was now a space.
We turned Harold's house upside down. There was nothing to find — nothing that meant anything to us. Just a tidy old house full of tidy old things.
After ten minutes there was a hammering on the door downstairs.
33
Nina was still banging the door as I yanked it open. Zandt pushed straight past me and into the house, striding into the ground-floor rooms one after another. I turned to watch him go, my movements slow and vague. I felt like I was asleep, as if one dream had butt-joined into another.
'What's he doing?'
She ignored me. 'Where's Davids?'
'Gone,' I said. Her eyes were wide, with dark circles underneath. She didn't look like she'd slept in
days.
'Gone?' she shouted. 'Why on earth did you let him go?' She all but stamped her foot. Bobby emerged from the kitchen.
'We didn't,' he said. 'He just disappeared. What's it to you, anyway? How do you even know he
exists?'
She pulled a small pad out of her handbag and opened it, held it up to his face.
'The developers of The Halls are hidden behind about a million dummy corporations,' she said. 'But on the plane I tracked them, and we got close enough. What looks like the trustee company is Antiviral Global Inc., registered in the Cayman Islands. Mr Harold Davids of this address is their designated legal representative in Montana.'
'Fuck,' Bobby said, his face pale. He turned and stalked furiously back into the kitchen.
I stared at Nina. 'You've got it wrong. I've just been talking to him. To Davids. He told me … well, he told me a bunch of stuff. He knows about The Halls, yes. Certainly. But from the outside. He's not with them. He's tried to help my parents get away from these people.'
'I don't know what he told you,' Nina said. She looked up at the sound of Zandt coming out of the back room. He shook his head at her and hurried up the stairs. 'But I don't think Mr Davids is what he
seems.'
'What's Zandt looking for?'
'A body,' she said, simply. 'Hopefully not a dead one.' Her voice was slightly too flat, and I realized that beneath a hard-fought exterior, she was nearly vibrating with tension. The attempted throwaway was not convincing in the least. 'She's not going to be here. Harold is not your killer,' I said. 'He's an old man. He's…'
'Nina — you got a number for The Halls?' Bobby was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, holding the house phone.
She glanced into her notebook, flipped a page. 'We have 406-555-1689. But all you get is a recorded message and an interminable menu system. Why?'
Bobby smiled, sort of. He made a facial expression, anyway. 'Harold called that number. It's in his redial list, from twenty minutes ago. While we were in the house.'
'But…' I said. For a moment my mouth did nothing but move, without sound, as I tried to frame my objections. 'He looked freaked. You saw him. He was sitting here waiting, knowing they were going to come for him. Like they came for Mary and Ed. You saw him, for Christ's sake. You know how he looked.'
'Sure he looked frightened, Ward. But of us. Of us. He thought we knew about him. He thought we were going to whack him.'
Zandt came back down into the hallway. 'She's not here.'
Davids had seen me with a knife. He knew we had guns. But I was still at a loss. 'Why would he tell me anything, if he's with them?'
'You'd found out he was part of the Hunter's Rock group. You mentioned a video, a note. You recognized him. He didn't know how much else you knew. You could have been bluffing him. Simplest thing is to tell you the truth most of the way, and then switch it at the end.' He swore briefly but viciously, seeming to take the deception very personally.
Nina's face was a row of question marks. 'Who are the Hunter's Rock group?'
'Later,' I said. 'We've got to find Davids first.'
A cell phone rang. We all reached at once, like strung-out-six-shooters. But the call was for Zandt.
'Yeah?' he said.
'Hello, Officer,' said a voice. It was loud enough for us all to hear.
Zandt looked at Nina, talked into the phone. 'Who's that?'
'A friend,' the voice said. 'Though I admit we haven't met yet. Not my fault. You weren't good enough
to bring us together.'
Zandt was very, very still. 'Who is this?'
There was a chuckle down the line. 'I thought you'd guess. I'm The Upright Man, John.'
Nina's mouth dropped open.
'Bullshit.'
'Not bullshit. Well done on finding Wang. And for encouraging him to do the right thing. We owe you
one. He could have been an embarrassment.' Zandt's mouth was dry, and clicked when he spoke. 'If you're The Upright Man, prove it.'
Bobby and I stared at him.
'I don't have to prove anything,' the voice said. 'But I'll tell you something to your advantage. If you're
not out of that house in about two minutes, you'll be dead. All of you.'
The connection was cut.
'Out of the house,' Zandt said. 'Now.'
By the time we'd reached the street we could hear sirens approaching. A lot of sirens. I unlocked the
car and jumped into the driver's seat.