The Cold Nowhere

46

‘You’re alive,’ Serena said.

Maggie sat in one of the chairs in Stride’s office. She had a fresh white bandage on her forehead, tucked under her black bangs. When she swung her head, she winced in pain. ‘Yeah, sorry about that. Maybe you’ll get lucky next time.’

‘Promises, promises.’

Stride sat down behind his desk. ‘Sure is nice to have the gang back together again,’ he said ironically, as both women smiled at each other with faux sweetness. ‘Seriously, Mags, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at home recovering?’

‘Jeez, you and Guppo. I’m aces. Leave me alone.’

‘Whatever you say.’ Stride leaned back in his chair. His eyes shot between the two of them, which was like studying tigers in side-by-side cages, both with sharp claws. He opened his mouth to say something, but he figured anything he said would make it worse. He let it go.

‘So what do we know?’ he said. ‘Originally, we thought Margot was interested in a high-class prostitution scandal. Maybe that’s why she went to Lenny’s in the first place, but now we think she connected Cat and Lenny via his wife’s ring. Is that a reasonable conclusion? Or are we getting ahead of ourselves?’

‘It’s too much of a coincidence not to mean something,’ Serena said.

‘I agree with Angie Harmon here,’ Maggie said, drawing a withering stare from Serena. ‘Margot knew about the ring that Cat wore. She specifically mentioned it in the article she did about Cat a few months ago. I think if you see that ring, you don’t forget it.’

‘It also explains why Margot was asking Bill Green about Cat’s parents on that Saturday,’ Serena added. ‘She was trying to figure out how Marty Gamble got his hands on the ring.’

‘So how did Margot wind up dead?’ Stride asked.

‘Somebody figured out what she was doing,’ Maggie said. ‘Somebody didn’t want her asking questions about that home invasion.’

‘Lenny?’

Serena shrugged. ‘He’s scared of something. You can see it in his face. I’d like to know why. If Margot spotted the ring, she must have mentioned it to him. Even an off-handed comment to see how he reacted. Lenny also knew that Margot was talking to Dory Mateo on Saturday. Curt Dickes called him.’

Maggie gingerly stretched her arms like a yoga instructor. Her flying elbows came dangerously close to Serena’s head. ‘Why would that raise red flags? We never connected Fong and the burglary to Marty, Michaela, Dory, or anybody else. They’d be strangers to him.’

‘That’s true, unless Lenny knows more about the burglary than he’s telling us,’ Serena said.

Stride shook his head. ‘We can speculate all day, but it’s not going to get us any closer to finding out what happened. We’ve been investigating in the present, but I think we need to go back to the past. Ten years ago, the trail to the burglary ended with one person.’

‘Fong Dao,’ Maggie said.

‘That’s right. We thought he did it alone, but obviously we were wrong.’

‘How did Fong die?’ Serena asked.

‘He was involved in a prison fight three years ago,’ Stride said. ‘He got his head bashed in. Obviously, he can’t tell us anything, but we know what we’re looking for now. We need a connection between Fong and Marty Gamble, or someone close to Marty.’

‘There was a girlfriend,’ Maggie said. ‘Fong was dating a black girl. Twenty years old back then. Name’s Djemilah Jordan.’

‘Is she still in Duluth?’ Stride asked.

‘No, I looked her up. She did a stretch in Shakopee for cheque fraud a couple years ago. After release, she stayed in the Cities.’ Maggie waved a piece of paper in the air. ‘I have her address and job info. I’m going to drive down and talk to her.’

‘Okay.’

‘I thought I’d check out the place where Vincent Roslak got stabbed, too. Roslak and Cat were sleeping together. Chances are, he saw the ring around her neck. Maybe this little worm figured out the connection before everybody else did and got sliced and diced for his trouble.’

Stride frowned. ‘Fair enough. Just get back here tonight. Nobody’s going to bed until we tie Marty Gamble to Fong Dao.’

‘Got it. See you later.’

Maggie pushed herself out of the chair. She nodded at Serena, who nodded back, but neither one of them said a word. Maggie limped as she left the office.

When they were alone, Stride said, ‘Is it going to be a problem? You two?’

‘Not for me,’ Serena replied. ‘How about for you?’

‘I have to work with her. That’s all.’

‘Ditto.’

Stride knew better than to push her further. ‘I’ve got Guppo pulling the archives on Fong Dao,’ he said. ‘Credit card receipts, phone records, employment history, arrest records, everything. Before we knock on any more doors, I’d like to know what we missed.’

‘I’ll get coffee,’ Serena said. She stood up, but then she turned back and leaned across Stride’s desk. ‘You know, Jonny, this discovery about the ring changes a lot of things. Not just the burglary. Have you thought about that?’

Stride nodded. ‘Michaela and Marty.’

‘It’s an awfully big coincidence, them winding up dead so soon after the home invasion.’

He saw the bodies in his head again. Marty, the burnt wound in his temple, the gun near his hand. Michaela, floating amid her spilled blood. ‘If someone else was in the house that night, they knew what they were doing,’ he said. ‘They didn’t leave any evidence behind.’

‘Maybe not physical evidence, but we have a witness,’ Serena reminded him. ‘Cat.’

‘Cat doesn’t remember anything,’ he said.

‘Or she doesn’t want to remember. The question is, can we unlock what’s in her head?’

