I didn’t take Aura’s word, of course. Willard and I took opposite corners of the block to watch the hotel entrance, Willard from the comfortable driver’s seat of his car, and me from an apartment-block entryway that did little to block an adamant wind that smelled of impending ice sheer and car exhaust fumes.
Within half an hour, Bilal Nath’s lunar blue Mercedes returned to the hotel roundabout. The vehicle bounced an extra inch as it nudged the curb, its suspension tested by all that hired muscle inside. Bilal’s men quickly disembarked before Nath himself appeared from the rear seat. With his thin frame and cowl of dark hair, he looked like a chess-set bishop surrounded by bricks.
My phone buzzed. I didn’t have to look to know who was calling.
“Ondine,” I said.
“I imagine you already know that Nath has left the meeting place,” she said. Her voice so calm, like the drop in air pressure just before a tornado hits.
“Yeah,” I said. The rear guard of Bilal’s host vanished into the lobby, leaving the SUV to the scurrying valet.
“Explain yourself.”
“I’ll cut to the finish. Aura Nath and I have reached an agreement. She and Bilal will be leaving town.”
“With what guarantee of your safety?”
“That’s my business. I’ve got everything I require. So will you, if we can cooperate.”
“Meaning?”
“Insider trading must seem like small potatoes to a guy like Bilal. I wouldn’t have thought you needed the dough.”
Ondine’s silence stretched long enough to read a page of hexes.
“What is your intention?” she said.
“I don’t really give a crap about your stock market dabbling. Leave Dr. Claybeck out of any future business, and we can forget the whole thing.”
Listening over the wind, I could almost hear the gears gnashing as Ondine pieced together how I could have met Paula Claybeck.
“You go too far,” she said.
“Come on. Of all the things I might demand, this is easy.”
“I’ll be forced to take your word on it, I suppose?”
“So long as I stay hale and hearty, no one will ever know. And think how great it will be to never hear from Bilal Nath again.”
“If I were truly fortunate, that would extend to you as well.”
“We can dream,” I said, and hung up.
I’d let Hollis tell Dr. Claybeck the good news. A token of his affection.
Shit, it was Friday. I was supposed to meet Wren tonight. She’d sent a text earlier this morning. I’d seen it but had been focused on Bilal and the warehouse.
8 o’clock @ Clifford’s in SODO okay?
I replied with an apology that it had taken me so long and, yes, I’d meet her there.
Two hours later, as the wind worked on freezing my nose shut, the valet brought Bilal’s SUV back. Only two of the blocky goons flanked Bilal and Aura this time, with Juwad taking the driver’s seat.
The goons carried suitcases. Aura carried a black leather Gladstone bag, cradled under one arm. I could guess what was inside.
Saleem brought up the rear. He walked past the Mercedes and stopped to scan the street beyond the Neapolitan’s gate. I knew I was invisible in the sheltered entryway, but it still felt as though his furious gaze paused on me for a moment. Did he suspect I’d be watching? A deep violet bruise marred the side of Saleem’s face where I’d struck him. After another moment, he turned on his heel and stalked back to the car.
Within a minute they pulled away from the hotel. I called Willard.
“I’m on them,” he said.
“Boeing Field,” I said. “I’ll bet a buck on it.”
If I’d successfully convinced Aura to leave us alone. And if she had convinced Bilal. That was the trickier part. I wished we’d had time to bug their room. Having a fly on that particular wall might have helped me relax.
No point in continuing to freeze my ass off. I walked up Madison and found a pizza place that served lunch to the neighboring office workers locking its doors for the evening. A twenty convinced them to give me an unclaimed white pie and a bottle of Peroni lager to go. Not wanting to wait, I ate the warmish slices across the street in the partial shelter of a bus stop.
A scarlet sign on the building wall above the pizza place directed emergency vehicles to go around the block to access the E.R. at Virginia Mason.
That’s where she died, a voice told me.
Moira. I hadn’t even known that memory was in my skull. But there it was, as unyielding as any foundation block. After she’d been run over by the car downtown, the ambulance had taken her to the Mason E.R. Where the daycare worker had taken me. Where I got my earliest firm recollection of Dono, as he told me as plainly as he could manage that my mother, his daughter, was gone.
Willard called back. I tossed the remaining pizza and the unopened beer in the trash.
“I owe you a buck,” Willard said. “Bilal just took the exit to BFI. The guy must have some pull to charter a flight this fast.”
“He was prepared to leave tonight, no matter how it went down.”
“I’ll hang around until I’m sure he’s gone.”
“Thanks. Hey. You never knew Moira, right? My mother?”
There was a silence, which didn’t prevent Willard’s puzzlement from coming through loud and clear. “Naw. I started working with Dono not long after you were born, but I never met your mom. Hollis said something the other day about you tracing your roots.”
“Did Dono ever mention what Moira did after she left high school? Besides raising me?”
“Dono never mentioned shit. He wasn’t the kind for small talk, unless he was soused, and I hardly ever had tickets for that show. I remember we had some extra cash after one of our first scores together. He asked me to drop an envelope with some paperwork and a few bills off at a school on my way home. I think that was for Moira.”
“What school?”
“Hell, Central? I don’t know. One of the college buildings by Broadway. There was a woman’s name on the envelope, but don’t even try asking me what it was. Maybe just one of Dono’s girlfriends.”
Maybe.
“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Keep your head on straight. Sure as shit this ain’t over.”
My apartment was a twenty-minute walk from the Neapolitan. I used every step of it to shake off the unpleasant energy that was powering me now. A combination of leftover adrenaline, too much stress during the past days, and the frustration of crossing paths twice with Sean Burke, both times with guns involved. I needed a shower and a catnap and food with some actual nutrition.
A mile later I caught myself grinning. I’d realized my jittery feelings weren’t stemming completely from bad soil.
I was excited to go meet a girl. For the first time since Luce. Was it really that simple?