PrivateSector

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Good news was in short supply at the Federal Building in Boston.

After murdering Detective Sergeants Phillip Janson and Horace O’Donnell, the perp had vanished. A thorough investigation by the forensics crew at the running path revealed that he wore size 12 shoes, and chose New Balance 715s for his morning jog. It further revealed no trace of blood, hair, or other bodily fluids, which was unfortunate, because a DNA trace would’ve been invaluable to tie him to one attempted and two successful murders.

A statewide manhunt was in full swing. Roadblocks were erected at various state border crossing points. Airports and bus stations had been faxed a copy of the facial composite constructed from Janet’s description and ordered to detain anybody who bore the slightest resemblance. Hospitals in a two-hundred-mile radius were staked out for a big white man with one or possibly two bullet holes.

Still I think we all knew he was too smart for any of those steps to work. Of course the police and Feds had to go through the motions-to use a football analogy, the way a football team down 77-6 late in the fourth quarter kicks a field goal. Also, this guy had now added two cops to his ledger, and the blue brotherhood looks dimly upon that.

Four hours had passed since the screwup by the river. A plane-load of puffy, red-faced FBI agents had flown up from Washington to interrogate all involved. Understand that FBI people, once they’re drawn into a case, treat it as sort of a feudal setup, where they own the castles and playgrounds, and expect everybody else to grow their potatoes and kiss their asses. They felt jilted and mistreated. Their general mood was pissed.

Given that the FBI’s public affairs office was handling the press releases regarding this case, everybody felt like it was time to play round-robin cover-your-ass.

The potentially embarrassing problem for the Boston PD was they had had the baddest motherfucker in the land in their sights. I overheard some of their conversations in the hallways and their line of bullshit was that they’d lost two brave men in the pursuit of this badass, who wasn’t really their killer in the first place but a

D. C. problem dropped on their doorstep. In short, they’d donated to charity-don’t come knocking on their door. But of course, this was Boston, and in the event that that bullshit wasn’t taken seriously, a few oily fixers from City Hall had showed up to work the hallways and discreetly remind the FBI that the two very influential senators from Massachusetts sat on both the Appropriations and Judiciary Committees; and if the FBI wanted their next budget request to pass, or their next fuckup to get generous treatment, this might be a prudent moment to sort of shuffle this thing under a rug. And it sure would be in the spirit of good fellowship to add a few adulatory words about the Boston PD in their press releases. Truly, you have to marvel at the way these things work.

Spinelli’s line of defense was that I had contacted him and he’d taken every reasonable step and precaution to get this guy, including turning it over to the local authorities. That had the value of being true.

And Janet? Well, every story, especially a tragedy, needs a sexy, beautiful heroine, and she was made for the role, la femme fatale, the Beantown chick who kicked ass, the bereaved victim’s sister who had risked body and soul to terminate a public menace. And then… well, then she had had the fortitude to stand in the dark shadow of the salivating monster and pour lead at his putrid guts. Books and movie to follow.

So, everybody had a good defense, alibi, or claim to glory.

Right… not quite everybody.

What every good government tale requires is a token scapegoat, and once everybody had spun their sides of the tale, all the black arrows sort of pointed back at the guy who lacked either beauty or an institution to cover his butt. I began to figure this out as more and more sour-faced Fibbies trickled into my interrogation room. When it hit twenty, it became standing room only, and a guy was posted at the door to issue tickets and bathroom passes. George Meany, incidentally, was front and center, and in off moments, when he thought I wasn’t looking, I caught him smirking.

My interrogator, Special Agent Arnold, was at that moment saying to me, “… and because you had everybody jump the gun, we’ve lost our only chance to apprehend the killer, Drummond. This was amateur hour. God knows how far you set us back…” Blah blah blah.

This particular lecture wasn’t improving the third time around, but I was listening intently and hanging my head in shame. Also, I think I must have been unconsciously drumming my hands on the table to the beat to “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” and carrying it really well. This was brought to my attention when he suddenly reached out and pinned both my hands to the table.

“Do I need to slap your ass in manacles?” he inquired.

“Does your wife enjoy that?”

“You leave my wife out of-”

“She liked it when I did her.” I smiled. He didn’t smile back.

Anyway, interrogators are never supposed to lose control of the situation, and he obviously had a large crowd, so after a few huffy breaths, he said, “Major, would you explain again, you know… how you decided the killer had left D. C. and come here?”

