Unpaid Dues (29 page)

"I'm the idiot."

He sighed deeply and sat down next to her. "You
see but you don't see, you hear but you don't hear." He placed a
small porcelain pig in a blue police uniform on the table in front of
her. "See that? This could be the most important thing in your
life right now. Six months from now"—he moved the prop for his
metaphor away out of her sight—"it won't mean shit. Something
else will be there. My dad taught me that."

She looked at him. Her eyes felt like they would
never blink again. "Six months?"

"
Sometimes a year."

"
I can do that standing on my head."

"That's the spirit. C'mon, let's blow this
joint."

She followed him out to his car. It was a clear
night. The moon was a thumbnail in the western sky St. John toggled
the automatic lock switch. She waited for the click and then opened
her door. He started the engine. "How's the investigation going
otherwise?" she asked.

He cracked a smile.

"I know you talked to a contractor guy."

"We've talked to a lot of people."

"You wouldn't forget Big Mike."

"
What about him?"

"He said you were asking questions the other day
wanted him to give up all his workers."

"We have a piece of evidence connected to Jane's
murder that we've linked back to one of his work sites." "Was
Thor working there?"

"
Not according to the manifest, but that doesn't
mean a whole lot. I doubt he knows the true names of half his
workers. Guys who work construction are a transient bunch. Lots of
cash paid under the table."

"Especially to the lower-skilled guys doing the
grunt work."

"
Exactly" St. John adjusted the heater
controls.

"Were you planning on going to work tomorrow?"

"I hadn't thought that far ahead. I guess I'll
see how I feel in the morning."

"
You won't be alone. Bring an extra uniform to
work. We'll send in a policewoman to take your place and put a trap
on your phone line in case he tries to contact you."

She looked out the window. "What do you think
he's doing right now?"

"Probably curled up in a hole somewhere. You
were talking about McCarthy right?"

"
Yeah." She searched the night sky for
constellations she recognized. "Do you think he's thinking about
me too?"

"I'm sure of it." He pulled on the
headlights.

She poked at the swelling around her nose, wincing as
she explored the extent of the damage. "What else do you have?"

"You know I can't really discuss the details of
an ongoing investigation."

"
I'm not going to tell anyone. Besides, I'm part
of the team now, right? Just tell me if you have anything else that
ties Jane's murder to Thor."

"There was skin under her fingernails that we
believe she scraped off her assailant. The lab says it had tattoo ink
in it and we've got a blood type."

"
I'm glad she got a piece of him."

"
I'll be gladder when we have all of him."
 

Chapter 25

Munch called home from the St. Johns'. The answering
machine clicked on and she spoke to the recorder, telling Nathan to
pick up. He sounded groggy

"
You okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, I just fell asleep in front of the TV.
What's going on?"

"You need to go over to your grandma's house."

"You want me out?"

"It may not be safe. Remember I told you about
New York Jane getting killed?"

"
Yeah."

"I think Thor did it and he might be after me."

"Shit."

"
Yeah, exactly We won't be coming home tonight
and I don't want you there by yourself."

"Does he know where you live?"

"
He could look it up in the phone book."

"Let him come. I'm not afraid of that
mother-fucker."

"This isn't about being afraid. The police have
offered to come over and escort you."

"Don't set the pigs on me."

"
Nathan, I'm not going to argue with you. I'm
telling you to get out of my house and go to your grandma's. I'll
call you tomorrow."

Munch and Asia spent the night at the St. Johns'.

The next morning, Caroline took Asia to school. Munch
drove alone to her house to change and to pick up an extra uniform.
Cassiletti followed her at a discreet distance in an unmarked police
car. Nathan had taken his duffel bag with him and that saddened her.
He probably felt abandoned one more time. When this was over, she was
going to have a whole new list of people to whom she owed amends.

St. Iolm told her to carry on at work as if it were a
normal day.

Yeah, right.

She parked her car near the bathrooms. The uniform
she'd brought for the policewoman decoy was tucked under her arm.
She'd folded it carefully and packed it in a brown supermarket bag.
Now she carried it in what she hoped was a casual manner as she
walked into Lou's office. The first thing she did every morning was
go over the repair orders that had been paid the day before and make
sure each mechanic was properly credited for his or her work. She and
Lou also used this time to drink their morning coffee together and
make small talk before the day began.

Lou was bent over his desk, going over the gas books.
The guys at night read the meters on the pumps  before closing.
Lou double-checked the numbers in the morning, making sure that no
gas "evaporated" over-night.

"Good morning," she said, then noticed the
chinless woman with blue eyeliner and light brown hair standing in
the corner. She directed a nod her way

"
You must be Miranda," the woman said. "I'm
Officer Halliwell. "

Munch handed her the uniform, noting their six-inch
height difference. "Call me Munch. The pants might be a little
short on you. "

"
I got your coffee here," Lou said, turning
in his chair. "Holy shit, what happened to you?"

"
Looks worse than it is," she assured him.

She grabbed her coffee and a stack of work orders.
Lou returned to his computations with a scowl on his  face.

"I'm going to stick the tanks," he said.
"Stay here. Jesus. I can't believe this."

"Business as usual," Munch said.

