One Through the Heart (13 page)

‘I think the off-duty cops had been drinking before they got there and they elbowed their way in on the woman Matt was hitting on or already knew. Have you heard the name Rachel before? He says he met her last night and they hit it off and she gave him her phone number. I got his phone released and called her. I left her a message and he knows her, but he’s not talking much about her. If she backs him up the whole thing might go away.’

Hugh considered that a few moments. He took a quick swallow and said, ‘He must know her because no woman is going to sit down at a bar and give her phone number to a guy with a tattoo of a skeleton running up his neck without knowing something about him first. I’m hearing that the one who went to the floor, DeAngelou, has got more than a few teeth loose. He’s got a broken jaw, and I’ve got a worthless nephew that I’m glad my sister isn’t here to see. I’m going to have to get him a lawyer and get him out. I’ll do that again because I need him working. I’ll get him back to work and I’ll find his replacement and he and his lawyer can deal with whatever comes out of last night.’

‘He won’t see charges. The officer who’s already carrying the excessive force investigation is going to want to make it go away. That’s DeAngelou. He’ll decide it’s not worth it. And his jaw is cracked, it’s not wired shut. He’ll be OK, and they were drunk. That’s what the bartender told me.’

‘How did you find out all this so fast?’ Hugh turned, looking at him from the corner of his eye. ‘Or rather why are you taking so much interest?’

‘You asked me to.’

‘Right, and I hung up on you this morning, too. I apologize for that. I’m not doing so well. I’m way too hair trigger and jumpy. This demolition business isn’t adding up the way it needs to, and Matt and I are going to part ways and he’s still going to be into me for eighteen grand. That’s a lot for me.’

Hugh took another good swallow.

‘He was my sister’s only kid, and she was my only sibling. I’ve got nothing left for family when I show him the door. I really saw the demolition business as the way to bring him around. I’m not saying he would need to spend the next ten years tearing things down and breathing God knows what, but I saw it as a way to get into construction. He could get some education, learn to read plans, and take it from there. Housing will come back eventually. It always does. But he just doesn’t want to do real work. Worse than that, he looks around and thinks everyone else has got an easy ride. He doesn’t think you or I do anything except talk all day. He doesn’t respect people and I can’t change that.’

Hugh didn’t let up. He didn’t want a conversation. He wanted to kill the night by talking it away and keep from answering any questions.

‘You and I are counting on a pension system where they are still pretending they’re going to make eight percent a year on the invested money and they’re making half that at best. We’re screwed. It’s all going to blow up, and having this demolition business seemed like my best shot, but it’s not working. Nothing is working for me.’

Hugh swallowed the last of his drink and wagged the glass so the old bartender could see.

‘Now Matt’s in jail and we’ve got jobs we’ll get fired from within a week unless they’re manned. If we get fired, those contractors will never use me again. My other choice is to use the line of credit on my house and post bail for him.’ He turned and looked at Raveneau. ‘I already have a line of credit on the house and they’re warning me they may call in the loan.’

Raveneau ordered a glass of red wine. Hugh’s bourbon and ice got replaced, and as the red wine arrived Hugh looked at it and shook his head.

‘Look at you, the wine sipper. Who would have guessed you’d turn into that?’

‘Not you.’

‘That’s sure as fuck true.’

‘But you don’t have to worry about what I drink. You’ve got a lot on your mind already without worrying about what I drink or have for breakfast. You’ve got other problems with me.’

‘That’s what it’s starting to seem like. You don’t have much of an investigation so you’re trying to create one out of thin air. What’s next? Are you going to tell me that Alcott and I should have known about the bomb shelter and what was in it?’

‘No, but I don’t want to wrestle you for information. We’ve got a new situation, but I don’t feel like you want the Coryell case to be open and active again.’

‘Of course I want to see it solved. I just don’t want to get hit when we’re not there to defend ourselves. You know, this nephew of mine, this son of my sister’s, might have been better off if he’d been in the car with his mom and dad. That’s a hard thing to say, but that’s about where I’m at now. He’s probably going to prison for a year.’

‘He’s not going anywhere, and we’ve talked about him enough today.’

