They Called Her Indigo Read online

  “Yeah, I’ve heard of Glick. Nothing good. What about the rest of the team?”

  I shrugged. “A couple of them stayed in. Most, like me, you and Blackhawk, chose to opt out.”

  She took a drink of her beer. She looked at the bottle. “I think I’m getting tired of beer. Do you have anything else?”

  “What would you like?”

  She handed me her bottle. She sat on one of the chaise lounges. “Surprise me,” she said smiling.

  I went down and poured the beers out and rinsed and placed the bottles in the recycle bin under the sink. I studied the bar, then fixed two whiskey sours. I carried them back up. She watched me as I brought her drink.

  She took it and said, “I have to admit, sitting up here in this weather could be addictive.”

  I turned and looked out across the water. Several hundred yards away, toward the dam towers, a tiny boat sat bobbing, with a lone figure fishing.

  I pointed at it. “That’s Eddie, there.”

  She shaded her eyes and looked to where I was pointing. She took a sip, “You can buy fish at the market.”

  I sat beside her, on the other chaise lounge. “You belong to Blackhawk’s school of thought. He’s said the exact same thing.”

  We were silent for a while. Finally, I said, “Where were you heading? You said East.”

  “Not sure, just driving. Something would come to me.”

  “Nobody back East?”

  She looked at me, then out across the water, “None of us have family. You know that.”

  “Doesn’t have to be family.”

  She shook her head, “There’s nobody. All my old bridges have burned. How about you? Have you had any steady relationships?”

  I shook my head. “Nothing steady,” I said, thinking of Boyce slipping in and out of my life. Currently out. “I know it’s possible. Look at Blackhawk and Elena.”

  “The odd couple.”

  “Works for them.”

  “But not for you?”

  “No, not so far.”

  She sat her glass on the deck and stood. “Mind if I use the bathroom?”

  “The head,” I said, automatically. “Don’t worry, it’s clean.”

  She smiled. “You were always known as the fastidious one. The old poetry reader.”

  “No one would steal the centerfold of a poem.”

  She laughed and went down the stairs.

  I watched the clouds skirt across the mountains, a gentle breeze ruffling the water. The next time I looked for Eddie, he had moved. I couldn’t find him. After a while I realized that Indigo was still below, and my drink was empty.

  I pulled myself up, picked up her glass and went down the steps. As I stepped down on the stern I realized she had pulled the blackout curtains together. She had left the sliding door open. I stepped through the curtains.

  She was lying on the king size bed. Naked. Holding a pillow, covering her up. A little. But, no doubt, she was naked.

  “I was beginning to wonder how long it would take you to finish your drink.”

  I stood looking at her. “You sure about this?” I said.

  I could see her smile in the dim light. See her smile and a whole lot of other interesting stuff.

  “You and I were always aware of each other,” she said. “But it was against the rules. I’ve always wondered,” she said. “Haven’t you?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Then you came walking into my hotel room.”

  “More like we burst in,” I said.

  She lay there looking up at me. Finally she said, “Walk, burst, whatever, so, are you going to make me wait?” She set the pillow aside.

  My momma taught me to not keep a lady waiting.

  9

  Because of extended activity, we arrived back at El Patron later than intended. The parking lot was packed. I wheeled the Mustang around to the back and parked beside the huge No Parking signs that were fastened to the big green garbage dumpsters.

  “This place is packed,” Indigo said.

  “It’s Elena. She always packs the house.”

  We walked around the building to the entrance. Duane was standing guard. There were a few smokers lounging against the wall. Blackhawk enforced the no smoking rule inside. The sun had set as we were traveling back south on the Black Canyon, so the lot was illuminated by the new lights Blackhawk had installed. They put off a sharper, brighter light than the old yellow ones. He says that if anyone tries to shoot me in the parking lot again, at least now they’ll be able to see me.

  Duane held the door for us, nodding at me. We made our way down the hallway to the last door. Blackhawk had spent a lot of money sound proofing all three nightclubs. You could barely hear the music in the hall. However, when we went through the double doors into Elena’s place the din was off the charts.

