“Oh, Alan…”
“So she’s going to be getting chemo. Maybe some radiation; we’re still gathering all the information. Making our choices.” He stares at those big hands again. “I thought I was going to lose her, Smoky. Even now, even when the facts say she’s going to be fine, I don’t know. What I do know is what it would feel like. I had a whole week to feel that. I can’t stop feeling it.” He looks at me, and the anger is back. “I felt the possibility of losing her. And what am I doing? Flying toward our next skell. She’s at home, sleeping.” He looks out the window. “Maybe up by now. But I ain’t with her.”
I stare at him, aghast. “Jesus, Alan! Why don’t you take a leave? Be with Elaina, not here. We can handle this without you.”
He turns to look at me, and the pain I see in those eyes takes my breath away and almost stops my heart.
“Don’t you get it? I’m not mad because I’m here. I’m mad because there’s no reason for me not to be here. Either everything is going to be fine, or it’s not. And it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what I do.” He holds up his hands, splays them. Two huge catcher’s mitts. “I can kill with these hands. I can shoot with them. I can make love to my wife and thread a needle with them. They’re strong. Lot of dexterity too. But I can’t reach in and take out that cancer. I can’t help her. I can’t fucking stand it.”
The hands go back down into his lap, and those helpless eyes go back to watching them. I look at them too, try to find words for my friend. I feel his fear, and mine. I think of Matt.
“Helplessness is something I understand, Alan.”
He looks at me, emotions warring in his eyes. “I know, Smoky. But—don’t take this the wrong way—all things considered, that’s not confidence-inspiring.” He grimaces. “Ah, shit. Sorry. That sounds all wrong.”
I shake my head. “Don’t worry about that. This isn’t about what happened to me. It’s about what’s happening with you and Elaina. You can’t tell me what you’re feeling and walk on eggshells at the same time.”
“I guess not.” He blows air out through his lips. “Fuck, Smoky. What am I going to do?”
“I…” I sit back for a moment, thinking. What is he going to do? I catch his eyes again. “You’re going to love her and do everything you can. You’re going to let your friends help you if you need it. And here’s the most important thing, Alan. You’re going to remember that it just might turn out okay. That the deck isn’t stacked against you.”
He gives me a crooked grin. “Cup half full kind of thing, huh?”
My response is fierce. “Damn right. This is Elaina. Cup half full is the only acceptable way to look at it.”
He looks out the window, down at his hands, and now at me. The gentleness I have always cherished in my friend is back in his eyes. “Thanks, Smoky. I mean it.”
“So far from not a problem it’s not even funny.”
“Let’s keep it between us for now, though, all right?”
“Deal. Are you okay?”
He purses his lips, nods his head. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He looks at me, squints. “What about you? You okay? We haven’t really talked…since.” He shrugs.
“It’s not like you didn’t try. And yeah, for now, I’m doing fine.”
“Good.”
We gaze at each other for a moment, not speaking, just understanding. I stand up and give his shoulder a last squeeze before I walk away.
First Callie, now Alan. Problems and heartache and mysteries. I feel a twinge of guilt. I’ve been so caught up in my own agony these last six months, I realize I hadn’t even considered that the lives of my friends might be something less than perfect, that they might have their own fears and pain and miseries. It shames me.
“Everything copacetic, honey-love?” Callie asks me as I sit down.
“Everything’s fine.”
She looks at me for a moment with that patented Callie intensity. I don’t think she’s really buying it, but she lets it go. “So, honey-love, while we’re all running around on our assigned tasks, what are you going to be doing?”
The question brings me back to the purpose of this flight, makes me shiver. “First I’m going to talk to Jenny. I’ll take her out to a coffee shop or something.” I look at James. “She’s good, and she saw the scene fresh. I want to get her firsthand impressions of it.” He nods. “And then I’m going to see the best possible lead we have.”
No one asks who I mean, and I know all of them are glad to let me do it. Because I’m talking about Bonnie.
