Blood Hunt (4 page)

“
What color was her hair?”

“
Red. Not that Las Vegas red but darker, like mahogany.”

Red-Haired Woman

1

Harry was dubious. “He had a few words with a red-haired singer Monday night. What makes you think he went back for more than that on Tuesday?”

“
A feeling.”

Certainly he had no other reason. No real evidence connected Mossman to this woman any more than evidence connected Adair to that other redhead. Only the similarity in height and coloring suggested that the two women might even be the same. Still...two mysterious deaths and two memorable redheads...

Harry quirked a brow at him. “A feeling...like the ones your grandmother has?” He sang the Twilight Zone theme: “Doo-doo doo-doo.”

If only. Harry might consider his Grandma Doyle full of blarney and superstition but everyone in the family took her Feelings seriously. They rarely missed. Harry himself had witnessed one instance, when she came for a visit after they learned Marti was pregnant. At Harry’s with them, watching his brother play for LA, she went outside suddenly, saying she could not bear to watch Shane get hurt. Sure enough, just before the half, he went under a pile-up. Scratch one knee and one pro football career. Let Harry call it coincidence; Garreth wished he had some of that gift.

“
No, it’s just a hunch. But I want to check out this redhead. Crazies come in all shapes and sizes.”

Harry considered. “That I can go along with. First we need to see if Mossman went back to North Beach Tuesday.” He checked his watch. “Too bad the evening doorman isn’t on duty yet. He might remember Mossman catching a cab. Let’s get on those cab companies, then.”

At the Hall they let their fingers do the walking...still a slow process. Each call met the same initial response: did they have any idea how many pickups the company made at the Westin in an evening!

Garreth tried to simplify their task. “This would be for a single passenger...” Easier to find on their trip logs since he estimated most of the fares would be couples or groups. “...picked up between eight and eight-thirty.” Figuring Mossman used an hour or so to return to the hotel, shower, call home, and dress in his red coat.

By the end of the afternoon he and Harry learned that only six cabs from four companies picked up single fares in that time period. Four went to North Beach, one to the Opera House in the Civic Center, one to the Haight-Ashbury district. Yes, those drivers routinely picked up fares at the Westin.

Now they needed to determine if any of those fares were Mossman.

Harry checked his watch again and stood, stretching. “The evening doorman might be on duty now. Let’s go show him Mossman’s picture.”

And the cabbies, too.

The doorman did remember Mossman...at least the coat...but not the cab company nor the destination he gave the driver. They missed the driver whose fare had gone to the opera but eventually caught the others. The one remembered his Haight-Asbury fare, and it was not Mossman, nor was one of those going to North Beach. The remaining three drivers could not identify Mossman’s photo.

“
That doesn’t mean I couldn’t have taken him,” one female driver said. “I just don’t remember him. They get in, ride quietly, don’t stiff me on the tip or give me a big memorable one and they’re just another fare, you know?”

Finally Harry called it quits. While they typed up reports back at the office, he said, “What do you say to taking Lien out for a change? I’ll call her, and you make reservations for three somewhere.”

Garreth shook his head. “Tonight you have her to yourself. I’m going to grab a quick bite somewhere and fall into bed early.”

“
You sure?” Harry whipped his report out of the typewriter and signed it after a fast proofread.

“
Go home to your wife.”

Harry waved on his way out.

Garreth kept typing. Some time later Evelyn Kolb came in and picked up her tea thermos. “Did you get your teletype from Denver? I think Leyva put it under something on your desk.”

“
Under?” Under, for God’s sake. It could have vanished forever.

But he found it under the bodega murder book...a description of Mossman’s jewelry. A man’s gold Rolex with functions doing everything but answering the telephone; a plain gold man’s wedding band, size 8 inscribed: B.A. to G.M. 9-4-73.

Next week was their wedding anniversary. What a hell of a present.

