Monsters - Matt Rogers (icecream ebook reader TXT) 📗

He’d never anticipated an easy conversation with King, but it still cut through to the depths of him each time. They pushed each other, prodded each other, made each other better.

Finally he said, ‘I don’t know. I’m human.’ He thought he heard King breathe a smile. ‘What?’

King said, ‘Never heard anything truer. We’re both human.’ A pause. ‘See you soon.’

The line went dead.

17

Slater had only been off the phone for a couple of minutes when Tyrell came into the kitchen through the garage.

Tyrell looked all around, noting the silent house, then jolted when he did a double-take of the sofa and saw Slater stretched out, motionless, watching him.

He said, ‘Man, you look exhausted.’

Slater said, ‘I am.’

‘From deadlifts? Or somethin’ else?’ A brief wink before he turned away to run a glass of water under the tap. ‘I been gone a while.’

Slater sighed. ‘Thought teenagers were allergic to talking about that.’

‘Maybe,’ Tyrell said. ‘Not me. It’s weird. You feel like my dad, but you also feel like a brother.’

‘I think that’s the way it should be. I want you to feel like you can talk to me about anything.’

‘I do feel like that.’ Tyrell emptied half the glass down his throat, took a gulp of air. ‘Where’s Alexis? Already gone?’

‘She’ll be in the boarding lounge by now.’

‘Maybe I shoulda been home earlier, said goodbye…’

‘It’s not that big of a deal.’

‘It might be.’ Tyrell winced as the words left his mouth, aware of the effect they might have. ‘Man, I didn’t mean it like that…’

‘It’s fine.’

‘That’s what threw you off, right? Wonderin’ about things that might happen.’

‘Yeah.’ Slater took a breath. ‘King and I are chasing our own stuff. It’s taking us to San Francisco, too.’

Tyrell put the glass down as he processed. ‘You helpin’ her?’

‘Not directly. But something tells me it’s all connected.’

‘What’s your own “stuff”?’

‘That list we spoke about. One of the men on it runs a gym in SF. I think he might be involved with whoever’s trying to intimidate Ava’s niece.’

‘You ain’t told her yet, have you?’

‘Who?’ Slater said, even though he knew.

Tyrell rolled his eyes. ‘You know who.’

‘That’s my problem. Not yours. You’ll be okay to fend for yourself for a couple of days?’

‘Of course, man. I took care’a myself for years. Dad ain’t never did shit for me.’

Slater nodded.

Tyrell stared across the open plan space. ‘And if it ain’t a couple of days?’

‘I can’t see it taking much longer than that. King and I don’t like to waste time.’

‘That’s not what I meant.’

Slater hesitated. ‘I know.’

‘Humour me,’ Tyrell said. ‘I know you say it ain’t gonna happen, but it might. What then?’

‘You’ll get all of this. The house. The money. You’ll be set. And you’ll have King, Violetta.’

‘King’s going with you. What if you’re all gone? It’s unlikely, but it’s possible, yeah?’

‘You’ve met Alonzo a couple of times. He’s the one who got you into Harvard. He’ll keep you on the right path. Maybe he won’t fill the same role as me, but he’ll do what’s necessary.’

Tyrell stared at his feet.

Slater levered off the sofa, crossed the living room. He rounded the kitchen island and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. ‘No matter what happens, you’ll be okay. You’re the smartest, toughest kid I’ve ever met. You don’t need a big idiot like me telling you what to do all the time.’

‘I like getting told what to do sometimes. I can’t do it all myself, like what Dad used to make me do.’

‘Good,’ Slater said, giving his collarbone a reassuring squeeze. ‘That’s good. Because I’m going to be bossing you around for a whole lot longer. So you’d better get used to it.’

Tyrell looked up and smiled. ‘I dunno what I’m gettin’ at. It’s not like anyone in California is gonna give you much trouble.’

‘There you go.’

‘Now call Alexis.’ Tyrell headed for his room. ‘Or I’ll do it for you.’

Slater busied himself with the dishes for as long as he could stretch out the menial task, then kept the momentum going by cleaning all the kitchen surfaces with a wet cloth and vacuuming the living room carpet. When he couldn’t distract himself any longer, he pulled out his phone and dialled her number. She wouldn’t be boarding for another fifteen minutes. It was nice to have an imposed limit on the length of the conversation. He wasn’t sure how it’d go.

‘Hey,’ she answered. ‘You checking whether I’ve gotten myself killed yet?’

‘You know me too well. You getting hunted through Boston Logan?’

‘I’ve killed four rogue TSA already. Any more and I might start getting tired.’

‘Don’t say that too loudly in an airport.’

She laughed. ‘You’re right. So—any reason for this?’

He didn’t answer immediately, trying to find the words. Eventually he sighed. ‘I don’t know how you’re going to take this.’

‘You won’t know until you say it.’

‘I started working on the list again.’

‘That’s good. That’s what I suggested.’

‘Frankie Booth is one of the names. He was associated with Dwayne Griggs, so he’s bottom-of-the-barrel scum, and he runs a gym that coaches a stable of budding MMA fighters in Hunters Point, SF. You do the math.’

He waited the appropriate length of time for Alexis to put the pieces together, to connect the beaten and brutalised body of Jack Sundström described to her by Ava with the new information Slater had provided. She said, ‘Sounds like a coincidence.’

‘It does,’ Slater said. ‘But not if you really think about it. If you have access to a group of highly skilled and morally bankrupt individuals all in the one place, guys you’ve probably groomed for years to do your dirty work, that puts you in a unique position. It’s a huge risk to take, and I’d wager Frankie’s one of the only people doing it in the country. Is it so hard to believe a psychotic CEO and a big-shot heroin dealer have both utilised his services?’

‘I take it you want to find out.’

‘Which is why I wasn’t sure how you’d react. King’s coming too.’

A pause. ‘King’s coming?’

‘You heard me.’

‘Why?’

‘He got