10
WE WALK INTO SFPD, ask for Jennifer Chang, and are directed toward her office. She sees us coming. I am gratified as her eyes light up when she spots me. She moves toward us, towing along a male partner I don’t recognize.
“Smoky! They didn’t tell me you were coming.”
“It was kind of a last-minute thing.”
Jennifer stops close to me and gives me a once-over, head to toe. Unlike other people, she doesn’t bother to cover her interest in my scars. She gives them a frank look.
“Not so bad,” she remarks. “Healed up good. How about on the inside?”
“A little raw, but healing too.”
“Good. So—is this a takeover, or what?” Jenny is right to business. I have to handle this part well; it is a takeover, but I don’t want Jenny or other members of SFPD to get disgruntled about it.
“Yeah. But only because of the message to me. You know the rules, the e-mail constitutes a threat to a federal agent.” I shrug. “That makes it a federal matter. But this has nothing to do with anyone here thinking SFPD can’t do the job.”
She mulls this over for a second. “Yeah, well. You guys have always dealt straight with me.”
We follow her into her office, which is a small room with two desks. Nonetheless, I’m surprised. “Your own office, Jenny. Pretty impressive.”
“Best solve rate three years in a row. The Captain asked me what I wanted, and I said this. He gave it to me.” She grins. “Kicked out two old-timers to do it too. Didn’t make me very popular. Like I care.” She points to her partner. “Sorry. Should have introduced you earlier. This is Charlie De Biasse, my partner. Charlie, the feds.”
He inclines his head. De Biasse is obviously an Italian name, and Charlie looks it, though perhaps not pure-blooded. He has a calm, easygoing face. His eyes don’t match. They look sharp. Sharp and watchful. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“So,” Jenny says, “what’s the game plan?”
Callie gives her a rundown of the various assignments we have laid out. Jenny gives a nod of approval when she’s done. “Sounds good. I’ll get copies of everything we have so far put together for you. Charlie, can you call CSU and give them a heads-up?”
“Yep.”
“Who has the keys to her apartment?” I ask.
Jenny picks up an envelope on the side of her desk and hands it to Leo. “They’re in there. Don’t worry about contaminating the scene. Evidence collection is done. The address is the one on the front of the envelope. See Sergeant Bixby at the desk. He can get you a ride.”
Leo looks at me, eyebrows raised, and I nod, sending him on his way.
I catch Jenny’s eye. “Can we go somewhere? I’d like to talk to you about your impressions of the scene.”
“Sure. You and I can go and get a cup of coffee. Charlie can set everyone up here, right, Charlie?”
“Yep.”
“That would be great.”
“Is your medical examiner any good?” James asks. Of course, since it’s James, it doesn’t come out as a harmless question but a challenge. Jenny frowns at him.
“According to Quantico she is. Why—have you heard differently?”
He waves his hand at her, a gesture of dismissal. “Just tell me how I can hook up with her, Detective. Save the sarcasm.”
Jenny’s eyebrows shoot up, and I see her eyes cloud over. She glances at me, and perhaps it’s the look of anger she
sees on my face, directed at James, that pacifies her. “Talk to Charlie.” Her voice is tight and terse. It has no effect on James. He turns away from her without a glance back.
I touch her elbow. “Let’s get out of here.”
She shoots one last brooding look at James before nodding. We head toward the precinct door.
“Is he always such a dick?” she asks as we’re walking down the front steps.
“Oh yeah. The word was invented for him.”
We only have to walk a block to reach the coffee shop, something San Francisco seems to have as many of as Seattle. It’s a mom-and-pop place, not a franchise, with a relaxed, earthy feel to it. I order a café mocha. Jenny gets some hot tea. We settle down at a table next to the window and enjoy not talking for a moment. Sipping at our respective cups. The mocha is exquisite. Exquisite enough, I realize, for me to enjoy it, even with all the death around me.
