The Trade

“Kids on their own, fourteen, fifteen, suffering from exposure and covered in poison oak. Illegals, I think. A young boy, five girls, one of them a black kid about ten.” He spoke rapidly, trying to convince her before she hung up. “I’ve got one of the girls here now, and she won’t speak. I’ve got to go back to get the others—”

“Are you crazy? Call the authorities. Call Bobby Eckhart. Do it now, before you get any deeper. Goodbye.”

“I can’t, Ginn. They’re illegals, I promised I wouldn’t call the police—” He was speaking to a dial tone.

The kettle was whistling. He rummaged around in the cupboard, found a package of peppermint teabags, dumped a couple in a mug. He covered them with water, spooned in sugar. The girl had not moved. Mug in hand, he started to walk toward her. “Now you sit down and drink this, you’ll feel better—”

She exploded into action, made an end run around him, grabbed a knife from the wooden block on the counter. She backed into the far corner of the living room, wedged herself between the built-in bookcases and the wall. She held the long narrow bladed paring knife in front of her with both hands. It looked as dangerous as a shiv.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute,” Matt said. He put the mug on the end table, and moved toward her. “You don’t need that.” Slowly, he held his hand out for the knife. “It’s very sharp. Come on, give it to me.”

She slashed at him, barely missing his fingers, and he jumped back. He could see the whites of her eyes surrounding the dark iris. She looked like a trapped animal, in shock, ready to kill, ready to die.

Footsteps pounded along the walkway and Matt backed through to the kitchen and opened the door.

“Man, am I glad you’re here.”

“So, what’s up?” Phil Halliburton took off his outer coat, hung it on the coat stand by the door. Early forties, he was tall and slender, well barbered dark hair, the kind of guy who spent time and effort cultivating a polished image. He looked more like a celebrity lawyer than a doctor. He rubbed Barney’s ears while trying to keep the Lab away from his dark slacks. “So what’s the big mystery?”

“There she is,” Matt said.

Halliburton looked at the girl pressed into the angle between bookshelves and wall, then back at Matt. He looked in shock. “Good God, Matt. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I came across a bunch of kids in Encinal. This one was lying on the ground, looking half-dead, so I brought her home and called you.”

“You what? A bunch of kids? What kids?”

“I don’t know, Phil. Just kids, obviously illegals. It was going to rain, and she looked so sick. I couldn’t leave her.”

“You kidnapped her?”

“No, I didn’t kidnap her. What are you talking about?”

“What else would you call it? Doesn’t look as if she came willingly. What’s that you’ve given her?”

“Peppermint tea, with a lot of sugar. I tried to hand it to her and she grabbed the knife.”

“Matt, you should have left her there, whoever she is, and called the authorities.”

“Yes, well, maybe, but it didn’t seem the thing to do at the time.”

Halliburton crossed the living room, but stopped when the girl jabbed the knife at him. “What’s her name?”

“I don’t know. She hasn’t said anything.” Then Matt remembered the girl Kanita patting her mouth and shaking her head, and he realized why Hasan was willing to let her leave.

“I don’t think she can speak.”

“Can she hear?”

“Yes, I’m pretty sure she can.”

Phil looked from the girl to Matt. “Oh, man, you’ve got yourself into one hell of a mess here. Well, if I can get the knife away from her, I can give her a shot, calm her down. Then we can figure out where to go from there.” Halliburton took another step toward her. The girl pressed her back deeper into the corner and kept the knife pointed toward him. “Come on, honey, put down the knife,” he said firmly. He moved closer.

Her eyes locked on his, the girl pressed the point of the blade into the soft place beneath her own chin.

“Back off, Phil,” Matt said. “She’s going to hurt herself.”

Halliburton ignored him. “Now, you’re not going to do that, are you, honey? Come on, be a good girl, put the knife on the table.”

Matt could see the point pressing deeper into the delicate skin. “Phil, back off, she means it.”

“Don’t worry, she’s bluffing.”

The skin broke, blood trickled down the girl’s throat.

Matt grabbed Halliburton’s arm. “This is not going to work. I’m going to call the sheriff’s department.”

