Pro Bono

Chapter 30

30

C harlie Warren’s life had been much better since he had finished Vesper Ellis’s case. He slept later in the mornings. The final hour of sleep on most days was spent in dreams that were thinly disguised versions of reality in which he studied problems and tried to devise solutions to them. This morning a motorcycle roared past on the street behind the house and he sat up.

Vesper turned in his direction and squinted at him. “What’s wrong?”

“I just had a dream about my mother.”

“It might be worth taking an ambulance to the psychiatrist’s office.”

“A good idea, but I think not this time.” He took his phone off the side table, looked at the screen, scrolled down, and read his way through it. “She sent me a Google map showing her GPS location. I think I’ll fly up—I guess Reno is probably closest—rent a car, maybe check on her, just to be sure.”

Vesper studied him. It was understandable that some deep-seated memory of the con man marrying his mother and taking her money might have been shaken loose by the unexpected appearance of the two old convicts with the rest of the story. He had just spent time tracking down and filing claims to the crook’s bank deposits. There was also the fact that he was probably experiencing a natural reaction to the violence that they had just been through during her own case. She said, “Buy two tickets.”

“You want to go too?”

“Yes,” she said. “This is probably an unnecessary trip. If it is, then I promise that you will have a better time in a Reno hotel with me than without me. If it turns into an emergency, I will try to be helpful. I’m really good at things like calling the police.”

He looked at her and shrugged. “Two tickets it is.”

May and Rose were up early, sitting on the deck drinking coffee as dawn broke. May said, “I really had hopes that Peter would do the trick. I thought that she’d spend a few minutes near him and the rest would be like automatic pilot. He could string her along a little until she inherited Danny’s bank accounts, with everything legal and simple, with her stupid son or one of his lawyer friends doing the work. Peter may not want to play the game anymore, but he still knows the moves. He’s still got the charisma and he’s in great shape, and he’s so calm and reassuring everybody trusts him. I figured he could get her to invest in a joint project, maybe some land up here or anything else she likes, with him as managing partner.”

“Well, she didn’t go weak in the knees,” Rose said. “She’s been burned before.”

“That’s what gave me the most hope,” May said. “The ones who have been taken are the easiest ones to take again. All you need is fresh bait.”

“Well, it’s not going to happen,” Rose said. “Want to give up, or go with a second plan?”

“I don’t give up. I think we have to go with the risky option. She hasn’t got Danny’s money yet. If she dies and the money shows up in her bank account, then we have a few days writing checks on it and using her cards until the last minute. I’ve got a few addresses where we can have merchandise sent, and a few contacts with companies that can accept payments and move the money through a chain of other companies in under one second, when it all dissolves into the air in another country. I’m sure you still have some too.”

“Of course,” Rose said. “They take a percentage, but losing a percentage is better than losing it all.”

“Let’s get some of these people notified today, before we start the clock running.”

“I’ll make some calls this morning to set up what I can. You’d better do it too. We have no idea how big Danny’s stash is, and it’s got to go fast.”

May said, “I already started a few hours ago. Manaus is three hours ahead of us, and London is eight.”

At noon, Charlie and Vesper’s plane landed in Reno, and they walked through the long accordion tunnel into the airport. Charlie reached into his carry-on bag and turned on his two phones as they walked. The burner phone rang right away. He saw that the number of his caller was two. “Hello?”

“Hi, Charlie.” Warren recognized the voice of Minkeagan.

“Hi. What’s up?”

“We lost track of your mother.”

“Don’t worry. We know where she is. Where are you?”

“We’re outside the club where she goes for her workouts. Usually about this time she comes out of the gym, swims a while, and then eats lunch with her best buddies. She’s a no-show, and so are they.”

“She sent me an email last night. She’s with the two friends at a lake in the Sierras. Vesper and I flew up this morning, so you don’t have to worry about her for a while. I’ll call you if I need you again.”

