The Tower

Chapter 49

The house finally quieted down. The agents had driven to McGuire's home in the city as quickly as possible after radioing in help from the SFPD. McGuire lived in the Sunset District, on Ninth and Irving.

Travers was not surprised to find Jade already there, sitting calmly in a kitchen chair. He shook his head when she and the others walked in. Too late. At least he'd gotten there before the blood could clot.

When he'd first arrived at the house, he'd been furious that he had missed Allander. He had called 911 to get ambulances on the way, then had left the boys taped to the chairs to look for him. After checking the house and yard for any trace of him, being careful not to disturb the crime scene, he had walked out onto the street.

Even though Allander had left no visible evidence, the location of McGuire's house tipped his hand. It sat on a network of wide-open streets with very few alleys. Visibility was extremely high. Since he would have had to stick to the streets, it would have been nearly impossible for Allander to escape on foot and get very far. He had come in a car. And for the first time, he had brought something with him: firecrackers. That could mean he had a base from which he was working. Somewhere he could keep the car and make his plans. Somewhere they could catch him.

Jade could feel the net tightening. Just had to pick up a few more corners to trap his prey.

He went inside to free the boys.

The ambulances picked them up and took them to the ER at St. Mary's. The body of McGuire's wife was left for further examination. Most of the agents had departed after searching the area, and only the forensics team remained.

Allander had slipped away in broad daylight, leaving no traces. It was almost as though he wasn't real; they could only sense him, like an image seen through murky waters. The other agents noticed a hint of a smile on Jade's face, though they couldn't tell why it was there.

Travers dealt with the neighbors, interviewing them in case they had seen anything, or could offer any leads. It proved futile, of course. When she returned to the house, Jade was still in the kitchen, sitting in one of the high-backed chairs, his right leg pumping up and down excitedly. A cup of ice sat on the table in front of him.

"What?" Travers asked. She was exhausted and her hair was down, fanned loosely across her shoulders.

Jade looked up, noticing her for the first time. He stood, swinging the cup of ice with his thumb and forefinger. "We know he's somewhere. He's at a fixed location now, operating from a base. We can check for clues. Get forensics in here." He turned to the door and yelled, "FORENSICS!"

Two men scurried into the room. "I want a full materials check," Jade ordered. "Fibers, particles, anything. Comb the place-the rug in the living room especially; it could've picked up a lot of shit."

The men stood there and stared at Jade.

"Well, go. What are you waiting for? Go."

One of the agents cleared his throat. "Uh. We already did. Picked up some particles. Already got the read from lab. Lead. Lead traces in the carpet, definitely a foreign material tracked in here. Also got some hairs, but no surprises there."

"Lead? What the hell does that indicate?" He looked back and forth at the two men, who shrugged. He shook his head in disgust. "All right. Good. Out."

They left.

He turned to Travers. His mind was so tightly wound he felt as if it might snap. "He's working from somewhere. Got room, got time, got privacy. Resources."

Jade ran his thumb across his bottom lip over and over, feeling it push softly to the side. "A house. Deserted, empty, or hostages. No, no hostages. Wouldn't want to leave them."

"He could've broken in, killed a family," Travers said.

Jade was struck with a sudden, horrible thought. What if Allander had used his pistol? The Glock that he'd stolen from the back counter. Jade had not yet told anyone about it. He was hoping to keep it his and Allander's little secret, at least until it became relevant.

At least he hasn't used it yet, he thought. At least not yet.

He nodded. "Could be. The average response time for SFPD to this site is sixteen and a half minutes. He would've known that we'd radio in after he called us. He probably even timed his call by it. And this is a bad neighborhood to make an escape by foot. Too open, way too open. He came here in a car, left in a car. And he would've wanted to be back to his base by the time police arrived here, even before to beat the roadblocks. I'd say he'd want to be back to his base in fifteen minutes."

Jade ran to the kitchen desk and yanked the drawers out, emptying them on the floor. He sank to his knees and dug through the papers, finally pulling out a map of San Francisco. He returned to the kitchen table and cleared it with a sweep of his arm. His glass shattered on the floor, and the salt and pepper shakers rolled in arcs on the linoleum.

Travers closed her eyes and bit her lip. Wotan had come down on her hard for bailing out of the movie theater operation. He had made it clear that she was to provide support for all of Jade's plans, no matter how much she disagreed with them. She breathed deeply as she surveyed the mess in the kitchen, and forced herself not to comment.

Jade unfolded the map on the table, spreading it out before him. He walked back over and grabbed a thick black marker from the pile he'd left on the floor.

"Okay. We're here." He circled the location of McGuire's house. "Fifteen minutes by car could put him anywhere from…" His voice trailed off as he sketched an approximate circle on the map with the black marker.

The circle stretched down to San Francisco State and out to Van Ness in the east. He didn't want to push the perimeter too far downtown because the traffic would have slowed Allander. The top of the circle ran up to Presidio Heights, and to the west it covered the ocean coast.

"I want a full listing of all incidents in this area in the last week. Break-ins, homicides, stolen cars, anything," he said.

"That's a big circle, Jade," Travers said skeptically.

"It's a start. Put a couple of your desk jockeys on it pronto. Call it in now."

As he headed out, he heard Travers pick up the phone.

Spring was giving way to summer, and the late-morning heat was fierce and steady. Jade pulled into his garage. He wiped the sweat from his cheek as he got out of his car, immediately stumbling over something in the garage.

