The Angel Maker

Tuesday February 14 Valentine's Day

Daphne suggested lunch on Bainex bridge Island and Boldt agreed, with Liz's blessings, in part to try to talk her out of quitting. He brought Miles along in a stroller. She accused him of bringing his child as a chaperon, and he allowed that this was partly true. She limped from her bad leg. She wore a blue rain jacket, the kind a backpacker would wear, blue jeans, and two-tone leather deck shoes with rawhide laces. She wore no scarf around her neck, allowing the scar to show, and Boldt knew this was a different woman. "What's this about a job offer? I thought we were a team."

She didn't answer that. The ferry horn sounded. Miles started crying. Daphne walked over to the rail and looked out across the textured expanse of gray green water. The city grew progressively smaller behind them. A beautiful skyline and rolling hills covered in toy houses. Boldt and Miles joined her at the rail.

She watched the horizon; he watched her. Miles played with some plastic balls attached to the stroller. This thing was the BMW of strollers. Liz had picked it out after exhaustive research.

"We bought a piano," Boldt said, though he didn't tell her why, not exactly. That reminded him that there were things they hid from each other now, and that was okay. He said, "You get me on the force, and then you quit. That's hardly fair. Shoswitz would cry foul."

She spoke just loudly enough to be heard above the wind and the constant vibration of the engines. "She rejected the kidney." "Considering the source," he joked, "can you blame her?"

"She's on a list now. Number five on a list."

"I know that," he said soberly. "What if she's too far down the list? Did she live through all that, just to die?"

"Her? She's a fighter, Daffy."

She nodded faintly and whispered, "This was why he was in business in the first place."

"If anyone can beat this-"

"Yeah, yeah," she interrupted. "You sound just like Dr. Light Horse."

"Well, maybe she's right."

Five seagulls flew just off the rail. Miles pointed. One of the passengers threw a piece of a Hostess Cupcake at them. "Even seagulls are subjected to junk food," Boldt said to her. But she didn't smile. She didn't even seem to notice. "I brought a kite along," he tried. She stared off.

He said, "Did Einstein tell you about the fish for the kite?"

"He didn't have to. I can smell it."

"It's an old trick of mine. I'm full of tricks. Mostly old ones." She didn't smile at this either. So he had lost his touch. Another sign of change. Or age. Or both. "Even if we should lose her, Daffy, she's made a difference. She has touched hundreds of lives at The Shelter, more since this story broke. organ banks have been flooded with donors. With more organs, people like Tegg are out of business. That was her doing. You can't knock that. We should all have that kind of effect." He added, "Not that we're going to lose her." "I love you," she said, still looking at the horizon. "As a friend," she added, smiling for the first time. "Likewise. Always will."

"Think so?"

"Know so."

"Once she's better," she said strongly, "I'm off to London for this new job. Hostage negotiator."

"So I've heard."

"I may stay over there.

I don't know. Have you ever been to London?"

"The way it works," he said, bending toward his bag and hoping that she hadn't heard his voice catch, "is that you get the kite up good and high. You get it way the hell up there. Then you tie the fish to the line and take up some slack and toss the fish overboard. The drag on the fish in the water supports the line and flies the kite. The kite sails out to sea all by itself. Sometimes for hours. Maybe for days."

"I know you're mad about me quitting," she said. "We can try it off the stern. The wind is best there.

She said, "I suppose if you're lucky, it'll sail completely around the world and come right back to you." This time, he didn't answer. She added, "You know, it hurt more to kill that dog than to kill him. Is that possible? What does that make me?"

"Honest, which is more than most of us."

"You think she has a chance?"

"It's all any of us have."

"Can I get a hug? is that allowed?" Boldt said, "Better ask him" and pointed to Miles, who clapped.

She came into his arms then and held him tightly. She sobbed.

People stared. He didn't care. Let them. Boldt cried, too, but for his own reasons. His life was right now. Okay. On track again, and he had her to thank for some of it. "I'll miss you," he whispered.

Miles clapped again, and Daphne laughed. It was good to hear that.

In the end, the kite trick worked. Miles fell asleep in the stroller. The kite sailed off toward the horizon, growing smaller and smaller. People pointed. Some people clapped. Miles slept through it all.

A few weeks later, Daphne followed it into the sky.