“Look, Charlie. I’m feeling a little uncomfortable about this. We’re all waiting for some big money to arrive for her, and we know other people have applied for it too. Anybody who’s trying to claim this particular guy’s bank accounts knows that the front runner has got to be the guy’s widow.”

“What’s wrong? Don’t I seem worried enough about her?”

“I don’t know,” Minkeagan said. “Just don’t lose our numbers.”

“Thanks,” Charlie said. “I’ll keep this dedicated phone with me. I’ll also call you when I know anything new about the decision on the money.”

Charlie and Vesper rented a car and checked in at the Peppermill, partly because it was near the airport and easy to find. He kept checking his phone while they were eating lunch in one of the hotel’s restaurants. He saw the way Vesper was watching him and slipped it into his pocket. “I’m just checking for updates.”

“I understand,” she said. “You could tell her we’re here and available if she needs us.”

“She would be insulted.”

“She would act insulted. She would be touched. And maybe pleasantly amused at us, and if she is, who cares? You’re one of the toughest people I’ve ever met. You can take all the teasing she can come up with.”

“I’ll let her know we’re here.” He smiled. “Of course, I’ll lie to her about why we came.” He typed in her number on his phone and then typed in a text message. Then he put the phone in his pocket. “Thanks. I actually feel less anxious. She can laugh at me all she wants.”

“That’s the right attitude,” Vesper said.

They finished their lunch and went up to their room. Charlie called Martha. “Hi. It’ s me,” he said. “We’re in Reno. Anything going on that I should know about?” He put the phone on speaker and set it down on the side table by the bed.

“Not you personally, but as Vesper’s attorney, yes. The last of her money came in from Founding Fathers. It tops off the balance, so I believe that’s the end of her case.”

Vesper said, “Thanks, Martha.”

“Thanks, Martha,” Warren said. “If you don’t have to be there, feel free to reroute the calls to the service and take the rest of the day.”

“Thanks. Not sure if I will, but I might unless things get exciting around here.”

Linda Warren was third in the file as the three women walked along beside the road that circled the lake. They stayed on the shoulder of the road, because there were ruts in the surface that had been filled with gravel, where a hiker’s feet would sink an inch or two and walking became difficult. The best places to walk were the flat stretches where the pine needles that had fallen from the tall trees were thick enough to prevent brush from growing up and presenting an obstacle to progress. She loved walking along the lake. She wondered about Wendy and Mary. They had both been up when Linda had come downstairs early in the morning, both staring at their phones in the predawn darkness.

It occurred to Linda that this might be the time of day set aside for communicating with their families. She also wondered if she had accidentally discovered that the two women’s relationship was not what she had assumed. Had they both been up because they had been sleeping in the same place? She turned the idea over in her mind and came to no conclusion. It was none of her business and it didn’t matter to her either way. She’d been enjoying the trip and felt gratitude that they had included her in it. She had traveled alone to a great many destinations, and stayed to live in several of them, but had never gone alone to a place where she was far from a good restaurant, a grocery store, and a hospital.

Wendy and Mary were talking about how the three should spend the afternoon.

Wendy said that taking Paul’s powerboat out would give them a chance to show Linda the entire lake. Mary said that the boat’s twin Mercury motors were loud and so fast that if they hit a floating log or something they could all be killed. Wendy laughed. “If I drive, then we won’t have to worry.”

“It’s not funny,” Mary said. “It’s not some wild product of my imagination. If we hit something at fifty miles an hour it would be like doing it a car, only without seat belts or anything. It happens all the time, especially in lakes. They’re the worst because they look the safest.”

“What’s your alternative?”

“Paul’s got three or four kayaks in the boathouse. I saw them.”

Wendy turned around and walked backward. “What do you think, Linda?”

Linda said, “I would say I’m more in the mood for the kayaks. As exercise, afternoon kayaking goes pretty well with this morning’s hike. It works your arms, your abdomen, and your back, but leaves your tired legs and feet pretty much at rest.”

