Peter Decker 2-Book Thriller Collection: Blindman’s Bluff, Hangman. Faye Kellerman

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СКАЧАТЬ had no answer. Marge said, “Have you checked him out?”

      “He came in this afternoon after the courts had closed. I’ll start calling people on Monday.”

      “Do you even know if he’s really blind?” Oliver asked.

      Decker grinned. “Are you asking me if I threw something at him to see if he would duck? No, Scott, I did not do that.”

      “So I repeat. How do you know he’s really blind? You know how many crazies Wanda Bontemps has fielded on the tip lines, especially now that Grant Kaffey has offered a twenty-thousand-dollar reward?”

      “That’s all?” Decker said.

      “Looks like Guy wasn’t the only cheapskate.”

      Decker said, “Harriman may be loony, but right now I’m taking him at his word. Willy Brubeck is looking into Rondo Martin with his sources in Ponceville. Joe Pine was on Brubeck’s guard list to check out, but so far he’s a no-show. Drew Messing is working on locating him. Enough about Martin. What’s happening inside the house?”

      “Lots of evidence to process,” Marge said.

      “Fingerprints?”

      “A lot of smears, but CSI lifted a few that might be helpful,” Oliver said. “We still have to comb the auxiliary buildings. It’s going to take a while.”

      Marge said, “Can we go back to Brett Harriman for a moment? He didn’t give you any name for el patrón?”

      “Nope,” Decker said. “One of the men just said that he was worse than Martin—who was a very bad man.”

      Shouts from inside the hole announced that the corpse was fully contained in the body bag. The trick now was how to hoist out the bag. The pit was around four-plus feet in depth. It was possible to scale in and out of the cavity by foot, but it was much harder to surface while holding a corpse.

      Decker squatted at the edge of the hole. From this vantage point, the stench was considerably stronger. “If the three of you can get the bag above your heads, our people here can grab the bag and place it on the gurney.”

      The HAZMAT crew considered the suggestion and deemed it possible. It took some careful maneuvering but when they finally managed to do it, the gang above was ready. Six men snatched the edges of the body bag and put it on the gurney. Yakamoto unzipped the sack. “What do you think?”

      Marge stared at the discolored and disfigured face. Worms were crawling in and out of the apertures of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Some of the flesh had fallen off; some of it had been eaten. “It’s hard to say for sure, but with a little imagination it could be Denny Orlando.” She looked over at Oliver.

      “I think it’s Orlando, but maybe it’s because I’m fixated on him.”

      “We’ve got DNA now.” Yakamoto zipped him back up. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

      The sun had crested over the horizon just as the last bits of all the biological material were removed from the grave. One body was disinterred. Rondo Martin was still missing. It was 5:26 in the morning. If Decker left within the hour, he could make it home in time to eat breakfast, shower, dress, and go to shul. He’d probably be the first one there.

      Or he could go home and collapse.

      Though his body screamed exhaustion, there are some days where spiritual nourishment takes precedent over sleep. Today just felt like that kind of a day.

      “We’re done,” Marge finally told him. “I’m gone.”

      “If you’re gone, I’m gone,” Oliver told her. “We came together, remember?”

      “I’m not leaving without you, Scotty.”

      “Wanna grab some breakfast? I have nothing in my refrigerator. I’m thinking IHOP. I’m in the mood for pancakes and cholesterol.”

      “That’ll work.” Marge turned to Wynona. “You want to meet us?”

      “Might as well chow down and coffee up. I have to be back here at nine.”

      Decker waved them all good-bye. It took him another twenty minutes to finish up with his paperwork. By 6:15, he was in his car and alone with his thoughts. He started the ignition and as the car warmed up, he checked his messages on his cell.

      There were three.

      The first was from Rina at 7:02. She was just about to light candles and wanted to wish him a good Shabbos. She loved him and hoped to see him soon. Her voice immediately put a smile on his face.

      The second call was at 8:26 last night.

      “Hi, Lieutenant Decker, it’s Brett Harriman. I don’t know why I didn’t mention this before … maybe I was too overwhelmed with everything to remember correctly. Anyway, I of course couldn’t see the men talking beside me, but I did ask a woman next to me to describe them as discreetly as possible. She kept asking me why and I didn’t want to tell her. I felt a little foolish, so I told her to forget about it. So she may have seen them and could give you a description.

      “The problem is I don’t know her name, but I recognized her voice from the voir dire and I know she was impaneled on one of my cases.

      “I don’t know if you can get the list of jurors from that case, but it’s worth a try. I’m sure she’ll remember me because we didn’t have a typical conversation. We can talk more about this if you want. Give me a call. Bye.”

      Decker saved the call in the archives. Harriman was sounding a little like an attention seeker, feeding him information bit by bit. Or maybe he was after the reward. Before Decker returned the phone call, he’d check out Harriman’s credentials to ensure the man didn’t have a truth problem.

      The last call came in at 10:38 last night.

      “It’s Brett Harriman again. The woman that I told you about. I just remember that in the voir dire, she told the judge that she was married to a police lieutenant. Maybe she was trying to get out of jury duty, but they still impaneled her. I don’t think she mentioned LAPD, it could have been some other city, but how many wives of police lieutenants could there be who served on a jury panel in the last week? Could be you even know her. That’s it. Bye.”

      The line disconnected.

      Time passed in very slow increments.

      Did she see them?

      Did they see her?

      It took a long time for Decker to throw the gear in drive and when he did, he noticed his hands were shaking.

       13

      He cursed Brett Harriman the entire ride home.

      You couldn’t have asked someone else for a description? It had to be my wife?

      Hypocritical СКАЧАТЬ