Troubleshooter

Chapter 23

The command post had the tired vibe of a bar ten minutes after last call when the lights come up. The deputies on shift browsed through files, repositioned the surveillance shots tacked to the walls, and pored over crime-scene photos, their skin tinted green from exhaustion and the unforgiving overheads. Malane alone looked alert and sharp, jotting notes and chewing the inside of his cheek. Jim was slurping from his coffee mug, holding it at an odd angle. Tim realized he was covering the words on the side-SUPPORT THE MENTALLY

"Why grab a girl when you're on the run from the law?" Bear was agitated, as if angry at the Sinners' lack of circumspection. "I mean, literally on the run. They'd just faced off with Rack, what, an hour earlier? They knew the heat was coming."

"Race killing?" Freed offered from the far end of the conference table.

"Hate crimes are too low-rent for these guys at this stage," Bear said.

"Maybe they wanted to turn out a cutie." Thomas finished his second cup of coffee in as many minutes and tossed the Styrofoam cup across the command post. It bricked the lip of the trash can and bounced across Malane's oxblood loafers.

"These guys are too smart for that," Guerrera said. "After planning a picture-perfect break and a mass execution, they're not gonna derail for a piece of ass."

"Then what the fuck they doing with her?" Bear's meaty finger tapped Marisol's photo, borrowed from her grandmother's house.

Tim was sitting back, his eyes closed. "They picked her."

One of Bear's eyebrows went on point. "What?"

"They chose her. Lydia said they could have grabbed her first. She's smaller, easier to control. Why would you take a bigger girl?"

"I don't know." Haines shrugged skeptically. "Fetish?"

Jim fussed with the wad of cotton in his ear. "Like serial killers?"

Tim remembered Den's parting words over Dray's body-Let's practice on this heifer. The recollection threw him back into his grief, a cold-water immersion. He waited for his disgust to wash clear. "Biker-gang serial killers sound more tabloid than plausible. These guys are strategists."

Murmured acclamation. The deputies at the table sat thoughtfully, listening to the pulsing rings at the phone bank.

Dray had said that everyone counts and everyone counts the same.

Tim knew this to be true. He also knew she counted more to him than anyone else. He was supposed to carry his badge through the gray zone between those facts.

"Marisol is the key," he said. "Not Frankie. Not Mancone. Not Dray. We figure out a motive for the snatch, we're on our way." He rubbed his temples, refocusing. He'd dozed off in Bear's rig on the ride over. "All right, where else are we? Anything on Danny the Wand?"

"Still looking," Freed said. "But we got a tentative address on the deposed Sinner-Lash. A CI got word from a mechanic, matched the nickname to a billing address for a radiator. Take it or leave it. We were gonna follow it up in the morning."

"Me, Bear, and Guerrera'll take it now. Stay on the motor shops and Danny the Wand. Haines-how'd the prison interview go?"

"Like shit. Word of the break's reached the inside, given the Sinners a fresh tank of defiance. No one's talking except to gloat."

A mounted dry-erase board at the front mapped out the mother chapter's hierarchy, only a few blank slots remaining. Deeds and slags filled out the split branches. It looked like a dating tree from one of the celeb rags Dray pretended not to read in doctors' waiting rooms.

Tim did a double take at a new Magic Marker-rendered name. "You got us an ID on the striker?"

"That's right," Zimmer said. "Rich Mandrell, aka Richie Rich."

Tim's voice, beaten flat by exhaustion, managed a modicum of animation. "His tag is Richie Rich?"

"Diamond pinkie ring. Doesn't take much." Thomas flashed a grin. "Troubleshooter."

"Rich Mandrell," Bear repeated slowly, trying to place the name.

"You get anything on his date to the funeral?" Tim asked.

"Tough broad, played chaperone?" Zimmer said. "No, still can't match her. She might not even be part of the club."

Guerrera tugged her eight-by-ten surveillance shot from the wall behind him, and Tim looked over his shoulder. Her cheeks were pitted from earlier bouts with acne, but her features were clean, even pretty.

"She wasn't wearing a property jacket," Guerrera said. "And she sure as hell didn't act like a slag."

Tim said, "So who is she?"

The thoughtful silence barely had time to establish itself when Bear said, "Wait a minute." He held up his hands, as if having to stave off throngs of rock groupies. "Rich Mandrell? He that guy who popped…?"

"Raymond Smiles," Malane said. "One of ours."

Jim said, "It speaks."

His first joke-a classic Denley slam on a Feeb-caught everyone off guard. The deputies smiled, more with relief than amusement. Malane kept his eyes on Bear as if he hadn't heard or didn't get it. But then his anger seemed to get the better of him, and he turned to Jim. "Raymond Smiles was a good friend."

Jim studied Malane for a moment, then bobbed his head. "I'm sorry. That was an asshole comment. But I wasn't talking about Smiles."

Mercifully, Zimmer broke the silence. "We have the hit on a restaurant security cam." He spun his monitor around, and Tim and Bear watched the soundless MPEG video clip play. A black FBI agent sat at an elegantly set table, perfect posture emphasizing the sharp cut of his suit. He wore a red silk pocket square that blended into the blossoms of the too-high centerpiece of roses. His companion headed off, presumably for the bathroom. A moment later a man stepped into view, back to the camera. His shoulder jerked twice, and more red bloomed on Smiles's shirt, encompassing the handkerchief. Smiles fell forward into his plate. The assassin turned-same eye patch, same flash of pinkie ring, same clammy-looking flesh.

They watched it through a few more times, Tim growing unsettled. Maybe he'd just soured on reviewing footage of law-enforcement officers getting whacked.

"The hit took place October third," Zimmer said. "It seems to have gotten Richie Rich bumped from prospect to striker. Word is, he came out of the San Antonio chapter. A real bruiser. And he's another disappearing act-his last-knowns put us back to '03."

"Where are the case files?" Tim asked.

"We can't get them. We keep running into red flags, classified Feeb bullshit." Zimmer shot a sideways glare at Malane, picking up the thread of a not-so-buried disagreement. "And we're not getting much interdepartmental cooperation from our task-force liaison."

Bear directed a displeased scowl Malane's way. "Can't you play well with others?"

"Yes, but I can't break Bureau protocol. I've issued a request to try to expedite matters. That's the best I can do."

"Have we gotten the Uncle Pete files?" Tim asked. "The Continuing Criminal Enterprise stuff?"

"I've also put in a request to-"

"Stop requesting. Start doing. You're here for a reason."

"I know why I'm here, Rackley."

"Good. Then work with us. We could certainly use it."

Put a pin in the anger and use your head. Get results from this joker or get some answers.

"On second thought," Tim added, "what are you doing here?"

Malane matched Tim's calm stare. "To help. What else?"

Bear's brow was furrowed, deep ripples in shiny skin. Keeping his eyes on Malane, he said, "Freed, how 'bout that address?"

Tim rose, stretching through the pain in his lower back. He took the slip of paper from Freed and followed Bear and Guerrera out. The white face of the wall clock above the door looked down as he passed under.

Twenty-four hours since she was shot.