Disturbance

FORTY-TWO

Ben,” Frank said as he moved back toward the lodge, “I’m thinking maybe it’s time to give San Bernardino a call. By the time they get someone over here, Jack and I can be at the airfield. I’d prefer to have you come along with us, but I don’t want to leave Violet Loudon here alone.”

“Agreed. Ethan’s offered to stay here. He’s been talking to Jack on his phone.”

“Good.”

“I think you should spend a few minutes with her first, though. Jack’s been getting some information from her that you may find useful.”

“He knows Morse code?”

“He said he learned it as a Cub Scout but at this point can’t remember anything beyond ‘SOS.’”

“Jack was a Cub Scout?”

“Yeah, Ethan’s already giving him endless shit. Anyway, Jack’s pulled up some site about Morse code on his phone. He’s been painstakingly writing out the pattern she blinks and then translating it.”

“Okay, I’ll be up there in a minute, but we need to get the sheriff onto trying to find the guy on that bike. And the SBSD has the manpower to really search these grounds.”

“Will do. Cliff Garnett?”

Ben and Frank had both worked on cases with Garrnett, an old friend and homicide detective with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

“Cliff would be ideal, at least as a starting contact point-but he’s not likely to get the case, since we all know one another.”

When Frank reached the upstairs room again, Jack had cleaned off most of the blood on Violet’s face, which would probably piss off some lab guy, but there was, after all, lots more on her neck and clothing. Jack was giving her water when Frank walked in.

“Violet says the noseless one has been by here before. She said his name is Roderick Beignet, and he lives in Las Piernas. She described him to me. Heavyset, reddish brown hair, blue eyes. Not young-maybe about sixty.”

“That helps a lot. I’ll need to make some phone calls to Las Piernas once we’re on our way.” Frank turned to Violet. “Your doctors led us to believe you could not communicate.”

She smiled slightly, but it was Jack who answered for her. “We talked about that. She learned Morse code from Donovan.”

“Donovan?”

“One of Parrish’s sons. I got this from her in an abbreviated form, but if I made it out right, she said Kai, Quinn, and Donovan are half brothers. Parrish, Kai, and Donovan took Irene from here. Donovan told her that if that ever happened, Parrish would probably take them to the Sierras, not the old location but near there. Parrish is comfortable there.”

“Who is this guy Donovan? Other than one of the half brothers?”

They both looked to Violet.

Pilot. Forced to help Nick.

“Forced how?”

Don’t know.

“What was Roderick doing here?”

Said Nick sent. He heard you come in. Leaned over me. I bit.

Ethan arrived and introduced himself to Violet.

“You know Morse code?” Frank asked.

“Um… no. I mean, just SOS. Dash-dash-dash, dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash. Right?”

“That’s O-S-O,” Jack said, rolling his eyes. “So unless you want a Spanish-speaking bear to come to your rescue, don’t ever use that one if your boat is sinking.”

Ethan looked at Violet, smiled charmingly, and said, “Will you teach me?”

“Ethan…,” Jack said.

But she had already blinked a response.

“Was that yes?”

“Yes,” Frank said.

“Christ,” Jack said.

“He’s a quick study,” Frank said.

“Maybe, but we shouldn’t leave them here alone,” Jack said. “Who knows how many more of his Moths Parrish has hanging around?”

“Just go,” Ethan said. “Frank has to get out of here. Cliff told Ben they’d have a patrol car here soon, and God knows how many other cops are going to be here right after that. If Frank is sitting here when they arrive, this is all going to go to sh-” He looked at Violet and said, “Sorry. It’s all going to be wrecked.”

Violet blinked, and Frank and Jack exchanged a glance.

“What did she say?”

“Something worse than you were going to say,” Frank answered. “You have your gun?”

“Yes, and Ben mentioned that I was armed but would not be shooting any deputies today.”

“Did Ben mention that Frank and I were here?”

“No, but Cliff is suspicious. Wanted Ben to wait around, but Ben told him he was already gone and wasn’t coming back-so you two get the hell out. Find Irene. I’ve got to learn Morse code.”

Frank could see what Ethan wasn’t saying, knew that he wanted to be going with them but also recognized that, of the four of them, he was the best choice to stay behind.

“Thanks, Ethan. We’ll try to meet up a little later. You want us to leave a dog here with you?”

“No, but Ben wants to drive his car to the Sikorsky because he’s doesn’t want to shift all the dog stuff to the other car. So leave your keys, if you don’t mind.”

Frank called Pete as they made their way to the airfield. Pete let him know he wasn’t happy with him for not telling him about the text message, not calling in the bomb squad when he found the Ford Escape on Jacaranda Street, not reporting finding the vehicle immediately, borrowing lock picks from his wife (Rachel had insisted that Frank not tell her any details so that she wouldn’t have to lie to Pete), leaving his partner of many years behind in Las Piernas, and half a dozen other aspects of the situation-all before Frank told him about anything that had happened once they reached Quinn Moore’s mountain lodge.

“Pete,” Frank said when his partner finally drew a breath. “Listen up. You can help me, or you can bitch about my doing my level best not to get the captain as pissed off at you as he will be with me.”

“You think I give a flying fuck about that?”

“Not for a minute. But I’m not going to ask you to sink your career along with mine.”

Pete fell silent. It was an unhappy silence, but Frank took advantage of it and told him about the mysterious Donovan, assuming the man had told Violet his real name. He told him about Quinn’s and Donovan’s family ties to Kai and Parrish. “There’s someone else-he may be headed to Las Piernas right now. His name is Roderick Beignet.” He gave Pete the description and told him about the attack on Violet. “Vince and Reed need to know all of this, of course.”

“Talk about people who are going to be pissed off at you…”

“Like you, they’re friends,” Frank said. “I hope they’ll forgive me for it. Thanks, Pete.” He said good-bye before his partner could start a second tirade.

They were within sight of the helicopter when Frank got a text message from Ethan.

All OK. SBSD just arrived.

Then he texted a line of Morse code that spelled out “Tell Jack I said hi.”

“Sometimes that kid scares the shit out of me,” Jack said.