For the fourth time, I replied, “When I saw the names of two of the victims in Lisa Morrow’s e-mail, the implication struck me as clear. Lisa, Cuthburt, and Carrol were friends or acquaintances.”

“This would be J. and A., right? Isn’t that what you claimed?”

“No. That’s what I stated for a fact.” I added, “I then tried to get hold of Miss Morrow, was notified about the fire, and put two and two together.”

“You, uh… -Gee, I hope I’m not being repetitive here, but, boy, that’s speculative. Certainly, there’s a few things you’re not telling us.” He leaned back in his chair and straightened his lapels. “What are those things?”

“I had a hunch.”

“Did the killer call you? Leave a note? Somehow make contact?”

Of course, the FBI, filled as it is with lawyers and accountants, and backed up by the world’s best scientific labs, considers the whole notion of hunches and instincts silly. And I could hear a few murmurs from the gallery. Also a few derisory snickers. I was getting really annoyed.

He bent forward. “This Sherlock Holmes bullshit isn’t selling, Drummond. We’re the good guys here. Tell us.”

“Okay, okay… you’re right.”

“I am?”

“Wow… I can’t fool you guys, can I?”

“I’m glad you’re coming around.”

“The truth is…” He leaned toward me. “When I was with your wife, she said, well… she said you’ve got a tiny dick.”

He howled and slapped the table. I did hear a few distinct chuckles from the boys in the third bleacher, however. Trust me, it’s not easy when you’re playing to somebody else’s home crowd.

I said, “You’re pissed. I didn’t call you. I’m sorry, I lost my head.”

“Why didn’t you call us?”

“Army lawyers call CID.”

“Bullshit. Special Agent Meany informed us that he gave you his business card.” He added nastily, “Had you called us, this entire disaster would have been avoided. Think about that, wiseass.”

Okay, I thought about it. The two dead Boston PD detectives and the escaped felon were on my shoulders because I called the wrong kind of cop? Did I need this nonsense?

In truth, two hours of this bullshit had convinced me that had I gone to the Fibbies instead of Spinelli, Janet Morrow would be a chalk outline beside the Charles River. They wouldn’t have believed a word. Despite my arguments, and the corroborating physical descriptions of four witnesses, they continued to insist this guy was the L. A. Killer.

However I had surmised he would turn up in Boston, they were convinced I had reached the right conclusion from completely idiotic assumptions. Go a step further, and Spinelli and my theory about this guy being a copycat contradicted the very public assurances the FBI had given John Q. Public. Obviously, this was inconvenient, and nobody in that room, and Mr. Meany particularly, wanted egg on their face by admitting they fingered the wrong guy. But also, in a big bureaucracy like theirs, everything has to be run up the flagpole before anybody knows what they think.

Mysteriously, another gray suit slipped into the room, walked over to the interrogator, whispered something in his ear, and then stepped back. A lot of these guys had those earphone thingees, and suddenly a lot of hands were adjusting their volume or getting them better seated in their ears. It looked like a Twenty Stooges skit.

Special Agent Arnold stood and straightened his suit. He informed me, “This interrogation is over. You plan to return to D. C., correct?”

I indicated I did.

“We know how to reach you. We’ll pick this up there at a later time.”

And on that ominous note, bodies began racing for the door. What the…? I mean, one moment I’m the Man of the Hour, ticket scalpers are in the hallway making a fortune off me, and suddenly I’m in an empty room. I finally got up and walked out.

Janet and Danny Spinelli were waiting in the hallway, sipping from paper coffee cups and looking mildly anxious.

Janet pushed off the wall and said to me, “You were in there almost two hours. Is anything wrong?”

“Wrong? No, it just took a while for them to, you know, tell me how much they admired the brilliant way this was conceived and conducted, and how swell it all turned out for everybody.”

She rubbed her temples and groaned. “I’m sorry. I know you were right.” She then said, “They… well, they found another body.”

“Whose? Where?”

“Ten blocks from the two dead officers. A man named Harold Boticher. His throat was slashed, and his wallet and car keys were stolen. His body was found in a Dumpster, like Anne Carrol’s.”

The implication was obvious. “Did they get the make of his car?”

“Make, model, and tag numbers.” That explained why the room emptied.

Spinelli commented grumpily, “It’s a fuckin’waste of time. He’s already got himself another.”

He was right, of course. Perversely, Spinelli and I both appeared to be getting a bead on this guy. The FBI was still running everywhere he wanted them to go.

