Turn
Angela felt stiff. A car seat older than she was probably wasn't the most comfortable place to spend the night.
And the curb a block from Dino's ghetto-chic loft probably wasn't the safest, either.
But after Chris Cogan had given her the slip, she'd been determined to talk to him about it.
Though the longer she waited, the more she doubted talking to Dino was a good idea.
Finally, after 4am, it was clear that Dino wasn't coming home -- and equally clear that there was nothing she could say without exposing herself.
She'd been *so* tempted to just crash the club as Sapphire and force Dino to give up Cogan -- but she rationalized that as a mistake. She wasn't letting Cogan go, she was just... letting the answer reveal itself.
Angela tried not to think about what she'd felt in the alley when she'd touched Dino. Just thinking about it brought it back. It felt like... fear.
Anyway, just knowing where to find Cogan wasn't enough. As far as she knew, there was nothing but her own word that put him behind the wheel of that car. No, it would be better to put Miguel on Cogan's trail, then maybe they could find something -- fingerprints, traffic cameras, other eyewitnesses, maybe DNA... *then* if they couldn't find the worm, she could do her part. Maybe by then she'd have a better angle with Dino...
Like it or not, she had to accept that if she was going to make it stick -- and if she still had any hope of doing significant damage to Konstantin Moroshkin's organization -- she would have to let Chris Cogan go. At least for now.
Crisco -- the nickname irritated her more every time she thought of it. It infuriated her that he was going to slip away yet again.
But more than making her angry, the realization sapped her already-depleted energy.
It wasn't quite dawn when Angela slipped the key in the door.
It took everything she had to close the door behind her. She fell back against the cold wall, knees collapsing, feet sliding, melting slowly into a puddle on the floor. She was tempted to fall asleep right here...
"The police are looking for you."
Miguel's voice made Angela screech in surprise.
It took her a moment to find breath. "God, you *scared* me!"
"Sorry."
"How'd you get in?"
"Badge flash."
"At four in the morning?"
"At 6PM. Comfy couch, by the way."
"I thought you needed a warrant."
"I said someone's life could be in danger."
Angela's tone was accusatory -- not that she was surprised Miguel would abuse his power like that, but she wasn't about to let him off the hook. "Whose life?" she shot back.
"Yours."
Angela stared through the darkness at the silhouette on the couch. His first words now registered: The police are looking for you.
That was a weird thing for a police officer to say.
Miguel seemed to know what she was thinking. "They don't know it's you they're looking for, but when *I* hear a girl fled the scene of a crime by leaping over a tall building in a single bound, my list of suspects gets pretty short."
"It wasn't me."
"So there's another girl making bungee-cord escapes now? Was the whole vigilante thing just a marketing stunt to sell acrobatic rigs to even crazier girls with even bigger grudges against the world?"
Even when Miguel knew it was her, he didn't know who she was.
"I meant it wasn't me who hit that man. I was chasing the driver."
"A witness saw you getting out of the car."
"Out of the *back*. I jumped on to try to stop him."
"You jumped onto a speeding Corvette to try to stop it."
"It worked, didn't it?"
Miguel grunted. "Fine. You don't want to tell me anything, I can't help you."
"When I need your help, I'll call you."
"It's a two-way street. You got anything for me?"
"Yeah. The driver's name is Chris Cogan. He works for... Moroshkin."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know, but... try."
"I'll see if it leads to something. What about your boyfriend and his deal?"
"Not yet."
"Yet -- so you haven't quit on me."
"Can we talk about this later?"
"If you're holding out on me, you could be charged as an accessory."
"Miguel, I'm really not in the mood."
"I'm just saying. I've put a lot of time and effort into this. Don't fuck me."
The thought made Angela's stomach turn.
He was standing over her.
She looked up. What?
"You're blocking the door."
She got up -- unsteadily. When the door opened, the sickly-white light of the neighbor's always-on porch light poured over her.
"Jesus, Angela, you look like shit."
"Thanks."
"Take care of yourself."
"Yeah."
She'd overheard it on a neighbor's blaring television.
The man Chris Cogan had hit -- a homeless man known only as Reggie -- had died.
And a young woman was still the suspect.
Maybe with a little patience, she could figure a way to turn the situation around.
But for now, there was nothing left to do but pack.
Which, for a girl who had little more than clothes and her mom's ancient Corolla to her name, didn't take long.
Angela took a last look around the apartment. She'd never really gotten comfortable here. The Nomadic Arms at least had a griminess she could enjoy hating -- The Willows just seemed too... polite. In a way, she was glad to be leaving.
