The Instant Enemy

chapter 15

IT WAS PAST THREE when we got back to Santa Teresa. I asked Langston to come along to the motel. He seemed to have a calming effect on the girl.

Sebastian heard us coming, and opened the door of his room before I could knock. Light spilled out over his daughter. She stood in it boldly with one round hip out.

He reached for her with open arms. She moved back abruptly. In a long-drawn-out gesture of contempt she lit a cigarette and blew smoke in his direction.

“I didn’t know you smoked,” he said lamely.

“I smoke pot when I can get it.”

We all went into Sebastian’s room, with me bringing up the rear. He turned to me.

“Where did you find her?” he asked.

“Up the highway a piece. This is Mr. Langston. He helped to locate her.”

The two men shook hands. Sebastian said he was very grateful. But he looked at his daughter as if he wondered what he was grateful for. She sat on the edge of the bed with her knees crossed, watching him.

“We’re still in trouble,” I said. “And I’m going to make a few suggestions. First, take your daughter home and keep her there. If you and your wife can’t control her, hire some help.”

“What kind of help?”

“A psychiatric nurse, maybe. Ask your doctor.”

“He thinks I’m crazy,” Sandy said to the room. “He must be crazy.”

I didn’t look at her. “Do you have a good lawyer, Mr. Sebastian?”

“I don’t have any lawyer. I’ve never really needed one.”

“You need one now. Get someone to recommend a criminal lawyer, and give him a chance to talk to Sandy today. She’s in serious trouble, and she’s going to have to cooperate with the law.”

“But I don’t want her involved with the law.”

“You don’t have any choice.”

“Don’t tell me that. Mrs. Marburg told you to keep this whole thing private.”

“I’m going to talk to Mrs. Marburg, too. The case is too big for me to handle alone.”

Sandy made a break for the door. Langston caught her before she reached it, with one arm around her waist. She burned his wrist with her cigarette butt. He swung her around, pushed her down on the bed and stood over her panting. I could smell singed hair.

Somebody rapped on the other side of the wall. “Knock it off, swingers!”

Sebastian looked at his daughter with pained interest. She had suddenly grown up into a source of trouble. He must have been wondering how large the trouble was going to become.

“I think we better get out of here,” I said. “Do you want to phone your wife?”

“I really should, shouldn’t I?”

He went to the phone and after a good deal of receiver-banging managed to rouse the switchboard. His wife answered right away.

“I have wonderful news,” he said in a shaky voice. “Sandy is with me. I’m bringing her home.” The words brought mist to his eyes. “Yes, she’s fine. We’ll see you in a couple of hours. Get some sleep now.”

He hung up and turned to Sandy. “Your mother asked me to give you her love.”

“Who needs it?”

“Don’t you care for us at all?”

She rolled over, face down on the bed, and lay stiff and silent. I went into the adjoining room to make a phone call of my own.

It was to Willie Mackey, who ran a San Francisco detective agency. His answering service took the call, but shifted it to Willie’s California Street apartment. He answered in a sleep-fogged voice: “Mackey here.”

“Lew Archer. Are you going to be free today?”

“I can make myself free.”

“Good. I have a job on the Peninsula. It’s just a tail job but it could turn out to be important. Got a pencil?”

“Hold it just a minute.” Willie went away and came back. “Go ahead.”

“You know the Sandman Motor Hotel in Palo Alto?”

“Yeah, it’s on Camino Real. I’ve stayed there.”

“A man named Jack Fleischer, a retired sheriff’s deputy from Santa Teresa, is supposed to be checking in there some time tonight. I want to know why if possible. I want to know where he goes and who he talks to and what about. And I don’t want you to lose him even if you have to spend some money.”

“How much is some?”

“Use your own discretion.”

“Do you want to tell me what it’s all about?”

“Jack Fleischer may know. I don’t, except that a man’s life is at issue.”

“Who’s the man?”

“His name is Hackett. He’s been kidnapped by a nineteen-year-old named Davy Spanner.” I described the two of them, in case they turned up in Willie’s territory. “Hackett is very well-heeled, but this doesn’t seem to be a ransom kidnapping. Spanner’s a sociopath with schizoid tendencies.”

“They’re always fun. I’ll get right down to Palo Alto, Lew.”

I went back into Sebastian’s room. The girl was still lying face down on the bed with Langston standing over her.

“I’ll drop you off at your house,” I said to him. “I’m sorry I ruined the night for you.”

“You didn’t. I was glad to help, and that still goes. One thing. I feel I should talk to the local police.”

“Let me handle that part. Okay?”

“Okay.”

The girl got up when I told her to, and the four of us drove across town. The lights were on in Langston’s house. His wife came running out to greet him, wearing a red Chinese robe.

“You shouldn’t run,” he told her. “Haven’t you been to bed?”

“I couldn’t sleep. I was scared something would happen to you.” She turned on me. “You promised you wouldn’t keep him up all night.”

“No I didn’t. Anyway it’s only four.”

“Only four!”

“You shouldn’t be standing out here in the cold.” Langston took her into the house, lifting his hand to me before he closed the door.

It was a dreary ride south to Malibu. The girl sat silent between me and her father. He made a few attempts to talk to her, but she pretended to be deaf.

One thing was clear. By changing the rules of the game to include outrage, she had gained an advantage over him. He had more to lose than she had. He was losing it, but he hadn’t lost hope of holding on to something. She acted as if she had.

I dropped them off in the parking lot where Sebastian had left his car. I waited until they were in it, and blue smoke puffed from its exhaust. Sandy made no attempt to run. Perhaps she realized there was no place to run to.

Below the narrow town a high tide was roaring on the beach. I caught glimpses of the breakers between the buildings, faintly phosphorescent in the beginning light.

It was too soon for another day to start. I checked into the first motel I came to.