Perri O'Shaughnessy - Presumption Of Death

She recited the number to Paul, then called it.

“Sí?”

“Mr. Cervantes?” She heard voices and clattering sounds.

“Who is this?” A soft voice, with a Spanish accent.

“My name is Nina Reilly. I’m a friend of Wish Whitefeather’s. Danny’s friend Wish.”

“Yes?”

“I need to talk to you. It’s important. Could we meet somewhere?”

“Why do you want to talk to me?”

“It’s about Danny.”

“Right now is not a good time. Friday the thirteenth is turning out to be as unlucky as the superstition says.”

“Anytime today.”

“I’m sorry. I have to go. You can give me your number-”

“Have the police been in touch with you?” Nina said. “About Danny?”

She heard a sigh. “I am with an officer right now. I am at the county morgue in Salinas and they are about to have me look at-I have to go.”

“Mr. Cervantes, please stay right there and I will meet you in an hour. I’ll wait for you outside.”

“You are not a polite person.”

“You will want to hear what I say.”

“ Bien . You can wait for me.” She heard a click.

For more than an hour, they waited, watching the people walk in and out of the buildings, talking little, leaving the car windows open to the sun and the breeze. Finally they saw a handsome Mexican-American man in a cowboy hat, white shirt, and jeans coming down the steps toward them. Paul and Nina got out and they shook hands.

His face betrayed nothing and he displayed no interest in Paul’s unannounced presence. “Where do you want to go?”

“We could get in my Mustang,” Paul said. “Good air-conditioning.”

He shook his head. His expression said, I don’t know you.

“The law library inside?”

“I’m not going back in there. Come on.” He led them down the street and Nina noticed his narrow waist and good build. It was her curse to react as a woman to every man she met close to her age.

He ducked inside a short doorway on Main Street near the old Cominos Hotel. A dive, she thought, dark, with red-pepper lights decorating fake cacti along the wall and a long bar holding up two guys playing some kind of dice game. The owners hadn’t felt any need for tables, so she took a bar stool beside Paul.

“Corona,” Cervantes said on the other side of Paul, his voice still soft. Nina ordered a ginger ale and Paul asked for water.

“You probably think I’m a boozer,” Cervantes said. “I need a drink right now, that’s for sure.”

“What happened inside?” Paul asked.

“I saw my nephew all burned up, that’s what happened.” He tipped back the beer glass and set it down and heaved a sigh.

So it was official. The body was Danny. Wish would be crushed. They had all hoped the arsonist had burned himself up.

“Danny’s your nephew?”

“My brother’s son. He was only ten years younger than me.”

“I’m awfully sorry,” Nina said.

“That’s tough,” Paul said.

Cervantes turned on his stool to look at them, finally, and Nina saw that his eyes were red-rimmed. He loved him, she thought. She felt torn between sympathy and a dawning suspicion. He had lived with Danny. What did he know?

“I gave him that concho belt. Last Christmas. The one they showed me. Twelve conchos, black leather. Some of them were gone. Otherwise I don’t know if I could have recognized him, he was so burned up. Poor Danito. God have pity on him.”

“We went there yesterday, to see if it was Wish,” Paul said.

“Wish got lucky. Danny, he never had luck.”

“Wish isn’t so lucky,” Nina said. “He’s in custody. The police think he and Danny were the arsonists.”

“You think they weren’t?”

“We think they went up the mountain to find out who was committing these arsons.”

“Wish told you that?”

“He told us that and we believe it.”

“Huh.” Cervantes digested this. He thought things over before he said anything in that sexy voice of his, but Nina didn’t think he was stupid. “I hope that’s true. The way the police talked, I thought they had some proof-”

“We think the police are blowing smoke,” Paul said, “if you can pardon the expression.”

“Why are you telling me this? What do you want from me?”

“Wish has a bail hearing this afternoon,” Nina said. “Maybe you know something that can help us.”

“I would help you if I could. All I know is, Danny was talking about some big money coming in sometime. I didn’t know what from. I never asked. I told Detective Crockett all this.” He looked even sadder.

“There was a significant reward offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the arsonist. A hundred thousand dollars. Wish told us they went up the ridge to try to get a photo of the arsonist. It was Danny’s idea. And he never mentioned this?”

Cervantes was brightening by the second. “Is this true? I never wanted to believe that Danny was setting fires. I understand this much better. A big reward, yes, that would pull Danny in. But how did they know to go up there that night?”

“Wish says that Danny had some sort of advance information,” Nina said.

“So you think he must have talked to me? The answer is no, I didn’t know anything. Danny-he’d been gone a lot, camping, I don’t know. He was only twenty-one, but he’d been on his own for four years.”

“Family problems?”

“His family lives at Tahoe these days, on the North Shore, King’s Beach. Danny was an only child. His parents both work and moved around a lot, and I think-he just didn’t have much going on up there. What Danny wanted more than anything was to belong, to have friends, to settle down.

“He came down to the Village to stay with me last summer, and I got him a job doing car repair at a shop I worked for until recently. Danny was pretty good, he could sniff out rust, leaks, broken belts. He liked it. He worked hard, but when the shop closed-they got bought out-he couldn’t find anything else. No education, no connections, and like I told you-no luck.”

Paul raised his eyebrows, and Nina asked, “A repair shop? Any chance this was the shop by Rosie’s Bridge? The one that got replaced by a coffee shop?”

The lids narrowed over Cervantes’s warm brown eyes. “Yes. Why?”

“The coffee shop that burned down?”

“Right.” He gave them a challenging look. “And?”

“How did Danny react to losing his job?”

“Now you’re accusing him? You now have decided he set the fires after all? Which is it? Ah, you people.” He turned back to the bar. His moment of trust had passed.

“I’m not saying anything. I was just surprised. Maybe-maybe it’s how Danny found out about the arsonist. Wish said Danny had a license-plate number,” Nina said.

“I don’t know. Danny didn’t hang out with cops. I don’t know where he would hear something like that.”

“How did he get along lately?”

“You mean, money-wise?”

“Right.”

“I paid the rent. Our neighbors on Siesta Court hired him for odd jobs. It wasn’t so bad, he earned a little money and the work made him feel like he was part of the neighborhood, you know? He was a lonely boy. I didn’t help him enough.” Cervantes stood up. “Excuse me. I have to call some people, make some arrangements.”

“Just one more minute. Forgive us, we know you have just had a shock-”

“Like I said, you are not polite.”

“I’m a real jerk when it comes to my friends,” Nina said.

Cervantes considered this, then, expressionless, said, “Okay. What else?”

Paul said, “The police say they have a witness. A woman named Ruth.”

“The Cat Lady? Everybody in the Village knows her. What’s she say?”