But it stung to think that she was tucking her tail between her legs. She knew she'd be running home, if she had a place to run home to. As it was, she figured she'd just go back to the Arms. It was icky, but it was an ick she knew. And it would stretch what was left of the money Sasha had given her until she could find another job.
And she needed to stretch it, because her vial of Perfectua wasn't going to last forever. And she didn't need to be shivering away like a junkie during a job interview.
Angela put down the too-big bag of clothes to open the trunk of her car.
"Here, let me help you with that."
Dino? What was he doing here?
"Moving out, huh?" He hefted the bag over the bumper into the trunk.
"Yeah."
"Is there more upstairs?"
"No, that's the last of it."
"Need help unpacking?"
"It's just clothes."
"Still."
Why was he being so damned friendly all of a sudden?
"I think it'd be better if you didn't." Know where I'm moving to. For a couple of reasons.
Dino seemed surprised. "Oh. Okay. Um, is there somewhere we can talk?"
"Buy me lunch. Unless you're still not allowed to be seen with me."
He bristled at that, even while his discomfort proved her point. "I don't think that's a good idea. Someone might overhear us."
"Fine. I'm not kicked out yet. Come on up."
"Sit down, Angela."
What was this about?
"I heard you were downtown yesterday."
Gulp.
"I assume you know what happened."
The question was, what did Dino know?
Angela remained guarded.
"Chris Cogan said he saw you downtown. He said he knows you saw him."
Oh. Shit. What else did he say? Angela was afraid to ask.
It was possible Cogan hadn't said anything else -- after all, nobody's going to believe a story about a flying girl smashing down on your car and breaking it like a cheap toy.
Well, not nobody. If what she'd seen in the alley was real, Dino wasn't exactly normal -- and if Cogan knew about Dino's healing ability, well, suddenly a flying girl wasn't quite so crazy.
Slow down, Angela. Let Dino talk.
Dino's voice became more calming than she'd ever heard it before. "I want you to know it's going to be okay. It's being taken care of."
"I don't understand."
"I know how you must feel about what you saw." Did he? "It was just an accident, but still... he is responsible for his actions. It wouldn't be right if he simply pretended it never happened -- or if someone else took the blame for what he did.
"But at the same time, he is a part of something bigger than himself. He has a responsibility to his family. And even when he fails us, we have a responsibility to him."
He paused, probably to guage her reaction. But Angela was still waiting for some indication of what he knew about her. And what he might think about it. He continued, watching her intently.
"We already know there isn't enough evidence to convict him. Even if someone were to step forward and give positive identification, there are enough confusing and contradictory statements from witnesses... and then witness credibility is sometimes questioned, and that can get *very* ugly -- and beyond that, sometimes witnesses later recant their statements, or even fail to show up for trial."
Dino seemed to be tiptoeing through his explanation -- as if he knew he had to cover such ugly... well, *threats* was too strong a word, though they could certainly be taken that way... he had to tell her how things would play out, just to make sure she understood just how serious it was, and just how much he had her interests at heart.
"But even if he was convicted -- sentenced to be punished for the consequences of momentary indescretions," -- Angela seethed at such a euphemistic dismissal -- "even then, it would take months, perhaps years for the wheels of justice to turn."
So what? Maybe the system wasn't perfect, but that was no reason to just let a man like Cogan go free.
Dino must have seen Angela's building reaction, because he raised his hand before she could speak. "Hold on, I'm not finished. Now in addition to being illegal, immoral, and just plain irresponsible, Cogan's action put a lot of things at risk. A lot of *people* at risk. Kostya doesn't like that. This kind of thing is bad for business. Cogan has to be made to understand that this kind of thing can't be a habit. Youthful enthusiasm is fine, but..."
It almost sounded like Dino was lecturing Angela.
"Well, the reasons don't matter, it's the result that counts. I met with Kostya and Cogan a little while ago, and we worked out an arrangement." Dino seemed to relax, as if this was what he was building up to. "It wasn't easy, but Kostya saw what I was driving at and came around pretty quickly. Cogan was pissed, but, well, he screwed up. I'm sure he's gonna think about what he does from now on. And he knows he's on a very short leash. So..." Dino couldn't help puffing up a little bit. "Cogan will be donating a substantial sum to the city homeless shelter, all out of his own pocket. Believe me, he's going to feel it for a long time. Kostya's going to have him doing grunt work for a while, starting tonight at the meet with Filip. No more cars. And as for that woman downtown, the police will shortly receive something that exonerates her."
