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“Oh my God.”
“We tried to … avoid this inconvenience. In the past, your brother has always been cooperative in these kinds of situations. But we’re unable to locate him at the moment.”
Poe checked his watch. Sometimes when his brother had big assignments, he worked late. “Look, I’m going to make some calls. If you could stall the arraignment, I’m sure I can find someone to take her off your hands. Why clog up the courts—”
“It’s gotta be soon, Sergeant. She’s takin’ up space and I gotta clear her from the books one way or the other.”
“Give me your number, Sergeant Hollister. I can call back within fifteen minutes. Would that be okay?”
“I can give you fifteen minutes.”
“Thanks. And if you’re ever down this way—”
“When I go on vacation, I go fishing.”
Hollister cut the line.
Frantically, Poe started dialing. His brother wasn’t at work, he wasn’t at home.
Shit, shit, shit!
Again, he checked his watch. Too late to catch a plane to Reno. And he really didn’t feel like driving north. Even speeding it still meant hours of monotonous driving on winding roads. All this on little sleep.
He thought about Aunt Shirley, wondered if it would make matters worse. But with his brother absent, what choice did he have? He dialed her number. Luckily she picked up. Equally fortunate, she sounded reasonably sober.
“It’s Romulus, Aunt Shir—”
“Romulus! How nice of you to call.”
“Thank you very much.” A beat. “I kind of need your help.”
“Oh, what can I do for such a nice boy?”
“It’s Mom.”
“Now what has that woman gone and done this time?”
Nothing you haven’t done yourself. Poe said, “I think she drank a little too much. I think that’s the problem.”
“So …”
Y snorted, rolled over, and tucked himself into the crevices of the sofa. Poe sniffed and winced. The old man was sweating alcohol.
He said, “Uh, Mom’s at the police station. I was wondering if maybe you could get yourself a cab and pick her up. I’d pay for it, of course.”
Shirley tsked and tsked. Then she hemmed and hawed, whiffled and waffled.
Poe added, “And of course, I’d compensate you for your time.”
“Oh, Romulus. How kind of you. But you know I don’t expect anything for helping out my own sister.”
“Of course. Just a little something. I insist.”
“Well, if you insist.” A pause. “Where is your brother?”
An excellent question.
“He must be working on something very important. Uh, could you call the cab now, Aunt Shirley? Better yet, I’ll do it for you.”
“Oh, that would be sweet.”
“My pleasure. Just … you know … you might have to pay something in cash for her release and sign some papers.”
“Dear, I know the drill.”
Despite his fatigue, Poe smiled. “Thank you, Aunt Shirley.”
“You know, Romulus, I’ve been thinking about coming down and paying you a visit. My arthritis is acting up …”
Groan.
But Poe said, “Aunt Shirley, you’re welcome anytime.” His head was throbbing—jackhammers in his brain. “I’m going to call you that cab now. Good-bye, and thank you.”
“Good-bye, Romulus. And tell the taxicab to give me a minute to get dressed.”
“Sure.” He hung up.
That was rich. One drunk looking after another. Still, what was the worst-case scenario? The two ladies would get pickled together, go out, cause a scene, and then both get arrested.
By then maybe it would be morning.
The howling of the coyotes aroused him. A commonplace sound but particularly fierce tonight. According to native legends, coyotes meant death. But coyotes had also honored man by stealing fire for him. So which kind of coyote was out tonight? Poe opened an eye, realized he was sleeping on the floor. He repositioned himself, his back aching, his head pounding. He glanced up.
From his perspective, it appeared that Y was gone.
Slowly standing erect, Poe rubbed his face, yawned, blinked several times. Moonlight streamed in from his bare windows, the rays sparkling with dust brought in by last night’s wind.
Indeed the bed was unoccupied.
Poe picked up his pants, checked his wallet. Being a hopeless compulsive, he made it a habit to start each day with five twenties in his main billfold with a single hundred-dollar bill tucked into a credit card slot for whores or emergencies. He diligently stocked his wallet every night before he went to bed.
Sure enough, two twenties were missing. Shrugging it off, Poe went to his hidden cache of money, refilled his wallet. He plopped down into the fold-out bed, then bolted up.
The sheet and cover were drenched with the stink of sweat and booze. He stripped them off the couch, placed them in his overflowing perforated bag. No getting around it. Tomorrow morning, he’d be at the Laundromat, drinking his coffee while soaping his clothes.
He picked up his sleeping bag from the floor. Sinking onto the bare mattress, covering his head with his bag, shuddering as the coyotes sang their dirges. The Mojave Desert hosted many wildlife preserves. Often Poe had espied bobcats, wild horses, mule deer, and errant bighorn sheep. And wherever there were free-ranging animals, there were coyote. Judging from the feral whooping, whatever the scavengers had caught was cause for celebration.
A big haul: Poe hoped it wasn’t a human one.