I look outside at the city passing by. San Francisco has always intrigued me. It’s the New York of the West Coast. Cosmopolitan, with European influences, it has its own charm and character. I can usually tell if someone is from San Francisco by their clothing. It’s one of the few places on the West Coast where you see wool trench coats and hats, berets and leather gloves. Stylish. The day outside is nice; San Francisco can tend to run chilly, but today the sun is out, and the weather hovers in the low seventies. A scorcher by this city’s standards.
Jenny puts down her tea and runs a finger around the rim of the cup. She seems thoughtful. “I was surprised to see you here. Even more surprised to find out you’re not heading up your team.”
I look over my cup at her. “That was the deal. Annie King was a friend of mine, Jenny. I have to stay on the periphery of this. At least officially. Besides, I’m not ready to run NCAVC Coord again, not yet.”
Her gaze at me reveals nothing, but neither does it judge. “Not ready as in you say you’re not ready, or the Bureau says it?”
“It’s me saying it.”
“So…don’t be offended, Smoky, but if that’s true, how did you even get authorization to come up here? I don’t think my Captain would have let me, in a similar situation.”
I explain to her about the changes that I had felt in myself by virtue of connecting back up with my team. “It seems to be good therapy for me right now. I guess the Assistant Director saw it that way too.”
Jenny is silent for a moment before speaking. “Smoky, you and I are friends. We don’t trade Christmas cards or come over for Thanksgiving. We’re not that kind of friends. But still friends, right?”
“Sure. Of course.”
“Then as a friend, I have to ask: Are you going to be able to deal with this case? All the way? This is bad stuff. Real bad. You know me, and you know I’ve seen a lot. But that thing with her daughter…” She shudders, an involuntary spasm. “I’m gonna have nightmares about it. On top of that, what was done to your friend wasn’t pretty either. Oh yeah, and she was your friend. I can understand what you’re saying about it being healthy for you to test the waters again, but do you really think this is the case to do it with?”
I am honest in my reply. “I don’t know. That’s the truth. I’m messed up, Jenny, make no mistake about that. I guess it doesn’t make a lot of visible sense for me to get involved, but…” I think for a minute. “It’s like this. Do you know what I’ve been doing since Matt and Alexa died? Nothing. I don’t mean nothing as in taking it easy. I mean nothing. As in sitting in a single place all day long, staring at a blank wall. I go to sleep and have nightmares, wake up, and stare at things till I go back to sleep. Oh, or sometimes, I look at myself in the mirror for hours and trace over these scars with my fingers.” Tears prick my eyes. I’m gratified to find that they are tears of anger and not weakness. “All I can tell you is that that—living like that—is even more terrible than what I’ll see being involved with Annie’s death. I think. I know that sounds selfish, but it’s the truth.” I run out of words like a clock that needs to be wound. Jenny sips from her tea. The city continues to churn around us, unaware.
“Makes sense to me. So, you want my impressions of the scene?” This is all she says. She is not brushing me off. She is acknowledging me in her way. Telling me she understands, so let’s get down to business. I am grateful.
“Please.”
“I got the call yesterday.”
I interrupt. “As in you, personally?”
“Yep. Asked for me by name. Voice was disguised, and told me to check my e-mail. I might have ignored it, but he mentioned you.”
“Disguised how?”
“It was muffled. Like he’d put a cloth over the mouthpiece of his phone.”
“Any notable inflections? Unusual use of slang? Hint of an accent of any kind?”
Jenny looks at me, a bemused smile on her face. “You going to work me like a witness, Smoky?”
“You are a witness. For me, at least. You’re the only person who actually talked to him, and you saw the scene fresh. So, yeah.”
“Fair enough.” I see her thinking about my question for a moment. “I’d have to say no. In fact, I would say just the opposite. There was an absence of inflection. His voice was very flat.”
“Can you remember what he said, exactly?” I know the answer to this question is yes. Jennifer has an unusual memory. It’s as scary in its own way as my skill with a handgun, and is feared by defense attorneys.