Dino stopped. He was practically glowing.
Angela, on the other hand, was spitting mad.
Dino had rationalized this "arrangement" as the best that could be done.
Not unlike the way she'd rationalized her own inaction.
Hearing justice so manhandled, Angela forgot her indecision. She forgot her hesitation. Focused on this one man's crime, she forgot her mission.
Or perhaps she finally remembered it.
"That's not good enough."
Dino blinked in surprise; the terse response got his dander up. "What?"
"What do you mean, what? First you threaten me, then you tell me Crisco is buying his way out of trouble."
"Angela, I didn't *threaten* you -- I'm just telling you how it is. Dammit... I worked really hard on this. You know, I didn't have to do anything at all; Cogan would have gotten away with it no matter what. Anyway, it's only a matter of time before he screws up again -- he can't help himself -- and then Kostya will have to cut him loose. In the end, justice still gets served. At least this way *some* good comes of it in the meantime." He took a deep breath; his shoulders slumped. "I did this for you."
"You shouldn't have bothered."
It was a slap in the face. But so was the callous, abstract way a man's death was being bargained into some twisted moral victory.
She couldn't stand to be in the same room with such a man.
"Angela -- what's your problem? I know what Cogan did was stupid, but... well, I'm having trouble understanding your reaction. I mean, who did you think I work with? What did you think I do for a living?"
Angela threw the answer back at Dino from the doorway. "I didn't think you killed people."
She didn't know where else to go. So she went where she always did to try to clear her head.
The view from the university parking lot on a cool and calm afternoon wasn't quite as spectacular as the view from the top of the administration building at night, but it was as close as she could safely get right now. The sun shimmered brilliant gold on the river as it slid past Ohlone Gap. Angela shielded her eyes with her hand, looking across the valley, past downtown to Mount Ohlone.
But all she saw was the writing on that birthday party invitation.
It's a party for Marinka!
Sunday, 2 o'clock
Bolsillo Cielo Park
Dino said that it was only a matter of time before Crisco screwed up and Kostya cut him loose.
Sunday at 2 o'clock was a good time.
After all, Crisco had already jeopardized the deal once. And his reckless behavior was well-established.
If something were to happen, it could be his fault as easily as Dino's.
Of course, Dino would be caught up in it too. But he was a smart guy. He'd probably already prepared for the possibility of a deal gone bad. And if nothing else he had the recordings of Kostya and others.
And if Dino couldn't get untangled from it, well, that was too bad. He was still a criminal, and he'd no doubt done bad deeds before.
But was the invitation even real? It seemed obvious enough. Almost too obvious.
Marinka. Probably a code for "marina."
But Bolsillo Cielo Park? Sunday afternoon? That was probably the *worst* place for a meet, at the worst time.
Bolsillo Cielo Park was nestled halfway up the narrow ridge of mountains west of downtown. Just a few minutes from civilization, it was nonetheless isolated -- aside from a bunch of condos at the base and the occasional oak tree, the mountainside was bare. A two-lane blacktop wound from the south end of the city up along the mountainside, running through the Park and then continuing north to wrap around the waist of Mount Ohlone, where it gave a spectacular overlook of the Ohlone Gap Bridge. The Park was both an escape from and the best view of the city, if you didn't count the transmission towers at the mountains' peak, which were only accessible from the coastal side of the mountain and off-limits to the public anyway.
Families often had picnics up at the Park -- heck, Angela's own eighth birthday party was there. (That was back when she could still call the neighborhood kids her friends, before school cliques erased geography and established pecking orders.) Most Sundays the parking lot would fill up. That made for plenty of distractions, but also plenty of witnesses, and with all the leisurely-paced traffic a hasty getaway was out of the question. Plus, a procession of three dozen stolen cars inching their way up to the park was about the dumbest thing she could image.
Waitaminute... the Park wasn't dumb. It was almost genius.
Nobody was going to haul three dozen cars up the mountainside. They wouldn't have to. You could see the whole valley from up there. It was almost fifteen hundred feet up, high enough to give a clear view over all the downtown buildings, except for Nakatomi Tower, which didn't block much. Dino's guys could deliver the cars just about anywhere, while Filip watched through a telescope. Maybe even just a pair of binoculars.
Especially if... two o'clock meant two in the morning! Sure. Now it made sense. The cool October night air would be clear, and aside from the occasional punk playing fast and furious the mountain road and the park were deserted. A getaway still sucked -- if the police got to the north and south ends you were screwed -- but if you could get past that, you were home free.