  Elena had the crowd moving. She was in the middle of La Charreada. The dance floor was a moving, pulsing thing. In the middle were Simone and Nikki. Each had snagged a young Hispanic man and was giving him a run for his money.

  I moved through the crowd. Indigo followed closely. Blackhawk was behind the bar with Jimmy and Nacho. They were very busy. Blackhawk waved a hand, beckoning us down to the end of the bar. He leaned over and spoke to two young men. They reluctantly relinquished their stools. They smiled brightly at Indigo. No smile for me. My feelings were hurt.

  Blackhawk took our drink orders. Indigo ordered another whiskey sour. I got a club soda with lime. He was soon back and set them in front of us. I sipped mine. I was watching Nikki and Simone on the dance floor.

  Indigo looked at me and smiled. “Tequila?” meaning that while we were gone, the girls had found the tequila bottle.

  I nodded, watching Nikki twirl the kid she was with. “It’s a known fact,” I said, “tequila makes you a much better dancer.”

  “Speaking from experience?”

  “Unfortunately.”

  Indigo was watching Elena and her big band. “She is really very good,” she said. “She’d make a fortune in Vegas.”

  I shrugged. “Everyone knows it, including her, but she’s happy here. She doesn’t have those kinds of ambitions. Here, she runs things, no one to please but herself.”

  “What about Blackhawk?”

  I smiled, “Blackhawk’s smart enough to stay out of her way. And he’s okay with whatever she does.”

  “Even if she quit entertaining?”

  “Wouldn’t blink an eye.”

  A table opened up behind us, against the wall. I slid off my stool and took it. Indigo joined me. At the next break, the girls joined us. They were flushed and glassy-eyed.

  I slouched back in my chair, my legs stretched out. Simone leaned down, putting her face about six inches from mine. “Hey Jackshon honey, you wanna dance?”

  I laughed. “You know it’s rude to ask a one-legged man to dance,” I said.

  She looked at me very solemnly. She nodded slowly. “Yeah, that big guy said you only had one foot.” She scooted a chair, so she could watch the dance floor while she sat. “Is that true?”

  I leaned over and pulled up my pant leg. She leaned forward and looked at the prosthetic.

  “Damn,” she said. She folded her arms on the table and laid her head on her forearms.

  I looked at Indigo and she smiled and shrugged.

  Toward midnight a young man sporting really thick glasses came in and stood looking around. He and his briefcase didn’t look like they belonged in this place. He spotted Jimmy and made his way through the dancers to the end of the bar. I watched as Jimmy showed him Nikki’s phone. The kid opened his briefcase and pulled out a laptop. They moved to the back and put their heads together.

  Elena was always prompt at closing time. She felt it was unfair to the musicians to keep them overtime. She paid them a fixed wage, so at precisely one o’clock the music stopped. The bar quit serving ten minutes before that. Tonight, Jimmy and his friend were still working on the phone. Simone was at the table with us, her
head down on her arms. Nikki was leaning back against the wall. Her eyes were closed.

  I was tired, but I got up to help Nacho and Blackhawk clean up. I straightened tables and chairs and collected glasses and set them on the bar. Indigo joined me, and I caught Elena looking at her, then at me. She arched her eyebrows. I ignored her and continued collecting glasses.

  We stacked the glasses on the bar where the morning cleaners would take care of them. Most of the musicians carried their instruments home. When they were playing the next night, the drummer, the keyboard player and a couple others left their equipment here. But on the last night of the three-day run, like tonight, they tore down and took their instruments. Elena always felt obligated to help them. So she was carrying a snare drum out for the drummer.

  I drifted over to Jimmy and his friend.

  “Any luck?”

  Jimmy looked up. He shrugged. “Getting closer,” he said. His buddy looked at me. “This is Jackson,” Jimmy said. “Jackson, this is Bill. Bill Brown.” I put my hand out and he took it.

  “So, you are the computer genius?” I said.

  “No genius,” he said. “But I work for a cyber security company, so I know more than most.”

  “Appreciate you helping,” I said. “Don’t let me interrupt.”

