J Rain - The Mummy Case

“In the desert?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Part of the investigation. Scene of the crime.”

“According to the police, there’s been no crime. It was an accident.”

“Sure,” I said. “Which is why Tafford wants to keep you from talking to me.”

Jarred shrugged. “He doesn’t want any more bad publicity for the town.”

“Bad publicity for the town, or for his campaign?”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

At that moment a back door to the office opened and bright sunshine flooded the narrow room. A pretty blond girl in her mid-twenties entered through the door, shut it quietly behind her, and stood blinking, letting her eyes adjust to the dim light. She wore jeans, a red cowboy shirt and boots, the Rawhide dress code. She was also holding a rifle. She didn’t know I was there, at least not until her eyes adjusted.

“Best day yet, Jarred,” she said. “I couldn’t miss. Oh, hello.”

“Howdy, ma’am.” I tipped my hat. I was getting better at that.

She grinned. “Howdy.”

“I’m sorry I can’t help you, Mr. Knighthorse,” said Jarred loudly, drawing my attention back to him. “My hands are tied.”

“Tied about what?” said the girl.

“I’ll tell you later,” said Jarred.

“I’m investigating Willie Clarke’s death,” I said. I looked at Jarred. “I prefer to tell her now.”

“Oh,” she said, frowning. “Willie Clarke.”

“You must be Patricia McGovern.” I remembered her from the police report. She and Jarred had escorted Willie out into the desert together. She was the other person I wanted to talk to.

She nodded. “Yes, I’m Patricia. I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”

I gave her my most winning smile. “I’m Jim Knighthorse, detective extraordinaire.”

Her eyes widened. “A detective?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good day, Mr. Knighthorse,” said Jarred, standing. “We have nothing further to add to your investigation.”

I was watching Patricia. Mostly, I was observing her reaction to Jarred’s unfriendliness towards me. She didn’t like it. She seemed about to say something, but then bit her lip. Maybe she didn’t want to lose her job, either.

So I left, but first I handed them each a business card. Patricia looked at it as if I had handed her a two-dollar bill. Jarred tried to hand his back. Instead, I left his on his desk.

I tipped my ballcap toward Patricia. She smiled tightly, and I left the office.

And Rawhide altogether.

The next day I was sitting in Detective Hansen’s office on the third floor of the Huntington Beach Police Station. Today Hansen was wearing dark blue slacks, a powder blue Polo shirt with a shoulder holster, and loafers with no socks. I knew this because his feet were up on the desk, ankles crossed. His perfect hair was parted down the middle. Fit and tan, he was the quintessential Huntington Beach cop.

I motioned toward his clothing. “Items A amp; B, page one twenty three of the Nordstrom's men catalog?”

“Close,” he said. “Ordered from Macy’s. Wife picked them out. Thought I should set the standards for hip and cool for Huntington Beach PD.”

“Which, itself, sets the standards for hip and cool for police departments everywhere.”

“Sure.”

“So, if you follow that train of logic, you are the hippest and coolest cop this side of the Mississippi. Perhaps ever.”

“Gimme a break, Knighthorse.”

Something caught my eye. Actually two somethings. Hansen’s office overlooked a big alabaster fountain. The fountain was of mostly of a nude sea nymph. A buxomly sea nymph.

“Distracting, huh?” said Hansen.

“The sea nymph?”

“Whatever the fuck it is,” he said. “Why the hell did they have to make her tits so goddamn big?”

“Because they could.”

“So what can I do for you, Knighthorse?”

I told him about my mother, the picture, and why I was there. As I spoke, his eyes never wavered from mine. I finished the story. Hansen continued looking at me and then started shaking his head. His perfect hair never moved.

“Shit, Knighthorse, I never knew.”

“Few do.”

“The case is closed?”

I nodded. “I’m re-opening it. Unofficially.”

A corner of his lip raised in a sort of half smile. “Of course. And you have a picture of the perp, or the presumed perp?”

“Yes.”

“And the picture’s twenty years old?”

“Yes.”

He sat back in his chair, ran his fingers through his hair. His fingers, amazingly, were tan. And his hair, amazingly, never moved. Only grudgingly made some space for the fingers. Otherwise held its ground. I waited. Hansen thought some more.

“Maybe we can ID him,” he said.

“Mugshots?”

“We have them that far back, of course. Sound good?”

I nodded. “Sounds good.”

Ten minutes later we took an elevator down to the basement. He left me alone in a dusty backroom and, surrounded by outdated computers and boxes of old case files, I looked at the faces of hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Orange County’s most hardened criminals of yesteryear.

But not the face I was looking for. And as I took the elevator back up from the basement, I was looking forward to crossing paths with the buxomly sea nymph.

With Sanchez directing me, we drove slowly through a quiet residential neighborhood filled with small suburban houses. It was late evening, about 7:00 p.m. We were about nine blocks from Disneyland. Hard to believe there was going to be a royal ass kicking down the road from the happiest place on Earth.

While we drove, Jesus walked me through it. “Charlene and I were walking home through Hill Park. It’s a shortcut from school.”

“I don’t like you walking through Hill Park,” said Sanchez. “That park’s trouble.”

Jesus and I ignored Sanchez.

“Charlene is…?” I asked.

“My girlfriend. At least one of them.”

“How many do you have?”

“Two, but I keep two or three on the side.”

“For emergencies?” I asked.

“Something like that.”

“Lord,” said Sanchez.

I was watching the kid through my rearview mirror. Jesus’ face was turned, staring blankly out the side window. He was so little. Hard to imagine the kid being so tough. But he was. Somehow.

“Okay,” I said. “So you and Charlene are walking home through the park.”

“When we are surrounded by twelve guys. Most are on bikes. Some on skateboards.”

“Did you run?”

“No. But I told Charlene to beat it, and she did. They let her go, of course. They were after me, not her.”

“Why were they after you?”

“Nothing I did, at least nothing I could help.”

“One of their girls took a liking to you.”

“That’s what I hear. Like I can keep track.”

“I know what you mean.”

Sanchez shook his head, and pointed me down a side street. I turned the steering wheel. The Mustang rolled along smoothly, the engine throbbing.

“So they surround you, what happened next?”

“I told them all to go ahead and kick my ass, but someday I was going to hunt each of them down one at a time.”

“You said that?”

“Yes.”

Tough kid.

“What happened next?”

“Four of them took off running.”

“Because they were scared of you?”

“I suppose.”

Sanchez spoke up. “They threw a rock at him, hit him in the mouth.”

I looked at Sanchez. He was staring straight ahead. His jawline was rigid. A vein pulsed in his neck.

“He who is without sin,” I said, “cast the first stone?”