One Through the Heart (17 page)

‘We need shade,’ Coe said.

Raveneau ordered an albacore sandwich that smelled old after he peeled the wrapping back. He was only good for a couple of bites before abandoning it for an iced coffee. They talked for a while about the opinion of a psychologist who had watched the interview. Coe ate slowly, his forehead damp with sweat and something clearly on his mind.

‘At least we know who we are looking for now,’ Coe said, meaning that it was confirmed that Attis Martin’s true name was Alan Siles. ‘We’re going out to the public today. Someone knows where Siles and the other two are. We’ll get a lot of calls. What’s your read on Brandon Lindsley?’

‘Scared but still trying to control the situation.’

‘The psychologist thinks we’re dealing with a psychopath. He beat the PDD test.’

‘That doesn’t surprise me.’

Raveneau took another drink of the iced coffee. He needed more ice. He leaned back in the shade knowing that Coe wanted a better summation of what Raveneau and la Rosa had learned from Lindsley today.

‘Does Lindsley really believe a plot is under way?’ Coe asked.

‘If he didn’t I don’t think he’d be talking to us. He gave us a lot today.’

‘Such as?’

‘You’ve already heard them all, but I’ll tick them off again. That all emails and phones are dead and they’re gone from the Coryell chat room they’ve haunted. That he knew about the remains of a woman on Mount Tam before the police. That he was in the bomb shelter with Alan Siles and the other two a month before construction started and that Siles suggested Coryell’s skull was there.’

‘But it’s not.’

‘It wasn’t among them. Lindsley is worried that Alan Siles has enough to tie him to the plot so that if they go, he goes down.’

‘He’s right to be worried.’

‘I also get the feeling he doesn’t think Siles will come in alive.’

‘Is something going to happen today, tomorrow, is it under way?’

‘Siles told him it’s go-time and left him with the throwaway phone he showed you.’

‘What do you believe?’

‘That Lindsley doesn’t trust Siles. In some ways he’s afraid of him and he doesn’t like us, but he felt he had to come forward today. He believes we won’t be able to stop what Siles has planned.’

‘Great.’

‘I believe they’re planning to act.’

‘So do I.’

Coe took a last bite of his sandwich and laid the rest down in the cardboard box and chewed slowly his last bite before saying, ‘We’re going out with UNSUB warrants on all three. We might get a little blowback later if Lindsley has set us up, but I’m not worried about that. When we ask for help from the public we’ll have to explain in more detail what we’re after and what we’re concerned about. We’ll have to say we have no proof but a reason to believe the plotters may attempt to detonate dirty bombs. That’s going to generate a media hurricane and that brings me back to how credible Lindsley is.’

‘He lied before. He may be lying now. He beat your PDD and yet he’s not the problem. This Siles has communicated he’s going to act and we don’t know where he is.’

‘So what if we take the position we’re not certain, but there’s enough evidence to be concerned? We’ll cite the phone threat, run their photos, and ask the public for help locating these three individuals. We’ll ask anyone who has ever seen them to call us and we’ll go out with your cell number since you brought him to our doorstep.’ Coe smiled at the idea of giving out Raveneau’s cell number. ‘And where are the ageing homicide ace and his cool as ice partner going to be as I start answering questions about radiological weapons and an ex-UC history professor who swallowed isotopes? Are you going to be there?’

‘I’ll be there.’

‘Do you want to be the one to tell them they might get dirty-bombed because of the Indian Wars of the nineteenth century?’

‘I wouldn’t want to steal your thunder.’

‘Then maybe you can explain the western expansion.’

‘Don’t worry about any of that. The TV networks will come up with experts within half an hour,’ Raveneau said.

‘And what if this is some big hoax?’

‘Then they’ll never forget you.’

‘That’s what I’m thinking,’ Coe replied. ‘We’ve got agents at food processing plants and at businesses where they deal with medical radiological devices and we’ve narrowed it to a list of twenty-five in California, but I get the feeling we’re not going to get anything from that list. We put out these warrants and do the press conference and then they come out of hiding and get in front of the cameras and explain that they never were going to hurt anybody and it’s all about focusing attention on the plight of the Native American and a broken reservation system that stripped the tribes of their dignity and purpose.’

‘She hit right at a truth,’ Raveneau said.

‘Who?’

‘Coryell.’