And now for the good part. This was where Sergeant Lou Boldt threw out all convention, where the textbooks took a backseat to experience, and where he found out who in the lecture hall was listening and who was asleep.

He raised his voice. A big man, Boldt's words bellowed clear back to the make-out seats without the need of the mike clipped to his tie. "Everything I've told you in the past few weeks concerning evidence, investigative procedure, chain of custody, and chain of command is worthless." A few heads snapped up-more than he had expected. "Worthless unless you learn to read the crime scene, to know the victim, to listen to and trust your own instincts. To feel with your heart as much as think with your head. To find a balance between the two. If it was all in the head, then we would not need detectives; the lab technicians could do it all. Conversely, if it was all in the heart-if we could simply empathize with the suspect and say, "Yup, you did it/ then who would need the lab nerds?" A few of the studious types busily flipped pages. Boldt informed them, "You won't find any of this in your textbooks. That's just the point. All the textbooks in the world are not going to clear a case-only the investigator can. Evidence and information is nothing without a human being to analyze, organize, and interpret it. That's you. That's me. There comes a time when all the information must be set aside; there comes a time when passion and instinct take over. It's the stuff that can't be taught; but it can be learned. Heart and mind-one's worthless without the other." He paused here, wondering if these peach-fuzz students could see beyond the forty-four-year-old, slightly paunchy homicide cop in the wrinkled khakis and the tattered sport coat that hid a pacifier in its side pocket.

At the same time, he listened to his own words reverberating through the lecture hall, wondering how much he dare tell them. Did he tell them about the nightmares, the divorces, the ulcers, and the politics? The hours? The salary? The penetrating numbness with which the veterans approached a crime scene?

Light flooded an aisle as a door at the rear of the hall swung open and a lanky kid wearing oversize jeans and a rugby shirt hurried toward the podium, casting a stretched shadow. Reaching Boldt, he passed him a pink telephone memo. A sea of students looking on, Boldt unfolded and read it.

Volunteer Park, after class. I'll wait fifteen minutes.-D.M.

Volunteer Park? he wondered, his curiosity raised. Why not the offices? Daphne Matthews was anything but dramatic. As the department's forensic psychologist, she was cool, controlled, studied, patient. Articulate, strong, intelligent. But not dramatic-not like this. The curious faces remained fixed on him. "A love letter," he said, winning a few laughs. But not many: cops weren't expected to be funny-something else they would have to learn.

Volunteer Park is perched well above Seattle's downtown cluster of towering high-rises and the gray-green curve of Elliott Bay that sweeps out into the island-riddled estuary of Puget Sound. A large reservoir, acting as a reflecting pond, is terraced below the parking lot and lookout that fronts the museum, which had been under reconstruction for months on its way to housing the city's Asian collection. Boldt parked his aging department-issued four-door Chevy three spaces away from her red Prelude, which she maintained showroom clean. She wasn't to be found in her car, which left only one possibility.

The water tower's stone facade rose several stories to his left.

Well-kept beds of flowering shrubs and perennials surrounded its footing, like gems in a setting. The grass was a phenomenal emerald green, unique, he thought, to Seattle and Portland. Maybe Ireland too; he had never been. Summer was just taking hold. Every living thing seemed poised for change. The sky was a patchwork quilt of azure blue and cotton white, the clouds moving in swiftly from the west, low and fast. A visitor might think rain, but a local knew better. Not tonight. Cold maybe, if it cleared.

He saw an — unfamiliar male face behind the iron grate in one of the tower's upper windows and waited a minute for this person and his companion to descend and leave the structure. Once they had, he chose the stairway to his right, ascending a narrow chimney of steep steps wedged between the brick rotunda to his right and the riveted steel hull of the water tank to his left. The painted tank and the tower that surrounded it were enormous, perhaps forty or fifty feet high and half again as wide. With each step, Boldt's heart pounded heavier. He was not in the best shape; or maybe it was because she had elected to step outside the system, and that couldn't help but intrigue him; or maybe it was personal and had nothing to do with the shop. He and Daphne had been close once-too close for what was allowed of a married man. They still were close, but mention of that one night never passed their lips. A month earlier she had surprised him by telling him about a new relationship. After Bill Gates got married, Owen Adler became the reigning bachelor prize of the Northwest, having gone from espresso cart to the fastest-growing beverage and food business in the western region. He leased his own plane, owned a multimillion-dollar estate overlooking Shilshole Marina, and now, quite possibly, the heart and affections of Daphne Matthews. Had her note been worded any other way, had she not chosen such an isolated location, Boldt would have been convinced that her request was nothing more than some lover butterflies.