“No, wait a minute. This kid’s in shock. Look at her, her skin’s gray, and she’s sweating. That’s not a fever. Get a bunch of deputies in here slamming about, this could escalate into a tragedy.”

His eyes on the girl, Matt said, “You just said—” He stopped as the outside door opened.

Wriggling with joy, his tail waving from side to side, Barney hurled himself against the small, slight figure in the doorway.

Ginn Chang staggered, dropped to her knees, put both arms around him. “Oh, Barns. I love you, too.” She buried her face in his neck, as if giving herself time to ease into the room. “I’ve missed you, Barns. I’ve missed you so much.” She held Barney’s head, kissed him between his eyes, then looked up at Matt.

Matt drank her in. “Ginn.”

She was wearing a bright red pea coat, a heavy white turtle-neck, jeans, the elegance of her French mother as apparent as the delicate bone structure and bloodlines of her Chinese father. Matt’s mouth was suddenly dry, his heart bumped unevenly. She hadn’t been here for ten months, the longest ten months of his life and he hadn’t heard her light step along the deck. He couldn’t see her fabulous hair, it was pushed under a red woolen watchcap—unless she’d had it cut off, an awful thought. She looked wonderful. “I didn’t think you’d come.”

“Well, here I am. What did I interrupt?” Ginn got to her feet, took off the hat, freeing a shoulder length mass of shining black hair. She shook her head, removed the coat, threw it on the back of a kitchen chair. She looked at the girl, took in the knife. Her eyebrows shot up. “What’s going on here?”

“This is the girl I told you about on the phone.”

“No kidding. What’s she doing with a knife?”

“She grabbed it when I tried to hand her a cup of tea.”

“He was just explaining to me how he found her in the canyon and decided to bring her home because she was sick,” Phil said. “Good to see you, Ginn.”

“You, too, Phil.” Her tone was less than convincing. Matt knew she’d never had the same regard for Phil that he had. As far as she was concerned, Phil was just one more guy who wanted everything but marriage, and was breaking Annie Lautner’s heart in the process. Matt felt his face flush as she turned back to him. “Did you call Bobby?”

“No,” Matt said. He was beginning to realize how crazy all this sounded. “I found this kid lying on the ground in Encinal. There were several others, and they were all so terrified I promised I wouldn’t contact the police.”

Ginn glanced at the girl. “She looks pretty bad.” She started across the room, the dog following. The girl’s black eyes darted from the men to Ginn, and the point of the knife pressed deeper into the soft spot beneath her chin. Beads of fresh blood oozed from the wound. Ginn stopped well short, and dropped to sit cross-legged on the floor, eye-level with the girl. Barney leaned against her and Ginn put an arm over him and drew him closer.

She smiled and said gently, “You look very tired. Why don’t I make you something to eat, and then we’ll talk. No one is going to hurt you, sweetie.”

The girl’s dark eyes swept across the two men, then came back to Ginn. The hand holding the knife was shaking.

Ginn picked up the mug, put it to her nose and inhaled. She smiled. “Nice. Peppermint. Have some.” She held it out. The girl shrunk back. Ginn sipped the tea. “Mmm. Good.” Slowly, carefully, she pulled the small end table within the girl’s reach, replaced the mug and got to her feet. “Have you got any eggs, Matt?”

“Yes, sure.”

“This girl is in shock, suicidal, probably psychotic. Eggs won’t cure that,” Halliburton said.

“Can’t hurt. Why don’t you two go sit at the kitchen table while I fix something for her to eat. Give her some space.”

Ginn moved around easily in the kitchen that had been hers for five years. She scrambled eggs, toasted bread, put oatmeal cookies on a plate, warmed milk. She placed the food on a tray, carried it over to the table and put it down. As if the last of her strength was deserting her, the girl had leaned her back against the wall. Even with both hands wrapped around the handle of the knife, she was only just managing to keep it upright, the shaking point at her throat.

Tail waving, Barney followed the tray. Trained to ignore any food unless invited, he nuzzled the girl, then licked her face. The knife wavered, the girl sagged against him and the same thin, terrible moans Matt had first heard in the canyon seemed wrenched from her throat. The sound arrowed straight into his heart.