‘You’re funny about her. Are you going to go to the boundary place? I bet if you go there you get out of this heat and wind.’

‘Some stuff doesn’t stay buried. You said “true believer” earlier talking about me. I think that’s what we’ve got in Alan Siles. He’s a true believer and he took the name of a dead man.’

‘That’s just identity theft, and I don’t trust much about this Lindsley. I see an act. Nothing about him is fixed. He’s completely liquid. We caught a serial killer in Iowa that we chased for seven years. He was working three jobs, one as bartender, completely garrulous, easy-going, one as a building manager, monosyllabic, hostile, vindictive, and a third as a volunteer school crossing guard. Not quite volunteer. He got a little stipend and kids and the parents loved him. Gentle, watchful, you know, keep an eye on the kids while the parent ran an errand. Same guy. Lindsley reminds me of him.’

Coe shook his head and stood. ‘You ready to go?’ he asked.

‘Not yet. What about Ike Latkos and the other federal agency?’

‘She did work for a US agency and the operation was successful, but it was awhile ago and they’re not with him – her now – anymore. Not an issue.’

Raveneau took another drink of iced coffee and then slid the cup into the trash. Coe expected him to go back up to the Field Office with him but Raveneau shook his head.

‘I need to go see an old friend who may be able to help with all this. I’ll call you later.’

H
ugh Neilley lived across the street from John McLaren Park in the two-story, three-bedroom house his parents left him. Several of his neighbors had known Hugh most of his life. Raveneau’s guess was they saw Hugh as an outgoing man, generous with his time and protective of the neighborhood. Once a week he took an elderly neighbor to buy groceries, as he had for more than a decade.

But in many ways he was a complicated and private man. When his marriage ended, Donna, his ex, told Raveneau she didn’t know if it was the drinking, the sarcasm, or both, but she was done. She quit on a cold December night when Hugh’s brother officers gave him yet another ride home after a night out and Hugh hadn’t spoken a word to her since.

Hugh believed it a mark of masculinity that he could turn his back on anyone who crossed him or he fell out with, even Donna. Some went from being the best people in the world to being the worst and as Raveneau knocked on Hugh’s door he knew he and Hugh were on that path.

‘I’m not even going to ask why you’re here, but come on upstairs.’ When they got upstairs Raveneau followed him into the kitchen. ‘What’s on the great homicide inspector’s mind tonight?’

‘Ferranti told me you bought the job. He had some other things to say that I want to ask you about as well, but that’s not why I’m here. I think you know why I’m here.’

‘Make yourself at home.’

Raveneau pulled out a bar stool at the island and sat as Hugh stood across from him, palms pressed down on the tiled surface, face reddening as he launched into Ferranti.

‘Fuck him and his three hundred dollar jeans and Hollywood haircut. He’s all over me now that Matt’s not there. He beat me down on price, whined, wheedled, and whittled me down until he got what he wanted. You can bet he’s charging the owner twice as much. That’s how guys like him operate.’

‘He told me a laborer claims two loads of debris you were hauling away got dumped off a slope on Skyline Boulevard.’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, this laborer knows how we operate or was it the guy Matt had to fire that came up with the story later? Ferranti is also telling me my hauling tags are fraudulent and some other bullshit that’s going to let him keep my money when we’re finished. Can you imagine me doing that?’

‘You don’t drive the truck.’

‘I don’t want to talk about this.’

‘Did Matt dump loads off the side of a road?’

‘If he did, I’m ruined.’

‘Is Ferranti lying about the dump tags being forged?’

‘I’ve got to ask, are you a homicide inspector or a building inspector? Which is it? It’s not clear to me.’

‘I’ve got someone who says he was in the bomb shelter a month before the start of construction, and that this UNSUB the FBI is looking for, Alan Siles, expected the skulls to get found as the construction work started. So I’m more interested than ever in how everything went down, what Matt took from there, the delay calling us, illegal dumping, everything. Where are the things Matt took out of the fallout shelter that were going to make their way back to me and haven’t?’

‘They’re here and you’ll leave with them.’ Raveneau saw questioning and uncertainty enter Hugh’s eyes. ‘I planned to bring them to you tomorrow. They’re not coming from Matt because I asked him to leave them behind when he moved out of here. As soon as he got out on bail I let him know he didn’t live here anymore and he was through working for me.’

