Death in Paradise

Chapter Fifty-six

"We still can't connect Shaw with Billie Bishop," Jesse said.

He and Kelly were in Kelly's car parked along Day Boulevard near Carson Beach. They had coffee in paper cups. A bag of donuts was on the seat between them.

"Everything but," Kelly said.

"But we still can't connect him specifically to Billie Bishop."

"Or Billie Bishop with Alan Garner," Kelly said.

"Or Shaw with Garner," Jesse said.

"Shaw's the one," Kelly said.

"You think?"

"Yeah. The sonovabitch jumps out at you."

"Nice if we could prove it."

"At least we know where to look," Kelly said.

"What we can prove," Jesse said, "is that Shaw likes young hookers."

"And that he took them to a motel on the North Shore, and Billie Bishop checked into that same hotel."

"Can we prove that he took Billie Bishop there?" Jesse said.

"You tell me," Kelly said.

"No."

"And if we could prove he took her there, can we prove that he killed her?"

"No."

They were silent. Kelly took a cinnamon donut out of the bag and shook it to get rid of the loose cinnamon.

"The only connection we've got is Garner to Shaw through Gino Fish," Jesse said.

Kelly took a bite of the donut, leaning far forward over the steering wheel so as not to get cinnamon on himself.

"Because Billie Bishop called Gino's phone number," he said.

"Yeah. But it might be that she called Garner at Gino's office."

"I don't like Gino for this," Kelly said.

"Because?"

"Not his style," Kelly said. "Why would Gino pimp for a fucking pedophile? Risk is big and money's small."

"Favor for a friend?" Jesse said.

"Gino?"

"He doesn't value friendship?" Jesse said.

"He's never experienced it."

"So you think Garner was working out of Gino's office?"

"And maybe Gino don't know nothing about it."

"Which makes the Shaw connection kind of a problem," Jesse said.

"Big coincidence," Kelly said.

"You can't assume coincidence," Jesse said.

"No you can't," Kelly said. "Garner could know Shaw through Gino."

"So?"

"So we're right where we were," Kelly said.

Jesse broke off a piece of cinnamon donut and popped it in his mouth. He chewed carefully and took a sip of coffee.

"How would Gino feel if he found out Garner was running a prostitution business out of Gino's office?"

"He would be offended," Kelly said.

They were both silent, watching a flatbed tow truck hook up to a Dodge pickup that was parked in a tow zone. A motorcycle cop was supervising.

"You think we're next?" Jesse said.

"Traffic division's a menace," Kelly said.

The tow truck driver squirmed under the pickup and hooked his cable on the frame. Then he stood beside his truck and worked the lever and the pickup began to winch up onto the flatbed.

"So," Jesse said. "If Garner found out we knew about him, and were planning to talk with Gino about it…"

Kelly smiled and said, "Bingo!"