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5 (#ulink_bdcb2522-ec43-50bf-853e-413c8c2b9494)
The fog rolled in around six as I drove toward Imperial Beach. To the west I saw the Silver Strand State Park campground, where not long ago a seven-year-old girl was taken by her kidnapper. Later he killed her. Her name was Danielle. I thought of her every time I made this drive, and probably will for the rest of my life. A lot of people will. I was thrown from the Las Palmas about three weeks after her body was found.
I didn’t need the Chargers cap. I stood alone at the foot of the Imperial Beach Pier and watched the waves roll in and the lights of the city coming on in the twilight. A public sculpture of acrylic surfboards glowed faintly in the fog. Imperial Beach is the southernmost city on our coast. You can see Mexico right across the Tijuana River. In some odd way, you can sense an end of things here, the end of a state and a nation and the Bill of Rights and a way of living. Then you think of Danielle and wonder if it all means what you thought it did.
Six-thirty came and went. I called Gina again and we talked for a few minutes. She said she felt bad about last night and I said I was sorry about breaking our date for tonight. Funny how two people can live together, have no children, but have so little time together. Sometimes it seems like I hardly see Gina. I’m not so sure she misses my company the way I miss hers, but then I don’t know how she could.
I retrieved a message from Samuel Asplundh, Garrett’s older brother and next of kin, who was due to arrive in San Diego this evening.
I retrieved a message from Patrol Captain Evers saying that they had collected three more witnesses who had seen a car parked off to the side of Highway 163 the night Garrett was killed. All said the car was red. One said it was a sports car, like a Mustang or maybe a Corvette. Another thought he saw a man loitering in the bushes nearby, which is what Retired Navy had told us early that morning.
Next I returned a call from Eddie Waimrin, our Egyptian-born patrol sergeant. He told me that the accent on the taped call to headquarters was probably Saudi. He said the speaker was almost certainly foreign-born. I asked him to put out feelers for Saudi men who drove red Ferraris, on the not-so-off chance that the caller was Mr Red Ferrari himself.
‘I know one for sure,’ he said. ‘Sanji Moussaraf, a student here at State. Big oil family in Saudi Arabia. Big, big dollars. Popular kid. I’ve got his numbers for you.’
‘Maybe you should talk to him first,’ I said.
Three of the nineteen September 11 hijackers were living here when the doomed jets took off. One of the hijackers had inquired about attending a flight school here. Several of the first arrests in connection with that attack were made right here in San Diego – two of the arrested men were held for nearly three years before being deported in 2004. There was some local trouble right after the suicide attacks, too – spray-painted insults on a local mosque, curses shouted at people who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, vandalism at restaurants and businesses, some very intense police questionings in the days and weeks that followed.
Eddie Waimrin – who speaks Egyptian, Arabic, Lebanese, French, and English – was often called in to conduct interviews and to translate words and customs. He came to this country when he was eleven years old, sent by his father to keep him from the strife and poverty of Egypt. Since then Eddie has brought his father, mother, and two sisters to the United States. He’s an outgoing officer, quick with a smile and active with the Police Union.
Since San Diego’s large Middle Eastern population has been watchful and very cautious ever since September 11, I didn’t want to spoil a good source if Eddie Waimrin had a better shot at getting information from him.
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ he said.
I thanked him and punched off.
I was about to call Carrie Ann Martier when light suddenly hit my eyes and a woman’s voice came from the fog.
‘Brownlaw?’
I slid the phone onto my belt.
‘Robbie Brownlaw, Homicide?’
‘Put the light away.’
The beam clicked off and a woman stepped into the faint light of the pier lamps. She was small and pretty, mid-twenties. She had shiny straight blond hair not quite to her shoulders, and bangs. She wore a black down jacket over a white T-shirt, jeans and suede work boots. A small suede bag hung cross-shoulder so you couldn’t pull it off and run.
I showed her my badge and thanked her for coming. ‘You didn’t have to and I appreciate it.’
‘I don’t know if I can help you and I don’t have much time.’
‘We can walk,’ I said.
‘I’d rather not.’
‘Then we’ll stand. Did you see him night before last?’
‘We met here, at six-thirty.’
‘What was the purpose of the meeting?’
Carrie Ann Martier sighed and looked out at the surf. ‘Let’s walk.’
You couldn’t see the end of the pier in the fog. You couldn’t see the waves either but you heard them thrashing against the pilings underneath. I felt their strength and it unbalanced me in a way I did not enjoy. Overhead the light fixtures were studded with nails to keep the birds from nesting and the nails threw toothy shadows onto the stanchions. Through this joyless scenery walked Carrie Ann Martier, wholesome and fresh as a model for a vitamin supplement.
‘You know he was a detective for the Ethics Authority,’ said Carrie. ‘Well, a city employee was dating a friend of mine and my friend got beaten up. Pretty badly. This was a month ago. She wouldn’t file a complaint with the cops because she’s from a good family and the guy’s married. She didn’t want the scandal. I took one look at her and went to Garrett because he’s a watchdog, right? I talked to him. Someone had to. Two days later she received four thousand dollars in cash, a very nice set of pearl earrings and a note of apology in her P.O. box. Garrett told her that the jerkoff had “listened to reason.”’
‘Who’s the employee?’
