Free McKuen’s Revenge by Andy King

to the bar and asked for a ginger ale. He sat and stared at the mirror, trying to think of any other angle. His phone rang—Zolo.
    “ Jefe , I am sorry. I make my phone vibrate by mistake.”
    Growling, Dennis said he wanted an army out looking for Liv. He wanted Zolo to reach out and touch everybody he knew who might know something. Zolo cursed himself in Spanish for a minute.
    “Hey man, it’s OK,” Dennis said. “Well, it’s not OK but you didn’t do anything wrong, you suggested it. I should’ve followed up, it’s my mistake, not yours.”
    “But it is my fault. I even think about getting Jerky to do a, how you say, hidden watching on your house. He is good at sleeping in his car, he don’t mind.”
    “Look, we gotta deal with this right now. We’re wasting time with shoulda woulda coulda. Just start calling, OK?”
    “OK, is my stupid mistake, I find her.” Zolo hung up.
    _____
     
    McKuen looked up. Dennis walked into the office.
    “Zolo’s got a bunch of people asking questions,” Dennis said.
    “Still got a net around Amy, right?”
    “Oh yeah. When I was talking to Zolo, I made sure.”
    Dennis started to pace, hands clenched behind his back. His cowboy boots clunked on the wood floor.
    “How ‘bout you take the pacing out to the barroom?” McKuen said.
    “Oh, man.” Dennis stared at McKuen, face redder than usual, looking worn out and angry. He turned around. The clunking receded.
    McKuen shut the door. He was sympathetic, but he did better work in solitude. Quiet solitude.
    He punched Coil’s number and told her about the ransom call. It had to be connected to the person looking for the account numbers.
    She wanted to know why he was calling her. He flattered her by calling her the Christian expert, as if that would work.
    The conversation ended with Coil saying she would think about it, but it was pretty far down her priority list.
    He straightened things on his desk, squaring angles, then grabbed a pen and folded back a fresh sheet.
    He had to figure it out. Things were out of hand.
    _____
     
    Dennis groped for his phone in the dark. It was Zolo, reporting in after a long night.
    “The only lead is at a trucking company down Bandini Boulevard. Vato sees a gringa , looks a little like Olivia. She’s with three Latino dudes, getting out of a van.” Dennis’s blood pressure spiked.
    “You followed up, right?”
    “ Sí , but it turn up nothing.”
    “Look, I gotta bring you more money, you can hire more men.”
    “Do not worry, for me this is personal, Miss Olivia is my friend. One more thing. Coupla days ago, you want me to find out more about some H, where’s it going to, alla that.”
    “Oh yeah. So?”
    “So Montebello.”
    “Montebello?” Dennis’s heart pounded faster. The room spun.
    His memories of Montebello were from a night in a rented SUV with McKuen, a risky operation and a quick getaway. Only a few years before, it seemed like decades.
    “ Sí . Comes in on the beach and goes someplace in the Valley. Some processing place, I don’t know. Then the load is distributed all over, but the money trail is to Montebello.”
    “Is this good intel? The source, you trust it?”
    “As much as I trust anything.”
    “Huh.” Dennis was puzzled. Montebello was The Five’s base. He didn’t know what happened after he and McKuen took care of them. He assumed their operation was ruined.
    They hung up. He wondered whether Zolo’s mention of Montebello could be connected with Liv.
    No, McKuen must be right about the necklace. Dennis went out to his truck before traffic got worse. Depleted but alert, he could sleep when he was dead. Now he had something he could trade with Coil.

9
     
    Thursday the 12 th
    Ty Jimenez, CeCe Dias’ security man, settled back with his phone.
    “Took long enough, watched ‘em eleven days. That Reneaux dude drives around a lot. They even saw that little cop gal—”
    “Jen,” CeCe said.
    “Yeah, saw her pop that guy right after Reneaux