms. Emory’s head,’ replied Herod.
‘You kill her, and we kill you,’ said Angel. ‘And then you don’t get to play with your box.’
‘You think that you have all the moves worked out, Mr. Parker, you and your friends,’ said Herod. ‘It pains me to disabuse you of that notion. Ms. Emory, reach very slowly into the outside left pocket of my coat, and take out what you find there. Do it gently, now, or you won’t get to discover how this particular story ends.’
Karen fumbled in his pocket, then threw something on the floor between us. It was a woman’s pocketbook.
‘Go ahead,’ said Herod. ‘Take a look inside.’
It had landed close to Louis’s left foot. He kicked it back to me, never taking his eyes from Herod. I opened it. It held cosmetics, some pills and a wallet. The wallet contained Carrie Saunders’s driving license.
‘I buried her,’ said Herod. ‘Oh, not too deep. The box is steel – military in construction, I expect; I found it in her basement – but I didn’t want it to buckle under the weight of the dirt. She has air too, courtesy of a hole and a plastic breathing tube. But it can’t be pleasant, being trapped in the darkness, and who knows what might happen if her tube became blocked? A falling leaf would be enough, or a clod of dirt dislodged by a passing animal. By now, she must be close to panic, and if she does panic, well . . . Her hands are tied. If she doesn’t keep her lips on that tube, she’ll probably only have fifteen minutes to live, at most. They will be fifteen very long minutes, though.’
‘Why her?’ I said.
‘I think you know why, and if you don’t then you’re not as clever as I thought you were. I’d love to stay here and fill you in on all of the details, but suffice it to say that Mr. Tobias and his friends were very busy earlier killing Mexicans, and when they were done they went to Ms. Saunders’s house to regroup. I learned a lot from Mr. Tobias before he expired: about a Jimmy Jewel and how he died, and someone called Foster Jandreau. It appears that Ms. Saunders could be quite the seductress when she put her mind to it. I guess you could call her the brains of the operation. She killed them all: Roddam, Jewel, Jandreau. Maybe you’ll have the opportunity to question her yourself, if you let me go. The longer you prevaricate, the lower her chances of survival become. Everything is an exchange. Everything is a negotiation. I am an honorable man, and I keep my promises. I promise you the life of Ms. Emory, and the location of Carrie Saunders’s makeshift coffin, in return for the box. We both know that you’re not going to let Ms. Emory die. You’re not the kind of man who could easily live with that knowledge.’
I looked again at the license, and at Karen Emory’s terrified face.
‘How do we know that you’ll keep your part of the bargain?’ I said.
‘Because I always keep my bargains.’
I gave it a couple of seconds before nodding my assent.
‘You’re not serious?’ said Angel. ‘You’re going to take that deal?’
‘What choice do we have?’ I said. ‘Put your guns down. Let him leave.’
Both Angel and Louis hesitated for a moment, then Louis slowly lowered his weapon, and Angel did the same.
‘You have a cell phone?’ asked Herod.
‘Yes.’
‘Give me the number.’
I did so, then said: ‘You want me to write it down for you?’
‘No, thank you. I have an exceptional memory. In ten minutes, I will drop Ms. Emory at a pay phone, and I’ll tell her where Carrie Saunders is buried. I’ll even give Ms. Emory the money to make the call. Then you can ride to her rescue, and our business will be concluded.’
‘If you renege, I’ll hunt you down. You, and your Captain.’
‘Oh, you have my word. I don’t kill unnecessarily. I already have enough stains on my soul to last a lifetime.’
‘And the box?’
‘I’m going to open it.’
‘You think you can control what’s in there?’
‘No, I don’t, but the Captain can. Good-bye, Mr. Parker. Tell your friends to step away. I’d like all three of you in the far corner, please. If I see any of you emerge from the house, or if you try to follow me, our arrangement is off. I will kill Ms. Emory, and Carrie Saunders can take her chances in her own prison box. Do we understand each other?’
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘I don’t believe that we’re going to meet again,’ said Herod. ‘But you and the Captain, that’s another matter. In time, I’m sure that you and he will have the chance to become more intimately acquainted.’
Angel stepped away from the door, and he, Louis, and I moved into the corner of the room diagonally opposite the front door. Still keeping Karen as a shield, Herod backed out of the house, Karen closing the door behind them at his instruction. I had one last sight of her, and then they were gone. Moments later, there was the sound of a car starting up and driving away.
Louis made a move to the door, but I stopped him.
‘No,’ I said.
‘You trust him?’
‘In this, yes,’ I said.
‘I wasn’t talking about Herod.’
‘Neither was I.’