“All right,” Wendy said. “I’m outvoted. We’ll save the boat for a time when we’re really tired or feel like exploring the far end of the lake.”

They kept walking, and Linda felt happy. While she had been living in Hawaii, she had thought about how great the weather there was, how beautiful the tropical landscape. She had almost forgotten how close to perfect the thinly populated spaces of northern California, Nevada, and Arizona were. Here in the mountains, she kept moving her eyes and turning her head to try to take it all in.

Charlie and Vesper were in the rental car driving toward the spot on the Google map where Linda Warren was staying with her two friends from the club. Vesper said, “I can understand why they chose to come up here for a few days. It’s an ideal spot for three middle-aged women to go and relax. If you want nightlife, you’re close enough to Reno to put on a nice dress and spend some extra time and effort with your hair and makeup and drive there for one evening. The rest of the time, you can wear baggy cargo pants and boots, and live the life of happy ten-year-olds trying to sneak up on the animals and take their picture or something.”

“Yeah, I hope she’s having a good time,” Charlie said. “She kind of had the wind knocked out of her years ago when my father died. She was young. It seemed for a while when she was with Mack Stone—excuse me, Daniel Rickenger—she was happy again. After we found out that he had just been using her to get her money and disappear, a whole part of her personality was gone. It was as though she decided to let herself be old before she really was. Part of it, I think, was that she was so hurt and humiliated. A man she had married had just been leading her on, not feeling anything for her at all. She felt like that was the verdict on her, not him.”

Charlie’s phone buzzed, and he took it out of his pocket and held it out to Vesper. “Here, read this, will you? I’d better keep my eyes on the road, with these curves.”

Vesper said, “It’s a screenshot of a letter that Martha forwarded. It’s got a big letterhead for the State of California. “Dear Mrs. Warren. The State of California has made an electronic transfer to your account at the Bank of America of $3,876,484.36. This sum represents the contents of the bank accounts held by the State Treasury for you, the widow of Daniel Webster Rickenger. It is up to you and your tax advisors to determine any liability that you may incur because of this transfer.”

“Almost four million dollars,” Charlie said. “And that’s just California, and it doesn’t count any money he may have converted from cash to other things, like stocks and bonds or land or whatever.”

“That’s very nice,” Vesper said. “Should I forward it to her?”

“I’d appreciate it,” Charlie said. “It might make her forget we came up here to violate her privacy.”

“Done,” she said.

“Still willing to do my job while I drive?”

“Of course.”

“Then will you please forward the letter to Minkeagan or Copes too?”

“You mean to my kidnappers?”

“Yes,” Charlie said. “Although I like to think of them as helpful older gentlemen rather than semiretired criminals these days. I want them to know that I’m not hiding anything from them.”

“Because they’ll kill you.”

“Probably not, but I do like to keep things cordial and open.”

She laughed and kissed his cheek, and then forwarded the email to their numbers.

Linda shrugged off the straps of her backpack and said, “Can you wait for me a minute? I’m going to sneak off into that thicket up there and pee.”

“Of course,” Rose said. She watched Linda thread her way up the hill and disappear. She said to May, “Now. She’s gone.”

Rose kept watch from the side of the trail while May reached into the backpack that Linda had left there. She pulled Linda’s phone out of the pocket and looked at the screen. “Oh crap,” she whispered. “The clock just started.”

“Tear a few checks from the back of the checkbook and take a phone shot of the credit cards before she comes back.”

After a few seconds May said, “Got them.” She stood up, sliding her flattened hand into her jeans to pocket her phone and the checks.

“Here she comes.”

May glanced up the hill and whispered, “We can get started on the transfers tonight.”

Linda reached them and bent over to pick up the backpack and put it on. “Thanks,” she said.

“No trouble,” said May. “It’s life in the great outdoors.”

