The Body of David Hayes

by Ridley Pearson

  “Reporting what he saw on the traffic cam allowed him to pretend to be somewhere he was not?”

  “By the look of it, yes.”

  “And where was he, in fact?”

  “This is all just speculation,” he cautioned, “but my guess is he was doing a damn good job of imitating your Mr. Alekseevich so we’d take the bait. Meanwhile, I thought he was sequestering our primary suspect for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. That is… that’s the direction I was going until what you just told me.”

  “And now?”

  “If they hit Geiser they don’t have what they need. Maybe Danny tortured Hayes for information and then dumped the body.”

  “It will pan out. The Geiser manicure. Foreman being next.”

  “And you’re telling me this because…?”

  “My sister’s kid.”

  “I made a call about that,” he said defensively, thinking she was accusing him of not having acted.

  “I know you did,” she said. “What goes around… ” she added.

  “I guess so,” said Boldt.

  “The next corner is fine,” she said, pointing.

  Boldt slowed the car for a red light, glad for the extra minute or two. “You said Geiser is in Emergency. What about Danny?”

  “We rolled a car to Geiser’s following the tip. Probably should have kept it off the radio in hindsight, because chances are they were scanning and knew we were coming. Found him in the basement in a bad way. Very fresh. Foreman’s off our radar so far.”

  “Are you so sure?” Her words had sparked an interesting idea in him.

  “We haven’t found him,” she repeated, missing Boldt’s meaning, and Boldt was in no hurry to correct matters.

  “I need you to arrange a meeting for me.”

  “Alekseevich? No can do.”

  “Pretty please, with caviar on top?”

  “I’d love to help out, Lieutenant. But I get off the bus here.”

  “Five minutes. Ten, max.”

  “Not possible.”

  “Then tell your people this. Sunday night, one way or another, I’m delivering Svengrad on the front steps, so they better stop your guy from crossing into Canada or boarding a flight because we’re all going to need him if we’re going to make the charges stick.”

  “They’ll go ballistic, I give them that.” She sounded a little desperate now herself. “We’ve been building a case for the better part of a year now. You cannot do this, Lieutenant.”

  “I’m not asking permission, Detective. I’m trying to give you a heads-up.”

  “And if I can get you the meet with Alekseevich?” she asked. “Where’s that put all this?”

  “Now you’re listening,” he said. Pulling the car to the curb as she’d directed, Boldt knew he’d won the meeting. “Your name never comes up in any of this.”

  “I don’t know whether to kiss you or throw a punch,” she said, popping her door open.

  He made sure she had his cell phone number, and then headed back into traffic, confident he’d led her away from her own very good idea, and wondering if he could now turn it to his favor.

  Liz was half out of her mind with impatience and the claustrophobic sense of being watched and guarded. Lou’s last-minute request before he’d left had nearly floored her, but she knew to trust his judgment and instincts-when it came to planning, few were his equal.

  To her surprise, the third shop she phoned was open late on Friday nights, the effeminate male voice on the other end trying to cross-sell all kinds of extras she didn’t need. She made this call in secret, as Lou had suggested, from the kitchen’s portable but in the bathroom with the water running, while Bobbie Gaynes babysat her in the living room, leafing through magazines and constantly adjusting the ear bud that linked her with dispatch. Liz had heard Lou talk about such operations dozens of times over the course of their marriage, but being the centerpiece of such a thing proved exhausting despite her doing nearly nothing and going nowhere. The nervous energy alone drained her of physical strength and threatened paranoia. Pickup and delivery of a costume was arranged. She reviewed the arrangements twice, making sure there were no misunderstandings. Lou had given her specific orders, and she meant to carry them out.

  “Everyone okay in there, Mrs. B.?” It was Gaynes knocking lightly on the bathroom door. “Out in a minute. There’s another upstairs,” Liz added.

  “It’s not like that,” Gaynes said. She didn’t need a toilet; she needed her charge back in her chair in the living room. Cops were territorial animals.

