Fire Point Read online

  42

  The armor-piercing bullet rolled across Ty’s open palm. .45-caliber. Copper-jacketed. Handgun ammo. Copper was soft. It allowed the charge to push through easier upon impact. When the government had banned Teflon-coated bullets, they hadn’t realized that the hard coating had nothing to do with the bullet’s ability to punch through armor. Teflon was used to protect the barrel and cut down on ricochet. After the ban, manufacturers had simply started using copper. Show me a law, thought Ty, and I’ll show you a way to work round it – or, in this case, simply make a bad situation worse.

  A private individual couldn’t purchase ammunition like this for a handgun. But armor-piercing rounds for rifles were easy to come by. Not that they were always needed. If you had the correct rifle for the job, it didn’t matter too much. In reality, there was no such thing as bulletproof. Only degrees of bullet-resistant. But, for obvious reasons, handgun ammunition of this type was more tightly controlled.

  Handgun ammo that could punch through a standard non-plated vest, though? That was a lot tougher to come by. But not impossible. Not if you found the right person at the right gun show. Ty guessed that was what Charles Kim had done. It would have been a two-minute transaction in the parking lot.

  ‘What do you think?’ Lock asked him.

  Ty pinched the bullet between two fingers and held it up to the light streaming through the front windshield of Lock’s car. ‘This right here is cop-killer shit. You want to get a civilian wet, you don’t need anything close to this. Long as you can shoot straight and you have the right hardware, you’re already good to go.’

  Lock didn’t say anything. He’d obviously had the same thought.

  ‘What else you find at Homeboy’s crib?’

  Lock took out his cell, tapped at the screen and handed it to Ty. ‘Take a look.’

  Ty took the phone and began to work through the pictures that Lock had taken inside the apartment. The wide shots of the hallway and rooms didn’t give much away, apart from the fact that the guy was a neat freak and kept his place clean. Ten pictures in, Ty got some close-ups of the bookshelves in the living room. He had to squint to make out the titles on the spines.

  ‘Your eyesight going south, Tyrone?’ said Lock.

  ‘Don’t worry about my eyesight. How about you maybe learn how to zoom the next time, motherfucker?’ said Ty.

  Lock did a bad job of biting back a grin. Ty kept swiping until he got to the pictures of the bottom shelf. He looked up again from the screen. ‘Columbine. Sandy Hook. Virginia Tech. All the chart toppers.’

  ‘Keep going,’ said Lock.

  Ty did. Not that he understood why Lock had developed such a sudden fascination with bathroom ceilings. He turned the cell around and held it up. ‘What am I supposed to be looking at?’

  ‘Absence of the normal. Presence of the abnormal,’ said Lock.

  It was one of his partner’s little mantras. But Ty still didn’t know what Lock had seen when he took the picture that he was missing.

  ‘Or, in this case,’ said Lock. ‘presence of the normal.’

  Ty could feel himself getting irritated. ‘We going to stand here and talk in riddles all day, or are you going to tell me what I’m missing?’

  ‘What did I say about the story the girl I ran into spun me about how she met Krank?’ said Lock.

  Ty remembered. ‘The flooded shower?’

  ‘Exactly. Except the ceiling in his bathroom wasn’t damaged or patched.’

  ‘So maybe they took out the whole ceiling in there. Made over the whole thing.’

  ‘That’s what I wondered,’ said Lock. ‘So I went upstairs to check and guess what? Whoever I ran into doesn’t live in that apartment. So I got curious. I asked round some of the other people in that building. No one recognized the name Kimberley. There’s no one that lives in that building who matches the girl with the French bulldog. In fact, they don’t allow dogs that are any larger than handbag-sized.’

  ‘But she knew enough to make up some bullshit story about living there to throw you off the trail.’

  ‘And,’ said Lock, ‘she sure knows our boy.’

  ‘Girlfriend?’ Ty asked.

  ‘That’s what I’m thinking,’ said Lock. ‘But why say anything to me? Why not just keep walking when I ran into her?’

  Ty didn’t have to give it much thought. ‘Why do people do dumb shit every day? Especially when they have something to hide.’