13 (#ulink_f92b5fcf-3f89-5ae4-bc10-e039142dffb1)
He arose just before dawn, stiff and cold. Poe put on a pair of slippers, turned on a battery flashlight, and carried it and a bottle of chemical solvent with him to the outhouse. Returning to his compound—an architectural composite of clay beehive and old shanty town—he swept the dirt floor, made the bed up with fresh sheets, then folded the ensemble back into couch form. He donned baggy sweats and took off for his morning run.
The sun had yet to break through a barrier of gray clouds, but the sky was endless. Not a hint of civilization as Poe jogged upon the desert floor, hugging the foothills of the Western mountain ranges. At these times, he realized why he put up with bare bones, trading in plumbing—even more desirable than electricity—for an outhouse. Yet, here he was at peace with nature as he raced in air filled with nothingness.
Arriving home sweaty and awake, he turned on a battery-operated TV, watching a staticky screen the size of a postage stamp. No new murders in Clark County, which was always a positive. In a backpack, he neatly packed his gun, a lunch of raw fruits and vegetables, and cold cuts kept fresh in a picnic cooler. He loaded the backpack and his laundry bag into his car. He planned on showering at the department’s gym.
Once on the road, he dialed his brother’s house in Reno on his cell phone. No answer.
Strange.
The next logical step would be to call up Aunt Shirley. But the day was too nice to be wrecked. If it was bad news, it’d keep. Instead, he punched in Rukmani’s number. She picked up after the third ring; her voice was groggy. “’Lo.”
Poe said, “Are we on for tonight?”
“Yes.” Sounding furtive. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Want to meet for breakfast?”
“Hold on.”
She sent him into an electronic void, clicked back on a moment later. She whispered, “It’ll take me about a half hour. I gotta clear house first.”
Oh. That!
From the beginning, Poe had known he wasn’t the only one, just the favorite one. His own fault. She had extended an offer last night. And he had refused. Well, work had refused for him.
He said, “I’ll be at Beeny Boy’s.”
“You’re doing your laundry?”
“What else?”
“I’ll see you in about thirty minutes.”
“I think it’s fair to warn you that I haven’t showered yet.”
She laughed. “Romulus, I’m sure compared to the folks I work on, you’ll smell like French perfume.”
Weinberg dug into his pastrami omelet, shoveled a forkful into his mouth. He studied the composite drawing made by the police artist. “Mr. Bland White Guy.”
Patricia said, “Young-looking, too. But Big Ray said his ID put him at thirty.”
“I’ve seen faces like this before,” Jensen said. “Guys with not much facial hair and kind of nondescript features. They age like old women. And they’re hard to pick out in a crowd.”
Patricia said, “At least we’ve got something to work with.”
“That’s true.” Weinberg put down the drawing. “You did good, Deluca.” He picked up a saltshaker, began to rain sodium onto his fat-laden omelet.
Jensen stared in wonderment. “How do you eat like that and not come down with a coronary?”
“My cholesterol is one-seventy. Read it and weep, Jensen.”
Poe knocked on the doors of the locked restaurant. Myra scurried over, let him in. “You’re a little late for eggs, but I can put some rye in the toaster.”
“Thanks, but I had breakfast.”
“Coffee?”
“You bet.” Poe sat with the others, lifted the composite off the table. “Good going, Deluca.”
She said, “I’m a credit to my profession.”
Poe pondered the sketch. “Guy looks familiar, but I can’t place him.”
Jensen said, “My first impression, too. But the harder I tried to finger him, the more he slipped away.”
“He’s got a common face,” Patricia said. “Not a bad-looking guy.”
Jensen said, “He looks … I don’t know … wimpy.”
“I wouldn’t call him wimpy—”
“Ordinary.” Poe ran his finger through wet black hair. “It’ll make him hard to find.”
Jensen added, “Why the hat?”
“What do you mean?” Poe said.
“No one these days wears a felt hat except as part of a costume. I did that once for a Halloween party. Only time I ever remember wearing a hat.”
Poe put the picture down. “But what if you were interested in either hiding or changing your appearance.”
Weinberg raised his eyebrow, readjusted his yarmulke on his bald head. “I like that, Poe. Our man doffs the hat, it throws off our entire perception.” Again, the lieutenant considered the face. “Know what I’m going to do? I’m going to have Mel redraw the guy without the hat. Also, I’ll have him draw our guy with a mustache, figuring that he likes disguises.”
The loo polished off his breakfast.
“Next step is legwork. Start showing the picture around the bars to see if we get any bites. Who’s doing what today?”
“I’ve got a court case at twelve,” Poe said. “After that, I’m back at the Laredo to see if Lewiston’s secretary found the file on Brittany Newel.”
Jensen said, “Parkerboy ain’t gonna give you anything.”
“Steve, he’s got to give me something. Her employment taxes show that she worked for him. He can’t explain them away.”
“It still doesn’t prove he knew her personally,” Weinberg said.
“But it does prove she worked for him, even for a short period,” Poe said. “After the Laredo, I’m free, Loo.”