The last item caught his interest even more than the Rolex...a sterling silver pendant two inches long, shaped in the outline of a fish with the Greek word for fish inside the outline. Was that enough silver to bother stealing?

Maybe the killer just disliked Christian symbols. Faye and Centrello looked at cults in the Adair murder.

The teletype went on to report that Mossman’s wife knew of no enemies, just business rivals. Of course, that would have to be checked out. For now he typed up the jewelry descriptions for a flier to distribute to the pawnshops, then finished his reports.

2

“
No more. Bu yao,” Garreth said to the waitress who extended the coffeepot toward his half-empty cup.

Instead of catching a quick bite, he had come to his favorite Chinese place, Huong’s. A hole-in-the-wall greasy chopsticks eatery up an alley off Grant Avenue that served some of the best fried rice and egg rolls in San Francisco. Marti had loved the food, too. For Huong’s, they learned to use chopsticks and ignored the greasy smoke that seeped out of the kitchen, covering the walls and Chinese signs on them with a coat of dingy gray. And they had Lien teach them enough Chinese to order, and tease the waitress.

With a nod and a smile, the girl turned away.

He drained the cup and stood, reaching for the check with one hand and into his pocket for the tip with the other. At the cash register he paid the withered little old woman almost hidden from sight by the machine. “Delicious, as always, Mrs. Huong.”

She smiled in return, bobbing her head. “Come back again, Inspector.”

“
Count on it.”

Outside, he walked down the steep alley to Grant Avenue and stood on the sidewalk, surrounded by passing evening throngs of tourists and the bright kaleidoscope of shop windows and neon signs with their Chinese pictographs. Rather than go home, maybe he should turn over a few rocks in Wink O’Hare’s neighborhood. This was about the time of day the little vermin was most likely to stick his head out of his hole. On the other hand, just a few blocks up the hill, Grant Avenue intersected with Columbus Avenue and Broadway in the beginning of North Beach’s bright-lights section, and somewhere among the bars and clubs sang a tall red-haired woman who might or might not be involved in murder.

He stared up the hill, weighing the choices. Finding Wink should have priority — he still had the gun he had presumably used to shoot the bodega’s owner — but evening in North Beach frankly appealed to Garreth far more than Wink’s turf. He had his sources keeping eyes and ears open, and as long as he was on his own time anyway...

He turned uphill.

Chinatown gave way to blocks of glittering, garish signs proclaiming the presence of countless clubs. Barkers paced the sidewalks, calling to passersby in a raucous chorus...beckoning, wheedling, leering, each promising the ultimate in exotic entertainment inside his club. Garreth absorbed it all, color and noise, as he threaded his way through the crowd...also keeping alert for unnecessary bumps against him and fingers in his pockets. He spotted some familiar faces...about the time they recognized him, too, and swiftly faded into the crowd.

He hailed a barker he had met on previous occasions. “How’s business, Sammy?”

“
All over legal age, Inspector,” Sammy replied quickly. “Come on in and see the show, folks! All live action with the most gorgeous girls in San Francisco!”

“
Any redheads, Sammy?”

Sammy eyed him. “Sure. Anything you want.”

“
Maybe a very tall redhead, say five ten, with green eyes?”

The barker’s eyes narrowed. “This redhead got a name? Hey, mister!” he called to a passing couple. “Your timing is perfect. The show is about to start. Bring the little lady in and warm up together. What do you want her for, Mikaelian?”

“
A date, Sammy. What else? Who do you know with that description? She sings in the area.”

Sammy laughed. “Are you kidding? We’ve got more showgirl redheads than the stores have Barbie dolls. Come on in and see the show, folks! Real adult entertainment, live on our stage! Our girls have curves in places most girls don’t have places, and they’ll show you every one!”

“
I need names, Sammy,” Garreth said patiently.

Sammy sighed, not patiently. “Names. Who knows names? Try the Cul-de-Sac across the street. There’s a red-haired singer I seen there. And maybe in the Pussywillow, too. Now, will you move on, man? You’re spoiling my rhythm.”

