The Sentry by Robert Crais Read Free Book Online

than a dry, clean vehicle in the shade of a giant moth. He found much peace in waiting, and the waiting was made easier by thinking of nothing.
    At seven minutes after eleven that morning, the maroon Monte Carlo drifted into the parking lot. The corner of Pike’s mouth twitched. The Monte Carlo suggested Mendoza had made bail, called his friends for a ride, and was now being processed out.
    Pike studied the lone occupant. Pike had been hoping for Gomer, but this wasn’t Gomer. The driver was a young, thin Latin dude with a bandanna around his head and a pencil mustache. He didn’t park in a designated parking place, but eased to the curb near the door. Another good sign.
    Ninety seconds later, Reuben Mendoza emerged from the moth with a smile on his face and a cast that extended up his forearm from his right hand to just below his elbow. He wasn’t using a sling. Mendoza pointed at his friend with both hands, broke into an exaggerated, shoulder-rolling shuffle to show off his cast, then flipped off the court with both hands and climbed into the car.
    Pike followed them back onto the 405, letting the Monte Carlo float five or six cars ahead in the light, late-morning traffic. They didn’t seem to be in a hurry, so neither was Pike. The Monte Carlo slipped onto the Marina Freeway, then cruised up Lincoln Boulevard into a low-end commercial area off Venice Boulevard. Several blocks later, they pulled into a place called Our Way Body Mods. A six-foot wrought-iron fence guarded the lot, with double-wide gates on the main and side street entrances. The gates were open. A service building with two open bays sat behind a small parking lot where damaged vehicles waited for work, and freshly repaired or customized cars waited to be picked up. Most of the vehicles were hobby cars—Japanese imports sporting elaborate spoilers and nitrous-blown engines, or American classics like Bel Airs and Impalas that had been chopped to ride low and painted as bright as M&M’s.
    When the Monte Carlo pulled in, several men emerged from the bays to greet Mendoza. Pike counted nine heads, excluding Mendoza and his driver. Businesses like Our Way Body Mods were often owned by multigenerational gang families. They were run as legitimate or semi-legitimate businesses, but their primary purpose was so gang members could claim they were employed when making their appeals to judges and parole officers. Such businesses also served as clubhouses, drop points, and tax dodges to launder illegal gang income.
    As the men crowded around Mendoza, Pike studied their faces. Most sported elaborate gang tats and shaved heads, which had replaced slicked-back hair as the homeboy style of choice. Pike knew that not all of these men would be in the gang. Most were, but a couple would likely be wannabes, and a couple more were probably just friends. Three of the men showed the grease and soil of work, but most of them had just been hanging around. Pike saw the man who had aimed his gun hand from the Monte Carlo’s back seat, but Gomer wasn’t among them. The man hugged Mendoza and lifted him from the ground. When other men made a joke of grabbing Mendoza’s cast, the back-seat man playfully pushed them away. Protecting his friend. Any of these people could have vandalized Wilson’s takeout shop, but Pike had no way to know, though he thought he knew someone who could help deal with the problem.
    Pike scrolled the directory in his cell phone until he found the number, then dialed. A cheery young woman answered.
    “Angel Eyes. May I help you?”
    “Artie there?”
    “Yes, he is. May I ask who’s calling?”
    “Tell him Joe Pike is coming by.”
    Pike drove to a small stucco house in a residential neighborhood east of Abbot Kinney Boulevard. Known by the people who lived there as Ghost Town, the streets were lined by modest homes originally built for African-American laborers during the thirties. Ghost Town had seen a slow gentrification in some of its