They set off along the road to complete the loop around the lake. They walked a bit faster as they reached the part of the road that was fully paved again, and before long they were back at the house. Rose and Linda went inside and started preparing lunch. That gave May a chance to go into her room and hide the stolen checks and Linda’s phone.

As she slipped them into her purse, she smiled about the fact that she knew she was using the most secure hiding place in the house. An honest woman whose purse was robbed would never think of looking in another woman’s purse for her money. She also knew that the way the schedule was shaping up, it was possible that she did not have to do this. By evening, it was very likely there would be only two of them.

The women ate and washed the dishes, then went out to the boathouse to look at the kayaks, the double-bladed paddles that went with them, and the life vests that Paul the owner kept hanging on the inner wall of his boathouse. Then they went back into the house, changed into bathing suits, smeared sunscreen on themselves and one another, and then put on T-shirts and hats and went back out to the boathouse and put on the life vests. They pushed the kayaks from the dock into the water beneath the boathouse, then one by one, each climbed down the wooden ladder attached to the dock and stepped into a bright yellow kayak, holding tight to the ladder until her legs were inside the bow section and the paddle was in her hands.

Linda’s first impression came from a few drops of water that fell from one blade of her paddle onto her shoulder. It was how cold the water was for the summer. Back in the Hawaiian Islands, the ocean water was eighty degrees. Here in this lake that she could see across, the water felt about fifty. She silently reminded herself that she was no longer in the tropics, and that the lakes in this part of the Sierras were very deep. She had read on her phone last night that Tahoe was 1,644 feet deep. Blucher Lake was much smaller, but she’d just learned it was deep enough to be cold. She would say nothing about it, because it wasn’t a problem, but even more because she was determined not to utter anything that could possibly sound like a complaint.

She paddled a hundred feet onto the lake, looked back, and waited for the other two women to paddle and catch up with her. She found it interesting to see a house from the water side. They looked different, showing the eye hidden aspects of the house’s nature. It was partly because of the distance. The house and its relationship to the land around it could all be seen at once. This one was better than most, because she’d had a day to get used to a different impression. Linda began to paddle along the shore.

The next time Linda looked back, Wendy and Mary were out from under the boathouse roof and gliding along at a good speed, taking long, rhythmic strokes. Linda was surprised at their course. She had assumed they would skirt their way along the shore, so that was the direction that she had chosen. The kayaks had a very small draught and could glide along in shallow water. She had been planning to stay close to the shore and get a view of the wading birds that might become visible, and the rock formations, and possibly even fish in the shallows. She had gone quite a distance along the shore, but they were paddling steadily toward the middle of the lake. It didn’t take long before they were quite far from her.

She altered her course to intersect with theirs somewhere out there, but she made the angle small to give herself plenty of time to catch up. The way the two had operated so far, they often planned small surprises that would impress or amuse her, the new friend who had never been to this place and would appreciate it. She supposed that this time it might be a spot near the middle that was the best position to see some particular sight—maybe a break in the mountain range that allowed a view of a hidden valley beyond it, or another lake, or even a city. If it was Reno, there might even be lights. Which way was Reno from here? She had lost her sense of position during this period when directions beyond this circular forest road had stopped meaning much.

It took a while before the two other women stopped paddling. They didn’t move toward her, they just sat bobbing peacefully in their yellow kayaks. From this distance the kayaks looked so small they could have been exotic yellow waterfowl. Linda didn’t feel unhappy about any of this. Paddling around on a secluded lake was a pleasure, and the course didn’t matter to her.

She began to pay more attention to her technique, taking strong strokes that sent the kayak forward and kept the bow pointed directly between the two becalmed yellow spots ahead of her, then half turning the paddle in her hands to bring the blade down on the other side while the kayak coasted, and make her left arm pull the kayak through another surge and glide, and then half turn the paddle again and pull the right blade. The motion became more and more comfortable and automatic. She could tell that as her form improved, her speed improved too. Before long she would be gliding right between Wendy and Mary.