By the time we finished wrapping up the corpse, Danny called. He said Ma had a flight in ninety minutes, and they were making for the airport. I said I had an errand, but I’d meet him back at Ma’s house after. We wished each other luck.

Marcie and I dumped the guy’s body in a shopping center Dumpster about ten miles away. I covered him over with trash and cardboard boxes. Nobody saw us. I took Marcie home.

She kissed me on the cheek as I left. “The Airport Hilton. Hurry and finish your business, or I’ll leave your ass here.”

I scooped her close and gave her a more serious kiss square on the lips. She hugged back, and our tongues met. She pulled away breathless. “That was nice, but you still have to hurry.”

She left in her Volvo, and I headed for Ma’s. When I got there, the driveway was empty. Ma hadn’t had a car for a few years. Danny must have still been on his way back from the airport. I let myself in, found a Pepsi in the refrigerator, and opened it. I sat at the kitchen table, sipped cola and waited.

I remembered Lou and snapped my fingers, leapt to my feet, and went into the living room, grabbed the phone and sat in Dad’s old chair by the window. I dialed, and Lou answered in two rings. “Yeah?”

“What’s up, New Guy?”

“Stop calling me that.”

I ignored his request. “What did you find out?”

“I went to Stan’s like you said. Nice house, locked up tighter than a drum, but I figured this is a special case so I broke in a bedroom window.”

“Good.”

“Didn’t find anything though. I went through the whole place twice. Nobody’s there.”

“Any signs of a struggle?”

“Hell if I know. What are the signs of a struggle nowadays?”

“Blood,” I said. “Bullet holes. Furniture knocked over. Use your imagination.”

“Nope. Nothing like that.”

That’s what I’d figured. I’d given up trying to call, and I’d been pretty sure Lou wouldn’t find anything, but I had to be certain. I’d have felt pretty stupid tear-assing all over the state looking for Stan if he were lying dead in his own living room the whole time.

“Where are you, by the way?” I asked.

“Phone booth near the ABC Liquor on Goldenrod,” said Lou.

“The whole time?”

“Back and forth. Another fifteen minutes I’d have been on my way to the Arby’s across the street.”

Whatever. “You know what to do next?”

“I remember.”

“Keep your distance when you get over there.” I wanted Lou to get over to Heathrow and keep an eye on Jeffers’s house. With Feds and Beggar’s men coming and going, it seemed like a good idea to know what was going on.

“Don’t worry. Later, man.”

“Later, New Guy.”

“Don’t call me New-”

I hung up.

I didn’t like waiting, but there wasn’t any choice. I needed to see Danny. I started poking around the living room. The house was strangely quiet without Danny shouting at me or Ma throwing together some grub in the kitchen. I opened the hall closet and found Dad’s collection of National Geographic. They were lined up in order, seventeen years’ worth, only the one with the Polynesian article missing. I pulled a few down and scanned through them until I found one that talked about the Yucatan Peninsula. It had maps and large color photographs of the pyramids.

I was about halfway through it when Danny and Amber pulled into Ma’s driveway. I set the magazine aside and opened the door for them. Danny walked in, leading Amber by the hand.

They immediately started with the questions, but I told them that would have to wait until later.

“You guys got to get out of here. There’s people probably looking for me right now. You don’t want to be with me if they find me.”

“Let me help,” said Danny. “If you’re really in that much trouble, you could use an extra hand.”

I squeezed his shoulder, smiled at him. He was a good kid. “I know I can count on you, but it’s more important you take care of this.” I’d taken the airport locker key off my ring. I gave it to him. “You keep that someplace hidden.”

He shoved it in the pocket of his jeans. “I’ll think of someplace later.”

“Not too much later. You got a place to stay?”

“He can stay with me,” said Amber.

I thought about that a second. Sure. That should work. “Sounds good. I’m sure Danny has no objection.”

They smiled at each other. Amber blushed. Danny just beamed like he had the world in his pocket. I didn’t blame him. She was a good catch. I handed Amber the National Geographic with the Mexico stuff and told her to write her phone number on the cover.

“Go pack,” I told Danny. He started up the stairs, and I grabbed his arm. “Pack like you’re not coming back. Understand?”

He nodded and took the stairs two a time.

While he was gone, I turned to Amber. “You know Ma and I have been trying to get him back in school.”

“I know.”

“Do you think you can have any better luck with him than we have?”

Amber smiled big, and somewhere a chorus of violins played. “Oh, he’s going back to school. He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“You’re a good girl.”

Danny came back down with a tote bag over his shoulder. He assured me nothing would happen to the key as long as he was on the job. He thought he was still auditioning for the monkey cage. Amber would cure him of that. He grabbed me up in a big bear hug, and I hugged back. Amber kissed me on the cheek and squeezed my arm.

“Enough with the mush,” I said. “You two get out of here.”

I watched them pull out of the driveway, disappear down the block. I went inside and picked up the phone again, dialed Jimmy the Fix. He picked up after five rings.

I asked, “You still have that moving van?”

I tried to convince Jimmy to drive in like we were making a routine delivery.

He frowned at my plan. “I went out there and had a look yesterday after I dropped you off. This isn’t a warehouse on the normal delivery route. There’s a guard on the gate, but I’ve never seen him before. I don’t know what’s going on in there.”

“We’ll figure something out.” I was beyond worrying about it. I just wanted to get on with things.

We passed the Burger King next to the gas station where I’d deep-sixed the G-men. The car wasn’t there anymore. There wasn’t any sign that anything had happened at all. We continued into the sticks, a little past Bithlo. Boondocks.

“Who’s your favorite character from The Wizard of Oz?” I asked Jimmy as the moving van approached the chain-link gate in front of the warehouse.

I thought he’d balk at the question, but he answered lightly. “The wizard, I guess. Except he’s stupid to get in the balloon at the end.”

I raised an eyebrow, and a smile crept across my face. “He’s just going home.”

“Home.” Jimmy said the word like it had taken a crap in his mouth. “That’s what you leave so you can make good. The wizard’s got the whole Emerald City under his thumb, and he gives it up to float off with some skirt and her dog. You ever been to Kansas? It’s like elevator music with grass.”

“Here we go,” I said as we got to the gate. I noticed my duct tape pillow still in the floor of the van. I grabbed it, slid one of my automatics inside. There was still enough stuffing to muffle my shots.

I ducked as he pulled the moving van through the gate, and when he stopped, I slipped out the passenger side, closing the van door quietly behind me. By the time I made it around the back of the van, the guard on the gate was at Jimmy’s window. He must’ve been squatting behind a tree or something, because I hadn’t seen him on the way through. I had the gun-pillow handy and took about four steps before the guard saw me and swung a serious-looking 12-gauge in my direction. I brought the pillow up and squeezed two shots into his belly before he could fire. Pillow stuffing flew ahead of me with each shot like a cartoon snowstorm. He fell hard, his shotgun dropping to the gravel road.