Jefferson Parker - The Fallen

He also told me that the Smith & Wesson nine-millimeter autoloader in the Explorer had been reported stolen in Oceanside, San Diego County, back in 1994. It yielded no latent fingerprints and had been recently wiped with a product such as Tri-Flow, a popular protectant for firearms.

‘Cool customer, to pack a stolen gun and his own wipes,’ said the director.

I thanked him and called McKenzie and told her she owed me fifty bucks.

Gina got in late and hungry so I whipped up an omelet with bacon and cheese and made some guacamole for the top of it. She stood in the kitchen and told me about her evening and drank a vodka on the rocks while I cooked. When Gina is excited about something she can talk for paragraphs without a comma, but that night she didn’t have much to say. Her soft red hair was up but some of it fell over her face and down her neck and I kissed her. I smelled perfume and smoke and alcohol but tasted only my wife. There is no other taste like it. I actually thought about that taste as I fell from the Las Palmas, though, to be honest, I thought of millions of things in a very short period of time.

She giggled softly and pulled back. She smiled. She has green eyes but the corners were slightly red that night.

‘Wow, that omelet looks good!’ she said, swaying on her way to the breakfast nook.

By the time I got the pan soaking and the dishes rinsed, Gina was in bed. I lifted the covers and settled them over her shoulders. I remembered doing very much the same just that morning after the lieutenant had called about Garrett. Her snoring was peaceful and rhythmic. I held her close. After a few minutes she gasped and turned her head away from my chest, breathing deeply and rapidly, as if she’d been running.

I placed a hand on her hot, damp head and told her she’d be okay, just a bad dream or maybe a little too much to drink. I lifted a handful of hair and blew on her neck. A minute later she was snoring again.

The next morning I parked in front of the San Diego Ethics Authority Enforcement Unit headquarters, a stately two-story Edwardian on Kettner. The day was bright and cool and you could smell the bay two blocks away.

‘I can’t believe they fight bad guys from here,’ said McKenzie. ‘It used to be a bakery.’

‘The family lived upstairs,’ I said. ‘Italian.’

‘Yeah, and the owner, he’d park the black Eldo with the whitewall tires right out front. He made his son wash it every single day.’

I looked out at the former residence that now housed the Ethics Authority Enforcement Unit. Although we call ourselves America’s Finest City, there is a long tradition of collusion and corruption here in San Diego. Some of it once reached high enough to taint an American presidency – Richard Nixon’s. Some of it is low and squalid and oddly funny – a mayor in bed with a swindler, councilmen charged with taking bribes from stripclub owners in return for easier rules on what the strippers can do. There is probably no more greed and graft here than in most other large American cities, but our mayor and council thought it was time to meet the problem head-on, so the Ethics Authority was formed and gunslinging Judge Erik Kaven was named director.

About a year after the Authority was established, Kaven hired John Van Flyke away from the DEA in Miami to run the Enforcement Unit. Van Flyke had never lived in San Diego and had visited just once, I’d read. He had no family here. This was exactly what the city wanted – an ethics enforcer with no vested interests in the city. Van Flyke was never photographed by the papers or videotaped for the TV news. His staff appeared in the media only rarely. All we knew about him was that he was forty-two years old, single, secretive, and incorruptible. George Schimmel of the Union-Tribune had nicknamed him ‘The Untouchable.’ McKenzie had quipped that no one would want to touch him.

The downstairs lobby was small and chilly. It offered two chairs and a dusty, unsteady glass table with sailing magazines on it. An elderly woman sat behind a large desk with a clean blotter pad, a ringed desktop calendar, and a gleaming black telephone on it. There was also a small vase with faded paper poppies. Her hair was gray and pulled into a tight bun. The cowl collar of a faintly green sweater came up nearly to her chin. She wore a headset with a very thin speaker arm extending from ear to mouth. She pushed a button on the phone console.

‘Detectives Cortez and Brownlaw are here,’ she said. Her voice was clear and strong, and it echoed in the old former residence. ‘Yes, sir.’

She pushed a button on her phone and looked at me. The lines in her face were an unrevealed history. Her eyes were brown with soft blue edges. The nameplate near the edge of her desk said ARLISS BUNTZ.

‘Up the stairs and to your right,’ she said.

‘Thank you.’

It was odd climbing stairs to an appointment. It struck me as old-fashioned, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d done it. Our foot-steps echoed up around us in the hard, drafty building. I know that the federal government would require an elevator for handicapped people in a public building, but I saw no sign of one. I wasn’t sure what I thought about the Ethics Authority’s ignoring the rules.

I looked down over the banister at the uplifted face of Arliss Buntz.

Van Flyke was tall and well built. Dark suit, white shirt, yellow tie. He was big-faced, like many actors or professional athletes are, and his red-brown hair was combed back from his face with brisk aggression. His hand was dry and strong.

A quiet young man in a shirt and tie appeared with a tray and coffee for three. He had suspenders over his shoulders and an automatic holstered at his hip. He handed McKenzie her cup with a brief smile, then left. The room was washed in sharp March light and through the windows you could see taller buildings and a slice of bay and a palm tree. McKenzie flipped open her notepad and propped it against her knee.

Van Flyke sat forward and studied each of us in turn. His hands rested on two green folders. ‘Have you run the GSR test?’ His voice was deep but soft.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Negative.’

‘No chance of suicide?’

‘Very little.’

‘How many rounds left in the gun?’

‘Eight,’ I said. ‘We recovered an empty from the dashboard of the Explorer.’

‘Did they take anything?’ he asked.

‘He wasn’t robbed,’ McKenzie said, writing. ‘Not that we know at this point.’

Van Flyke lifted his cup of coffee and looked at McKenzie. His brow was heavy and his eyes were blue and set deep. ‘This is difficult. Garrett was a very close friend. He was my best investigator, I was hurt by what he and Stella had been through with their little girl. Truly hurt. You didn’t know him, did you?’

‘We’re getting to know him,’ said McKenzie. ‘If we knew what he was doing for you, it would help a lot.’

‘I’ll bet it would. Witnesses?’

‘Maybe,’ I said.

Van Flyke’s expression brightened, like a dog catching a scent. ‘Oh?’

I told him about Mr Red Ferrari standing off in the bushes.

‘What time?’

‘We’re not at liberty to discuss that,’ said McKenzie.

Van Flyke deadpanned her. ‘Here’s something we can discuss.’

He handed each of us a green folder.

‘Garrett was looking into two different areas for me,’ said Van Flyke. ‘One was the antiterrorism watch – Homeland Security R&D contractors, mostly out in Spook Valley. Right now there’s more money than sense out there. About seven billion federal dollars, nationwide, just looking to get spent. Spook Valley is after its share. Erik – our director, Erik Kaven – believes it’s a potential hot point. Garrett was also looking into the Budget Oversight Committee – Abel Sarvonola’s group. Dull stuff, but big money. Lots of hands out, lots of paths that cross.’