  Liz willed her mobile phone to ring-to engage her, give her something to do other than worry. She would not have expected being so eager to be involved, so ready for it. At that point in time, if someone had asked her to clean fish she would have done it. Anything to relieve the stress of waiting.

  She kicked herself a moment later for not thinking the way Lou thought, for not realizing her environment and how to handle herself. She left the bathroom and, by her way of thinking, did a pretty fine job of returning the kitchen’s portable phone to its wall cradle. But a moment later she looked back to see Gaynes striking a pose in the doorway shared between the kitchen and living room, one shoulder on the jamb, one leg crossed before the other.

  “No,” Gaynes said into the portable phone. “Just checking if you’re open.” She hung up the call with the press of a button. She had pushed redial. She had realized what Liz was up to in the bathroom and had gone straight to work upon the phone’s return.

  “What’s up with the costume shop, Mrs. B.?”

  “I think you’d better come over here and sit down,” Liz said. “This may take some explaining.”

  “I didn’t think you’d take me up on my offer so soon,” LaMoia said from the passenger seat. Less than thirty minutes had elapsed since Boldt had dropped him off. “I just barely wolfed dinner.” LaMoia carefully picked at a thick brownie, nibbling off tiny amounts and savoring each bite.

  Boldt couldn’t remember when he’d last eaten. He currently had the remains of a hot tea warming the cup holder. Boldt caught LaMoia up on the surprise visit by Maddie Olson, but did not mention her by name or division within the department, referring to her only as a “female officer.”

  “Best kind,” LaMoia said, his teeth black with chocolate.“

  It presents two very different scenarios,” Boldt said, driving faster than he normally did, and knowing that John recognized this but was too cool to acknowledge it. “Either Foreman stung us by faking the torture and stashing Hayes for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, or he actually tortured Hayes himself and put it off on others.”

  LaMoia reacted sarcastically, one of the only emotional responses he allowed himself. “Oh, well, that second one’s certainly a dandy. Pissed at the system, he decides to take the money for himself?”

  “It might account for Svengrad going after Geiser and him.”

  “Why do I sense we’re not out for an evening drive?” LaMoia asked, popping the last bit of brownie into his mouth and rolling his eyes as he chewed. Boldt had just run a red light. “These things might come from a box,” he said, licking his fingers, “but Matthews has it down. The trick is undercooking them.”

  “The Martha Stewart of Homicide.”

  LaMoia, adding a southern twang, said, “And damn proud of it.”

  Boldt explained, “First thing I did was try the Sheriff’s Office, looking for Danny, because this cop mentioned having Danny on our radar, and I think without meaning to, reminded me that all the MDTs,” Mobile Data Terminals, “track real-time location of the cars, same as ours do.”

  “And you got a fix for his new ride? The Escalade?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “You’re driving as if you did.”

  Boldt suppressed a grin. The first faint acknowledgment from John. It was worth cherishing. “I’ve got a fix, but it wasn’t courtesy of the Sheriff’s Office.”

  “Is this supposed to be twenty questions or something?” He eyed
Boldt’s tea, still smacking his lips. “You mind if I have a swig of that?”

  “Finish it,” Boldt said. LaMoia knew perfectly well that Boldt did mind sharing both drink and food. This was LaMoia’s attempt at being polite while he got what he wanted. “Sheriff’s Office only keeps real-time information, and they currently have nothing on their screens for Foreman’s Escalade. Means the engine’s turned off. They’ll call me if that changes.”

  “We call them ‘motors,’ Sarge,” LaMoia corrected, “but I’ll forgive you this time. Motors, because they’re engines that move you.” John was a gear-head of the first order. Boldt should have known better than to wander into his territory.

  “Do you want to hear this?”

