I was driving back to Mission Beach, trying to ignore the weight of the slip of paper in my pocket, when my cell phone rang.
I didn’t recognize the incoming number. “Hello?”
“Noah, it’s Berk. You in the middle of something?”
“No, I’m just heading home. What’s going on?”
The line buzzed for a moment.
“I think I stepped on your toes.”
“What do you mean?”
“The thing at Liz’s office,” he said. “Something was out of place and I think it was me.”
I felt my cheeks flush, even though we were on the phone. “Well, I, uh…,” I mumbled, not sure what to say and feeling awkward.
“Come on, Noah. It was pretty obvious. I got in the middle of something with you and Liz. I saw it the other night at the bar, too. I didn’t know and I’m sorry, man.”
“Not your fault,” I said. “It’s complicated.”
“Regardless. That’s not my thing,” he said. “And I want to apologize.”
The truth was, I’d been pissed at him. It was petty and it was dumb, but I couldn’t get the picture of him and Liz out of my head. Sometimes I thought like a fifteen-year-old.
I appreciated his apology. “None needed, Mike. Really.”
“Good,” he said. “Now, I’ve got the Pluto stuff you wanted.”
“Anything good?”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure what you’d think is good at this point,” he said. “You got time to come over to my place and take a look?”
“Right now?”
“I’d bring it down to you, but I rolled my ankle playing ball yesterday,” he said, sounding embarrassed. “Stupid lawyer’s league. Anyway, I’m hobbling. We can have a beer and look at the stuff and you can explain to me these complications with Liz.”
“I’m not sure I even know what the complications are,” I said, laughing.
“Then we can pretend.”
I didn’t need the Pluto stuff anymore, but he’d gone through the trouble of pulling it out for me and I was still curious if what Linc had told me about the trust was the truth. I didn’t have anywhere else to be and it would give me time to figure out what to do with the address Famazio had given me. “Okay. You still on Mt. Helix?”
“Yep. You remember how to get here?”
“Yeah. I’m in Mission Valley. I’ll head up there now.”
“Cool,” he said. “See you in a little bit.”
The phone beeped again as soon as I hung up. Carter’s number flashed on the readout.
“Hey,” I said.
“What’s shakin’?” he asked.
“Going up to Berk’s for a beer,” I said. “Wanna join us?”
“Where’s he at?”
“La Mesa. Mt. Helix.”
“Awfully far for a beer.”
Carter subscribed to the theory that there was no life east of I-5.
“It’s not that bad,” I said. “He won’t care. Come up.”
“Give me the address.”
I did.
“Any plans for today that I need to know about?” he asked.
I thought of the address in my pocket. “I’m working on it. You come out to Berk’s, we can figure it out.”
“I’ll think about it,” he said. “If I don’t show, call me when you’re done. Let’s get this over with.”
I hung up, feeling the same way.