Dawn Patrol

108

Boone drives to Tammy's place.

She won't be home-Danny will have whisked her away somewhere by now. He parks Petra's car right out front, takes the stairs up to Tammy's place, and picks the lock.

The apartment's the usual usual. He heads right for the bedroom because that's where people keep their secrets, there or in the bathroom. Tammy's bedroom looks a lot like Angela's, right down to the same framed picture of the two of them on top of the bureau.

And you're an idiot, Boone thinks. You look at her in those pictures, she hasn't changed a bit. Teddy didn't do any work on her, so what's up between them?

He goes into the bathroom and opens the medicine cabinet. Nothing on the shelves of any interest, but a small wallet-size photo is carefully wedged into the seam between the glass and the frame on the lower left corner of the inside of the cabinet door.

It's a face shot of a young girl. The picture was taken outdoors, but the background is indistinct due to low light and the close-up on the face, but The girl from the strawberry fields, the reeds.

The girl in the motel room with Teddy.

Probably Latina, judging from the brown skin, long, straight black hair, and dark eyes. But she could be Native American, hard to tell. What she definitely is, is a very pretty, sweet-looking little girl with a shy, hesitant smile, wearing a cross on a thin silver chain.

The same cross and chain that Dan Silver took out of his pocket just before Tammy flipped on her testimony.

So it was no setup, Boone thinks, at least not on Tammy's part. She was responding to a threat. Silver has the girl, whoever she is, and he was letting Tammy know that the right words had better come out of her mouth.

Boone takes the picture out and looks on the back. A child's handwriting.

Te amo,

Luce

Well, at least we have a name now, Boone thinks. At least the kid has a name.

But who is she? Boone wonders. And why is her picture on the inside of a medicine cabinet door? Why do you hide a picture but want to be reminded of it every day? How does a stripper meet a mojada girl? And why does she care?

Think, think, he tells himself, trying to fight through the fatigue that's smacking at him as the adrenaline drains. Tammy left Mick and went to Teddy. Why?

Go back to your cop days, he thinks. Chronology. Do the time line. Tammy leaves Mick just after the fire at Danny's warehouse. She becomes obsessed with making money; she spends her time with Angela; she goes to Teddy.

Teddy and she start going up to Oceanside. But if they're not having sex, what are they doing? Teddy knew right where to go to find the girl. Right down into the reeds by the old Sakagawa strawberry fields. Obviously, he'd been there before… with Tammy.

And not just once, but lots of times between the fire and… the arson trial.

At which Tammy does a 180.

If you'd seen what I've seen.

What, Tammy, what did you see?