And right on cue, Dudley Do-Right came cruising around a corner, trailed by three of his stooges. Special Agent Meany was waving his arms and barking instructions, and the three agents were scribbling notes and nodding obsequiously. I mean, it was just too frigging obvious that this jerk was trying to impress his former belle with what a busy, roundly admired, take-charge kind of guy he was.

He suddenly glanced in our direction, like he had just noticed us, then sent his three aides scurrying. He approached, shaking his head, oozing with concern, and said to Janet, “My God, honey, that was a very dumb thing you did. You’re lucky to be alive.”

Honey? Had I missed something here?

Janet replied, “That’s not the way it looked at the time. We had him, George. He was within three feet of me. I fired two shots at him.”

His hands were all over her arms again. “I understand. And I admire your courage. Really… I don’t blame you.” He glanced at me and said, “I blame the idiots who let you expose yourself. You were responding to your grief…” Still looking at me, he said, “Why didn’t you call me? You needed advice from someone you could trust. Don’t do anything again without checking with me. That’s an order, honey.”

Well, fuck you, George.

“There wasn’t time,” Janet said. “We had a narrow window of opportunity, and we didn’t want to lose him.”

“I understand.” His hands moved to her shoulders and he looked into her eyes and added, “But I don’t want to lose you. Not now… not again. Now that we’ve resolved our little problem, I… well, I’m glad you’re okay.”

Yuck. I mean, there’s a murderous maniac out on the streets, and I’m stuck with this asshole in a live episode of Days of Our Lives. Turn the channel, please.

But Janet appeared to buy his malarkey, and replied, “Well, I’m fine, George.” She then asked him, “What are the odds of catching him?”

“Hard to tell. I’ve put out a multistate alert. I’ll be directing the search from the Boston Field Office. Also, I’ve distributed the composite sketch you provided-that’s an edge I didn’t have before.” He paused a moment, his expression turned all oozy and charming, and he said, “You know, I can’t believe you had the coolness and presence to study him that closely. You are really something, babe.”

Geez. I’ve had tiffs with some formers, and of course you have to work it a little if you want to get back into their good graces and panties. But there’s a point where you give your whole sex a bad name. Meany was working her too hard. And I wondered why.

And as if that wasn’t enough, his expression turned grave, and he added, “Honey, I don’t want to worry you, but there’s a chance he’ll come after you again. We think he fled the city, but you can never be sure. You’re the only living witness who can ID him in a courtroom.” He paused, like this pained him greatly, then said, “You know the standard procedure in these things.”

Janet was already shaking her head. “I’m not going into protective custody, George.”

“But-”

“No. Don’t even think about it.”

He studied her face a moment. “Oh, come on. It would make things easier for all concerned.”

She stared back at him.

As much as I hated to agree with George on anything, I said, “Do what he says. He’s right.”

She said to both of us, “We all know I cannot be forced into this program. This asshole is not going to chase me into protective custody.”

I opened my lips, but she cut me off: “No-Subject closed.”

I looked at her and tried to figure out what was going through her head. Playing Parcheesi with a bunch of Fibbies in a hotel room for a month or two was bad, but dying was very, very bad. Unless… well, unless Janet wanted this guy to strike again. To draw him back to her, she had to remain accessible and vulnerable.

Anyway, Meany was shaking his head, saying, “I knew you’d say that.”

“Well then, you’re right.”

“But you will be guarded and protected until the picture clarifies. Refusal is not an option.” She did not say yes; nor did she refuse.

He continued, “Remember Bob Anderson from my old office? He’ll stay with you until I can spare more agents. But at the moment, with this search, I just can’t.”

Janet said, “Thank you, but I’ll be fine, George. Sean and Danny are here also.”

He smiled knowingly. “Right. I’ll get Bob to ask the Boston PD to back him up.”

Boy, George was racking up big-time points.

Then his beeper went off, he yanked it off his belt, studied the screen, scrunched up his forehead, and said, “Got a fast-breaking emergency here, babe. The New York State Police think they’ve just spotted the stolen car on the New York Thruway. They’re initiating a chase.” And off he raced.

Something about George really bothered me. Well, a lot about George bothered me, but something, I don’t know, something I couldn’t put my finger on, really bothered me. I was sure he was very smart, and all those awards and promotions implied some level of professional competency, right? But why couldn’t Meany and his people see the astounding brilliance of the detective work Spinelli and I had done? False modesty aside, maybe he had such a hard-on for me, he couldn’t admit I was right.

