Robert B Parker - Spenser 21 - Walking Shadow

by Walking Shadow(lit)

  "Well, she seems to have some unresolved conflicts which center on men, particularly men in positions of power or authority, or perhaps merely older men."

  "Is it too early to suggest that she might have some sort of problem with her father?"

  Susan smiled at me.

  "Yes," she said.

  "It is too early."

  Half sitting, half sprawled between us, Pearl shifted her weight from me onto Susan.

  "Is it too early to suggest that Pearl has unresolved issues about being a Canine American Princess?"

  "No. I think we have empirical support for that diagnosis," Susan said. Pearl lapped Susan's ear. Susan turned her head, trying to escape. Pearl persisted.

  "Though perhaps it is not an unresolved issue."

  We sat quietly for a while.

  "Maybe she was following Christopholous," I said.

  "You think?"

  "One of the things stalkers get out of stalking is a sense of power over the person they are stalking."

  Susan nodded.

  "And, thinking of it in this light, it was an odd remark, that the stalker was stalking Christopholous because the stalker was jealous."

  "Unless it was true," Susan said.

  "And she were the stalker," I said.

  "She forms an obsessive attachment to Jimmy, because he's older and he's the head of her acting company, and she tends to form such attachments," Susan said.

  She was staring into the fire. Her wine glass was still nearly full in her hands. I knew she'd forgotten about it as she tracked her hypothesis.

  "And he doesn't reciprocate. She assumes there's another woman, and trails him to see if there is."

  "And maybe," I said, "because it makes her feel good to trail him."

  "Yes."

  "And then I come along and, being entirely irresistible, as you well know, replace Christopholous in her affections."

  "And she tells you she's being followed so you'll pay attention to her."

  "If we're right," I said, "this is not a healthy woman."

  "No, she must be very unhappy."

  "So maybe I've got the stalker," I said.

  "Maybe. So who killed Craig?"

  "I have no idea," I said.

  Susan leaned over and kissed me on the mouth.

  "But you will," she said.

  "What's for supper?"

  "Brunswick stew, French bread, tomato chutney," I said.

  "Shall we eat some?"

  "That was part of my plan," I said.

  "What was the rest?"

  "Well," I said.

  "If I can't help Jocelyn out.

  Susan smiled at me.

  "The last boy scout," she said.

  CHAPTER 33

  We were in my office. Vinnie was listening to doo wop on his head phones, Hawk was still reading Cornel West, and I sat at my desk looking at Craig Sampson's FBI file. When I got through, I passed it over to Hawk. He dog-eared the page in his book and put it on the corner of my desk and took the file and read it. When he was through, he passed it back.

  "Where you say the Chinese broad from?" Hawk said.

  "Rikki Wu? Taipei

  Hawk nodded and picked up his book again. I sat and stared at the file folder. Vinnie was bobbing his head to the music only he could hear. Behind me the window rattled. I swiveled my chair and, for a change of pace, stared out the window for a while. It was bright outside, and very warm for November, but the wind was strong. Where I could see the sky between the buildings, it was a weak blue, and the off-white clouds were tattered-looking as they trailed east toward the harbor.

  According to the file that Lee Farrell had dropped off, Craig Sampson would be forty-one were he still alive. He had enlisted in the army, in August of 1971, had basic training at Ft. Dix, gone to the army language school at Monterey, and spent a year and a half with a Military Assistance Group in Taiwan. He had the rank of Specialist 3rd class when he was honorably discharged in July 1974.

  From somewhere I heard a siren. Police Headquarters was up Berkeley Street a couple of blocks, and beyond that, facing onto Columbus, was a fire station Sirens were the sound of the city;

  urban be-bop.

  I swiveled my chair back around. Hawk looked up, dog-eared his book again, and put his feet up on the corner of my desk. His cowboy boots were gleaming with polish.

  "Everywhere we look," Hawk said, "there's a goddamned Chinaman."

  "I don't think we're supposed to call them that," I said.

  "Okay, how 'bout 'a Asian gentleman."

  " "I think you need to get the phrase "Pacific Rim' in there somewhere," I said.

  "Lemme practice," Hawk said, "I know I can get it right." ' "Okay," I said.

  "For the moment, anyway, everywhere we look there's a goddamned Chinaman."

  "What we know is Rikki Wu from Taiwan. Craig Sampson stationed in Taiwan. Rikki Wu pretty surely bopping Craig Sampson. Rikki Wu's husband's Kwan Chang's man in Port City. He tell you to buzz off. You don't and various people from the Pacific Rim trying to blow your brains out. You know where Lonnie Wu is from?"

