48
THEY HAD DINNER at Geronimo, on Canyon Road, and dined on tenderloin of elk and a fine cabernet. After dinner, the women excused themselves.
“Billy, what’s going on with the cops?” Stone asked.
“You may remember that I was attacked by a man at Dax Baxter’s wrap party a few weeks ago?”
“Ah, yes. The Russian.”
“One and the same. The detectives came to Santa Fe to interview Baxter, then they phoned me. Since I was here, they came to see me, too.”
“What is their theory of the case?” Stone asked.
“They seem to have two notions. One, that Dax killed them or hired someone to; the other that Dax hired them to kill me, and that I defended myself.”
“I’m reliably informed that they were both knifed in a particularly gory fashion.”
“As I said to the cops, a hazard of their trade.”
“Do you have an alibi for that time?”
“They said it was the night before last. Sally and I had dinner at a local restaurant. I suppose I have a credit card receipt somewhere. We went home and stayed there.”
“I’m relieved to hear it.”
“I guess I’m relieved that they weren’t killed at a time when I didn’t have an alibi.”
“Here come the ladies,” Stone said. “Don’t mention this to Ana, she’ll hear about it soon enough on her personal grapevine, which is extensive.”
• • •
TEDDY AND SALLY were in bed by eleven; Teddy dressed and left the house before midnight, while she slept soundly. He found a sharp boning knife in her kitchen and took her binoculars from a peg in the living room.
He drove out to Tano Road, and using the dashboard GPS map, found a road roughly parallel to Dax’s. He parked the car in someone’s driveway and stood facing Dax’s house, about a hundred yards away. He leaned on a fender and viewed the property through the binoculars.
There was perimeter lighting, so he had a good view. Two men stood on a porch near the front door, and as they waited, a car drove up and two other men got out. All four were tall and beefy. They exchanged a few words, then the first pair walked away from the main house to a guesthouse, and Teddy saw lights come on there. The replacement shift went inside. With four guards on the property, it seemed like an unpromising time for him to visit Dax. Teddy got back into the car, and before he could turn on his lights, another car drove past him with its headlights off. Very dark out here, he thought; no place to drive without lights.
He got out of the car and walked down to the road. The other car had parked perhaps twenty yards away, at the roadside. The door opened, illuminating the interior, and Teddy got a good look at the man’s back. He had a completely bald head and, while not particularly tall, looked muscular, dressed in tight-fitting black clothes. He was wearing a leather shoulder holster, but Teddy couldn’t see the weapon. The car door closed, and the man stood next to it, using binoculars to look at Dax’s house.
Well, Teddy said to himself, that makes two of us.
Then the man left the road and, using a small flashlight, began making his way down the hill toward the Baxter residence. Teddy got his binoculars and watched the man’s progress. It occurred to him that he looked like someone Teddy had seen before, but he couldn’t get a look at the man’s face.
The man reached Dax’s road and stopped, clearly casing the house. He walked down the road for fifty yards or so, while Teddy kept him in sight with his binoculars. Finally, he crossed the road and, staying outside the perimeter lighting, made his way around the house and disappeared.
Teddy wondered if there was some sort of perimeter alarm. He hadn’t heard anything, so probably not. Lights went off at the rear of the house, and everything got quiet.
• • •
DAX BAXTER HAD taken a sleeping pill and was becoming groggy. He switched off the lights, got into bed, and settled in for the night. He didn’t know how long he had been asleep when he was awakened by pressure on his neck, and something sharp against his skin.
“Wake up,” a man’s low voice said. Then he was slapped twice, bringing him to consciousness.
“Do you know who I am?” the man asked.
“No,” Baxter replied. “But you’d better leave. There are armed guards in the house.”
“Not very good ones,” the man replied, switching on a reading light and turning it on its gooseneck so that it illuminated Dax’s face and made it impossible to see the man’s face. “My name is Kasov. Does that sound familiar?”
“Dimitri?” Dax asked, confused.
“Dimitri is dead,” the man said. “My name is Sergei, and I am his brother, younger by one year. Did you kill my brother, or order him killed?”
“No, no,” Dax said. “I hired Dimitri to kill a man called Billy Barnett. It was Barnett who killed him and the other man, Krauss. He also may have shot two police detectives.”
Sergei shook his head. “I killed the two cops. Dimitri always told me that if anybody ever killed him it would be the cops, so when I heard, I got angry and killed a couple of cops. Who is this Billy Barnett?”
“He is a man who wishes me dead,” Dax replied.
“If this Barnett could kill Dimitri with a knife, then you are in great danger.”
“That’s why the guards are here.”
“Where is this Barnett?”
“He lives in Malibu, in Los Angeles.”
“What is his address?”
Dax gave it to him from memory. “He works at Centurion Studios.”
“The movies? Like you?”
“Yes, but at a different studio. How did you find me?”
“You are an amateur. I can find you anywhere. You might remember that.”
“I want to hire you,” Dax said. “I will give you one hundred thousand dollars to kill Billy Barnett and his girlfriend, Sally Ryder, who lives with him. I don’t care how you do it, as long as it can’t be traced to me.”
“Your interests seem to coincide with mine,” Sergei said. “Give me fifty thousand now.”
“I have twenty-five thousand in the house, but I can see that you get more.”
“Give it to me.”
Dax got slowly out of bed, went into his dressing room and opened the safe. He stuffed the money into a laundry bag and handed it to the man. “How can I get in touch with you?”
The man handed him a cell phone. “Press one to dial me, and leave a message. I will call back on this phone.”
“Good,” Dax said. “When can you do it?”
“First, you will give me the other twenty-five thousand, then I will kill both of them, and you will pay me the other fifty thousand, yes?”
“Yes,” Dax said. “I’ll arrange to have the other twenty-five thousand delivered anywhere you say in L.A.”
“I will tell you where.”
“One other thing,” Dax said.
“Yes?”
“Before you kill them, tell them you’re from me. And kill the girl first, while he watches.”
“Go back to bed,” the man said, then he left the room.
Dax got back into bed and waited for the pill to work.
• • •
TEDDY WATCHED AS the man appeared from around the corner of the house, then made his way back to his car. He turned around and drove back toward Santa Fe, this time with his headlights on, the dash lights revealing his face.
Now Teddy knew why he looked familiar. He bore a strong resemblance to Kasov—a familial resemblance, perhaps. There seemed to be only one reason why the man would seek out Dax’s Santa Fe house, then visit him in the middle of the night. He had a very strong intuition that Dax Baxter was now dead.
He started the car and drove back to Sally’s house.