‘If he goes to prison even a year, he’ll get shaped by the environment. He doesn’t have enough of the right kind of will. He talks like he’s tough but he’s a pliable little shit and susceptible to all the wrong people. He’ll come out with a shaved head and a swastika tattooed on his cock.’

Hugh continued on as Raveneau got impatient. He was tired of it. He laid money on the bar and signaled the bartender. ‘Let’s talk outside,’ he said. ‘We’re not getting anywhere in here.’

Outside, Hugh said, ‘I’m going to say one last thing about my nephew before we get to Coryell. About a year and a half ago, Matt beat a homeless man he claimed was stealing from his truck, but that’s not what a witness saw. It got pleaded down to nothing and he did community service to try to erase the rest. He kicked the man unconscious and stamped on his hands until he broke every finger. I talked to a guy who didn’t want to get involved but who saw the whole thing. He said Matt went berserk on the guy. So it’s not that surprising to hear he got into it with two off-duty cops. That’s going to figure into whatever decision gets made and I hope you’re right about DeAngelou wanting to make it go away.’

‘Are you through talking about him?’

‘I’m done. You don’t give a shit anyway.’ He pointed. ‘There’s a place up the street here. We can talk in there, but what do you want from me tonight?’

‘The names of who else was at Lash’s parties and not just cops.’

‘I may not remember any names. I can tell you who on the force was there and you can talk to them. Who do you remember, Ben? You were there.’

‘I was there twice: once when it was just Lash and me, and once when there were two other police officers.’

‘Well, talk to them, talk to Lash. He’s the guy who should know who was there, but what difference does it make? How does this all connect?’

‘I don’t know that it does.’

‘He had students in and out of there all the time. I just don’t remember their names.’

‘What if I showed you a photo?’

‘Have you got it with you?’

‘In my car.’

‘Well, get it and I’ll meet you inside.’

Raveneau retrieved the photo and as he came back in he saw why Hugh liked the bar. It was long and dark and of a different generation. They ordered drinks and found a corner.

‘I saw Lash a few days ago,’ Raveneau said. ‘I think he wants to answer some things before he goes.’

‘Lash will never confess to anything.’

‘You know him much better than I do, but I get the feeling he wants to talk. There’s no avoiding some of what we found in there.’

‘Sure there is. He can die tomorrow and then what are you going to do? Where’s the photo?’

‘I’ve got it.’ Raveneau touched his coat pocket. ‘It’s right here. Lash kept diaries. Those are at his sister’s. She’s not cooperating with us, but she may with the FBI. They’re working with us now and if they label this a terrorist plot they can pretty well get whatever they want of Lash’s from the sister. I think that’ll happen too.’

‘And why is it you’re telling me all this?’

‘Because I need your help.’

‘What is it you think you’ll find in Lash’s diaries?’

‘I don’t know yet, but there were other grad students in and out of Lash’s house. It wasn’t just Coryell.’

‘There were plenty of them. I just don’t have any names for you. I didn’t become friends with any grad students. But they were there.’

‘The photo I’m going to show is of one of them.’

‘All right, and are you going to tell me now that Alcott and I should have been looking at him and we missed him like we missed the bomb shelter?’

‘All I know is he’s contacted me and gone out of his way to do it.’

‘There was one kid who was background in those poker games Lash set up. I got the feeling he was working on something with Lash or learning from him. He talked about writing books himself, but he and I didn’t connect.’ Hugh pulled what looked like a prescription bottle from his pocket, opened it, and took out two pills. ‘Acid reflux. Let’s see the photo, and does this person in it remember me?’

‘He does.’

‘Are you looking at him or is he helping you with Lash?’

‘I don’t know yet what he’s doing.’

‘But you want me to look at his photo.’

‘He ties to Lash. He may also tie to this threat you’re hearing about.’

‘Lash dropped me from the regulars list and cancelled the poker game as soon as his book got good reviews and was selling. I never had any close relationship with him and he sure beat us. All that time he sat there knowing about the bomb shelter and that bloody cot you found. He really did beat us and then made money writing about the department. Now he’ll give us the finger as he goes out the back door. He’s going to get away with whatever he did. You ought to give up on this one, Ben. This is one that not even you are going to bring home. You’ve felt guilty all these years, but let it go. He beat us but we’re going to outlive him, so we’ll get the last laugh.’

