Blood Hunt

5

Garreth hung up the phone. Denver was sending someone to break the news to Mossman’s wife. They promised to get back about the jewelry. A message from the Coast Guard lay on Harry’s desk. According to their charts, the body had most likely gone in somewhere along the southern end of the Embarcadero and the China Basin, although probably not as far south as Potrero’s Point. Garreth noted the information in his notebook. They would need to talk to people in that area. Perhaps someone had seen something.

Serruto came out of his office to sit on a corner of Garreth’s desk. “What’s the story on the floater?”

Garreth gave him what they had so far.

Serruto frowned. “Robbery? Odd the thief didn’t take the hotel key, too, so he could rifle the room.”

“Unless it’s only supposed to look like a robbery.”

The lieutenant tugged at an ear. “You have other thoughts?”

“There’s a bruise on his neck.” Garreth held a circle of his thumb and first finger against his own neck to indicate the size and location. “I remember another case in the last several years with the same kind of mark, also with a broken neck.”

Serruto pursed his lips for a minute, then shook his head. “Doesn’t ring any bells. Keep thinking. Maybe you’ll remember more.” He went back to his office.

Garreth looked around the room. Evelyn Kolb and Art Schneider worked at their desks. He asked them if they remembered the case.

Kolb pumped the top of the thermos she brought to work every day, filling her cup with steaming tea. “Not me. Art?”

He shook his head. “Sorry.”

Garreth sighed. Damn. If only he could remember something more. Like who worked the case.

Loud footsteps brought his attention around to the door. Earl Faye and Dean Centrello stormed in.

He raised his brows. “You two didn’t wreck another car, did you?”

Faye flung himself into his chair. Centrello snarled, “You know the Isenmeier thing? Turkey tried to cut up his girlfriend? Well, we have everything set to arrest the dude, statements from the neighbors and a warrant in the works. Then the lady says it’s off. She refuses to press charges. Seems he asked her to many him.”

“Save the warrant,” Schneider said. “You can use it next time.”

“Lord, I’d hate to see this fox chopped up.” Faye rolled his eyes. “Everything she wears is either transparent or painted on. The first time we went to see — ”

Kolb cocked a brow at Garreth. “Comes a pause in the day’s occupation that is known as the fairy-tale hour.”

Faye frowned but continued talking. Garreth listened with amusement. Faye was walking proof that the art of storytelling remained alive and well. If short on anecdotes, he waxed eloquent on women or sports, or described crime scenes in graphic detail. That thought nudged something in Garreth’s head. He suspended all other thought, groping for the nudge. Only to be interrupted by the telephone. His feeling of being close to something faded.

With a sigh, Garreth reached for the receiver. “Homicide, Mikaelian.”

“We’re starting the autopsy on your floater, Inspector.”

Garreth gathered a handful of wintergreen candy from a sack in his desk to eat downstairs…the pungent odor of the candy his best defense against the morgue smell.