And since you could see the whole valley from up there, Filip could wait until the last second to tell Dino where to deliver the cars. That would make it very difficult for the police to mount a raid.
Except that, thanks to the earlier attack on Dino, and the subtle clue in the party invitation's name, Angela had a head start on where to look.
Oak Valley had the third-biggest port on the West Coast. (Angela didn't know why she remembered that.) The California river was almost a mile wide by the time it slid into the northeast corner of the valley, and it kept that width all the way across the northern end of the valley, through the Ohlone Gap, and then only got wider on its four-mile stroll to the coast. Almost the entire twelve-mile stretch of the south shore had at one time or another been using for shipping, and almost a third of that was still docks and warehouses and cranes -- and so many stacks of containers that from the sky they looked like a vast Lego empire.
And if the rumors were true, Gerald Bates controlled most of it, in one way or another.
A single shipment of automobiles -- even thirty-six of them -- wouldn't be easy to find among all the legitimate activity going on. There were lots of gates and guards and checkpoints and holding areas and inspections and stuff that supposedly kept things on the up-and-up, but Angela was sure there were plenty of workarounds for all of that. Even knowing *when* they'd show up, it'd be difficult. But if someone were to eavesdrop on the exchange up at the Park, and direct the police from there...
Yeah. I can do this.
I *have* to do this.
She dialed his number.
"Hello?" Interesting that he didn't answer by name.
"Miguel."
"Jesus. Do you know how deep the shit is that you're in right now?"
"What do you mean?"
"A dead body showed up down at Riverside Park."
"So?"
"Does the name Stan Drachevsky mean anything to you?"
Angela stopped breathing.
"No," she finally managed.
"He was found with a bullet to the brain. And a suicide note. Wanna guess what it said?"
"No."
"It said he was distraught over the homeless guy he ran over downtown."
"Oh," Angela eked out, numb with the implications.
"Only problem is, the bullet ain't what killed him."
Her brow furrowed. "I don't understand."
"The shot was post-mortem. That means he was already dead. Several hours. Maybe longer -- the body may have been on ice for a while before it was dumped. And there was GSR on his clothes which suggests he shot someone at close range."
Angela didn't speak.
"But that's not the weird part. Aside from the fact that there's a hole in his head and he's dead, he's healthy as a horse. Coroner can't figure out what killed him."
Oh. My. God.
It wasn't a hallucination. It happened. I saw it. I wasn't crazy. Stan shot Dino, and Dino killed him. Just by touching him.
"Did you find anything on Chris Cogan?"
"The guy is vapor. And there's nothing in the wrecked Corvette -- get this, it caught fire on the way to impound. I still think you're covering for Dino, but now with this Stan showing up... it looks like they're gonna close the case."
Covering for Dino... Dino was covering for Crisco -- and himself.
Angela was up against a man who couldn't be caught, and a man who couldn't be killed.
"So you wanna tell me what the fuck is going on? How many bodies have to pile up before you get off your ass and nail this guy? Or have you switched sides?"
Angela felt the early edge of panic rising. She didn't know how long her hands had been shaking. She fought to quell the tremors.
Not now.
"Come on, Angela, see it from where I'm standing. You won't get me Dino's MP3 player. You stop returning my calls. You're with... *somebody* in a stolen car downtown -- they run somebody over and you cover for them. And then this guy shows up dead as some kind of lame fall guy."
Angela felt the world shaking and shuddering, threatening to collapse around her.
Where did Miguel get off suddenly becoming a *detective*? What was with the sudden push? Didn't he know that she was calling to give him what he wanted?
Where did Dino get off dusting off Stan's body to make him a post-mortem misdirection for Crisco?
And why did her Glitter always run out of gas at exactly the wrong time?
Angela opened her vial and tapped it on her knuckle. A little dust came out, barely more than a fine mist in the mouth of the vial, but that was all. Not now!
"This whole case is going to shit."
I could say the same about my whole life... "I don't need your attitude, Miguel."
"Attitude? Missy, you're the one who needs to check the attitude. I brought you in on this. You said you wanted to help, you said you wanted to get the bad guys, and then the second shit gets the least bit uncomfortable you bail on me."
"Miguel-"
"You know what you are? You're a fuckin' tease. You tell me you'll put out, but you don't really. And just when I'm ready to write you off, you show up with those fuckin' tapes -- only they're no good, and when I ask you to get 'em again suddenly you can't do that. Fuck! I shoulda fuckin' known, the way you dress, the way you were always hanging around Aquino, fuckin' living with him -- I bet you never did let him tap that ass, did you?"