He looked down and saw a growing pool of black paint spreading at his feet. As the familiar smell rose to his nostrils, he swore loudly. After touching up his bookshelves the other night, he'd forgotten to put the paint away.

He bent over to pick up the bucket and felt a burn in his throat. He backed up, coughing. The shit they put in this stuff, he thought. Not exactly meant for breathing.

He snapped his fingers twice, ran into the house, and grabbed the phone. "Forensics. Yeah, yeah. This is Marlow. I need someone on the McGuire house from this afternoon."

He waited, his knee jackhammering up and down. Finally one of the agents got on the line.

"Yeah. Marlow here. I have a question for you about the lead particles you picked up at McGuire's. Were they pigmented?"

The forensics agent sounded surprised. "Why yes. They were dark green. How'd you know?"

"They're paint scrapings, probably from a house being remodeled. Dark green-must be exterior paint. If someone sanded it off, the lead would probably settle separately since it's heavier."

"But they haven't used lead in paint for over twenty years."

"Twenty, huh?" Jade said, scribbling down the number on a piece of paper. "I figured it was somewhere around there. Thanks."

He hung up and called Tony.

"Whaddya want, kid? Always calling me for something."

"Tony. I need you."

"Well, I never would have thought-"

"Not now. I need you to use your force for some legwork." Jade paused. "It's kind of shit work."

"Well, I appreciate your thinking of me."

"I got Atlasia nailed down to an area of San Francisco. I think he's in a house that's undergoing a major remodel. The house is at least twenty years old, and it used to be painted dark green." He told Tony the rough bearings of the circle he'd drawn around the map he'd taken from McGuire's house.

"Well, kid, you know I got the men and the time, but there's no fucking way we can search an area of SF that big just based on a remodel and a house color. What the fuck?"

"Okay, okay. Hang on." Jade was quiet for a moment while he thought. "He's in a secluded house with a lot of privacy, no common walls with other houses. He needs privacy to plan and he doesn't want to be seen. That means it's gotta be in a rich neighborhood. It's probably elevated. That should cut out a lot of neighborhoods in that circle. Call around Pacific Heights and rich communities like that, find out which companies do major remodels. It'll be a pain in the ass, but it should be do-able."

"All right. I can put a couple men on it, but obviously only when things are slow. I don't know how long it'll take."

"Great. Just move it along as quick as you can."

He had barely placed the phone back on the cradle when it rang again. He picked it up. "Yup."

"Marlow. Travers. Ever heard of call waiting?"

"Call who?"

"Forget it. I got a list of incidents in that area, wanted to run them by you."

"Shoot."

"Only three stolen cars reported in the last week; amazingly, all have been recovered. There's a long list of muggings. I'll start with A."

"Skip 'em. He's not a mugger. What do you have on homicides?"

"We have three. One's a drive-by shooting off Haight. Then we have another restaurant hit, but we're pretty sure it's mob. And a random shooting at the edge of Sutro Heights."

"Sutro Heights, huh?"

"Yeah. Let's see. Steven Lloyd Francis. Nineteen. Left in a parking lot. No motive. Two bullets to the head. Early this morning."

"Gun?"

"Let's see." There was a pause and Jade heard Travers flip a sheet of paper. "Looks like a forty. Both bullets made a clean exit, so that's all we got from ballistics right now."

Jade swallowed hard. His Glock was a. 40. His head felt numb, as if he were walking through a dream. He cleared his throat harshly and tried to focus. "Are you at headquarters?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Call the family. I want to interview them. I'll be by to pick you up in a half hour."

Jade hung up and went to wash his face. He let hot water fill the sink, then he leaned over it, inhaling the steam. He splashed the water over his face, drawing his hands firmly down his forehead, over his eyes, and around his cheeks. When he shook his head and raised his eyes to the mirror, he realized the phone was ringing again.

"What am I, the fucking operator?" he said angrily, heading back to the living room. He picked up the phone. "What."

"Well, Mr. Marlow, I was very disappointed in your performance at the bar last night. I must confess, I had expected a little more from you."

Even though Jade had heard it hundreds of times, Allander's voice still took his breath away. So close, so fucking close. And directed right at him. He struggled to keep his voice even. "No shit, huh?" he said. "Guess we'll have to do the dance again sometime soon."

"Oh, we most assuredly will. There will be time for that later. And more. You know-the real test. I can't wait to get my little hands on them." Allander said "little hands" with a German accent-like it was "little hanz."

The real test, Jade thought. A nonchalant way to refer to killing his parents. After the movie theater fiasco, it was in the open between him and Allander. He knew where Allander was going, and Allander knew he knew it. That just made it all the more enticing.

Allander sighed. "So many loose ends to tie up."

"Look, this whole prank-call thing is getting a little old. So unless you wanna chat for, say, sixty-one seconds, I don't really have the time."

"Oh. What a disappointment. And I thought you were going to undo me at last with your sharp questioning."

"I don't have to. With how you are, you'll reveal yourself."

"I see. And how's that, Marlow? Oh yes-I'll stumble into Dr. Yung's office with a severe onset of psychosomatic blindness."

Always moving, always mocking.

"Hey, Atlasia," Jade said softly.

"Yes?"

"I had lunch with Darby yesterday. She's a… charming woman."

Jade heard an immediate click and then the dial tone. Allander was too smart to get upset on the phone, but Jade had managed to get in a solid shot. And more important, he had known just where to punch.