“Yeah. He said: ‘Is this Detective Chang?’ I said it was. ‘You’ve got mail,’ he said, but then he didn’t laugh. That was one of things that got my attention, first. He didn’t push the melodrama of it. Just said it as a flat fact. I asked who this was, and he said, ‘Someone’s dead. Smoky Barrett knows them. You’ve got mail.’ And then he hung up.”
“Nothing else?”
“That was it.”
“Hm. Do we know where the call originated?”
“From a pay phone in LA.”
My ears perk up at this. “Los Angeles?” I think about it. “Maybe that’s why he needed three days. So either he’s a traveler, or he’s actually from LA.”
“Or he’s just messing with us. If he is from LA, then my guess would be that he came up here for Annie.” Her face looks strained and uncomfortable as she says this. I know why.
“Which would mean I was the person whose attention he wanted to get.” I have already accepted this possibility—no, make that probability—although I have not confronted it emotionally. The fact that Annie may be dead not only because of what she did but because she was my friend.
“Right. But that’s all conjecture. Anyway, so I go and check my e-mail—”
I interrupt her. “Where did he send the e-mail from?”
She looks at me, hesitant. “He sent it from your friend’s computer, Smoky. It was her e-mail address.”
This sparks a sudden, unexpected wave of anger in me. I know he did this not just to cover his tracks, but to show that what was Annie’s was now his. I push it aside. “Go on.”
“It gave Annie King’s name and address, nothing else, and there were four attachments. Three were photos of your friend. The fourth was the letter to you. At this point, we are taking it seriously. You can fake anything when it comes to photos these days, but it’s like a bomb threat—you evacuate just in case. So my partner and I gathered up some uniforms and went over to the address.” She sips her tea. “The door wasn’t locked, and after some knocking without any answer, we pulled our weapons and entered. Your friend and her daughter were in the bedroom, on the bed. She had her computer set up in there.” She shakes her head, remembering. “It was a bad scene, Smoky. You’ve seen more of that than I have, that kind of methodical, intentional killing, but I don’t think you’d have seen it differently. He cut her open, removed her insides, and bagged them. Slit her throat. But the worst of it was the daughter.”
“Bonnie.”
“Right. She was tied face-to-face with her mother. Nothing fancy. He just put them stomach to stomach, and
wrapped rope around them both until she couldn’t move. She was there like that for three days, Smoky. Tied to her own dead mother. You know what happens to a body in three days. The air-conditioning wasn’t on. And the fucker had left a window cracked. There were blowflies.”
I do know. What she’s describing is unimaginable.
“The kid is ten years old, and the smell is already bad, and she’s there with flies all over. She’d turned her head so her cheek was resting on her mom’s face.” Jenny grimaces, and I get a hint of the horror she felt at that moment. I’m thankful, so thankful, I wasn’t there for that. “She was quiet. Didn’t say a word when we got into the room. Not while we were untying her. She was just limp, and stared. Unresponsive to questions. She was dehydrated. We got EMS over right away, and I sent her off with an officer. She’s fine physically, and I have a guard posted at the door of her room just in case. I got her a private room, by the way.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that. A lot.”
Jenny waves it off, sips her tea. I’m surprised to see the smallest of trembles as she does this. She is truly, deeply affected by the memory, as tough as she is. “She hasn’t said a word since. Do you think she’ll ever get over it? Could anyone?”
“I don’t know. I’m always surprised at what people can live through. But I don’t know.”
She gives me a speculative look. “I guess so.” She is silent for a moment before continuing. “Once we had her off in the ambulance, I shut the place down. I called CSU in, and I kicked their ass, hard. Maybe a little harder than I needed to, but I was just so…pissed. That’s not even a good word for how I felt.”
“I understand.”
“While all that was happening, I called and talked to Alan, and here we are. I don’t have much more than that. We’re at the dead beginning of it, Smoky. Evidence collection only. I haven’t had time to slow down and really look at anything.”
“Let’s step back a little. Let me walk you through it like a witness.”
“Sure.”
“We’ll do it as a CI.”
“Okay.”