Ginn knelt in front of her and slowly reached for the knife. She covered the girl’s hand with her own, holding it until the small fingers relaxed the knife into her hand. Barney licked the girl’s face anxiously and she put her arms around him, burying her head in his shoulder.

Briefly, Ginn touched the girl’s dirty, tangled hair, then reached for the blanket on the back of the couch and draped it over her shoulders. The girl’s face was hidden in Barney’s coat, but the moans were turning into sobs. Ginn passed her fingers briefly over her eyes before standing up slowly to rejoin the two men at the kitchen table.

“Now what?” Matt said softly.

Phil got his bag, broke open a sealed sterile syringe, selected a vial, drew the colorless liquid into the syringe.

“The first thing is to quiet her down, give her some relief from all that anxiety. It will also give me a chance to examine her. Something’s caused all this.”

“Leave her alone, Phil,” Ginn said. “Just let her cry.”

“So, you’re a doctor now, Genevieve?” Halliburton asked pleasantly.

“It just seems common sense, that’s all. Look at her.”

The girl had her arms around Barney, her head resting on him. The dog sat quietly, his eyes on the plate of food. “I’d use a knife, too, if some strange guy came at me with a needle, wouldn’t you? Sit down, I’ll make some tea.”

Matt smiled to himself. Ginn’s response to most crises was tea. The canister she had left when she moved out was still full of some blend she had sent to her from Canada.

Phil replaced the syringe and vial, and closed his bag. “That little girl is suffering from exposure, dehydration and hysteria. She’s suicidal and should be in a hospital.”

“How can I send her to a hospital?” Matt said. “Who am I going to say she is? I don’t know her name or anything about her. I can’t answer any questions. How long could we get away with it if I made up something?”

“Maybe she’s a runaway and she’s got parents searching for her, frantic with worry. Did you think about that?”

“Phil, does she look like a runaway to you, with a loving family somewhere? They’re not runaways, these kids, not unless they’ve run away from a circus. They were all dressed in these bizarre outfits. One little kid was black, Phil. Ten years old and African. And not African-American, from some place in Africa. God knows what language she speaks. And it’s going to rain.”

Matt looked out the window. The sky was heavy with cloud and a band of rain moved across the horizon. Ginn put a mug in front of him, handed the other to Halliburton, and took a chair from which she could keep an eye on Barney and the girl. With her head, Ginn motioned for Matt to look, and he turned. The girl was kneeling in front of the little table, shoveling food into her mouth, with Barney at her side following each bite. Smiling, Matt held Ginn’s eyes, sharing a moment of pleasure with her for the first time in almost a year.

“I really don’t understand what’s going on here, Matt.” Halliburton had not picked up on the moment. “What were you doing in Encinal in the first place? Isn’t that where a girl’s body was found couple of days ago?”

“What body?” Ginn asked.

“You don’t know about that? A girl was found dead by the side of the road,” Halliburton said. “Do you think this girl, these kids, could be tied up somehow with that?”

“I don’t know. Could be.” Matt looked at Ginn. “During the fire, I had to come home along the beach. Just past the Edwards old house, I found a baby, maybe a couple of hours old. When I got her here, she was dead. The girl they found might be her mother.”

“Oh, Matt! Oh, my God!”

“You didn’t tell me about that when you came to get stitched up,” Phil said.

Shrugging in dismissal, Matt showed Ginn the Band-Aid covering the wound on his wrist. “I must have cut it breaking a window at Jimmy’s. Phil put a couple of stitches in. Anyway, a couple of sheriff’s detectives came to see me about the baby and they told me a girl’s body had been found, covered in wild-flowers, so I went to have a look at the place for myself. I saw these kids but when I called out, they ran, so I followed them. Five girls and a boy. One of the girls spoke a few words of English, really a few words, I could barely understand her. It was very strange, they seemed to be completely dominated by the boy.”

“If they’re that scared, you’d think they’d put distance between themselves and the place where a body was found, not hang around like that,” Phil said.

“That’s what I thought.” Matt got to his feet. “First I’m going to get some clothes together for them and then I’m going to try to bring them back with me. Their clothes were barely covering them, and it’s cold out there now.” He nodded toward the girl. “I had to wrap that one in Barney’s blanket.”