  ‘A lot of the time I think it’s because part of them wants to get caught. So their subconscious gives them permission to screw up.’

  Ty smiled. ‘Maybe, but you might be going too deep. People do dumb shit because they think they’re smarter than they actually are. You ever hear of this thing called the Dunning-Kruger effect?’

  Lock shook his head.

  ‘I read this article about it. These two professors at Cornell worked it out. A dumb asshole doesn’t know he’s a dumb asshole because he’s dumb. Instead, they think they’re slick. And smart folks listen to dumb people telling them they ain’t as smart as they think they are,’ Ty said.

  ‘I don’t know. She asked me a lot of questions too. Like who I was, and why I was interested in this guy.’

  ‘You didn’t tell her anything, though, right?’

  ‘Not much more than I was comfortable sharing.’

  ‘So what’s the problem, then? We’ve established that we’re not dealing with some kind of brains trust here.’

  Lock stuck out his hand. Ty dropped the bullet into it. Lock put it back in the box with the others and jammed it back into the glove box of his Audi. ‘Well, let’s hope you’re right, because a dumb asshole with a bunch of these, and who-knows-what other hardware, can still cause a world of pain.’

  43

  Tarian reached over and plucked the crystal tumbler from Teddy’s hand. She dumped the light yellow remnants of whisky and half-melted ice cubes into the sink. As Teddy started to protest, she interrupted, ‘Just slow down. Please. For me? Drink all you like tomorrow but tonight I need you.’

  Teddy’s face softened. He leaned over to kiss the top of her head. Usually she would have pulled away. This time she closed her eyes and imagined someone else was drawing her in close to them.

  Someone rapped their knuckles on the frame of the kitchen door. She pulled away, hoping it wasn’t Marcus arriving early. She knew that her son hated seeing any intimacy between her and Teddy. He always had.

  She turned to see Dr Stentz standing in the doorway, Teddy having buzzed him in and left the front door open for him. Stentz was dressed in a sport coat and slacks. He had curly dark hair flecked with grey and always seemed to be happy about something. Teddy had told her Stentz always smiled because he got to charge three hundred dollars an hour to listen to people spout bullshit – who wouldn’t be happy with that kind of money for doing so little?

  ‘Dr Stentz,’ said Tarian. ‘We didn’t see you there. Can I get you something? A glass of wine? Some juice? Water?’

  ‘Water would be fine. And Marcus?’

  Like a lot of shrinks Tarian had met, Stentz had a habit of speaking in shorthand, as if the fewer words he spoke, the more profound he’d seem. Tarian checked the clock above the range. ‘He should be here in about a half-hour. Peter’s in the dining room. I thought we could all discuss how we wanted to handle this before Marcus got here. I’m sure you have some ideas.’

  ‘I’ll go speak to Peter,’ said Stentz.

  Tarian opened one of the kitchen cabinets, and took out a glass. Her cell phone buzzed its way across the marble counter. She walked over and picked it up. The display read: ‘Ryan Lock.’ Even with everything that was going on, she couldn’t escape the slight flutter in her stomach at seeing the name. Maybe, she thought, she’d find some way of seeing him again once this was all over. Although Peter and Teddy had been right about not involving Lock, part of her wanted him here. Not for the sake of Marcus, but for her own selfish reasons.
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  She hit the answer button, and tried to sound calm. ‘Mr Lock, what can I do for you?’

  She gestured at Teddy to pick up the glass. ‘Can you get Dr Stentz that water, Teddy?’

  She moved toward the window near the sink that looked out onto the backyard cabana area and beyond to the swimming-pool. At the other end of the line, Lock said, ‘You have a doctor there? Is everyone okay?’

  ‘Oh, that, he’s a family friend who’s come over for dinner. We’re all fine here. Thank you.’

  ‘Glad to hear it,’ said Lock. ‘And how about Marcus? Have you heard from him lately?’

  Now she wished she hadn’t sent Teddy off. She wasn’t sure how to answer. She wasn’t a good liar, never had been.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘In fact we should be seeing him soon. To talk things over. There are some financial matters we have to discuss.’