  The kid started working on the computer again.

  “He’s got a keylogger program that captures keystrokes,” Jimmy said.

  “Ardamax. The problem is sorting through all the crap that’s on this computer. Is this yours?” Bill said, looking at me.

  “Not mine.”

  “Well, whoever it is, this guy’s been moving money between at least ten different banks. What does this guy do?”

  “Sex trade,” Jimmy said.

  The kid looked up, his eyes wide behind the coke bottle lenses. “No shit?”

  “No shit,” I said. “So, this keylogger thing, it lets you know what key strokes have been made on the computer? Or, in this case, phone?”

  “Same thing, since the computer was downloaded onto it. The trick is getting it narrowed down to the key strokes used for the password.”

  “It’s getting late,” I said. “You think you can get it done tonight?”

  “I’m close,” he said. He looked at Jimmy. “You said you disabled the GPS?”

  Jimmy nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Well, almost. This phone has a find phone app. And it’s signed in to the Icloud. What that means is that someone that has the app can still find it.”

  Jimmy looked at me.

  “Shit!” I said. I turned and walked toward Blackhawk, who was mopping where someone had spilled a glass. Before I got to him, the double doors swung open with a bang. Five men in dark clothes came in. They all carried AR-15’s.

  The man in the middle had a brace on his leg. He had Elena by the hair and a gun to her head. It was Luis.

  10

  Two of the men pointed their guns at the ceiling and opened fire. Even in the good-sized room, the explosions were deafening. Pieces of the ceiling rained down. I took two long steps and grabbed both girls, slinging them to the floor. They went down screaming. I fell, rolling against the bar, knocking stools out of the way. Indigo was down flat. Blackhawk was on the other side of the bar. I couldn’t see him. No worries, he was armed with a mop. Nacho had rolled across the bar to the interior. For an old gang banger he had good instincts.

  There was a sawed-off shotgun behind the bar. It had never been pulled because Nacho was usually enough. Not this time. This was bad. Jimmy and his friend were frozen at the end of the bar.

  Lying flat, I watched as Luis forced Elena into the room. He was hobbling. “Nikki,” he shouted. “Where are you, bitch?” He fired his pistol into the ceiling, then pointed the pistol at Elena. “Bring me the phone!”

  I glanced over at Nikki and she had rolled against the wall, her face in her hands.

  “I have the phone,” I heard the voice on the other side of the bar. Jimmy.

  I came up to my knees as Jimmy came out of the bar, holding the phone up. He moved toward the men. I slipped the Smith and Wesson out of my ankle holster. It was for close work. As far as they were from me, I would have as much luck throwing beer glasses at them.

  “Give it to Nikki,” Luis demanded.

  Jimmy hesitated, then moved over to the girls. I could tell he had forgotten which one was Nikki. Now, Nikki was sobbing uncontrollably. She slowly came to her feet. Jimmy offered her the phone and she took it. With her head down, she slowly moved toward Luis. She sobbed so hard, she was hiccupping.

  Luis released Elena’s hair. Without looking at her, he poked the side of her head with the pistol. “You move, you die,” he said.

  Elena’s hand went to the side of her head. Her eyes were on Blackhawk. He stood against the wall, still holding the mop. His eyes were on Luis. They didn’t waver. Like me, he was too far away to do anything.

  Nikki handed Luis the phone. He put it in his back pocket. He turned to the man on his right.

  “Take them out of here,” he said.

  That man and another took Elena and Nikki by the arms and walked them out the door. Elena was looking over her shoulder at Blackhawk. Luis pointed his gun at Blackhawk.

  “You should have killed me,” he said.

  “I will, yet,” Blackhawk said.

  I pointed the pistol at Luis. Not having much faith, I pulled the trigger. Nacho rose up from behind the bar firing the shotgun. He was five feet away and my left ear went deaf. I began firing as rapidly as I could. The two men flanking Luis flinched and ducked back to the door. Luis went low and scuttled after them. The three of them getting through the door looked like Keystone Cops.

  Blackhawk and I rushed the door. Indigo came off the floor like the lithe animal she was and was right behind. She had a pistol in her hand.

