Jon Talton - The Night Detectives

“It’s all right, Mapstone.” Peralta handed over his Glock. I reluctantly did the same. On a pat-down, they found my last-option knife and confiscated that, too. Peralta glared at me. I glared right back. We stepped up inside the jet, visions of being tossed out in the desert dancing through my head.

“Mike, how the hell are you?”

Mister Fortune Magazine, whose name was Jim Russo, looked older than his photograph, even though he appeared very fit with a golf-course tan. He led us to a sumptuous seating area where a young woman brought us bourbon.

“It’s been too long,” Russo said. “How’s Ed Cartwright doing?”

Now I was confused and paranoid.

“Crazy as ever,” Peralta said. To me: “We were all in the same unit.”

“That crazy Indian saved my ass more than once,” Russo said.

“Mine, too.” Peralta savored the bourbon. The small talk continued for an interminable time. He even got around to introducing me.

“I appreciate you flying over here,” Peralta said.

Russo stared at the floor. “I’m sorry, Mike. I should have contacted you sooner. But if this had gotten into the financial press…” He shook his head. “After Felix was killed, I didn’t know what to do.”

He had my attention.

“Felix was the head of my security detail,” Russo said. “He was a Navy SEAL who lost a leg in Afghanistan. Won a Silver Star saving his comrades after an IED attack. He was a good man.”

“Why did he have multiple driver’s licenses?” I asked.

Russo explained that sometimes he needed to check into hotel suites under assumed names. Apparently like many billionaires, he was a target of threats and would be a tempting catch for kidnappers. I tried to pay attention while wondering how the situation in Sunnyslope was progressing.

“Scarlett.” Peralta let the name drop ever so lightly.

Russo made a face. “Foolish old rich man, huh? I know what you’re thinking.”

“I’m not thinking anything, Jim. She was a pretty girl.”

“I have a wife and children,” Russo said. “But my wife and I drew apart sexually a long time ago. Grace…” He hesitated. “Grace helped me.”

“Grace?” I said.

He smiled sadly. “I knew her name. Felix provided a complete dossier on her background for me.”

“We’re not here to judge,” Peralta said. “Hell, I envy you, you horny wop. It might have helped to know you were the one hiring us instead of Felix.”

“He did it,” Russo said. “I only gave him your name. He didn’t trust the police, and he was mindful of my privacy. I thought if anyone could help, you could.”

“Was he seeing Grace, too?” That was my fart in church.

“Oh, no,” Russo said, “Felix was gay. But he was the one to give Grace a ride to my place in Rancho Santa Fe and back. They got to know one another. Felix did love her, but like a brother. You see, when he was deployed his real sister was abducted and killed. He never forgave himself. He became very protective of Grace, especially after he learned she was being pimped out. He got her out of that situation and back together with her old boyfriend. I hated to have to give her up but she deserved a real life.”

We waited. Peralta and Russo received refills.

“In the months that followed, Felix would keep an eye on her. He’d check up from time to time. Of course, her husband didn’t know. Grace was very good at keeping secrets and compartmentalizing. About two weeks before her death, she called Felix. She was afraid somebody was stalking her. She didn’t know who, or she didn’t say. She didn’t want to worry Tim, so I’d be surprised if she even told him. Anyway, Felix took a leave of absence, got an apartment in Ocean Beach so he could be close…”

“A guardian angel,” I said.

“Exactly.” Russo looked me over for the first time. A mixed verdict. “I didn’t think it was necessary. Grace was smart and away from that life. But Felix was adamant, and he was a very good employee. He had also served the country. I felt I owed this to him. He gave her a panic button to push if she got in trouble. He was usually about a block away.”

Peralta asked what happened on April twenty-second.

“For the first time, Grace pushed the panic button. It had a tracker and Felix was able to get to her…”

“What do you mean?” I was too impatient.

“He ran the car she was in off the road, onto a side street. But it was three against one. They beat him up pretty bad, which would be no easy feat, and they left him there. I didn’t realize how bad when he called. He held it together, told me some guys had taken Grace and gotten away from him.”

“Why didn’t he call the police?”

“I told him to do it. I also gave him your number. I told him Peralta could get results.”

He didn’t call the cops, but he did phone us, getting the answering machine.

I took a tentative sip. It was very expensive bourbon. “But he called us from Grace’s phone.”

Russo nodded. “In the fight, he was trying to get Grace. Part of her purse spilled on the street. He ended up with her cell, which looked exactly like his.”

Peralta said, “Why wouldn’t he know it wasn’t his phone when he didn’t find you on the favorite calls?”

“My number had to be memorized,” Russo said. “Security. Felix didn’t realize he had the wrong phone until he had called me and was in the middle of calling you.”

But he never made a second call to us. I asked why not.

“He passed out. You’ve got to understand, he wasn’t as physically capable as he once was. He wore a prosthetic leg and was in constant pain. The next thing he knew, he was in the hospital. And Grace was dead. It was two weeks before he could come to Phoenix and see you. He still had her phone.” Russo paused and suddenly slammed his fist into his leg.“And now he’s dead, too.”

I went through the names: Larry and Andrew Zisman, Bob Hunter, and Edward Dowd. They drew no reaction from Russo.

Peralta said, “And Felix?”

Russo set his glass down carefully into the brass cup holder on the teak table. “I helped arrange for his mother to bring his body home for a funeral in Indiana. I promise you, she’ll never want for anything. She’s lost both her children. It’s a hell of a thing.”

He seemed like as decent a master of the universe as there probably was, and he was at loose ends. Still, I couldn’t finish his premium booze. I kept thinking how far ahead we would have been if Peralta’s old war buddy had called us sooner. Tim might still be alive. The baby would be safe. It was all I could do to keep from exploding.

He ran a hand down his face and stared at Peralta. “Shit, Mike. How could this happen? I’ve lost them both. Who would do this? Why?”

I had a pretty good idea who had done it. I didn’t know why.

As we drove back and I reported on my lunch meeting, Lindsey texted me that she and Sharon were going shopping-she needed to load up on moisturizers now that she was back in the desert-and she would be home by six. I wanted to go back to Sunnyslope but Peralta vetoed that. So I let him drop me off at home.

With the house to myself, I lay down on the bed and actually started reading the biography of George Frost Kennan that had languished on the table for months. But it did not transport me away from this age of “business casual,” tattoos on pretty women, and dunces saying, “No worries!” The perspective it gave me on geopolitics then and now was quickly forgotten. It was not the author’s fault.

Too many anxieties hammered on my brain. Edward Kevin Dowd, killing machine, was foremost among them. In these insidious little moments, I noticed Lindsey’s suitcases remained in the guest room, only partly unpacked. Was that because of the investigation she had been thrust into, or was her stay here only temporary?