In another two hours, Volunteer Park would be a drug and sex bazaar. Despite its view, the tower was not a place frequented by the pin-striped set. She had clearly chosen it carefully. Daphne was not given to acts of spontaneity. She desired a clandestine meeting-and he had to wonder why.

He reached the open-air lookout at the top of the tower. It had a cement floor and evenly spaced viewing windows crosshatched with heavy gauge steel to prevent flyers from testing their wings, or projectiles from landing on passersby.

She held her arms crossed tightly, accentuating an anxiety uncommon in her. Her brown hair spilled over her face, hiding her eyes, and when she cleared it, he saw fear where there was usually the spark of excitement. Her square-shouldered, assertive posture collapsed in sagging defeat.

She wore the same blue slacks and cotton sweater as he had seen her wearing at work. She had not been to her houseboat yet. "What is it?" he asked, worried by this look of hers.

Her chin cast a shadow, hiding the scar on her neck. She did not answer immediately. "It's a potential black hole," she explained-a difficult, if not impossible case to solve, and with political overtones. And then he understood: She had bypassed the proper procedures to give him a chance to sidestep this investigation before he formally inherited it at the cop shop. Why she would have a black hole in the first place, confused him. The department's psychologist did not lead investigations; she kept cops from swallowing barrels, and profiled the loonies that kept Boldt and the others chasing body bags.

She assisted in interrogations. She could take any side of any discussion and make a convincing argument out of it. She was the best listener he knew.

She handed him a fax-the first of what appeared to be several that she removed from a briefcase.

Soup is good food. For some.

She told him, "That was the first threat he received."

"Adler," Boldt said, filling in the blank.

She nodded, her hair trailing her movements. Daphne Matthews had grace, even when frightened. "Innocuous enough," he said.

She handed him the next, saying "Yes, but not for long."

Suicide or murder. Take your pick. No cops. No press. No tricks, or you will carry with you the blood of the innocent.

"It could be nothing," Boldt said, though his voice belied this.

"That's exactly what Adler said," she replied angrily, lumping them together.

Boldt did not want to be lumped in with Owen Adler. "I'll give you one thing: When you say black hole, you mean black hole." Faxed threats? he thought. In the top left of the page of thermal paper he read a date and time in a tiny typeface. To the right: Page 1 of 1. Good luck tracing this, he thought.

She handed him a third. He did not want it.

"Quite a collection," he said. Boldt's nerves unraveled from time to time, and when it happened, he defaulted to stupid oneliners.

Soup is bad food. If Adler Foods is out of business within 30 days, and all of the money is gone, and you are dead and buried, there will be no senseless killing. The choice is yours.

"How many days has it been?" It was the first question that popped into his head, though it was answered by the date in the corner. He counted the weeks in his head. The thirty days had expired. "You see the way he worded it?" Looking down at her feet, she spoke softly, dreamy and terrified. Her lover was the target of these threats, and despite her training, she clearly was not prepared for how to handle it. "The more common threat would be: "If Adler Foods is not out of business within thirty days …"You see the difference?"

Her bailiwick, not his, he felt tempted to remind. "Is that significant?" He played along because she had fragile! written all over her. "To me, it's significant. So is the attempt in each fax to place the blame firmly with Owen. It's his decision; his choice." When she looked up at him, he saw that she held back tears. "Daffy-" he offered, stepping closer. "Owen and I are not going to see each other socially-for a while. Me being police and all." She wanted it to sound casual, but failed. "We have to take him seriously now."

Boldt felt a chill. "Do we?" She handed him another.

I am waiting. I suggest you do not. You will have to live with your choice. Others will not be so lucky.

"It's the first time he's mentioned himself," Boldt noted.

She handed him the last of the group. "That one was sent four days ago. This one arrived this morning."

Your indecision is costly. It can, and will, get much worse than this.

