The Narrows

went forward and into his partner. But the blow was nothing more than a surprise attack. He didn't go down. He wheeled on me and started coming at me, balling his fists into twin sledgehammers. I saw Rachel move her arm under her blazer and flip it back to get to her gun. But her hand caught momentarily in the material and she was late getting to her weapon.
    "Hold it!" she yelled.
    But the Steroid boys didn't stop. I ducked under the bigger man's first punch but when I came up behind him I was right in front of little brother. He grabbed me in a bear hug and lifted me off the ground. For some reason at this point I noticed that there were women watching from the three back windows of the rear trailer. I had drawn an audience to my own destruction.
    My arms were trapped inside of my attacker's embrace and I was feeling severe pressure building on my spine at the same time the air was crushed out of my lungs. Just then Rachel finally freed her weapon and fired two shots into the air.
    I was dropped to the ground and I watched as Rachel crab-walked away from the trailer to make sure no one could get up behind her.
    "FBI," she shouted. "On the ground. Both of you on the ground."
    The big men complied. As soon as I got some air back into my lungs I got back up. I tried to dust some of the dirt off my clothes but all that did was spread it around. I looked at Rachel and nodded. She kept her distance from the men on the ground and signaled me over with her finger. "What happened?"
    "I was interviewing one of the women and asked her to bring in another. But then these guys showed up and dragged me out here. Thanks for the warning."
    "I did try to warn you. I honked."
    "I know, Rachel. Take it easy. That's what I'm thanking you for. I just misread it."
    "So what do we do?"
    "I don't care about these guys. Cut ' em loose. But there are two women inside, Tammy and Mecca, we need to take them. One knows Shandy and the other I think can ID one of the missing men as being a customer."
    Rachel computed this and slowly nodded.
    "Good. Is Shandy a customer?"
    "No, he's some sort of driver. We need to get over to the sports bar and ask around there."
    "Then we can't just cut these two loose. They might just come meet us again over there. Besides there were four bikes out front. Where are the other two?"
    "I don't know."
    "Hey, come on!" Big Steroid yelled. "We're breathing sand over here."
    Rachel approached the two men on the ground.
    "Okay, get up."
    She waited until they were up and staring at her with malevolent eyes. She dropped her gun down to her side and spoke calmly to them, as if this was the way she normally got to know people. "Where are you guys from?" "Why?"
    "Why? Because I'm trying to get to know you. I'm deciding whether to arrest you." "For what? He started it."
    "Not what I saw. I saw two big men assaulting a smaller man."
    "He was trespassing."
    "Last I checked, trespassing was not a valid defense of assault. If you want to see if I'm wrong then keep-"
    "Pahrump."
    "What?"
    "Pahrump."
    "And do you own these three operations?"
    "No, we're just security."
    "I see. Well, I'll tell you what. If you two find the other two whose bikes are out front and go back to Pahrump, then we'll let bygones be bygones here."
    "That's not fair. He was in there asking-"
    "I'm the FBI. I'm not interested in what's fair. Take it or leave it."
    After a moment the bigger man broke from his stance and started walking toward the trailer. The smaller big man followed.
    "Where are you going?" Rachel barked.
    "We're leaving. Like you told us."
    "Good. Make sure you put on your helmets, gentlemen."
    Without looking back the bigger man raised a brawny arm and shot us a bird as he walked. The smaller big man saw this and did the same.
    Rachel looked at me and said, "I hope this works."

CHAPTER 32
    The women in the backseat were angry but Rachel didn't care. This was the closest she had been-the closest anybody had been-to Backus since that night in Los Angeles. The night she had watched him crash backward through the glass and into the void that seemed to swallow any trace of him.
    Until now. And the last thing she was going to let bother her were the protests of the two prostitutes in the backseat of Bosch's car. The only thing that bothered her was her decision to let Bosch drive. They now had two custodies and were transporting them in a private car. It was a security issue and she wasn't sure yet how they were going to handle the stop at the