Or maybe the answer was simpler. The FBI is a bureaucracy- which is both its strength and its Achilles’ heel-and when the powers that be have publicly stated that the killer is the same ponytailed runt who was such a big hit in L. A., ambitious guys like Meany know it’s a bad career move to contradict the big guys. What they do is wait for their bosses to change their minds before they can change their own minds.

Anyway, we all three walked out together, and, lo and behold, we were met at the building’s entrance by a young, gawky-looking kid in a lumpy gray suit.

I guess he recognized Janet because he approached her with a big smile, and said, “I don’t know if you remember me… Special Agent Bob Anderson. I worked on that Shelton case you prosecuted a few years ago.”

Janet smiled, too. “Of course. I had you on the stand, didn’t I?”

“That was me.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, I… gosh, that defense attorney…”

“I remember,” Janet said. “That can happen.”

Bob looked down at his feet. “The way he peppered me with all those questions… and kept misquoting me-”

“Put it behind you, Bob.” She glanced at me and added, “Sometimes, mistrials just happen.”

Bob said, “I guess.”

Spinelli’s eyebrows were ever so slightly raised. We were both staring at Bob, and sharing the same thought.

I suppose it was possible Meany had picked his best and brightest to go after the killer on the theory that the best way to protect Janet was to eliminate the threat. A less charitable interpretation might be that Meany wanted to bag the country’s most notorious asshole, become famous, and jump another peg up the career ladder. If that meant his former lover got whacked because the biggest fuckup in the Boston office had been assigned to protect her, success sometimes requires sacrifice. Right?

“Call me Bob, by the way,” the kid said to Spinelli and me. “I like to keep things loose and informal. But make no mistake, I’m in charge. Do everything I say, and everything’s going to be just fine.”

Spinelli rolled his eyes.

Anyway, Janet directed Bob to Aunt Ethel’s house. The traffic was heating up, and Bob was an overcautious driver, which is lousy tradecraft when your passenger’s a target, not to mention it dragged out our trip to nearly forty minutes. But as we climbed out of the Crown Victoria in front of the house, I looked up and down the street, for some reason bothered by something. What? Janet and Spinelli were already up the steps and opening the door, Bob had his hand stuffed inside his jacket, and I couldn’t shake the feeling.

Janet turned around and asked me, “What is it, Sean?”

“Uh… nothing.” But there was something.

Anyway, we entered the house of Aunt Ethel, where Elizabeth, Carol, and Aunt Ethel mobbed Janet, and, predictably, there was a lot of hugging and kissing, which is another of those Men are from Mars, Women from Venus things. And then they drew Janet into the kitchen, where they made her recount how it went, which I really didn’t want to overhear.

Spinelli, Bob, and I loitered in the living room, while I tried to put my finger on what bothered me. Also, I needed to find a way to chat with Janet regarding the firm of Culper, Hutch, and Westin, but without Bob listening in.

Incidentally, Bob had moved immediately to the window, and was standing full-square in the middle of the plate glass, hands on his hips, and his jaw thrust forward. This was for the benefit of the killer, I guess, like he’d see this badass profiling in the window and jump on the next flight to Brazil or something. I hoped Bob was wearing his bulletproof vest.

I said to Spinelli, “Hey, Danny, you see Aunt Ethel’s porcelain collection yet? As a porcelain aficionado yourself, I’m sure you’ll be impressed.”

“What?… I’m not interested in the old broad’s fuckin’-”

I jerked him toward me. “Check the unicorn with a dick on it.”

Well, my hint was subtle enough, but he did pick up on it, and he followed me until I got him out of Bob’s earshot, where I whispered, “Occupy the kid. I need to slip out back with Janet.”

He looked at me curiously. “Why?”

“Later.”

“Nah. You’ll explain now.”

I noticed Bob looking over his shoulder at us, and I said, “Don’t screw with me on this.”

He rubbed his chin. “You know somethin’. I smell it. And you ain’t sharin’.”

“Look, Spinelli… help me out here.”

“You owe me. You promised I get this guy. I wanta know everything.”

Well, what could I do? I promised, “I’ll tell you everything.” But my fingers were crossed.

He stared at me a moment, then sauntered over to Bob, saying, “So, kid, how long you been in?”

Content that he would keep Bob occupied with cop talk, I slipped into the kitchen. I told Elizabeth and Carol to keep chattering, and then drew Janet out the back door.

We ended up on a tiny back porch, where Janet said, “What’s this about?”