"Miguel!"
"*Did* you?"
"I got it."
"Answer me!"
"Didn't you hear me? I said I got it."
"Got what?" His voice changed suddenly; it must have clicked. "The MP3 player?"
"No."
"Fuck you -- see, this is what I'm talkin' about, just a fuckin' tease-"
"I know where they're meeting."
Miguel fell silent. She could hear his righteous sails flag on the other end. After a long pause: "If this is another tease, I swear to God Angela, I'll-"
"It's not." She let the unfinished threat slide. No matter what she thought of Miguel, right now she needed him. She needed to use him.
"What about the MP3 player?"
He was never going to let that go! "It's gone. I think maybe Dino found out," she lied.
"Fuck. I knew I shouldn't have let you take it back."
"You didn't *let* me do anything." Why was he being such a jerk? She didn't have time for this. "And if I'd let you keep it, I wouldn't be close to Dino anymore, and I wouldn't know where and when he's meeting his buyer to make the exchange."
"So spit it out already."
The shivering was getting worse. For her plan to work, she had to be Sapphire. And she couldn't be Sapphire like this.
"Not over the phone. I need you to do something for me first."
"What? This is not a negotiation-"
"I need you to get something for me."
Miguel seemed to sense her urgency. "What?"
"I need some Perfectua."
"You mean Glitter."
"Whatever."
"You want *me* to get you drugs."
"Please. I need them to stay... balanced."
"You know it's illegal."
"Can you get it or not?" she snapped.
"Yeah, I can get it. So tell me about the deal."
"When you get here. I'm up at the University, administration parking lot."
"Jesus, Angela, don't you trust me?"
"Not even as far as I can throw you." Which wasn't saying much, actually.
Not twenty minutes later, he was knocking on her window.
"That was fast."
"So here it is." He held two vials, each as big as the one Angela had been milking since her last night with Dino.
"Thanks." She reached for them, but Miguel snatched them away. Then he saw the trembling, and he softened.
"Are you okay? You look like death warmed over," he said, barely above a whisper.
"I'll be fine once I take my meds."
He handed her a vial. "Meds, huh?"
"Shut up." She was already tapping a little out. No point in drawing out lines; even if she could make them straight she couldn't follow them. Snorting all over the back of her hand was humiliating, but she couldn't afford to freak out now.
The effect was immediate. She felt herself rapidly climbing a hill of calmness. Doubts faded. Purpose solidified. Soon the shaking would stop.
"So tell me about the deal," Miguel prompted.
"Bolsillo Cielo Park. Tonight. Two A.M."
"Bullshit; that many cars would-"
"That's where Filip is going to meet-"
"Filip? You mean Filip Chapayev?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck me. He's gonna be there?"
"I don't know. But he's the buyer."
"Hold on a sec." He whipped out a little notebook and started flipping through it. "He'll probably send his boy. Kinda like Kostya uses your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend."
"Fine. But still, that's a shitty place to meet. That many cars would look like a fuckin' parade -- or a street race in the making. Light up the mountain like a string of lights on a Christmas Tree."
"They don't have to take them up there. Filip just has to see them."
"Right, but-- Son of a bitch... you can see the whole valley from up there."
"Now he gets it."
"But it could be anywhere... except that if it's Filip, they're for the home market, so they'll be leaving by ship. Still, we can't cover the whole damn shore. Can't you find out which dock ahead of time, or a ship name, or gate number, anything?"
Geez, he didn't ask for much. "I think the point is nobody knows exactly, except Filip. I'm guessing when he sees the cars en route, he'll pay Dino and then tell him where to send them."
"You *guess*?"
"Come on, it makes sense."
"Yeah, but... since when did you get so smart?"
Angela thought of the Ferrari almost hitting that minivan, and the Hummer barreling down the street, and the crowd in front of the cab, and the wrecked Corvette. "I just had to focus on the problem."
Miguel took a deep breath; she could see his gears turning. "You know, you didn't give me a lot of time. We gotta get somebody up there to listen. Shit, if somebody's already up there..."
"I can do it."
"How? There's nothing up there, just a couple of trees."
"I can do it."
"It's not like you gave me much choice. Fine. But you better come through for me. There's no turning back now, sweetie. It won't just be me you'd be dicking around anymore, it'd be a whole bunch of cops working overtime. And the Chief doesn't like overtime."
For once, Miguel seemed to be understating the significance of the commitment. That made even Miguel pause.
"Before I roll on this, I gotta know something. How do you know this? About the meet."
"I got an invitation."