Geek Mafia: Mile Zero (42 page)

"No," said Bee. "It's a picture of you and Chloe and Sandee and that guy down in the shed."

"That's not good," said Chloe. "Let's see."

Bee pointed to one of the screens, which showed an open e-mail addressed to the public account Paul had given the other Crews to use as a contact. It contained a pic of the four of them getting into their car out by the salt marshes. It showed just their heads and shoulders, so you couldn't tell that the killer had his hands bound.

The caption said, "Nice company you keep - Eddie."

"Fuck," he said. "They were following us."

"We'll worry about this later," Chloe stated. "At least he tipped us off that he knows we have Jimmy."

"Why would he do that?" asked Paul.

"Because he's showing off. Or because he's stupid."

"Or because he's forcing our hand," Paul said. "We have to assume he sent one of these to Isaiah too."

"Or at the very least he's letting us know that he will send it to Isaiah if we don't..." Paul lost his train of thought. "If we don't what? What's he trying to force our hand into doing?"

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"Assuming it's really Eddie who sent it," Bee said. "I mean, it's just from some anonymous Yahoo account. It could've been Isaiah or Winston who sent it."

"Or Raff," Chloe added.

"Or fucking Raff," said Paul. "I wondered what had become of him."

"Oh well, like I said, let's worry about this later. Even if it's only ten minutes later." Chloe turned to Bee. "Can you call Winston and ask him to come by here as soon as possible? Tell him we found something."

"And tell him to come through the back." Paul added. "We're probably being watched."

"I'm not picking up anybody on our external cameras. We can't be being watched. I'd see it. I'd know." Bee said in a rush, pointing over her shoulder to the wall of screens. Her voice was nervous, almost shrill.

"Winston doesn't know that. The more paranoid he is, the better," Paul said, although in truth he thought they probably were being watched, but he didn't want Bee to panic. He glanced at Chloe and she gave him the nod.

She understood.

"Thanks, Bee," said Chloe. "Just call Win and get him over here. We'll go get ready for him."

THEY waited for him on the back porch, having decided that it was better not to let him back into the house if at all possible. Paul's gaming laptop was still there where he'd left it earlier, and he fought the urge to pass the time by checking in on his character in Metropolis 2.0. He knew it would just piss Chloe off. She was busy pacing back and forth. They'd agreed upon a tactic to take once Win got there and there wasn't anything else they needed to talk about. Getting too specific would just make them sound rehearsed when they actually talked to him, and Winston was good enough to notice the tiniest chink in their armor.

"You'll wear a hole in your floor," said a voice from beyond the screen door, startling Paul. It was Winston, who hadn't made a sound as he approached.

Chloe opened the door and said, "Hey."

"What have you found?" asked Winston. He had started to move toward the door that led into the rest of the house, but Chloe had gone back over to sit next to Paul. She gestured for Winston to take the seat opposite her.

"It's been a tough few hours," Chloe said, her voice weary.

"These are the times that try men's souls," her former mentor replied. "But we must stay focused."

"I know," said Chloe. "It's just hard, you know?"

"I do know."

"I mean, sometimes we make decisions in the heat of things that turn out to be big mistakes."

"We all do," Winston agreed. "The real test though is how long it takes for us to realize we've made a mistake and how quickly we can turn around and do the right thing."

"That's what Paul was saying," Chloe said, patting him on the knee.

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"We've kind of screwed things up," Paul said, taking his cue. "We didn't know it at the time, but now we might've really messed things up."

Winston gave him a reassuring smile and leaned back in his chair. He seemed to be enjoying the role of wise teacher. "I'm sure it's not as bad as it seems. It's often impossible to get perspective when you're caught in the eye of the storm."

"You have to understand," said Chloe, "We were just reacting to circumstances. So much was happening we had to do something. How were we to know it would fuck things up?"

"We were just going off the information we had," Paul added. "Which is all you can ever do, right?"

"Of course," said Winston. "It is the way of the world."

Paul continued. "And now we've got Eddie breathing down our necks and Isaiah has all these expectations.