“You’re planning to keep five, six kids here?” Halliburton looked around the combined kitchen, dining room, living room. “Besides the little detail that it’s illegal, this whole place is smaller than my foyer.”

“I’ll think of something. Phil, can you stay here with Ginn for about an hour?”

Halliburton held up a warning hand. “Sorry. I’ve done all I’m going to do. I was never here, I don’t know anything about illegal kids. Annie and I are going out to dinner.” He got up, took his coat from the stand, shrugged into it. “This girl needs care and she should be watched.” He picked up his bag. “Plenty of fluids, light nourishing food, bed rest. Lock away the knives. Good seeing you, Ginn.” He closed the door firmly behind him.

“Good seeing you, too, Phil,” Ginn said to the closed door. The retreating footsteps faded. “So what are you going to do with a bunch of illegal kids you can’t communicate with?”

“I don’t know.” Matt hesitated, then said, “Would you feel safe staying alone with her? I won’t be gone long.”

“You’re really going to bring them here?”

“If you’ve got a better suggestion, God knows I’m open to it.”

Ginn shook her head. “All right, I’ll stay, but I’ll have to make a call. I had plans, too.”

“Oh. Okay, I’ll leave you to it, then.”

Matt went into the small spare bedroom. Of course she was dating, he should have expected that. But right now she was here, with him. That was something. He opened the closet, pulled out skis and poles, tennis racquets, a couple of baseball bats and mitts, and threw them on the bed so that he could get at the shelves of old winter clothes, some of it his, some of it Ginn had left behind when she moved out. Her sweats were small enough for the girls to wear, Hasan, too, come to that. He was so slight he was hardly there. A tough little bastard, though, a fighter. Matt cleared a shelf, dumped the clothes into a black canvas bag.

Then he felt Ginn behind him. Matt breathed in the scent she always wore, maybe from the giant bottle he’d put in her stocking last Christmas with a card from Barney…Not last Christmas. Last Christmas was the first without her in five years. Last Christmas he’d skied in Davos and fucked his brains out with some Italian girl whose name he didn’t even remember.

“I raided the refrigerator. You haven’t got much, just some cheese and bread and some apples. I put in water as well.” Ginn handed him a plastic bin liner. “I tried to get her into bed but she wouldn’t go. She’s lying down on the couch, so that’s something. I had to let Barney get up on the couch with her.”

Matt gave a small laugh. “Bet that was hard.”

“You know Barns. Matt, do you think Phil will go to the sheriff?”

“Come on. I know he’s not your favorite, but he wouldn’t do that.” He packed in another load, fastened the bag and stood. “Okay, now you’ve got my cell phone number, Bobby’s is on speed dial on the kitchen phone and in the bedroom. If she gets violent or threatens you, just run. You leave her, or you let her go if that’s what she wants. Don’t try to stop her. Promise me.”

“Matt, she’s not going to do anything like that.”

“Ginn, please, just do as I ask. Promise me.”

“Okay. I promise. But don’t worry, I’ve got Barney.”

Matt picked up the bag. “Back in an hour.”

CHAPTER 9

Using the bag as a brake, Matt half slid, half slithered down into the canyon. The heavy moisture of late afternoon intensified the foul stink of the burn being drawn toward the ocean.

“Kanita!” His voice came back at him. His stomach was heavy with the weight of anxiety. “Hasan!” He hefted the bag, made his way to the piled rocks and trees where he had left them, his boots sliding on wet rock. He stood by the boulders, yelled again, listened to the silence resonate. He dumped the bag, walked the immediate area, then widened the search, calling, scanning the ground for footprints, but the leaf-strewn ground gave up nothing but the wrapper from the energy bar he’d given the child.

Hasan had herded them away, and they could be anywhere by now. Images flipped through his mind, the girls crying, the little group huddling together for comfort—and the child, her face filled with bewilderment and terror. She was about the same age he’d been when his mother died. He knew the bewilderment, but he’d never experienced the kind of terror he’d seen on that little girl’s face.