  LaMoia, not wearing his seat belt, had slumped back in the seat, as if tempted by a nap despite Boldt’s erratic driving. The man had some Old West mannerisms like this-the town sheriff tipped back in the spoke chair outside the jail-that he wore effortlessly, and that fit him well. He reminded Boldt of the best of Steve McQueen. As if Boldt had already briefed him, LaMoia said, “I’m way ahead of you. The new Escalades offer an On-Sat service package that gives you twenty-four-hour road assistance, electronic mapping, live operators.” He paused for dramatic effect. “GPS, twenty-four-seven. You’re about to tell me On-Sat maintains GPS data for some specified amount of time; I’m guessing between six and twenty-four hours. That way they know where you’ve been, and this helps their operators look good when you ask for a nice restaurant or motel nearby.” He gave Boldt a smirk. “Voilá! The wheres and whens of Danny Foreskin’s comings-and-goings over the past whatever-amount-of-time.” He looked over at Boldt ponderously, and when Boldt failed to contradict him, slid further down in the seat, saying, “Wake me when we get there, Daddy. I need to close my eyes a sec.”

  Boldt felt as if he’d had his pocket picked. “The location is nearby. Southeast, in SoDo. Foreman’s Escalade has been in this area three times in the past twenty-four hours. It’s not a firm address, but it’s got to mean something.”

  “When you’re right, you’re right,” LaMoia said. “I stole your thunder. Didn’t I, Sarge?” His eyes remained closed.

  “Yes, you did.”

  “Good.”

  “Why’s that good?” Boldt asked, after a long period of reflection to consider this.

  “Because then you’re probably pissed off at me,” he said. “Am I right?”

  “Mildly irritated.”

  “And if you’re pissed off at me, then your juices are flowing, and we’re going to need our juices flowing by the time we get there.”

  “And what about your juices?”

  “Sarge? This is me we’re talking about.”

  “One of these days, John… ”

  “Yeah, I know.” A stifled yawn, well practiced. “I know.”

  LaMoia asked about the Escalade’s current location according to On-Sat. Boldt said it was last recorded at the edge of a rail freight yard nearly directly west of their present location.

  “And why aren’t we looking there first?”

  “Because that, if anything, would give us Foreman, and we want Hayes.”

  “Why are we so anxious to get to Hayes, Sarge?”

  This was the question Boldt could not allow himself to answer, for it would reveal too much of his upcoming plan. In his own unique way, LaMoia had wormed into the heart of the matter, drilling for the truth and ripping Boldt open in the process. There was little these two men had not shared over the past decade, and Boldt’s silence suggested a line not to cross for LaMoia, and the man was briefly but clearly hurt.

  LaMoia placed a call from his cell phone, interrupting himself to ask Boldt for the address where they were headed, which Boldt then supplied begrudgingly, wondering what he was up to. He spoke to a woman, judging by the way he flirted, and she apparently did everything he asked, because he kept continually thanking her. He disconnected the call, clipped the cell phone back to his waist, and sighed.

  “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so smart.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Boldt said, “there’s a problem.” Now LaMoia would make him drag it out of him. Unlike Bernie Lofgrin, who had to bore you to death explaining everything in excruciating detail, LaMoia never volunteered his information, his little game.

  Southeast of SoDo was a no-man’s-land of brick and cinderblock, chain link and rusted signs, a DMZ-like stretch between the city and Boeing Field. Sidewalks sprouted weeds; broken windows called attention to themselves. For a while gangs had used the area, moving in and then driven out, like livestock crossing neighbors’ property lines. Mom-and-Pop shops, burger houses, delivery businesses, and car repair had started the process that would lead the former warehouse and light industrial space into offices and retail storefronts. The unstoppable evolution of neglected urban space under pressure. Even an unpredictable economy couldn’t stop the city from growing-the bacterium had grown immune to antibiotics.

  “Okay, I give up,” Boldt said. “Why are you so smart?”

