Stolen Prey

first chance to see the outside again.”
    “But I’m innocent,” Kline said.
    “Oh, bullshit, Jake,” Lucas said. Then, into a moment of deadlocked silence, “But there’s something else. And I brought some stuff to show you.”
    “I need to talk to a lawyer.”
    “You do, but for now, listen another two minutes,” Lucas said. “Have you been watching television? All the news reports about these Mexican gangsters?”
    “Yeah, I’ve seen it.”
    “I’ll tell you what—they don’t have the gold. We’re lying about that, hoping to confuse things.”
    “So they can’t go back,” Kline said. “The killers. That’s cruel. Funny, but cruel.”
    “Sooner or later, the truth is going to come out,” Lucas said. “When it comes out, these gangsters are going to say to themselves, ‘Jacob Kline and Kristina Sanderson and Edie Albitis have our twenty-two million dollars.’ They’re going to come after you. They’re going to want their money. You understand?”
    “I understand what you’re saying, I’m not sure I believe it. There seems to be a lot of bullshit going on here.”
    “So look at this,” Lucas said. “Does this look like bullshit?”
    He reached down between his feet, got the color prints of the murder scenes, the Brookses, Rivera lying in a puddle of blood, the Mexican guys shot on the couch and in the middle of the parking lot, Pruess folded like an old banana in the dumpster, and then lying on the street partially unwrapped, one butchered hand sticking out on the blacktop.
    Lucas pushed out a close-up of a finger joint. “This belonged to Patrick Brooks. Cut them off one at a time. Used them to write a message on the wall.”
    Pulled out the “Were coming” scrawl.
    Kline looked at the photos, first in fascination, then in revulsion, and finally he turned away and said, “I don’t want to see that shit.”
    Del said, “This is what they were going to do to you, dude. You were smart enough to get away, but you might not get away the next time.”
    Lucas added, “They’ll get you, unless you get some protection…. If we get that gold back, and make a news story out of it, that’ll take away any reason for them to come after you.”
    “What about revenge?” Kline asked. “They’ll still want revenge.”
    “Listen, the average life span of these guys, these gangsters, is a couple of years,” Lucas said. “We cover you for a couple of years … we could make that part of a deal. Eventually, they’ll forget about it. It’ll seem pointless, if the money’s gone.”
    “I’ve got no idea about the money,” Kline said.
    “If you help us out with Sanderson and Albitis, one of them will cough up the money,” Del said. “We think Sanderson took out Albitis because of the gold.”
    Kline put his head down, seeming to think about it, reached out and pushed one of the photographs aside, to expose a shot of the dead Brooks children, and said, finally, “I’m innocent. But maybe I can find a way to help you. I’ve got to talk to a lawyer first. I’ll start calling around today, see when I can get one. Maybe this afternoon.”
    “You need to move fast,” Lucas said. “I’ll tell you what, if Albitis wakes up, and if she’s willing to cooperate … then our deal with you is off. She gets the protection, you get the thirty years.”
    “You can guarantee this deal?” Kline asked.
    “You get your attorney, you work through the terms, and we’ll put you with a county attorney to get the deal in writing,” Lucas said.
    “I’ll start looking for a guy right now,” Kline said.
    Lucas said, “Good.” He started gathering the murder pictures.
    Del smoothed down his new silk tie and said, “Let me tell you something, Jake. You’re a smart guy. If you think really hard about this, you’ll realize it’s the best deal you’ll get. It might be the best deal of a lifetime. Don’t fuck it up.”
    K LINE WHINED and prevaricated and lied some more, wheeling around the apartment, and eventually Lucas and Del picked up the pictures, gave him a last warning about how little time he had to act, and left.
    Out on the street, Lucas asked, “Did he buy it?”
    Del said, “I don’t know. I can usually tell, but he … I don’t know.”
    Lucas said, “I guess we’ll find out this afternoon.” He looked back up at the apartment and caught a flash of movement in the bathroom window.
    They walked back down the street and around the corner to the Lexus, and on the way,