Grinning, Garreth moved across the street into the Cul-de-Sac. Yes, a barmaid said when he ordered a rum and Coke, they had a red-haired singer. She came on after the dancer.

He sat down at the bar, which ran around the edge of the stage. A nearly-naked blonde dragged an enormous cushion out onto the stage and proceeded to writhe on it in simulated ecstasy. In the midst of her throes, she rolled over, saw Garreth watching her with amusement, and said in a bored monotone, “Hi, honey. And what’s your day been like?”

“
About like yours, unfortunately, hours wasted grinding away at thin air,” he replied.

A fleeting grin crossed the blonde’s face.

The singer appeared presently. Garreth left. The redhead’s hair color was bottle-bred brass and she looked old enough to have sung on the Barbary Coast itself.

He talked to barkers on down the street, collecting a notebook full of possibilities, but checking them out, he found women with the wrong color of red, wrong height, and wrong age. In two hours he checked over a dozen clubs with no success and stood on the sidewalk outside of the last with an ache working its way up from his feet. He looked around, seeking inspiration.

“
Hi, baby. All alone?” a husky voice asked behind him.

Garreth turned. A woman in her thirties with elaborately curled dark hair arched a plucked, painted eyebrow at him. “Hi, Velvet,” he said. Her real name, he knew from busting her when he worked Patrol, was Catherine Bukato, but on the street and with the johns, she always went by Velvet. “How’s your daughter?”

Velvet smiled. “Almost twelve and more beautiful every day. My mother sends me pictures of her regularly. I may even go home to see her this winter. You up here working or playing tonight?”

“
I’m looking for a woman.”

Velvet hitched the shoulder strap of her handbag higher. “You’re playing my song, baby.”

“
The woman I want is red-haired, young, and very tall. Taller than I am. She sings somewhere around here. Would you happen to know anyone like that?”

Velvet’s eyes narrowed shrewdly. “I tell you what. My feet are killing me. Why don’t you play like a john who has to work up his courage? Buy me a drink where I can sit down for a while and I’ll think on it.”

Garreth smiled. “Pick somewhere.”

She chose the nearest bar and they found seats in a rear booth. She ordered, then kicked off her shoes and stretched her legs out, propping her feet up on the seat on the far side of the booth.

She closed her eyes. “That’s what I needed. You know, for a cop you’re almost human, Mikaelian.”

“
Every Thursday night.” In the right quarters, inexpensive kindness could reap valuable benefits. Velvet’s sharp eyes and ears missed little on the street.

A fact she knew he knew. Opening her eyes, she said, “So let me pay for the drink. Who’s this woman you’re looking for?”

Garreth gave her a detailed description.

Velvet’s drink came. She sipped it slowly. “Tall? A singer? Yeah, I’ve seen someone like that. I can’t remember where, though. What did she rip off?”

“
I just want to talk to her.”

Velvet’s drawn brows rose again, skeptical. “Oh, sure.”

“
If you have a chance, will you ask around? Its important I find her.”

Velvet eyed him a moment, but then nodded. “How can I refuse someone who always asks about my kid? You have a kid, Mikaelian?”

“
An eight-year-old boy named Brian.”

For the remainder of the time it took her to finish her drink, they talked children and showed each other the pictures they carried. As Garreth handed back Velvet’s snapshot of her daughter, the prostitute started to laugh.

“
What’s funny?” Garreth asked.

Her teeth gleamed in the dimness of the bar. “What a pair we are, a cop and a hooker, sitting in a bar talking about our kids.” She drained her glass, sighed, and fished around under the table for her shoes. “Well, time to go back to work. Thanks for the coffee break.”

They headed for the door.

“
I hope this won’t make trouble for you with Richie, getting nothing for the time,” Garreth said.

She looked up at him. “Look, if it isn’t too much trouble, maybe you could give me a little something, a kind of advance on information I’m going to give you? It’ll help with Richie.”