And someone's screwing with our cameras and we're understaffed and..."

"And we're really sorry," said Chloe. There were tears in her eyes. "We didn't mean to."

"Didn't mean to do what?" asked Winston.

"Catch your friend," Chloe responded, looking Winston right in the eye.

"What friend?" Winston asked. Although it didn't surprise him, Paul was disappointed that Winston hadn't shown the slightest bit of surprise or fear. His face was a mask of curiosity.

"Your friend you sent to the salt marshes," said Chloe. "Your friend you met on the boat last night. You know, your friend who killed Raquel."

Winston smiled in apparent confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You're not really going to make me get the pictures, are you?" asked Chloe. "The pictures of the two of you together on that boat. The pictures of him trying to jump that park ranger in the marshes. The pictures of Sandee disguised as that park ranger kicking his ass. The pictures of him tied up with a gun to his head."

"Or we could play you the tape of him telling us to call you," said Paul. "Telling us that you would explain everything. So go ahead. If you could just explain everything, that would be nice."

"Really fucking nice," said Chloe.

Winston sat in his seat, the smile frozen on his face. And although nothing had changed in his expression, what had at first seemed a confused grin to Paul now somehow looked like a smug sneer. "I should make you play the tape and show the pictures. Just to teach you a lesson about bluffing. But I suppose it's not strictly necessary." He looked around the porch. "But I'd prefer to talk inside, out of the line of sight of directional microphones."

"That's fine," said Chloe, standing up. "We've already cleared all the bugs you planted inside, so no one who shouldn't be can listen in." She opened the back door into the rest of the house.

Paul and Winston stood at the same time, but before Winston could walk through the door, Paul stopped him.

"We just need to make sure you're not carrying anything," he said, grabbing Winston's arm.

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Winston gently removed Paul's hand from him, saying, "Careful, son. That arm's tender. I got shot in that shoulder helping a friend out of a jam." Not the most subtle reminder that Paul and Chloe had indeed once gotten Winston shot. Winston pulled his cell phone, wallet, and key ring from his pocket and handed them to Paul, who placed them on the table next to his gaming laptop. Chloe patted him down but didn't find anything else. "Satisfied?" he asked.

"No," said Chloe. "Wait here." She went inside and came back out a few seconds later with a white robe from the Hilton draped over her arm. "Here," she said.

Winston looked ruefully at the robe and sighed in resignation. He kicked off his shoes, dropped his shorts and unbuttoned his shirt. He stood naked on the porch for a moment, arms stretched out to each side as he turned slowly in place. He cocked his head to one side and looked at Chloe. She nodded that she was satisfied.

Winston took the robe and put it on. "This is a nice robe."

"You can keep it," said Chloe as she stepped inside. "Assuming we get an explanation and don't have to lock you in the shed with your friend."

Paul glanced around, wondering how many of Winston's Crewmembers were waiting just out of sight and just how long they had before they came storming to his rescue. He wondered if Bee's defenses would hold up.

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Chapter 35

THEY were in the living room now, and Chloe had never felt more uncomfortable in her life. She'd hoped against all odds that Winston would break down, even a little, when they revealed that they knew he was a friend of the killer's and that they'd caught him. She'd dreamed of a tearful confession. But no. Instead he'd done what she'd actually expected him to do - put on a stone face and stared them down. He just sat there, waiting for her to ask him questions. Waiting for her to confront the man who'd been the closest thing she'd had to a father in twenty years.

"You going to tell us what's going on or not?" she finally asked.

"Why don't you tell me what you think is going on, and I'll tell you if you're right," he said.

She started to argue but bit the words back. Things would go faster if she just played along. He was either going to tell her or not, and she didn't have time to make him tell the tale on anything other than his own terms.

"Fine," she said. But then she wasn't sure where to begin. She was mad as hell at him, but she still couldn't quite bring herself to openly accuse him of murder. Not right to his face. Paul didn't seem to have the same reservations.