Lou left the office muttering obscenities. Munch
watched him lift the small manhole covers that protected the
underground tank caps and insert one of two long wooden dowels he
used like a dipstick. The longer stick was notched to measure up to
ten thousand gallons and was used for the three tanks that held the
grades of gasoline. The smaller stick was for the
five-thousand-gallon diesel depository. It was a primitive but
effective method to determine how much gas they had remaining
underground.

"He's cool," she told the cop. "And
he'll be nicer after his third cup of coffee."

Halliwell just nodded and continued standing there as
if she were on full military parade. Munch wondered if one of the
gas-level measuring tools or something like it had found its way up
one of the woman's orifices.

Lou returned to the office. Gas orders were placed
forty-eight hours in advance, and though normally the calculations
involved to figure the order weren't exactly rocket science, this
morning Lou seemed to be using the eraser more than the lead of his
pencil.

"
Just forget I'm here," Officer Halliwell
said.

 
Munch sat at the corner counter that served as
her desk. "Is that Chevy van on the corner part of the
operation?"

"Don't draw attention to it."

"We're not idiots," Lou said.

"
I wasn't suggesting that you were, sir."

Munch punched some numbers into the calculator.

"Kids, don't make me stop this car."

Halliwell cracked a grin and Munch felt like she'd
made progress. "Seriously I appreciate that you're here. I'm
still not sure it's necessary but I know you're willing to risk
personal danger."

"Where can I change?"

"
Use the storage room to your right. The light
switch is by the door."

Halliwell was just barely out of earshot when Lou
muttered, "So where was she last night?"

"I was the only one who could go in and talk to
Thor. It wasn't anybody's fault that it went bad. Thor is an animal."

"Exactly my point. What was your boyfriend
thinking?"

"It was my decision. I'd do it again."

"
If that guy shows up here, we'1l take care of
him."

Lou opened the bottom drawer of his file cabinet
pulled out a sawed-off baseball bat. "He'll rue the day he was
born."

"
Rue the day?"

"
You heard me."

"
Drink your coffee, you big lug."

She finished her paperwork and went out to the repair
bay.

The police audio tech, Tam Spiva, was wearing a
telephone repairman uniform and stationed in the supply room next to
the telephone junction box.

Opening her toolbox, she spoke to him, feeling as if
she were in some James Bond flick. "Do I need to keep him
talking for any length of time?"

"Depends how far away he's calling from and how
many switching stations are involved."

"
In the movies they always need like three
minutes."

"
That's the movies. If he's local, five seconds
will do it."

At nine, Munch was deeply involved in the wiring of a
Corvette's steering column when she was paged for a call. She was
glad for the break. The car's steering wheel telescoped as well as
tilted and was fighting her all the way Carlos handed her the phone,
so she double-checked that he had put the call on hold and that she
still wasn't on loudspeaker. She and Carlos had pulled that prank on
each other in the past. When the unsuspecting victim said "Hello"
into the phone, the voice was broadcast across the shop. The
amplified words that followed were invariably

"Oh, shit. "

Carlos walked away disappointed when Munch pushed the
button to open the line, but she heard only a dial tone when she put
the phone to her ear.

"Who was it?" .

Carlos shrugged. "I don' know. Some guy"

The phone rang again. She gave Spiva the high sign
and he acknowledged that he was ready She picked up the receiver.

"Bel Air Texaco, this is Munch."

"
How could you do this to me?"

Her pulse accelerated, but not so much as to cloud
her mind. She lifted a thumb in the air. Spiva activated his gear.

"
You see yourself as the victim here?" she
asked.

"
You've ruined my life. "

"
I ruined your life?"

"Are they listening now?"

"What do you think?"

"
I think you're a bitch. You're only so holy
rolly cuz you went to the cops first. That doesn't make you clean.
We've all done shit in our past."

"
I'm not talking about ripping off hippies for
their weed money or rolling drunks. Shit in our past? What are you
talking past? Jane died last week."
 
"
ls
that what they told you? That I had something to do with that? I was
locked down. Ask Danny T. I've been with someone from New Start every
minute of every day for the last month. When would I have had time to
hurt Jane?"

"
So turn yourself in."

"Yeah, right. You fucked that up for me."
He wheezed into the phone.

"Are you hurt?"

"I can get around. You'll see me again. Bet on
it."

He hung up.

She turned to Spiva. "Did you get it?"

He was already on his radio. "Yes. You did
great."

He toggled off and clipped his Handie-Talkie to his
tool belt. "We've got the number he was calling from. Now all we
need to do is look it up in a reverse directory. If the number he
called from is listed, we'll have him.!

"It's not brain surgery right?"

"
What do you think brain surgeons say in these
situations?"

"It's not auto mechanics."

"You might be right."

Before he could ask about anything else she said, "We
get lots of doctors in here."

"Not surprising."

"
Yeah," she said, "they come in two
forms: the cheap ones who question everything, especially the bill,
and the nice ones who give you the green light, pay any price, just
as long as it's fixed."

"How are cops?"

"As customers?"

Spiva nodded.

"I don't get many as customers in Brentwood."

"
Yeah, I guess you wouldn't."