“It’s time for our discussion.” But I was being cautious, and I looked around for a moment and saw the cars parked on the street, and I suddenly realized what had been niggling at my brain. I said, “The killer… he stole a car, right?”

“It appears so.”

“How did he get to Boston in the first place?”

“Plane, train, boat, car, swam, hiked, parachuted in. Have I missed anything?” I shook my head and she said, “At this moment, they’re showing his composite at every terminal in the city.”

“So they should.”

Janet was sharp, though, and quickly concluded, “You’re suggesting he came in a rental car?”

“And he would’ve parked it nearby… for his getaway.”

She finished that thought, saying, “But after what happened at the river, he couldn’t come back here.”

So we began walking, through the backyard, then out to the street, where we started checking license plates. Rental cars tend to be fairly new, well-kept, clean, and shiny. Plus, if he’d driven up from D. C., the car should have out-of-state plates.

I moved to the other side of the street, and Janet stayed on the near side. We walked swiftly up the block, then took a right and did the cross street. We did the next block over, and the next. It was a residential neighborhood and early afternoon, and there weren’t that many cars. Also, Janet reminded me that because of Boston’s car theft rates, the smart citizens respond by buying inexpensive, crappy eyesores, which are cheaper to insure and less attractive to thieves. And in fact, most of the cars I saw were junkheaps.

We were moving quickly and we marked a few cars as possibilities, but they all had in-state plates. The third block over, I spotted a fairly new, forest green Ford Taurus with Pennsylvania plates. Virginia or D. C. plates seemed more logical, but this car was parked within twenty feet of a street corner, in fact, forward of the legal parking distance. If it was a getaway car, this was a smart stunt, because nobody else could park in front and hem it in. But this is America, where every privilege comes with a price-like a ticket on the windshield. I yanked the ticket off and noted it had been issued five hours before.

So, the right kind of car, in the right kind of place, and it had sat there the right amount of time. I waved at Janet and she jogged over. A swift inspection revealed a thin valise lying on the rear floor of an otherwise empty car.

The right and proper thing to do in this situation was call the Boston PD and have them dispatch a squad car. We’d have to wait for the cops, they’d have to call the DA’s office, legal cause would have to be established, a lawyer would have to go see a judge, the judge would have to be persuaded to issue a search warrant, and around and around we go.

In any regard, the. 22 in Janet’s pocket apparently had a mind of its own. It was really weird, the way it somehow leaped out of her pocket, and then flew through the air and slammed its own butt against the driver’s side window, which shattered inward. Well, what can you do?

Janet appeared shocked. “Damn it, Sean, I’m a city prosecutor and you just broke the law.” As she issued this warning she was eagerly unlocking the doors and scrambling into the backseat.

I clambered in behind her. She already had the valise open and carefully withdrew two manila folders, pinching them with her shirt sleeves to avoid fingerprints. She dropped the first folder on the seat and the contents spilled out.

“That’s me,” she said, pointing at a large black-and-white photo.

“Good picture, too,” I replied. And indeed it was, as were three more shots of her, taken from various angles, in different backgrounds and lighting, with her wearing a variety of outfits. Janet had obviously been under observation for a period of at least several days.

“Do you recall when you wore those clothes?”

She studied the photos and pointed at one. “Incredible. I wore that pantsuit before I went to D. C.” She paused. “The same day Lisa died.”

We jointly pondered that fact a moment.

Beneath the pictures were three or four printed sheets, and we spread them around using our elbows and shirt sleeves. The pages were neatly typed and paginated, with proper spelling, flawless punctuation, and so forth. The killer appeared to be one of those anal-retentive assholes who always did three more pages than the teacher asked for. I never trusted that type. Future serial killers-all of them.

Two pages were filled with carefully organized personal data about Janet: home address, phone number, automobile type and license number, family members, historical information, and so on. Nearly everything on these sheets could be obtained from public sources, though the sheer quantity of information indicated somebody who knew where to look and how much he could get.

But the next page did not appear to have been taken from public sources.

I pointed at a list of names and asked her, “Who are they?”

“Close friends.” She looked horrified. She pointed at a few entries on the bottom of the page. “My dry cleaner… my gym… my doctor… the deli where I usually get lunch.”

Janet swept her file sheets aside, then allowed the contents of the second folder to drop onto the seat.

The first item to spill out was a photograph of an extraordinarily good-looking man in a gray pinstriped Brooks Brothers suit, climbing into a green Jaguar sedan.