He returned to where he’d left the canvas carryall, took out his wallet, tucked every bill he had into a side pocket, not much, five twenties, a ten and some singles. He carried the bag to the little shelter under the trees, knelt to shove it way back into the darkest patch of tangled branches. He stood and looked around. He’d done all he could. So why did he feel so lousy?

The headlights on the Range Rover picked up Ginn’s silver BMW, then swept across a new black Mercedes 500 parked just beyond it. Matt drove into the garage, turned off the ignition, walked along the side deck. Ginn had put on the beach lights, illuminating the sand in front of the house, and the curl of the waves hitting the beach. She always used to do that when he worked late.

He opened the door. “Sorry it took so long,” he called out.

“It’s okay, Phil kept me company,” Ginn said. She came into the kitchen, looked over his shoulder. “Where are they?”

“They weren’t there. I left the stuff under a tree.” Matt hung up his coat and glanced at Halliburton. “I thought you had a dinner date with Annie.”

Phil shrugged. “I cancelled. I couldn’t leave you alone with this.”

A surprisingly kind gesture. He and Phil were not that close. “Thanks. Where is she?” He looked at the sofa, then at Ginn. “Where’s Barney?”

“I managed to persuade her to get into bed. Barney’s with her, she seems to feel better when he’s there. I think she’s sleeping. Phil, can I get you a fresh drink?”

“Sure, thanks.”

Ginn reached into the cupboard for glasses, mixed the drinks, put a vodka and tonic on the coffee table in front of Phil, handed the other glass to Matt, then poured a glass of Chardonnay for herself. Matt wondered if she realized she had not asked him what he wanted, she’d just fallen into their old end of the day routine, Laphroaig and water for him, white wine for her.

Matt swirled the liquid in his glass. His breath felt heavy, his very bones felt as if they were made of lead. “I think I’m going to have to call Bobby Eckhart.”

“We’ve already been through that. It’s not an option,” Ginn said. “Bobby would have to report it. She’d be taken into custody right away.”

Matt got up, walked around the sofa, looked out the window. The horizon had closed in, as if a gray curtain had dropped fifty yards out. The forecast said rain would move onshore sometime during the night but it looked as if it was already here. “Phil, can you get me a nurse, twenty-four-hour care?”

“You mean, live in? Here?” Phil asked.

“Well, I can’t leave her, I can’t take her to the hospital, what else is there?”

“Well, I suppose I could take her home with me,” Phil said slowly. “My housekeeper Lupe was illegal herself before the amnesty.”

“What about Annie?” Matt asked.

“What about her? We don’t live together. Besides, it’s only until you find another solution.”

Matt felt a flood of relief. “I’ll start with an immigration lawyer tomorrow.”

Phil looked at his watch. “I’ve got to get going. You got something to put on her? I can’t take her out dressed like that.”

“There’s still some of Ginn’s stuff in the closet.”

“I’ll get it.” Ginn got up, disappeared into the small guest bedroom.

As soon as she’d left, Phil opened his medical bag. “I’m going to have to give her that shot, Matt. I won’t be able to deal with her in the car if she’s hysterical.”

“No, I’m with Ginn on this. You saw how she was.”

“That’s precisely the point. A shot of Valium and there’s no danger of it happening again.” Halliburton opened the bedroom door.

The girl’s shriek brought Ginn hurtling through the doorway. She dropped a pile of clothes to the floor, shot across the room.

“What are you doing?” She saw the syringe in Halliburton’s hand. “It’s the needle, she’s frightened of the needle.”

“It’s hysteria, Ginn. In two minutes, she’s going to be okay.”

“No, she’s not,” Ginn said. “She’s terrified.”

The girl was curled into the fetal position, her shrieks replaced by the awful mewling of terror.

“This is not the first hysterical teenager I’ve treated. It’s just Valium, for God’s sake.”

“You’re not giving her anything. You guys get out,” Ginn said. “Go on. I’ll sit with her. She’s not going anywhere.”

“Ginn, this is a medical problem,” Phil said. “It’s hysteria, pure and simple.”

Ginn shot him a look that would have withered fruit on the trees. “Got it. Thanks, Phil. Leave Barney here when you go.”

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