Stalking the Angel by Robert Crais Page B

“Finish dressing, Mimi. We’re going to leave soon.”
    “I hate to be the wet blanket,” I said, “but maybe we should forgo the Man of the Month celebration.”
    Bradley frowned. “I told you before. That’s impossible.”
    I said, “The banquet will be in a large ballroom at the hotel. There will be a couple of hundred people plus the hotel and kitchen employees. People will want to speak with you before the presentation and after, and with your wife, and your family will be spread all to hell and back. If we assume that there is merit to the threats you’ve received, you’ll be vulnerable. So will your wife and daughter.”
    Mimi’s left eye began to twitch in the same waythat Bradley’s had. What a trait to inherit. Her face was small and pinched and closed, but her eyes were watchful in spite of the tic, and made me think of a small animal hiding at the edge of a forest.
    Bradley said, “Nothing’s going to happen to my best girl.” He went over to her with an Ozzie Nelson smile and put his hands on her shoulders.
    Mimi jumped when he touched her as if an electrical current had arced between them. He didn’t notice. He said, “My best girl knows I have to attend. She knows that if we’re not at the banquet, the Tashiros will see me as weak.”
    His best girl nodded. Dutifully.
    Bradley turned the Ozzie Nelson smile on me. “There. You see?”
    “Okay,” I said. “Go without your family. Pike will stay with them, here, and I’ll go with you.”
    Ozzie Nelson grew impatient. “You don’t seem to understand,” he said. “What you’re asking would be bad for business.”
    “Silly me,” I said. “Of course.”
    Jillian Becker stared out the front window toward a grove of bamboo. Joe Pike moved to the bar and crossed his arms the way he does when he’s disgusted. I took a deep breath and told myself to pretend Bradley Warren was a four-year-old. I spoke slowly and wished Mimi wasn’t with us. I said, “A threat was made to your wife, and now a threat has been made to your daughter. A person who may or may not have been connected with the theft of the Hagakure was murdered. Whether the two are linked or not, I don’t know, but the situation is worsening and it would be smart to take these threats seriously.”
    Jillian Becker turned from the window. “Bradley,maybe we should call the police. They could help with extra security.”
    Bradley made a face like she’d pissed on his leg. He said, “Absolutely not.”
    Mimi stood, then, and went over to her father. “I put on this dress especially for the banquet. Isn’t it pretty?”
    Bradley Warren looked at her and frowned. “Can’t you do something about your hair?”
    Mimi’s left eye fluttered like a moth in a jar. She rubbed at the eye and opened her mouth and closed it, and then she left.
    Joe Pike shook his head and he left, too.
    Bradley Warren looked at himself in the mirror again. “Maybe I should change shoes,” he said. Then he started out, too.
    I said, “Bradley.”
    He stopped in the door.
    “Your daughter is terrified.”
    “Of course she’s frightened,” he said. “Some maniac said he was going to kill her.”
    I nodded. Slowly. “The right thing for you to do is to call this off. Stay home. Take care of your family. They’re scared now, and possibly in danger, and they need your help.”
    Bradley Warren gave me the famous Bradley Warren frown, then shook his head. “Don’t you see?” he said. “A lot of cops would ruin the banquet.”
    I nodded. Of course. I looked at Jillian Becker, but she was busy with her briefcase.

12

    “Who heads security at Bradley’s hotel?”
    Jillian Becker said, “A man named Jack Ellis.”
    “May I have his phone number?”
    Jillian Becker held my gaze for a moment, then turned away and found Jack Ellis’s number in her briefcase. I used the phone behind the bar, called Ellis at the hotel, told him what was going on and that I had been hired by Mr. Warren for Mr.