  “Don’t shoot,” Blackhawk yelled. “You might hit Elena!”

  We reached the door and flattened against the wall on either side. I reached across and pulled the door open. Immediately, bullets were flying, tearing the door to shreds. Indigo reached across me and fired two rounds down the hall.

  “Goddammit, I said, don’t fire,” Blackhawk said.

  “She was aiming at the ceiling,” I said. “Just keeping them honest.”

  “One man could keep us here for a long time,” Indigo said.

  “The Mustang’s out back,” I said, and before I finished saying it, we were moving.

  As he went by, Blackhawk called to Nacho, “Get the girl upstairs! No cops.”

  Blackhawk burst through the delivery door sending the alarm into a frenzy. I had the key fob in my hand and was unlocking the Mustang as we reached it. Indigo piled into the back, with Blackhawk sliding into the passenger seat. I fired the machine and ripped backward, peeling rubber. I shoved it into gear and the GT S550 kicked us through the parking lot, sliding sideways around the corner.

  Just in time to see a large dark SUV ripping out of the lot. I slowed down. Letting it move down the street.

  “What are you doing?” Indigo said.

  “We’re going to follow them,” Blackhawk said. “If we press them, they might hurt the girls.”

  I angled across the lot, so I came at them indirectly. I wouldn’t be in their rearview mirror. I bounced over the curb. I let the SUV get two blocks ahead. Good news, bad news. It was late, and traffic was light. Easy for me to keep them in sight, easy for them to spot me. I dropped further back, intermittently turning the lights on and off. The SUV traveled east, bouncing up to Southern. It turned north on Seventh and headed downtown. I followed, well back. We went over the bridge by the baseball stadium. A mile down the road, he darted into the on ramp at I-10. I had to get closer. He zig-zagged between the behemoths that fill the highways every night. I came down the ramp and angled into the nighttime traffic. I had to dodge the big eighteen wheelers. I was slowed by three trucks that relieved their boredom by traveling abreast, blocking traffic. By the time I broke free I watched th
e SUV swinging up the ramp to AZ51. I couldn’t get over fast enough and we sailed by.

  “There he goes,” Blackhawk said matter of factly. His voice was calm. I glanced at him. I know he was anything but calm inside.

  “Take Washington,” Blackhawk said.

  It was a maddening few minutes until I could take the exit and get going back the other way. I grabbed the AZ51 on ramp. We came down in a glut of traffic merging from the 202. Of course, the SUV was nowhere in sight. We drove on, hoping beyond hope.

  Nothing.

  “We need to call Jimmy and see if his friend got anything off of the phone,” I said.

  “Find a place to pull over,” Blackhawk said.

  “Find a place a girl can use the restroom,” Indigo said.

  I took the Bethany Home Road exit. At the next light there was an all-night El Pollo Loco. I pulled into the parking lot. Blackhawk got out to let Indigo out. I pulled my phone and started to call Nacho when Blackhawk’s phone started vibrating. He answered it as he slid back into the Mustang.

  “Yes,” he said into the phone. He listened a moment. “No, we lost them.” He listened more. He turned and looked at me. “The phone Jimmy gave Nikki to give Luis was his phone.”

  “Whose?”

  “Jimmy’s.” He almost smiled. “He said that Nikki’s was the exact model of his, so he gave Nikki his own phone, so we could keep hers. Said it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

  I smiled. Atta boy Jimmy. I leaned back thinking.

  Indigo came back, and Blackhawk stepped out while she slid into the back.

  “So what now?” she said.

  Blackhawk looked at me.

  “Well, they have to be going somewhere,” I said. “Let’s just find out where.”

  “How do we do that?” Indigo said.

  I reached for Blackhawk’s phone and he handed it to me.

  “Jimmy, it’s Jackson,” I said into the phone. “Can you track your phone?”

  There was silence. “Yeah, probably, it’s got the same stuff on it that Nikki’s had. Give us a second.”

  I could hear him talking to Bill Brown.

  It seemed like forever, but he finally came back on the line. He was excited.