  "No."

  "You figure maybe Craig been buzzing Rikki longer than we thought?"

  "Maybe."

  "You figure DeSpain know that and tell you there's no record on Sampson so you won't follow it up?"

  "Maybe. Or maybe he just went to Triple I and it wasn't there, so he didn't go further."

  "Like he don't know that there can be clerical errors," Hawk said.

  "You know DeSpain, you think he that sloppy in a homicide?"

  "No."

  "And they toss Sampson's room," Hawk said.

  "And they don't find the nude pictures under the bed that a fucking girl scout would find in ten minutes."

  "I know," I said.

  "That's been bothering me too."

  Vinnie took one tape out of his Walkman and put in another.

  He evinced no interest in our conversation.

  "So you got a theory?" Hawk said.

  "About the pictures, yeah. I figure Port City didn't really search Sampson's room. They just went in and emptied a few drawers and made a mess so that it would look like they searched it. Probably took them five minutes."

  "Which explains why they made such a mess," Hawk said.

  "Un huh. Of course DeSpain could have sent a couple guys over and they didn't want to bother," I said.

  "And DeSpain didn't know they fucking off on him," Hawk said.

  "Yeah."

  "You think DeSpain's people fuck off on him and he don't know it?"

  "No and no," I said.

  "So?"

  "DeSpain's covering up," I said.

  "And one of the things he covering up is Wu's connection to Sampson."

  "Yes."

  "You know why?"

  "No."

  "You see any connection with the stalker?"

  "No, but I think I've got that one figured out."

  I told him about Jocelyn and the phone calls.

  "She is neurotic," Hawk said.

  "Be obsessed with you, when I on the scene?"

  "Before me she was obsessed with Christopholous," I said.

  "If we're right."

  Hawk shook his head.

  "Must be a honkie thing," he said.

  "You figure Lonnie had Sampson killed?"

  "Possibility," I said.

  "Found out he was taking nude pictures of Rikki's flower and sent somebody to pop him on stage so Rikki'd be sure to notice."

  "So," Hawk said.

  "You got a pretty good idea about the stalker.

  You got a pretty good idea on who killed Sampson. Why don't we declare everything solved and get the hell out of there?"

  "I don't think so," I said.

  "

  "Cause you like hanging around with me and Vinnie every day."

  I shrugged.

  "It's all theory," I said.

  "We got no case against Lonnie. Even if we turn what I know ove
r to DeSpain, is he going to follow it up?"

  "Not likely," Hawk said.

  "We don't know Jocelyn was following Christopholous."

  "We know," Hawk said.

  "We just can't prove it."

  "Same thing."

  "Not in my world," Hawk said.

  "Yeah, but we're working in mine."

  "Which do make it tiresome," Hawk said.

  "We working in mine, we solve this problem a lot quicker."

  "I know, but even if we did it your way, there's something wrong in Port City. We remove Lonnie Wu, say, ah, surgically, Kwan Chang will have another dai low in place the next day."

  "Gonna happen however Lonnie's removed," Hawk said.

  "I know," I said.

  "So what's the difference?"

  "A real police department can sort of counterweight the tong," I said.

  "I gotta know about DeSpain."

  Hawk grinned.

  "And?" he said.

  I shrugged.

  "And I told Susan I'd clean it up."

  "Un huh," Hawk said.

  Both of us grinned.

  We had known each other for a very long time.

  CHAPTER 34

  I sat in DeSpain's office and asked him about the Death Dragons he'd arrested.

  "Out," he said.

  "Already?"

  "Yeah. Lawyer was here when we brought them in. What the hell were they guilty of, anyway? Just walking along the street when you people braced 'em."

  "They have permits for the weapons they were carrying?" I said.

  DeSpain grinned without meaning anything by it.

  "You got anything new on the Sampson killing?" I said.

  "Nope."

  "I've come up with a few pieces of this and that," I said.

  DeSpain leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head.

  "And you're going to tell me," he said.

  "Yeah."

  And I did. I told him what I knew and what I supposed. I told him about Rikki Wu, and the pictures, and about Craig Sampson and his military career, and about Jocelyn and her imaginary stalker. DeSpain folded his thick arms across his chest, tilted his chair back, and sat motionless while I talked. The hard light from the fluorescent ceiling fixture washed out his features and made him look haggard. Probably did the same thing to me. When I finished, DeSpain didn't move. His expression didn't change.