  Lock didn’t say anything. She thought the call had dropped. She’d heard traffic in the background.

  ‘Mr Lock?’ she said.

  ‘I’m here. Listen, Mrs Griffiths, when you see Marcus, can you try and find out where his friend Krank is living at the moment? Get an address for me, if you can, and as soon as you have it, call me.’

  The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. There was something about the way Lock had spoken that scared her. She thought back to the bloodied T-shirt that Marcus had hidden. ‘Why? Is there anything I should know? Is his friend in some kind of trouble?’

  ‘I don’t know, Mrs Griffiths. But listen, what I said earlier about not being able to help you, forget that. If you or your husband need either myself or Ty to help you with anything, or if Marcus shows up with his friends, just call us. No fee required.’

  The butterflies had turned to lead weights in her stomach. Now she knew that something was wrong. But how could she ask Lock what it was without giving away her own fears and having him ask her questions she couldn’t answer until she’d spoken to Marcus? Perhaps it wasn’t too late to ask him if he could come over. She could run it by Teddy. If she could persuade him, Peter wouldn’t stand in the way.

  ‘Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate. Listen, we have some people here right now. Could I call you back in a little while?’

  ‘Sure. And remember that offer. If you need us, you only have to ask. Don’t forget to see if Marcus knows where we can find his friend.’

  ‘I will. And, Ryan?’ Tarian said. She waited for him to say something. He didn’t. Flustered by the silence, she kept going: ‘I really appreciate this. I only wish we’d met under different circumstances.’

  ‘Me too,’ he said.

  44

  Lock pulled into the rear parking lot of the strip mall on Lincoln Boulevard in Marina Del Rey. It was after five in the afternoon and the business they were visiting was officially closed. The owner had told them he’d wait for them until half past the hour.

  Lock reversed the Audi into a space directly beyond the next-door yoga studio, and switched off the engine. For the past twenty minutes, Ty had kept sneaking glances at him from behind his Oakley sunglasses, a perpetual smirk etched on his lips.

  ‘You have something you want to say, Tyrone?’

  Raising a finger, Ty pulled the Oakleys down his nose and peered over the top. ‘Why don’t you just admit that this isn’t just business anymore? You got the hots for her.’

  ‘She’s married,’ said Lock, hoping to cut the conversation short.

  ‘If I was a gambling man I’d say not for too much longer,’ said Ty.

  ‘Well, then, if things change maybe I’ll do something about it.’

  ‘So you do like her?’ said Ty, opening his door.

  Lock followed suit, the two men moving to the back of the premises. ‘Okay, yeah, I do. I find her attractive. Happy now?’

  Ty grinned as he knocked at the door. ‘I’m happy if you’re happy, brother.’

  A man’s voice called out, ‘Who is it?’

  ‘Li, it’s Mr Johnson and Mr Lock,’ Ty answered.

  ‘Where’d you find this guy?’ Lock asked Ty.

  ‘Comes highly recommended,’ said Ty. ‘When you absolutely, positively, have to get past computer security then apparently this is the dude. He’s kind of like a grey hat.’

  ‘Grey hat?’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Ty. ‘You got your white-hat hackers who stay within the law. Your black hats who break the law. And then there are guys like Li who skirt the line.’

  Ty knocked again. ‘Li? It’s Ty Johnson. You in there?’

  They heard someone walking toward the door. ‘Okay, hang on, guys. I’ll have to open up.’ There was the sound of locks beings thrown and a bolt being drawn back. The door opened to reveal a tall, weedy Asian kid in his early twenties. He was wearing jeans, sneakers and a white T-shirt with a couple of dubious stains on the front.

  Ty had already filled in some of the details that would have explained the kid’s paranoia. His name was Li Zhang. His parents were Chinese dissidents who had both fled China following the government crackdown that took place after the Tiananmen Square protests had been brutally crushed. Li’s father had been a leading research scientist working on the nuclear program. His mom had been the daughter of a high-ranking Communist Party official, who had used his connections to get them both out of the country. After they had left, he had been arrested and executed for his trouble. They had lived under pretty much constant threat of reprisals, even in the relative safety of Southern California. It had left their only son, Li, with a healthy fear of authority and a rebellious streak. That, combined with a love of hacking computer systems, had made him some enemies of his own. However, Ty had said, if anyone could get access to the contents of Marcus’s hard drive it was Li.