  “There’s a building within a block of where the On-Sat put Foreman’s car that’s on BCI’s impound list.” Law enforcement agencies, SPD included, took possession of assets in narcotics raids and RICO convictions, often to offset taxpayers for a particularly expensive or time-consuming investigation. Vehicles, boats, homes, commercial properties were all impounded. Most of the time these were put on the auction block and the proceeds returned to the public coffers once the court case settled. On occasion, a vehicle or boat would be impounded and later put into service by the agency of possession. Real estate in particular typically lagged in the process, sometimes staying on the books a year or two before auction. Locked and chained and standing vacant, they dotted the urban landscape, tracked by some bureaucratic auditor. On occasion, as appeared to be the case now, an arresting agent later came to believe the car, or boat, or commercial real estate in fact belonged to him or her as long as no one was using it. LaMoia’s discovery of such a property within walking distance from the various locations where Foreman’s parked Escalade had been tracked suggested anything but coincidence.

  LaMoia checked an address written in pen on the back of his hand and indicated a turn to Boldt. A moment later they parked and climbed out. “Place was a print shop. Supermarket coupons, some counterfeit lottery tickets, sports tickets. Went on BCI’s impound list a year ago September.”

  They faced a sturdy steel door. Looking up through a rusted steel fire escape, Boldt said, “I asked both the On-Sat people and BCI to call me if they saw Foreman on the move, especially returning to this neighborhood. Who knows if they’ll oblige us.”

  “So we stay ready to be surprised,” LaMoia said. “You want to take it alone, have me play sentry, or do we do this together?”

  “Together. We’ll call for backup if we manage to get inside.”

  “I saw you looking at the fire escape,” LaMoia said.

  “Yes, you did.”

  “You want me up there?”

  “We take the dime tour first, aware of the fact that Svengrad may have already gotten to Foreman. If so, Svengrad’s people may have arrived ahead of us, or could even be on their way right now.”

  “They got to him once. I don’t see that happening a second time. Foreskin’s got more sense than that.”

  “Danny’s playing Lone Ranger. That makes him vulnerable to all sorts of mistakes. If I’m Svengrad, I want to know where Foreman is at all times. That is, if Danny isn’t working for Svengrad. Seventeen million can go a lot of ways.”

  “Point taken.”

  They walked along the front of the building and then down an alley where they spotted a distinct architectural division that designated a change in structures. A second fire escape led down here in the alley.

  LaMoia said, “I could maybe get up there… you see that third-floor window?” Several panes of glass in the window were broken out. “Maybe I can get back down to the first floor from inside.” The impounded print shop had occupied t
he entire first floor and the basement, according to John’s information.

  “We don’t have a warrant. And good luck getting one when it’s a BCI-impound property without involving BCI. Just go ahead and imagine that nightmare. Foreman’s working an investigation, and we’re interfering. That’s how the prosecuting attorney’s office and BCI are going to view this, especially if Foreman ends up making BCI look bad.”

  “We’ve got a BCI agent gone missing, and an informant telling you he may have met foul play.”

  “That informant’s not on the books and is never going to put herself there.”

  “But that right there is probable cause to enter a place our missing guy may have visited several times in the past twenty-four hours.” LaMoia added, “I’ll tell you what: The Sturgeon General sure as shit is not waiting around for a warrant. If Foreman or Hayes is inside this building, we gotta get swinging on some ropes here, Sarge.”

  After hours, Boldt thought. Not the greatest time to go hunting down a search-and-seizure. “Mahoney could expedite this for us,” Boldt said. DPA Lehla Mahoney and Boldt had forged a good working relationship over the past few years, and she’d proven willing to go out on a limb for him. He took a moment to call her while LaMoia began his ascent of the fire escape toward the broken window, an act that required them both to push a Dumpster beneath the fire escape to give LaMoia a leg up.

  Boldt had to leave a callback number on Mahoney’s service, but to his surprise she returned the call within a minute. LaMoia had reached the second floor. Boldt detailed their situation, and the attorney listened closely, interrupting with a number of interrogatives along the way. In conclusion she said she’d try to get Boldt a paper bag warrant-a verbal warrant from an on-duty judge known to be slightly to the left of Ralph Nader. Boldt warned her that he and LaMoia considered time a factor and were therefore going to kick it, counting on Mahoney to come through. She didn’t like that the initial information came from an informant working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office through SPD’s Organized Crimes unit, seeing that a possible obstacle, and warned Boldt they might not get their warrant.