“You out here making a delivery for Nelson?” Daryl asked, but his heart sank as Eddie and Stank moved back behind Daryl, so that between the two of them and O’Keefe, there was nowhere for him to run.
“Information gathering,” O’Keefe said with that smile that didn’t touch his eerie pale blue eyes. Reptilian, Dingo had called it. Dingo could be an idiot, but in this case, Dingo was right.
“Maybe I can help you out,” Daryl said quickly.
“I know you can,” O’Keefe said. “That’s why you been hiding from us, bitch.”
“What?” Daryl said. “Hiding? No, man, I haven’t been hiding from anyone.”
“We’ve been looking for you,” Eddie said, “and you’ve been fucking hard to find.”
“Full transparency, Ed,” Daryl said. “I’ve been working the kitchen for Yuri, you know, like I have for, fuck, five whole weeks now? He runs that high-end card game over by the Hyatt and the Hilton? You know, where the Richie Riches stay when they come to town?”
“I thought you worked at the Irish,” O’Keefe said.
“Nah, brah,” Daryl said. “That didn’t last. And this is way better. It’s all under the table. The walking home is for shit, but I’ll get my license back in another four months.” He cleared his throat. “So how can I help you? And I do want to help you. Let me guess, this is about Fiona’s friend Maddie, and some missing money?”
O’Keefe crossed his ginormous arms. It was meant to intimidate, and yes, it did.
“If I had to guess,” Daryl said, “Fee took that money. She hated Maddie because Dingo has a thing for her.”
“We’re not looking for your guesses,” O’Keefe said. “We’re looking for the girl.”
“Well, okay,” Daryl said. “That simplifies things, because I don’t know much about her. Her last name’s Nakamura. Her father’s in the Navy.” He almost said SEAL, but he suspected that wouldn’t be well received, so he didn’t. “Let’s see,hislast name’s Greene, they live over on, um, Janson Street, yeah. I was with Ding and Fee, and we dropped off Maddie, once.”
“What’s the number?” O’Keefe asked.
“Dude,” Daryl said. “I don’t know. I wasn’t in remembering-numbers mode at the time, if you feel me. It’s kinda yellow stucco, Spanish style, with pink and orange what-cha-call-it—barrel tile roof. Her dad has a truck, it was in the drive. I think it’s blue…?”
“What else?” O’Keefe asked.
“Uhhhh, Maddie used to live in Palm Springs?”
“Are you telling me that or asking me?” O’Keefe said.
“A little of both?” Daryl shrugged, and gave him the smile that had won him friends and influenced people—particularly enemies—through the years. People liked him for a reason. “I don’t really know her—Maddie.”
“But she’s fucking Dingo?” O’Keefe asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Daryl backpedaled. “Dingo likes her. He’s probably, yeah. He says he’s not, but…Come on. Right?”
“So where’s Dingo?” O’Keefe asked.
Okay. Okay. Daryl’s mouth was dry and he wet his lips. “To be honest, that’s the question of the evening. He usually picks me up from work and drives me home. Well, not home. I’m staying with these girls and, um…whatever. But when I called him tonight, he told me he was heading north on the Five.”
“Was he with the girl?”
“Yeah, I, um…He didn’t say. I didn’t ask. Didn’t want to know. Maddie’s father, you know? He was a little scary.”
“North on the Five to where?” O’Keefe asked.
Daryl was a lousy liar. “Fuck,” he said. “Man, I’m only guessing, and you said you didn’t want me to—”
“Guess,” O’Keefe ordered.
“Dingo’s parents live in Van Nuys. If I had to guess, he’s heading there.”
“Address?”
