Mortal Faults

L.A.”

“And they can locate her to within a city block?”

“One or two blocks, yes. Hold on. They say she’s off the freeway now, going southwest on a surface street. Could be on Flower or Grand.”

“What the hell’s she doing downtown?”

“No clue.”

With extreme reluctance Michaelson looked at Tess. “Any idea why she’d be going there?”

Tess wished she had something brilliant to contribute, but all she could say was “No.”

“She have an office there, maybe?”

“As far as I know, she works out of her home. She’s not exactly the nine-to-five type.”

Michaelson asked Hauser if a search of the condo had turned up anything relating to a downtown address. Hauser said the search was ongoing. So far nothing of value had been found.

“Well, she must have something there. Records, computer disks-did you get into her PC?”

“Got a tech working on it now. I’m not too confident, though.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t think this woman is stupid enough to leave anything for us to find. She’s the kind who covers her tracks.”

“Sounds about right,” Tess said.

Michaelson told her to shut up. To Hauser he said, “We’ll have to BOLO her Miata.”

“There are a million of them in L.A. Hold on.” Hauser was gone briefly, then returned. “They tell me she’s stopped. Hasn’t moved in three minutes.”

“Where?”

“Central business district. Parameters are Flower Street and Hill Street to the north and south, Sixth Street and Fourth Street to the west and east.”

Michaelson paced. “What’s there? Bunch of office buildings, all closed for the night?”

“And the library, the Brayton Hotel, Pershing Square, a lot of smaller places. Plus she could be in one of the office towers, even if it is technically closed. Doing some sort of black bag work, maybe.”

“It’s a lot of territory to cover.” Michaelson rubbed his head. “Say we send in every available street agent. We comb the entire area, find her vehicle, and close in on her.”

“If she spots us first, she’ll take off.”

“We cordon off the perimeter so she can’t get away.”

“Cordon off downtown L.A.? We don’t have the manpower.”

“Get LAPD involved,” Michaelson yelled.

Hauser wasn’t budging. “It’ll take an hour just to work out the logistics.”

“I have an idea.” Tess spoke quietly, her calm voice drilling through the clutter. “Let me talk to her on the phone.”

Michaelson stared at her. “And say what, exactly?”

“I’ll tell her we need to meet. We’ve had meetings before. It shouldn’t tip her off.”

She expected Michaelson to dismiss the idea out of hand. It was a measure of his desperation that he did not. “You think,” he said slowly, “you can get her to agree to a rendezvous?”

“It depends.”

“On what?”

“On whether or not she still trusts me. She knows I was suspicious about Garrick’s death.”

“It’s too risky,” Hauser said over the speaker. “If she senses a trap, she’ll make a break for it. We’re better off taking her unawares.”

Tess shook her head. “Deploy two hundred agents to scour the business district, and there’s a fair chance she’ll see them before they see her. If she knows she’s been made, she probably won’t take the Mazda. She’ll hotwire something or find some other way out. Roadblocks won’t stop her.”

“As long as she’s got her phone,” Hauser said, “we can still track her.”

“The phone will be the first thing to go. She’s not stupid. That’s the thing you both have to understand. She knows how to take care of herself.”

Michaelson pursed his lips. “But she’s not smart enough to see through you if you call?”

“I don’t know.”

He hesitated for a long moment. “Call her,” he said finally. “And be convincing.”

Tess took out her cell phone and punched in Abby’s number. She counted four rings before the call was answered.

“Hey, Tess,” Abby said without preamble, obviously having recognized the number on the caller ID screen. “I enjoyed our picnic in the park this morning.”

Tess swallowed. “Actually, that’s what I called to talk about.”

“Another lecture?”

“I wanted to apologize.”

“Really?”

“It was wrong of me to suspect you.” She held her voice steady. “All the signs point to a gang hit.”

“Or maybe I just set it up to look that way.”

“Stop playing games, Abby. This is serious.”

“Sorry. Winsome drollery is my nature. Apology accepted, no hard feelings, yada yada. Now if you’ll excuse me-”

“There’s more.”

“More apologizing? I’ve hit the jackpot.”

“Not more apologies, just more to talk about. Something’s about to go down. We’re thinking of making a move tonight. A big move.”

“Gonna nail a major target? Give somebody a one-way ticket to the slammer?”

Tess shut her eyes. “That’s the plan. But I need to ask you a few questions first.”

“I’m a little busy now-”

“I don’t want to discuss it over the phone, anyway. Can we meet? Just for a few minutes?”

“I’m nowhere near Westwood.”

“Doesn’t matter. I can come to you. Name a place, I’ll be there.”

“Okay, I’m at the central library. You can meet me in the main lobby.”

“It’ll take me about a half hour to get there.”

“Longer than that, if you’re coming from Westwood.”

“I’m closer than Westwood.” A lie, but she could hardly tell Abby she’d be using her red light to cut through traffic and shorten the trip. “Thirty, thirty-five minutes. What are you doing in the library, anyway?”

“Catching up on my reading, what else? See you in a few, soul sister.”

Soul sister, Tess thought numbly.

She didn’t feel anything like Abby’s sister right now.