The Golem of Hollywood

Chapter fifty

They were waiting for him beyond customs.

Subach grasped the handle of Jacob’s bag. “Allow me.”

Beneath a loud L.A. sun, they rafted pockets of exhaust toward the short-term parking lot.

“Nice of you guys to pick me up.”

“Beats the SuperShuttle,” Schott said.

“America greets you with open arms,” Subach said. “How was your flight? Watch the movie?”

“Kung Fu Panda 2.”

“Any good?” Schott said.

“Not like the first.”

“They never are,” Subach said, punching the elevator button.

Schott said, “I hope you brought a book.”

Jacob shrugged. He’d spent the majority of the journey reviewing his notes and studying the page torn from the yearbook, inoculating himself to Pernath’s stare. He’d read the in-flight magazine cover to cover, done the crossword and the sudoku, browsed SkyMall. Even after he’d run out of reading material, he had not looked at the letter, nor at his translation.

A smooth crossing, devoid of turbulence, everyone else serene, while around him the tube of the cabin spun, endlessly contracting.

Sucking thin recycled air, he’d loosened his seatbelt as far as it would go, watching the dot of the plane as it skipped across the Atlantic Ocean, touching the tingly strip of skin where the beetle had pressed itself to his lips, raising his finger at every approach of the drink cart, grateful for the lack of judgment in the flight attendants’ faces as they sold him his nth eight-dollar mini-bottle of Absolut.

Must be a nervous flier.

Now he stepped from the elevator, and they crossed oil-slickened concrete toward a bank of livery cars. Schott raised a remote, popping the locks on an extra-long white Crown Vic with unmarked plates and mirrored windows.

Jacob flinched at his own reflection: a wild-eyed prophet with a five-day beard.

He reached for the door but it swung open on its own, and he saw Commander Mike Mallick, his bamboo body stretched across the bench seat.

Mallick patted the leather. “Hop in, Detective.”

It was chilly and dark inside, the air-conditioning cranked to the max. Schott rammed the car into four p.m. traffic.

“What happened to your lip?”

“Sir?”

“Did you burn yourself?”

Reflexively, Jacob ran his tongue over the spot in the middle of his lip. It no longer tingled, but a coin of dead, dry skin remained.

“Pizza,” he said. “Fools rush in, sir.”

“Mm. Heck of a trip you took.”

“I tried to be frugal, sir.”

Mallick waved. “I’m not concerned with that.”

“Duly noted,” Jacob said. “Next time I’ll stay at the Ritz.”

“Next time?”

“Should the need arise, sir.”

In the front seat, Subach snickered.

Mallick said, “You found it fruitful, though.”

“You were right on, sir. Highly educational.”

“Good. Good. Tell me what you learned.”

The sanitized-for-sanity version omitted any mention of Jacob’s experience in the garret; his hour and a half in the basement of Radcliffe Science Library; the botched coupling with Norton; his new six-legged friend.

She was beautiful.

She looked angry.

She looked jealous.

When the recital was over, the Commander looked vaguely disappointed, although that might’ve simply been his default world-weariness.

“You’ve done a fine job, Lev.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Anything else you want to share?”

“Sir?”

“I recall that when we last saw each other I played a tape for you.”

“Yes, sir.”

Mallick weighed his words. “What’s your thinking on her.”

“How so?”

“Have you made any headway, figuring out who she is?”

“My plan, sir, was to gather intel on Pernath, seeing as he’s a strong suspect. If the woman’s involved, and I’m not sure she is, she may very well show up with him.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

“I’ll continue to focus on Pernath, hope he screws up and I can grab him, swab him, and squeeze him for info.”

“And if he turns out to be a law-abiding citizen?”

“He is. He’s gone twenty-five years without getting caught. But he’s also a psychopath.”

“So you leave him running around but keep an eye on him.”

“Yes, sir.”

“A psychopath.”

“I don’t see what choice I have, sir. Everything I’ve got on him is circumstantial. Move too soon and I guarantee you he’ll never so much as make a rolling stop for the rest of his life.”

“Meantime she’s also running around out there.”

“For now, yes.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Me neither, sir. But I don’t see how else to locate her.”

Mallick didn’t reply.

“Sir? Is there something I need to know?”

“Such as?”

“Do you have an idea who she might be?”

The mood in the car shifted as Mallick drew up, smiling thinly. “Is that a joke, Detective?”

“You seem more concerned about her than Pernath, is what I mean.”

“Certainly I’m focused on her. She calls in Florack and disappears? Far as I’m concerned, that’s probative.”

“True, sir, but even if she did do Florack, I think Pernath’s running the show, just as he was with Florack and Heap. Get him, kill the cancer.”

“This investigation is about the murder at Castle Court,” Mallick said. He leaned forward, his head grazing the felt of the ceiling, and Jacob could feel his breath, cold and odorless. “That was your assignment. That makes her the priority. I appreciate your creative thinking, and I’m willing to adopt your strategy and wait it out. Lest there be any confusion, though, let me reiterate: she is our primary target. Not Pernath. Do you understand?”

Jacob said, “Ten-four, sir.”

“Another thing. I want updates.”

“A hundred percent, sir. I’m giving you one right now.”

Mallick shook his head. “I want more. And I want it more often. From this point on, you’re going to inform me on an hourly basis where you are and what you’re doing.”

Jacob chuffed. “Come on.”

“You’re really that close?”

“I think I am, but—”

“Then loop me in.”

“Sir. It’s tough to operate like that.”

“You’ll figure it out. Text me. E-mail me. Call. Set an alarm, if you need to. I don’t care. I certainly don’t want you moving on either of them, Pernath or the woman, without us there to support you. Understood?”

Jacob turned to look out the window at nudie bars and off-site airport parking. They’d gone no more than a mile down Century. He felt angry and jumpy; eager to throw open the door and walk.

Mallick said, “You haven’t told me about Prague.”

“I thought I covered everything, sir.”

“Not the case,” Mallick said. “The city.”

“What about it, sir?”

“Anything. General impressions.”

Jacob said, “It was pretty good, I guess, sir.”

“We send you on an all-expense-paid European vacation and that’s it? ‘Pretty good’?”

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity, sir.”

“I hope you had a chance to do some sightseeing.”

“Some,” Jacob said.

“How did you find that?”

“Pretty good, sir. Thank you, once again.”

A silence.

“I haven’t been to Prague in years,” Mallick said.

Jacob looked at him. “I wasn’t aware that you’d been at all, sir.”

Mallick nodded.

The rest of the trip dragged on in tight silence. Finally, Schott pulled over outside Jacob’s building, leaving the motor running.

“Keep me apprised,” Mallick said.

Subach carried Jacob’s bag, setting it down outside the door to the apartment.

“Do I tip you now, or when the case is closed?” Jacob asked.

Subach smiled. “Don’t worry about the Commander. Times like these, he gets nervous.”

“Times like what,” Jacob said.

“You need help with this Pernath guy, let us know. We’ll get you what you need.”

“Mel? Can I ask you something? You ever been to Prague?”

Subach chuckled. “As it so happens, I have.”

“What about Schott?”

“I think he might’ve said something about that once or twice.”

“I never knew cops to be such a well-traveled bunch,” Jacob said. “We should start a club. Get together. Do slide shows.”

Subach patted him on the shoulder and lumbered back down to the idling car.