The phone’s ring startled me and I jumped back. The phone fell to the floor and I pulled it up by the cord. It was Valenzuela.
“You get my message? I just called.”
“No, I’ve been on the phone. What?”
“Glad I called back, then. He’s moving.”
“Where?”
I shouted it too loud into the phone. I was losing it.
“He’s heading south on Van Nuys. He called me and said he wanted to lose the bracelet. I told him I was already home and that he could call me tomorrow. I told him he had better juice the battery so he wouldn’t start beeping in the middle of the night.”
“Good thinking. Where’s he now?”
“Still on Van Nuys.”
I tried to build an image of Roulet driving. If he was going south on Van Nuys that meant he was heading directly toward Sherman Oaks and the neighborhood where Maggie and Hayley lived. But he could also be headed right through Sherman Oaks on his way south over the hill and to his home. I had to wait to be sure.
“How up to the moment is the GPS on that thing?” I asked.
“It’s real time, man. This is where he’s at. He just crossed under the one-oh-one. He might be just going home, Mick.”
“I know, I know. Just wait till he crosses Ventura. The next street is Dickens. If he turns there, then he’s not going home.”
I stood up and didn’t know what to do. I started pacing, the phone pressed tightly to my ear. I knew that even if Teddy Vogel had immediately put his men in motion they were still minutes away. They were no good to me now.
“What about the rain? Does it affect the GPS?”
“It’s not supposed to.”
“That’s comforting.”
“He stopped.”
“Where?”
“Must be a light. I think that’s Moorpark Avenue there.”
That was a block before Ventura and two before Dickens. I heard a beeping sound come over the phone.
“What’s that?”
“The ten-block alarm you asked me to set.”
The beeping sound stopped.
“I turned it off.”
“I’ll call you right back.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I hung up and called Maggie’s cell. She answered right away.
“Where are you?”
“You told me not to tell you.”
“You’re out of the apartment?”