‘Stop right there, how long have you known he took these things from the bomb shelter? Did you lie to me before?’

‘No, I didn’t lie. I didn’t find out until after you confronted him. He confessed to me as part of a bullshit apology. I don’t want to talk about him anymore and you’ll leave with the things he took.’

Hugh turned around and opened the cabinet. He pushed several things aside, bottles and cans clinking and then turned around with a container and without a word slid it across to Raveneau. The label read ‘
Blue Diamond Almonds
’ and below that the word ‘
Bold
’ and, underneath that, ‘
Blazin
’
Buffalo Wing
.’

‘Open it up,’ Hugh said.

‘Hand me a bowl.’

Raveneau emptied the contents into a bowl and two gold rings, both with jewels on them, slid in among the almonds. So did a necklace with an onyx-eyed silver eagle.

‘This is not what he said would be here. He told me one ring was gold with carvings on it and one was silver with a turquoise stone, and there should be a locket.’

‘He lied to you to fuck with you. That’s him. That’s my nephew. There was a knife but he sold it.’

Raveneau stared at the jewelry but didn’t touch any of it yet as he debated his options. He didn’t have many.

‘There you go, Ben, now you’ve got what you need to solve the case. Take them to Coryell’s mother and maybe she’ll recognize them. Good luck with it and I’m sorry Matt took them, but that’s the last apology I’ll make for him. So don’t look for anymore. If he dumped loads I’ll pay my fines.’ He tapped his chest with a forefinger. ‘I’ve made a lot of mistakes, an awful lot of mistakes, but I really don’t need you reminding me. Anything else before you leave?’

‘I want to keep talking.’

‘You want to keep prodding and probing, so I’m going to keep drinking. Do you want one?’

‘No.’

‘I don’t have any wine anyway.’ Hugh pushed a glass up against the refrigerator ice maker, his back to Raveneau as ice clacked into the glass. He poured from a bourbon bottle and Raveneau listened to liquor flow over the ice and Hugh say, ‘Ben. Ben. You may be sorry where all this goes.’

‘Where what goes?’

‘You’re putting pressure on me. I needed you to help me keep Matt out there. I needed you to help me get him out of jail and keep him working. I needed you to tell the contractor you’ve known me forever and I’m a straight shooter, not to cozy up to him so he’d open up that tiny little suspicious mind of his and share his dark theories with you. I needed you to just sit tight on the things Matt stole until I had the situation in hand. Now you’re going to ring them into evidence and the smirking bastard there who checks them in is going to have a new story to tell. The only thing you’ve really done to help me is to tell me straight up to step away from my nephew and let him stand on his feet as a man. I listened to you on that.’

He took a long drink as he turned around then put the glass down on the island. ‘I followed your advice on a lot of things over the years and you used to never give it until I asked for it. I always admired that. Mattie’s the last of my family and that’s it. He’ll break from me now and maybe he’ll straighten out and marry someone who helps keep him in the right direction and the family will rebuild through their children. But I won’t be part of it. He and I have parted and that’s the end of something very important to me. No more family.

‘Now Ferranti, Ferranti is going to sue me for fraud. He’s hired a fucking lawyer and filed a complaint with the city and police department. Matt dumped two loads. I didn’t know that before. I know it now and I don’t know how I’ll pay for the clean-up or the fines or keep my license and the business going. My last ten years have been one downward spiral. I’m inside ninety days to retirement and I’m not going to have the money to pay my bills and keep going. I’m trapped. I have nowhere to go.’ He drained the rest of the glass, turned and refilled it, then opened a drawer Raveneau knew held a pistol.

‘Shut the drawer.’

‘Just hang on here a minute; nothing is going to happen to you, old buddy.’

Hugh pulled his hand back but left the drawer open and took a long swallow. When Raveneau started to move around the island, Hugh wagged a finger and said, ‘No. Stay there and listen to me. Matt is my nephew. He’s got my sister’s blood, but it’s my honor he’s taking down too. There’s not going to be anything left for me when this is over. San Francisco will file a criminal complaint over the forged dump tags and I got a call an hour ago from a
Chronicle
reporter. That newspaper is so thin you can’t see it when you turn it sideways, but this guy writes for the online version and he wants a scoop. He wants a quote from the career police officer before he’s charged with dumping construction debris in the sacred watershed and trying to cover it up.’