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"Of course. But maybe we shouldn't waste his time until we've finished."
"That's what I like about working with you, Martinelli," her partner said
with satisfaction. "It's the meeting of true minds."
With FBI involvement, any line of inquiry on the part of the local forces
ought to be directed by the feds. If, however, the local cops didn't get
around to mentioning some ongoing piece of their investigation while it was
actually being pursued, well, that was understandable sometimes you had to go
back and dot the i's and cross the t's later. And if they happened to find
something that contributed to the case, and managed to run it down before
returning to their desks and dutifully reporting in, any official reprimand
would be more than balanced by their own satisfaction and that of their
departmental colleagues. Especially if that contribution was large enough.
Solving the crime and getting killers off the street was obviously the main
goal, and they would not do anything deliberately to compromise that, but it
was always nice when the overworked and under-equipped locals pulled off
something the big guys couldn't.
So their slow and circuitous route back to the Hall of Justice took them into
virtually every car rental place on the peninsula. Most of the agencies said,
with greater or lesser degrees of enthusiasm, that they would draw up a list
of cars matching their description and which had been out the night before,
and who had rented them, and get the list to them in a day or so. The two
biggest agencies at San Francisco International, though, were both highly
automated and eager to help, and both offered to provide a printout. And no,
there had been no one else around asking for that information in the last day.
They drove out to the airport and picked up both lists, added them to the
growing stack, then retreated to a nearby restaurant to replenish their
energies with a drippy hamburger for Al and a blackened chicken salad for
Kate. They spread their papers out to look them over as they ate.
It was a daunting pile, even for detectives well used to paper chases. There
were hundreds, thousands of white four-doors for hire in the peninsula, and
most of them were in circulation. Some of the lists were handwritten and half
legible; others gave every car in the agency regardless of make and color and
left it up to them to decipher the identifying code. Some of the lists went
back weeks; one was dated for April, but of the previous year.
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Kate sighed, turning over the cold remnants of her fries with her forefinger,
and decided to phone home. She got up to use the toilet, tried the public
phone, found the line busy, and came back to find Hawkin digging into a huge
construction that seemed to be equal parts chocolate and whipping cream. She
ordered a double espresso for herself and thumbed disconsolately through the
stack of papers.
"This is hopeless," she began to say, when simultaneously her beeper went off
and her eye snagged on a name. The name had to be a coincidence, if an odd
one, and the number on the pager display was her own. Still, she tugged the
piece of paper out to mark the place before she went back to the pay phone.
Annoyingly, the number was again busy. She hung up, waited half a minute, and
tried again. This time Lee had it on the first ring.
"Hello?"
"Hi babe, it's me. I got your page I tried to reach you myself ten minutes
ago. What's up?"
"When are you coming home?" Lee's voice sounded either tired or stressed, and
Kate's fingers whitened on the receiver.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Just " Lee bit off a sharp demand, and went on with deliberate calm: her
reasonable therapist's voice. "I just need to know when you'll be back."
"I could be there in forty minutes, less if Al lets me stick the flasher on.
What do you need?"
"It's not that urgent, I'm just trying to organize something and it was
stupid to make arrangements for a ride if you were about to walk through the
door, is all. You sound like you're occupied."
"I am, but it's nothing urgent. I'll drop Al at the "
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"Kate, stop. It's fine. It's just that Jon is out with Sione and I hate to
beep him, but Maj called up all in a dither about something Roz is doing, so I
told her I'd go over and hold her hand. It's nearly Mina's bedtime, or she'd
come here. I could get the Saab out, but I know that "
"Lee, no, that's a really terrible idea. I'll be home in half an hour, surely
it can wait that long?"
"No, no, I don't want you to break off, I only wanted to know if you happened
to be about to drive up any minute. I'll call a cab."
"Promise me you won't try to drive?" Lee hadn't driven a car since she had
been shot, and although her legs were stronger, their reaction time was
undependable. On city streets, in city traffic, it would be criminally
foolhardy.
"I promise."
Maj in a dither didn't sound like anything worth breaking speed limits for;
indeed, considering the frequency of Roz's passionate causes, it didn't even
sound like something worth missing her coffee for.
"But Maj is okay?" she asked Lee, just to make sure.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure she is. Just upset." Lee herself sounded calmer, and
Kate's grip on the phone relaxed.
"In a dither, huh?"
"Completely ditherized. What does that word mean, anyway? How's your day
going?"
"I'm playing tag with some evidence the FBI might think I should have turned
over to them, hoping it gives me some meaning. Doesn't look like it, though."
"Another productive day."
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"That's how it goes. But I met a woman who could be a poster girl for the
black and beautiful campaign, whose goal in life is to manage a Safeway
store."
Lee, after a silent moment, asked, "Have you been drinking?"
"Iced tea, I swear."
"Is Hawkin with you?"
"Yes, Mother."
At that Lee finally laughed. "Yeah, right why I should trust him to keep you
in line I can't imagine."
"You're sure a cab is okay, hon?"
"Cost a fortune, but I'll let Maj pay half."
"How long do you think you'll be with her?"
"Couple of hours. Less ifRoz shows up I won't stick around for that stage of
the conversation, thank you."
"Okay. Well, if I'm back in town before what does that make it, eleven? I'll
call there, give you a ride home."
"If it's convenient, that'd be great. Don't work too hard."
"Never."
"Sure. Why don't I tell Roz to just chill out, while I'm at it?" But she
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chuckled as she said it, and they talked about nothing in particular for
another minute or two before they hung up and went their separate ways.
Back at the table Kate finished her tepid espresso in one quick swallow, then
reached out and pulled the puzzling sheet from its neighbors. She turned it
around and laid it in front of Hawkin, tapping the name that had caught her
eye.
"Don't you think that's odd?" she asked him.
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