Troubleshooter

Chapter 12

Each deputy took six names and a loaded gun. The task force had managed to tie most of the mother-chapter Sinners and deeds to a place of employment or a gas or phone bill. The key was closing in on the nomads' likely hideouts-garages, safe houses, family members' spare couches, utility sheds at Sinner-affiliated businesses.

Tim's first stop was at a renovated apartment complex in Fillmore. He circled the surrounding blocks in the government-owned Buick Regal, looking for parked choppers and finding none. The apartment was at the interior of the well-lit complex-too bright and tough on the getaway to make an ideal hiding place. A peek through various windows confirmed that both bedrooms and bathroom were empty. In the living room, a young woman-the roommate?-sat sullenly on a poufy couch, watching a CHiPs rerun and plucking at the hem of a flannel bathrobe. The carpet was strewn with clothes.

Tim knocked, standing on the knob side until the door opened.

"Hi. Tom Altman, building code inspector. I'm investigating some lease irregularities. You are…?"

The girl looked unimpressed with Tim's badge and air of urgency. "Sonia Lawrence."

He furrowed his brow. "I thought this apartment was leased to a Babe Donovan?"

"Yeah, I sublet a room from her."

"Is she home?"

"She's never around. She just leaves her crap here. It's everywhere. Look at this. Drives me nuts."

"She does live here?"

Sonia coughed out a laugh, making her bangs jump. "You can try and keep tabs on Babe Donovan. I gave up that gig a long time ago."

"When's the last time you saw her?"

"You just missed her. She dropped by to pick something up. There some problem with the place?"

"No. She just didn't return some paperwork we requested, and I wanted her John Hancock. Do you know where she went? The deadline for the documents is tomorrow. I really don't want to have to designate the place as unsafe for habitation."

The roommate looked anxious. "She asked if I wanted to go over to the Rock Store. You know, that biker hangout up in the Malibu hills? She took me once. I don't get the deal with that place."

"You said she dropped by to pick something up?"

"Yeah. A big envelope."

Containing falsified IDs from the DMV? If Babe had managed to mole out IDs, there was at least faint hope she hadn't gotten them to Den yet. He and Kaner had just broken out yesterday.

"Maybe that was the paperwork I need. She take it with her?"

"Uh-huh."

"Any writing on it?"

"I didn't read the envelope."

"She say she was coming back tonight?"

"Doubtful. I probably won't see her for another couple weeks. That's how she is."

"Thanks for your time."

"Wait. If you don't catch up to her, then what? You're not gonna kick us out, are you?"

"Hope not. I'll see if I can have the building owner's lawyer sign off on the forms first thing tomorrow. I was trying to save myself from having to deal with lawyers."

"You catch up to her, remind her to leave rent money for next month."

"I'll be sure to."

A few Hells Angels sporting mad-dog goatees and trademark winged death's head originals swigged beer and smoked joints on the picnic table in front of the Rock Store. The hundred or so weekend warriors on hand kept a respectful distance. The out-of-the-way Malibu haunt, touted on T-shirts and beer cozies as "America's #1 Pit Stop," drew a bizarre amalgam of customers-leather-jacket losers, bad-boy movie actors, stockbrokers on crotch rockets. A biker paraphernalia shop made up the front of the stone-composite building; the structure rambled upslope, transforming into a burger-and-beer shack that overlooked a cracked patio. Most of the bikers congregated on the throw of concrete alongside the shack or by the spotted oak that fronted the adjoining building, the pit stop's greasy-spoon diner.

Tim worked his way through the crowd and completed a circuit of the raised patio, doing his best to dodge white plastic lawn furniture and body odor. He spotted Babe sitting on the railing sipping at a Bud bottle, her eyes on the dark canyon road that twisted past the store-front. Solo headlights floated in from the surrounding nothingness, joining the neon glow. Bikers docked, drank their fill, and shoved off drunkenly, braving the tortuous landscape. A few guys in wheelchairs banged off hips and tables. Babe drew more than her fair share of looks, but men aborted their approaches when they spotted her colors.

Tim grabbed a beer and leaned against the forked tree that interrupted the narrow front lot. At his back, tear-tab flyers fluttered from the bark-discount oil coolers, cheap chrome finishes, contingent-fee para-legal services. The post gave him a good vantage on Babe. Her continued focus on incoming traffic heartened him. Trouble was en route. He leaned back against the tree to feel the reassuring press of his. 357 at his right kidney. An hour and a half passed tediously and without consequence.

A guy with a weirdly full build lumbered toward him, threw a leg over a Roadster, and dug into a gut bomb of a burger, grease running down his wrist until he licked it off. Tim observed him, noting the tan knuckle spots from the gloves, the strip of worn leather on his left boot where he shifted.

The biker shot Tim a grin full of crooked teeth. "Wanna take a ride?"

It took Tim a moment to piece together the surprisingly high voice, the full hips, the massy chest. "Oh, no thanks. I'm waiting on someone."

"Too bad." She had piercing green eyes and a thin nose, like a really pretty boy. "You don't come here much, huh?"

"Is it that obvious?"

"You're cute, that's all. I could spread you on a cracker."

He laughed. "I'm an impostor. I bought my way into the club. New Harley, can't ride it for shit. Thought I'd come down here and look at people who could."

Up on the patio, a couple blocked Babe's view, so she scooted down the railing to keep the road in sight. She grabbed someone by the sleeve and asked him something. The guy held out his watch, and she nodded her thanks. Tim was beginning to share her exasperation at waiting.

"Takes all kinds, the Rock Store does."

"A lot of one-percenters hang out here?"

"Nah, don't worry. Bikers here are mostly unaffiliated." She nodded at the crew toking up on the picnic table. "HA shows up now and again, but just to model the originals, make fun of the wannabes." She winked. "That'd be me and you and everyone else here."

"Cholos ever blow through here?"

"Not likely. Sinners do, whenever the heat's high. The heat don't think to look here because it ain't supposed to be an outlaw joint." On her toes, she backed up her Harley, careful to dodge the adjacent bikes. She screwed on her helmet, nodded at him, and took off into the dark of the canyon.

When Tim looked back up at the patio, Babe had a cell phone pressed to her face. She nodded a few times, then disappeared in the crowd. Tim came off his lean against the tree and picked her up descending the stairs. She walked with a slight limp, a new injury judging by her gingerly gait. Maybe she'd been the one to leap the Jersey barriers after leaving a smoking car blocking traffic on the 10, and maybe she'd twisted an ankle doing it. Tim heard Dray's voice, as he often did, playing devil's advocate: Or maybe she hurt it stepping out of the tub.

The Hells Angels noted Babe's property jacket and bumped fists with her as she passed. She walked directly at Tim. Nervous that he'd been made, he took a pull from the bottle to hide his face. She passed so close he could smell her shampoo-something lean and foresty-and then she mounted the Harley right next to him. Starting down the road for his car, he heard her kick-start her engine behind him. He was at the wheel when she drove past, but he waited for her brake light to disappear around the sharp bend before starting the tail. He followed her through a tangle of canyon roads, keeping that same distance.

At a wide bend, she slowed, and her free hand went inside her jacket. A manila envelope took flight, landing at the feet of a biker parked on the dirt apron. The biker crouched and flipped up his wind visor to peruse the envelope's contents.

Tim rolled through the turn, and his headlights swept across Den Laurey's face.