  "So?" he said.

  "What's going on up here," I said.

  DeSpain didn't speak. He simply sat.

  "I called a state cop I worked with once," I said.

  "Guy named Healy, you know him?"

  DeSpain was impassive.

  "Head of Criminal Investigation Division, now. He knows you.

  Says you were a hell of a cop. Played it pretty close to the outer edge sometimes, but a hell of a cop. Said you had a big future with the Statics. Said if you stayed, you'd be head of CID, instead of him."

  "I know Healy," DeSpain said.

  "So how come you didn't get Sampson's prints?"

  DeSpain shrugged.

  "Maybe Triple I screwed up. Clerks make mistakes. But I found out Sampson was in the army without asking."

  DeSpain stared directly at me. His eyes were without expression.

  "I found the pictures in ten minutes."

  "So?"

  "So you're covering up."

  The lines around DeSpain's mouth got deeper.

  "You could get in bad trouble talking like that."

  "I could get in bad trouble eating shellfish in the Happy Haddock," I said.

  "Yeah."

  DeSpain wheeled his chair around and sat with his back to me staring out the window at the slate gray morning.

  "No point trying to scare you off," he said.

  "I know about you.

  Hasn't worked for Lonnie."

  He put one foot up on the windowsill and leaned further back in his chair. Outside his window the Port City Police Department had parked their cars in orderly rows, where the monotonous rain washed them bright.

  "Still I'm the Chief of Police here. I got quite a lot of push, I really have to use it."

  "How come you left the state police?" I said.

  "Chief in a small city like this one, sort of out by itself, if he's any good, can get a lot of control," DeSpain said.

  "How come you're not trying to find out who killed Sampson?"

  I said.

  "Starts by getting the chain of command in good working order, sifting out the discipline problems."

  "You in Wu's pocket?" I said.

  "One thing you do is you make sure everything is hunky-dory up on the hill, streets are safe. Keep the Portagies and Slants out of the good neighborhoods."

  "You connected to Sampson? Jocelyn Colby? Rikki Wu?"

  "You keep the living easy up on the hill, you can do most of what you want down here." DeSpain's voice was a soft, flat rumble. He turned his chair slowly back toward me with an easy shove of his foot on the windowsill. He looked at me, his eyes as lifeless as ball bearings.

  "You can do what you want down here."

  I waited. DeSpain waited. The rain drizzled on the neat row of black-and-whites in the lot.

  "You got nothing to say to me?" I said.

  "You got a chance now," DeSpain said, "to walk away. Take it. Walk. You keep following these tracks and you'll walk into a big nasty thing that'll eat you whole."

  The silence in the office was heavy. DeSpain and I looking at each other and not speaking. Finally I stood up.

  "That's who I am, DeSpain. I'm a guy who follows tracks."

  "I know," DeSpain said.

  "I know."

  CHAPTER 35

  We were in Hawk's car. Mei Ling was in front with him. I got in the back with Vinnie. Hawk looked at me in the mirror.

  "DeSpain throw himself on your mercy?"

  "And begged forgiveness," I said.

  "Tole you it was a waste of time," Hawk said.

  Mei Ling half turned in the front seat. She had on her slicker again and a slightly too big New York Yankees baseball cap, with an adjustable plastic strap in the rear. She had fed her black hair through the strap opening. It formed a flowing pony tail along her back. Under the large bill of the cap her black eyes looked too big for her face.

  "You suspect the Police Chief, sir?"

  "Yes, I do."

  She smiled.

  "Why is that funny, Mei Ling?"

  "You are learning what Chinese people have always known. It is better not to trust the authorities. It is better to have a tong to trust."

  "The tong is who sent the Death Dragons when we were in Chinatown," I said.

  "That is true also, sir. Chinese people do not believe life is easy."

  "Chinese people got that right," I said.

  "What now?" Vinnie said. Vinnie was never one for small talk.

  "I figure Jocelyn Colby is the sissy in this deal. We may as well go yell at her. Maybe she'll break down and tell us something."

  "Be a nice change," Hawk said.

  Mei Ling smiled at him when he spoke.

  "She should be at the theater, this time of day," I said.

  Vinnie shook his head.

  "Been playing cops and robbers all my life," he said.

  "First time I been a cop."

  Hawk pulled the Jaguar away from the curb and we headed for the theater.

  "What do you know about Chinese immigration?" I said to Mei Ling.

  Hawk glanced at me in the rearview mirror.