Baca

I turned to Bob. “What made you take off?”

Bob looked at Carl and Bond then said, “They’d been using me as a patsy when I discovered what they were doing: smuggling in undocumented women and stolen treasure taken from Moscow. I dug a little deeper and found the women were forced into nude dancing, prostitution and selling drugs, and the Romanov treasures were being sold on the black market to keep Americas Studios afloat.

“I was approached by an agent of the Russian government and told him I would help.”

I said, “Valdar.”

Bob nodded, “Yes. He was a legitimate artist, but also worked for the Russian authorities. I let him stay at my home in Malibu while we tried to dig further. When they found out, they killed him.”

I asked Bond, “Where’s Valdar’s body?”

Carl answered for her, “Chum for Sharks.”

Bond said, “I didn’t know.”

I asked Bob, “How did Deco fit in?”

“He’s my friend. Valdar and I talked to him about the situation and we agreed to play along with Carl and the others until there was enough to hang them. But we tried to get too tricky.”

I said, “Deco helped you save the women, didn’t he?”

“Yes. We had been meeting at a motel where Carl and the others would bring the women and I would act as the mutual friend between them and Deco, whose reputation made him believable as someone who would buy women and farm them out to clubs. He was good and made the Russians see it as a beneficial thing, with him riding herd on the women after the Russians brought them in. Deco convinced them he could guarantee the women danced at the right clubs and didn’t skip.”

I said, “But you started intercepting the groups after they were dropped off.”

Yes, after we found out at our last motel meeting that a Russian named Simon Mortay murdered one of the women at his club because she wouldn’t prostitute herself. Deco took the two women at the motel and hid them in another state, then told the Russians they ran out on him. Deco and I talked it over and knew we couldn’t let any more women die, so Deco found out the route and drop-off location and I gathered the last group, five women, and led them to a different place.”

“Why on foot?”

“Because Carl’s men were watching me by then, watching my cars and my house. It happened very fast and frankly was the only thing I could think of. I took them up a canyon to an area near the trail where I rode my bike. I felt it would be easy to keep watch on them that way and not be followed.”

“And that’s when Carl found out about Valdar.”

Carl growled, “Yes. Ve take care of him.”

Bob said, “I called Deco when I heard. We were going to get the women out of the canyon and to a place of safety, then we planned to hide out, too. I rode my bike, and figured to take the women out one by one, but I saw Carl and some others on my back trail, coming on dirt bikes. I left my bike and climbed down on foot. Two of the women weren’t there but I couldn’t wait, so I led the others away to a place I knew, Chumash Cave.”

“There was a lot of food left there, so you’d planned on using it before and stocked the place?”

“Yes, as an alternate plan if I couldn’t get them out on the bike. I did it in a hurry, grabbing whatever was at the house and taking it there. I drove and used a dirt road to get close, then walked in and cached the food. I drove back home and immediately got on my bike and went up the trail to the women.”

I looked at Carl, “But you didn’t throw his bike off the cliff until the next day.”

Carl said, “Stupid Baca. Ve tink he return for pretty bike. Next day I know he runs. I throw bike from cliff.”

I wagged my finger at him, “You should learn to control that temper.”

Carl’s voice turned icy. “Enough talk. De chew-els or I kill Landman.”

I said, “Okay. Let someone neutral hold the bag until we trade.”

“Who?”

I pointed to the forklift driver, who didn’t notice. “I’ll give him the bag to hold until we get the people, then you get the bag from him.”

Bond and Carl talked again, arguing back and forth until Carl shook her by the shoulders so hard her head looked like a bobble-toy. He let Bond go and took a step toward us.