Deadlock

49

‘Hey, I’ve heard about deep cover, but that’s something else. You sure?’ Ty asked, maneuvering the Lincoln down another street of shattered sub-prime dreams.

‘That’s what she said Janet told her.’

Lock was finding it hard to reconcile the neighbour’s revelation with what he remembered about Ken and Janet’s marriage. They’d always seemed like such a solid couple. He guessed you never really knew what went on behind closed doors.

‘Kind of explains one thing,’ Ty said.

‘What’s that?’

‘Why there’s no mention of this chick in any of Prager’s reports back to his bosses. I mean, you go undercover and fall into bed with a suspect, that’s one thing, might even be taken that you’re taking the job seriously. But then you go and get her pregnant? Damn! You imagine the kind of fun a defense attorney would have with that?’

‘You’d be lucky to keep your badge,’ Lock said.

‘And your pension.’

Lock stared out of the window. By the looks of where Aaron’s friends were living, they were surrounded by people clinging on by their fingernails.

‘That’s not the full explanation though, it can’t be,’ said Lock. Something about the whole scenario was chewing away at him.

Ty pulled on to a wider street, this one with more commercial property. On their left was a gas station, on their right a couple of fast-food joints. One of them was the one mentioned by the neighbour as a favorite hang-out for one of the local skinhead gangs. They’d head back here after visiting the school.

Lock rubbed his eyes, wishing that his lack of sleep wasn’t making it so hard for him to think clearly.

‘You know, at Pelican Bay I got a glimpse of how seductive the whole white supremacist rap could be.’

Ty sideways-glanced at Lock as he drove. ‘You got something you want to tell me?’

A pick-up truck pulled up alongside with two middle-aged white guys in it. They stared menacingly at Ty until Lock glared over at them.

‘It’s almost like a cult,’ he continued. ‘They have a way of seeing the world. They have a purpose. An ideology. And it’s a powerful one. Otherwise how would a whole country have been sucked in back in the 1930s, so much so that they were prepared to slaughter millions of innocent people, women and children, pack them into gas chambers?’

‘You don’t think Ken went over to the dark side, do you?’

‘No, otherwise why would they have killed him? An inside man with the ATF would have been a wet dream for them. But what if he was conflicted about the whole deal?’

‘So he was giving his bosses some of it, but not all of it,’ Ty said slowly.

‘Maybe.’

‘I still don’t buy it, Ryan.’

Lock looked out at the down-at-heel blue-collar neighbourhood. Even with crisp blue California skies overhead there was something depressing about it.

‘Ken was a veteran agent, right?’

Ty nodded.

‘Yet here he was still out in the field, while his bosses were all cosy back at base. Ken was taking all the risks and getting what in return?’

‘Yeah,’ said Ty slowly. ‘You’re reaching.’

‘The Aryan Brotherhood are great at telling people that they deserve better, that somehow they’re being cheated. All it needed was for a couple of seeds to be planted. Then Ken falls for this woman. Hard.’ Lock rubbed at his face again, closing his eyes for a second. ‘I’d say that’s all any man would need to start questioning where his loyalties lay.’

They pulled into the entrance of the local high school. Kids were streaming out, the older ones heading to their cars. A few were checking out the Lincoln 66. A fat white kid sporting a do-rag and a soul patch stopped in his tracks as Ty lowered the window.

‘Sweet ride,’ he said.

Ty beamed. ‘Kid’s got taste.’

‘See what I mean about people getting confused?’ Lock said. ‘He’s white, but he thinks he’s Snoop Dog.’

‘We have the more interesting culture, that’s all.’ Ty leaned out of the window towards the teenager. ‘Yo! Where’s the principal’s office?’

The kid pointed to a side entrance.

Over in a corner of the parking lot, Lock spotted a bunch of other youths. Hair cut short and wearing English Doc Marten boots, they were scowling at the car and, in particular, Ty.