Robert Crais - The Last Detective

The street outside Lucy's apartment was jammed with Richard's limo, Gittamon's black and white, and a second black and white with MISSING PERSONS UNIT emblazoned on the side. Gittamon answered the door when we knocked. He seemed surprised to see us, then angry. He glanced back inside, then lowered his voice. He kept the door pulled like he was hiding.

"Where have you been? I've been calling you all morning."

Starkey said, "I was working. We found something, Dave. We know who took the boy."

"You should have told me. You should have answered my calls."

"What's going on? Why is Missing Persons here?"

Gittamon glanced back inside, then opened the door.

"They fired us, Carol. Missing Persons is taking the case."

time missing: 47 hours, 38 minutes

Richard rubbed his hand nervously through his hair. His clothes were wrinkled worse than yesterday, as if he had slept in them. Lucy sat cross-legged on the couch, and Myers was leaning against the far wall. He was the only one of them who looked rested and fresh. They were listening to an immaculately groomed woman in a dark business suit and her male clone, who were seated on chairs that had been pulled from the dining room. Lucy had been looking at them, but now she stared at me. She didn't want me involved, yet here I was. Making it worse.

Gittamon cleared his throat to interrupt. He stood at the edge of the living room like a child who had been reprimanded before the class.

"Ah, Lieutenant, excuse me. This is Detective Starkey and Mr. Cole. Carol, this is Detective-Lieutenant Nora Lucas and Detective-Sergeant Ray Alvarez, from the Missing Persons Unit."

Lucas had one of those shrunken, porcelain faces with absolutely no lines; probably because she never smiled. Alvarez held my hand too long when we shook so that he could make a point with Gittamon.

"I thought we understood that Mr. Cole wasn't going to be involved, Sergeant."

I said, "Let go of my hand, Alvarez, or you'll see how involved I can be."

Alvarez hung onto my hand for a moment longer just to show me that he could.

"These are interesting allegations against you on that tape. We'll talk about them as we review the case."

Richard ran his hand through his hair again as he paced to the window. He seemed irritated. He looked at Lucas and Alvarez.

"What can you people do that's any different from what's already being done?"

Myers said, "More horsepower."

Lucas nodded.

"That's right. We'll bring the full weight and authority of the Missing Persons Unit to finding your son, not to mention our experience. Finding people is what we do."

Alvarez leaned forward on his elbows.

"We're the A-team, Mr. Chenier. We'll get the case organized, review what's been done, and find your son. We'll also cooperate with you and Mr. Myers in your own efforts."

Richard turned impatiently from the window and motioned for Myers to peel himself away from the wall.

"Good. That's great. Now I want to get back to finding my son instead of just talking about it. Come on, Lee."

I said, "We know who took him."

Everyone looked at me as if they weren't sure what I had said or why I had said it. Lucy opened her mouth, then stood.

"What did you say?"

"We know who took Ben. We have a description on the vehicle and two men, and an ID on one of them."

Myers peeled himself from the wall.

"You're full of shit, Cole."

Starkey held out her copy of the Interpol file so that Lucy could see Fallon's picture.

"Look at this man, Ms. Chenier. Try to remember if you've seen him before. Maybe at a park when you were with Ben, or after school or when you were at work."

Lucy studied Fallon as if she was falling into his picture. Richard hurried across the room so that he could see.

"Who is that? What did you find out?"

I ignored Richard and the rest of them. I was totally focused on Lucy.

"Think hard, Luce – maybe you had one of those feelings like you were being followed; maybe you got a weird vibe from someone you saw, and this was him."

"I don't know. I don't think so."

Lucas said, "Who is that?"

Starkey glanced at Lucas and Alvarez, then handed the sheet to Gittamon.

"His name is Michael Fallon. I've already put it out on a BOLO, along with a description of the vehicle they used. At least one other man was involved – a black male with distinctive marks on his face, but we don't have an ID for him yet. Probably because we're not the A-team."

Richard stared at Fallon's picture. He breathed hard and rubbed his hair again. He shoved the picture at Myers.

"You see this? You see what they have? They've got a fucking suspect."

Myers nodded with little roach eyes.

"I can see that, Richard."

The roach eyes came to me.

"How do you know it's him?"

"We found a cigar wrapper on the ridge opposite my house. We found it near footprints that match the footprint where Ben was taken."

Richard's eyes were bright.

"That footprint we saw? The one you showed us yesterday?"

Starkey said, "Yeah. We got an NCIC hit on fingerprints from the wrapper on twelve out of twelve points. It doesn't get more positive than that."

Both Lucas and Alvarez got up so they could see the picture, too. Lucas glanced at Gittamon.

"You didn't tell me about this."

Gittamon shook his head as if he were on the spot.

"I didn't know. I called her, but she didn't call back."

Starkey said, "We found the wrapper this morning. We only got the ID a few minutes ago. That's what Cole and I were doing while you people were figuring out how to steal our case."

"Take it easy, Detective."

"Read his goddamned warrants. Fallon is a professional killer, for Christ's sake. He's got a war-crimes indictment in Africa. He's murdered people all over the world."

Lucas said, " Detective! "

She glanced at Lucy as she said it, and her voice snapped across Starkey like a slap.

This guy is a professional killer. He's murdered people all over the world.

And now he has your son.

Starkey flushed deep when she realized what she had done.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Chenier. That was insensitive."

Richard went to the door, anxious to leave.

"Let's get on this, Lee. We can't waste any more time with this."

Myers didn't move.

He said, "I'm not wasting time. I'm investigating how Cole knows this man. Everything I've heard so far fits with the tape. Cole and Fallon have a lot in common. How do you know each other, Cole? What does this guy want from you?"

"He doesn't want anything from me. I don't know him, never met him, and don't have any idea why he's doing this."

"That isn't what he says on the tape."

"Fuck yourself, Myers."

Lucy's forehead was lined in concentration.

"This doesn't make sense. He has to have some connection with you."

"He doesn't. There isn't."

Lucas whispered to Alvarez, then spoke loudly to interrupt.

"Let's not get sidetracked. This is a good start, Detective. Ray, call SID to confirm the identification, then have Central distribute the picture."

Lucas had assumed command of the case, and she wanted everyone to know that she was still running the show.

"Mr. Chenier, Ms. Chenier – what we want to do now is bring the elements of the investigation together. This won't take long, then we can get on with developing this lead."

Starkey said, "It's already developed. We just have to find the sonofabitch."

Gittamon touched her arm.

"Carol. Please."

Richard muttered something, then opened the door.

"You people can do what you want, but I'm going to find my son. Lee, goddamnit, let's go. Do you need a copy of that?"

"I have what I need."

"Then let's get the hell out of here."