Illegal

FIFTY-FOUR

Sharon loathed restaurants where the waiter's haircut cost more than hers, but she made an exception for the California Club. It was a century old, a quiet place of quiet money. Travertine archways, dark woods, and wall tapestries. A decorative, thirty-foot-high carved ceiling with a vaguely baroque look, as if you were dining in a sixteenth-century castle. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling by chains heavy enough to moor a cruise ship.

The young waiter in this staid old establishment had soap opera good looks and Superman's black hair, right down to the spit curl. An aspiring actor, no doubt. At the moment, he was politely whispering in her ear that she had a phone call.

Who even knew she was here?

Sharon left Cullen Quinn slurping his gazpacho and headed to a private booth of polished mahogany.

"Didn't want to call you on your cell," Payne said, when she answered. "I tried Philippe's and Langer's Deli. Then I figured Cullen asked you to his club. You were always a slut for sliced tenderloin."

"Jesus, Jimmy. Where are you?"

"I've picked up Marisol's trail."

"Have you lost your mind? There's a manhunt after you."

"At first, I was afraid it was hopeless. The hardest part was figuring out where to start. Turned out, it was Mexicali. Now we're getting close."

"Are you listening? You're wanted from here to the border, you idiot. Is this what you meant about changing your life?"

"Hey, you're the one who told me to help the kid."

"I didn't tell you to shoot at a sheriff's deputy."

"At his car, not at him. And Tino did the shooting, not me."

"If Rigney finds you-"

"He won't."

"Look, I was wrong. I never should have let you leave my house. Now you've got to come in and straighten it out. You've got to surrender."

"I will. After I find Tino's mother. I promise."

"The longer you're out there, the worse it's gonna get."

"C'mon, Sharon. I'm doing something for someone else. And you know what? It feels good. Tino's a terrific kid who's never gotten a break. No father, his mother doing the best she can. Did you know he's a natural athlete? The way he runs, he looks a little like Adam, only faster."

"Oh, Jimmy. Don't." Hearing him say their son's name-so unexpected-knocked the breath out of her.

"We have to be able to talk about Adam," Payne said.

"Now? Why couldn't you talk a year ago? Why'd you go into your cave and shut me out?" Her shock turned to anger.

"I felt the pain more than you did."

"Screw you, Jimmy. You showed the pain more. You swam in it. You drank it until you were intoxicated by it. But you didn't feel any more than I did. Any more than I do!"

"Sorry. That came out wrong."

"Damn right it did."

They each stayed silent, and it occurred to her that Jimmy never said why he was calling. But knowing him, it could only be one thing. "What's the favor you want?"

"I need you to run a license plate for me. A Cadillac Escalade. And get me the corporate info on three businesses."

"Forget it. Turn yourself in, Jimmy."

"You won't be doing it for me. It's for Tino and his mother."

"I know what you're doing, even if you don't."

"I'm helping a kid find his mother. Simple as that."

"You're paying penance. You blame yourself for what happened to Adam."

"Got nothing to do with it."

"Even if you find Tino's mother, then what? You'll wake up the next morning, and Adam will still be gone. Tino will be out of your life, too."

Payne stayed quiet, and she listened to the static on the line.

"Okay, so maybe it has something to do with Adam," Payne confessed. "Maybe every day I remember watching some damn birds flying over the ocean. Maybe if I'd kept my eyes on the road, I could have braked or swerved. Maybe Adam would be alive."

Another moment of silence.

"Let me finish the job," Payne pleaded. "You know it's the right thing to do. You knew it the minute I walked into your kitchen the other night."

Somewhere across the dining room, a man laughed so heartily it sounded obscene.

"Precision Glass Company," Payne continued, giving her the name painted on one of the vans in Chitwood's barn. "Supposedly in Palm Desert, but I doubt it exists."

"I can't do it!"

"Two more. Valley Plumbing and Sand Dunes Electrical. Probably fictitious, too. Are you writing this down?"

"No, Jimmy."

Payne rattled off the license plate number of Zaga's Escalade, then repeated it a second time.

"No. No. No."

"Don't call my cell," Payne said. "I'm sure Rigney's triangulating my calls." He gave her the number of the pay phone of the Joshua Tree Park 'n Eat, and she slammed the receiver down so hard it sounded like a gunshot.

Jimmy hung up and joined Tino in a red vinyl booth at the breakfast joint near the desert town of Thermal, just north of the Imperial County line. On a fluttering TV set, shelved above the counter, the news came on with stock footage of mountains and cactus. The anchor was a coppery-skinned, wizened old coot with a string tie. A local cable station, Payne figured, since big-city television seemed to recruit their anchors from America's Next Top Model.

"She won't help, will she?" Tino said.

"Sure she will, kid." Not letting the boy see his concern.

Sharon at the California Club, Payne thought, unhappily. Dining with that prick fiance of hers. Quinn's kind of place. Dark woods, old money, and raw power. Since the nineteenth century, the movers and shakers had been moving and shaking there. It's where William Mulholland hatched his plans to steal water from the Owens Valley. A ruthless scheme that bankrupted farmers and ranchers and turned a pristine lake into a parched and poisonous bed of alkali. On the plus side, it inspired the movie Chinatown.

While on the phone, Payne noticed the sign taped above the pass-through window to the kitchen. English Spoken Here.

One of those little put-downs of aliens, legal and illegal. Back home, Payne's Mexican-American plumber had two bumper stickers on his truck. One proclaimed his love of the Dodgers. The other, "Broken English Spoken Here." Not only could the guy fix the shut-off valve on a gravity sump, he had a sense of humor, too.

On the TV, the lead story seemed to be the weather. A hundred five degrees yesterday; a hundred five degrees today, a cooling trend tomorrow, at a hundred four.

The waitress, a tired forty-year-old with a messy bird's-nest of bleached hair and no wedding band, moseyed over to take their order.

"Chicken croquettes," Tino announced. "And a Coke."

"Eggs, ranch style," Payne said.

"Ranch style?" The waitress chewed on her pencil. "You mean, like a Denver omelette?"

"No omelette of any kind. Just eggs, ranch style."

"I'll ask the cook if he can make it."

"Sure he can. It's number three on the menu."

The waitress looked over his shoulder as he pointed to the item. "That's huevos rancheros, mister."

"Shhh." He motioned toward the sign. "English spoken here."

"You some sort of wise guy?"

"Just trying to follow the rules."

She walked away, muttering, "City people."

Sharon hadn't moved from the phone booth. She glanced toward Cullen at the table. Two men-a city councilman and a county supervisor-were kibitzing with him. Chuckles all around. Maybe planning their costumes for the Sheherazade Ball. The councilman gave Cullen a politician's whomp on the shoulder, no doubt congratulating him for holding the fort against the swarm of illegals. Sharon hoped the busboys didn't hear, fearing what they might slip into Cullen's drink.

Her fiance was in his element. Smiling his anchorman smile. Looking damn pleased with himself. Not seeming to wonder about her whereabouts.

She replayed her conversation with Payne. He had sounded excited. Involved. Optimistic. How long had it been since she'd heard that in his voice?

She looked down at the linen napkin she had carried from the table. Now covered with scribbles, the names and numbers Payne had given her.

Damn you, Jimmy Payne!