‘Roslak tried. It didn’t tell us much.’

‘Maybe Cat needs to revisit the scene of the crime,’ she suggested.

Serena turned around. As she did, she nearly ran into Kyle Kinnick, who stood in Stride’s doorway, listening to them, his hands on his scrawny hips. She towered over the short, floppy-eared police chief, who wore a slightly baggy brown suit. He gave her a coffee-stained smile.

‘Serena Dial,’ K-2 announced in his quavering voice. ‘It’s good to see you around these parts again.’

‘Good to see you, too, sir.’

‘Oh, I’m not a sir to you, just to him.’ He nodded at Stride. ‘I need a couple minutes alone with this man, if you don’t mind.’

‘Of course,’ Serena said. She gave Stride a quick wink, then disappeared.

K-2 pulled Stride’s door shut behind him. The chief didn’t sit down; instead, he wandered around the office, tapping on the unpacked boxes on the floor with his brown shoes and staring out the window. Eventually, he leaned on the window ledge, and Stride swung around in his chair to face him.

‘I like Serena,’ K-2 said. ‘She’s better than you deserve.’

‘I won’t argue with you.’

The chief scratched his nose. ‘Pretty and smart. Like Cindy. Don’t mess it up, okay?’

Stride said nothing. He waited.

‘I got my balls squeezed again today,’ the chief went on. ‘Feels like deja vu to me, Jon. Does it feel like that to you?’

‘Yes, it does.’

‘Seems to me I asked you to give me a heads up before you start messing with Lenny Keck. And guess who just called me and suggested in pretty strong terms that I think about firing your ass?’

‘You do what you have to do, Chief,’ Stride said.

K-2 dug in his ear and studied the results. ‘Oh, hell, Jon, I’m not going to fire you, but neither one of us needs the City Council on our backs. They can make our lives miserable. I don’t need to tell you that. I’m not exactly going to glide to re-election if the Council turns against me.’

‘I realize that.’

‘You’re dredging up painful times for Lenny. I thought you of all people would be sensitive to that. Do you and your lady friend really need to rush into his house like storm troopers and start grilling him about the night that he lost his wife? For God’s sake, Jon, the man’s not a suspect in anything, is he? He was the victim back then.’

‘I’m not so sure anymore,’ Stride said.

K-2 whistled through his teeth. ‘I’m telling you, regardless of what you think about his business dealings or his politics, Lenny’s a good man. I’ve known him for years.’

‘I know you have.’

‘So I’m asking you a favor. Cut him some slack.’

‘I can’t do that,’ Stride said.

‘Do you want me to make it an order instead?’

‘It won’t make any difference. I’m going to follow this wherever it takes me.’

‘Look, Lenny likes you, and he likes me, but that’s not going to make a damn bit of difference if he feels threatened,’ the chief reminded him. ‘We are talking about one of the richest, most powerful men in the state. You do not pick a fight with that kind of man, particularly when you don’t have squat to back it up. You need more than your gut. You need evidence.’

Stride shook his head. ‘This isn’t just about my gut. Lenny knew we hadn’t recovered everything from the burglary. He knew that his wife’s ring was still missing, and I’ll bet that wasn’t the only thing. A lot more cash probably walked out of his house, too. He didn’t tell us. He kept it a secret. He let us think this started and ended with Fong Dao.’

‘You sure about that?’

‘Pretty damn sure. People died because of something he’s hiding.’

‘If this blows up in your face, I can’t help you.’

‘Do you want my resignation?’ Stride asked. ‘Because otherwise, I’m going to keep pushing.’

‘I want your common sense. You still have some of that, right?’

Stride smiled and got out of his chair. He eased against the wall next to K-2 and thought about the early years, when they were both young. He remembered him in the Northland clubhouse, scowling in mock dismay as he paid off a golf bet to Cindy. He remembered K-2’s embarrassed grin every time Cindy kissed him under the mistletoe at the department Christmas party. He remembered the chief’s arm around his shoulder at Cindy’s funeral.

‘We go back a long way, Chief,’ Stride said. ‘I’ve earned your trust.’

‘Yes, you have, and I’ve earned yours, Jon. Don’t forget that.’

‘I know. You’ve stuck out your neck for me more times than I can count. Sometimes when I didn’t deserve it.’

K-2 chuckled. ‘So now you want me to stick my neck out again, is that what you’re saying?’

‘That’s what I’m saying.’

The chief rubbed his smoothly shaven chin and shook his head. ‘Exactly what is it you want me to do, other than commit political suicide?’

‘I need you to lean on Lenny. I need you to make him understand that he has to come clean with me. He’s a friend. He’ll listen to you.’

‘I think you overestimate my power of persuasion,’ K-2 said.

‘No, I don’t. Look, Chief, one way or another, Lenny has to realize that this is all coming out. Everything. I don’t care about the consequences. I’m going to get to the bottom of this. He doesn’t want to get in my way when I’m investigating multiple homicides. Whatever he knows, he needs to tell me now, because it’s only going to get worse.’

K-2 shoved himself off the wall and smoothed the lapels of his suit coat. ‘You’re a piece of work, Jon, you know that?’

‘Will you talk to him?’

‘Oh, hell, I will, for whatever good it’ll do me. I’ll get him drunk first, but I’ll talk to him. Then I suspect you and I will both be looking for new jobs.’