"Ok, I'll play along," Paul said. "Here's how it went down, at least the way we see things. Correct me if I get any of this wrong." Winston nodded in understanding and Paul continued. "You and your friend got here a few days before we actually saw you get here. You knew Raquel was coming and you instructed your friend to follow her."

Winston nodded.

"And follow her he did. We have him on camera doing just that. He waited until she was alone, which wasn't hard, because she was a bit of a loner right? But anyway, he tipped her off that he was following her, hoping that she'd try something stupid. You knew Raquel was too confrontational to let someone following her go uncontested."

Winston shook his head. "You give me too much credit. My friend' as you call him just got spotted because he was sloppy. He wasn't supposed to be."

"Even so, he saw his opportunity when it came. He followed Raquel to the Ft. Taylor Park. He hopped the fence and chased after her. But she was waiting for him on the nature trail. She jumped him and they fought.

He killed her."

"And he wasn't supposed to," Winston said. "She attacked him. He defended himself. In the fight her head got hit..."

"He hit her on the head," Chloe corrected.

"And she died," Winston finished.

"And then he called you. And you or some people from your Crew met him on the beach in a boat. They carried her to the boat from the woods and at some point she got wet. They took her to a car or van - probably parked at the bight where we saw your other boat - and loaded her in the back. Then your friend and at least one other person broke into her room and lifted her up through the back window and put her back in her bed.

All this while Chloe and I were meeting you and Lily at your other boat."

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Winston nodded once more.

"And you came to the meeting with Isaiah and acted like you didn't know where Raquel was. And when she didn't show up you encouraged us to go and look for her. You suggested that she might be hurt or in trouble.

So we stopped the meeting and everyone went out to try and see what happened to Raquel.

"And then we found her. We probably found her faster than you thought we would. My guess is you were going to find' her yourself, but you needed to take some time to make it look good. Then we beat you to it."

The old man said nothing, which Paul must have taken to mean he was right, so he pressed on. "As it turned out, this wasn't a big deal, or so you thought at the time. You were pretty sure your friend had covered his tracks well, and the end result was the same - one of the Crews found the body, not the cops, and we all got your message loud and clear."

"You thought Isaiah's plan was dangerous and a really bad idea," said Chloe added. "So bad that it had gotten Raquel killed. You wanted to scuttle the negotiations from the beginning."

"I did," agreed Winston.

"Then why come at all?" asked Chloe. "Why participate? Why suggest Isaiah have his meeting here, in our town? Why not just tell him to fuck off ?"

Winston didn't answer so Paul answered for him. "Because he didn't want Isaiah's plan to succeed no matter what. With the meeting here, he'd have us to help control the situation. He could use us as an extra weapon in his arsenal against Isaiah. Or as patsies if everything went to hell."

"Not as patsies," Winston said. "I wouldn't have done that. But I did use you, I admit that. You were an unknown quantity in the equation, something Isaiah and the others couldn't totally prepare for."

"But why?" asked Chloe again. "Why do you care what Isaiah fucking does?"

"Because it's wrong," Winston insisted, a hint of passion creeping into his voice for the first time. "It's buying into the enemy's world view. And when you do that, you become the enemy. He wanted to create a corporation. A corporation. The most diseased, parasitic social institution ever invented. And he wanted to turn us into something just like them."

"That's a reason for you not to join," said Chloe. "Not a reason to stop him. Not a reason to kill a woman..."

"It's foolish," Winston interrupted. "Corporations have names. Names have power. You give something a name and you give the enemy something to hang onto. Something to look for. Something the FBI could get subpoenas for and form task forces to hunt down. Something to infiltrate. It's the oldest rule of magic, and the powers that be know it. To know a thing's name is to have power over it."

And there it was. The crack in Winston's armor. Just for a second - a split second - he'd dropped his guard and Chloe had seen through to what was really going on. Three little letters. FBI. Winston had been part of the Weather Underground in the '70s, which the FBI had hunted down for years. He was a former '60s radical who'd lived for a decade as a wanted man. And then the world had moved on and stopped caring about old hippie radicals, and Winston had lived a happy life off the grid and under the radar. But it was a new era now