The Detective & the Chinese High-Fin (23 page)
Read The Detective & the Chinese High-Fin Online
Authors: Michael Craven
O
tt had a lot to deal with. First I gave him the top line. That while Lee Graves did in fact run a deadly, and highly illegal, drug operation, he had not in fact killed Keaton Fuller. The man I'd bound on the beach had. David Treadway, successful businessman, loving husband and father.
And then I gave him the details of the story. And then the evidence. The tape from the gas station, the hat, the Smith, the video that the cemetery grounds manager had taken of me digging up the gun in front of two of his employees, two more witnesses.
I also gave Ott the more macro responsibility of dealing with it all. Working with the La Jolla police, pushing
through the paperwork that would eventually bring Dave Treadway to trial and then put him in prison.
And after that? Well, I drove home. And on that drive home I thought, you know, I bet Lee Graves had initially told me the truth about Keaton's involvement in his operation. In a way, at least. Graves had probably told Keaton that through the fish business, and just maybe some other stuff too, he could grow Keaton's money. But before telling Keaton the
whole
truth, he'd gotten glimpses of his personality. And then, Graves gave the money back to Keaton, along with some walking papers, before Keaton caused him any real trouble. Which he would have. For sure. Now, was I right that that's what happened? Well, I'd never know exactly.
Happens sometimes.
The next evening I was
sitting on the edge of my pool with Nancy, our feet dangling in the cool water, the fronds on the palms above us moving just slightly, pushed around a bit by a late-afternoon wind.
Nancy said with a real melancholy in her voice, “It's too bad. You know?”
“Yeah. It was kind of a tough call. Keaton Fuller was a terrible guy. A guy who nobody's going to miss. But I had to do it. Treadway had to go.”
“That's not what I meant. He definitely did. You had to put him in jail. You can't go around killing people you don't like. I mean, there have to be some rules in life. Rules are kind of fun in a way. Because you obey most of them. But then you break some of them sometimes. The ones that
are
breakable
. And it's fun. Kind of liberating, in a way. But you don't break the ones
you just can't break
. And killing people you don't like is one of them. If that's allowed, you know, just because you feel like it, then we're just like that alligator you always talk about.”
“Which is ironic, because thinking about that alligator was what made me consider
not
sending Treadway away.”
I looked at her. She wasn't smiling, but there was just a slight upturn at the corners of her big full lips. I said, “So what did you mean when you said âit's too bad'?”
“Oh,” she said. “I said that because we don't get to play beer pong and smoke pot with the Treadways anymore. And that was fun.”
I laughed, genuinely surprised by the joke she'd laid on me.
She stayed with it. “Seriously. It's really hard to find other couples to be friends with. Good friends. Real friends. Where you like the dude and I like the chick. You know?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It really is.”
“Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Even though we were playing beer pong and smoking pot with, you know, a murderer.”
“Ha,” I said. “Right again.”
Nancy said, “Well, I'm going to go make us some dinner.”
She got up and walked inside.
I took off my shirt and slipped into the pool. I was down under the water with my eyes open, looking around. I pushed off the deep-end wall and shot through the water.
And I thought, You know, Graves was the high-fin, and then Treadway was the high-fin, but life can be the high-fin too. So much of life possesses the high-fin quality. The duality. Where you think something is one thing and then you realize it could be, might be, maybe even
is
, something else.
Was Dave Treadway a ruthless killerâor is he a guy who avenged the death of a young girl driven to suicide by Keaton Fuller and, who, in doing so, ridded the world of a sick, awful soul? Is it morally wrong for me to have a child when my going to work means I might dieâor is it just fine, something that a kid could deal with, even if I did die? Are coincidences randomâor are they
meant to be
? Are we all really here, walking around, playing Ping-Pong, drinking beer, going to Starbucks, going to work, going on vacation, mowing our lawns, stubbing our toes, shopping, seeing movies, visiting with friends, getting sick, getting better, looking for answers, falling in loveâor is it all just an illusion created through a chip stuck in our brains by aliens two hundred million years ago?
I swam down to the bottom of the pool and put my feet right in the center of the deep end. And then I pushed off and shot straight up toward the surface, headed for oxygen, for life. Which answers are right? Which answers are real? To those questions? To lots of questions? Well, I guess that just comes down to how you decide to look at it.
THE END
T
hank you to Hannah Wood and Erica Spellman-Silverman for all your great work. Total pros, both of you.
Also, thank you to Julie Hersh, the cover-design team at HarperCollins, and Tara Carberry.
Finally, thank you to my family. My mom, my sister, Priscilla, and my brother, Rich. You guys are the best.
MICHAEL CRAVEN
is an advertising writer and creative director, and is the author of two previous books,
Body Copy
and
The Detective & the Pipe Girl,
nominated for both the Nero Wolfe and Shamus Awards. He lives and works in New York City.
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.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE DETECTIVE & THE CHINESE HIGH-FIN
. Copyright © 2016 by Michael Craven. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Title page spread photograph by Joseph Sohm/Shutterstock, Inc.
EPub Edition June 2016 ISBN 9780062439383
ISBN 978-0-06-243937-6
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