‘Steven Stiles, the councilman’s aide.’
I remembered the name from Garrett’s handwritten notes.
‘And your friend?’
‘Ellen Carson.’
I didn’t remember hers.
‘Were you a witness?’
‘No. I saw her after it happened. Bad.’
We continued out over the invisible ocean. There were a few bait fishermen with their rods propped on the railing and their lines disappearing into the fog. I could feel the tiny drops of moisture on my face. A fish slapped in a plastic bucket.
‘Tell me more about Ellen,’ I said. ‘What does she do? What’s her profession?’
Carrie Ann Martier, hunched into her jacket, took a long and sharp look at me. I could see that she was deciding something. ‘She’s a student at UCSD. And a working girl, part-time. High end, fast dollars.’
‘Which is how she met—’
‘Stiles.’
‘Are you a student, too?’
‘English major, prelaw. And no, I’m not a working girl. I do proof-reading for McGrew & Marsh here in San Diego – we publish automotive-repair books.’
I watched the red squares of deception tumble from Carrie Ann Martier’s mouth. I’d already guessed that she was ‘Ellen,’ but it was nice to get a second opinion.
‘Those are good books on car repair,’ I said. ‘I bought the Volkswagen one years ago. The proofreading was excellent.’
‘Oh. Good.’
‘What was your meeting with Garrett about?’
‘A videodisc. Evidence of other men enjoying the company of Ellen and some of her coworkers. It was the third collection Ellen had given me for Garrett.’
‘How many other men?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve never seen them.’
More red squares, bobbing in the air between us. I was barely aware of them. But I was very aware that Garrett’s interest in the videodisc could only mean one thing. ‘City people?’
She nodded. ‘That’s what Ellen and her friends say. All sorts – City Hall, cops, fire, politicians, administrators. And also the guys who do business with the city – contractors, service people, company owners.’
‘That’s a bomb waiting to go off.’
‘I think it did, with Garrett. That’s why I agreed to meet you.’
‘I need to talk to Ellen,’ I said.
‘No. She can’t risk that. It’s your job to put people like her in jail. She did her part for you, Mr Brownlaw. Don’t ask for more.’
‘I don’t care what Ellen does in her spare time. I care who killed Garrett Asplundh and I need to talk to her.’
She fixed me with a cool stare. Funny how she could appear so clean and fresh, but hard. ‘I knew you’d pull that.’
‘It worked on you once,’ I said. ‘And maybe it will work on you again because you liked Garrett. And you knew he was a good man trying to do the right thing and it probably got him killed.’
‘My time is valuable. Are you prepared to pay me for it?’
‘No.’
‘Garrett Asplundh did.’
I had to dodge the red squares.
I smiled at her because I really admire hustlers. Something about the courage to tell a lie and not know if you can get away with it. You run across some great hustlers in fraud, which I enjoyed immensely. Maybe because I could never tell the smallest fib without my face lighting up. Mom and Dad would just laugh and shake their heads.
‘Actually, he didn’t pay you for your time, Ellen.’
Her stare went from cool to cold. ‘Fuck yourself, cop.’
‘Well, okay. But what’s the difference between talking to Garrett and talking to me? Besides that someone blew his brains out two nights ago after he met with you?’
‘He was cute and sad and a totally great guy.’
I thought about that. ‘I’m not cute or great, but I’m sad sometimes. One out of three, though, that’s three-thirty-three, and if the Padres could—’
‘I hate people like you.’
I shrugged but didn’t take my eyes off her because I figured she might make a break for it.
‘Look, Carrie,’ I said. ‘Or Ellen or Marilyn or Julie – I don’t care what your name is. I don’t care how you make a living, though I hope you get health care and a decent retirement plan.’
She sighed, pulled her little suede bag around and unzipped it. ‘Your judgment means nothing to me. I do the same thing your wife does but I get paid cash up-front and I can say no anytime I want.’
‘Oh, man, do I have to respond to that?’
Her lips began a smile.
‘Help me out here,’ I said. ‘Help Garrett.’
‘Okay, o-fucking-kay. Just get me out of this fog and buy me drink, will you? I’m freezing. And to tell you the truth, maybe I need to talk to a cop.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I’m really kinda scared, Robbie.’
She pulled a pack of smokes from her little bag, offered one to me. I shook my head.
‘Light?’ she asked.
‘Sorry.’
‘Men were better in old movies.’
‘Our stock is down.’
‘Then, here. Learn something useful.’ She pulled a lighter from her bag and held it out to me.
I smiled but didn’t move.
‘What?’ she asked. ‘What’s so funny?’
‘Okay, whoever you are. I’ll learn something useful.’
I walked to her slowly but grabbed her wrist fast and gave it enough of a turn to smart.
She yelped.
The lighter fell to the wooden beams of the pier and I watched it roll to a stop. She watched it too.
I picked it up and she didn’t try to kick me and run. Sure enough, it was a lighter. But the other end was a pepper sprayer. I’d heard about them from some of the Vice officers.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘Let’s get that drink. I’ll drive.’
She flexed her wrist. ‘I wasn’t going to use that on you. Swear to God, man—’
‘I think you were.’
‘Give it back.’
‘I’ll give it back later.’
‘Garrett would have lit my cigarette.’