Raveneau didn’t say anything to that. He pulled the photo, laid it on the bar, and Hugh picked it up.

‘Brandon Lindsley wasn’t around when she disappeared. He had an alibi. We checked.’

‘He’s not in either murder file.’

‘Not everything makes it in. You’re not in there either, but when I told you Alcott wanted to question you I wasn’t kidding.’ He laid the photo down. ‘How did you find him?’

‘He found me.’

‘Lindsley approached you after the bomb shelter was found?’

‘Yes, he found me up on Mount Tam not far from where her remains were found.’

‘Then maybe you’ve got something there, and I wish I could help you, but I don’t really know anything about him. We ruled him out early.’ He paused. ‘Maybe we shouldn’t have.’

R
aveneau brewed coffee, soft-boiled an egg, toasted two pieces of bread very dark, and then ate in the darkness out along the parapet. He poured a second cup of coffee and watched the dawn before heading into the office. On the drive in he took a call from the contractor, Ferranti, and forty minutes later Ferranti was in his car. They drove down to the Starbucks in the Letterman Center near Lucasfilm in the Presidio and carried coffees back and stood outside Raveneau’s car in the morning sunlight.

‘I like Lieutenant Neilley. It’s his nephew I don’t connect with. He’s OK when he’s working but I try to deal only with Neilley. The first two jobs they did for us were fine. They weren’t great but they got it done. This has been completely different and what I heard yesterday is bad news. One of his laborers talked to one of mine and said not all of the dump loads are going to the Resource Center.’

‘What’s that mean?’

‘That not everything hauled away from the job is going where it’s supposed to. It says they’re having money problems and don’t want to pay what it costs.’

‘So where is it going?’

‘That’s why I wanted to meet. We’re required to show how the debris coming off the construction is diverted. It’s in my contract, so it’s also in Neilley’s. It’s about less going into landfill. This laborer says some of the loads got dumped down off Skyline Road, but Hugh has been giving me all his tags so somebody is lying.’

‘What do you mean this laborer says? How would he know if he’s working for you, not Hugh?’

‘He says one of Baylor’s laborers got an extra hundred bucks cash to help and the next morning Baylor fired him – told him he wasn’t needed anymore. So that guy told one of his friends to tell my laborer.’

‘Sounds like you’d better talk to the laborer who talked to your laborer.’

‘I did. That’s why I’m telling you.’

Raveneau thought over that as he drove to the Hall. He would have told la Rosa about it, but a call came from the manager of the assisted living facility where Lash was and the manager sounded shaken. She worked to keep her voice calm.

‘Albert Lash is in the hospital with symptoms of radiation poisoning. A doctor just called. She wanted to know if Albert had been any place where he was getting radiation therapy. They’re sure it’s radiation but of course we don’t do any radiation treatment here and he hasn’t gone anywhere in a month. When someone needs an X-ray or treatment requiring radiation we schedule a visit. Albert hasn’t had anything like that ever. That’s why I’m calling you.’

‘Maybe they’re making a mistake.’

‘The doctor sounded sure and I’m calling you because he had a visitor a couple of days ago.’

‘Did the visitor sign in?’

‘He signed in and we have videotape. It’s not very good but there’s eight seconds or so when he’s in the elevator and then just outside it. Some of our residents wander at night and can forget which floor is theirs, so we always watch the elevators. Albert got sick and we thought it was a virus that’s been going around.’

‘Why don’t you give me the phone number of the doctor you talked with this morning?’

Raveneau phoned the doctor as he started driving but cut that call off before it rang as another call came in, this one from Brandon Lindsley.

‘What’s up, Brandon?’

‘Some not so cool police action today.’

‘What happened?’

‘My apartment manager got in my face. Usually the only thing that gets him going is spilled laundry soap. He said a homicide inspector has been asking questions about me. What am I supposed to do with that?’

‘I’ve been making a lot of calls. You know how it is when someone suddenly appears on the side of a mountain and then feeds you a story. I’m just doing what you expect me to, at least for now. But I definitely want to know who you are, Brandon, and all about your friends.’