  The two men followed Li into a storeroom where work benches were covered with various pieces of computer hardware. A twenty-four-inch screen glowed green in one corner. Next to it was a keyboard and a mouse. Li clicked on the mouse and hopped up onto a stool as Lock and Ty stood either side of him.

  The screensaver cleared to show a desktop arrangement. ‘This is the hard drive right here,’ said Li. ‘It had some fairly serious encryption but it’s all yours now. I made an unencrypted clone drive that you can take away but there’s some stuff you might want to see now.’ Li glanced back at them. ‘It kind of creeped me out. I was hoping it’s, like, from a movie or something, but I watched it again and I’m not so sure.’ He twisted round to Ty. ‘That’s when I called you.’

  Lock traded a look with his partner. ‘Li, can you show us what you’re talking about?’

  ‘Sure,’ said Li. He moused across the screen and opened a folder, then clicked on a sub-folder and did the same. ‘He buried it pretty deep,’ he said, clicking a few more times until he hovered over a file name that was mostly numbers and ended with ‘.mov’.

  He double-clicked the file and a media player opened. ‘I’ll turn the volume up a little, but I don’t want it too loud in case anyone hears.’ He nodded toward the opposite wall that divided his unit in the strip mall from the one next door. ‘Those yoga ladies, I had a client use one of their parking spots last month and they smashed his windshield.’

  Li clicked the mouse and the video footage filled the computer’s screen. The first thing they saw was a young woman standing alone on a deserted street. The footage had a green tinge to it, indicating that it had been shot at night. The video camera, almost certainly a tiny GoPro or something similar, was mounted, facing out on the dashboard of a car. Lock could hear the whisper of the engine and someone shift in their seat.

  She was young and blonde, dressed in a short skirt and a crop top. She tottered on high heels to the edge of the sidewalk and back again. Every few seconds she would check her cell phone. From the deliberate way she took every step, Lock guessed that she was either high or drunk.

  Arms folded, Ty glanced across at him. ‘Hooker?’

  That had been Lock’s first thought but it was an assu
mption, and it was way too early to assume anything. ‘Or she’s waiting for a ride.’

  The person inside the car spoke. It was a male voice. ‘You see her?’

  There was no reply, only a pause before the same person said, ‘That’s the one.’

  It suggested that the young woman had been selected somehow. The nature of the selection wasn’t yet clear. Did the person in the car know her? Lock wondered. For that matter, who was the person on the cell phone? Li had recovered the footage from Marcus’s computer but it didn’t sound like Marcus. The voice was too deep for a start.

  On screen the girl kept up her pacing and phone-checking. Seconds turned over. Lock could feel himself tightening with his own nervous energy. From what Li had already said, this didn’t end well for the girl. She was prey. The person in the car, and the other end of the line. They were the hunters.

  The male inside the car spoke again. ‘Okay. Over to you. But don’t be too obvious. Give it, like, a minute. Forty-five seconds minimum.’

  The scene didn’t change. The seconds rolled by. The minute seemed eternal before headlights flared at the end of the street.

  The car that turned into the street rolled toward the camera. It stopped next to the girl. There was an exchange between the driver and the young woman who was waiting. She opened the rear passenger door and got in. The car pulled away from the curb. Lock was about to check his notes to see what Marcus drove. He didn’t have to. As the car rolled past the camera, he could see Marcus Griffiths at the wheel.

  ‘We’re going to need some copies of this,’ Lock said to Li.

  ‘Sure. I can do that,’ said Li. He was nervous. He kept shifting his weight from one foot to the other and back again.

  ‘Li?’ said Lock.

  The young hacker looked at him.

  ‘Relax, okay? We’re white hats,’ said Lock.

  Li didn’t look all that convinced. Lock didn’t blame him. If your parents had fled a country where the people you had most to worry about were the authorities, it was hardly surprising that you ended up being a little confused about who the good guys were. Lock was confused sometimes.