Below this on the fax was a copy of a newspaper article.

"Today's paper," she explained.

The headline read: INFECTIONS BAFFLE DOCTORS Two Children Hospitalized He had read the short article quickly. "They're very sick," she told him. "'It can, and will, get much worse than this," she quoted.

He looked up. "This is his offer of proof? is that what you're thinking?"

"He means to be taken seriously."

"I don't get it," he complained, frustrated. "Why didn't you bring this in sooner?"

"Owen didn't want to believe it." She took back the faxes possessively. Her hand trembled. "The second one warns against involving us."

She meant cops. She meant that the reason for them meeting here, not in the fifth-floor offices, was that she still was not sure how to handle this. "An Adler employee," Boldt said. "Past or present, an employee is the most likely."

"Owen has Fowler working on it."

She meant Kenny Fowler, formerly of Major Crimes, now Adler's chief of security. Boldt liked Kenny Fowler, and said so. Better yet; he was good police, or had been at one time. She nodded and toyed with a silver ring fashioned as a porpoise that she wore on her right hand. "I misjudged him," she said so quietly that Boldt leaned in to hear as she repeated herself. Daphne was not one to mumble. "Are you okay?"

"Sure," she lied.

A black hole. Absorbing energy. Admitting no light-pure darkness. He realized that he had already accepted it, and he wanted to blame her for knowing him so well. "Talk to me," he said, nervous, irritated. "You're right about it being an employee. That's the highest percentage bet. But typically, it involves extortion, not suicide demands. Henry Happle, Owen's counsel, wants it handled internally, where there's no chance of press leakage, no police involvement, nothing to violate the demands." This sounded a little too much like the party line, and it bothered him. It was not like her to voice the opinions of others as her own, and he had to wonder what kind of man was Henry Happle that he seemed to carry so much influence with her. "That's why I have to be so careful in dealing with you. Happle wants Fowler to handle this internally. Owen overruled him this morning. He suggested this meeting-opening a dialogue. But it was not an easy decision."

"We can't be sure this newspaper story is his doing," Boldt told her. "He may have just seized upon a convenient headline."

"Maybe." She clearly believed otherwise, and Boldt trusted Daphne's instincts. Heart and mind; he was reminded of his lecture. "What's Fowler doing about it?" Boldt asked. "He doesn't know about this meeting. Not yet. He, like Happle, advised against involving us. He's looking to identify a disgruntled employee-but he's been on it a month now. He's had a few suspects, but none of them has panned out. His loyalty is to the company. Henry Happle writes his paychecks, not Owen-if you follow me."

Boldt's irritation surfaced. "if this news story is his doing, I'd say we're a little late."

"I'm to blame. Owen asked me for my professional opinion. I classified the threats as low risk. I thought whoever it was was blowing smoke. Proper use of the language. The faxes are sent by portable computer from pay phones. Fowler traced the last two to pay phones on Pill Hill. That's a decent enough neighborhood. What that tells us is that in all probability we're dealing with an educated, affluent, white male between the ages of twenty-five and forty. The demands seemed so unrealistic that I assumed our boy was venting some anger nothing more. Owen went along with that. He put Kenny on it and tried to forget it. I screwed this up, Lou." She crossed her arms tightly again, and her breasts rode high in the cradle. Again she quoted, "It can, and will, get much worse than this.'" Her voice echoed slightly in the cavernous enclosure, circling inside his thoughts like horses on a carousel.

A black hole. His now. "You want me to look into it, I'll look into it," he offered reluctantly. "Unofficially."

"You know I can't do that, Daffy."

"Please."

"I'm not a rent-a-cop.

Neither are you. We're fifth floor. You know the way it works."

"Please!"

"I can't do that for very long," he qualified. "Thank you."

"If either of these kids die, Daffy-" He left it dangling there, like one of the many broken cobwebs suspended from the cement ceiling. "I know." She avoided his gaze. "You'll share everything with me. No stonewalling." "Agreed."

"Well … maybe not everything," he corrected. It won a genuine smile from her-and he was glad for that-though it deserted her as quickly as it had come.

His frantic footfalls on the formed stairs sounded like the beating of bats' wings as he descended at a run.

The newspaper article had listed one of the hospitals. For Lou Boldt, the victim was where every investigation began.